Mr. Greenhill For more than three years, Alfonza H. Greenhill has persisted in battling Virginia prison policies that blocked him from practicing the strict Sufi branch of Islam. While he lost several preliminary rounds, the African-American inmate refused to give up and now has scored a signal victory for religious…
Law Firm Says Delaware Town Violated First Amendment by Banning Religious Displays From Public Property
A nativity scene is on display near the Washington Monument on December 23, 2010 in Washington, DC. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images) An attorney from a religious liberty law firm said on Thursday that officials from a Delaware town have violated the First Amendment by banning religious displays on public property. Roger…
Army bans faith-based business from selling Bible verse dog tags
Shields of Strength dog tags | YouTube/First Liberty Institute The U.S. Army’s licensing office has banned a faith-based company from engraving Bible verses on Army-licensed dog tags and jewelry, an action that has outraged at least one member of Congress. Last week, the religious freedom law group First Liberty Institute…
High school Bible classes are divisive, unnecessary | Commentary
For a second year running, Florida legislators have filed a bill that would make our state the first in the nation to require all public high schools to offer elective courses on the Old and New Testaments. (John Solie/istock) For a second year running, Florida legislators have filed a bill…
First Amendment Group Appeals Military Ban on Religious Dog Tags
Religious freedom advocates are appealing the U.S. military’s decision to prohibit the sale of religiously themed dog tags, a move the military made after receiving complaints from a secularist group. First Liberty, a religious freedom advocacy group, submitted a letter to the Army on Tuesday, asking it to lift a…
Traditional Values Shouldn’t Exempt Schools From State Voucher Programs
Nicole Russell is a contributor to The Daily Signal. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, National Review, Politico, The Washington Times, The American Spectator, and Parents Magazine. Officials in the state of Maryland have banned a school from their voucher program due to their faith-based…
Justice Department supports religious discrimination lawsuit over school voucher exclusion
A federal lawsuit challenging the exclusion of a religious school from a state-funded voucher program gained a powerful backer last week when the U.S. Department of Justice filed a “ Statement of Interest ” in the case supporting the plaintiff. The DOJ argues that Maryland’s decision to exclude Bethel Christian…
Canadian Church of Atheism denied charitable status after court finds it’s not a religion
Fox News Flash top headlines for Dec. 7 A federal court in Canada has ruled that the self-titled "Church of Atheism" isn’t a religion and can’t be treated like one for tax purposes. The Court of Appeal upheld the refusal by the minister of national revenue to register the Church…
Religion in Schools: A Tree and a Hard Place
The United States Constitution rolled up on an American flag with a gavel in the foreground. Room for copy along the top half of the image. ach day, millions of families from diverse religious backgrounds entrust the education of their children to our nation’s public schools. Employees within our public…
Australians back religious freedom for people, not for institutions
Australians support religious freedom protections for individuals but less for institutions such as schools or hospitals run by religious organisations, a new report for the Centre for Independent Studies has found. The findings do not “bode well for the prospect of any robust protection of religious freedom in this country,”…
Freedom From Religion Foundation: Flagler Schools involvement in church event violates Establishment Clause
Flagler Schools students and staff members participate in the Football Sunday event on Aug. 20, 2019. File photo by Paola Rodriguez The school district has said its involvement in the Football Sunday event is legal because participation is voluntary. The nonprofit says voluntary events can still violate the constitution when…
Texas judge gets a warning for refusing to perform gay marriages
Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley, of McLennan County. Photo courtesy KXXV-TV, Waco. The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct on Monday issued a public warning to a Republican judge from Waco who refuses to perform same-sex marriages but still performs them for opposite-sex couples. McLennan County Justice of the Peace…
MAT backs down in legal case on religious assemblies
A Church of England multi-academy trust has settled out of court after being threatened with High Court action over its assemblies, following claims that they breached human rights and were indoctrinating pupils. The Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust was facing a case brought by parents who said primary pupils were made…
Australians back religious freedom for people, not for institutions
Australians support religious freedom protections for individuals but less for institutions such as schools or hospitals run by religious organisations, a new report for the Centre for Independent Studies has found. The findings do not “bode well for the prospect of any robust protection of religious freedom in this country,”…
Thankful for More Educational Freedom (Hopefully) On Its Way
If you know your United States history, you know that the Pilgrims came to North America seeking to practice their religion free from the constraints of the Church of England. If you know your U.S. history well , you know that what many call the beginning of public schooling was…
New York Law Forces Abortion Orthodoxy on Pro-Life Employers, Even Churches
A New York law would force abortion orthodoxy on pro-life employers, including crisis pregnancy centers and churches. The law would undermine the very reason many pro-life centers exist — to prevent abortion and protect the lives of the unborn. Two pregnancy center groups and a church have filed a federal…
New York’s latest bid to bully the religious
Opinion Enlarge Image Shutterstock “You are effectively being compelled to undermine your own reason for being.” It is one thing to disagree with others’ religious beliefs — and another to bend laws and violate the Constitution to ensure they can’t live out their faith in their daily life and work.…
Religion briefs for Nov. 22
Buy Now STAFF PHOTO BY CINDY KUBOVIC Special services Kingdom Life Worsh ip Center will hold services at 10 a.m. Sunday at Harrison-Caver Park, 4181 Augusta Road, Clearwater. All are welcome. For more information, call 803-593-6723. Central Baptist Church , 1652 Wire Road, will hold worship services at 10:30 a.m.…
Briefs in Key School Choice Case Present Dueling Religious Freedom Arguments Ahead of January Supreme Court Hearing
Getty Images For the second time in three years, the Supreme Court will grapple with two seemingly contradictory aspects of the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees on religion, and how they apply to education. At issue, once again, are the dueling ideas that government may not establish a religion, but also cannot…
BJC, others, urge Supreme Court to allow states to bolster religious-liberty protections
Church/state watchdog groups including the Baptist Joint Committee urged the U.S. Supreme Court to agree that a dollar-for-dollar tax credit that diverts public funds to private Christian schools is unconstitutional in an upcoming case testing the balance between the First Amendment’s two clauses regarding religious liberty. The BJC, a more…
Montana education-funding case an assault on freedom from religion
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a case in January that clearly reveals the strategy of evangelical Christian activists to gain legal approval to tax-fund primary and secondary religious education in America. St. Wenceslaus Church in Danvers, Montana, was built in 1916 and is now used occasionally…
Dismissal Overturned In Prayer Case Involving Jacksonville’s University Christian School
This photo is for illustrative purposes. It is not connected to University Christian or Cambridge Christian high schools. A federal appeals court has overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit about whether the Florida High School Athletic Association improperly prevented Christian schools, including Jacksonville’s University Christian School, from offering a prayer…
This Web Designer Shouldn’t Have to Wait to Be Free to Create
They say anything worth having is also worth waiting for. We should know. We waited over three years for the Arizona Supreme Court to rule that the city of Phoenix cannot use fines and jail time to force us to create custom artwork that violates our beliefs. Issued in mid-September,…
Tampa’s Cambridge Christian wins round over football game prayer lawsuit
“The two schools asked the FHSAA for permission to conduct a joint prayer over the loudspeaker before kickoff…" Photo via Camping World Stadium website A federal appeals court Wednesday overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit about whether the Florida High School Athletic Association improperly prevented Christian schools from offering a…
Lawsuit Over Banned Use of Loudspeaker for Christian Prayer Before School’s Game Is Back On
Captive audience. (Will C. Fry) Cambridge Christian School of Tampa argues in the lawsuit that the decision blocking the use of the loudspeaker for the prayer violated First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell in 2017 dismissed the case, but a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit…