Sample Religious Organization Resolution Clauses

Preambular Clauses

Liberty is at the core of our faith.
Civil liberties are at the heart of our American experiment in democracy.
Our faith-based principles are grounded in freedom, reason, and tolerance.
The ultimate test of democracy is the will to protect the rights of whomever we deem “the other.” It is what matters most in a nation struggling to realize the promise of liberty and justice for all. It is a matter of conscience and faith.
We are motivated to call for these actions by our commitment to uphold the fundamental human rights of all individuals regardless of their citizenship, religion, ethnicity or place of national origin.
We believe that we are still a nation based on laws and that a threat to any one person's Constitutional rights is a threat to the rights of us all.

Those civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, Amendments I through X to the Constitution of the United States of America, are as fundamental to our practice of democracy as freedom of conscience is to our actions of faith.
Civil liberties carry a history of conflict and struggle between rights for all and privilege for some, between individual liberty and general security, between personal need and the common good, between the aspiration to reason and tolerance and the inclination to scapegoat and punish.
We are concerned that actions of the attorney General of the United States and the U.S. Justice Department since the September 11, 200 1, terrorist attacks pose significant threats to Constitutional protections in the name of fighting terrorism. Such undermining of basic civil rights and liberties runs the serious risk of destroying freedom in order to save it.

This religious organization, being a diverse religious community with the shared values of justice, acceptance and compassion, hereby declares its opposition to the sections* of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Executive Branch Actions which threaten our fundamental rights and liberties of:
- Freedom of speech, religion, assembly and privacy;
- The rights to counsel and due process in judicial proceedings; and
- Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures
Recognizing our continuing concern about the curtailment of civil liberties in our country, we declare our opposition to the USA Patriot Act. This act reflects a spirit of fear and mistrust that is the antithesis of the spirit of love to which God calls all of us. Our true security comes from building a just society.
The USA PATRIOT Act reflects a spirit of fear and mistrust that is the antithesis of the spirit of love to which God calls all of us. Our true security comes from building a just society.

Let us heed the words of Benjamin Franklin engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty, “They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

We hold public officials accountable and insist that they refrain from supporting policies and legislation that further limit civil liberties.
We demand repeal of the USA PATRIOT Act and call upon local officials to adopt resolutions urging its repeal and declaring their intention not to enforce its onerous provisions.
We affirm the right of foreign nationals to due process and the presumption of innocence, and we oppose unwarranted tracking and reporting requirements that abridge those rights.
We appeal to public officials and the media to support constitutional protections enshrined in the Bill of Rights. We encourage adult education classes focused on the guarantees of the Bill of Rights and urge public and private schools to include this focus in their regular curricula.
We urge our local, state and federal officials to work to repeal and/or resist those provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that threaten our civil liberties.
Members of this religious group are urged, as occasions may arise, to support those in their communities who suffer the consequences of this law.

We urge Congressional oversight committees publicly to monitor federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to ensure that the excesses of the past do not become the norms of the future.
We appeal to these officials to prevent the passage of the Domestic Security Act (aka "Patriot II").

We demand that Attorney General John Ashcroft be held fully accountable for his advocacy of policies that have eroded civil liberties, including the refusal to provide constitutionally guaranteed legal representation to detained individuals, American citizens and non-citizens alike.
We oppose implementation of the “total information awareness” data-mining program of the Department of Defense; efforts to revive the Terrorism Information and Prevention System (“TIPS”) program of the Department of Justice, which sought to recruit Americans to spy on other Americans; and profiling based on nationality, ethnicity, or religion.
We oppose nominees to the federal appeals courts or the Supreme Court whose records demonstrate insensitivity to the protection of civil liberties.

We encourage our members and friends to contact their Federal and State Legislators to request that they monitor the implementation of the Act and the Executive Branch Actions and actively work for the repeal of the provisions that violate the fundamental rights and liberties as stated in the Constitution of the Commonwealth and of the United States.
Calls upon all private citizens to:
- Demonstrate strong respect for civil rights and civil liberties;
- Read and familiarize themselves with the USA PATRIOT Act, and to join us in relaying all questions, comments, and concerns to the [State] congressional delegation and Department of Justice for their response and clarification;
- Study, for understanding, the state and U.S. Constitutions and their history, and the Bill of Rights and its history, so that they can recognize and resist attempts to undermine our constitutional republic and our system of government;