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They now say that the time in question is not free reading time, but instead Accelerated Reader Program time. During this period, students can only read certain approved books, and the Bible is not among them. Hence, Broward County Public Schools will continue banning the Bible.
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The Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group specializing in religious liberty cases, says the family reached out for assistance after a teacher at Hamilton Elementary in Cypress allegedly told the girl not to bring the Bible back to school again.
The teacher reportedly said the Bible is inappropriate reading material.
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The civil rights group’s Tennessee branch is defending the child, sending a letter to the Cannon County REACH after-school program in an effort to urge officials to better train staff on the proper handling of participants’ religious rights, the Christian Post reported.
Staff at REACH reportedly not only told the boy he couldn’t read the Bible, but they also allegedly tried to take it from him, saying that the program could lose state funding if he continued reading it.
“[The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee] has a long-standing commitment to uphold and defend Tennesseans’ ability to practice religion, or not, as they choose,” Hedy Weinberg, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “The goal of our letter is to clarify for the REACH program what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Constitution protects religious liberty.”
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Photo Credit: Fox News A decades-old Bible survived the fatal gas blast that killed eight people in East Harlem.
Firefighters found the unharmed Bible among the rubble on Park Avenue. It was originally used by founders of the 80-year-old Spanish Christian Church, which was destroyed in the explosion.
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Photo Credit: MRFFThe Air Force Academy removed a Bible verse posted on a cadet’s whiteboard after it determined the posting had offended other cadets, a spokesman for the academy said.
The cadet wrote the passage on the whiteboard posted outside his room. “I have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” the verse from Galatians read.
Mikey Weinstein, director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told me 29 cadets and four faculty and staff members contacted his organization to complain about the Christian passage.
“Had it been in his room – not a problem,” Weinstein told me. “It’s not about the belief. It’s about the time, the place and the manner.”
He said the Bible verse on the cadet’s personal whiteboard created a hostile environment at the academy.
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Photo Credit: Kelly TaylorA Mississippi woman says she waged a nearly three-week battle to get pictures of Bible Scripture printed, after the photo department at a national chain store insisted that her images of Gospel inspiration violated copyright laws.
Kelly Taylor, 46, of Gulfport, told FoxNews.com her local Walgreens refused to process two prints of Scripture verses she had ordered online, first blaming it on a “technical issue,” then explaining it was due to copyright law — which has never applied to the Good Book.
“I was in total shock; it just dumbfounded me the whole day,” she said. “I feel this is an attack on Christians.”
After a clerk told her the order had been deep-sixed, Taylor got an explanation by way of an automated email.
“Hello Kelly! Due to a technical issue we were unable to process your print order at this time,” the email read. “For more details, contact a photo team associate — they’re happy to help! Just have your order number handy.”
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A Bible saved the life of a Ohio bus driver after the man was shot twice in the chest early Monday, police said.
Rickey Waggoner, a Dayton RTA bus driver, was making a mechanical fix outside his bus when three assailants approached him and shot him in what appears to have been a gang initiation, the Dayton Daily News reported.
Waggoner was shot twice in the chest at close range, but a contemporary version of the Bible, titled “The Message,” absorbed the bullets that would otherwise have killed the 49-year-old bus driver, according to police documents obtained by the newspaper.
“I’ve heard stories about that happening during the second World War. I’m glad to be in the club.”
“There was obviously some kind of intervention involved in this incident because (Waggoner) should probably not be here,” Dayton Police Sgt. Michael Pauley told the paper at the scene.
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Studio executives who have spent the past few years releasing superhero and zombie films have, it seems, had an epiphany. Now their new best friends are evangelical pastors whose endorsements they actively seek, even inviting them on to sets during production. Pastors in turn play clips from films of which they approve to 10,000-strong congregations on 40ft wide movie screens…
Phil Cooke, a film-maker and media consultant to Christian organisations, said Hollywood’s epiphany had financial, not spiritual, origins. “What’s happened is they’ve understood it’s very good business to take Christians seriously, and this is a real serious market,” he said…
For their part, studio executives have taken something of a leap of faith that films in which religious figures save the world will bring big box office receipts [in 2014.]
That faith is based in no small part on the success of The Bible, a television mini-series shown on the History channel earlier this year, which averaged 11.4 million viewers and became America’s most watched cable show of 2013.
“It made the Bible cool to talk about again,” said Mr Cooke. “The separation of church and state in America is so strong that people had become afraid to talk about God, at work or at school. Suddenly, these Bible stories were water cooler conversation again.”
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Photo Credit: The Christian Post/Napp NazworthThe head of a major Christian retailer presently suing the federal government has proposed a Bible class elective for an Oklahoma high school.
Steve Green, president of the Oklahoma-based retail giant Hobby Lobby Inc., has proposed a class for Mustang High School with a curriculum focused on various aspects of the Holy Bible.
“There’s still some fine-tuning, but the curriculum breakdown would include an intro course covering the Old and New Testaments and the Bible’s impact on society. Three advanced courses would focus on deeper history and cultural influence,” reported KOCO 5 News.
At present, Mustang Public Schools Superintendent Sean McDaniel has expressed an interest in the idea and the proposed course will get official consideration next month.
Green’s proposal for a Bible course comes as his family-owned craft retail company may go before the United States Supreme Court regarding a lawsuit against the federal government.
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Photo Credit: CALEB KALTENBACHWhat do the Bible, “The Hunger Games” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” have in common? All three are works of fiction, according to the booksellers at Costco.
Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach made that shocking discovery last Friday as he was shopping for a present for his wife at a Costco in Simi Valley, Calif.
“All the Bibles were labeled as fiction,” the pastor told me. “It seemed bizarre to me.”
Kaltenbach is the lead pastor at Discovery Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in southern California.
He thought there must be some sort of mistake so he scoured the shelf for other Bibles. Every copy was plastered with a sticker that read, “$14.99 Fiction.”
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