Tag Archives: Religious Freedom

Pastors Thrown Out of Capital For “Appeal To Heaven”

A pastor’s group was thrown out of the U.S. Capital Visitor Center for their racial reconciliation event because the theme of the event included a reference to “an appeal to heaven.”

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. says the action against the High Impact Leadership Coalition is calling it a clear act of religious discrimination.

“They were aware of the original theme, but it seems as they looked into things that the question of God and heaven really caused them angst,” said Jackson.

“Unfortunately, we got pushed back and we felt it was discriminatory. And there is a tinge of religious prejudice in terms of our content, our theme, our focus. We felt that we needed to continue with the meeting anyway rather than get all tied up in a back-and-forth fight with the folks at the Capitol.”

Jackson said the representatives of the Capital told them they were being forced to leave because they were referring to God.

The Washington Hilton eagerly welcomed the group and their message.

“I think the real problem for me, personally, is that first a go ahead was given and the rules were followed as we had known them at that moment. Then questions come, content is questioned … and it seemed to me that there was some angst and concern that we were a biblically based, evangelical, black, Christian group,” Jackson told the Christian Post.

“Had we been more of another religious background or more interracial or there was a sense that there was more control over the event, it may have been different. But from where I sit, it seems like religious pushback, racial concern, about how this is going to look and what our intentions are going to be. However you envision it, it’s not the welcome we want based on using a public facility and following the rules,” he said.

The U.S. Capital Visitor Center would not answer questions from the Christian Post on the situation.

Michigan House Approves Religious Freedom Restoration Act

The Michigan House of Representatives has passed a state version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act despite outcry from anti-Christian groups in the state.

The bill, HB5958, cleared the House Judiciary Committee 7-4 and passed the full House 59-50.  The Senate now picks up the bill for consideration.

The bill was introduced in the state house because the federal law, signed into law in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, only applies to federal issues.  Legislators in Michigan wanted to make sure Christians and other people of faith had their rights protected from state groups and organizations.

The statute reads: “The free exercise of religion is an inherent, fundamental, and unalienable right secured by Article 1 of the state Constitution of 1963 and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

The bill is in response to anti-Christian groups that want to eliminate Christians and people of faith from being able to exercise their rights in society.

“I support individual liberty and I support religious freedom,” House Speaker Jase Bolger (R) declared Thursday to the Judiciary Committee. “I have been horrified as some have claimed that a person’s faith should only be practiced while hiding in their home or in their church.”

Hundreds Rally For Prayer In School

Students, parents, community leaders and pastors gathered in Hartsville, South Carolina for a weekend rally in support of allowing prayer to be placed back in schools.

The Hartsville Center Theater hosted over 450 people who listened to leaders throughout the community talking of the need for prayer, the power of prayer and also to join together in songs of praise to God.

It was the second rally hosted by Florence One School Board member Pat Gibson Hye-Moore and Pastor of New Providence Baptist Church Cliff Leonard.  The men said it was the larger of the two events.  The event grew from a concern “that morality has plunged in America since prayer was removed from school.”

“We’re taking God out of everything,” lamented Hye-Moore. “We are taking the Creator, the one that created everything, we’re just trying to kick Him out and He’s not happy with that.”

South Carolina representatives in 2013 proposed a bill introducing a moment of silence prayer in the schools but it has not progressed beyond its introduction.

Arkansas State University Player Fights Back Against Anti-Christianist

A member of the Arkansas State University football is standing up against an anti-Christianist who demanded a cross emblem on the team’s helmets remembering slain classmates be removed.

The cross emblem was used because both of the slain students, Markel Owens and Barry Weyer, were open and practicing Christians.  The team thought that a cross was appropriate to fit both young men.

Jonesboro attorney Louis Nisenbaum decided that the team shouldn’t be able to honor their fallen classmates that way and sent a demand to the school.

“That is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause as a state endorsement of the Christian religion,” the anti-Christianist wrote. “Please advise whether you agree and whether ASU will continue this practice.”

The school then said they would remove the crosses even though they saw no legal grounds to require it to avoid litigation.

One football player, who is remaining anonymous out of fear of the wrath of anti-Christianists, has obtained legal assistance from the Liberty Institute to fight the decision.

“ASU’s actions in defacing the students’ memorial stickers to remove their religious viewpoint is illegal viewpoint discrimination against the students’ free speech. As these stickers were designed by and adopted by the students on their own, they constitute protected student speech,” the letter, written by Director of Strategic Litigation Hiram Sasser, stated. “Furthermore, ASU’s actions evince that hostility to religion that the Supreme Court has stated is a violation of the Establishment Clause.”

The Liberty Institute has demanded an answer by Wednesday as to whether or not the school will affirm the players have the right to voluntarily put the crosses on their helmets.

American Christianity Under Threat Say Star Spangled Speakers

A group of speakers at an event celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner says that American Christianity is under serious threat.

The event, held at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, featured speakers like former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and his father, Family Research Center head Tony Perkins and other leaders.  The event was to celebrate the importance of Christianity in the national anthem and the importance of Christianity in American history.

Senator Cruz said that religious liberty is endangered not just abroad but at home.

