In 2014, Governor Bryant signed the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which says that without a compelling reason, government cannot interfere with a person's exercise of religion. He added "In God We Trust" to the state seal. On April 5, 2016, Governor Bryant signed into law the 'Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act,' saying, "This bill … is designed in the most targeted manner possible to prevent government interference in the lives of the people from which all power to the state is derived."

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made in part the following comments in presenting Governor Bryant this religious freedom award:

"Samuel Adams was a man of average stature but a giant of American patriotism. Historians have called him the Father of the Revolution; his contemporaries also acknowledge his leading role as Thomas Jefferson called him 'the helmsman of the American Revolution.' Adams organized the Boston Tea Party, signed the Declaration of Independence, and wrote much of the first draft of the Bill of Rights.

"He has also been called the 'last of the Puritans,' as his remarkable career was infused by his Christian faith. As his biographer Ira Stoll has said, 'Samuel Adams was a devout Congregationalist Christian whose faith motivated him and strengthened him in the revolutionary cause.'

"Our nation is in need of men of devotion like Sam Adams today, Christian statesmen whose understanding of transcendent truth leads them to passionately defend private property and religious freedom the very foundation of a free and prosperous society. Governor Phil Bryant is one of those statesmen. 

"Targeted by those who wish to advance a radical social agenda, Governor Bryant has stood firm and unequivocal in defending religious liberty for the citizens of Mississippi. Inflexible in matters of truth, yet committed to the welfare of his fellow man, Phil Bryant embodies the kind of leader Sam Adams envisioned to sustain virtue in public life and freedom in public law.

"In honor of the model of courage he has offered to our nation, Family Research Council is honored to bestow on Governor Phil Bryant its first ever Samuel Adams Religious Freedom Award. Given in the city of Washington, DC this 26th day of May, in the year of our Lord Two Thousand Sixteen. Soli Deo Gloria," concluded Perkins.

PR Newswire

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