Free Republic

Fourteen: That's how many times the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in its fight to roll back compulsory unionism. They're going at it again in a high court term that, among other battles, pits environmentalism against national security, and defines the limits of free speech. Fleeting profanity On Nov. 4 the high court justices will hear arguments in a case prompted by entertainers' apparent affinity for the F-word. In 2002 and 2003, singer-actress Cher and actress Nicole Richie each used variations of the word in separate broadcasts of the Billboard Music...

While the highly charged debate on climate change and global warming ensues, Obama wants kindergarten children to be taught climate change science in the classroom. On May 14, 2007, Obama introduced in the Senate, a bill called, the “Climate Change Education Act,” which authorizes “the National Science Foundation to establish a Climate Change Education Program.”

A public school's decision to fold over a portion of a kindergartner's poster to hide an image of Jesus did not violate the youngster's right to free speech, a federal judge has determined. Antonio Peck's teacher and school principal had "legitimate pedagogical concerns" when deciding to edit the boy's poster for a school display promoting environmental awareness, Northern District of New York Judge Norman A. Mordue ruled in Peck v. Baldwinsville Central School District, 99-cv-1847. Those valid concerns of Antonio's teacher, Susan Weichert, and the principal, Robert Creme, were that parents at the Catherine McNamara Elementary School in Baldwinsville, outside...

Excerpt..... A new policy banning Virginia State Police chaplains from saying Jesus,’ Christ’ during prayer is stirring up a lot of controversy. Six chaplains have already resigned over the issue. “In the bible it says to pray in Jesus name,” said Charlotte Ryan, Johnson City, Tennessee resident. Claude Duncan from Johnson City is also against the prayer policy change. “I think it’s a terrible thing that they would create such a thing that would deny us the privilege of praying in the name of our savor, Jesus Christ,” Duncan said. We found strong opposition on Monday to a decision.........

A friend of yours has recommended you visit http://injesusnameipray.org. This site gives you the ability to join Delegate Bill Carrico and voice your opposition to the decision by Colonel W. Steven Flaherty's to not allow State Trooper chaplains to pray in Jesus name and to reinstate the chaplains that resigned due to this request. Please forward this email to as many people as you wish.

As the presidential election draws closer, a conservative group has launched an effort to “reclaim pastors’ constitutional right to speak freely and truthfully from the pulpit.” Pastors may comment on candidates and voting -- without fearing loss of their tax exemption, the Alliance Defense Fund insists. The group says its Pulpit Initiative is a legal effort designed to protect the First Amendment rights of pastors. As part of that effort, pastors participating in Pulpit Freedom Sunday on September 28 will deliver to sermons of their own that apply Scripture to the subject of candidates running for government office. Not so...

Controversy stirs over state police ruling on prayer By CHELYEN DAVIS [in the Free-Lance Star newspaper of Fredericksburg, VA] http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/092008/09262008/413698 Date published: 9/26/2008 RICHMOND-- A Fredericksburg court case has set off a flurry of accusations between Republicans and Democrats over public prayer. The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a Fredericksburg City Council ban on referring to Jesus Christ in public prayers that open council meetings. So Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. Steve Flaherty directed state police chaplains to avoid references to Christ in their public prayers--they were told to use nondenominational prayers in public, although they could...

When federal judges in San Francisco ruled in 2002 that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because it included the phrase “under God,” Sarah Palin was not amused. Palin, who at the time was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, quickly drafted a terse letter to the editor of a San Francisco newspaper. “Dear Editor,” Palin wrote in 2002. “San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase ‘under God’ away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words,” Palin wrote. “God Bless America,” she concluded.

When federal judges in San Francisco ruled in 2002 that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because it included the phrase "under God," Sarah Palin was not amused. Palin, who at the time was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, quickly drafted a terse letter to the editor of a San Francisco newspaper. Dear Editor, Palin wrote in 2002. "San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase "under God" away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words," Palin wrote. "God Bless America", she concluded. Hundreds of notes...

