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Freedom of Religion Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 15, 2018 80 Comments
When Masterpiece Cakeshop won its case on June 4, 2018, in the U.S. Supreme Court over refusal to bake a cake celebrating a gay wedding, many people assumed it was a win for religious freedom and free speech (the right not to have government compel your speech). The cake shop did not refuse to sell cakes to gays, it simply didn't want to prepare a custom cake with a specific message on it which it believed was contrary to the owner's religious beliefs. But as we covered at the time, the Supreme Court decision was tailored to bias against the cake shop in the Colorado administrative process. Justice Kennedy authored the 7-2 opinion:

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 10, 2018 18 Comments
An Evangelical Christian group at Harvard recently dismissed its student leader when she revealed that she is in a same sex relationship. For this, the group has been branded discriminatory. For merely holding true to their faith, these students have now seen their group defunded.

Posted by Miriam Elman on February 25, 2018 21 Comments
United States lawmakers Scott R. Tipton (R-Colo) and David B. McKinley (R-W.Va) were stopped and questioned by Israeli police on the morning of February 22nd while they were visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to media reports of the incident (see, for example, here and here), Tipton and McKinley were detained by Israeli officers guarding the site after the Waqf—the Jordanian-funded Islamic Trust that administers day-to-day activities there—brought to their attention that one of the congressmen had apparently taken an olive branch that he had found lying on the ground while touring the place.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2017 10 Comments
I have to admit, I fell asleep at the baker's wheel. Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission was argued to the Supreme Court earlier this month and I, didn't cover it. Not out of lack of interest, but more feeling like we're chasing a swarm of daily dust ups created by (1) Trump Derangement Syndrome in all its many and varied forms, (2) Trump on Twitter, (3) media reacting to Trump on Twitter, (4) Alabama, (5) War on Women and #MeTwo, (6) Men at Work, (7) the End of the World. Plus, it was end of the semester, and things were busy. Excuses, I've had a few.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 06, 2017 10 Comments
President Donald Trump's administration has decided to roll back a portion of Obamacare that mandates a private company must include birth control coverage in health insurance plans. From The Washington Examiner:
The new rules allow any employer to be exempt from the mandate "based on its sincerely held religious beliefs" or on "moral convictions." Employers who decide not to provide coverage do not need to inform the federal government but would need to tell their employees about their decision.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 11, 2017 18 Comments
One of the many things that has long puzzled me about the leftist agenda is its long-standing, mulit-pronged attack on Judeo-Christianity.  On the one hand, I understand that the left has a reason for wishing to undermine religion.  After all, as assorted totalitarians, fascists, and communists well know, a populace permitted to believe in and publicly worship a power higher than government is anathema to totalitarian central control. Challenging and wiping out all religious references makes perfect sense if your goal is the total subjugation of a people under the all-powerful arm of a government that claims it will provide for all of its citizens' earthly needs.  What has puzzled me is that much of the left's base is Christian and/or Catholic.  I've been waiting at least ten years for the left to grasp this simple fact.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on August 09, 2017 10 Comments
Thousands of North Koreans are fleeing the Communist prison state thanks to an underground Christian network spread across China, reports the British newspaper Daily Express. The 3000-mile long network, run by South Korean and Chinese Christians, also dubbed as the ‘underground railroad’, helps dissidents from the north to escape to freedom into Thailand. Many of these escapees later find a new home in South Korea.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 13, 2017 13 Comments
I have written often, and recently, about the corrosive effect of the Southern Poverty Law Center's highly-politicized "hate" and "extremist" lists. Politico also recently focused on the problem, which I described in Southern Poverty Law Center “extremist” lists used “to silence speech and speakers”, including this quote from the Politico article:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 26, 2017 7 Comments
Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Missouri Lutheran School who'd sued the state over the state's decision to withhold grant money. PBS summarized:
The case grows out of a lawsuit filed by Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, after it lost out on a grant for its playground in 2012 despite being ranked fifth out of 44 applicants.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 15, 2017 5 Comments
On February 20, the Iranian regime arrested a Catholic mother and son as it continues to crack down on the faith. Unfortunately, there is no update on the two of them. Anousheh Rezabakhsh and Soheil Zargarzadeh converted to Catholicism in Istanbul, Turkey in August 2016. It just goes to show that Christians still have to practice their faith in secret in the Islamic country.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 08, 2016 3 Comments
Summit Crosses have adorned hill tops and mountain peaks in the Alps since the dawn of Christianity in the West. Roman legionaries are said of have brought Christianity to the Alpine region as early as second century of Christian era. In recent months, these religious and historic symbols are targets of vandalism in this mountainous region that runs between Germany and Austria. Since August, five such crosses have been severely vandalised or destroyed, Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports. Islamist have recently carried out several acts of vandalism against Christian statues and symbols across Germany. In 2014, police in Cologne apprehended a gang of Islamists responsible for desecrating number of churches, stealing Christian artefacts and sending the proceeds to Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 12, 2016 2 Comments

