wfn.org | Adventists Ask U.S. Senate to Consider Religious Freedom Law

["Christian B. Schäffler" <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

January 2, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

Adventists Ask United States Senate to Consider Religious 
Freedom Law

Washington, D.C./U.S.A.       A delegation including Seventh-
day Adventist religious liberty experts visited Senate leaders 
on December 14, 1999, to ask for an early vote on the 
Religious Liberty Protection Act (RLPA).  RLPA, a law intended 
to raise the level of religious free exercise protection under 
the Constitution of the United States of America, was 
approved by the House in August 1999 but must
also be passed by the Senate before it becomes law.

"Free exercise of religion is constitutionally guaranteed as an
inherent human right," says Richard Lee Fenn, associate 
director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Public Affairs 
and Religious Liberty department.  "Tragically, however, 
Supreme Court decisions this decade have eroded this 
guarantee. The Religious Liberty Protection Act is an
absolutely necessary step toward statutory restoration of what 
has been taken away. RLPA is a bill for every American. We 
Adventists endorse it. We support it."

The Adventist Church is an active participant in the RLPA 
Coalition, a diverse group of more than 30 religious and civil 
rights groups pressing for higher levels of legal protection for 
religious activity.

Fenn, along with four other members of the RLPA Coalition, 
visited the offices of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and 
Majority Whip Don Nickles to ask for early consideration of the 
bill when the Senate resumes its work in January 2000.  While 
legislative aides assured the delegation that RLPA is a Senate 
priority, they also pointed to the overloaded legislative agenda 
and could make no firm promises on when the bill would 
come to the floor for a vote.  

"The purpose of RLPA is really quite simple," says Sam Casey, 
executive director of the Christian Legal Society, and chair of 
the RLPA Coalition.  "It will restore the level of protection for 
religion to the same legal standard of 'strict scrutiny' that 
applies to every other civil right."

Strict scrutiny means that a law burdening the exercise of 
someone's religion will be invalid, unless the state can show 
that it was pursing a "compelling state interest" in the "least 
restrictive" manner possible. 

The level of legal protection for religious free exercise in the 
United States was dramatically lowered in 1991 by the 
Supreme Court case Oregon v. Smith. In this case the Court 
held that the government need not be concerned when a 
generally applicable, "neutral" law interferes with the ability of 
people to practice their religious beliefs.

RLPA supporters believe the proposed religious freedom law 
will remedy this situation and they are working to bring the 
bill to a vote on the Senate floor before March 2000.
(03/2000)