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.

HHS Announces New Division to Protect Conscience and Religious Freedom

On Thursday the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the formation of a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). 

OCR is the law enforcement agency within HHS that enforces federal laws protecting civil rights and conscience in health and human services, and the security and privacy of people’s health information. The agency said the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division has been established to “restore federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom.”

The initiative doesn’t change any existing laws, and OCR already has enforcement authority over federal conscience protection statutes and certain federal nondiscrimination laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion in HHS programs. But the new division signals a willingness to more broadly enforce the religious freedoms of healthcare workers.

“Laws protecting religious freedom and conscience rights are just empty words on paper if they aren’t enforced,” said OCR Director Severino. “No one should be forced to choose between helping sick people and living by one’s deepest moral or religious convictions, and the new division will help guarantee that victims of unlawful discrimination find justice. For too long, governments big and small have treated conscience claims with hostility instead of protection, but change is coming and it begins here and now.”

Commenting on the announcement, ERLC president Russell Moore said, 

“Health care professionals do not put their consciences in a blind trust when they pursue medical training. The Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement of this new office to safeguard conscience protection is a welcome and positive move. I am thankful that HHS recognizes how imperiled conscience rights have been in recent years in this arena and is actively working and leading to turn the tide in the other direction. Healthcare professionals should be freed up to care for the bodies and minds of their patients not tied up by having their own consciences bound.”

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to Erik Stanley, from Alliance Defending Freedom, about the importance of religious liberty. On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Matthew Hawkins and Travis Wussow review the political landscape surrounding a legislative solution for “Dreamers” and DACA recipients and discuss the upcoming March for Life and Evangelicals for Life conference. And on the ERLC podcast series, “How to Handle,” Trillia Newbell talks to Al Hsu about grieving suicide.

Other Issues

American Culture

Biblical Illiteracy = Cultural Illiteracy
Edward Rothstein, Mosaic

The Bible molded modern English and shaped American society and culture. Now, as attacks on the Museum of the Bible suggest, it has been cripplingly tossed aside.

Muslims projected to be second-largest U.S. religious group by 2040
Agnes Constante, NBC News

Muslims are projected to become the second-largest religious group in the U.S. by 2040 amid continued growth fueled by high fertility rates and immigration, according to new estimates by the Pew Research Center.

Border Patrol agents deliberately destroy humanitarian supplies to harm immigrants, new report finds
Kelly O'Meara Morales, The Week

U.S. Border Patrol agents actively impair humanitarian efforts along the southern border, a report published Wednesday revealed.

Christianity and Culture

Lankford, Moore amplify separation of church & state
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

Two Southern Baptists -- one a U.S. senator and the other a convention entity head -- said on Religious Freedom Day the idea of "separation of church and state" entails freedom -- rather than limitations -- to Americans in the practice of their faith.

Third Evangelicals for Life event to address human dignity
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

Evangelical Christians will gather for the third consecutive year in the United States' capital city beginning Thursday (Jan. 18) to speak for the sanctity of all human life.

International Issues

Britain now has a minister for loneliness
Aamna Mohdin, Quartz

The British government has appointed politician Tracey Crouch as the minister to tackle the epidemic of loneliness.

International Court Pushes Gay Marriage on 20 Latin American Nations
Michelle Riestra, The Daily Signal

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights called last week for the recognition of same-sex marriage and of proclaimed “gender identity” as a protected category for nondiscrimination under the American Convention on Human Rights.

Bolivia Makes Evangelism a Crime
Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, Christianity Today

Evangelicals ‘deeply worried’ about socialist government’s changes to penal code.

Religious Liberty

The Supreme Court Quietly Gives Religious Liberty a Big Win
Monica Burke, The Daily Signal

The Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to HB 1523, which allows Mississippians to live according to their religious beliefs about marriage without fear of losing their livelihoods.

Sexuality Issues

The Aziz Ansari Case Exposes the Ugly Truth About Hookup Culture
Mary Rose Somarriba, Institute for Family Studies

Young people today have embraced a distorted male-centric perspective of sexuality.

What's Wrong with the New NIH Study on Transgender Kids?
Jane Robbins and Erin Tuttle, Public Discourse

A new study being launched by the NIH is intended to produce evidence supporting a particular conclusion: that transgender affirmation therapy is safe and effective for gender-dysphoric youngsters. And once the federal government speaks, states and other institutions will fall in line.

Wisc. school drops appeal, transgender fight continues
Bonnie Pritchett, WORLD News Service

For two years, the U.S. Supreme Court has been able to avoid the inevitable, but the justices will be asked, most likely this year, to define the meaning of "sex" in Title IX.