Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Presidential Pledge for Religious Freedom Petition

Signing this petition indicates that you would like your Presidential Candidate to sign the Pledge for Religious Freedom. These signatures will encourage Presidential candidates to sign the pledge because they demonstrate that religious freedom is an important priority and we want our President to protect and promote it.

Petition

I would like my Presidential Candidate to sign the Pledge for Religious Freedom, committing to protect and promote religious freedom for people of all faiths and making it a priority of his or her administration.

I PLEDGE that I will protect religious freedom in full for all Americans, and will advance international religious freedom as part of American foreign policy.

As part of this PLEDGE, I hereby commit myself to the following positions:

FIRST, that religious liberty in full is the birthright of every American, as recognized by the First Amendment. It entails the right to believe, worship, and practice in accord with one's faith, subject only to the limits imposed by the U.S. constitution and the Bill of Rights.The right of religious freedom must be applied equally to all religious communities in America, including Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. At the same time, religious freedom does not mandate belief, but protects the right not to believe.

Religious freedom includes the right to employ religious arguments, or religiously-informed moral arguments, when contending for or against laws and policies, such as laws designed to protect the unborn and traditional marriage, or to relieve poverty and increase economic opportunity for the disadvantaged.

Religious freedom includes the right of individuals and of religious communities to engage in religiously-motivated charitable works. It also includes the right of individuals and of religious communities not to be forced to participate in, or to forfeit their employment because of refusal to participate in, activities that deeply offend their religious conscience.

SECOND, that I will nominate to the U.S. federal bench judges who are committed to protecting for all Americans the religious liberty rights described above.

THIRD, that I will make religious freedom promotion a foreign policy priority of my administration. This will include ensuring the U.S. State Department performs its statutory duty of advancing international religious freedom; appointing an ambassador at large for international religious freedom who is a person of stature, experienced in matters of religious freedom and diplomacy; ensuring that the ambassador at large has sufficient authority and resources to succeed; ensuring that democracy assistance funding includes support for religious freedom; and ensuring that all of America's diplomats are trained in the importance of advancing, and how to advance, international religious freedom.

CLICK HERE NOW TO SIGN YOUR PETITION!