Republican candidate vows to restore ‘full religious freedom’ in the US <\/h2>\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/assets\/img\/icon\/chat-rect.svg\")
<\/a>![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/assets\/img\/icon\/share-outline.svg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/15\/03\/150363_w_760_507.jpg\")
<\/source><\/picture>Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Pray Vote Stand Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on September 15, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The summit featured remarks from multiple 2024 Republican Presidential candidates making their case to the conservative audience members. <\/span> | Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWASHINGTON \u2014 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted the important role faith in God plays in leadership as he explained how he will advance the cause of religious liberty if he becomes the 47th president of the United States.\u00a0
<\/strong><\/p>\nDeSantis, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, addressed the crowd at the Family Research Council\u2019s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit Friday, where he discussed his faith in God and outlined how he would protect religious liberty if elected president.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how you could be a leader without having faith in God,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you stand up for what\u2019s right in this day and age, that is not going to be cost-free. You are going to face blowback, you\u2019re going to face attacks, you\u2019re going to face smears. And it\u2019s the faith in God that gives you the strength to stand firm against the lies, against the deceit, against the opposition.<\/p>\n
DeSantis credited the faith in God with giving him \u201cthe foundation to know that all the insults, all the nonsense they throw at you ultimately doesn\u2019t matter because you are aiming higher.\u201d After expressing concern about the current state of affairs in the U.S., DeSantis explained that \u201cwe do have a spiritual decline in this country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The candidate cited the practice of \u201cforcibly closing churches and denying people their right to worship as they see fit\u201d during the coronavirus pandemic as one example of the spiritual decline engulfing the U.S. \u201cThe liquor stores were open, the strip clubs were open but yet they shut the door on the people of faith,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that reviving the spirit of America is essential to helping reverse America\u2019s decline. And this revival is going to begin in our religious institutions, our places of work, each of our households, all the institutions that make up the bedrock of society,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n
DeSantis warned of \u201cthreats to religious liberty the likes we have not seen throughout most of American history\u201d and highlighted the need for \u201cpeople to be able to live their faith in all aspects of their life\u201d as \u201cfaith has been treated as secondary to secular concerns in culture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to DeSantis, \u201cAttempts have been made to wipe our Judeo-Christian religious symbols from our national heritage and national culture. The left, you know, they talk about saying you can\u2019t be involved in religious practice if you\u2019re in government because it would represent [an] \u2018<\/strong>establishment of religion.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nThe presidential candidate refuted this argument: \u201cFirst of all, that\u2019s not true. But second of all, they\u2019re the ones that want to establish a religion. They just don\u2019t want to establish traditional religions. They want political leftism to be the established religion of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeSantis insisted that the effort to establish political leftism as the established religion of this country has led those who want to practice their faith in public finding themselves \u201conly be able to do that up until the point it conflicts with [the leftist] agenda.\u201d He pointed to the treatment of Coach Joe Kennedy, a Washington state high school football coach who lost his job because of opposition to his effort to pray on the field after the game, as an example of how violations of religious liberty have become commonplace.<\/p>\n
The governor noted that Kennedy\u2019s victory at the Supreme Court was \u201chailed as a victory for religious liberty\u201d while suggesting that \u201cthe fact that that even had to go to the U.S. Supreme Court shows us that religious liberty is not flourishing the way it should in our country.\u201d He proceeded to outline how he would work to advance the cause of religious liberty if elected president.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs your president, I\u2019m going to get to work on restoring full religious freedom in this country,\u201d he vowed. He pointed to nominating and placing \u201cconstitutionalist judges on the courts of appeal and on the U.S. Supreme Court\u201d as an important step in achieving that goal, assuring the audience that \u201cmy nominees will reflect the jurisprudence of justices like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr.,\u201d whom he referred to as \u201cthe two greatest justices on the Court.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeSantis also announced his intention to \u201cend once and for all religious discrimination\u201d by abolishing \u201call government regulations that force groups to choose between government funding and their faith.\u201d He maintained that \u201cinstead, we\u2019re going to actively incorporate the faith community in our administration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will make sure that the faith community has a seat at the table as we work to do the business of the country,\u201d he added. \u201cWe will also do what we\u2019ve done in Florida. We have universal school choice in the state of Florida and we need it nationwide. On day one, we\u2019ll issue an executive order that ensures funding available to private non-religious schools must also be available to private faith-based schools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to DeSantis, \u201cWe will stop the federal government from targeting men and women on the basis of their faith. Religious schools should not be pressured to violate the tenets of their faith. There will never be a question about whether a faith-based charity that serves the poor deserves First Amendment protections. We will seek the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which suppresses the speech of our religious leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeSantis detailed how his administration would \u201censure that the Judeo-Christian tradition and values that our nation was founded on are respected and are preserved.\u201d Specifically, he expressed a desire to \u201ccreate divisions of conscience and religious freedom in the Departments of Education, Labor, and [Health and Human Services] to protect religious liberty against all agencies of government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when God-fearing citizens have won in court, they have been forced to go through the time-consuming and invasive processes,\u201d he lamented. \u201cMy Department of Justice will investigate and prosecute attacks on faith-based [crisis pregnancy] centers and pro-life activists which the Biden administration is currently ignoring and they\u2019re letting this go on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeSantis repeatedly discussed his record as Florida governor in his remarks and concluded his speech by describing his state as \u201cthe place where woke goes to die.\u201d He told the audience \u201cAs president, we are going to leave the woke mind virus in the dustbin of history, where it belongs, once and for all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nRyan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/15\/03\/150363_w_760_507.webp\")
<\/source><\/picture>WASHINGTON \u2014 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted the important role faith in God plays in leadership as he explained how he will advance the cause of religious liberty if he becomes the 47th president of the United States.\u00a0 DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, addressed the crowd at the Family Research Council\u2019s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit Friday, where he discussed his faith in God and outlined how he would protect religious liberty if elected president.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how you could be a leader without having faith in God,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you stand up for what\u2019s right in this day and age, that is not going to be cost-free. You are going to face blowback, you\u2019re going to face attacks, you\u2019re going to face smears. And it\u2019s the faith in God that gives you the strength to stand firm against the lies, against the deceit, against the opposition.<\/p>\n DeSantis credited the faith in God with giving him \u201cthe foundation to know that all the insults, all the nonsense they throw at you ultimately doesn\u2019t matter because you are aiming higher.\u201d After expressing concern about the current state of affairs in the U.S., DeSantis explained that \u201cwe do have a spiritual decline in this country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The candidate cited the practice of \u201cforcibly closing churches and denying people their right to worship as they see fit\u201d during the coronavirus pandemic as one example of the spiritual decline engulfing the U.S. \u201cThe liquor stores were open, the strip clubs were open but yet they shut the door on the people of faith,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that reviving the spirit of America is essential to helping reverse America\u2019s decline. And this revival is going to begin in our religious institutions, our places of work, each of our households, all the institutions that make up the bedrock of society,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n DeSantis warned of \u201cthreats to religious liberty the likes we have not seen throughout most of American history\u201d and highlighted the need for \u201cpeople to be able to live their faith in all aspects of their life\u201d as \u201cfaith has been treated as secondary to secular concerns in culture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to DeSantis, \u201cAttempts have been made to wipe our Judeo-Christian religious symbols from our national heritage and national culture. The left, you know, they talk about saying you can\u2019t be involved in religious practice if you\u2019re in government because it would represent [an] \u2018<\/strong>establishment of religion.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The presidential candidate refuted this argument: \u201cFirst of all, that\u2019s not true. But second of all, they\u2019re the ones that want to establish a religion. They just don\u2019t want to establish traditional religions. They want political leftism to be the established religion of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis insisted that the effort to establish political leftism as the established religion of this country has led those who want to practice their faith in public finding themselves \u201conly be able to do that up until the point it conflicts with [the leftist] agenda.\u201d He pointed to the treatment of Coach Joe Kennedy, a Washington state high school football coach who lost his job because of opposition to his effort to pray on the field after the game, as an example of how violations of religious liberty have become commonplace.<\/p>\n The governor noted that Kennedy\u2019s victory at the Supreme Court was \u201chailed as a victory for religious liberty\u201d while suggesting that \u201cthe fact that that even had to go to the U.S. Supreme Court shows us that religious liberty is not flourishing the way it should in our country.\u201d He proceeded to outline how he would work to advance the cause of religious liberty if elected president.<\/p>\n \u201cAs your president, I\u2019m going to get to work on restoring full religious freedom in this country,\u201d he vowed. He pointed to nominating and placing \u201cconstitutionalist judges on the courts of appeal and on the U.S. Supreme Court\u201d as an important step in achieving that goal, assuring the audience that \u201cmy nominees will reflect the jurisprudence of justices like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr.,\u201d whom he referred to as \u201cthe two greatest justices on the Court.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis also announced his intention to \u201cend once and for all religious discrimination\u201d by abolishing \u201call government regulations that force groups to choose between government funding and their faith.\u201d He maintained that \u201cinstead, we\u2019re going to actively incorporate the faith community in our administration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe will make sure that the faith community has a seat at the table as we work to do the business of the country,\u201d he added. \u201cWe will also do what we\u2019ve done in Florida. We have universal school choice in the state of Florida and we need it nationwide. On day one, we\u2019ll issue an executive order that ensures funding available to private non-religious schools must also be available to private faith-based schools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to DeSantis, \u201cWe will stop the federal government from targeting men and women on the basis of their faith. Religious schools should not be pressured to violate the tenets of their faith. There will never be a question about whether a faith-based charity that serves the poor deserves First Amendment protections. We will seek the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which suppresses the speech of our religious leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis detailed how his administration would \u201censure that the Judeo-Christian tradition and values that our nation was founded on are respected and are preserved.\u201d Specifically, he expressed a desire to \u201ccreate divisions of conscience and religious freedom in the Departments of Education, Labor, and [Health and Human Services] to protect religious liberty against all agencies of government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven when God-fearing citizens have won in court, they have been forced to go through the time-consuming and invasive processes,\u201d he lamented. \u201cMy Department of Justice will investigate and prosecute attacks on faith-based [crisis pregnancy] centers and pro-life activists which the Biden administration is currently ignoring and they\u2019re letting this go on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis repeatedly discussed his record as Florida governor in his remarks and concluded his speech by describing his state as \u201cthe place where woke goes to die.\u201d He told the audience \u201cAs president, we are going to leave the woke mind virus in the dustbin of history, where it belongs, once and for all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n