The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

5 Facts About President Trump’s Executive Order on Religious Liberty

On Thursday President Trump signed an executive order on “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.” Here are five facts you should know about the order:



1. An executive order is an official document, signed by the president, used to manage the Federal Government. Assuming they are limited to the scope of the executive action allowed by a president, an executive order has the power of federal law. While a president cannot directly create a new law or sign an executive order that violates existing law, he or she can use an executive order to specify how laws will be carried out or direct how a federal agency will carry out a task.



2. The first section of this executive order announces the Trump administration’s intent when it comes to executive policy to “vigorously enforce Federal law's robust protections for religious freedom.” “Federal law protects the freedom of Americans and their organizations to exercise religion and participate fully in civic life without undue interference by the Federal Government,” says the order. “The executive branch will honor and enforce those protections.”

3. The second section states that all executive departments and agencies “shall, to the greatest extent practicable and to the extent permitted by law, respect and protect the freedom of persons and organizations to engage in religious and political speech.” The order also specifically states the Department of Treasury (which controls the IRS) will not impose any tax penalties or deny tax-exempt status for any individual, house of worship, or other religious organization that speaks about “moral or political issues from a religious perspective” or intervenes in a “political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate for public office.” (This is in reference to the so-called “Johnson amendment” which prohibits tax-exempt organizations from attempting to influence political campaigns. The present ban is codified in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.)

4. The third section states that the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services “shall consider issuing amended regulations, consistent with applicable law, to address conscience-based objections to the preventive-care mandate” of the Affordable Health Care Act.

5. The fourth section clarifies that in order to guide all executive-branch agencies in complying with relevant Federal law, the Attorney General “shall, as appropriate, issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.”

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to Ernie Johnson, host of The NBA on TNT, about his childhood as the son of a famous sportscaster, his journey with cancer, and why he and his wife chose to adopt four children. On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Matthew Hawkins, Travis Wussow, and Steven Harris talk about the averted government shutdown, tax reform and charities, and the latest USCIRF report. And on the ERLC podcast, Tony Evans talks about racial reconciliation, the Kingdom, and justice . 

Other Issues

American Culture

Major pro-life advocate Charmaine Yoest appointed to key HHS role
Catholic News Agency

Charmaine Yoest, Trump's new appointment to HHS, served for years as president and CEO of Americans United for Life, a pro-life law organization that works to coordinate and support the advance of pro-life legislation, particularly at the state level. She is currently a senior fellow at American Values in Washington, D.C.

Tillerson: Pushing human rights abroad 'creates obstacles' to US interests
Conor Finnegan, ABC News

In advocating for America’s interests abroad, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said today that American values must be separate from American foreign policy, even as they “guide” it.

Bioethics

Destroyed Embryos Turned Into Jewelry
Wesley J. Smith, The Corner

Illustrating the crassness of our age, a jewelry company implants leftover destroyed embryos into their products.

Christianity and Culture

The Baptist exception
Philip Jenkins, The Christian Century

Christians in the Global South now dominate every major Protestant tradition—except one.

Scholar who revitalized Christian philosophy wins Templeton prize
Catholic News Agency

Philosopher Alvin Plantinga, who has argued that Christian philosophers should let their religious beliefs influence their academic research and that the evolutionary theory is compatible with religious belief, has won the prestigious $1.4 million Templeton Award.

International Issues

The biggest megachurch on Earth and South Korea's ‘crisis of evangelism’
Matthew Bell, PRI’s The World

It might not be apparent at one of the packed Sunday morning services at Full Gospel Church, but the influence of Pastor Cho and other Korean evangelicals is not what it once was in South Korea. And Cho’s own track record is one reason why.

Religious freedom dying in Russia, missionary says
Diana Chandler, Baptist Press

Russia's nationwide outlaw of Jehovah's Witnesses will likely ricochet and strike other religions outside of Russian Orthodoxy there, said a Baptist missionary forced to shut down his church in central Russia.

Religious Liberty

Indiana Legislature Passes Law Protecting Student Religious Expression In Schools
Howard Friedman , Religion Clause

The Act provides that public school students may pray or engage in religious activities or religious expressions before, during, and after the school day in the same manner and to the same extent that students may engage in nonreligious activities or expression.

Appeals court says same-sex couple can sue Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis for damages
Becca Stanek, The Week

Nearly two years after being denied a marriage license by Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, a gay couple has finally won court approval to move forward with a lawsuit.

Sexuality Issues

California Considers Third Gender Option For State Documents
Lemor Abrams, CBS News

A growing group of Californians identifies as non-binary, and now they’re pushing a bill that would place a third gender option on state documents.

Samford considers pro-LGBT student group
David Roach, Baptist Press

A recommendation by Samford University's faculty to approve a pro-homosexual student group could have "serious implications ... for the relationship" between the university and the Alabama Baptist State Convention, according to a joint statement by the convention's president and the executive director of its State Board of Missions.

Trump Administration Asks Court For Time To Reconsider Enjoined HHS Ruling on Transgender Rights
Howard Friedman, Religion Clause

The government argued in its motion that Trump Administration leadership should now "be given an opportunity to reevaluate the regulation and address the issues raised in this litigation."

The Role of Religious Freedom Today
Rep. Francis Rooney, RealClearPolicy

Throughout history religion has played a stabilizing role in society. When practiced freely, religion establishes a moral compass for people to follow, which in turn leads to tolerance of differing views and comity in civil society.