Last week, Huntington High and three other area schools arranged assemblies during school time for an evangelical minister to present a religious program to recruit students. This was inappropriate and illegal and even more disturbing because it involved the coercion of students and the schools’ inability to respect their religious…
Potential Supreme Court nominee faces questions on religious rights case
Leondra R. Kruger argued 12 cases at the Supreme Court, representing the United States in both Republican and Democratic administrations, and one of them is receiving special scrutiny as President Biden decides whether to nominate her to the bench. The Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v.…
Religious News From Around the Web February 7, 2022
Blasphemy and Apostasy Punished; Winter Olympics — Thawing of China’s Treatment of Religious Minorities? China May Restrict Religious Expression Following Olympics; Streaming Online a Godsend for Churches and the Isolated; City Restricts Church Homeless Outreach Blasphemy and Apostasy Punished Ken Mayer is licensed under CC BY 2.0 In scores of…
Columnist William Newman: Praying at the 50-yard line
In this Oct. 16, 2015 file photo, former Bremerton High School assistant football coach Joe Kennedy, obscured at center, is surrounded by Centralia High School football players in Bremerton, Wash., after they took a knee with him and prayed following their game against Bremerton. Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun via AP…
Religion has everything to do with abortion
Four anti-abortion bills have been introduced into the state legislature including a Texas copycat bill (HR2001, HR2483, SB1044, SB1164). The issue is not whether a state has the constitutional authority to protect “unborn life” but whether women, who have been born, have a constitutional right to make decisions about their…
Charter challenge by 2 Ontario churches opposed to public health restrictions gets underway Monday
A challenge by two Ontario churches of public health restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic begins Monday, with their lawyers arguing the measures violate the right to freedom of religion and assembly under the Constitution. The proceedings from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in St. Thomas will be before Justice…
Charter challenge by 2 Ontario churches opposed to public health restrictions gets underway Monday
Lawyers for Waterloo’s Trinity Bible Chapel, Aylmer’s Church of God begin arguments in St. Thomas court Members of the Aylmer Church of God spent time inside their church building in defiance of Ontario’s emergency orders. Church of God is one of two churches involved in a constitutional challenge of the…
OPINION: What is a chaplain?
Having talked a lot about being a Christian and church life, perhaps I also need to point out some salient issues involving chaplains. When I was a chaplain for the Bella Vista Police Department, I knocked on one door and introduced myself as a chaplain. The person at the door…
Faith Can’t Abrogate a Contract
The Church of Scientology in Los Angeles. Photo: Bing Guan/Bloomberg News The California Court of Appeal has opened a new front in the legal war over religious exemptions. In Bixler v. Church of Scientology , the court ruled in favor of former members of the church who allege that they…
EXPLAINER: The Boston flag case
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in Shurtleff v. Boston , a key First Amendment case before the court this term. Here’s what you need to know about this case: What is this case about? The City of Boston manages three flagpoles in front of…
Religious beliefs shouldn’t be subject to ‘verification,’ Justice Neil Gorsuch says in dissent
A pair of ministers seeking a tax-exempt status shouldn’t be subject to a government “verification” process, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch argued Tuesday. The Supreme Court denied a request for oral argument in the case of New Life in Christ Church v. City of Fredericksburg , which centered on…
Supreme Court takes up former football coach’s firing for praying on field
High school football players are seen in this illustration photo. (CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters) The Supreme Court announced Jan. 14 that it would hear an appeal from a former high school football coach in Washington state who says his rights to freedom of speech and religion were violated when he…
Supreme Court takes up former football coach’s firing for praying on field
High school football players are seen in this illustration photo. CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters The Supreme Court announced Jan. 14 that it would hear an appeal from a former high school football coach in Washington state who says his rights to freedom of speech and religion were violated when he…
Should a Religious Flag Fly Over a Government Building?
Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto A religious volunteer group in Boston, Camp Constitution, asked permission to fly a flag with the Latin cross to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution and the city’s religious history. Although Boston had approved 284 flag-raising requests without a single rejection in the preceding 12 years,…
Supreme Court to decide a key case in separation of church and state
One of the smartest things the framers of the United States Constitution did for the future of the government they were designing was to both mandate freedom from state-sponsored religion and freedom to choose one’s own form of worship. These principles were concisely summed up in a single phrase in…
U.S. Supreme Court to hear dispute over football coach’s on-field prayers
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, U.S. (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by a Christian former high school football coach who was suspended from his job at a high school in Washington state for refusing to halt his practice of praying…
U.S. Supreme Court to hear dispute over football coach’s on-field prayers
Jan 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by a Christian former high school football coach who was suspended from his job at a high school in Washington state for refusing to halt his practice of praying at mid-field after games – a…
Guest column: Is the United States still a Christian nation?
Is America a Christian nation? Should it be? What does it even mean for a country to be a Christian nation or a nation of any other religion? These were among the questions Pastor Jim Eaton of Mosaic Church in Frederick, Md., and I discussed for the National Day of…
First Amendment group urges Hutchinson to stop quoting scripture in social media, says it’s unconstitutional
FILE – Gov. Asa Hutchinson answers questions from the press Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, during the weekly briefing at the state Capitol. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff) Religious social media posts from Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are unconstitutional, Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in a letter to the…
First Amendment group urges Hutchinson to stop quoting scripture in social media, says it’s unconstitutional
FILE – Gov. Asa Hutchinson answers questions from the press Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, during the weekly briefing at the state Capitol. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff) Religious social media posts from Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are unconstitutional, Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in a letter to the…
First Amendment group urges Hutchinson to stop quoting scripture in social media, says it’s unconstitutional
FILE – Gov. Asa Hutchinson answers questions from the press Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, during the weekly briefing at the state Capitol. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff) Religious social media posts from Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are unconstitutional, Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in a letter to the…
How a Supreme Court ruling might upend Washington charter schools
A quirk of history and misaligned constitutional provisions soon could kill public charter schools in Washington state. A case before the U.S. Supreme Court would make that happen. A Supreme Court challenge to Maine’s ban on using taxpayer funds to enable rural kids to attend private religious schools might have…
City council discontinues prayer in response to Wisconsin group
“Because of Mebane’s conviction that the diversity of our strongly-held beliefs makes us greater, not weaker. And because of our commitment to show respect to all faiths, beliefs, and perspectives, Mebane’s City Council will no longer open with an invocation.” — Ed Hooks, Following a complaint lodged by the Freedom…
Religious News From Around the Web December 27, 2021
Houses of Worship Struggle to Rebuild Attendance; Michigan City Gets Ready for All-Muslim Government; New York Can Force Photographer to Take Pictures for Same-Sex Wedding; Archdiocese sues LAUSD, alleging it kept federal funds from Catholic schools; Maine Tuition Case Before SCOTUS; China Will Ban Foreigners From Offering Online Religious Services;…
Christian Company Takes Legal Action Against The Department Of Defense
(Photo : Shields of Strength) Shields of Strength dog tag with Joshua 1:9 inscribed above the American flag In response to their attempt to create a problem for a Christian-owned company in an area where one had not existed for more than 23 years, the Department of Defense (DOD) is…