AG Barr and Betsy DeVos rail against secularism and a ‘culture of disbelief’ at religious broadcasters convention

William Barr the don’s personal consigliere

President Donald Trump views his alliance with the Christian right as essential to his 2020 campaign, and two Trump loyalists — Attorney General William Barr and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — were clearly pandering to religious conservatives this week during a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, which is being held in Nashville, Tennessee and continues through this Friday, February 28.

Barr’s speech was sponsored by the nonprofit group Save the Persecuted Christians, which is headed by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. — a far-right conspiracy theorist and Islamophobe who has claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to infiltrate the U.S. government and impose sharia law. Before Barr spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, Gaffney stressed that he was not sponsoring a panel that would be held later and feature attorney Asma Uddin (who he smeared as a “sharia supremacist”).

During his speech, Barr (who is a Catholic, not a Protestant evangelical) railed against secularism in the United States — telling the […]

2 Comments

Jon on Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 4:42 am

Barr: “While most everyone agrees that we must have separation of church and state, this does not require that we drive religion from the public square and affirmatively use government power to promote a culture of disbelief.” Barr contradicts himself with this statement. First he says that “most everyone agrees we must have separation of church and State”, but Barr and DeVos want to include religion in the educational purview. That is Not promotion of the separation of church and State. And, there is no effort by secularists to “promote a culture of disbelief”, but Barr and DeVos Are promoting a culture of “belief”. Secularists, like me, only desire to be left alone with our individual faiths. We want to do nothing to attempt to sway anyone else’s belief. Barr and DeVos want the Government to have an influence.

Rev. Dean on Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 12:42 pm

I think that if one religion is taught in schools, all religions should be taught, so that people in schools can see that the differences as well as the sameness of all religions are understood so that the people in school can make their own choice even if it is secularism or just agnostics will have their choices, but never just one religion, especially fundamentalism in any religion. Fundamentalism is the root cause of most of the major wars throughout history. Fundamentalism is the twisting of words to make what a leader uses to influence people like the Christians are trying to do to America. We should never let that happen in a Democracy, but we should let the school attendants to be taught what the real religions teach which in most cases reflect the “treat your neighbor as you would be treated” or as it is more commonly stated as the “Golden Rule” in just about all of them.

Jon on Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 4:42 am

Barr: “While most everyone agrees that we must have separation of church and state, this does not require that we drive religion from the public square and affirmatively use government power to promote a culture of disbelief.” Barr contradicts himself with this statement. First he says that “most everyone agrees we must have separation of church and State”, but Barr and DeVos want to include religion in the educational purview. That is Not promotion of the separation of church and State. And, there is no effort by secularists to “promote a culture of disbelief”, but Barr and DeVos Are promoting a culture of “belief”. Secularists, like me, only desire to be left alone with our individual faiths. We want to do nothing to attempt to sway anyone else’s belief. Barr and DeVos want the Government to have an influence.
Rev. Dean on Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 12:42 pm

I think that if one religion is taught in schools, all religions should be taught, so that people in schools can see that the differences as well as the sameness of all religions are understood so that the people in school can make their own choice even if it is secularism or just agnostics will have their choices, but never just one religion, especially fundamentalism in any religion. Fundamentalism is the root cause of most of the major wars throughout history. Fundamentalism is the twisting of words to make what a leader uses to influence people like the Christians are trying to do to America. We should never let that happen in a Democracy, but we should let the school attendants to be taught what the real religions teach which in most cases reflect the “treat your neighbor as you would be treated” or as it is more commonly stated as the “Golden Rule” in just about all of them.