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The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

10 of the ERLC’s Policy Priorities for 2018

Public policy advocacy is one of the many ways the ERLC fulfills its ministry in the public square. We recently released our 2018 Legislative Agenda, which focuses on almost two dozen policy issues we will advocate before the U.S. Congress.

Below are a sample of our policy priorities. Some of these issues have been a part of the ERLC’s legislative agenda for the last several years; other issues are new and a product of the political moment in which we find ourselves.

1. Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (CWPIA)

The CWPI Act would prohibit the federal government and any state receiving certain federal funding from discriminating against service providers on the grounds that the provider declines to participate in a child welfare social service in ways or under circumstances which conflict with their sincerely held beliefs.

2. Civil Rights Uniformity Act

One legislative response to unfounded interpretations of the words “sex” and “gender” by federal agencies (for instance, the Department of Education) is the Civil Rights Uniformity Act. This act would require the approval of Congress before “gender identity” is treated as a protected class in Federal Law or Policy, thus preventing such policies from being fabricated by Executive Branch bureaucracies.

3. Criminal justice reform

The ERLC will once again push for the consideration of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. The bill takes a targeted, nuanced approach at reducing certain mandatory minimums while also directing the Department of Justice to expand recidivism reduction programming in partnership with nonprofit and faith-based organizations.

4. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

Enacted in 2012 by President Obama, DACA sought to protect undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as minors—known as Dreamers—from deportation. Notwithstanding debate over the constitutionality of the DACA program, the ERLC believes Dreamers who came forward in good faith should not be punished with deportation for an act that was no fault of their own. We are working closely with Congress and the White House to deliver a permanent legislative solution for Dreamers.

5. Defund Planned Parenthood

The ERLC has been and remains committed to ensuring that the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, is deprived of federal funds.

6. First Amendment Defense Act (FADA)

FADA prevents the federal government from punishing an individual or faith-based business because they believe that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman

7. No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act

The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act would codify the Hyde Amendment by prohibiting federal funds from being expended for abortion or health coverage that includes coverage for elective abortion.

8. Protect the consciences of pro-life healthcare professionals

The ERLC will continue to support the Conscience Protection Act and other legislative tools that seek to protect pro-life citizens who work in the healthcare industry.

9. Responding to the opioid crisis

The drivers for the epidemic are complex, and we are engaging with House leadership and the Department of Health and Human Services on a range of responses including poverty and welfare programs, engagement and training for the faith community, and drug prescription practices and regulation.

10. The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would amend the federal criminal code to require any health care practitioner who is present when a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion to 1) exercise the same degree of care as reasonably provided to any other child born alive at the same gestational age, and 2) ensure that such a child is immediately admitted to a hospital.

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to U.S. Senator James Lankford about his life in government and how he maintain his spiritual disciplines in a demanding, public life. On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Travis Wussow interviews four panelists from the 2018 Evangelicals for Life conference. And on the ERLC podcast series, “How to Handle,” Trillia Newbell talks to Keith Getty about corporate singing.

Other Issues

American Culture

Lawmakers worry digital currency helping human traffickers avoid detection
Kaitlin Milliken, The Hill

Lawmakers at a Tuesday hearing discussed ways to crack down on human traffickers who are using new financial tools to avoid detection.

The share of Americans who leave Islam is offset by those who become Muslim
Besheer Mohamed and Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, Pew Research

Like Americans in many other religious groups, a substantial share of adults who were raised Muslim no longer identify as members of the faith. But, unlike some other faiths, Islam gains about as many converts as it loses.

How Cecile Richards Strengthened the Pro-Life Movement
Kate Shellnut, Christianity Today

Outgoing Planned Parenthood president leaves legacy on both side of the abortion debate.

Bioethics

Abortion ban fails to advance in the Senate
Catherine Garcia, The Week

On Monday, the Senate halted legislation passed last fall by the House that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Education

What Kids Are Really Learning About Slavery
Melinda D. Anderson, The Atlantic

A new report finds that the topic is mistaught and often sentimentalized—and students are alarmingly misinformed as a result.

Family Issues

Economic Mobility and Family Structure: An Interview with Richard Reeves
Alysse ElHage, Institute for Family Studies

"Marriage provides the framework in which most people still want to raise children. And upper-middle-class parents are doing that."

Health Issues

In a world first, scientists grow new ears for children with microtia
Stephen Johnson, Big Think

Scientists in China have successfully grown and reconstructed new ears for five children born with microtia, a condition that affects the function and appearance of the ear. The recent study marks a new milestone in the field of tissue engineering.

International Issues

The world’s last country to abolish slavery still isn’t doing enough to stop it
Abdi Latif Dahir, Quartz

The African Union (AU) has rebuked Mauritania for failing to prosecute the perpetrators of slavery—a prevalent, and at times institutionalized, practice in the North African nation.

Religious Liberty

University of Iowa, religious liberty in spotlight
Leigh Jones, WORLD News Service

A Christian student group at the University of Iowa has filed suit against the school after losing its status as an official on-campus organization because it requires leaders to hold Biblical beliefs about sexuality.

After Baptism Gone Wrong, Court Weakens Church Protections
Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, Christianity Today

Oklahoma Supreme Court says membership matters most in tortured ex-Muslim’s lawsuit.

Sexuality Issues

Human Trafficking Is a $150B Industry, Experts Share How to Shut It Down
Kyle Perisic, The Daily Signal

The key to improving the fight against human trafficking efforts involves lawmakers, nongovernmental organizations, and human rights advocates, experts said at The Heritage Foundation Thursday.

Casualties of a Social, Psychological, and Medical Fad: The Dangers of Transgender Ideology in Medicine
Daniel Payne, Public Discourse

Dr. Paul McHugh is optimistic that the ascendency of transgender ideology is a passing fad. Yet the damage that transgender ideology can wreak in even just ten or fifteen years—the hormones, the surgery, the irreversible decisions, the mutilated bodies—is considerable.