MONTREAL — Quebec has launched its next debate on minority accommodation — and this one could make the erstwhile soccer-turban ban look like a leisurely stroll on the pitch.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Turbans, Kippas and Crucifixes Could Be Banned in Quebec Public Institutions Under Parti Quebecois Proposal
MONTREAL — Quebec has launched its next debate on minority accommodation — and this one could make the erstwhile soccer-turban ban look like a leisurely stroll on the pitch.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Henninger: Church Is Still Not State
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Rallies for Religious Freedom Scheduled for June 8
http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/
133 cities in 46 states, organized alphabetically by state
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Religious Liberty: A Commentary by Father Robert Barron
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Canadian Bishops Issue Letter on Religious Liberty and Freedom of Conscience
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Saturday, April 21, 2012
Organization Representing 1 million Pennsylvania Christians Supports Catholics on HHS Mandate
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Rev. Donald Green, surrounded by Abp. Robert Duncan (Anglican) and Bp. David Zubik (Catholic). |
The Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, a group representing 2,000 congregations and 26 denominations in ten counties in the region, released a statement last Friday expressing anxiety about the HHS mandate.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Supreme Court Upholds 'Ministerial Exception' in Landmark Victory for Religious Freedom
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Some links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
- Supreme Court keeps church job-bias disputes out of court, but leaves unanswered questions (AP)
- Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission et al (Full text of Supreme Court decision)
- Supreme Court Sides with Church in Landmark First Amendment Ruling (Beckett Fund)
- Supreme Court case could affect suits against Church for discrimination (CWN, 9/22/11)
- US Supreme Court discusses all-male Catholic priesthood (CWN, 10/7/11)
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Ad Targets Obama on Religious-Liberty Issues
“Dear President Obama, can I ask you a question,” the young Catholic schoolgirl asks, staring resolutely into the camera. “Why are you trying to force my church or my school to pay for things that we don’t even believe in?”
That’s the start of the latest ad from CatholicVote.org, seeking to call attention to a range of actions by the Obama administration that impinge on the religious liberty of Catholic Americans. The 30-second spot will debut today on Good Morning America in Pittsburgh. It also will air on cable stations in southwest Florida.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Graham: 'Never Retreat' Despite Day of Prayer Opposition
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In Washington Wednesday, Graham urged Christians to openly proclaim their faith -- "even if preaching the Gospel someday becomes against the law."
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Saturday, May 1, 2010
Archbishop Warns of “Civil Unrest” in Wake of UK Court Ruling against Christian Counselor
By Peter J. Smith
The clash between Christians and the state has intensified, with a UK court now having upheld the dismissal of a Christian psychologist who refused to give advice on sexual intimacy to homosexual couples - a decision the former Canterbury Archbishop Lord Carey has denounced as a prelude to “civil unrest” between Christians and the secular government.
Gary McFarlane, 48, a Bristol solicitor, father of two, and evangelical Christian, had worked part-time as a psychological counselor with Relate for five years, during which time he even gave advice to homosexual couples working out basic relationship problems. However, he was sacked from his job in 2008 when he qualified as a psychosexual counselor, because he said he could not give advice in homosexual intimacy as this violated his conscience and beliefs.
McFarlane tried without success to challenge Relate’s decision to fire him at an employment tribunal, arguing that they should have accommodated his religious views. He then appealed to the UK Court of Appeal for permission to challenge the tribunal’s ruling.
However, Lord Justice John Laws denied McFarlane’s request in a strident ruling that argued the law had no responsibility to protect the individual’s expression of conscience or religious belief.
Laws made clear that the court did not view legislation protecting individual conscience as justifiable, calling it an irrational position that “is also divisive, capricious and arbitrary."
"The conferment of any legal protection of preference upon a particular substantive moral position on the ground only that it is espoused by the adherents of a particular faith, however long its tradition, however long its culture, is deeply unprincipled," said Laws in his ruling.
"In a free constitution such as ours there is an important distinction to be drawn between the law's protection of the right to hold and express a belief and the law's protection of that belief's substance or content," ruled the Lord Justice. Laws said that if the law created special exemptions for adherents of one belief, then it would lead to a disenfranchisement of the rest of the members in society, and would lead to “theocracy, which is of necessity autocratic.”
