Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) in an opinion piece for Fox News writes that atheists have met their match in President Donald Trump, whom he claimed is a fierce defender of the U.S.’s “Christian Heritage.”
He noted that Trump’s recent executive order that alternately strengthens protections for students who wish to pray at school and loosens restrictions for religious groups that provide social services that are seeking federal funds is an example of the president’s support for his Christian followers.
“For the first time in nearly two decades, the order updates federal guidance to better protect student’s rights to engage in prayer and other forms of religious expression,” Huckabee writes. “Under the new rules, schools must certify every year that they do not have policies that restrict constitutionally-protected religious rights, such as the freedom to pray or read religious texts on school grounds. Schools that maintain non-compliant policies would lose their federal funding.”
For Huckabee, Trump’s executive order is a victory against the secular left, whom he claims, have repressed Christians “for decades.”
“This is a big win for religious freedom advocates, who have found their rights and beliefs under increasingly withering assault from the left for decades,” he writes.
Huckabee credits Trump’s executive order because it protects “the freedoms laid out in the U.S. constitution” and asserted that restrictions endanger “every right enjoyed by every American citizen.” Citing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, he added that the efforts to restrict religious liberty in public schools has clearly gotten out of hand.”
“It’s the predictable result of a sustained campaign to drive religion from the public square, led by militant atheists who have spent decades convincing parents and teachers that any form of religious expression in any public place is a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty.”
“The president has dealt the radical atheist lobby a major setback, while at the same time taking a forceful stand on behalf of its victims — the schoolchildren who are punished, ostracized, and bullied for daring to express their faith.”
Featured image via screen grab/Fox Business
