Strengthening Military Religious Accommodations

This is an IHART podcast guaranteed human . Because of the mail in ballot ruling, which was a little bit surprising, gives people more time to vote illegally, let's say. But, but they say the SAVE Act is even more important and that's the right you have to be a citizen of our country. Okay, you have to show you a citizen of our country called citizenship . Voter ID by photo, photo, voter ID , and no mail invalids unless you're in the military disabled , you're ill or you're away or even on a vacation, we're being very open about it. You're listening to the forty seven morning update with Ben Ferguson. Good Tuesday morning. Nice to have you with us on the forty seven morning update, and we've got an exciting story for you. Donald Trump put together the Religious Liberty Commission and it presented on Friday the final draft of a report to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office with recommendations on how to enhance religious liberty policies that would directly relate to the COVID nineteen vaccine and others within the health care industry, as well as the U. S. military. Translation, no more mandates . So what does it mean moving forward? We have it all for you. But before we get to that, I want to tell you about Patriot Mobile and how your cell phone can have a huge difference in this country moving forward. If you think wireless companies are all the same, you might need to take a look at Patriot Mobile. Patriot Mobile isn't just different because of its mission. It's actually built to outperform the carriers you have and use right now. They offer premium priority nationwide service on any of the three major U. S. networks, helping you get the best possible coverage wherever life takes you. 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Use the promo code Ben forty seven. You'll get a free month of service that's patriotmobile dot com slash ben forty seven or call nine seven two patriot today . It's a forty seven morning update and it starts right now Story number one there's been a ton of talk recently about taxes, about immigration, about foreign policy and about supreme court decisions coming down . But there's one story about religious liberty that you really need to know about. President Trump is trying to follow through on many of his recommendations made by his religious liberty commission . It actually could fundamentally change how the federal government treats Americans whose religious beliefs will conflict with government mandates , including healthcare workers and members of the United States military. A lot of this goes back to COVID nineteen and the COVID vaccine. Well, last week, the commission that's chaired by the Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and the Vice Chair , Dr. Ben Carson delivered its final report to President Trump in the Oval Office after spending more than a year holding seven hearings and hearing testimony from more than one hundred different witnesses. The commission was created in twenty twenty five to identify threats to religious liberty , and then recommend legislative and regulatory and executive actions This is exactly by the way how government should work . And the report, it's pretty amazing. Not only does it cover schools and parents and faith based organizations and anti Semitism and the workplace , but two sections could have enormous consequences . They deal with healthcare and the U. S. military . So let's start with healthcare. The commission recommended significant expanded protections not only for doctors , but nurses, pharmacists, hospitals , and then other medical professionals who object on religious or moral grounds to participating in certain medical procedures . Among its recommendations are stronger enforcement of federal conscience laws and support for legislation such as the Conscientious Protection Act , as well as more aggressive investigations by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, as well as strategic litigation by the Department of Justice, not only to defend healthcare workers , but their religious freedoms. They were trampled all over by the last administration and during COVID nineteen mandates of yes, the vaccine . Now supporters are making it clear . They believe no American should have to choose between their deeply held religious beliefs and literally providing for their families, losing their careers . Critics, of course, on the radical left , they argue that expand ing conscientious protections would just make it more difficult for some patients to access certain medical services . Well, regardless of wherever you stand on that, this is a major policy debate that is going to reshape because of Trump's leadership on health care employment across the entire country . And then there's a second part of this and that's the military . The commission recommends streamlining and then strengthen ing the religious accommodations process for service members . It also highlights testimony from top military personnel who said they suffered career setbacks, loss benefits, or were even forced out of our service after refusing a simple COVID nineteen vaccination requirement even after they stated it was on religious grounds. Now you, got rememberta the COVID years . You had not hundreds , but thousands of military members that requested religious exemptions for vaccine requirements for the COVID nineteen shot. Some requests and the majority actually were denied . Some service members were then forced to leave the military . Now others argued that they were effectively forced out of their career, that they had been spending decades building and