Require the Vice President to break a tie. Education secretary betsy devos. Two republican senators announcing they are opposing her. On the issue of religious liberty, what does it mean to you . For republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488002 if you are an independent. Twitteryour thoughts on or join in on the conversation on facebook. Front page of the Washington Post has this headline with overnight developments. The department of Homeland Security is halting the enforcement of that entry band. The u. S. Reversing the travel ban over the court ruling as President Trump fumes. U. S. Authorities have rolled back a controversial travel ban on people after a judge suspended it. The state Department Said it was reversing cancellations of visas. Trump, the verdict ridiculous. Airlines began allowing them to board flights to america on saturday. The full story is available online. We will get to your calls in just a moment. We want to focus on the issue of religious liberty. Heres more from the president thursday. It was the great thomas the god whoat said gave us life gave us liberty. Jefferson asked can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of god . Among those freedoms is the right to worship according to our own beliefs. That is why i will get rid of the johnsondestroy amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution. I will do that. Remember. [applause] National Prayer breakfast on thursday he made reference to the Johnson Amendment put in place by senator lyndon johnson. Is an explanation. It bars taxexempt charitable candidates endorsing and getting involved in political campaigns. Churches fall under section 501 c 3 of the tax code so it applies to them as well. Many of you weighing in on twitter. Richard says religious liberty means we can discriminate based on race because of my religion . Comments. Ou sharing simply put the First Amendment of the u. S. Constitution. Another comment, separation of church and state. Howard is joining us on the republican line from fort lauderdale. Good morning. Good morning. In all have to say my 53 years of life i have never seen color. The only color i have seen in another human being is the color of their blood which is the same color as mine. Therefore we are all the same no matter what our religious beliefs are. No matter what our character is. God put us on this planet for a reason. Its not to separate and hate this person because hes a different color or different religion. It shouldnt matter what we believe in our heart. We need to start believing the person in front of us is just as important as we are. Together and do that it doesnt matter whos president. Its not up to trump to make things right. Host ariel says it means religion if not shoving their beliefs on us in the public square. Separation of church and state. Being able to practice religion freely. Susan is joining us from fredericksburg, virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am definitely a supporter of being able to practice ones religion or lack thereof. Theoncerns me when president is calling to get rid of the johnson band. I am a supporter of that. I do not think churches and pastors ought to put himself in the middle of politics. To sway their parishioners towards issues. This is from our facebook page. No government established religion period. This is, one nation under god. This tweet, religious liberty has evolved into the liberty to discriminate. David says lets make freedom of religion great again. What does religious liberty means to you . If you are watching across the atlantic on the Bbc Parliament channel, good morning to you. Joe from south carolina. Ndependent line guest caller this is a touchy subject. Im southern baptist. And you are catholic. Certainly respect the catholic religion. I havent talked to you since christmas. I hope you and katie and the kids had a wonderful holiday. Heres the thing. I dont care how people practice of religion as long as their religion doesnt interfere with the rights and liberties and privileges granted to everybody under the constitution. Its a strange thing. We practice religion. The danger with churches of people getting involved in politics is not so much about a government thing. In my view its a danger of fracturing the congregation. Me reread the Johnson Amendment and get your specific senator lyndont johnson put into law more than 55 years ago. It bars taxexempt charitable from endorsing candidates, getting involved in political campaigns. Specifically on that question should then be lifted . Caller i dont mind charitable about various issues and getting involved in politics. I think it should be out of churches because it fractures them in your ship it fractures the membership. Speaking of taxexempt status, heres the fear among a lot of different faiths across the country right now. We are concerned that some point if we dont adopt the governments view of how the if thehould the, we determineys samesex marriage is legal and youve got to do that in your church, i dont believe in that. It may driveoccur churches underground and we have to start worshiping in private again. I hope that doesnt happen in this country. Host has your pastor ever said you should vote for this person . Absolutely not. My church is very careful. We talk about issues. Mention ever independent, democrat, republican, trump, clinton. We just talk about issues and how they might arise out of a biblical discussion. Host thanks for the call. From illinois, good morning. Republican line. I think religious liberty is being free from the protesters always putting the evangelicals down. Every culture has biases against each other. Thats natural. Thats how people are. What people are getting really sick of being put down because they are evangelicals. Is just asf color prejudiced against white people as white people are against them. Some people are more biased than other people but everybody has biases. To put evangelicals and christians down this country is disgusting. You cant say we are just a Christian Country but a percentage of the country is