Religious Rights

WASHINGTON — The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington says it won't continue social service programs it runs for the District if the proposed same-sex marriage law isn't changed.

The bill states religious organizations wouldn't have to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings, but they must obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

Opponents say the religious liberty exemption is too narrow...

A Christian evangelist who was once arrested, jailed, and charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law says the federal hate crimes bill signed into law by President Obama is one of the most dangerous laws in the history of the United States.

With the stroke of President Obama's pen yesterday, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act became law. It creates additional penalties for violent crimes motivated by the victim's "actual or perceived" gender, "gender identity," sexual orientation, or disability.

Michael Marcavage, director of Philadelphia-based Repent America, was one of 11 Christians who were jailed and charged with a hate crime for carrying Bible verse banners and preaching at a 2004 homosexual pride event in Philadelphia...

The legal effort to halt prayer at presidential inaugurations continues.

Atheist Michael Newdow -- along with numerous other individuals and atheist groups -- filed the lawsuit which was lost in federal district court. They have now appealed to the federal DC Circuit Court of Appeals, continuing their efforts to ban prayers they say make them "sick to their stomach."

Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) says complaints from atheists in the appeals court are extreme...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court is taking up a long-running legal fight over a cross honoring World War I soldiers that has stood for 75 years on public land in a remote part of California.

The cross, on an outcrop known as Sunrise Rock in the Mojave National Preserve, has been covered in plywood for the past several years following federal court rulings that it violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment prohibition against government endorsement of religion.

The justices were to hear arguments Wednesday in a case the court could use to make an important statement about its view of the separation of church and state. The Obama administration is defending the presence of the cross, which court papers describe as being 5 to 8 feet tall...

Another California town is standing up to an atheist group over city council prayer.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation had threatened Lodi, California, with a lawsuit if it did not stop the practice of praying in Jesus' name. Captain Gordon James Klingenschmitt of PrayinJesusName.org tells OneNewsNow the council approved the ban, but public pressure resulted in a change of heart.

"The city council of Lodi, California, voted 5-0 to reverse their temporary ban on prayer in Jesus' name," he explains. "They had for the last three months outlawed the words 'Jesus' or 'Christ' or 'Savior' as illegal speech that cannot be uttered during a prayer at a city council meeting"...

Two Florida school officials facing possible jail terms for praying in the presence of students arrive in court Thursday enjoying the support of more than 60 members of Congress.

Some of those members, who signed a letter of support and sent it to the two school officials Monday, took to the House floor Tuesday night to denounce what they called a "criminalization of prayer" that "tramples on the First Amendment rights" of Christians.

"The Founding Fathers would be appalled" at the trial of Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and his school athletic director, Robert Freeman, said Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida. His Pensacola-based district includes Santa Rosa County, where the lawsuit is based...

A California teacher has been told that he violated the Establishment Clause when he berated a student's religious beliefs.

Capistrano Unified School District history teacher James Corbett was sued by student Chad Farnan for calling his belief in Creationism "superstitious nonsense" and continually berating his religion in the classroom. Farnan even brought a tape recorder to class in order to document the tirades.

Now a California federal district court has ruled that Corbett's statements violated the Establishment Clause. Robert Tyler is with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which represented Farnan...

A New Hampshire court ordered a home-schooled Christian girl to attend a public school this week after a judge criticized the "rigidity" of her mother's religious views and said the 10-year-old needed to consider other worldviews as she matures.

Ever since the judge's ruling came out in July, the case has aroused the interest of home-schooling groups nationwide, whohave asked why a court has the power to decide whether someone's religious views are too extreme.

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...

Texas A&M University in Lubbock, Texas, has worked out an anti-discrimination policy that discriminated against a Christian campus group.

Freshman Leaders in Christ ran into a conflict with the school policy. They then called on Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Joseph Martins for assistance.

"Basically what had happened was the university had a policy that allegedly was supposed to stop discrimination, and it was one of their non-discrimination statements, and it said that all groups had to be open to membership to all university students," Martins explains...

Mount Laurel, N.J. - A church group that owns beachfront property discriminated against a lesbian couple by not allowing them to rent the locale for their civil union ceremony, a New Jersey department ruled last Monday in a case that has become a flash point in the nation's gay rights battle.

The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights said its investigation found that the refusal of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association to rent the oceanfront spot to the couple for their same-sex union in March 2007 violated the public accommodation provisions of the state's Law Against Discrimination...