Faith Under Fire: Gingrich warns U.S. religious liberty in gravest peril since Revolutionary War

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning that Americans' religious liberty is in jeopardy.

"Well, I think that it is probably the most endangered that it has been since the Revolutionary War," Gingrich declared while participating in a panel discussion moderated by Just the News Editor in Chief John Solomon.

 

The panel, which also featured former Congressman Allen West (Ret.) and constitutional attorney Jenna Ellis, was part of a virtual event called "Faith Under Fire” sponsored by the nonprofit My Faith Votes.

Gingrich said that just a "handful of pastors" in the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic chose to have services while challenging the government to arrest them for doing so. But many people have "subordinated their most profound personal beliefs to going along to get along, tolerating domination by a secular state," he said. "So I would say you are as close to seeing the First Amendment lose its power to protect religious liberty as we have been at any point in our history." 

The former GOP Speaker of the House predicted that the Biden administration will make moves against religious people and their beliefs.

"Any reasonable view of where we are would suggest that the time has come for everybody who is truly religious to basically engage in some form of defying the police powers that are currently being used to crush religious people," Gingrich said during the panel.

Texas Republican Party Chair Allen West, who previously served as a U.S. congressman from Florida, said he sees "the progressive socialist left trying to separate us from our Judeo-Christian faith heritage," adding that "if they do that, then government with the little 'g' replaces God with the big 'G' as the ones who grant you your inalienable rights."

Attorney Jenna Ellis said that "what freedom and liberty truly means is that we can't be compelled by our government to either cede that the government is the head of the church or to cede any of our rights because government is simply claiming the power."

Ellis said that she believes "it's really important that we the people not only understand the limitations of government but we also reclaim the identity of America as understanding that our founders specifically recognized that we have unalienable rights and the government has specific, very, very limited powers."