This is the second of a three-part set on the action for religious freedom in the current legal system in the United States. Check out the first section of the article on how Christians who do n’t get a COVID-19 vaccine are on “medical death row” here.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. —Ryan Bangert, senior vice president at the religious liberty laws firm Alliance Defending Freedom, breaks down a disturbing phenomenon he calls the “rise of global censorship”.
In an exam recorded at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in February, Bangert reports on” The Daily Signal Podcast” in an interview with the state that is trying to immediately delete the conversation and information being communicated by people.
He mentions the case of Päivi Räsänen, a Holy part of Finland’s congress who tweeted her objection to her church’s participation in an LGBTQ festival. For that, prosecution charged her for “hate speech”. Prosecution keep appealing the circumstance to higher courts even though courts frequently distinct Räsänen of the charges.
He likewise links Isabel Vaughan- Spruce, chairman of the U. K. March for Life, who got arrested in the United Kingdom for the murder of softly praying—in her head—outside an abortion office.
” That scenario is amazing because she was punished not for what she said, but for what she thought”, Bangert information. ” But, she was standing softly on a street outside of an abortion office saying nothing, only in a devout posture, and she was approached by law enforcement officers who said,’ What are you thinking?’ Practically,’ What are you thinking? Are you praying in your mind?'”
The attorney also addresses international laws that attempt to “restrict what talk therapists is say” if it conflicts with female ideology.
Fa fought a bill that would have “prohibited him from engaging in talk therapy to assist adolescents experiencing sex dysphoria reconciling with their natural sex,” according to Bangert. Washington asserts that it’s fine if you want to engage in conversation treatment to entice them into getting more gender dysphoria.
The attorney contends that the laws discriminates against people on the basis of stance. Yet the U. S. District Court and the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected ADF’s lawsuit on the grounds that the law did n’t affect Tingley’s free speech, but the practice of medicine.
That decision contradicted the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Florida, nonetheless. The city of Boca Raton, Florida, overturned a legislation that allowed treatment to promote more female distress while also forbide therapy to resolve unnecessary gender dysphoria.
The Supreme Court rejected the Tingley case, as it does in the vast majority of cases. It frequently takes into account cases in which appeals courts disagree, as they did on this one. ADF is currently assisting a client in Colorado, and Bangert expressed his hope that the case or a similar one will be heard before the Supreme Court.
” This is a clear violation of the First Amendment’s prohibition on government viewpoint- based distinctions on speech”, the lawyer says. He points out that the Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis ( 2023 ) “provides a great road map” on this subject because Colorado’s high court ruled that a graphic designer could not be forced to” speak messages through her artistic work—in her case, website design—that conflicted with her faith.”
ADF and the American Civil Liberties Union are also involved in the case National Rifle Association v. Vullo, in which ADF finds itself on the same side as the American Civil Liberties Union.
The New York Department of Financial Services ‘ former superintendent, Maria Vullo, allegedly used her regulatory authority to compel banks and insurance companies to deny the NRA and “other gun promotion” organizations basic financial services.
This is a prime example of how the government can stifle private citizens ‘ First Amendment rights by making them do things that the government would n’t be able to do, Bangert says. He mentions a similar case in which individuals and states are suing the federal government for enforcing restrictions on speech on COVID- 19 that did not conform to the government’s message.
The lawyer for religious freedom also addressed the alarming trend of debanking, where financial service providers appear to be delaying services based on their disagreements with customers ‘ opinions.
A far-left smear factory that has labeled ADF an “anti-LGBT hate group,” Bangert addressed the Southern Poverty Law Center.
He claimed that” we always have the privilege of consistently refuting their false and malicious attacks.” ” They’re not doing it because it’s true. They’re doing it because it advances their ideological and political agenda”, which he described as “directly at odds” with “basic Judeo- Christian values”.
Yet service providers pick up the SPLC’s attacks. According to Bangert,” There are a number of companies all across the country that rely on the SPLC’s malicious and false “hate group” list to determine who they’re going to serve.”
” Private businesses are violating the basic civil rights of customers”, he explains.
The account of Indigenous Advance Ministries, which helps orphans in Uganda, was closed by Bank of America. ” You could n’t have a more noble cause than that”, the religious freedom lawyer said.
So why did Bank of America shut down this organization?
” Well, the first answer we got was, we do n’t want to serve clients like them anymore. That’s not a very satisfying answer”, Bangert explained. ” It was probably the same reason they debanked the]National Committee for Religious Freedom], Ambassador Sam Brownback’s group, and that is because they do n’t like their ideology. They do n’t like their faith”.
Listen to the entire interview right here.
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