Free Republic

CITY PRAYER POLICY UPHELD Fredericksburg Free Lance - Star Fredericksburg Virginia http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/072008/07242008/397448 Date published: 7/24/2008 BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE Fredericksburg City Council can keep Jesus Christ out of its prayers. The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the city's right to start its meetings with nonsectarian prayers. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sat on the three-judge panel hearing the case and wrote the opinion. "She didn't feel my rights were being violated, but my rights are definitely being violated," said City Councilman Hashmel Turner, who filed the case. "It removed an opportunity for me to pray...

WASHINGTON, July 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that the city council of Fredericksburg, Virginia had proper authority to require "non-sectarian" prayer content and exclude council-member Rev. Hashmel Turner from the prayer rotation because he prayed "in Jesus' name." Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing the decision, said: "The restriction that prayers be nonsectarian in nature is designed to make the prayers accessible to people who come from a variety of backgrounds, not to exclude or disparage a particular faith." Ironically, she admitted Turner was excluded from participating solely because of the...

A little more than four years ago, Brandi Swindell, Bryan Fischer and a group called Generation Life hoped to stop the city council of Boise, Idaho, from removing a Ten Commandments monument that had stood in a city park since 1965. The city council accepted no public input into its decision, so Generation Life was compelled to file a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order on the city's action. Generation Life lost that case, and even though they later took another suit to the Idaho Supreme Court, winning the right to have the citizens of Boise vote on the monument's...

Colorado's new state law that was based on the apparent belief that free speech rights are not unalienable and they sometimes must be restricted is scaring residents who now fear expressing their opinions in public. WND has reported previously that the law, SB200, which was promoted as an "anti-discrimination" plan favoring alternative sexual lifestyles and gender perceptions, has made it a criminal offense to discriminate against someone based on those lifestyles or perceptions. The Christian publishing house Focus on the Family has called it a payback by the Democrat-controlled legislature and Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter to homosexual activists such as...

Seattle mayor Greg Nickels (D) announced that henceforth weapons will be banned from all city-owned property—as a safety measure. The ban is believed to have been inspired by a shooting last month that injured three people at Seattle Center. Nickels allowed that criminals aren’t likely to abide by the new rules, but contended, nonetheless, that safety would be enhanced because “thugs won’t have to exert as much force to get what they want. A robber won’t have to shoot if he knows his victim is unarmed. So, some money may change hands, but there’ll be no need for violence. Even...

An Ohio county public library has closed its meeting rooms to the public rather than allow them to be used by a Christian group. George and Cathy Vandergriff wanted to host a Crown Financial Ministries "Financial Freedom" workshop in a public meeting room at the Clermont County, Ohio, public library. Tim Chandler, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says the couple was told that, because the class would be quoting from the Bible, they could not hold it at the library. "The Supreme Court said, more than 25 years ago, that once you've opened up meeting space, you...

It will start with warning signs and bureaucratic policy reviews. Or pat-downs and bag searches at park entrances, festival gates and holiday events? Although resorting to such measures would be a "shame," Nickels said, he would not rule them out during a Monday news conference to announce his prohibition of concealed weapons on city property. "We do hope that our parks and our Seattle Center events remain open and accessible and welcoming to all," Nickels said. "But we will also make sure that they're safe." Nor is it yet clear whether Nickels' move will land the city in court --...

SEATTLE -- Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has signed an executive order that asks all departments to come up with a plan within 30 days to ban guns at all property owned by the city.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has signed an executive order that asks all departments to come up with a plan within 30 days to ban guns at all property owned by the city. The mayor's office says a public hearing will be held to gather comment on Monday's order but it does not require city council approval.Nickels says the added gun restriction is needed because of a shooting at last month's Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center that wounded two people.

Thousands of stone Ten Commandments monuments on highly visible properties in communities across the nation, millions of smaller plaques in Christian and Jewish homes, and a massive bronze showing the biblical image of Moses holding the stones on which God wrote… The target of the ACLU? Nope. Thanks to the ACLU! Joe Worthing, the executive director for Project Moses, says his organization, only a few years old, is well on its way to reaching many of its goals of placing Ten Commandments monuments all over the nation, and it's because of a complaint from the ACLU. The ministry was launched...

Washington DC, Apr 4, 2008 / 06:40 am (CNA).- The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case in its next term to decide whether a Utah city must allow a monument to be installed in a public park by a New Age group that promotes pyramids, mummification, and sexual ecstasy, Cybercast News Service reports. This week Supreme Court justices agreed to hear a case involving a Salt Lake City-based religion called Summum, whose founder claims to have been visited by “highly intelligent beings.”  The group, arguing on First Amendment grounds, has sought to erect a monument to its “Seven Aphorisms”...

