This column was originally published by Sheila Kennedy on her blog, “A Jaundiced Look at the World We Live In.”
By Sheila Kennedy
May 21, 2025
Well well well…I think the veil has just come off the Indiana GOP’s pious concern for (certain) religious beliefs.
Indiana media outlets have reported on a Church “Bill of Rights” recently authored by two of the state’s most embarrassing Christian
Nationalist officials, Todd Rokita and Micah Beckwith. Interestingly, that document mostly focused on the churches’ “rights” to engage in specified political advocacy: How churches can participate in the electoral process; what election-related activities a
church can engage in without risking the loss of its tax-exempt status; whether the First Amendment offers any protection to churches when they engage in election related activities; and whether religious objections to vaccines are protected in the workplace. In other words, the document outlines how much protection the law offers churches that want to engage in far-Right political advocacy.
But what about legal protections for religions pursuing more progressive values? Well, as the saying goes, that is a horse of a different color….
For those churches, “Christian” Warrior Todd Rokita has a very different message. The media has recently reported on Rokita’s
“investigation” of Notre Dame, an effort to determine whether that institution might be–horrors of horrors–engaging in the DEI practices forbidden by the Trump administration.
DEI–like “woke”–is a term adopted as an all-purpose (and highly pejorative) epithet describing people who believe that their God and/or their understanding of moral behavior requires efforts to ameliorate past injustices, to foster equal treatment, and to welcome all persons to full participation in the civic enterprise.
Rokita has informed the Catholic university that:
Publicly available materials suggest that various aspects of Notre Dame’s
operations may be governed by University policies that treat individuals—
including students, prospective students, faculty, staff, and job applicants…
differently based on the individuals’ race or ethnicity… employ race in a negative
manner… or utilize racial stereotyping.”
The letter directly threatens Notre Dame’s non-profit status:
Failure to correct such policies and bring them into compliance with state and
federal law could result in legal action by my office pursuant to Indiana Code §
23-17-24. I ask that the University respond to the questions contained herein to
assist my office in evaluating whether further action is warranted to ensure Notre
Dame is acting consistent with the terms of its nonprofit status.
You might wonder what happened to Rokita and Beckwith’s purported concerns for the ability of religious organizations to follow their beliefs without legal concerns or government harassment. (That’s a sarcastic question, because the answer is obvious.)
It seems that our Christian Nationalist officials are only concerned to protect certain religions.
This contempt for citizens who follow non-fundamentalist and non-Christian religions is hardly new to Indiana. When the state passed its ban on abortion (following a Dobbs decision that ignored precedent while reflecting Justice Alito’s Right-wing Christianity), our “pious” legislators ignored testimony that other religions disagreed with Christian fundamentalists about such terminations. Jewish and liberal Protestant clergy objected to the ban on religious liberty grounds, noting that the obvious basis of the legislation was religious dogma from some–but certainly not all– religious traditions, and that the application of the ban to people of other religions (or none) was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
Silly folks! In Indiana, our elected “faith warriors” protect only the “real” religions–those that support their theocratic political ambitions.
The juxtaposition of these two announcements–the issuance of the “Church Bill of Rights” and the investigation of Notre Dame–perfectly illustrates the Christian Right agenda: If your religion teaches you that God wants Republicans in office, that He (in these churches, God is most definitely a White male) wants women and minority folks to be submissive and subservient–why then, the laws of the land will be interpreted to protect you.
If, however, your religion happens to teach that all people – even women and those with dark skin (Beckwith’s three-fifths) – are entitled to
human dignity, and that all persons should be welcomed and treated as equals in our various communities, such beliefs are not entitled to legal protection.
And if you happen to fall within the growing number of “nones” – if you depend upon a considered philosophy or moral framework to guide your interactions with your fellow humans, rather than adopting the dogma of a particular organized religion – our elected theocrats will simply ignore your right to intellectual autonomy, a right protected by the real Bill of Rights.
Have I mentioned how obvious and embarrassing these people are?
Sheila Suess Kennedy is Emerita Professor of Law and Public Policy at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. As an attorney, she practiced real estate, administrative and business law in Indianapolis before becoming corporation counsel for the City of Indianapolis in 1977. In 1980, she was the Republican candidate for Indiana’s then 1th Congressional District and in 1992, she became executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. She joined the faculty of the School of Public and Environment al Affairs in 1998.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
