The 3 - May 15, 2022

This week's edition of The 3, highlighting three stories of relevance to the Christian community, includes the failure of a bill in the U.S. Senate that would legalize abortion nationwide and supersede pro-life bills passed by state. Also, a bill that is designed to protects minors in Alabama from surgeries and treatments to attempt to change their gender has been put on hold by a federal judge.  And, six Christian universities are under scrutiny for upholding Christian principles in their policies. 

Pro-abortion legislation that would overturn state pro-life laws fails to advance in U.S. Senate

In a brazen attempt to react to the impending reversal of Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban and possible overturning of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Senate took up legislation that would not only codify that Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the nation, but would also negate pro-life laws passed by the states throughout the country.

ChristianHeadlines.com reports that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who was one of 51 senators voting against moving the bill forward - 60 were needed. He said, according to a quote from the Townhall.com Twitter feed: "It wipes 500 state laws off the books; it expands abortion...We should not be dividing this country further than we're already divided, and it's really the politics of Congress that's dividing the country." The article reported that he would have voted for a piece of legislation that would "codify" Roe v. Wade.

The article quotes from Denise Burke, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, who said that the purpose of the legislation was to "entrench unrestricted abortion access until birth." She said, "The so-called 'Women's Health Protection Act' would have prohibited most – if not all – of the reasonable state laws related to abortion that are currently in place to protect the health of pregnant mothers, the dignity of unborn children, and the integrity of the medical profession," adding, "... We commend the members of the Senate who took a stand against this destructive legislation, and we will continue to fight alongside them to ensure policies are enacted that truly support women and protect innocent life."

The Christian Headlines story adds:

Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, said the bill would have "mandated abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy nationwide."

"The vast majority of America opposes this kind of radical legislation," she tweeted.

Federal judge partially blocks enforcement of Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act

With great determination, brave lawmakers in Alabama passed the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, also known as VCAP, which would have outlawed treatments and surgeries that are intended to help minors change their gender.  The bill went into effect last week, and over the weekend, a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of part of the law.  

USA Today reported that:

U.S. District Judge Liles Burke issued a preliminary injunction to stop the state from enforcing the medication ban, which took effect May 8, while a court challenge goes forward. The judge left in place other parts of the law that banned gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors, which doctors had testified are not done on minors in Alabama. He also left in place a provision that requires counselors and other school officials to tell parents if a minor discloses that they think they are transgender.

The article notes that: "The state attorney general’s office argued that the use of the medications is unsettled science, and thus the state has a role in regulation to protect children..." The story added, "Alabama lawmakers, who approved the bill this spring, said decisions on the medications should wait until adulthood."

Meanwhile, a federal judge held a hearing recently that would force Christian health professionals to be involved in surgeries and treatments intended to change a person's gender. Alliance Defending Freedom represents Christian Employers Alliance in the case, which is described on its website as "a challenge to two Biden administration mandates that force religious nonprofit and for-profit employers to pay for and perform surgeries, procedures, counseling, and treatments that seek to alter one’s biological sex—actions that violate their religious beliefs."

Federal government harasses Christian schools for affirming Christian principles

There has been a steady stream of instances throughout the last few years of the federal government attempting to force Christian organizations to violate the beliefs they uphold.  Examples include the contraception mandate forcing faith-based organizations to include drugs that could cause abortion in their health care plans, a more recent attempt to force males and females to share private spaces in dorm rooms, and this, from The Daily Citizen, a website of Focus on the Family, which reports:

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating six Christian universities for allegedly violating the rights of LGBT-identified students by upholding Christian teaching on sexuality, relationships and marriage.

The Daily Citizen article relates:

The attack on religious freedom began when an anti-religious freedom organization, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP), filed a lawsuit against the DOE on behalf of 33 LGBT-identified students who were either enrolled in or alumni of Evangelical Christian or Mormon colleges.

The complaint, Elizabeth Hunter et al. vs. U.S. Department of Education, alleges that universities that believe and practice God’s design for sexuality, relationships and marriage discriminate against LGBT-identified students.

Now, the DOE has been investigating these colleges - three more were just added to the scope: La Sierra University, Azusa Pacific University, and Liberty University. Others were already being investigated and have been allowed to join the lawsuit and defend their policies are Clarks Summit University, Lincoln Christian University, and Colorado Christian University.

According to The Daily Citizen: "The DOE has reinterpreted Title IX, the 1972 act which banned discrimination in education on the basis of sex – being male or female. The government agency holds that sex discrimination includes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” two subjective, ever-evolving terms that relate to how people think, feel, identify and act, rather than to their biological status as men or women."