U.S. religious freedom in danger, Haggard warns

SALT LAKE CITY — National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard warned Sept. 8 that U.S. religious freedom is in danger of being greatly reduced. “I think right now we’re in the beginning stages of the erosion of freedom of religion in the United States,” he told more than 200 people gathered for the annual conference of the Religion Newswriters Association. “The challenges are building for more and more limitation of religious speech.”

Haggard, 50, the senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., cited personal examples in which he had spoken out on public issues and had been criticized for doing so as a member of the clergy. He also cited his organization’s intervention in a lawsuit filed by Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, who wants to halt what he calls unconstitutional evangelistic practices within the Air Force.

“If this lawsuit prevails, we’ll have increased government supervision of religious speech,” Haggard said. He said if Weinstein’s suit prevails, government officials will have the power to censor or monitor religious speech by chaplains or between service members — a change that would result in America’s first “established church.”