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a free speech case in which a church wants to place a religious monument in a park. Officials in Pleasant Grove City, Utah, asked the court to step into the lawsuit brought by the religious group known as Summum, saying that if the group prevails, governments would be inundated with demands to display donated monuments. The dispute stems from Pleasant Grove City's refusal to allow the display of a "Seven Aphorisms of Summum" monument in the same park that is the home for a Ten Commandments monument donated by the Fraternal Order of...

PRESERVING Boston Common should mean much more than keeping the grass green ("Large events may become uncommon at city's beloved park," Page B1, March 20). The Common was America 's very first public grounds and the city should not regulate away the right of the people to assemble peaceably there for the sake of a greener lawn. If greener grass is what the city wants, they can achieve that by not allowing dogs to urinate on the grounds. Boston Parks Department maintenance people have told anyone who asks that dog urine, not peaceable assemblies, is what damages the grass most.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether a religious group must be allowed to put its monument in a city park near a similar Ten Commandments display. The justices agreed to hear an appeal by the city, Pleasant Grove in Utah, arguing that a lower-court ruling for the religious group could affect whether cities around the nation must display privately donated monuments on public property. The Summun religious group, founded in Salt Lake City in 1975, sought to erect a monument to the tenets of its faith, called the "Seven Aphorisms," in a...

A nearly 50-year-old monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments does not violate the Constitution just because it sits nearly alone on public grounds in a Washington city, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday. The division between church and state is a core principle of American democracy, but courts have long struggled to find exactly where the dividing line falls. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals cited precedent rulings in this latest case, which involves a 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter-tall) granite monument near the Old City Hall in Everett, Washington, about 25 miles north of Seattle. The court found that the...

Another tradition is making some people uneasy: the Easter Bunny. Some folks, worried that the Easter Bunny correlates too closely with Christian traditions and is therefore offensive to non-Christians, are abandoning the little fellow. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the town of Walnut Creek renamed its Easter Bunny the "Spring Bunny." The Spring Bunny participates in the town's storied annual tradition, the Spring Egg Hunt. Some malls across America are changing the Easter Bunny's name, too. According to WorldNetDaily.com, some store managers are calling their bunny "Baxter the Bunny," "Garden Bunny" or "Peter Rabbit." Peter Rabbit was the name...

Why We Whisper: Restoring Our Right to Say It’s Wrong By Jim DeMint and J. David Woodard Thursday, January 17, 2008, 6:47 AM On August 31, 2007, the president of Clemson University opened a letter from the South Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union that read, “Coach [Tommy] Bowden . . . has abused his authority as . . . head football coach by imposing his strong personal religious beliefs upon student-athletes under his charge.” In published reports, cited in the letter, the coach encouraged his players to attend one church service as a team during the two-a-day...

Christianity and Christians in general are encountering many types of persecution in the public square, even though many critics would disagree. Some of the more prominent examples include the removal of the Ten Commandments from public buildings along with the banishment of prayer and Bible-reading. Christians throughout the United States are having their faith put to the test. Christians are facing many diverse circumstances in the public squares of America. This is caused by the anti-Christian forces that are attempting to ban the mentioning of God’s name in the public square. The major attack against Christians in the public square...

A proposed Kwanzaa celebration at the County Commission chambers caused an e-mail war among Shelby County employees earlier this week. Now it has also prompted a lawsuit. Probate Court Clerk Chris Thomas filed a complaint in Chancery Court Friday to block the Kwanzaa celebration set to be hosted by County Commissioner Henri Brooks on Dec. 26. “The reason I filed the lawsuit is because of the discrimination against Christians, Jews and other faiths by allowing the Kwanzaa celebration to happen and by not allowing us to have a ceremony,” Thomas said. “I’ve asked Mayor (A C) Wharton to stop it...

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- A Wiccan pentacle has joined a controversial nativity scene at Green Bay's City Hall. The manger scene was put up by City Council President Chad Fradette, who wanted to defy an anti-religious group that was protesting another nativity scene in a nearby town. However, the Wiccans said that was an abuse of power and requested that the Wiccan symbol go up next to the nativity. "I want to see all those other faiths that we don't get an opportunity to see in Green Bay, Wis., because we are sometimes relegated to that," said Wiccan Kelly Winters....