serving their country . And that's where the commission's report comes in. They said those stories illustrate why stronger protections are not only needed , because in the future, and yes, with future administrations, there will be a democrat at some point back in the White House . They said the future administrations cannot, in the commission's view, unnecessarily burden the free exercise of religion . And then that is where it really comes back to COVID nineteen vaccine and the debate . The report itself, I want to be clear, does not recommend banning vaccine mandates . Instead, it recommends making religious accommodation requests that are really actually just more meaningful and ensuring that when you do make that request if you're serving in our military or at our hospitals that you receive greater legal protection in both civilian health care and military settings . Now if those recommendations are actually implemented through executive action or legislation , the next time the federal government considers a nationwide healthcare mandate, which is exactly what happened under the liberal leadership in this country , then agencies may face a much higher bar before denying religious exemption requests . And that potentially is a very significant change and one for the better . The commission also heard testimony from workers, including military service members who said not only did they lose their jobs, but they lost pensions, they lost retirement opportunities. And yeah, then they lost their jobs because they declined the COVID nineteen vaccines based on religious grounds. Now those accounts are cited as evidence that it's clear that we need stronger safeguards that are desperately needed in warrant ed . The report also goes well beyond COVID . It also recommends that the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services , and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission develop know your rights materials and create hotlines and online reporting systems for people who actually believe that their religious liberties have then been violated and that could even be the federal government doing it. It also proposes honoring individuals who have defended religious liberty through new presidential awards and calls for additional education about First Amendment protections. Now President, Trump has already come out praising the commission during the Oval Office presentation of all of this , saying that the administration intends to strengthen religious liberty protections for all Americans and emphasize that freedom of religion is central to the country's constitutional rights and constitutional traditions . Now to be very clear, none of these recommendations automatically become law. That's why I'm telling you about it right now . Some of these could be pursed through executive action. Others could require Congress's approval . And others will likely face significant court challenges. Why? Because Democrats are going to su e on all of this . But what the president has now laid out is a roadmap that could shape federal policy for decades to come . And clearly he's willing to fight this battle. And if you're a supporter, then you see these recommendations as not only restoring what you believe is the original meaning of the First Amendment free exercise clause , but also about better protecting Americans from actually being penalized because of sincerely held religious beliefs . Now the left , they're angry . They say all this is a shift in the balance of power between religious liberty and other legal protections. They say it's creating new conflicts over access to service and equal treatment under the law Those debates, well, they're going to want to have them. I think we'll win. But what is clear is that the commission is now placed religious liberty squarely at the center of a national conversation . And when it comes to healthcare workers and members of the military , these implications could be substantial. That's why you should be excited . If all of these recommendations are actually adopted , future administrations will then face greater legal constraints before requiring you to comply with policies that conflict with sincerely held religious beliefs , particularly in areas like public health mandates as well as medical ethics . Now whether you view this as a restoration of your constitutional protect ions you already had or a significant policy shift . It's a debate about well just the beginning of all of this . And one of these that could have a huge impact on healthcare, as well as the armed forces . And then dealing with the other big issue, the scope of religious accommodations in America . This all will have a big impact for years to come and will probably impact not only your kids , but maybe even your grandkids when they're born. That's why Donald Trump clearly is going to have this argument, this fight, this debate right now . Because if we don't have this debate now, what happens the next time there's a COVID esque outbreak? What happens when they come up with a vaccine quickly? Are you going to be forced to take that vaccine or lose your job? Will that happen to thousandeds and thousands of American soldiers . And that's part of why this commission is doing their work right now and giving these recommendations to the President of the United States of America. We already know the president says yes to these types of recommendations . He's the one sounding the alarm about abuse of power by the Democratic Party, the Socialists and the Marxists in Washington DC. Thank you for listening to the forty seven morning Udpate with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe