Free Republic

A federal court has ruled that four Christian universities based in Oklahoma will not be penalized for refusing to provide health care coverage for the birth control services they consider contrary to their religious beliefs. In 2013, Mid-America Christian University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, and Southern Nazarene University filed suit against the Obama administration over their mandate that forced most employers, regardless of religious convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and contraception. A decision released Tuesday by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma granted relief for the four universities, in large part...

President Donald Trump delivered a measured speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., touting America's success in fighting ISIS and defending religious liberties at home and abroad. "When Americans are able to live by their convictions to speak openly of their faith and to teach their children what is right, our families thrive, our communities flourish, and our nation can achieve anything at all," Trump said. Much work will always remain, but we will never rest until that job is completely done and we are really doing it like never before. We know that millions of people in...

WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Trump administration is announcing the formation of the new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The press release states the division will be under the Office for Civil Rights, adding it's purpose is to "restore federal enforcement of our nation's laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom." It continues, "The creation of the new division will provide HHS with the focus it needs to more vigorously and effectively enforce existing laws protecting the rights of conscience and religious freedom, the first...

Donald Trump once described himself as “pro-choice in every respect.” On Thursday, his administration announced a new office to protect doctors and nurses who object to providing abortion services and other medical care on moral and religious grounds. Acting HHS Secretary Eric Hargan announced the new “Conscience and Religious Freedom” office, housed in the agency’s Civil Rights division, saying Trump had promised his administration “would vigorously uphold the rights of conscience and religious freedom. That promise is being kept today.” It’s a major victory for the pro-life movement, especially given Trump’s past comments about his support for abortion. Trump is...

Faith is embedded in the history, spirit, and soul of our Nation. On Religious Freedom Day, we celebrate the many faiths that make up our country, and we commemorate the 232nd anniversary of the passing of a State law that has shaped and secured our cherished legacy of religious liberty.Our forefathers, seeking refuge from religious persecution, believed in the eternal truth that freedom is not a gift from the government, but a sacred right from Almighty God. On the coattails of the American Revolution, on January 16, 1786, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. This...

In Yoder v. Sugar Grove Area Sewer Authority, (Commonwlth. Ct. PA, Jan. 5, 2018), a Pennsylvania state appellate court, in a 2-1 decision, upheld the denial of an injunction sought by an Old Order Amish couple who object to the requirement that they connect to the local sewer system using an electric pump. The dispute has wound its way through the courts for over five years. (See prior related posting.) The majority said in part: Owners did not establish the injunction would not harm the public, or that the harm in denying the injunction outweighed the harm in granting it....

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a legal battle over a Mississippi law that allows state employees and private businesses to deny services to LGBT people based on religious objections. Signed into law in 2016 in response to the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling, it allows county clerks to avoid issuing marriage licenses to gay couples and protects businesses from lawsuits if they refuse to serve LGBT customers. The law was immediately challenged. But lower courts, without ruling on the merits of the law, said those suing could not show that they would be harmed...

2017 was an exciting year for religious liberty. Amid the chaos of an historic election and the naming of a new Supreme Court Justice, victories for religious liberty were won across the country, protecting the freedoms of people of all faith, and no faith at all. As the year draws to a close let’s look back on a few of these triumphs. Let’s celebrate them. Let’s learn from them. Let’s also prepare for a new year and new opportunities to protect our first freedom.Here are the top religious liberty victories of 2017:1. Sikh soldiers beat beard banIn January, Sikh American...

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - A California judge has ruled in favor of a Christian baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The judge denied a motion for a temporary restraining order filed on Wednesday against Cathy Miller, the owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, California. According to a press release sent by The Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, the order would have compelled "Miller to create wedding cakes for LGBT persons, even though doing so would violate her sincerely held religious beliefs."

This week, the Supreme Court heard the first arguments regarding Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and as you can imagine, people immediately took to social media in order to voice their opinion on the matter. And if you pay attention to pop-culture and the mainstream news, you’ll find that the majority of those opinions ultimately end up asking “Why not just bake the cake?” After all, how could you favor discrimination if you aren’t racist or prejudiced, right? Actually, no. As you’ll see, it’s quite the opposite. While it’s understandable for first impressions to fall prey to...