“If you’re litigating against nuns,” Cruz said, referring to the struggle of Little Sisters of the Poor against the Obama administration’s contraception mandate, “you’ve probably done something wrong.”

“Our land needs healing,” Cruz continued. “When this country was founded, it was founded on the radical concept that our rights don’t come from kings, queens or governments, but our rights come from Almighty God.”

Former Gov. Huckabee said that Christians shouldn’t just accept that our government is ungodly.

“Is it time for us to stop complaining about what is, and start believing what will be if God’s people on their faces in humility and brokenness will once again ask for His hand of providence to envelope this great land of ours,” he said.

California Forces Faith-Based Employers To Pay For Abortions

The state of California is forcing all faith-based employers to pay for abortions.

The California Department of Managed Health Care told insurance companies in the state all abortions must be covered.  Michelle Rouillard, director of DMHC, said that “abortion is a basic health care service.”

Rouillard asserts that the California constitution prohibits health plans from “discriminating against women who choose” to kill their babies via abortion.

The directive is seen as a state agent acting to penalize two Roman Catholic/Jesuit universities that said they would no longer pay for abortions in health care plans but would not stop employees from obtaining it from third parties.

The Alliance Defending Freedom and the Life Legal Defense Foundation sent rebuttal letters on Friday saying the state’s mandate is a violation of federal law. The letter says that DMHC’s action is violation of the Weldon Amendment.

Rabbi Nominated As Religious Ambassador For State Department

Rabbi David Saperstein has been nominated by President Obama to be the next ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom at the U.S. State Deaprtment.  Rabbi Saperstein would be the first non-Christian to hold the position since the job was created in 1998.

“I am grateful that Rabbi Saperstein has chosen to dedicate his talent to  service the American people at this important time for our country,” President Obama said.  “I look forward to working with him in the months and year ahead.”

Rabbi Saperstein now awaits Senate confirmation.

The nomination is coming after controversy.  The position was left unfilled by the Obama Administration for almost two years before Suzan Johnson Cook took the role in 2011.  She left in October during very visible times of Christian persecution around the world and the administration had not taken steps to fill the office for the last nine months.

Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention took note of the nine-month delay in the President’s action but had praise for the nominee.

“Rabbi Saperstein is a respected thinker and leader who brings gravity to this important task,” Moore said.  “He has my prayers and my pledge of full cooperation.  The downgrade of religious freedom and the persecution of religious minorities around the world must end.”

Democratic Bill To Reverse Hobby Lobby Decision Fails

A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate by a pair of anti-life Senators to overrule the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case has failed.

Washington Senator Patty Murray and Utah Senator Mark Udall introduced what they called the “Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act” that would have stripped people of faith in the United States from owning and operating their own business unless they provided abortion causing drugs to their employees.

The bill failed in the Senate because the Democrats could not obtain 60 votes to bring debate to cloture and move to a full vote.  The bill failed 56-43 along mostly party lines to keep the bill from advancing.

Christian organizations celebrated the fact 43 Senators still believe Americans have the right to religious freedom.

“While the Senate rightfully rejected this unjust bill, today is a reminder of the need to stand vigilant in defense of our God-given freedoms against those who would take them away,” Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Casey Mattox said.

Dallas Pastor Warns Hobby Lobby Victory Could Be Short Lived

While millions of American Christians are celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision protecting religious freedom, one prominent Baptist pastor is cautiously warning that the celebration of freedom may be short lived.

Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas says that while the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling “stopped the greatest attempted assault on religious liberty in history”, the case is a sign that the government is going to increase attempts to strip away the religious freedom of Christians.

“The Obama administration was basically saying that you can be religious and pro-life in your church, synagogue or at home on the weekend, but when you go to work on Mondays, you have to give up those beliefs and become pro-abortion,” Jeffress said to the Christian Post. “There is no such thing in the Constitution as the separation of faith from the rest of your life.”

Jeffress said that the mainstream media and pro-abortion activists have been repeating the complete lie that those who want to protect the life of unborn children are nothing more than religious fringe extremists.

“It is a part of the belief system of tens of millions of Protestants, Catholics, Jewish people and people of all faiths,” he said. “This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. In this ruling, I think the court is very sound in saying that we have the right to uphold and exercise those beliefs.”

Supreme Court Rules Christian Businesses Can Operate Based On Faith

In a major victory for religious freedom, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that “closely-held” for-profit businesses can cite religious objections in order to opt out of a requirement in the Affordable Care Act to provide free contraceptive coverage.

The court’s decision came in the case of Hobby Lobby, the company that also owns the Mardel Christian Stores chain.  The owners of the company said the health care law forced them to violate their religious faith by providing drugs that can induce abortions.

The challenge was the first major case related to the President’s signature law in the last two years.

The Supreme Court held that the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects the rights of for-profit businesses if they are run on a basic of religious principles.  However, the Court’s ruling noted it was specifically applied only to the health care law and did not automatically mean other instances of religious issues and health care would be invalid.

The Obama administration had argued that the case was not really about birth control but rather a way that for-profit businesses could challenge other laws based on religious rights.