News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Pastor John MacArthur announced during the Shepherd’s Conference held earlier this month that next year’s conference will include a summit on biblical inerrancy. Photo taken March 7, 2014. Pastor John MacArthur, whose Grace Community Church had been holding in-person services in violation of the state’s COVID-19 health orders, is celebrating…
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, 140 S. Ct. 2049 (2020) Summary: The ministerial exception, grounded in First Amendment’s religion clauses, barred teachers’ employment discrimination claims where teachers educated their students in the Catholic faith and guided their students to live their lives in accordance with that faith. Read…
Image via YouTube, Screen capture A 2018 lawsuit brought by a member of The Satanic Temple (TST) against a Missouri abortion law spurred a debate about religious liberty and abortion rights. Judy Doe, the name given to the plaintiff in the suit, claimed that the state of Missouri’s law requiring…
A personal lawyer to President Donald Trump has been retained by high-profile pastor John MacArthur and his Grace Community Church in a COVID-19 fight with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the City of Los Angeles. Grace Community Church has defied government health mandates that prohibit large gatherings to prevent the…
NEWS PROVIDED BY Thomas More Society LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5, 2020 / Christian Newswire / — The Thomas More Society announces that nationally renowned attorneys Jenna Ellis and Charles LiMandri will represent Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California, as Special Counsel. Grace Community Church, its…
The Payroll Protection Program was a good idea to help boost the economy by funding small businesses during the pandemic. Unfortunately, allowing the Small Business Administration to grant federal taxpayer funds to multi-billion-dollar, international nonprofit corporations with hundreds of thousands of employees is a significant violation of the Constitution’s First…
I read with interest the July 17 letter to the editor " Government can’t force birth control ," about businesses denying birth control in their employees’ health insurance due to the employer’s religious beliefs. The letter contended that doing so “eliminates one more instance of unnecessary coercion in our society,”…
Supreme Court of the United States (STOCK PHOTO) Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts angered conservatives when he ruled with the four liberal justices that the state of Nevada does have the power to limit Church attendees to just 50 in a 5 to 4 decision that was a serious blow…
FILE – This June 30, 2020, file photo shows the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. RENO, Nev. (AP) — A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court denied a rural Nevada church’s request late Friday to strike down as unconstitutional a 50-person cap on worship services as part of the state’s ongoing…
The sisters’ refusal comes from a deeply held religious conviction which requires them to protect innocent human life. If they furnish medical insurance under ACA requirements, they will be providing drugs which extinguish or prevent the formation of life in the womb. By doing so they would be forced to…
A transgender man last week filed a lawsuit against a Catholic-run hospital in Maryland, citing in his complaint June’s landmark Supreme Court decision on transgender rights , fulfilling conservative fears that the ruling would usher in a legal war. The suit, filed on behalf of Jesse Hammons by the American…
Over at The Washington Post, Radley Balko has been continually updating a piece where he offers evidence that the “criminal justice system is racist.” Here are just a few of the examples Balko provides: A 2010 report by the Equal Justice Initiative documented cases in which courts upheld prosecutors’ dismissal…
Dangerous precedents are being set in a case before the Washington, D.C. Superior Court. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons July 20 (UPI) — Across the United States, a groundswell of alarm is rising among people of faith as judges increasingly disregard their First Amendment rights. Legal challenges to religious expression…
[co-author: Nathaniel Bernstein] Key Cases Courts Reach Mixed Conclusions on Challenges to COVID-19 Assembly Restrictions Nathan A. Adams IV Several recent cases concern challenges to executive orders relating to COVID-19 limiting the ability of churches to assemble and imposing other limitations. Beginning with appellate decisions, these cases are summarized in…
The Supreme Court has decided, 7-2, that teachers in Catholic elementary schools are not covered by employment discrimination law. This is a highly important expansion of religious exemptions from government regulation. The Supreme Court had already given religious institutions an exemption for so-called “ministerial” employees. It has now gone substantially…
(Bloomberg Opinion) — The Supreme Court has decided, 7-2, that teachers in Catholic elementary schools are not covered by employment discrimination law. This is a highly important expansion of religious exemptions from government regulation. The Supreme Court had already given religious institutions an exemption for so-called “ministerial” employees. It has…
Tom Alexander holds a cross as he prays prior to rulings outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 8, 2020. The Supreme Court is siding with two Catholic schools in a ruling that underscores that certain employees of religious schools, hospitals and social service centers can’t…
In a year beset by disappointing decisions from the Supreme Court, a trio of religious liberty cases decided this term provides constitutionalists with some hope. Let’s review: Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania The Little Sisters of the Poor is an order of female Catholics that has been serving…
Hide caption Erin Hawley (InsideSources.com) InsideSources.com With its trifecta of religious liberty decisions this term, the Supreme Court may finally be poised to give equal weight to religious liberty. It’s about time. In a year beset by disappointing decisions from the Supreme Court, a trio of religious liberty cases decided…
In a year beset by disappointing decisions from the Supreme Court, a trio of religious liberty cases decided this term provides constitutionalists with some hope. Let’s review: Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania The Little Sisters of the Poor need no introduction. This order of female Catholics has been…
(RNS photo by Aaron Schrank) The Supreme Court elated religious free exercise advocates and alarmed secular groups with its June 30 ruling on public funding for religious education, a decision whose long-term effect on the separation of church and state remains to be seen. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of…
“Religious discrimination.” It’s an accusation we hear with increasing frequency. Indeed, discrimination on the basis of religion is one of the few common concerns our divided society has left. But even here, political polarization has left its mark. As conservatives use it, “religious discrimination” carries a meaning that is largely…
Creative Commons Having been raised Baptist and then Methodist, I understand how important religion, especially Christianity, can be to many people. Furthermore, I have been in the public school system for 14 years, starting in kindergarten and continuing through college. I can absolutely understand why many parents choose to send…
WASHINGTON — Tom Alexander holds a cross Wednesday outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in on Wednesday as he prays prior to key rulings involving religion. [Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press] Patrick Semansky Hide caption Remember civics class … and not paying attention? These days, we need that civics lesson more…
The Supreme Court ruled that St. James Catholic School in Torrance cannot be sued for discrimination after it dismissed a teacher who needed to go on medical leave. To the editor: Society should not have the right to impose its values upon religious groups and institutions in the internal conduct…