Religious Freedom Is Under Siege: We Need People Like Amy Coney Barrett

America has always been a nation that puts freedom and liberty first. One of our most important liberties is the freedom to worship; our religious liberty has allowed Christian values drawn from all denominations and churches to help build America into a peaceful, prosperous and faithful nation unlike any other in the world.

There’s just one problem: Not everything the Christian faith teaches is considered politically correct today. True to God’s inspired Word in the Bible, America’s Christians are overwhelmingly pro-life and pro-family. In the past, America was too. But today, liberal elites have drifted away from America’s historical Christian values, and they now want to use the soft tyranny of governmental overreach to silence and punish Christian believers.

Now more than ever, we need people in positions of authority who understand the proper place of faith in America’s way of life and who will uphold the constitutional rule of law without stain by the anti-Christian ideological biases of the left. One such person is Amy Coney Barrett. We should applaud and support President Trump for nominating her to the Supreme Court.

Judge Barrett is a woman who combines profound faith with exceptional legal competence and judicial prudence. As a practicing Catholic and a member of the Christian group People of Praise, she has lived out her faith unapologetically and fearlessly.

Through her actions and personal life, she demonstrates a deeply personal love of God and a sincere commitment to her husband and seven children. Instead of giving an opening statement during her nomination hearings for the seventh circuit court of appeals, she introduced and praised her family.

Judge Barrett’s faith and love for her family make her a judicial nominee whose heart will understand the values that matter most to so many Americans. But what makes Judge Barrett a particularly superb nomination for SCOTUS isn’t just her faith and family life; it’s also that she knows that the purpose of the court is to protect and uphold the rule of law and the American freedoms that go with it.

“Judges are not policymakers,” she said upon receiving the nomination from President Trump, and she couldn’t be more right. The Supreme Court is a sacred and foundational American institution; Amy Coney Barrett understands its proper role perfectly.

You would think Barrett’s views would be universally held by people in authority. But the fact is—they are not. For far too long, liberal justices and policymakers have worked hand in hand to use the court to legislate from the bench and push forward policy agendas that millions of Americans don’t want. Nowhere has this been more evident this year than in the recent Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. This ruling effectively writes the Equality Act into law, transforming the court into a legislative and not a judicial body.

The reality is that many of the people in positions of authority in our government simply do not understand and cannot sympathize with the values held by people of faith. As a result, they view these values as nothing more than roadblocks to the liberal policy agenda they endorse.

They view churches and people of faith as irritating deviators from the politically correct norm, not as constitutionally protected and socially vital communities. They don’t want to protect our rights because they don’t think that we should have them in the first place.

But people like Amy Coney Barrett can change that. Through her personal faith and rigorous commitment to the Constitution, Judge Barrett can help to halt the infringements on religious liberty that are all too common today.

In nominating her to the SCOTUS, President Trump has once again made the right move to defend people of faith. Christians have no greater champion in government than Donald Trump. And with more people like Amy Coney Barrett in positions of power, religious liberty will stand a fighting chance. {eoa}

Timothy Head is executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.