(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…
Religious Freedom May Now Include Discrimination Against Jews and Muslims
Image: Miracle Hill Ministries/Facebook As the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services faces harsh criticism for its proposed policy to redefine “sex,” another memo sits on the desk of HHS Secretary Alex Azar, one that would allow South Carolina child welfare agency Miracle Hill Ministries to affirmatively discriminate on…
As religious freedom law turns 25, vast majority of Democrats oppose what Bill Clinton signed into law
Twenty-five years after President Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, most Americans don’t know about current aggressive efforts to amend RFRA into oblivion. In the last two months before the election, 50 House Democrats became new cosponsors on a bill gutting the 25-year-old Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That…
Austin Is Being Sued Over an LGBTQ Discrimination Ordinance
(Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images) After two conservative Christian groups filed lawsuits against the city of Austin over the past week challenging an ordinance that protects LGBTQ individuals from discrimination, Texas LGBTQ advocates said Wednesday they do not think the lawsuits will hold up in court. The first lawsuit , filed…
Two cakes, two courts, two countries: Same result for Christian bakers
Ashers Bakery owners Amy and Daniel McArthur outside the Supreme Court in London, on Oct. 10, 2018. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP) LONDON (RNS) — On both sides of the Atlantic, a drama set in a bakery has pitted freedom of religion against LGBT civil rights and Exhibit A has been…
How do we get past politics and unite behind religious freedom?
Ambassador Sam Brownback delivers a speech about religious freedown during the 25th annual International Law and Religion Symposium at in Salt Lake City on Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. Qiling Wang, Deseret News (courtesy) It shouldn’t sound as difficult as it does. During his recent visit to Provo, Utah to speak…
Why America’s religious freedom ambassador thinks everyone can help ‘fight’ for this ‘foundational’ right
PROVO — Sam Brownback is a diplomat, chosen by the Trump administration to travel the world promoting religious freedom. But he sometimes describes himself as a salesman, and he thinks he’s got a great deal for global leaders. If they’ll agree to strengthen religious freedom protections in their countries, to…
Religious freedom could be Morrison’s first major test
Scott Morrison is just starting to tell Australians about who he is and what he stands for. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen Prime Minister Scott Morrison does not hesitate when asked if Australia needs new laws to protect religious freedom . “Yes,” he says. He is yet to set out exactly […]…
PM flags extension of anti-discrimination laws to cover religious beliefs
The prime minister has revived the religious freedom issue months after a review was handed to his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has given his clearest indication yet that his government would change anti-discrimination laws so that religious beliefs were protected – just as race, gender or […]…
E.J. Dionne to lecture on American religion, inequality, and populism
Noted columnist and commentator E.J. Dionne, Jr. (left) will present a public lecture Sept. 27 on American religion, inequality and populism, the culmination of a day of events honoring Candler emeritus professor Jon P. Gunnemann (right). Noted columnist and commentator E.J. Dionne, Jr. will give a public lecture titled, […]…