J. Nick Pitts serves as the director of cultural engagement at the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture.

He came to the Denison Forum in 2014. He contributes to the Forum in the areas of geopolitics and popular culture, as well as serving as the editor of the Daily Briefing. He continues work on his doctorate and serves as an adjunct professor at DBU, teaching a master’s level course in the philosophy of leadership.

His Ph.D. research centers upon John F. Kennedy’s engagement of the religious community in the 1960 presidential campaign. He presented a paper on the topic at Calvin College’s 2015 symposium on religion and public life.

He is an editor at large for The Liberty Project, an online magazine, and his op-eds have been published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Religion News Service and Townhall.com.

He received a bachelor’s degree in 2007 from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and a master’s degree in 2009 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Chelsey Youman, Esq., is Chief of Staff & Counsel for First Liberty Institute, concentrating on religious liberty matters and First Amendment rights.

She joined First Liberty Institute after working for a law firm in private practice, where she successfully litigated corporate fraud matters, complex commercial litigation, and consumer rights issues in both federal and state jurisdictions.

Youman received her Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University, where she was a Dean’s Scholarship Recipient. She was also a member of the Board of Advocates, where she successfully argued in off-campus mock trial competitions, and was a member of the Aggie Law Society and SMU Christian Legal Society. During law school, she clerked for the Consumer Protection Division in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas and Liberty Institute.

A dangerous argument is now being put forward by some Democratic ideologues. Namely that President Trump should be indicted for the crime of obstructing justice because he fired FBI Director James Comey.

Whatever one may think of the president’s decision to fire Comey as a matter of policy, there is no legitimate basis for concluding that the president engaged in a crime by exercising his statutory and constitutional authority to fire director Comey. As Comey himself wrote in his letter to the FBI, no one should doubt the authority of the president to fire the Director for any reason or no reason.

It should not be a crime for a public official, whether the president or anyone else, to exercise his or her statutory and constitutional authority to hire or fire another public official. For something to be a crime there must be both an actus reus and mens rea — that is, a criminal act accompanied by a criminal state of mind.

Even assuming that President Trump was improperly motivated in firing Comey, motive alone should never constitute a crime. There should have to be an unlawful act. And exercising constitutional and statutory power should not constitute the actus reus of a crime. Otherwise the crime would place the defendant’s thoughts on trial, rather than his actions.

Yesterday we brought you 10 Democrats who either heavily criticized former FBI Director James Comey or called for his firing during the Obama administration. Now that President Trump is in the Oval Office, many Democrats have changed their tune.

The RNC has taken notice of their hypocrisy.

The saga of Don Vander Boon has received little attention outside the Christian media. But among the growing threats to the livelihoods of gay marriage dissenters, the Vander Boon case stands out.

The family runs the West Michigan Beef Company for, as they put it, “the glory of God.” This is what they tell their employees. No employee has ever complained.

According to Don Vander Boon, the trouble with the USDA meat inspectors began in 2015. One day, he saw newspaper and magazine articles celebrating gay marriage in the company break room. So, he printed off an article explaining why gay marriage was against God’s will. He put the essay on the breakroom table with the other magazines.

Unfortunately for the Vander Boons and their employees, on July 1, 2015, then Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack issued an “Anti-Harassment Policy Statement.” He told USDA inspectors what to do if they spotted any “disrespectful” written or oral communication on LGBT issues. The inspectors now had an obligation to “take immediate and appropriate corrective action.”

Washington, D.C. - Vice President Mike Pence addressed the first ever World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians Thursday at the Mayflower Hotel in the nation’s capital. He may have been the special guest, but he let Rev. Franklin Graham have the first standing ovation for hosting the historic summit.

Pence’s presence at the conference was a “testament to President Trump’s tangible commitment to America’s role as a beacon of light and liberty to inspire the world,” he told the crowd.

The world needs that light more than ever.

“Across the world the Christian faith is under siege,” Pence somberly noted.