The debate over our founding fathers' religious beliefs is centuries old. Though we are a nation intentionally founded on Judeo-Christian principles, the anti-religion crowd loves to paint the men that created our great nation as beings of The Enlightenment, forgetting (intentionally or ignorantly) their deeply-rooted...

Posted by Miriam Elman on July 13, 2016 10 Comments
On Tuesday morning July 12, 2016, the family of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, the 13-year-old Israeli girl who was brutally stabbed to death on June 30th as she lay asleep in her bed, was granted special permission to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—the most sacred site in Judaism. Hallel’s anguished parents, Rina and Amihai Ariel, had reportedly requested permission to ‘pray for the ascent of Hallel’s soul’ at the holy place that was dear to her and their hearts. [caption id="attachment_177363" align="alignnone" width="550"]Credit: The Times of Israel Credit: The Times of Israel[/caption] Rina Ariel had written directly to PM Netanyahu asking him to personally intercede. Via a YouTube video that went viral over the last few days, they also invited their fellow Israeli citizens to join them in the special prayer service:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 27, 2016 34 Comments
Heaven forbid atheists show any tolerance for people of faith or that nasty, three-letter-word, "God". The Freedom From Religion Foundation is raising a stink over a highway road sign that has been a staple of Hondo, Texas since the 1930's. Why? Because the sign refers to Hondo as "God's Country".

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 31, 2016 5 Comments
The Southeast Asian country of Malaysia is moving towards a total imposition of Islamic Sharia. Malaysia's government has pledged its support for an Islamic penal code that seeks to impose Sharia-prescribed punishments such as amputations, public stoning and flogging on its multi-religious population. The new legislation referred to as “Hudud Law” also seeks to segregate women from public life in Kelantan province, a predominantly Muslim northern state. The proposed constitutional amendment will allow other Malaysian provinces to align their legal system to stricter Islamic law as well. With a population of around 30 million, only 61 percent of the people identify as Muslim. Apart from Christianity that makes up to 10 percent of the population, Malaysia is home to many ethnic Chinese and Indians who mainly follow Buddhism and Hinduism respectively.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 10, 2016 4 Comments
For many Christians fleeing the nightmare of religious persecution in Arab and Muslim lands their torment and suffering doesn’t end when they arrive on the shores of Europe since Islamist bullies single them out for harassment. A detailed study released by the Christian group Open Doors on Monday says that newly arrived Christian refugees in Germany are facing systematic violence, harassment and abuse at the hands of Muslim migrants. The most disturbing part of the study is the abuse faced by Christians at the hands of Muslim guards inside the German refugee housing. In many refugee housing centres most of the migrants and the security guards are Muslim. The Christian group talked about the prevailing atmosphere of “fear and panic” among the persecuted Christians arriving in Germany. According to a Christian minister from Berlin, Christian refugees must take part in Islamic prayer and threatened if they refused to comply.
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