Gonzales Launches Religious Liberty Initiative
by: Jill Martin - Feb 27, 2007 - comment
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales visits with Frank Page and Richard Land during his visit to the SBC in Nashville, TN.
“Why should it be permissible for an employee standing around the water cooler to declare that ‘Tiger Woods is God,’ but a firing offense for him to say ‘Jesus is Lord’?” asked U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during his Feb. 20 appearance before Southern Baptist leaders.
Gonzales unveiled the First Freedom Project, a Department of Justice initiative with the goal of educating Americans about their religious liberties. The attorney general reviewed the justice department’s efforts to protect Americans’ freedom of religious expression during an afternoon session of the SBC Executive Committee’s meetings.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, applauded Gonzales’ announcement, saying it shows “both the importance of the issue and the commitment of the justice department at the highest levels to defend every individual American’s religious freedom rights, particularly their free exercise rights, which are too often infringed.”
With the public announcement of the new measure, the Department of Justice is creating a department-wide Religious Freedom Task Force. The task force will examine DOJ policies impacting religious liberty, coordinate religious liberty cases, and improve community outreach.
Regional training seminars, one of the aspects of the initiative, will begin in Kansas City, Mo., March 29. Other events are planned for Tampa, Fla., and Seattle, Wash. The seminars are intended to educate community leaders and other interested citizens about the federal statutes that secure religious freedom and how citizens can file complaints if they feel their rights have been violated.
In addition, the department has launched a new Web site (firstfreedom.gov). Justice officials have also promised increased communication with religious organizations, civil rights groups and community leaders.
“This initiative is needed and should make a real difference,” Land said. “When individuals find themselves in a confrontation concerning their free exercise rights, it helps to have the attorney general and the Department of Justice on your side.”
For more information about the First Freedom Project, contact the Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination , Eric W. Treene, at 202-353-8622 or send an e-mail to .
Further Learning
Learn more about: Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Church and State, National, Religious Liberty