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Free DVD Reveals Powerful Keys From Bible & Science Would you like to be their hero one person at a time? LATEST CBN NEWS STORIES POLITICS CBNNEWS.COM 'Fairness for All' Seen as Equality Act Alternative: Civil Liberties for LGBTQ, Protections for People of Faith US CBNNEWS.COM 'Chilling' War on Conservative Media: Some Warn Dems Trying to 'Silence All Opposing Views' GET STARTED Hurry! March 15 Deadline GET STARTED Hurry! March 15 Deadline CBN.com The 700 Club News Christian Living CBN Radio Watch CBN Superbook CBN Ministries Give Sign In Watch Live Get Breaking News Alerts Search News Search News WATCH VIDEO UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN WORLD NEWS INSIDE ISRAEL NATIONAL SECURITY FAITH NATION POLITICS STUDIO 5 ENTERTAINMENT HEALTHY LIVING SHOWS Displaying Stories 30+ Equality Act in Congress This Week: 'It Treats People of Faith as Second-Class Citizens' These Biden Priorities Target Religious Liberty: 'It Treats Our Beliefs as the Equivalent of Racist Bigotry' The Equality Act - Why It Matters for Christians 02-24-2021 Steve Warren - Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are getting ready to decide on a landmark piece of LGBTQ legislation that would crush religious liberty. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday on the legislation known as the Equality Act. But there's also an alternative approach that would protect religious freedom. The alternative measure is called the Fairness for All Act. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT). It would provide civil liberties for LGBTQ individuals while also providing protections for people of faith. Related "There's room here to find an area where both can be accommodated, where both can be comfortable. The Equality Act doesn't do that. Fairness for All will," Stewart said. House Democrats are expected to pass the Equality Act as they did in 2019. The real battle over the bill will likely come in the Senate. "I don't think this will pass in the Senate and that opens up the opportunity for Fairness for All," Stewart explained. "We have bipartisan support for this. It's not just a Republican idea. It's not just a conservative idea. There's some of our Democratic colleagues who are going to join us on that and once they see that they're not going to force this on the Senate, that opens the door to look at an alternative." When House Democrats introduced the bill last week, President Biden echoed his support for the Equality Act just like he did last year on the campaign trail. 310,069 Alzheimer's-Like Memory Loss Has Been Linked To This Common Pill. Are You Taking It? Watch The Video Doctors are seeing severe dementia in seniors, and it may be linked to common prescription pills. Paid Advertisement Promoted Content "I urge Congress to swiftly pass this historic legislation," Biden said in a statement. "Every person should be treated with dignity and respect, and this bill represents a critical step toward ensuring that America lives up to our foundational values of equality and freedom for all." The Equality Act would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to explicitly prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to NPR. ***As certain voices are censored and free speech platforms shut down, be sure to sign up for CBN News emails and the CBN News app to ensure you keep receiving news from a Christian Perspective.*** The measure would also open up the proverbial "can of worms." As CBN News has previously reported, under the Equality Act, disagreement is considered discrimination. It includes gay marriage, transgender people who were born biologically male competing in women's sports, and doctors performing procedures - like gender reassignments - that violate their conscience. The measure goes even farther. "We can see it would immediately be stripping religious Americans and stripping girls and women of our equal rights," Denise Harle, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, told CBN News. By redefining sex discrimination, the measure would further enshrine abortion on demand, likely end a longstanding prohibition on taxpayer-funded abortions, and remove conscience protections for doctors and nurses. Biologically male athletes would be allowed to compete in women's sports effectively obliterating Title IX while girls and women would be forced to share locker rooms and bathrooms with them in schools and public places. Harle says we don't have to guess about the results, rather just look at cities and states that have already passed similar measures. "In Alaska, the city of Anchorage had a law like this and punished a faith-based homeless shelter for battered women and actually forced them to allow biological men who identified as women to sleep and change clothes alongside these women, most of whom were victims of rape and sex trafficking and actually prosecuted (the shelter) under the law, trying to shut down this Christian shelter," Harle explains. The act also allows for subjectivity, an issue Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) raised last summer on the Senate floor. "If I go to interview in a job and I'm not hired I can sue that employer because I perceive they were thinking I was gay and so they didn't hire me," Lankford said. "I don't have to prove anything. It's based simply on my perception or belief," he