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U.S. Commission: Religious Freedom Under ‘Serious and Sustained Assault’

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summit-cross-225578_960_720 (2)The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released their annual religious freedom report Monday and found that religious freedom worldwide “has been under serious and sustained assault” since their 2015 report.

“By any measure, religious freedom abroad has been under serious and sustained assault since the release of our commission’s last Annual Report in 2015,” the report said. “From the plight of new and longstanding prisoners of conscience, to the dramatic rise in the numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons, to the continued acts of bigotry against Jews and Muslims in Europe, and to the other abuses detailed in this report, there was no shortage of attendant suffering worldwide.”

“Regrettably the situation is that things have not improved and in some places things have gotten worse.” USCIRF Chairman Robert George told reporters in a conference call about the report on Monday. “At best in most of the countries we cover, religious freedom conditions have failed to improve in any serious or demonstrable way. At worst, they’ve spiraled downward.”

The report once again pushes for the U.S. State Department to designate Pakistan as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), a recommendation it has made since 2002.

Pakistan’s “Religiously-discriminatory constitutional provisions and legislation, such as the country’s blasphemy law and anti-Ahmadiyya laws,” the report said, “intrinsically violate international standards of freedom of religion or belief and result in prosecutions and imprisonments.” (Read more from “U.S. Commission: Religious Freedom Under ‘Serious and Sustained Assault'” HERE)

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Lesbian US Senator Says First Amendment Protects Free Exercise ONLY INSIDE of Churches, Synagogues and Mosques

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Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI – the nation’s first openly lesbian elected to the U.S. Senate – addressed the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision on June 27 on MSNBC’s Up with Steve Kornacki.

“Should the bakery have to bake the cake for the gay couple getting married?” the host asked. “Where do you come down on that?”

Baldwin responded that the First Amendment gave Americans no right to exercise religion outside the sanctuary of their church, synagogue, or mosque.

“Certainly the First Amendment says that in institutions of faith that there is absolute power to, you know, to observe deeply held religious beliefs. But I don’t think it extends far beyond that,” she said.

Sen. Baldwin then likened the issue to the Obama administration’s contentious HHS mandate, requiring employers to furnish contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs to female employees with no co-pay. (Read more from “US Senator Says First Amendment Protects Free Exercise ONLY Inside of Churches, Synagogues and Mosques” HERE)

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Religious Freedom Violated When a Teacher Bans Student from Using Bible

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By Billy Hallowell. Parents are accusing a teacher of violating their child’s First Amendment rights by allegedly refusing to allow him to read his Bible in school.

They claim that their son, Loyal Grandstaff, a middle school student at Bueker Middle School in Marshall, Missouri, was told by his teacher that he couldn’t read the book after he brought the Bible in and silently studied it during free time.

“I feel like it violated his freedom of religion but also his freedom of speech,” Justin Grandstaff, the 12 year old’s father said.

Loyal said that he wasn’t being loud and that he wasn’t sharing the book with his peers at the time.

“I like to read my Bible because it’s a good book,” the 7th grader told the outlet. “I was just reading, just reading because I had free time. A time to do what I wanted to, so I just broke it out and read.” (Read more about “Religious Freedom Violated” HERE)

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EEOC Says School is Wrong for Firing Teacher Who Gave Student Bible

By Todd Starnes. A New Jersey school district violated the law when it fired a teacher who handed a Bible to a student, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled on December 15, 2014. The ruling was made public Tuesday.

The EEOC determined there was reasonable cause to believe the Phillipsburg School District discriminated against Walt Tutka, a substitute teacher. The EEOC also said religion and retaliation played a factor in Tutka’s firing.

“This is a great indication the EEOC is taking religious liberty seriously and they are going to enforce the law — and in this case make sure Walt’s rights are protected,” Liberty Institute attorney Hiram Sasser told me.

“This sends a message to school districts that their natural allergic reaction to religion is misplaced, and not only is it wrong — but it’s also an egregious violation of the law,” Sasser said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Religious Freedom in the Workplace: Statement on Amicus Brief Filed at US Supreme Court

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Photo Credit: RZIMAs responsible citizens who love Jesus Christ and love our country, we want to express our deep conviction on matters of our faith and expression. No one ought to be compelled to so amputate their belief that it is meaningless except in private.

The faithful Christian cannot separate his life into sacred and secular, worship and work. A Christian does not cease to worship the Lord when he or she goes to work or opens a family business. Romans 11:36 says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” As Christians we are called to do all things to the glory of God, including – perhaps especially – our work. This amicus brief – which includes my signature – was filed at the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Protestant theologians in support of the appeals by Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties, and demonstrates how the holistic nature of the Christian faith extends to a believer’s vocation.

Sadly, over the years, the Christian faith has been targeted by a rabid secularization and evicted from any or all public expression. The encroachment upon our civil liberties is frightening and we ought to take a stand. The cases of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga highlight the extreme dilemma that results when Christians are forced to choose between violating the government’s regulations and violating his or her sincerely held religious beliefs in the workplace. These beliefs are planted in our conscience.

Read more from this story HERE.

Religion Is Your Business

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Photo Credit: National Review Religious freedom used to mean that religion was none of the government’s business. Now it is being changed to mean that religion is none of your business.

