No-no Nomination

By: American Decency Staff

 

Not wanting to lionize or loathe President Trump, let’s recognize that he has made some very good appointments to key positions. On the other hand, there are some nominations and appointments that have left us scratching our heads and wondering, “What in the world was he thinking?” If our trust were in a mere President instead of the Lord, there might be some nominations that would leave us white-knuckled, gripping the arms of our easy chair, and griping to our friends about the potential loss of religious liberty.

One such nomination would be President Trump’s re-nomination of a radical LGBT Obama appointee to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): Chai Feldblum. She is the sexual identity activist who has been hotly debated and questionably appointed to the EEOC, and has served since 2009.

According to the Family Research Council: “When President Barack Obama first announced his appointment of Feldblum to the EEOC in September 2009, it drew immediate and sharp opposition from conservative groups concerned about her hostility to religious liberty. Her nomination was held up in the Senate until President Obama finally bypassed the confirmation process, making her a ‘recess appointment’ in March of 2010. Not until December 2010, after the midterm elections, was her appointment confirmed by the Senate (without a roll call vote). When her first term expired in 2013, she was reappointed, but again faced strong opposition, winning confirmation by a vote of 54-41, with only two Republicans… supporting her.”

Why do conservatives strongly object to her? Why should President Trump, who stated that he would stand strongly for religious liberties, not have re-nominated her? It’s not simply because she’s the “first openly gay Commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” No, the issues go deeper and wider than that.

First, let’s look at what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is and the power it wields. According to Daniel Horowitz of the Conservative Review, “The EEOC is perhaps one of the worst of the independent ‘fourth branch of government’ agencies within the Executive Branch. The same power the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) wields over financial institutions, the EEOC wields over property rights, societal norms, and discrimination laws. It holds unconstitutional quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers to trump up and adjudicate charges against businesses and colleges over quotas and discrimination.” (emphasis mine)

This agency was created to protect the inalienable rights of the oppressed. Now, it has often become a weapon to attack inalienable rights, guaranteed by our Constitution, in order to push for presumptuous rights. Recognizing how this Commission has morphed into the monster it is, and seeing how easy it is to misuse and abuse the unconstitutional power it holds, let’s look at some of the things Ms. Feldblum has said to see whether our concerns are founded or not.

Second, according to Chai Feldblum, what place should religious liberty hold?

Sexual orientation vs. Religious liberty? :“I’m having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win… Sexual liberty should win in most cases. There can be a conflict between religious liberty and sexual liberty, but in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win because that’s the only way that the dignity of gay people can be affirmed in any realistic manner.” (from National Review)

Society vs. Religious liberty? :Reported by The New American, “I am convinced society should come down on the side of protecting the liberty of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] people,” Feldblum has written. “Protecting one group’s identity liberty, may, at times, require that we burden others’ belief liberty.”

Government vs. Religious liberty? :“I believe granting liberty to gay people advances a compelling government interest, that such an interest cannot be adequately advanced if ‘pockets of resistance’ to a societal statement of equality are permitted to flourish, and hence that a law that permits no individual exceptions based on religious beliefs will be the least restrictive means of achieving the goal of liberty for gay people.” (from The Daily Wire)

These are but a few of Chai Feldblum’s quotes which display her extremely narrow view of religious liberty. Take her view of this foundationally important liberty, combine it with the unconstitutional power of the EEOC, and one readily can see the dangers of re-nominating (or for all practical purposes re-appointing) such a radical opponent of our First Amendment rights.

Yes, this was a bad appointment and strongly contradicts what President Trump said he would stand for. Someone might be saying, “Well, it’s a done deal. Why tell me now?”

We bring this before our readers for three reasons.1) This emphasizes the need to pray for our president to make good decisions and to have solid people speaking into his life and into his administration.  2) Regardless the reason he may have had for such a nomination, we must not lionize bad decisions. 3) It’s urgent that we diligently keep our ear to the ground, listening for good and bad decisions, so that we may speak to those who are hired by us to represent us or to President Trump regarding upcoming decisions, nominations, and appointments.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”—Ronald Reagan

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