christian. Why do we have to make it muslim . Thats ridiculous and its watchingour country everybody put evangelical Christian White people down. Especially white men. Everybody is against white men now. Protesters are mindless and the democrats that are figure that out. Everybody is prejudiced against each other because everybody comes from different cultures and theres different cultures in the white culture, too. People ofenty of culture that dont like darker skinned colored people. People tonamerican assume everybody who is white is prejudiced which they do is disgusting. ,ecause in the black culture they are against each other, too. They put each other down if one person is lighter skinned than another person and they put them down. The africanamerican culture has hasown problems and it nothing to do with white people that got here 50 years ago, one hundred years ago. If somebody put them into slavery was rich people from the 1800s. They are gone now. It has nothing to do with anything. If africanamericans dont get jobs they want, there are plenty of white people who are poor that are looked down on. White rich people have huge prejudices against poor white people. Host a couple of tweets from the head of the heritage foundation. Senator Bernie Sanders weighing in on the issue of religious liberty. ,e says we cannot action racism sexism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination under the guise of religious freedom. Discrimination under the guise of religious freedom is still discrimination. I urge the president to reconsider. In a sweeping draft of the religious freedom executive order of the president rates broad rice to discriminate against lgbt and women. Keepshnson amendment religious and political activity separate. This from former senator and head of the heritage foundation, liberals are demonizing trumps exec order. Derailnnot be allowed to these important protections. What does religious liberty mean sean from new york on the democrats line. Good morning. Good morning. When i hear President Trump talk about religious liberty it actually makes me a little bit upset. It seems like shes only talking to a Certain Group of people. Libertythat religious doesnt mean anything until we respect everyones religion. Let me put it another term on the screen to help explain the debate over all of this. The religious freedom restoration act. The government cannot substantially burden a personss ability to follow their religious beliefs unless it can prove a compelling interest in opposing that burden or to do so in the least restrictive way. Joining us from chicago. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am a registered republican. Gopve not voted for the since 1996. After bill clinton got elected the second term. Because they are not the party of religion. There are not the party of god. They have become one of the biggest hypocritical Political Parties in our contemporary history. Has anyone stopped to read the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th commandments . Broken all ofas them. When he sees all of the hispanic congregation who are very active in their church when all these latino start getting together and raising funds, maybe thats his plan. I dont think hes going to be very happy to see the results of this. The Latino Community is highly and heavily involved in their churches. Has said he is not supporting trump. What will he do when all of those hispanic congregations rise up and start pumping millions and millions into the dnc . This is from our twitter page. If religious freedom means businesses can turn away gay couples will christians also be able to deny jobs to muslims . A lot of comments on their facebook page. Depends on if you claim to be a republican or democrat. Both groups feel completely different on this matter. Prohibits state establishment of religion. Walking this fine line requires government to be neutral. Leaked draft revealing sweeping plans to legalize discrimination. Sean spicer. There have been several businesses and institutions that or attempteddated to mandate certain things they may or may not do. Those are instances where the pendulum is swinging a different way. Theres clearly a lot of evidence in the past couple years of the government coming in with regulations and policies that have denied the ability to live according to their faith. I think its a pendulum and where the president is is that he wants to make sure you dont penalize someone for wanting to express their faith. To the extent we can keep that less blurred and allow people to make sure they are equally comfortable in the workplace. We shouldnt mandate people to abide by certain policies which are in direct contradiction to their faith. Now no executive orders are official. There is nothing new on that front. Sean spicer asked about the issue of executive order. Who saysrom karen religious liberty is the government approved excuse for the country and hate. Wall street journal also looking at the story. You can get details online. From vero beach, florida. Democrat wine. Good morning. Caller i just wanted to say that freedom of religion also includes freedom from religion. You keep forgetting about the atheists and nontheists among us. We deserve a little bit of a say, too. Check out the last caller, its not ok to express your nonbelief. Host ok . Im just wanting to say the people who say that its one nation under god, its not. It cant be one nation if its under god. Because im not under god. To 20 of the12 nation thats not under god. That eliminates that whole idea right there. Host cover story of the weekly standard. The revolt against the elites. The great manipulator. A look at steve bannon. From new york. Welcome to the conversation. I just want to speak to the lady who called several minutes ago. She was talking about africanamericans. That she usedknow it we are not africanamericans. We are the original juice of the bible. Tell her to read it. Its all over it. And then she can stop referring to us as africanamerican. Host explain what you mean by that. If you are really reading the bible you will find are of the real jews bible. Host and they are . Caller they are from jacob. You can find it in the bible. Its not hidden. The aclu also issuing a statement on the proposed draft on the executive order. Discrimination under the guise of religious freedom is still discrimination. Joining us from clearwater, kansas. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am opposed to the Johnson Amendment. It restricted the freedom of speech of religious organizations and if you research the history of that prior to the Johnson Amendment no damage was ever done by any religious organization in their commentary prior to the johnson it . Dment so why have it is a bar on freedom of speech. I had a discussion with former congressman dan glickman onetime and we were discussing this issue and i said take away the taxexempt status of religious organizations and then there will be no barriers to lobbying or members of those churches running for office. And when i said the the very next day he completely dropped that topic. And thats my comment. Another reviewer saying i dont understand why religious leaders cannot talk about sin and evil versus good without mentioning Political Parties. More comments on our facebook page. Debbie says it should mean that everyone is free to be or not. The problem is so many want to use their religious freedom as a weapon against the rest of us for a dozen different reasons. Joining us from new york on the independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. When i was a bartender we never talked religion or politics because there is no one right answer. You probably got better tips that way. Caller sports and cars. That was it. Are going to talk sports in the last halfhour with the super bowl today. Caller i always watch cspan. Imho key. Caller god has no religion. In a while interjects himself into the course of history. Host when you say god has no religion what do you mean by that . God is an independent spirit that granted us as humans the right of free choice. Im not a big bible thumper. I do believe in jesus. I was baptized a christian. Concernedim President Trump interjecting himself into this conversation is payback to the conservatives who helped get him elected. This hast realize ramifications. Now it gets to the point where its an ok wink and a nod to be biased about certain things. Throughout history we have seen that man once he gets hold of for aarts manipulating specific purpose whether its good or bad. Most of the time its bad. I have relatives that are religious conservatives. Worlds 6000the years old and dinosaurs and men acted together and so on. In all honesty i think we should really step back for a minute and say in america we have the right of free choice. I do not want my government into the religion everyday life of us as free citizens. Call. Thank you for the carol has this tweet. I was raised catholic and fell away before confirmation. Sick of being hit with the yardstick when i asked questions they did not like. The inside story on why neil gorsuch and what led to his name being added along with another nine justices for the Supreme Court to make sure it included neil gorsuch was from denver and why the president ultimately decided on him as the nominee. The inside story available online. Amanda tyler is the executive director of an organization that issued a statement on religious liberty. Heres part of what she said. It would usher in our partisan divisions into the pews and harm the churchs ability to provide refuge. Threatening to turn pulpit profits into political puppets. Both go to chuck in west virginia. Good morning. Your callersf earlier this morning said he was a southern cap just and he was if churches were forced to grant gay couples weddings they might be driven underground. Look. Muslim and atheist and jewish couples have always been allowed to marry and churches have never been forced to provide any kind of services. They can turn away anybody they want to. Comes to organizations that are getting government funds, thats a different story. The thing that comes to mind for me is the issue of Catholic Charities of boston after the state of massachusetts began allowing gay couples to marry. Catholic charities that we are not going to place adopted children with gay couples anymore. Problem with that was the Catholic Charities of boston was getting about 1 million per year from the state of massachusetts. The state of massachusetts gave them a choice. You can place orphan children with gay couples or you can give up your state funding. Catholic charities of boston chose to give up their state funding. Fine. Dollars want my tax going to organizations that discriminate against me. Host thank you for the call. Who says yousteve have the freedom to exercise your religion in the usa as long as its not islam or any other disapproved belief system. Us from southg dakota. Good morning. Caller yes. I have a christian name. It is stephen. I was raised christian. Catholic actually. I backed down from it very early in life. I did some studying and i came to realize people such as gandhi have said some interesting things pointing out that religion is actually politics. The elephant in the room as well as the fact that we do have a theocracy in which all of our legislative meetings are started off with a prayer int we have our schools. We are raised theocratic right. There is a lot of oppression against nonreligionists as a former caller said. Thank you. Host another tweet from a few , determined to undo the United States using the guise of National Security or religious liberty. Reject his bigotry. Bill oreilly sitting down with the president on friday. The interview will air this afternoon as part of the preview to the super bowl. Defending putin. Is notuggesting the u. S. So innocent. Heres a next up from that interview airing later today on fox. I do respect him. People. T a lot of that doesnt mean im going to get along with them. Hes a leader of his country. I say it is better to get along with russia then not. Will i get along with him . I have no idea. Prudence a killer. Ki