Pundits such as law professor Adam Winkler insist that the Supreme Court should rule against the Hahn and Green families and their businesses in next week’s Obamacare cases. Their theory is that if you engage in business, religion is not “essential” to your work. Instead, you can pursue only “profit.”

Says who? Not American law or any authority that Winkler or the government can cite. Winkler simply asserts that religion and business don’t belong together; therefore, family businesses have no right to pursue religion. Winkler even ignores Hobby Lobby’s co-plaintiff in this case, Mardel, a Christian-bookstore business.

Every relevant legal authority contradicts Winkler’s view that religion can have no place in business. The laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia explicitly allow businesses to pursue all lawful purposes. Religion is still lawful in America, however much some may lament it.

No Supreme Court case says that when a family engages in business, it cannot also pursue its religious beliefs. Instead, whenever the high court gets close to this question, it repeatedly rules that groups such as Jewish merchants and Amish farmers exercise religion while simultaneously pursuing profit, and that they can therefore bring religious-freedom claims. This doesn’t mean that the businesses always win their claims, but it does mean that religion can be exercised in business.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pentagon Confirms that Christian Soldiers who Share their Faith may be Court-Martialed

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Religious liberty groups have grave concerns after they learned the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to “rape” and advocated that military personnel who proselytize should be court martialed.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is calling on the Air Force to enforce a regulation that they believe calls for the court martial of any service member caught proselytizing.

President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”

“Someone needs to be punished for this,” Weinstein told Fox News. “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Fox News he was stunned that the Pentagon would be taking counsel and advice from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Read more from this story, including the Pentagon’s confirmation to Fox News that Christian soldiers who proselytize violate military regulations, HERE.

To sign a petition opposed to this outrageous policy, click HERE.

Naked Feminist Protesters Drench Catholic Archbishop as He Prays

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A group of naked women bum-rushed Belgian Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard while he was speaking in Brussels and doused him with water from bottles shaped like the Virgin Mary on Tuesday.

The women were reportedly feminist protesters from the Ukranian-based FEMEN group, which is known for organizing topless protests against the Catholic Church and others.

According to AFP, the four protesters charged the archbishop during “a debate on blasphemy and freedom of expression held at the Brussels’ Free University (ULB) campus Tuesday evening, baring their breasts and squirting water at Archbishop Andre Leonard as they accused him of homophobia.”

Photos of the event show Leonard patiently sitting quietly with his eyes closed and hands folded in prayer as the women empty bottles of water on his head and clothes.

Read more from this story HERE. [warning: most readers will find the photos offensive]

School Voucher Ruling Supports Religious Freedom

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Photo Credit: Urban Cure

As the nation has focused on the Supreme Court hearings on the constitutionality of same sex marriage, news from the state of Indiana could prove far more important regarding the nations future.

The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously, 5-0, that the states school voucher program — signed into law in 2011 and the most expansive school voucher program in the nation — does not violate the states constitution.

Those who challenged the law argued that the voucher program is unconstitutional because it allows public funds to be used for religious education. Not so, said the court. The voucher goes to the families, not the schools. It is the parents who decide how to spend it.

Why do I draw connection between the U.S. Supreme Courts review of same-sex marriage and this voucher decision in Indiana? And why do I suggest that the Indiana decision may be more important to the nations future than whatever the Supreme Court decides on same-sex marriage?

Same-sex marriage sits before the Supreme Court today because of the dramatic change in public opinion over recent years regarding the legitimacy and morality of same-sex marriage and homosexual relations. General public opinion is far more accepting today of both than it has been in the past.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Discrimination Agency Sued for Religious Bigotry

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Photo Credit: WND

The government agency charged with investigating discrimination in the workplace is itself facing a discrimination lawsuit by a worker claiming he was forced to violate his religious beliefs.

Greg Somers, an investigator for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has filed a lawsuit over an agency policy requiring employees to investigate and prosecute claims against employers based on allegations of “sexual orientation.”

However, claims of discrimination based on “sexual orientation” have no basis in federal law.

In 2011, the EEOC, under the Obama administration, issued a policy directive requiring that claims of discrimination on the basis of lesbian, “gay,” bisexual or transgender status be processed as gender discrimination.

Shortly after the memo was issued, Somers requested a religious exemption from being forced to investigate LGBT claims, arguing it violated his sincerely held religious belief that homosexuality, along with adultery and other sexual practices, is a personal choice. Towards the end of last year, after working its way through the federal administrative process, Somers was told his request had been denied.

Read more from this story HERE.

School Removed God Reference From First-Grader’s Poem

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photo credit: kevin dooley

An elementary school in North Carolina censored a first-grade student’s Veterans Day poem by removing a line that referenced her grandfather’s belief in God.

The West Marion Elementary School student was supposed to read the poem at a Nov. 8 Veterans Day ceremony to honor her grandfather, a Vietnam veteran.

The deleted line read: “He prayed to God for peace, he prayed to God for strength.”

An attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which advocates for religious rights and freedoms, criticized the school’s decision.

“America’s public schools should encourage, not restrict, the constitutionally protected freedom of students to express their faith,” said Matt Sharp, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, in a statement. “Students should not be censored when speaking about their faith or honoring those who valiantly served to protect our freedoms. … The censorship of this young student’s poem about her grandfathers is repugnant to the First Amendment rights of all students and sends an impermissible message of hostility towards religion.”

Read more from this story HERE.