When federal judges in San Francisco ruled in 2002 that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because it included the phrase "under God," Sarah Palin was not amused. Palin, who at the time was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, quickly drafted a terse letter to the editor of a San Francisco newspaper. “Dear Editor,” Palin wrote in 2002. “San Francisco judges forbidding our Pledge of Allegiance? They will take the phrase ‘under God’ away from me when my cold, dead lips can no longer utter those words,” Palin wrote. “God Bless America,” she concluded. Hundreds of notes...

RICHMOND Thou shalt not mention specific deities in public prayers. That command was handed down recently to Virginia State Police troopers who work as chaplains, prompting several to resign the religious part of their jobs because they are forbidden to mention a particular god by name. Republican legislators blasted the policy Wednesday, marking the latest flare-up in the debate over how much religion is appropriate in government. Del. Charles W. "Bill" Carrico Sr., R-Grayson, declared the decision an "attack on Christianity" and is leading a campaign to have it reversed. "Censoring what these chaplains can say is a violation of...

John Adams:“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”• “[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.” –John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress... Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any...

Contact: Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, 719-360-5132 cell, chaplaingate@yahoo.com RICHMOND, Virginia, Sept. 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is defending why his administration forced the sudden resignation of five Virginia State Police Chaplains because they prayed publicly "in Jesus' name." Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty single-handedly created then enforced a strict "non-sectarian" prayer policy at all public gatherings, censoring and excluding Christian prayers, then accepted the resignation of five chaplains who refused to deny Jesus or violate their conscience by watering down their prayers. House Republican Leader Morgan Griffith and Delegate Charles W. Carrico, (R-Grayson) both issued public...

ATLANTA -- Georgia lawmakers are considering allowing guns in more public places, including churches, sporting events, and even university campuses. Religious leaders were among those who spoke out against the possible changes Tuesday, saying churches, temples and mosques should remain gun-free sanctuaries. The chairman of a state Senate study committee looking at Georgia's firearms laws cautioned that any proposed legislation was in its infancy. "We're working toward a draft," said state Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, a Republican from Sharpsburg. But "template" legislation circulated Tuesday would make it possible for the estimated 300,000 Georgians with gun permits to carry their weapons to...

Let's see. Barack Obama's pastor, before he was thrown under the bus, was Jeremiah Wright who regular railed against America. A favorite priest of the Left is Father Pfleger, the highly politicized NUtcase who has no problems preaching politics from the pulpit. So now some DUmmie is OUTRAGED when he thinks his church is injecting politics into its sermons as you can see in this THREAD titled, "I dropped this note into the collection basket at my Mom's church today." So what does this title tell us? It tells us that it was his MOM's church which means this...

Some troubling e-mails following my article "First Amendment 101 – Whoopie’s Lesson," in which I attempted to clarify for Whooopie Goldberg – co-host of ABC’s “The View” – some of the finer truths regarding the establishment clause, has prompted me to expand the tutorial for her (and for those who suggested I ought to do more research before commenting on such “nuanced” and “complicated” matters as the first amendment). From the top. The oft-alluded to “separation of church and state” clause exists nowhere in the federal Constitution. (This should be a booming “well, duh” factoid by now). Thomas Jefferson’s use...

Willmar Schools Won't Change Policy On Prayer Time WILLMAR, Minn. (AP) ― Willmar public school officials are sticking with their original policy on when to allow Somali students to pray. Some Somali parents in Willmar had complained that the public schools weren't allowing their Muslim children to step out of class for daily prayer. Some didn't send their children to school last week in protest. School officials met with a Somali parent to listen to the concerns but said they're not changing their policy. Willmar Junior High School Principal Mark Miley says at a meeting six years ago, Somali families...

A Federal judge said that it was OK for a Poway, California school teacher to sue his school district for forcing him to remove a banner that featured well known, patriotic American references to God in an early September ruling. Math teacher Brad Johnson who teachers at Westview High in San Diego County, California, had the banner on his classroom wall for the last 20 years but only last year was told by school administrators that the banner was supposedly an affront to the principles of separation of Church and State. ... cont.

A Federal judge said that it was OK for a Poway, California school teacher to sue his school district for forcing him to remove a banner that featured well known, patriotic American references to God in an early September ruling. Math teacher Brad Johnson who teachers at Westview High in San Diego County, California, had the banner on his classroom wall for the last 20 years but only last year was told by school administrators that the banner was supposedly an affront to the principles of separation of Church and State. After two decades without complaint, Johnson was told his...

Prof. Thomas Nagel, a self-declared atheist who earned his PhD. in philosophy at Harvard 45 years ago, who has been a professor at U.C. Berkeley, Princeton, and the last 28 years at New York University, and who has published ten books and more than 60 articles, has published an important essay, "Public Education and Intelligent Design," in the Wiley InterScience Journal Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 36, issue 2, on-line at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118493933/home (fee for access US $29.95). Prof. Nagel's paper is a significant and substantial opening, at America's highest intellectual level, that encourages all intelligent, educated, informed individuals — particularly...

Brad Johnson with his patriotic banners San Diego, Sep 10, 2008 / 07:51 am (CNA).- A federal judge ruled on Friday that a San Diego high school teacher has a free speech right to display patriotic banners in his classroom with messages such as “God Bless America,” “In God We Trust,” and “One Nation Under God.” School officials had ordered the banners removed on the grounds they promoted a “Judeo-Christian” viewpoint.Brad Johnson, a high school math teacher, had displayed such red, white and blue banners in his Poway Unified School District high school for twenty-five years before they were...

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn): "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Last week, Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) and the Minnesota Department of Education appeared to reach an understanding in the controversy over whether Islam is being promoted at this public school. But behind the scenes, a storm may be brewing. TiZA officials have "taken a confrontational road" in discussions with the department, according to Deputy MDE Commissioner Chas Anderson, the department's No. 2 official. Anderson says that the two sides have not yet reached an agreement on one key issue and that MDE will be closely monitoring TiZA's performance in future months.

A math teacher sued his school district after the principal told him the words "In God We Trust" and "All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their Creator" must be removed from his homeroom wall because they convey a Judeo-Christian viewpoint. In January, Principal Dawn Kastner told Westview High School math teacher Bradley Johnson that a banner he had posted in his classroom for 25 years, and another that was posted for 17 years, needed to come down. The older banner, measuring 7 feet by 2 feet, contained the words "In God We Trust," "One Nation Under God,"...

(This is from an email forwarded to me that allegedly came from a local pastor. I have followed up with the pastor personally, and he confirmed that the email was indeed originally sent by him, and accurately represents his experience. Even though he did not specifically ask me to do this, I have redacted the most easily identifying information - but I will provide it to folks who FReepmail me with a specific request for it.) Gentlemen, I never write mass emails and am repulsed by hyped up causes that are emailed to me. But I am writing to you...

"If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, I would never have placed my signature to it." -- George Washington -- There is an ever-growing debate in America over the relationship between government and religion. In recent times, Constitutional law, or at least the modern-day interpretation thereof, has moved from one of accommodation concerning religion to a position many call hostile to the expression of personal faith in the public square. From their writings, it's clear...

ANAHEIM A north Orange County high school has been told it can no longer ban a Bible club from meeting on campus and must offer them listings in the school's yearbook and Web site, it was reported Thursday. Until the federal court ruling, students had been prevented from starting a Bible club at Esperanza High School in Anaheim. Placentia-Yorba Linda School District officials argued that only curriculum-related groups are allowed on campus, the Los Angeles Times reported. But in issuing a preliminary injunction last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney said that Esperanza does allow other groups -- such...

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of two high school students who say they are offended by the school's policy of allowing prayer at voluntary events and holding Christmas concerts at churches. The students, from Pace High School in Pace, Fla., are identified only as Minor I Doe and Minor II Doe in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court because they are both under 18. The complaint alleges disclosure of their names would put the students at risk of "social ostracism, economic injury, governmental retaliation … and potential physical harm." Benjamin Stevenson, staff...

(CNSNews.com) - Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Ill. – where Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama worshipped for two decades – has received more than $1.5 million in federal tax money since 2003 through the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI), according to data provided to CNSNews.com by the White House and confirmed by Rebecca Neale, spokesperson for the FBCI. Obama and his wife officially left Trinity United in May 2008 after their friend, the former long-time pastor of the church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, gave a controversial press conference in Washington, D.C. Obama supports the FCBI and said...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A slim majority of Americans, including more conservatives and Republicans than previously, want to keep religion out of politics, a survey released on Thursday found. The results come as Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain actively vie for the support of religious voters among others ahead of the November 4 presidential election. The survey by the Pew Research Center found that 52 percent of Americans thought that churches and other religious institutions should stay out of politics, an increase of eight percentage points since 2004, when the last U.S. presidential election was held.

The same California Supreme Court that created a "right" to homosexual "marriage" earlier this year has now ruled that the state may force healthcare professionals to provide services that support an immoral and physically dangerous lifestyle. California's highest court was unanimous in its decision on Monday that Christian doctors may not refuse to perform artificial insemination for homosexual patients. (See "California court says no religious exemption for doctors") Attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), reacts to the ruling. "This is a clear violation of the fundamental rights of individuals to live and practice their faith," he...

FReep This Poll! "Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?" Yes. - It's a violation of the principle of separation of church and state. No. - The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion. Click onto the link provided. Vote your choice. Thank you FReepers.

California physicians may not refuse treatment to patients based on their sexual orientation even if it violates their religious beliefs, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday. [[Benitez081908.jpg]]In a unanimous decision, the high court said two Vista physicians who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian from Oceanside because their religious convictions prohibited such procedures for unmarried persons could be sued for violating the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, reversing an appellate court that had ruled otherwise. “Do the rights of religious freedom and free speech, as guaranteed in both the federal and the California Constitutions, exempt a medical clinic’s physicians from...

SAN FRANCISCO, August 19, 2008 (LifeSIteNews.com) - A lesbian woman in California has won a law suit in which she claims doctors at a fertility clinic discriminated against her based on her sexual orientation.In a 7-0 decision yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled that religious beliefs do not excuse doctors from the state's anti-discrimination law, which "imposes on business establishments certain antidiscrimination obligations.""The 1st Amendment's right to the free exercise of religion does not exempt defendant physicians here from conforming their conduct to the . . . antidiscrimination requirements, even if compliance poses an incidental conflict with the defendants'...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103424/ Atheist challenges ‘In God We Trust’ Pledge of Allegiance foe Newdow sues to remove motto from U.S. currency updated 9:09 p.m. CT, Fri., Nov. 18, 2005 SAN FRANCISCO - An atheist who has spent four years trying to ban the Pledge of Allegiance from being recited in public schools is now challenging the motto printed on U.S. currency because it refers to God. Michael Newdow seeks to remove “In God We Trust” from U.S. coins and dollar bills, claiming in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that the motto is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Newdow, a Sacramento doctor and...

ANDALUSIA, Alabama (AP) -- An Alabama judge who once wore the Ten Commandments embroidered on his robe has been accused of violating judicial ethics for ordering a group in his courtroom to hold hands and pray.

SAN FRANCISCO - An atheist who has spent four years trying to ban the Pledge of Allegiance from being recited in public schools is now challenging the motto printed on U.S. currency because it refers to God. Michael Newdow seeks to remove “In God We Trust” from U.S. coins and dollar bills, claiming in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that the motto is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion....

Science tried to purge other scientists who disagree with the establishment http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19904502&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

ORLANDO, Fla. — A team of psychic detectives is assisting Orlando police in their search for missing three-year-old Florida girl Caylee Marie Anthony, according to local news reports. The group, known as "Body Hunters" and lead by psychic detective Gale St. John, is "blind driving" around Central Florida in search for the toddler who was last seen June 16, Local6.com reported. "We will not even look at street names," psychic detective Gale St. John told the TV station and its Web site on Monday. "We drive and go completely on feeling instinct, chasing down what we call a person signature."...

Lewis-Palmer School District 38 did not violate the First Amendment rights of a 2006 graduate when it disciplined her for mentioning Jesus Christ in a valedictorian speech, a federal judge has ruled. The former student, Erica Corder, said Thursday that she is considering an appeal. U.S. District Court Judge Walker D. Miller dismissed the lawsuit Corder filed in August 2007, accusing the school district of violating free speech and free religious expression. Corder was one of several top-performing students chosen to share in Lewis-Palmer High School's 2006 commencement speech. The students' remarks were screened in advance, but Corder changed her...

