WASHINGTON — President Trump signed an executive order May 3 intended to protect religious liberty, according to the White House.
Trump signed the order in a Rose Garden ceremony for the National Day of Prayer. The order changes the name of the faith-based office to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, dropping the words “community” and “neighborhood” that had been part of the office’s mandate under the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Bush began the office to get religious groups more involved in providing federally funded social services.
Trump said the office will “help ensure that faith-based organizations have equal access to government funding and the equal right to exercise their deeply held beliefs.” Critics, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, say the executive order protects evangelical Christians while adding potential new barriers to women, homosexuals and members of minority religious groups. (TAB)
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