{"id":1036,"date":"2016-06-10T02:28:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T02:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2016-06-10T02:31:38","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T02:31:38","slug":"thank-you-senator-lankford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/2016\/06\/10\/thank-you-senator-lankford\/","title":{"rendered":"Thank you, Senator Lankford"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small but significant semantic victory on the religious freedom front has been won by a senator from Oklahoma. In recent years, a quiet effort has been made to substitute the phrase (and concept) \u201cfreedom of worship\u201d in place of the more traditional \u201cfreedom of religion.\u201d One place where this change has emerged in the past few years is on the civic test materials of the US Citizen and Immigration Services.<\/p>\n

As reported last year in the Christian Post<\/a>, Senator Lankford of Oklahoma, a former youth pastor, has taken issue with this:<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only is \u2018freedom of worship\u2019 inconsistent with the text of the Amendment proposed 226 years ago today, saying that \u2018freedom of worship\u2019 is more inclusive that \u2018freedom of religion\u2019 flies in the face of the pillar upon which our entire nation was founded,\u201d Lankford contended. \u201cOur forefathers came to America to have freedom of religion, not simply freedom of worship. So valued, they made the free exercise of religion our first freedom.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Lankford\u2019s letter also asserts that \u201cfreedom of religion\u201d is the ability for a person to live out their beliefs in every aspect of life.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe freedom of religion is much more than just the freedom of worship. Worship confines you to a location,\u201d the senator explained. \u201cFreedom of religion is the right to exercise your religious beliefs \u2014 it is the ability for Americans to live out their faith or to choose to have no faith.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at http:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/senator-rebukes-dhs-for-suggesting-freedom-of-religion-is-only-freedom-to-worship-140131\/#D152z82RJywY8jz8.99<\/a><\/p>\n

His efforts appear to have worked. The Agency and its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, have recently agreed to change the wording of their materials.<\/p>\n

This may prove a minor and symbolic change only, but we applaud it, as we do all efforts of Christians with convictions to stand against the tide. Our appreciation goes to Mr. Lankford.<\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A small but significant semantic victory on the religious freedom front has been won by a senator from Oklahoma. In recent years, a quiet effort has been made to substitute the phrase (and concept) \u201cfreedom of worship\u201d in place of the more traditional \u201cfreedom of religion.\u201d One place where this change has emerged in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[482,483,480,481],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-freedom-of-religion","tag-freedom-of-worship","tag-senator-lankford","tag-u-s-citizen-and-immigration-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1040,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}