Lord Pearson says the government refused to answer when he asked whether stating religious belief could be 'hate'The British government has refused to say whether telling people about the Christian faith could be a hate crime. Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a UKIP peer, says when he raised a question on the issue on the House of Lords, the government failed to state clearly whether Christians cannot be prosecuted just for stating their beliefs. “I said to the government ‘Will they confirm unequivocally that a Christian who says that Jesus is the only son of the one true God cannot be...

The Rule of Law has become the Rule of Man, and when that happens, it's normally not very long before the people begin dancing around a golden calf The Christian Baker who refused to bake a cake with a homosexual wedding message on it lost everything. The business is gone. They went bankrupt. The court case, however, lives on, and The United States Supreme Court has heard the oral arguments on it. This is dangerous. I am not excited when the federal government, especially the courts, begins to stick their fingers into issues regarding our rights. In fact, the Constitution...

This week, the Supreme Court hears Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Jack Phillips, proprietor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to create a wedding cake ordered for a same-sex marriage on grounds that it would force him to create a cake expressing a value opposed to his Christian convictions. The gay men who ordered the cake filed a sexual orientation discrimination claim against him with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and the Commission ruled against Phillips. It was clear that this was not a matter of Phillips refusing to do business with these men because they are gay. He offered...

The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in the Colorado cake maker case. The issue is whether Colorado can coerce a baker, Jack Phillips, into making a custom cake for a gay wedding when he objects to gay marriage on religious grounds. It quickly became apparent that, to no one’s surprise, Justice Kennedy’s vote will likely decide the case. The questions Kennedy asked created some discomfort for both sides, but more for the gay couple.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said during oral arguments on Tuesday that Colorado did not appear to show religious tolerance when it used its public accommodations law to force baker Jack Phillips to create speech via a custom cake for a same-sex wedding that defies his religious beliefs. The line of questioning garnered attention because Kennedy often serves as the divided high court's key swing vote, and a split vote could form again in Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Kennedy pointedly criticized Colorado for not being "tolerant" of Phillips' religious beliefs. 00:21 / 01:00 Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch...

You need the First Amendment precisely when your ideas offend others or flout the majority’s orthodoxies. And then it protects more than your freedom to speak your mind; it guards your freedom not to speak the mind of another. Thus, in classic “compelled speech” rulings, the Supreme Court has protected the right not to be forced to say, do or create anything expressing a message one rejects. Most famously, in West Virginia v. Barnette (1943), it barred a state from denying Jehovah’s Witnesses the right to attend public schools if they refused to salute the flag. In Wooley v. Maynard...

It’s astounding how many defenses of the state’s position in Masterpiece Cakeshop depend on misrepresentation and misconceptions. Last week I wrote about the most common misrepresentation — that Jack Phillips discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation when he refused to design a custom cake for a same-sex-wedding celebration. After all, he served all customers — regardless of race, sex, or sexual orientation. He just consistently refused to design cakes that advanced messages he disagreed with. No person of any identity has the legal authority to compel an artist to use his talents to advance a cause the artist...

That case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, takes aim at a Colorado law that bars discrimination based on perceived sexual orientation in places serving the public. Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, says the law violates his free speech rights by forcing him to “create expression that violates his sincerely held beliefs about marriage.” The dispute has attracted a lot of attention from the business community, including an amicus brief signed by 35 companies including Amazon (AMZN), Pfizer (PFE), and Apple (AAPL), which asked the court to rule against Phillips. Another group with an interest in the...

Should a gay baker be required by law to design a cake with the message, “God hates fags”? Should an African American t-shirt maker be required by law to design a t-shirt saying, “Long live the KKK?” Should a Muslim caterer be required by law to provide pork for a secular event? Should a Jewish photographer be required to shoot a wedding on the Sabbath? The answer to all these questions is: Of course not. Why, then, should a Christian baker be required by law to design a cake celebrating the “wedding” of two women (or men)? That is the...

Dear Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson: I urge you to restore and protect Colonel Leland Bohannon’s Constitutional right to freely exercise his religious beliefs by reversing the complaint against him and by removing any unfavorable remarks from his record related to this complaint.U.S. Air Force Col. Leland Bohannon was asked in May 2017 to sign a “certificate of spouse appreciation” for a retiring master sergeant in a same-sex “marriage.” As a devout Christian, Bohannon refused to sign the document stating it would violate his religious belief of marriage being between one man and one woman. As a result, the Air...