Oklahoma U.S. Senator James Lankford was among the elected Republicans participating in the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Orlando over the weekend.
Lankford spoke Friday morning on religious freedom, starting his remarks by decrying his fellow senators for only narrowly passing his COVID relief package amendment denying funds to state and local governments that restrict churches more than other establishments during the health emergency. Lankford then shared with the crowd he recently attended church.
"Which shows I live in Oklahoma, not in California, where you can go to swanky restaurants but not to church," Lankford said.
Lankford misrepresented California’s COVID restrictions. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice sided with churches in the state suing over government shut down orders. The state’s guidance for places of worship is now similar to that for restaurants.
Lankford praised the First Amendment for protecting the religious liberty of Americans of all faiths or none at all. But he then switched gears and painted a picture of the U.S. as a nation where that freedom is under attack by certain groups.
"Liberal professors, left-wing politicians can’t push faith out of public view because they don’t like it. We have a First Amendment. We don’t have to submit to the in-crowd, secular humanism. In the words of James Madison, your religious opinions are a property of particular value. Your faith is your property, not the government’s property. It’s like your car, your house or your Browning 12-gauge," Lankford said.
Lankford’s office has not responded to a question about his intent in describing a nation where faith is under attack and then bringing up a kind of shotgun. In January, the senator was prepared to object to results of the 2020 election until a violent mob fueled by President Trump’s lies about the election invaded the capitol.
Continuing his remarks at CPAC, Lankford singled out President Biden’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, as someone attacking religious freedom.
One of Becerra’s 100-plus lawsuits against the Trump administration challenged a proposed rule to expand religious exemptions for employers that don’t want to provide coverage for contraceptives. Catholic charity Little Sisters of the Poor joined the case to support the Trump administration. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the Trump administration in July.
Lankford also pointed to the Equality Act, which extends nondiscrimination protections in federal law to LGBTQ individuals as an attack on religious freedom.
"Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the very ironically named Equality Act that specifically excludes for the first time ever in law that people of faith cannot say you have faith. You have to submit to what the House’s will is," Lankford said.
Some faith groups have criticized potential consequences of the law, like barring religiously affiliated foster care and adoption groups from refusing to place children with same-sex couples. The Equality Act also says it trumps the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed in 1993.
Other opponents of the Equality Act have described it as unnecessary after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year in Bostock v. Clayton County that protections against discrimination on the basis of sex extend to LGBTQ individuals.
