All posts tagged: religious freedom

Poll reveals growing intolerance to Christianity in America

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Jesus warned His disciples that they would face times of trouble (John 16:33), and the Lord purposefully did this, so they could prepare their hearts beforehand on how they would deal with it. And then the Lord added in the midst of it, they could still find peace in Christ because He had conquered the world. It is advice that we need to heed today, as we are witnessing an increasing intolerance to Christianity in America, confirmed in a recent poll conducted by Lifeway in the first two weeks of September 2021. The poll found that 59% of Americans believe that there is an increasing intolerance to Christianity, and of those, 24% strongly agreed. For the remainder, only 32% said there wasn’t, while 18% said they weren’t sure. Of course, it was most noticed by those who are on the receiving end of this intolerance, as those with a Christian affiliation, 69% of Protestants and 59% of Catholics, believed this intolerance was growing. It was particularly noticed by those who have greater respect for the …

Police officer vindicated after being punished for praying in front of an abortion clinic

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The city of Louisville, KY just paid police officer, Matt Schrenger, $75,000 as part of a settlement after the city’s police force put the 13-year veteran on paid administrative leave, pending an investigation, for praying in front of an abortion clinic. According to CBN, in February 2021, Schrenger, who was off duty at the time, was with his dad when they bowed their heads and prayed in front of a closed abortion clinic one Saturday morning. Though in uniform, the decorated officer was wearing an overcoat that covered it up. His moment of prayer, which was caught by surveillance cameras, was condemned by pro-abortionists on social media. Though the resulting investigation by the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) resulted in Schrenger returning to work, with the help of the Thomas More Society, Schrenger sued the city and the LMPD in Oct 2021, for violating his constitutional rights. READ: Punished for Praying: Police Officer Vindicated After Bowing His Head in Front of Abortion Clinic

School tried to force student to take gender course

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Marcail McBride was attending, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), a prestigious public school for students with higher academic standing in Aurora, Illinois. Marcail was a senior and in order to graduate, the school required students to go through a “Student Gender and Sexuality” course that is designed to make students “experience discomfort.”

US Supreme Court blocks Cuomo’s church lockdown

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New York’s Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo is probably most famous for sending COVID patients to nursing homes and those most vulnerable to the virus. So, when Gov. Cuomo recently implemented COVID-1984 restrictions limiting church attendance in certain areas of the state to 10 or 25, a Catholic Church and two Jewish synagogues challenged Cuomo in court.

The battle for the true meaning of Christmas continues

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The American Nativity Scene (ANS) is an organization in the U.S. dedicated to having a nativity scene set up in every state legislature in America. The goal of ANS is to help keep Christ at the center of the Christmas season and it believes this is ultimately a fight for religious freedom. This year ANS announced that another four more states have agreed to displaying Nativity scenes on their legislative grounds bringing the total to 31. The new additions include: Idaho; Oklahoma; Nevada; West Virginia; and Possibly more will be added. Contrary, to what many people believe, it is not unconstitutional for a privately funded nativity scene to be set up on public property for the Christmas season. The Thomas More Society that provides free legal representation for ANS states that it is a first amendment religious freedom right and fundamentally an issue of Free Speech. In 2019, ANS reported that an additional eight capitols agreed to allow a Nativity scene bringing the total to 27, with 21 of the Nativity Scenes being provided by …

Fighting for religious freedom: Are Christians verging on becoming second class citizens?

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Samuel Alito, 70, was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 2007 under US President George Bush. He is considered an originalist when it comes to the US Constitution, meaning he interprets it as it was intended by the original writers, not by what a person wants it to mean. On Thursday, he was delivering a speech online for the Federalist Society and warned that Christians are verging on becoming second class citizens: “[There are] emerging trends in the assessment of individual rights. This is especially evident with respect to religious liberty. It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters , religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.” He added that the COVID-1984 is simply exposing this underlying sentiment and is being used to restrict religious freedom. As an example, Alito referred specifically to what happened in Nevada where Alito said the government “blatantly discriminated against houses of worship.” The state government placed heavy COVID restrictions on Houses of Worship while not doing the same for Casinos that in practice function very …

