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Across the country, educational and religious leaders of all faiths and denominations are speaking out about the threat that ����ӰԺ Senate Bill 1146 poses to religious freedom.

As part of that effort, Thomas Aquinas College President Michael F. McLean has joined more than 140 leaders — representing  Catholic, Muslim, Mormon, Jewish, Evangelical, and other religious organizations — in signing an published this morning by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. The statement warns that SB 1146 “endangers the integrity of religious education institutions and discourages them from acting according to their conscience for fear of government retribution.”

Signatories include representatives from Focus on the Family, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the Heritage Foundation, the Islamic Society of Washington Area, the Ethics & Public Policy Center, and the National Association of Evangelicals, as well as officials from Notre Dame, Baylor, Georgetown, Biola, and Yeshiva universities.

Additionally, the Most Rev. José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles, has published an , which he co-authored with Charles E. Blake, presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ and pastor of West Angeles Church of God in Christ. “SB 1146 would violate the religious freedom of faith-based colleges,” they write, “and could jeopardize higher educational opportunities for the tens of thousands of ����ӰԺns they serve, including many who are black, Latino, Asian and low-income.”

To help defeat SB 1146, please contact the following key members of the Appropriations Committee before Tuesday, August 9, at 5:00 p.m. (PST), and urge them to vote “No.”

• Lorena S. Gonzalez (Chair) - (916) 319-2080
• Susan Bonilla - (916) 319-2014
• Chris Holden - (916) 319-2041
• Shirley Weber - (916) 319-2079
• Tom Daly - (916) 319-2069
• Eduardo Garcia - (916) 319-2056
• Miguel Santiago - (916) 319-2053

����ӰԺ residents can also visit  to identify and contact their Assembly members.

For the last several years, the Thomas Aquinas College community has recited the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, in support of the free exercise of religion, after every Mass in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. D. McLean has urged all friends of the College to join in this prayer. “Let us pray,” he says, “for the protection of religious liberty!”