News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
A Madison police officer cleans up a pile of shattered glass Wednesday in front of Lion of Judah House of Rastafari. Operations at Wisconsin’s first marijuana dispensary came to an abrupt end Wednesday when police swarmed the Lion of Judah House of Rastafari and arrested the two founders. “I woke…
By: Jacob Hornberger Imagine if Congress were to enact a law that required everyone to attend church on Sundays. The overwhelming majority of Americans would go up in arms. The concept of religious liberty is so deeply ingrained in our American heritage that there is no way that people, including…
Not with a toilet flush, but with a whimper, the Senate State Affairs Committee sent a sweeping religious refusal bill to the full Senate Monday evening, March 25, after several hours of testimony from Texas residents, social workers, lawyers, and numerous members of the clergy. The Senate State Affairs Committee…
Collinsville Bible Baptist Paul Terrell, who played the trumpet for the Gaither Band for several years, will be performing at special services at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 5-6, at Collinsville Bible Baptist Church. Friday night’s topic will be "The Trump Shall Resound," with Terrell playing the trumpet as…
Canada’s Quebec province on Thursday unveiled controversial draft legislation that would ban a significant section of public servants from wearing religious symbols such as a crucifix, yarmulke or hijab. The measure which applies to police, teachers and others in positions of authority is expected to become law by June with…
Portland, Ore., has long prohibited religious discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation—but now the city will also expressly protect the nonreligious, including atheists, agnostics and others that don’t believe in a particular religion. Although discrimination based on the lack of religious beliefs is prohibited under Title VII of the…
Judith and Alan Gillis of Orrington, parents of Bangor Christian Schools junior Isabella Gillis at the school Aug. 28, 2018. The Gillis’ are one of three Maine families that are challenging the prohibition on using public money to pay tuition at religious schools after a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.…
The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing in on the constitutional question of whether the symbol of Christ’s crucifixion is necessarily religious. The high court agreed Nov. 2 to review a lower court ruling that a 40-foot cross at the center of one of the busiest intersections in Prince George’s County,…
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) − For decades, we’ve seen clashes over civil rights and religious freedoms and now a new trend involves wedding vendors citing religious reasons to refuse service. Landmark cases involving photographers in Minnesota and a baker in Colorado have all eyes watching a case before the Arizona Supreme…
A commentary on French President Macron’s declaration at the Vatican. This post is part 2 of 2. There is undeniable historical truth that institutionalized religion has functioned to back a ruling power and the social classes it has privileged (as with the Church of England under the Restoration following England’s…
China (MNN) – China may finally be making the move to re-write the Bible. Bob Fu, founder of China Aid , a persecution watchdog group, raised the alarm this month, in an address to members of the U-S government. According to him, the Three Self Patriotic Movement and the Chinese…
From the inbox: Can a church-affiliated group conduct after-school Bible study classes in a public school without running afoul of the U.S. Constitution? That depends. The First Amendment to the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It was…
I’m going to hold this one up in prayer. The injustice inflicted upon the Klein family by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) should have never stood in a nation that claims to have freedom of religion and speech. And no matter your political persuasion or religious beliefs…
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò speaks at a dinner honoring then-Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick in 2012 (CNS photo/ Michael Rogel/PMS) I was going through a box of papers sent home from my Commonweal office the other day, tossing out most of them. Then I came across the fourteen-page text of a…
2018 was touted as the year the Supreme Court of Canada would consider how religious freedom should be valued as a right guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court rendered three highly anticipated decisions which received a great deal of press. Two of the decisions…
Ireland’s blasphemy law has had a long, ineffective and undistinguished tradition Wendy Shea’s cartoon depicted politicians John Bruton, Proinsias de Rossa and Ruairi Quinn walking past a priest distributing communion: the tagline was “Hello Progress – Bye Bye Father” – a play on the anti-divorce campaign slogan “Hello Divorce –…
Douglas Laycock has served as lead counsel in six religious liberty cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia School of Law, one of the nation’s leading experts on religious liberty, has completed a comprehensive series of books about the often legally and socially…
2018 was touted as the year the Supreme Court of Canada would consider how religious freedom should be valued as a right guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court rendered three highly anticipated decisions which received a great deal of press. Two of the decisions…
CHICAGO (CN) – Churches and the IRS joined forces Wednesday before a sympathetic Seventh Circuit panel to argue that a 65-year-old income tax housing exemption for clergy members does not violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. “The court has to take history into account,” said attorney Luke Goodrich of the…
Hide caption By Diane Smith / Reporter A nativity scene that was added to the Christmas display at the Ravenna Courthouse Lawn last year was the subject of complaints, including a letter from an out-of-state group that advocates for the separation of church and state. Rebecca Markert, legal director of…
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback speaks to reporters as he unveils the annual U.S. assessment of religious freedom around the world, at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Washington • The U. S. ambassador for religious freedom called for renewed activism…
The future of the “parsonage allowance exclusion” is in the hands of the courts. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons (RNS) — A federal court heard oral arguments this week on whether a longstanding housing tax break for clergy called a “parsonage allowance exclusion” is constitutional, setting the stage for a…
The U.S. supreme Court’s M starting its 2018-19 term this month. Although we don’t know yet the range of issues the high court will confront, many observers believe the question of whether religious freedom confers a right to discriminate may surface. The court last term dodged this issue. In its…
A map of the Archdiocese of Anchorage in Alaska. Map courtesy of Creative Commons (RNS) — The Archdiocese of Anchorage is launching an independent commission on sexual abuse to review all personnel files of those who have served in the region since 1966 and plans to release names of any…
Taking up a case that may have implications for how its church-state rulings are applied in public schools, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it would review a lower-court ruling that a 93-year-old cross on public land that memorializes a Maryland county’s World War I dead is unconstitutional. The…