News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Ninety-nine years ago, Democrat Sen. John Walter Smith of Maryland provided $50 of his own — not government — money to help erect a cross in his home state. He was responding to a request from Mrs. Martin Redman, a mother who had lost her son in World War I.…
Fox News Flash top headlines for June 18 On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States threw out a lower court ruling and $135,000 penalty against bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein, for following their religious convictions . The Court’s decision is a victory not only for Aaron and Melissa…
Aaron Klein talked before those gathered at the Omni Shoreham Hotel about the fallout from he and his wife’s refusal to make a same-sex wedding cake. The United States Supreme Court vacated a ruling against a Christian couple forced to pay $135,000 for refusing to make a gay wedding cake.…
Newlyweds Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed celebrate their marriage and win over bigotry. The Washington State Supreme Court on June 6 upheld its previous decision in Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit against a Richland florist. The court again found that Arlene’s Flowers violated Washington’s Consumer Protection Act and the Washington…
The case of a Washington state florist who was fined for refusing to make a floral arrangement for a gay wedding in 2013 could go back to the US Supreme Court. On Thursday, the Washington state Supreme Court stood by its earlier ruling against Baronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers.…
On Thursday, the Washington state Supreme Court stood by its earlier ruling against Baronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers. As CBN News reported last year, the US Supreme Court had rejected Washington’s previous ruling, ordering the state justices to review their decision against Stutzman and consider whether they violated her…
Florist’s same-sex wedding case handed back to lower court In a hotly anticipated decision, the Washington Supreme Court ruled against a florist who was fined for not providing services for a gay couple’s wedding. The court had previously heard the case, State of Washington v. Arlene’s Flowers, ruling that Barronelle…
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…
Baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, manages his shop after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he could refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs did not violate Colorado’s anti-discrimination law Monday, June 4, 2018, in Lakewood, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)…
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…
Explore Recipes and Stories By Aleksandr Sverdlik / Guest Columnist One pork sandwich every eight hours for six straight days. That’s the only food that Border Patrol provided to Adnan Asif Parveen, a Muslim immigrant who was detained in South Texas in January because his work permit had expired and…
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,…
Pussy Riot performs in concert during Day For Night festival on December 16, 2017 in Houston, Texas © Getty Images / Gary Miller Two recent rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demonstrate not only that it’s a political and hypocritical organization. They also show the severe structural…
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…
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres make remarks at a press conference. Today, on the front page of the United Nations’ website is an article entitled, “French full-body veil ban, violated women’s freedom of religion: UN Human Rights Committee.” In 2012, two French Muslim women sent complaints to the U.N. when a…
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…
Pakistani religious groups protest against a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) The citizens of Ireland voted recently, in a nationwide referendum, to remove a clause from their constitution that had made blasphemy a criminal offense. Ireland’s now-defunct…
Jack J. Lew ’78, former Secretary of the Treasury and Chief of Staff under President Obama, and Noah R. Feldman ’92, a Law School professor, held a discussion about identity, faith, and public responsibility at Harvard Law School. Jack J. Lew ’78, Secretary of the Treasury and White House Chief…
Are you sick of the constant political campaign commercials? Sick of hearing the names of the candidates? Sick of hearing how Candidate X is the best thing since sliced bread or the worst, depending on which political party or political action committee paid for the advertisement? Me, too. (Maybe we…
(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…
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…
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…
(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…