2016 Democratic Platform On Protecting Religious Minorities Internationally

Yesterday the Democratic Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the last in a series of seven posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with religious discrimination and with social issues that often generate controversy defined in religious terms. Here is the Platform provision on international human rights dealing with Religious Minorities:

We are horrified by ISIS’ genocide and sexual enslavement of Christians and Yezidis and crimes against humanity against Muslims and others in the Middle East. We will do everything we can to protect religious minorities and the fundamental right of freedom of religion.

2016 Democratic Platform On International Human Rights of LGBT Communities

Yesterday the Democratic Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the sixth in a series of seven posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with religious discrimination and with social issues that often generate controversy defined in religious terms. Here is the Platform provision on international human rights of the LGBT community:

Democrats believe that LGBT rights are human rights and that American foreign policy should advance the ability of all persons to live with dignity, security, and respect, regardless of who they are or who they love. We applaud President Obama’s historic Presidential Memorandum on International Initiatives to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons, which combats criminalization, protects refugees, and provides foreign assistance. We will continue to stand with LGBT people around the world, including fighting efforts by any nation to infringe on LGBT rights or ignore abuse.

2016 Democratic Platform on Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice

Yesterday the Democratic Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the fifth in a series of seven posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with religious discrimination and with social issues that often generate controversy defined in religious terms. Note that the excerpt continues after the jump. Here is the Platform section on Securing Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice:

Democrats are committed to protecting and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice. We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion—regardless of where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured.

2016 Democratic Platform on Tribal Nation Religious Traditions

Yesterday the Democratic Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the fourth in a series of seven posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with religious discrimination and with social issues that often generate controversy defined in religious terms. Here is an excerpt from the Platform section on Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations:

We will manage for tribal sacred places, and empower tribes to maintain and pass on traditional religious beliefs, languages, and social practices without fear of discrimination or suppression. We also believe that Native children are the future of tribal nations and that the Indian Child Welfare Act is critical to the survival of Indian culture, government, and communities and must be enforced with the statutory intent of the law.

2016 Democratic Platform on Respecting Faith and Service

Yesterday the Democratic Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the third in a series of seven posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with religious discrimination and with social issues that often generate controversy defined in religious terms. Here is an excerpt from the Platform provision titled Respecting Faith and Service:

Democrats know that our nation, our communities, and our lives are made vastly stronger and richer by faith in many forms and the countless acts of justice, mercy, and tolerance it inspires. We believe in lifting up and valuing the good work of people of faith and religious organizations and finding ways to support that work where possible.

2016 Democratic Platform on LGBT Rights

Yesterday the Democratic Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the second in a series of seven posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with religious discrimination and with social issues that often generate controversy defined in religious terms. Note that the excerpt continues after the jump. Here is the Platform section on Guaranteeing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights:

Democrats applaud last year’s decision by the Supreme Court that recognized that LGBT people—like other Americans—have the right to marry the person they love. But there is still much work to be done. LGBT kids continue to be bullied at school, restaurants can refuse to serve transgender people, and same-sex couples are at risk of being evicted from their homes. That is unacceptable and must change.

2016 Democratic Platform on Religious Discrimination

Yesterday the Democratic Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the first in a series of seven posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with religious discrimination and with social issues that often generate controversy defined in religious terms. Here are two Platform excerpts that deal with religious discrimination:

Fixing our Broken Immigration System

...We reject attempts to impose a religious test to bar immigrants or refugees from entering the United States. It is un-American and runs counter to the founding principles of this country....

Guaranteeing Civil Rights

Democrats will always fight to end discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. We need to promote civility and speak out against bigotry and other forms of intolerance that have entered our political discourse. It is unacceptable to target, defame, or exclude anyone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. While freedom of expression is a fundamental constitutional principle, we must condemn hate speech that creates a fertile climate for violence. We condemn Donald Trump’s demonization of prisoners of war, women, Muslims, Mexicans, and people with disabilities; his playing coy with white supremacists; and the climate of bigotry he is creating. We also condemn the recent uptick in other forms of hate speech, like anti-Semitism and Islamophobia....

Pence Accepting VP Nomination Defines Himself As A Christian First

At the Republican National Convention yesterday evening, Indiana Governor Mike Pence accepted the nomination for vice-president. (Full text of remarks.) In acknowledging his introduction to the audience by House Speaker Paul Ryan, Pence said:

Paul knows me well, and he knows the introduction I prefer is just a little bit shorter: I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order.

UPDATE: The New York Times yesterday traced the details of Pence's religious journey from the Catholic Church to Evangelical Christianity.

2016 Republican Platform on International Religious Freedom

Yesterday the Republican Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the seventh and last in a series of posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with moral values and religious liberty. Here is the Platform section titled Defending International Religious Freedom:

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an initiative of Congressional Republicans, has been neglected by the current Administration at a time when its voice more than ever needs to be heard. Religious minorities across the Middle East have been driven from their ancient homelands, and thousands, there and in Africa, have been slaughtered for their faith in what the State Department has, belatedly, labeled genocide. The United States must stand with leaders, like President Sisi of Egypt who has bravely protected the rights of Coptic Christians in Egypt, and call on other leaders across the region to ensure that all religious minorities, whether Yazidi, Bahai, Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant Christians, are free to practice their religion without fear of persecution. At a time when China has renewed its destruction of churches, Christian home-schooling parents are jailed in parts of Europe, and even Canada threatens pastors for their preaching, a Republican administration will return the advocacy of religious liberty to a central place in its diplomacy, will quickly designate the systematic killing of religious and ethnic minorities a genocide, and will work with the leaders of other nations to condemn and combat genocidal acts.