continued. Under the so-called Equality Act, certain Christian beliefs become unlawful. Churches could be prevented from requiring employees to abide by their biblical beliefs about marriage and differences between men and women. The measure could also threaten Christian businesses or organizations like flower shops and bakers who have been in the news for the past several years due to high-profile discrimination lawsuits after declining to provide services that endorse same-sex marriage. The act also states that it overrules the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (commonly known by its acronym RFRA), which was passed in 1993. RFRA set a higher standard for the federal government to defend certain laws if citizens argued those laws violate their religious freedom. Under the Equality Act, a person arguing their case couldn't use RFRA as a defense or to challenge the act itself. The Equality Act will take 60 votes to avoid a filibuster in the Senate. Several religious and conservative organizations have released statements in opposition to it. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the act is a serious threat to our nation's core values. "The Equality Act is a grave and treasonous threat to our nation's core values contained in our First Amendment. The fact that no Republicans have co-sponsored it, even those who co-sponsored in the previous Congress, underscores the Democrats' lurch to the Left. This is a radical bill that uses the government to control, through coercion, how every American thinks, speaks, and acts on issues of human sexuality. It may be named the Equality Act, but as the details make quite clear, the only equal thing about it is how much damage it does to many facets of American life," Perkins said. "It is an attack on parental rights and women's sports, but to the millions of people of faith in this country, it is an egregious attack on the freedom to believe and live according to those beliefs. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act will be committed to the 'memory hole,' and we will then experience a devastating loss of religious freedom in America, and that will have consequences for all Americans," he continued. "Activists in high-office, whom President Biden is working to appoint, could use the Act to punish faith-based organizations of any type - places of worship, schools, small businesses, adoption agencies, pregnancy centers, and other non-profit charities - that decline to surrender their beliefs on the family, sexuality, and even abortion," the FRC president explained. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and founder of the Imago Dei Campaign, said elected officials must not attempt to address inequality by making others less equal. "The answer to a rightwing culture war is not a leftwing culture war. Our elected officials must not attempt to address inequality by making others less equal. The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference joins Latino Catholics in opposing the Equality Act. While a high bar, it is almost impossible to imagine a more disastrous piece of legislation than the Equality Act," Rodriguez said. "In what is a complicated issue worthy of discussion among various stakeholders, the Democratic party has chosen to take an imperialistic approach, short-circuiting our system of debate and compromise, and in turn, exchanging the fundamental human rights of one group for those of another. In the U.S., we cannot protect one minority by disenfranchising the sincerely held religious beliefs of another minority. I look forward to standing alongside rabbis, pastors, bishops, and priests in opposing this haphazard effort to address a legitimate concern," he concluded. Would you like resources to help you navigate the important issues in this article? Click on any of the topics below: Faith Fear Need prayer? We’re available 24/7. Call (800) 700-7000 or request prayer. Learn why Truth Matters at CBN News. CBN Partners provide hope to those who are suffering! You can help bring hope today! Share Tweet Email ! Equality Act in Congress This Week: 'It Treats People of Faith as Second-Class Citizens' These Biden Priorities Target Religious Liberty: 'It Treats Our Beliefs as the Equivalent of Racist Bring Hope AROUND THE WEB Md: Do This Immediately if You Have Diabetes (Watch) Patriot Health Zone 9 out of 10 Diabetics Haven't Seen This Treatment healthtoday Have An Enlarged Prostate? Urologist Reveals: Do This Immediately (Watch) Daily Healthy Living Tips Are You Entitled to Receive a Walk-in Tub from Medicare? Walk-In Bathtubs Here Are the Top 5 Mattresses in 2020 Mattress Walk-in Tubs for Seniors Paid by Medicare Walk-In Bathtubs RECOMMENDED A Regular Mistake when Cars Are Driven Under 50 Miles a Day AutoInsurance.com Md: Do This Immediately if You Have Diabetes (Watch) Blood Sugar Blaster Are You Entitled to Receive a New Mattress from Medicare? Mattress House Democrats Lobby to Cancel Fox, Newsmax and OANN as a 'Destabilizing Threat' to America 'Outright Censorship': D. James Kennedy Ministries Says It Was 'Forced Off' Lifetime TV CENSORED: Big Tech Removes Conservative Scholar's Book on Transgenderism 'Republicans Are No Longer Entitled to Exist': Leftists Call for Purge, Prof. Wants Trump Voters Punished Like Nazis 02-25-2021 George Thomas - Some say there's a war brewing against conservative media, while others argue it's just another