The fight for religious freedoms in England and California

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We live in interesting times. In 2016, the University of Sheffield in England kicked Felix Ngole out of its program because of a 2015 Facebook discussion. Ngole, a Christian, was attending post-graduate courses at the university with the intent of becoming a social worker. The Facebook thread involved a discussion of same-sex marriage and Ngole shared some Bible verses revealing his support of traditional marriage. A few months later an anonymous person made a complaint to the University of Sheffield who responded by kicking Ngole out of its program stating that he could not share his personal Christian opinions while attending the university. In fact, the university told Ngole he wouldn’t even be allowed to share his views off campus and that included in churches. But Ngole decided to fight this decision. Represented by Paul Diamond, an attorney who specializes in defending religious liberties, Ngole took the university to court. Though Ngole lost his initial court case, this past June, a three judge Court of Appeals ruled in Ngole’s favor stating: “The mere expression of …

De Peer city hall Credit: Royalbroil/Wikipedia/Creative Commons

Big court case defends religious freedom in small city

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It was an early Christmas present for churches in De Pere, Wisconsin and perhaps across the US. On Friday, December 21, 2018, the Pacific Justice Institute was in court in Green Bay, Wisconsin successfully defending religious freedom. The case revolved around an ordinance passed by De Pere, Wisconsin in November 2017. De Pere is a small city with about 25,000 residents, but the court case was huge and if left unchallenged could have set a precedent across the US. The law that came in effect in March, 2018, decreed that churches were for the most part “places of public accommodation.” Churches were only exempt from this ordinance during church actual services. This meant at all other times, churches, as places of accommodation, were subject to the city’s non discrimination law. This meant churches would be required to hire gay staff and would be restricted from what they could say publicly on sexual ethics including sermons posted on the internet. The law would also force churches to allow their facilities to be used for gay marriage. …

Morris home with its 200,000 Christmas tree lights Credit: Youtube capture/Fox News

Hide your faith?

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In our rapidly changing culture, some are now demanding that Christians hide their faith in public. Recently, First Liberty, a non-profit legal organization defending religious freedoms in America, sent a letter to a school district in Texas that allegedly forced students wanting to pray at lunch time to hide behind a curtain. According to First Liberty the problem started when a group of students from Honey Grove Middle School in Honey Grove, Texas met during lunch hour to pray for a former student who had been injured in an accident. When the school principal saw them praying he ordered them to stop. When the students met the next day to try praying again, the principal said that they needed to either go behind the curtains in the cafeteria or into the gym or even outside if they wanted to pray. At the bequest of student Hannah Allen and her mother, First Liberty sent a letter to the school district telling them that under the US Constitution the school had no business infringing on student’s right …

US Capitol Building, Washington, DC Credit: Jason OX4/Flickr/Creative Commons

A time to pray, a time to vote: A message from an “almost” American

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It is election day in the USA and I would urge all the American Christians who visit this website to get out and vote. Even though I am a Canadian and can’t vote in the US, I consider these elections important. Now to be fair, I am almost an American. When my maternal grandfather died over three decades ago at the age of 100, my parents made an unusual discovery as they were completing the necessary paper work. They found out that grandpa Walter was not a Canadian citizen. He immigrated to Canada from the US in the early 1900s and never bothered to complete the paperwork of citizenship. He was effectively still an American. And because he was an American, who had been born in the US, my Canadian mother could automatically become an American citizen, which she did becoming a dual citizen. Though she was an American, because she was not born in the US, her children did not have the same privilege. If we wanted to become Americans we would have to …

Credit: Thomas Hawk/Flickr/Creative Commons

‘USA Today,’ the Apostle John and the Canadian government provide ominous warnings of the future

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In the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John recorded a vision of the future that God gave him. It wasn’t just any future, it is what lay ahead for believers and the world in the end times leading to second coming of Christ. One of the verses that has caught the attentions of many people who study end times events are John’s references to the mark of the beast that would prevent people from buying and selling: 16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16-17 NASV) Remember this is a vision that John had of society in the future and he was just recording what he saw. He saw people with a mark …