ANN ARBOR, MI — Today, July 31st at 10:00AM EST, a New Jersey Federal Court heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to a public school district’s policy totally banning Christmas music, including simple instrumentals without words, during year-end celebrations in its schools. The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan filed the federal lawsuit on the grounds that the school district’s ban on religious music conveys a government-sponsored message of disapproval and hostility toward religion in violation of the Establishment Clause. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center,...

This past week the Thomas More Law Center won the latest round against the ACLU in a twenty year legal battle to remove a large cross which stands atop a National memorial cemetery in San Diego. The ruling judge - Larry Alan Burns - wrote: “The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice. As such, despite its location on public land, the memorial is Constitutional.” Assessing the temporal nature of the victory, Richard Thompson from Thomas More said: Sadly, I fully expect the ACLU attorneys...

Mara Vanderslice is a frenetic far-Leftist who worked for the Kerry campaign in 2004 — also then trying to con Christians into voting Democrat. Background on her here A new political group that claims to be a Christian organization has endorsed pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Matthew 25 Network plans to run ads for Obama on Christian radio stations and in newspapers and magazines that appeal to Christians. The object is to try to pry away evangelical voters from supporting John McCain, who has already received the endorsement of a number of evangelical and Catholic groups and leaders.Mara Vanderslice,...

The giant cross atop Mount Soledad can stay, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The La Jolla landmark has been the subject of nearly 20 years of litigation, public votes and legislative maneuvers as critics complain it's unconstitutional to have a religious symbol on public land. But yesterday, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said the cross – visible for miles – has become a memorial to veterans, and its secular message outweighs any religious meaning. “The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death, and sacrifice,” Burns wrote. As...

The giant cross atop Mount Soledad can stay, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The La Jolla landmark has been the subject of nearly 20 years of litigation, public votes and legislative maneuvers as critics complain it's unconstitutional to have a religious symbol on public land. But yesterday, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said the cross – visible for miles – has become a memorial to veterans, and its secular message outweighs any religious meaning. “The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death, and sacrifice,” Burns wrote. As...

<p>Miami-Dade police officials plan to include in their 2009 handbook a note about how to respond to calls about ritual animal sacrifices.</p> <p>The decision comes a year after Coral Gables officers raided a home where practitioners of Santeria were slaughtering goats, chickens and pigeons. Several worshippers were held at gunpoint and detained for hours.</p>

In yet another example of why the west might not beat the onslaught of radical Islamofascism, Minette Marrin of the Timesonline thinks she has found a solution to the clash of cultures. Marrin details the extremism evinced by too many Muslims in England and then posits a solution: ban all religion. Talk about an absurd idea. It's as foolish as throwing out the baby with the bath water. It also discounts thousands of years of worthy and enlightened western culture influenced, guided and based on Christian philosophy. In To beat extremism we must dissolve religious groups, Marrin's wooly headed prescription...

Secularists in the West will agree with this, then they will point out that under Islamic law, people are not all equal. No non-Muslim, for example, could become the president. Well, in response to that fact, in turn, secularism is no different. No Muslim could become president in a secular regime, for in order to pledge loyalty to the constitution, a Muslim would have to abandon part of his belief and embrace the belief of secularism — which is practically another religion. For Muslims, the word 'religion' does not only refer to a collection of beliefs and rituals, it refers...

A federal court has ordered the state of Colorado to stop discriminating against students of a Christian college, a facility that state officials determined provided too much religion. The state for years has provided grants to students of secular institutions as well as students at a Methodist university and a Roman Catholic university, according to yesterday's opinion from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. However, students at Colorado Christian University, a non-denominational evangelical Protestant university, were banned from the grant program after state officials decided the school was too pervasively sectarian. "We find the exclusion unconstitutional for two reasons:...

The Believer's Guide to Legal Issues is favorably reviewed in the August, 2008, issue of Pulpit Helps Magazine. "The author gives practical advice on a number of issues," notes reviewer Glen H. Jones, writing in the Pastors' Library literary section. "[Author Stephen Bloom's] legal calling is geared toward Christians who must often face conflicts between the law and their Christian profession," he continues. Jones rates the book "highly recommended" for all readers. Pulpit Helps has provided help and resources for pastors and Bible teachers for 30 years.