"The law of a theocracy is dictated without option to the people, not made by their judges and governments,” wrote Laws. “The individual conscience is free to accept such dictated law, but the state, if its people are to be free, has the burdensome duty of thinking for itself."
Gary McFarlane lamented the ruling saying, "I have the ability to provide counseling services to same-sex couples.
"There should be allowances taken into account whereby individuals like me can actually avoid having to contradict their very strongly-held Christian principles."
Lord Carey struck out at Law, saying the fact that leaders of the Church of England and other faiths have felt compelled to intervene in court cases involving discrimination against Christians and their viewpoints is “illuminative of future civil unrest” coming to the United Kingdom.
"It is, of course, but a short step from the dismissal of a sincere Christian from employment to a religious bar to any employment by Christians," said Carey.
Carey denounced the judgment, saying it "continues a trend on the part of the courts to downgrade the right of religious believers to manifest their faith in what has become a deeply unedifying collision of human rights."
"The description of religious faith in relation to sexual ethics as 'discriminatory' is crude and illuminates a lack of sensitivity to religious belief,” he continued.
"The comparison of a Christian, in effect, with a 'bigot' (i.e., a person with an irrational dislike to homosexuals) begs further questions. It is further evidence of a disparaging attitude to the Christian faith and its values."
Yet the archbishop also said that Laws’ ruling suppressed British pluralism rather than encouraged it, because the state was enforcing secular values rather than embracing a neutral stance that would allow all individuals of all faiths to live out their beliefs freely.
"It heralded a 'secular' state rather than a 'neutral' one. And while with one hand the ruling seeks to protect the right of religious believers to hold and express their faith, with the other it takes away those same rights. It says that the sacking of religious believers in recent cases was not a denial of their rights even though religious belief cannot be divided from its expression in every area of the believer's life.
"Oddly the judge doesn't address the argument that rights have to be held in balance and he is apparently indifferent to the fact that religious believers are adversely affected by this judgment and others."
The disenfranchisement of Christians in the United Kingdom continues apace under the anti-discrimination laws introduced by Labour. In the past several years numerous reports of Christians losing their jobs or even being arrested simply for expressing their Christian moral views have surfaced – events that appear shocking in light of the 70th anniversary this year of Winston Churchill’s famous “Finest Hour” speech from the Second World War.
The famed British Prime Minister had rallied the British people on the eve of the Battle of Britain in June 1940 saying, “upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.” He warned that if they failed, “all that we have known and cared for will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Army Should Expect to Answer for Dumping Graham
By Allie Martin
Last week, officials with the U.S. Army Chaplain's Corp announced they had rescinded an invitation for Graham to speak at the prayer event at the Pentagon. Officials pointed to comments Graham made about Islam in 2001 as the primary reason for the disinvite. (See earlier story)Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) says the issue will be addressed later. "Of course we'll have Army officials before the Armed Services Committee quite often. I'm going to ask them about this," Wicker vows. "There is a time for proselytizing and a time for preaching. I'm a Baptist; we do that. But that's not to say that I should be unwelcomed at a time when we put our religious disagreements aside."
The Mississippi lawmaker believes the snubbing of Franklin Graham was a dangerous step -- and he adds that if current trends continue, only those who preach a diluted Christian gospel will be invited to speak at public events. Meanwhile, many of Franklin Graham's fellow preachers agree with his views on Islam.
Graham continues to see support
A poll conducted by LifeWay Research of the Southern Baptist Convention surveyed 1,000 Protestant pastors who were read a statement from Frankling Graham about Islam and a statement from former President George W. Bush describing Islam as a "noble religion."
The survey found that 47 percent of pastors agreed with Graham, 12 percent agreed with both, and one-fourth of the pastors agreed only with Bush.Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, believes that given the recent controversy over Graham's disinvite to the National Day of Prayer event, the subject of Islam will be discussed even more at churches nationwide. (Listen to audio report)
"I think there's a lot of people asking those questions and having those discussions about Islam, and I think [they're] going to continue as people want to understand," Stetzer predicts. "They see Islam in the news, they see discussions about...the National Day of Prayer. I think that's going to continue."
LifeWay's survey also found that most pastors do not believe Muslims and Christians pray to the same god. The poll was conducted about month prior to the controversy surrounding Graham and the prayer event.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Eastern Michigan University: Change Your Christian Beliefs or Leave Program
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