Attorney General launches religious freedom initiative at SBC meeting

Attorney General launches religious freedom initiative at SBC meeting
Feb 21, 2007
By Erin Roach
Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales met with Southern Baptist leaders Feb. 20 to unveil a new Department of Justice initiative aimed at educating Americans about their religious liberties and to ask for the Southern Baptist Convention’s help in identifying and reporting abuses of those liberties.

Gonzales, in an address to SBC Executive Committee members during their Tuesday afternoon session, noted that he is charged by the president with “protecting and preserving not only the safety and security of all Americans, but also their rights, liberties and freedoms.”

“One of our most cherished freedoms, one we’ve sacrificed greatly to defend, is our religious liberty,” the attorney general said at the SBC Building in Nashville, Tenn. “Nothing defines us more as a nation and differentiates us more from the extremists who are our enemies than our respect for religious freedom. Our great country was founded on these principles, and many of us today believe it continues to thrive because of, not despite, them.”

The Department of Justice released Feb. 20 a “Report on Enforcement of Laws Protecting Religious Freedom: Fiscal Years 2001-2006,” which describes the importance of religious freedom historically in America and the role assigned to the justice department. The report also summarizes the department’s accomplishments during the Bush administration to protect religious liberty through the enforcement of civil rights laws.

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