2016 Republican Platform on Individual Conscience in Healthcare

Yesterday the Republican Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the sixth in a series of posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with moral values and religious liberty. Here is the Platform section titled Protecting Individual Conscience in Healthcare:

America’s healthcare professionals should not be forced to choose between following their faith and practicing their profession. We respect the rights of conscience of healthcare professionals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and organizations, especially the faith-based groups which provide a major portion of care for the nation and the needy. We support the ability of all organizations to provide, purchase, or enroll in healthcare coverage consistent with their religious, moral, or ethical convictions without discrimination or penalty. We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children. We support the right of parents to consent to medical treatment for their minor children and urge enactment of legislation that would require parental consent for their daughter to be transported across state lines for abortion. Providers should not be permitted to unilaterally withhold services because a patient’s life is deemed not worth living. American taxpayers should not be forced to fund abortion. As Democrats abandon this four decade-old bipartisan consensus, we call for codification of the Hyde Amendment and its application across the government, including Obamacare. We call for a permanent ban on federal funding and subsidies for abortion and healthcare plans that include abortion coverage. 

2016 Republican Platform on School Choice and Title IX

Yesterday the Republican Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the fifth in a series of posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with moral values and religious liberty. Note that the excerpts continue after the jump. Here are portions of the sections titled Choice in Education, and Title IX:

We support options for learning, including home-schooling, career and technical education, private or parochial schools, magnet schools, charter schools, online learning, and early-college high schools. We especially support the innovative financing mechanisms that make options available to all children: education savings accounts (ESAs), vouchers, and tuition tax credits. Empowering families to access the learning environments that will best help their children to realize their full potential is one of the greatest civil rights challenges of our time. A young person’s ability to succeed in school must be based on his or her God-given talent and motivation, not an address, ZIP code, or economic status. We propose that the bulk of federal money through Title I for low-income children and through IDEA for children with special needs should follow the child to whatever school the family thinks will work best for them.....

2016 Republican Platform on Marriage, Family and Society

Yesterday the Republican Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the fourth in a series of posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with moral values and religious liberty. Note that the excerpt continues after the jump. Here is the Platform section titled Marriage, Family and Society:

Foremost among those institutions is the American family. It is the foundation of civil society, and the cornerstone of the family is natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman. Its daily lessons — cooperation, patience, mutual respect, responsibility, self-reliance — are fundamental to the order and progress of our Republic. Strong families, depending upon God and one another, advance the cause of liberty by lessening the need for government in their daily lives. Conversely, as we have learned over the last five decades, the loss of faith and family life leads to greater dependence upon government. That is why Republicans formulate public policy, from taxation to education, from healthcare to welfare, with attention to the needs and strengths of the family.

2016 Republican Platform on Abortion

Yesterday the Republican Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the third in a series of posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with moral values and religious liberty. Note that the excerpt continues after the jump. Here is the lengthy Platform section titled The Fifth Amendment: Protecting Human Life:

The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life. Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.

2016 Republican Platform on Same-Sex Marriage

Yesterday the Republican Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the second in a series of posts that focus on Platform provisions dealing with moral values and religious liberty. Here is the Platform section titled Defending Marriage Against an Activist Judiciary:

Traditional marriage and family, based on marriage between one man and one woman, is the foundation for a free society and has for millennia been entrusted with rearing children and instilling cultural values. We condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor, which wrongly removed the ability of Congress to define marriage policy in federal law. We also condemn the Supreme Court’s lawless ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which in the words of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, was a “judicial Putsch” — full of “silly extravagances” — that reduced “the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Storey to the mystical aphorisms of a fortune cookie.” In Obergefell, five unelected lawyers robbed 320 million Americans of their legitimate constitutional authority to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The Court twisted the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment beyond recognition. To echo Scalia, we dissent. We, therefore, support the appointment of justices and judges who respect the constitutional limits on their power and respect the authority of the states to decide such fundamental social questions.

2016 Republican Platform on Religious Liberty

Yesterday the Republican Party at its national convention adopted its 2016 Platform (full text).  This is the first in a series of posts that will focus on Platform provisions dealing with moral values and religious liberty. Note that the excerpt continues after the jump. Here is the Platform's lengthy section on Religious Liberty:

The Bill of Rights lists religious liberty, with its rights of conscience, as the first freedom to be protected. Religious freedom in the Bill of Rights protects the right of the people to practice their faith in their everyday lives. As George Washington taught, “religion and morality are indispensable supports” to a free society. Similarly, Thomas Jefferson declared that “No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.” Ongoing attempts to compel individuals, businesses, and institutions of faith to transgress their beliefs are part of a misguided effort to undermine religion and drive it from the public square. As a result, many charitable religious institutions that have demonstrated great success in helping the needy have been barred from receiving government grants and contracts.