COUNTERPOINT: A contrast in faith viewpoints

RECAP: To read the point, “Candidates’ commitment to religious freedom is what matters,” see the Opinion page in Saturday’s Times Leader e-edition or visit timesleader.com/category/opinion.

Most Americans don’t see either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump as particularly religious or Christian, according to a new survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. A large plurality of Americans — 41 percent — say neither Trump nor Harris represents their religious views. Based on both major candidates’ track records — and their worldviews — neither candidate threatens to impose theocratic rule.

However, their governing records show significant differences in how the candidates view faith and prioritize protecting religious freedom.

As president, Trump boldly stood against antisemitism through robust actions countering Iranian aggression against Israel. He also moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and he forged the historic Abraham Accords for Middle East peace between Arabs and Jews.

In contrast, the Biden-Harris White House enabled global antisemitism, cowering and caving to Iran, enabling the Iranian supreme leader and his cronies to bankroll the worst Jewish massacre since the Holocaust. Harris also bowed to the antisemitic wing of her party by passing over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for her vice-presidential selection — a decision that could cost her the White House if she loses the delegate-rich Keystone State.

While Christian and Jewish theology and activist groups strongly support human rights and liberation (narratives of Moses and Jesus, for example), the Trump White House took bold action to protect human trafficking victims. It implemented policies discouraging illegal immigration, which disincentivizes human trafficking.

Harris does little for women and girls trafficked and sexually assaulted at our southern border. Amnesty International reported, “As many as six out of every 10 migrant women and girls experience sexual violence during the journey.” Doctors Without Borders found that one in three women traveling through Mexico are sexually assaulted. The United Nations estimates among women crossing without husbands or families, up to 70% suffer abuse.

Rampant sexual abuse festers and grows as illegal immigration swells from policies like those from the White House.

Harris also played a crucial role in forcing Title IX changes restricting women’s rights and threatening religious liberty. As First Liberty notes, the Biden-Harris administration Title IX rules give federal bureaucrats broad powers to bully and exclude students and teachers with deeply held religious convictions who don’t share Harris’ ideology on sexuality and gender.

First Liberty filed a public comment on behalf of Houston Christian University, arguing Harris’ Title IX changes disproportionately burden faith-based schools for their religious beliefs and practices.

In sharp contrast, Trump is a fierce opponent of critical gender theory’s attempt to harm women by redefining sex and, in the process, restricting religious liberty.

While in office, Trump safeguarded the religious liberty of medical professionals, educators and religious groups such as the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor. He did this by protecting their right to religious and moral objections to government insurance contraception mandates.

The Biden-Harris administration sparked outrage from religious activists for seeking to roll back moral objection exemptions from Obamacare contraceptive mandates.

Harris’ anti-Catholic bias proved so concerning that she provoked the Rev. Paul Scalia, a Catholic priest and son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, during a sermon at St. James Catholic Church in Falls Church, Va.

Singling out Harris by name during the heated 2020 election aftermath, Scalia expressed concern that Harris, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, harassed now-Judge Brian Buescher, a Trump nominee for a U.S. District Court. Harris was upset that Buescher belonged to Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s charity that cared for the sick, poor and disabled and offered disaster relief and employment services.

“Senator Harris had the not-so-subtle implication that the Knights of Columbus were somehow, some kind of a hate group or something like that,” Scalia said. “The Knights of Columbus.”

Harris’ anti-religion bias is an especially sad irony given our Mayflower Pilgrims sailed to America on a quest for respite from religious persecution in Europe.

Regardless of whether they are faithful, Americans know religious liberty is a core value of our country and deserve leaders who stand up for this constitutional freedom.