News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
In this June 12, 2017 file photo, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh speaks during a news conference in Washington. BALTIMORE — The attorney general of the State of Maryland filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed May 2 against Gov. Larry Hogan and several other state officials alleging a…
(Shutterstock via CNA) Supreme Court justices on Monday heard arguments for and against extending the Civil Rights Act’s “ministerial exception” to Catholic schools when they fire teachers of religion. “There is no reason for government to get in the business of teaching religion,” stated Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior…
The Supreme Court justices sounded split Monday on whether to broadly deny civil rights protections to hundreds of thousands of teachers in religious schools, as they heard cases involving two who were fired from Catholic schools in Los Angeles. At issue is whether the Constitution’s protections for religious freedom shields…
stock.adobe.com At U.S. District Court in Frankfort, Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove issued a temporary restraining order sought by Tabernacle Baptist Church of Nicholasville. The church had been conducting services on Facebook and by drive-in services, but maintained in their arguments, “Tabernacle has a sincerely-held religious belief that online services and…
Noah Finnemmore, 5, sticks his head out of the sun roof during the Calvary Chapel drive-in service on Sunday. Click here for the latest coronavirus news, which the BDN has made free for the public. You can support our critical reporting on the coronavirus by purchasing a digital subscription or…
Calvary Chapel pastor Ken Graves leads a recent drive-in service in Orrington. (BDN) BANGOR (BDN) — A federal judge on Saturday ruled that Gov. Janet Mills’ prohibition on in-person worship services does not violate the First Amendment. Calvary Chapel in Orrington and its pastor, Ken Graves, sued the governor in…
Does the right of the exercise of religion under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment allow one to disregard Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s emergency orders on public gatherings? No, said a federal court out of Northern Illinois. A 60-80-member church, Beloved Church of Lena, filed suit in federal court seeking a ruling…
(Courtesy of University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law on Facebook) Tabernacle Baptist Church, Nicholasville, Kentucky. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Houses of worship in Kentucky can open their doors Sunday for in-person services after a federal judge ruled against Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order prohibiting mass gatherings amid the COVID-19…
Two federal judges in separate cases issued orders Friday evening halting a ban on in-person church services contained in an executive order issued by Gov. Andy Beshear due to the coronavirus pandemic. At U. S. District Court in Frankfort, Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove issued a temporary restraining order sought by…
"There’s hand sanitizer in every pew," one attendee said about having in-person worship services at Maryville Baptist Church on Easter Sunday. Louisville Courier Journal A federal judge ruled Friday that Tabernacle Baptist Church in Nicholasville, Kentucky, — and churches all around the commonwealth — may hold in-person services Sunday despite…
Source: MGN Kentucky churches will be allowed to hold services starting May 10 after rulings in two separate cases. A lawsuit by Maryville Baptist Church and its pastor arguing that Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration infringed on the congregation’s constitutional rights by restricting faith-based gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic…
AUSTIN—A district court ruling against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lubbock succeeded in uniting Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission and a committee of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention—as well as the national Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission—in a call for action by the Texas Supreme Court. The…
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…
(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…