By Pastor Ted Weis, Congregational Church, Little River, Kansas Characteristic of the mainline church tradition, the United Church of Christ (UCC) is a denomination committed to freedom of thought, social justice, and understanding others. So when you enter the doors of a local UCC church, it's possible to hear advocacy on a whole host of social issues, from many viewpoints-- at a worship service, a Sunday School class, or a community event. The free exchange and consideration of ideas is essential in order for an individual or group to decide beliefs and direct actions. To this end, United Church of...

This is the time of year, as Hillary Clinton once put it, when Christians celebrate “the birth of a homeless child” — or, in Al Gore’s words, “a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child.” Just for the record, Jesus wasn’t “homeless.” He had a perfectly nice home back in Nazareth. But he happened to be born in Bethlehem. It was census time and Joseph was obliged to schlep halfway across the country to register in the town of his birth. Which is such an absurdly bureaucratic over-regulatory cockamamie Big Government nightmare it’s surely only a matter of time...

Let's keep religion out of the presidential campaign, if possible. I say, to each his own. Let's rejoice that the founding fathers established a secular nation and that no one has to publicly defend his or her beliefs. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- put on the defensive because of his Mormon faith -- recently felt compelled to explain his religion to skeptical voters. So he tore a page out of John F. Kennedy's 1960 campaign appearance before a group of Protestant ministers in Houston. At the time, Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, had to dispel rumors that he would be...

American voters are behaving curiously. A recent Fox 5/Washington Times/Rasmussen poll reveals interesting insight on religion in the public sphere. The poll is seemingly in sync with much of America's failure to acknowledge faith as we head down a ruinous path of social pathology. Indeed, decades after taking prayer out of public schools, hijacking Christmas and Easter and replacing those two holy seasons with the secular nicknames "winter break" and "spring break" and treating the displays of the Ten Commandments like a top-10 list on a pop-culture magazine, comes this latter-day refrain: Religion and politics don't mix. Small wonder we...

WEST CHESTER — For the first time a regional atheist group will display a holiday tree on the Chester County Courthouse lawn during the winter holidays, potentially setting a seasonal model for other communities. County commissioners have allowed groups to display a Christmas tree and menorah on the lawn. But last year, The Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, an atheist group, asked the commissioners to either let any group set up a seasonal holiday display or ban the displays entirely. This fall, the commissioners approved a policy that allows any group to put up a seasonal display if it meets...

HOUSTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to review rulings that said a monument outside a Houston courthouse -- featuring the Bible -- should be removed. Harris County also must pay the legal fees for the woman who sued. County Attorney Mike Stafford had asked the high court to vacate a 2004 ruling by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake. The judge sided with Kay Staley, who sued in 2003 claiming a monument -- featuring the King James version of the Bible -- was offensive. The county also had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to declare...

Borough officials hope some holiday diplomacy will help avoid a First Amendment fight with the Closter Menorah Committee. The group, which has staged menorah-lighting ceremonies on public property for the last 25 years, threatened to sue the town last winter, when officials considered shutting down the event following a raucous time the year before. The Borough Council allowed the ceremony last year under tighter restrictions and, in a divided vote last week, chose to allow it again. But officials want the Dec. 6 event to move from the front lawn of Borough Hall to a park one block from downtown....

Nativity scene causes protest A letter was filed with city to remove the nativity. Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 7:10 a.m. MENOMINEE -- A Wisconsin-based group of atheists are protesting a decision by Menominee officials to allow a nativity scene on city property. The nativity will be in the bandshell. The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a letter with the city, saying the display would violate the separation of Church and State. The Parks and Recreation Committe's approval of the bandshell display comes with the provision that non-Christians be allowed to add their symbols. Nativity scene plans reconsidered After...

Michigan Voters to Decide Whether Nativity Scene Belongs on Public PropertyTuesday, November 06, 2007 By Catherine Donaldson-Evans Does Baby Jesus have a place on public property? That's what voters in Berkley, Mich., were deciding Tuesday as they went to the polls to consider a measure that would return a nativity scene to the lawn outside their City Hall. Some residents of the town of more than 15,000 were outraged that the city and a local clergy association cut a deal with the American Civil Liberties Union to move a crèche, which had been displayed on public property for about 25...

Citizens in the City of Berkley, MI are fighting back against the ACLU and City Council members that capitulated to their demands last year and removed the Nativity Scene from City Hall. Berkley Citizens Vote Yes for Christmas Holiday Display is a ballot question committee that obtained enough petition signatures to have the issue placed on the November 6th ballot. I've read several messages in a post from last year regarding the Berkley nativity that said someone should fight back. Well, we are! Check out the website for more details: www.berkleyvoteyes.com. We need all the support we can get.

