In response to the Air Force’s assault on the religious freedom of Christian cadets, a group of Christian organizations have banded together to protect the cadets.
The Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition announced they will defend any cadet brought up on charges for exercising their religious rights.
The formation of the group comes after the Air Force bowed to the demands of the virulent anti-Christian activist group Military Religious Freedom Foundation and their extremist leader, Mikey Weinstein. The group demanded the whiteboard of a cadet be scrubbed of a Bible verse he had displayed outside his dorm room.
Friends of the cadet who had the verse (Galatians 2:20) removed from his whiteboard say it had been posted for months and the cadet saw the verse as inspiration.
The anti-Chrsitian group was not satisfied with the removal of the verse and is demanding that disciplinary action be taken against the student for exercising his religious freedom.
The Air Force is claiming the cadet remove the verse on his own, however other cadets who spoke to Fox News said that was a pure lie. The Air Force also said after removing the verse that cadets may only place things that are respectful on their whiteboards, thereby saying the Bible is not respectful.
A German family seeking to escape persecution of Christian homeschoolers fled to America looking for freedom and now will be sent back to Germany by the Obama administration.
The Supreme Court denied to hear the appeal of the Romeike family on Monday clearing the way for the administration to force them out of the country.
The administration claimed that because of the goal of Germany was for an “open, pluralistic society” that forcing children to engage in a government school where their values would not be taught or held up for ridicule would allow them to act as fully functioning citizens.
The Home School Legal Defense Association said this is just another step in the Obama administration’s overall campaign to crush religious freedom in the United States.
“The Obama administration’s attitude toward religious freedom, particularly religious freedom for Christians is shocking,” Michael Farris, HSLDA Chairman, told Fox News’ Todd Starnes. “I have little doubt that if this family had been of some other faith that the decision would have never been appealed in the first place. They would have let this family stay.”
In Germany, where homeschooling is illegal, the family will likely have their children taken away by the government.
A panel of public policy experts has said that the most important issue facing Christians today is how the government is undercutting religious freedom.
The discussion at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention featured many nationally known experts on law such as Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, NRB Chief Legal Counsel Craig Parshall and Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Parshall pointed to the current Hobby Lobby case against the Affordable Care Act as a major example of the government trying to strip away the rights of a Christian to own and operate their businesses in a manner consistent with their Christian values.
Jay Sekulow said that Christians and conservatives need to be careful about putting all their eggs in the Supreme Court’s basket. He pointed to the decision regarding the allowance of the Affordable Care Act by a 5-4 decision where Chief Justice John Roberts, who conservatives believed would follow conservative values, voted with the liberal wing of the Court to give President Obama his signature legislation.
They also discussed the wave of intolerance in much of the major media. Fox News reporter Todd Starnes shared the blessing of working at Fox where Christians are welcome and can openly write about their faith.
“I’ve found those who preach tolerance and diversity are many times the most intolerant. I love those opportunities when I can write a story how a life has been changed by the blood of Jesus Christ,” Starnes said.
Pastor Cruz, who was a Cuban immigrant in 1957 who came to the U.S. with only $100, said that he blames pastors for the loss of religious liberty in America.
“If I can blame anyone for our loss of religious liberty in America, I blame our pastors,” said Cruz. “They are hiding behind their pulpits and 501(c)(3)’s. It’s about time we become biblically correct instead of being politically correct. I would rather go to jail than violate what God is telling me to do.”
Obama-appointed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has issued an injunction on behalf of two Catholic groups that claim the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that birth control be provided through insurance plans violates their freedom of religion.
The order was issued late New Year’s Eve, just before the mandate was to go into effect.
The injunctions were on behalf of Denver-based Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged and Christian Brothers ministries. Justice Sotomayor said the Obama administration must present their case against the Catholic groups by 10 a.m. Friday morning.
Justice Sotomayor was joined by judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in issuing injunctions. The injunctions from the appeal court included the Archdiocese of Washington, DC and Catholic University.
The Catholic groups faced a fine of $100 per day per person if they did not comply with the law and if they drop their health care coverage will be fined $2,000 per full time employee after the first 20 employees.
A lawyer for the charities said the groups are being given the choice of violating their religious Scriptures or face crippling government fines.
A federal judge has thrown out parts of Utah’s state laws against bigamy.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups said that Utah’s law forbidding cohabitation with another person violated the First Amendment’s right to freedom of religion. The law said that it was illegal for a man or woman to claim they had more than one husband or wife.
Now, the only way bigamy can be prosecuted in the state is if someone tries to have more than one state-issued marriage license.
Kody Brown and his four “wives,” the stars of the TLC reality TV show “Sister Wives,” hailed the victory. They brought suit against the law in July 2011 and had to flee to Las Vegas last year after they were threatened with felony prosecution.
“Now that we’re no longer felons, that’s a huge relief,” Anne Wilde of the polygamy advocacy group Principle Voices told the AP. “They no longer have to be afraid that someone will knock at their door and take away their kids. This decision will hopefully take away the stigma of living a principle that’s a strongly held religious belief.”
The Utah Attorney General’s Office has not yet said if they will appeal.
The Catholic group Priests For Life has joined with individual plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against Obamacare’s demands that employers provide free contraceptives to employees.
Father Frank Pavone of PFL said that forcing his group to provide no-cost access to contraception that can actually induce abortions violates their religious freedom. He also said that even if the group is given an exemption from the law requiring them to provide the plan, the requirement they facilitate employees finding access to another provider on their own brings unacceptable costs.
The lawsuit is now one of 80 by religious groups across the country regarding the health care law’s infringements on religious rights. The University of Notre Dame and the Fellowship of Catholic University Students filed suits last week.
“I think the Obama administration’s attempts to take religious freedom away from anyone are bound to fail,” Matthew Bowman, the senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, told Fox News.
In a blow to religious freedom, the lawsuit brought by Liberty University concerning controversial parts of the Obamacare law has been dismissed after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
The filing by Liberty covered a variety of objections to the law including the individual mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.
The dismissal comes as the court agreed to hear two challenges to Obamacare regarding the requirement of Christian business owners to pay for medical procedures that go against God’s word such as abortion. That case will be heard before the end of June.
The court’s refusal of the case also dismissed claims made by two individuals against Obamacare.
The anti-Christian activist group American Humanist Association is suing allegedly on behalf of two students accusing teacher Gwen Pope and the Fayette Missouri R-III School District of violating the Constitution by allowing a Christian club to meet before the start of the school day.
The lawsuit says the teacher committed the crimes of praying for an injured student, organizing a project to feed hungry children and was cavorting with a Methodist.
Pope is no longer teaching at the school but was the sponsor of the Fellowship of Christian Students at Fayette High School. The group has gathered since 2010 to meet and pray before the start of the school day along with reading the Bible.
The anti-Christian group says the two unnamed students had faced “unwelcome encounters with the classroom prayer sessions.” Apparently the students could see their classmates inside the classroom as they walked past in the mornings.
The group also said the teacher having a Bible in her possession “violates the Establishment Clause as a student would reasonably perceive it as her promoting her religious views to her students.”
The school superintendent told Fox News that he cannot comment on the suit because they had not yet received a copy but that they will defend their students’ and teachers’ First Amendment rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court said they will hear arguments for cases involving the Obamacare requirement for health plans to cover birth control as it relates to for-profit companies.
The two cases will be heard together. The first involves Christian retailer Hobby Lobby and the second a Pennsylvania wood products manufacturer. Both busineses claim the mandate that requires them to provide “morning after pills” in employee health care plans violates their Christian beliefs because the drugs essentially produce abortions.
The Court must decide whether a company can have First Amendment religious freedom protections. The Supreme Court likely took the case because lower courts have split on the issue with Hobby Lobby winning their case and Conestoga Wood Specialties losing in lower federal courts.
“My family and I are encouraged that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide our case,” Steve Green, Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO, told the Christian Post. “This legal challenge has always remained about one thing and one thing only: the right of our family businesses to live out our sincere and deeply held religious convictions as guaranteed by the law and the Constitution. Business owners should not have to choose between violating their faith and violating the law.”
The anti-Christian Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed a complaint with the Air Force over a posting from an Air Force chaplain examining the origin of the commonly known phrase “there is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole” claiming the post was an “anti-secular diatribe.” Continue reading →
