The Biden administration is failing to enforce basic protections of religious liberty, said Sen. James Lankford. An Oklahoma Republican, the state’s senior senator is making religious freedom the pillar of his political agenda.
“My passion for religious liberty really draws from my personal faith, that I have the ability to be able to live my faith, practice my faith and speak about my faith,” Lankford told the “Daily Mail” in a July 4 interview.
Lankford served as a Baptist minister for 22 years before taking office.
He also was president of the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a youth camp operated by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, He said religious liberty is much broader than simply freedom to worship.
“Faith is not the freedom of worship,” he said. “You have the freedom to be able to worship as you choose,. It’s the freedom of religion. It’s the freedom to have a faith and live that faith. And so that that’s been dear to me.”
Lankford went on to say that the administration has abandoned even basic legal protections for religious belief. “This particular administration is not going to protect the religious liberty of conscience protections that are already in law,” he said.
He drew particular attention to a legal case in which the University of Vermont Medical Center scheduled a nurse to assist with an elective abortion despite knowing her objections to the procedure. The Biden administration declined to act in the case. “They literally just trampled on her conscience rights,” Lankford said.
Lankford asserted his belief that abortion is going to be one of the most prominent issues in the 2024 presidential election. “It’s not just an election issue,” he said. “It is an issue about our culture. Do we value every child? Do we think some children are valuable and some children are disposable? Or do we think all children are valuable?”