Seven high-ranking US officers, including four generals, could face discipline for what the Pentagon considers their promotion of Christianity. The Pentagon inspector general found the seven officers to be engaged in misconduct when they appeared in a promotional fundraiser video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy three years ago, according to OneNewsNow. Christian Embassy was founded by the late Dr Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ and ministers to diplomats, government leaders and military officers. The ministry holds prayer meetings each Wednesday morning at the Pentagon. The officers were said to be in uniform at the Pentagon when they...

SUGAR LAND — Student Natasha Gualy was all smiles Tuesday knowing that when she shares her Christian faith at school, she will not be reprimanded or humiliated. Gov. Rick Perry conducted a ceremonial signing of House Bill 3678 aimed at reaffirming students' rights to express religious viewpoints. Perry officially signed the bill, also known as the Religious Viewpoints Anti-Discrimination Act, in June. Surrounded by schoolchildren at the Clements High School library, Perry signed the bill sponsored by state Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land. The bill does not create a new law but rather provides a model policy that school districts...

2 Gideons cited while on public property near Florida school A Florida judge has dismissed all counts against two members of The Gideons International who were arrested while handing out Bibles on a public sidewalk outside a school, officials with the Alliance Defense Fund said. "Christians cannot be treated as second-class citizens," said ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman. "These two men have the same constitutional rights as everyone else to pass out literature on a public sidewalk. "We are pleased that the court agrees that these men should not have been arrested and dismissed the charges against them," he...

Thomas More Law Center Attorney Addresses New York Press Conference On Ending Public School Discrimination Against Nativity Displays Mon, Jun 25, 2007 ANN ARBOR, MI — Thomas More Law Center Director of Communications, Brian Rooney, addressed a press conference attended by over 100 supporters on the steps of the New York City Hall on Sunday, June 24, 2007, as City Councilman Tony Avella introduced a City Council resolution that calls upon the New York City Department of Education (DOE) to amend its discriminatory holiday display policy for public elementary and secondary schools. DOE’s current policy allows displays of the Jewish...

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has vacated a lower court decision against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board over board meeting prayers, saying the plaintiffs did not show they had standing to file suit.

Where are the principal points of contact and indeed the principal points of conflict between the Christian message and contemporary culture? Where should the Christian be engaging within the complex public square of our times in order to witness to the light of Christ in the most effective way? Light brings illumination into the darkness. Light brightens up our lives. Light above all permits us to see and to discern. The Christian in the public square must be one who knows how to discern and not just discern on individual issues, but discern about the deeper dimensions about being a...

The Supreme Court teeters on a knife’s edge regarding lawsuits against faith expression in the public square. So, conservatives better redouble their efforts to restore a court faithful to our Founders’ vision, or lose all that has been gained in recent decisions after the 2008 presidential sweepstakes. At the end of its term, the Supreme Court signaled that it is evenly split on a key matter regarding religion. It stopped a liberal advance against religious liberty in the public square, but also refused to end a legal rule that is used by the Left to attack religious liberty.

Yesterday, New York City Council Member Tony Avella introduced his Department of Education Holiday Display Resolution (Reso. 930/2007).  Avella’s bill calls for a nativity scene to appear alongside the menorah and crescent and star in New York City schools.  Currently, the schools allow only a Christmas tree, a secular symbol of the Christian holiday, to stand in its winter holiday displays.  On Sunday, Avella held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to discuss this resolution.  He was joined by Catholic League president Bill Donohue, Brian Rooney of the Thomas More Law Center, representatives from the Ladies Ancient...

NEW ORLEANS -- Joe Cook has formally retired from the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union after directing the state's chapter for more than a decade. Cook, who announced several months ago that he would retire at the end of June, is moving to Norfolk, Va. Monroe attorney and ACLU spokesman Charles Kincade said Cook will be remembered for standing up for the U.S. Constitution even when doing so was unpopular, especially in matters of separation of church and state. Cook has led several lawsuits to stop certain types of prayer in public schools or government meetings throughout Louisiana, most often...

Flanked by Slidell's mayor and local clergy, City Court Judge Jim Lamz said Saturday he has decided not to remove a portrait of Jesus from the Slidell court's lobby, potentially setting the stage for a legal battle with the American Civil Liberties Union. With the portrait hanging above him, Lamz told a news conference he disagrees with the ACLU's assertion that displaying the portrait violates the First Amendment's guarantee of separation of church and state. Lamz said the court will await further action from the ACLU, which had set a Monday deadline for action on the issue after an initial...