example of Democrats trying to censor viewpoints and political speech they don't like or agree with. On Wednesday, the Democrat-led House Energy and Commerce Committee held a virtual hearing on quote "Disinformation and Extremism in the Media." "When truth becomes a commodity to be traded upon for profit, and facts and consequences don't matter to those who report them, our democracy is undermined," argued Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) during the hearing. "It is the responsibility of this Sub-Committee to hold these institutions to a higher standard." Related Before the hearing, Democratic representatives Jerry McNerney and Anna Eshoo of California, wrote letters to TV providers, including Comcast, AT&T, COX, and Verizon demanding to know how they plan to stop what they called "the spread of dangerous misinformation" from right-leaning news outlets like Newsmax, One America News Network, and Fox News. "Let me put it bluntly: Misinformation is killing Americans and damaging our democracy," claimed Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA). Democrats accused the outlets of being a "destabilizing threat" to the country and functioning as "rumor mills and conspiracy theory hotbeds" with their coverage of the presidential election and the global pandemic. Republicans on the committee pushed back calling the hearing an attack on the First Amendment. "Elected officials, using their platforms to pressure private companies to censure media outlets they disagree with, that sounds like actions from the Chinese Communist Party not duly-elected representatives of the United States Congress," responded Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). In their letter, Eshoo and McNerney asked the TV providers to give their "moral" reasoning for allowing tens of millions to watch Fox News and other networks. They also asked the carriers if they'll continue hosting conservative news and, if so, why. ***As certain voices are censored and free speech platforms shut down, be sure to sign up for CBN News emails and the CBN News app to ensure you keep receiving news from a Christian Perspective.*** Jonathan Turley, professor at the George Washington University Law School, was among those called to testify. "From the perspectives of free speech and the free press, the letter is not only chilling, it's positively glacial," said Turley. "I may be a relic in my views, but I continue to believe that the greatest protection against bad speech is better speech." "Those seeking limits on free speech look at it like it's a swimming pool that must be carefully monitored for safety," Turley went on to testify. "I view it more as a rolling ocean, it's indeed dangerous but it's also majestic and inspiring. Its immense size allows for a natural balance." Rep. Steve Scalise (R-PA) also sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee. He recounted how he and dozens of members of Congress miraculously survived a gunman's attack on a baseball field in June 2017. "I was shot by a gunman motivated by rhetoric on leftist media platforms," Scalise said in a Tweet. "But right now Dems are trying to ban Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax. Why not MSNBC and CNN?" he asked. "It's clear: These authoritarian Dems want to silence all opposing viewpoints and control your life." I was shot by a gunman motivated by rhetoric on leftist media platforms. But right now Dems are trying to ban Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax. Why not MSNBC and CNN? It's clear: These authoritarian Dems want to silence all opposing viewpoints and control your life. Watch ↓ pic.twitter.com/IFF6bazvar — Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) February 25, 2021 Dr. Frank Wright of D. James Kennedy Ministries knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of censorship. Earlier this month, the ministry's weekly Christian program was forced off Lifetime TV after it aired, among other things, a pro-life special. "The ultimatum we received was basically your programming going forward must have all non-controversial topics in order to continue to air on our network," Dr. Wright told CBN News. "You know if you're a biblical Christian these days there's not much in the culture that's not considered controversial." And the censorship is happening online as well with big tech companies. This past Sunday, Dr. Ryan Anderson's book which challenges progressive ideas about gender, was pulled from Amazon's cyber shelves. "We are going to have to think through how we as conservatives approach both the governmental side and the big business side because both of them seem to people with traditional American values," Anderson told CBN's Newswatch program. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hear next month from the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, and Google. BELOW: Watch Wednesday's Full Hearing Watch on 'Disinformation And Extremism in the … Watch later Share Did you know? Did you know? God is everywhere—even in the news. That’s why we view every news story through the lens of faith. We are committed to delivering quality independent Christian journalism you can trust. But it takes a lot of hard work, time, and money to do what we do. Help us continue to be a voice for truth in the media by supporting CBN News for as little as $1. 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