Liberty Institute Submits Public Comment About Growing Religious Hostility Trend To U.S. Civil Rights Commission

Attacks on Religious Expression Occurring With Greater Frequency at All Levels of Society, According to Report

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Liberty Institute President and CEO Kelly Shackelford submitted as public comment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' special religious freedom briefing a letter enclosing the most recent edition of The Survey of Religious Hostility in America. The document includes over 600 incidents of religious attacks and hostility in the Unites States occurring mostly over the last 10 years.

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The Commission asked Liberty Institute, among other groups, to comment on legal developments concerning the intersection of non-discrimination principles with those of civil liberties. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' briefing will be held in its headquarters in Washington, DC, March 22.

"We submit this survey to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights with the hope that it will illustrate for the Commission the breadth of the religious persecution in America," said Shackelford. "While cases like Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC and Christian Legal Society v. Martinez illustrate the government's intentional turn towards hostility against religion and religious expression in America, this survey shows that these attacks on religious expression are occurring with greater frequency at all levels of society."

Liberty Institute's comments will become part of the public record and hopefully will be considered in drafting the Commission's report and in Commissioner statements.

To view online the letter and survey, visit:

• USCCR: https://www.libertyinstitute.org/document.doc?id=54
• SRHA: https://www.libertyinstitute.org/document.doc?id=55

Liberty Institute is a nonprofit legal group dedicated to defending and restoring religious liberty across America — in our schools, for our churches and throughout the public arena. Liberty's vision is to reestablish religious liberty in accordance with the principles of our Founding Fathers. For information, visit www.LibertyInstitute.org.

SOURCE Liberty Institute