The apostate public policy organization is on a massive growth trajectory, during my last reporting on them. The And Campaign seeks to advocate Social Justice under the guise of Christianity. One of their most prominent policy proposals is called the Fairness For All Act. This is viewed as a compromise that validates religious voices in a contentious bill.
There is a special naiveté here by advocating for the Fairness For All Act. The grievance that religious voices were excluded from the Equality Act ignores how purposeful this was. In a letter to Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley, 57 woke, predominantly black, pastors advocated for this compromise. They claim that the Fairness For All Act will protect religious liberty and the homosexual and transgender agenda. The letter contains that names Benjamin Watson, Esau McCaulley, Charlie Dates, among many others.
This reeks of the same naiveté that the Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden touted. Believing that Biden would protect the moot Hyde Amendment, they promoted him to their small audience to the praise of the media. The reason why black pastors were excluded from the Equality Act is that first: the Democrats do not care about their black base of support and secondly, they are going for the hard sell on transgenderism. They are not in the slow lane on the highway to hell.
The And Campaign’s criticism of the Equality Act are largely self serving. It maintains that they hold a Christian sexual ethic and because they do, their government funding would be at risk. These are their stated concerns.
- Revoke federal security, disaster relief, and school lunch money from thousands of
religious schools. - End federal partnerships with thousands of faith-based programs that serve the most
vulnerable. - Revoke the Pell Grant and federal loan eligibility for tens of thousands of students that
attend hundreds of religious colleges. - Convert houses of worship and other religious properties into public accommodations,
enmeshing them in constant litigation
Nevermind that churches may be sued for not hiring homosexuals or transvestites. Nevermind that female athletes will have to compete against males. Nevermind that gendered spaces will have to conform to the federal government’s woke agenda. The And Campaign’s focus is entirely self serving. It is meant to be a virtue signal of orthodoxy whist they support the Democrat’s cultural terraforming efforts.
Religious exemptions do nothing to protect women, or the truth for that matter, outside of the building in which many of these pastors are not even holding physical gatherings. Therefore this is not a meaningful compromise. It protects the church from the least meaningful aspects of the Equality Act and codifies an ideology in our culture.
No deal. No retreat.
I honestly think a number of Republicans would vote in favor of this compromise, despite it being unacceptable. I draw attention to this in part because I do not believe the Democrats will bend on the Equality Act. Moreover, I am optimistic that the Democrats do not have the votes to pass the Equality Act in the Senate. The Republicans would be wise to kill it in committee slowly while Nancy Pelosi keeps sending her agenda to the Senate. The Democrats will then use the Equality Act as a rallying cry and try to pass it during the next session of Congress.