Greece will continue to open its town board meetings with a member of the local clergy. Greece Town Supervisor John Auberger has sent a letter to the lawyer for the local chapter of the ACLU telling them Greece will continue to open its town board meetings with a member of the local clergy. The issue came to light earlier this month when the civil liberties group had asked the town to stop allowing the prayers when they include direct references to specific religious figures, such as Jesus Christ. Town Supervisor John Auberger says it's not an issue that the words...

'China-level' Christian persecution coming: Pastors say court's ruling in Houston Bible case 'breath-taking' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 17, 2006 5:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Houston's Bible monument A few more court decisions like this week's over a display of a Bible in Houston and the United States will be approaching the "China-level" for Christian persecution, according to a leader in the midst of that battle. The ruling from the Fifth Court of Appeals said the display of a Bible on public ground in Houston to honor the founder of a mission has to go, not because it was unconstitutional itself,...

Judge allows Ten Commandments monument By JEFF LATZKE, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago A federal judge on Friday said a Ten Commandments monument outside a courthouse can stay, rejecting arguments that it promotes Christianity at the expense of other religions. U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White in Muskogee ruled that Haskell County did not violate the Constitution by erecting the monument. The county did not "overstep the constitutional line demarcating government neutrality toward religion," he wrote. The county argued that the monument outside the Stigler courthouse was part of a historical display that included other monuments recognizing war veterans,...

Six of the current Supreme Court justices had other jobs when an atheist sued this city for permitting a giant cross in a public park. Ronald Reagan was president, the Christian Coalition was new and "values" had yet to become a buzzword of American politics. Seventeen years of legal wrangling later, the 29-foot monument still crowns a hill over the Pacific - defended by city ballot measures, federal legislation and even one congressman's appeal for presidential intervention. Now the Supreme Court has weighed in, and the case of the Mount Soledad cross may set a precedent on whether the government...

Group Says City's "Free Speech Zones" Stifles Their Religious Mission (STNG) CHICAGO -- A Philadelphia-based evangelical Christian organization filed suit in federal court Tuesday seeking an emergency restraining order to allow them to preach and hand out their literature at Navy Pier. The plaintiffs are five members of the group Repent America, which, according to the suit, seeks "to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in the public square." The group contends they have "approximately 10,000" members "who live across the United States." The members of the group listed as plaintiffs are, according to the suit, residents of Pennsylvania and...

Virginia senatorial wife Susan Allen and Republican operative Mary Matalin, accompanied by their respective daughters, were asked to leave a birthday celebration for the city of Alexandria on Saturday evening because they were "distracting." That says a close friend of Mrs. Allen, the wife of Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen, who is seeking re-election to a second term. "They were asked to leave the public event by Alexandria's Parks and Recreation Department because they were told they were 'distracting,'" the friend states. "That was the exact word [officials] used. Perhaps these Alexandria servants should be reminded that politicking at public,...

Judge threatens fine to enforce '91 ruling By Onell R. Soto UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER May 4, 2006 NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune The cross was dedicated in 1954 as a war memorial. A federal judge moved to end a 17-year legal saga yesterday by ordering the city of San Diego to remove the Mount Soledad cross from city property within 90 days or be fined $5,000 a day. “It is now time, and perhaps long overdue, for this Court to enforce its initial permanent injunction forbidding the presence of the Mount Soledad Cross on City property,” U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson...

Ruling on a 15-year-old ACLU case, a federal judge today ordered the city of San Diego to remove a mountain-top cross within 90 days or face a fine of $5,000 a day.U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson said, "It is now time, and perhaps long overdue, for this court to enforce its initial permanent injunction forbidding the presence of the Mount Soledad cross on city property," the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

federal judge on Wednesday ordered the removal of the Mount Soledad cross from property owned by the city of San Diego within 90 days or he will fine the city $5,000 a day. “It is now time, and perhaps long overdue, for this court to enforce its initial permanent injunction forbidding the presence of the Mount Soledad cross on city property,” said U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson. Thompson first found the presence of the cross on city property unconstitutional in 1991 because it violated the separation of church and state. Since then, his order, and the issue of the cross,...

Reason disputed for monument By Sheila K. Stogsdill The Oklahoman MUSKOGEE - A Stigler resident testified Tuesday that religion in the form of a Ten Commandments monument has no business on government property. "The Ten Commandments have nothing to do with our law," said Sharon Nichols, an American Civil Liberties Union member and self-described naturalist. "The Ten Commandments is a historical document with limited significance to Haskell County." Nichols said she was offended by the monument, erected on the Haskell County Courthouse lawn, because she is not a Christian. She also testified she was offended by the words "In God...