News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Screen capture of a US military housing in Germany where a worship service was held from a balcony. The COVID-19 virus has led to many a creative effort by folks to maintain normalcy in the midst of a major disruption to normal life, and Christian believers are no different. Many…
LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — A Lee’s Summit, Missouri church has filed a federal lawsuit against Jackson County, claiming the county’s stay-at-home order violates religious freedom . The suit was filed Thursday by Abundant Life Baptist Church of Lee’s Summit in the Western District of Missouri and Western Division of Kansas…
(CNS file photo/Nancy Phelan Wiechec) In two cases now before the Supreme Court, the justices are dealing with the constitutional status of a “minister” at a religious school and with the question of who decides the qualifications of a minister: churches and religious schools, or the federal courts. The cases…
Liberty Counsel won an emergency injunction Saturday, May 2 from a unanimous three-judge panel on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting the enforcement of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s March 19 and 25 COVID-19 orders against church services at Maryville Baptist Church and its pastor Dr. Jack Roberts. The…
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks to churchgoers. A church in Kentucky has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear and a top health official over orders prohibiting in-person services, even though the church has put in place social distancing precautions. Tabernacle Baptist Church of Nicholasville filed…
Juan Altamirano climbs to the roof of The Church of the Annunciation while painting the exterior Wednesday, April 8, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) Lurking within the recently passed congressional stimulus package is a constitutional violation that virtually guarantees massive fraud and abuse. Churches, houses of worship and…
The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening many of our most cherished freedoms. We are told by the government not to travel. We are told we can’t gather for religious services. We are told we must wear masks, but we must not go to restaurants or stores. Our favorite sporting events, school…
Liberty Counsel won an emergency injunction Saturday, May 2 from a unanimous three-judge panel on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting the enforcement of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s March 19 and 25 COVID-19 orders against church services at Maryville Baptist Church and its pastor Dr. Jack Roberts. The…
Targeted with a “cease and desist order” and fearing criminal or civil actions, officials at the Beloved Church in northern Illinois’ Stevenson County filed a federal lawsuit accusing the state of violating members’ First Amendment right to religious freedom by banning church services. The Rev. Steve Cassell, represented by the…
Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the column, published April 29, 2020. To start, arguing that “marriage has always had a religious tradition” is not entirely accurate. Marriage has existed in every known human culture in history, and predates every major religion practiced today. In ancient Mesopotamia, a…
Liberty Counsel won an emergency injunction Saturday, May 2 from a unanimous three-judge panel on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting the enforcement of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s March 19 and 25 COVID-19 orders against church services at Maryville Baptist Church and its pastor Dr. Jack Roberts. The…
The Supreme Court of the United States will be holding another round of live streamed telephonic oral arguments on Wednesday. This time, the court will consider a controversial section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania and Trump…
Washington (CBS News)— The Justice Department is siding with a Virginia church challenging Governor Ralph Northam’s executive orders limiting in-person gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, which the church says unfairly applies to houses of worship and other religious institutions. Federal prosecutors submitted the statement of interest in support of Lighthouse…
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to block the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on massing gatherings from applying to in-person religious services. The three-judge panel did clear the way for Maryville Baptist Church to hold drive-in worship services while adhering to public health requirements. That’s…
(Shutterstock via CNA) The Justice Department (DOJ) is backing a small community church suing Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, arguing that the state cannot single out churches for public health restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. Lighthouse Fellowship Church on Virginia’s Eastern Shore filed suit last week against Northam’s stay-at-home order prohibiting…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is siding with a Virginia church that filed a lawsuit against the state over Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D) stay-at-home order restricting in-person religious services to no more than 10 people amid the coronavirus outbreak. The Lighthouse Fellowship Church, a congregation in Chincoteague, Va., filed the…
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to block the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on massing gatherings from applying to in-person religious services. The three-judge panel did clear the way for Maryville Baptist Church to hold drive-in worship services while adhering to public health requirements. That’s an…
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to block the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on massing gatherings from applying to in-person religious services. The three-judge panel did clear the way for Maryville Baptist Church to hold drive-in worship services while adhering to public health requirements. That’s an…
A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to block the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on massing gatherings from applying to in-person religious services. The three-judge panel did clear the way for Maryville Baptist Church to hold drive-in worship services while adhering to public health requirements. That’s an alternative that Democratic…
CHICAGO (CBS) — As the governor faces a lawsuit from a northwest Illinois church claiming his original stay-at-home mandate “flagrantly violated the fundamental religious liberties of Illinoisans,” his extended executive order now allows “free exercise of religion” as an essential activity. Gov. JB Pritzker issued an extended stay-at-home order Thursday…
CHICAGO (CBS) — As the governor faces a lawsuit from a northwest Illinois church claiming his original stay-at-home mandate “flagrantly violated the fundamental religious liberties of Illinoisans,” his extended executive order now allows “free exercise of religion” as an essential activity. Gov. JB Pritzker issued an extended stay-at-home order Thursday…
By Michael Hernandez CHINO HILLS—Senior attorneys for two California legal firms—Tyler and Bursch and the Pacific Justice Institute shared their legal expertise today on a zoom conference hosted by Chino Hills Calvary Pastor Jack Hibbs on “How and When to Re-Open Churches.” “According to Gov. Galvin Newsom, we are in…
PARKERSBURG — Attorneys for the City of Parkersburg and the Freedom from Religion Foundation have asked a federal judge to decide a lawsuit over the recitation of the Lord’s prayer by City Council members without a hearing. Both sides submitted a joint stipulation of facts to U.S. District Judge for…
The governor and two churches that sued over a stay-at-home order have reached a temporary truce in a case that entangles the coronavirus outbreak with issues of religious liberties. Wichita, Kansas — Gov. Laura Kelly filed a joint motion this weekend with two churches suing her over stay-at-home orders, signaling…
Mississippi state leaders plan to sue Chinese government over coronavirus outbreak Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here . A federal judge in Mississippi ruled Friday that the First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs can stay open for drive-in services…