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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E60-E61]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY 2019
______
HON. J. FRENCH HILL
of arkansas
in the house of representatives
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Madam Speaker, I would like to include in the
Record the following Presidential Proclamation on Religious Freedom Day
2019.
Office of the Press Secretary
[For Immediate Release--January 15, 2019]
Religious Freedom Day, 2019
____
BY The President of the United States Of America
A Proclamation
On Religious Freedom Day, we celebrate our Nation's long-
standing commitment to freedom of conscience and the freedom
to profess one's own faith. The right to religious freedom is
innate to the dignity of every human person and is
foundational to the pursuit of truth.
The Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth shared an experience
common to many of America's first settlers: they had fled
their home countries to escape religious persecution. Aware
of this history, our Nation's Founding Fathers readily
understood that a just government must respect the deep
yearning for truth and openness to the transcendent that are
part of the human spirit. For this reason, from the
beginning, our constitutional republic has endeavored to
protect a robust understanding of religious freedom. On
January 16, 1786, Virginia enacted the Statute for Religious
Freedom to protect the right of individual conscience and
religious exercise and to prohibit the compulsory support of
any church. Authored by Thomas Jefferson, the statute set
forth the principle that religious liberty is an inherent
right and not a gift of the state. Jefferson's statute served
as the inspiration and model for the legal architecture of
the conscience
[[Page E61]]
protections in the First Amendment, drafted by James Madison
just a few years later.
Unfortunately, the fundamental human right to religious
freedom is under attack. Efforts to circumscribe religious
freedom--or to separate it from adjoining civil liberties,
like property rights or free speech--are on the rise. Over
time, legislative and political attacks on religious freedom
have given way to actual violence. Last October, we witnessed
a horrific attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--the deadliest attack on the Jewish
community in our Nation's history. Tragically, attacks on
people of faith and their houses of worship have increased in
frequency in recent years.
My Administration is taking action to protect religious
liberty and to seek justice against those who seek to abridge
it. The Department of Justice is aggressively prosecuting
those who use violence or threats to interfere with the
religious freedom of their fellow Americans. In January of
2018, the Justice Department announced a religious liberty
update to the Justice Manual, raising the profile of
religious liberty cases. Also in January of 2018, the
Department of Health and Human Services undertook major
policy changes to protect religious freedom, including
forming a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division
within the Department's Office for Civil Rights and proposing
a comprehensive new conscience protection regulation to
reinvigorate enforcement of religious freedom laws within
existing health care programs.
Around the globe today, people are being persecuted for
their faith by authoritarian dictatorships, terrorist groups,
and other intolerant individuals. To address this tragic
reality, last July, at my request, the Secretary of State
convened the first-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious
Freedom. We are listening to the voices of those risking
their lives for their religious beliefs, and we are listening
to the families of people who have died fighting for their
fundamental right of conscience.
Our Nation was founded on the premise that a just
government abides by the ``Laws of Nature and of Nature's
God.'' As the Founders recognized, the Constitution protects
religious freedom to secure the rights endowed to man by his
very nature. On this day, we recognize this history and
affirm our commitment to the preservation of religious
freedom.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by
the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby
proclaim January 16, 2019, as Religious Freedom Day. I call
on all Americans to commemorate this day with events and
activities that remind us of our shared heritage of religious
liberty and that teach us how to secure this blessing both at
home and around the world.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two
thousand nineteen, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and forty-third.
Donald J. Trump
____________________
