By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--May 3, 2017
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President Donald Trump has invited conservative leaders to the White House on Thursday for what they expect will be the ceremonial signing of a long-awaited—and highly controversial—executive order on religious liberty, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. Two senior administration officials confirmed the plan, though one cautioned that it hasn’t yet been finalized, and noted that lawyers are currently reviewing and fine-tuning the draft language. Thursday is the National Day of Prayer, and the White House was already planning to celebrate the occasion with faith leaders. The signing would represent a major triumph for Vice President Mike Pence—whose push for religious-freedom legislation backfired mightily when he served as governor of Indiana—and his allies in the conservative movement. The original draft order, which would have established broad exemptions for people and groups to claim religious objections under virtually any circumstance, was leaked to The Nation on Feb. 1—the handiwork, many conservatives believed, of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who have sought to project themselves as friendly to the LGBT community. Liberals blasted the draft order as government-licensed discrimination, and the White House distanced itself from the leaked document in a public statement.
Pence and a small team of conservative allies quickly began working behind the scenes to revise the language, and in recent weeks have ratcheted up the pressure on Trump to sign it. The new draft is being tightly held, but one influential conservative who saw the text said it hasn’t been dialed back much—if at all—since the February leak. “The language is very, very strong,” the source said.This comes from anonymous sources quoted by the Worst Web Site in the World, so there's always a chance it's inaccurate or entirely false. But if it's true, Christians should consider a few things before they start celebrating. First, you know perfectly well the left is going to judge-shop for a venue in which it can sue to have this thrown out by some Obama-appointed federal judge. And at least initially, they will probably succeed. Second, these actions have not held up too well at the state level - not so much from legal challenges but from Chamber of Commerce types wilting under the pressure when gay activists threaten boycotts and so forth. These orders are specifically about situations like those mentioned above, when a Christian business owner is forced to take part in something clearly inconsistent with his or her beliefs, like a gay "wedding." But it's going to be portrayed as giving bigots license to refuse to serve gay people a cup of coffee.
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