If you were surprised by the media’s exaggerated (and incorrect) reports of the demise of the political influence of conservative Christians, then you’ll be happy to see Pew Research Center’s latest poll. According to the report, the Christian faith isn’t as rare on Capitol Hill as the media and those on the Left would have you to believe. A whopping 91 percent of the 115th Congress describe themselves as Christians, which is higher than the general population — and almost the same number as when these stats were first collected in 1961. Of the 293 Republicans who kicked off the new session this week, all but two are Christians (the others are Jewish).

And the faith factor isn’t just a conservative phenomenon. Eighty percent of Democrats also call themselves Christians — in addition to the 28 Jews, three Buddists, three Hindus, two Muslims, and a single atheist. “The group that is most notably underrepresented is the religiously unaffiliated,” Pew points out. “This group — also known as the religious ‘nones’ — now accounts for 23 percent of the general public but just 0.2 percent of Congress… [Only] Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) describes herself as religiously unaffiliated…” Aleksandra Sandstrom, who authored the report, is as surprised by the findings. “[This] really is telling,” she told reporters, “especially with the changing U.S. population and the very big change in the presidency. Congress is really, at least religiously, staying very, very steady.”

Sandstrom can’t explain the strong faith presence on the Hill, but the November election may have provided a few clues. At its core, the religious make-up of Congress reflects the increased engagement of Christians in the political process. They understand (sometimes painfully so) the government’s role in shaping — or denouncing — their values. After Obama’s eight-year war on religious freedom and expression, most believers desperately wanted to reverse the damage done by this White House.

That was abundantly clear in the overwhelming turnout of evangelicals in 2016 — which, as most every pundit agreed, is what ultimately propelled Donald Trump (and a host of Republicans) to the most stunning upset in modern history. By the end of that night, the GOP nominee had won 94 percent of engaged social conservatives — easily outperforming every Republican since Ronald Reagan. Remarkably, 90 percent of them turned out to vote — which was the result of a lot of hard work from FRC Action, which invested tremendous time and energy explaining the stakes of this election and urging battleground voters to get out and vote. It paid off. Donald Trump’s “largest segment of support,” George Barna pointed out, “was the Christian conservative vote.” Even Fox News credited our team with moving the needle on evangelical turnout.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), one of the rising stars of the conservative movement, is another case study in evangelical influence. A successful businessman in his own right, he saw the need for principled leadership in Congress after years of involvement with FRC, running for the seat in North Carolina’s 11th District where he won in a very crowded primary. Now, he’s the leader of the influential House Freedom Caucus and helping to elect other like-minded conservatives. Obviously, our country is looking for leaders who still believe in America’s godly heritage. Voters elected a big class of conservative Christians last November. And now that we have more believers on Capitol Hill, maybe we can put more faith in it!

Originally published here.

Jam Sessions: Dems Try to Sink Trump’s AG Pick

If Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are unpopular with liberals, they must be doing something right! That’s certainly the case with U.S. Attorney General nominee Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). The longtime leader, who has a stellar record as both a senator and state attorney general, is the first of many targets for Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s party (D-N.Y.). Dredging up tired soundbites and manufactured controversies, the Left hopes to mire Sessions in a messy and unnecessary confirmation fight. Why? Because they understand what the president-elect does: Jeff Sessions will respect the Constitution, restore credibility to a Justice Department bogged down by Obama-era corruption, and return a sense of order to a nation that has been ruled by lawlessness.

For the last few weeks, the Left has been gearing up to make Sessions’s hearings as painful as possible, even going so far as to recruit liberal law professors to oppose the Alabama senator for, among other things, his “repeated opposition to legislative efforts to promote the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community.” Everyone from the radical People for the American Way to marijuana activists are lining up to take a swipe at what FRC’s Ken Blackwell called “perhaps Trump’s best pick yet.” In a column for The Washington Times, Ken talks candidly about Sessions being a “white son of the South, and that’s enough to justify his lynching.”

“Dishonest media attacks against President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Jeff Sessions, won’t derail his confirmation. But it’s important to discuss where they come from because not everyone who realizes their origin is comfortable with that conversation. There’s only one reason why large news organizations invest so much time, energy and money — they sent reporters to Alabama, each of whom spent a week there — to do these biased stories, and it’s time someone said what it is. The reason is because someone, somewhere, deep down doesn’t believe a white man from Alabama should be the attorney general of the United States.”

Ken goes on to talk about what the media won’t: the broad base of Sessions’s support — including “multiple endorsements from key African-American leaders.” (Not to mention The Fraternal Order of Police, the National Sheriffs Association, the National District Attorneys Association and many others’.) One of those African-American leaders, Quinton Ross (D-Montgomery), the Alabama Senate Minority Leader, joined me on “Washington Watch” before the Christmas break to talk about why he believes Jeff Sessions is qualified to be America’s highest-ranking law enforcement officer. “We won’t see eye-to-eye on all issues, as it is in politics, but there’s always been a dialogue. … You can get more done through conversation and helping to build understanding than a lot of the bantering that goes on in politics. That’s what we need to do in order to move the country forward.”

Going on, he stressed how fair Sessions has been in his career — an equity he believes will continue at the helm of the DOJ. “Having spoken with him on a myriad of issues including civil rights and race relations, and the relationship that we’ve had — just personally over the last 20 years — I just feel that when you take on this feat of United States Attorney General that your mind has to work for the good of all people, and I just believe that his understanding and his application of the law will be unbiased.” We continue to stand with Sessions as he sets to work ushering in a new chapter at the Justice Department — one that cherishes the Constitution and its protection of our freedom from government oppression.

Originally published here.

EPA: Extreme Political Advocates

At the EPA, the environment is polluted all right — with political correctness. More people will certainly think so after reporters at The Washington Free Beacon exposed the controversial questionnaire circulating the agency. In a stunning interoffice survey, the EPA is asking employees what their sexual orientation is in a misguided attempt at “inclusivity.” In what should be a violation of workplace privacy laws, government officials are prying their way into the bedrooms of staffers by asking, “What sex were you assigned at birth?” The choices were as follows: male, female, a blend of both, or neither. (Neither?! And the EPA calls itself a scientific institution?)

As if that weren’t enough, the EPA wants to know what employees “think of when answering the last question: my biological anatomy, characteristics of my personality, how others view me/societal expectations of me, how I see myself, and other.” Like most of us, the Free Beacon was stunned, so it called a spokesman to ask exactly what purpose the invasive questionnaire served. Apparently, the agency believes that this survey gives the EPA the chance to “access whether individuals have equal opportunity for employment” as well as “identify any potential barriers to equal employment opportunity, and then to design solutions to address those potential barriers.”

In the fall, when the program was launched, the EPA chief of staff insisted that the “EPA is taking a crucial step forward and playing a leadership role for the federal government in equal employment opportunity and diversity and inclusion by piloting the collection of voluntary, self-disclosed sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) workforce data.” Or this is the perfect way to ferret out those who don’t subscribe to the Obama administration’s extreme propaganda.

Among other things, the agency asks in its “voluntary” survey how comfortable people felt answering the questions. The option most Americans would endorse is “gender identity is irrelevant to my agency’s mission.” Unfortunately, this is what happens in an administration that puts a radical social agenda above the government’s real objectives. Clearly, the only way to fix the EPA is a real climate change — from the top.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.