A new executive order protecting Christians from secular bullies that seek to disenfranchise them will be coming Thursday, according to various insiders.
Politico reports that the signing will coincide with the National Day of Prayer, obviously not a coincidence, and will be celebrated with faith leaders.
“The signing would represent a major triumph for Vice President Mike Pence—whose push for religious-freedom legislation backfired mightily when he served as governor of Indiana—and his allies in the conservative movement,” they report.
An order was originally supposed to be signed in February, but faced immediate backlash after being leaked to The Nation, with some attributing the leak to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. With claims that the order sought persecution against LGBT folk, the order then went back for more revisions, but insiders say that means nothing and contend the language remains relatively the same.
“The language is very, very strong,” the source said.
Should President Trump sign the bill as proposed, it would show tremendous goodwill towards the evangelical base that voted for him overwhelmingly.
Thursday is not only the National Day of Prayer, it’s also the annual Canterbury Medal Gala hosted by the Becket Fund, a group that advocates for religious freedom. This year’s recipient is conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, who has played a key role in advising Trump on his selection for the Supreme Court and has pushed for the executive order in meetings with the president.
Signing it this week could also lessen the sting Trump’s religious backers are feeling over the newly-approved omnibus spending bill, which keeps federal funding in place for Planned Parenthood. The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List holds its own annual gala on Wednesday, one night before the Becket Fund’s, and the news of Planned Parenthood’s continued funding has dampened some of the enthusiasm surrounding Pence’s keynote address to the event.
All the more reason for conservatives to thank their lucky stars that Trump won and not Hillary.
