Brownback starts group to fund candidates who back religious freedom

Former Sen. Sam Brownback on Tuesday announced he is leading a multi-faith group of religious leaders in the launch of a new group to support and fund candidates who commit to supporting religious freedom.

The National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF) bills itself as “a non-profit, nonpartisan organization” that will support “candidates of all faiths, or no faith, who support laws and policies that protect everyone’s First Amendment right to peacefully practice their faith according to the dictates of their conscience,” the Kansas Republican, a former U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom, said in a press conference announcing the initiative.

“This is a noble cause that we all should celebrate and encourage,” Mr. Brownback added. “We will organize nationally and in each of the 50 states. We will conduct educational campaigns about the necessity and the beauty of this sacred human right.”

The clash over the balance of church and state continues to play out in politics and the courts. Last Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of a high school football coach who said he was fired for saying a prayer on the playing field after a game. That coach, Joseph Kennedy, said his religious freedom rights were violated by the Bremerton, Washington, school district’s actions.

Critics have also alleged the House-passed Equality Act, which would bar discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, would gut free exercise protections contained in the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, forcing some faith communities to operate against their beliefs.

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told the NCRF news conference the bill threatens even family events conducted in line with religious practices.

“Happily, one of my daughters is engaged to be married,” he said. “And as we’ve done for millennia, the ceremony and dancing will be strictly separated by biological gender. It’ll be in a hotel ballroom.” The House bill would render that wedding “a bias crime.”

Supporting candidates who oppose such moves appears to be a primary concern of the NCRF, organizers say. Tom Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute, told the news conference that the NCRF’s work comes at a crucial moment.

The right for freely practice one’s religion, Mr. Farr said, is “being attacked by cultural and political elites who demand that religion be removed from our public life and who defame as bigots and haters those with whom they disagree on matters of religion and public policy, and public morality. They’re using the power of the law to drive morally orthodox people of faith and their institutions out of American public life.”

The committee is organized as a “social welfare organization” under Section 501c4 of the Internal Revenue Code. That means donations are not tax-deductible and can be used to support political candidates.

Among those supporting the group are New York City’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan; Jeff Ballabon, founder and director of the Jewish Legal Defense Fund; former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and former Northern Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf.

Religious freedom “is surely one of the very last freedoms to finally have an organization dedicated specifically to ensuring that our elected officials take due care of it,” Cardinal Dolan said in a recorded message.