Religious Rights

In a preview of what a stronger European Union government will look like when it comes to religious freedom, Italians were stunned to hear that the European Court of Human Rights ruled that they had been violating the "religious and educational rights" of their children for generations by forcing them to attend school in classrooms with crucifixes hanging on their walls.

The court's decision came about as a result of a 2002 complaint:

...a Finnish-born mother of two children in the Italian school system objected to the crucifixes in their classrooms. The school principal was unmoved. Italy's Constitutional Court dismissed her complaint. So she filed a case in Strasbourg, France, and now she's won.

The Euro court's ruling hasn't exactly had the intended effect.  In fact, quite the opposite.

The response? Outrage, a swelling popular rebellion, even, against the prospect that because of one woman's agitation, the entire country may have to rid its schools of a treasured symbol that as much bespeaks Italian cultural identity as it does Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Mayors and town councils across Italy are not only refusing to remove crucifixes from their schools, but are buying new ones and putting them up in places where they don't already hang.  read more »

The president signed into law the defense spending bill last week in the White House with the abominable "hate crimes" legislation included in the bill, what many now call "thought crimes" legislation.  This law will eventually lead to the prosecution of clergy who speak out against homosexuality from their pulpits if the experience of similar legislation passed in Canada, Sweden and Great Britain is any guide.   

The First Amendment free speech rights of chaplains in the United States military has already been restricted.  Military chaplains have been harassed and indeed dismissed from military duty because they pray in the name of Jesus.  To remedy this terrible problem, it is imperative that the United States Congress pass Congressman Walter Jones' Military Chaplain Prayer bill.     read more »

Left-wing judicial activism is running amuck in Obamaland.  Nothing illustrates this more than the decision by a left-wing activist judge in New Hampshire who forced a girl home-schooled by her mother into the public school system.   

In the top story on the front page of "The Washington Times" on September 4th, it was reported that New Hampshire District Judge Lucinda V. Sadler dictated to the mother of a 10-year-old home-schooled girl that her daughter was to attend public schools because of the "rigidity" of the mother's religious views.   The New Hampshire judicial tyrant in her ruling said that the little girl needed to consider other worldviews as she matures.     read more »

As if the fear of big-brother needed to be underlined any further among conservative Christians, we have just that by way of  New Hampshire judge ruling ordering a home-schooled girl to spend some time attending a public school due to the "rigidity" of her mother's religious beliefs.  He suggested that the girl needed to broaden her horizons and consider other worldviews.

Excuse me, but it seems to me that the instruction of children when it comes to beliefs and a "worldview" is the sole prerogative of parents and has nothing whatsoever to do with government.  Or at least that's the way it used to be...and that Americans expect it to be.

But here you go...

The girl's mother, Brenda Voydatch, has engaged the Alliance
Defense Fund, a Christian legal group based in Scottsdale, Ariz., to
contest the ruling, in which the judge granted a request by the girl's
father, Martin Kurowski, that the girl go to a public school.
 read more »

I have e-mailed all of the government and state senators and represenatives (via PA. for Marriage web site) asking them to protect marriage between a husband and a wife . I received one personal response from Daylin Leach (PA. State Represenative) as follows:

Thank you for your E-mail. Unfortunately, we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I believe that we should do for gay couples what we do for straight couples, namely encourage them to enter permanent, stable, monogamous and legally-recognized relationships. It is only by allowing gay and lesbian couples full and equal marriage rights will we begin to erase the stain of discrimination they have lived under. Thank you again for taking the time to E-mail me.... Daylin  read more »

Please take hold of this prayer and stand in the gap for America now!

Taking dominion in Prayer for our Nation!

Thus saith the Lord:  read more »