Religious Rights

An attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is describing the ruling in a case at Eastern Michigan University, which is challenging a Christian's rights to maintain her beliefs, as "open season on Christians." A federal court has ruled in the university's favor, but that decision is being appealed.

Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with ADF, is disappointed by the federal judge's decision because, as he says, "it basically has no respect for the right of conscience of Christians or other people who have sincere beliefs about the proper definition of marriage and whether certain sexual behaviors can be immoral"....

A federal judge has ruled in favor of a public university that removed a Christian student from its graduate program in school counseling over her belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. Monday's ruling, according to Julea Ward's attorneys, could result in Christian students across the country being expelled from public university for similar views.

“It’s a very dangerous precedent,” Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, told FOX News Radio. “The ruling doesn’t say that explicitly, but that’s what is going to happen.”

U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh dismissed Ward’s lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University. She was removed from the school’s counseling program last year because she refused to counsel homosexual clients....

WASHINGTON - A leading congressional advocate for religious freedom says the Obama administration has failed to speak out against growing persecution abroad.

In a House floor speech, Republican Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia cited apparent U.S. indifference to violations of human rghts in Sudan, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Egypt and Morocco.

He said Iraq's ancient Christian community faces extinction unless the government protects churches and prevents attacks that have driven hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians into exile....

A former bus driver has sued his employer for allegedly discriminating against his religious beliefs and terminating his employment.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) represents Edwin Graning, a former driver for the Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS), which is a nine-county transit service that often provides transportation in rural areas surrounding Austin, Texas. Senior attorney EdwardEdward White (ACLJ) White tells OneNewsNow the driver was dispatched in January to transport two women to a Planned Parenthood clinic.

"He called up his supervisor and said, 'You know, I'm an ordained minister...and Planned Parenthood does abortions. And I don't know if this lady's going there for an abortion. However, if she is, I want nothing to do with that,'" White accounts. "And so in effect, he was asking for his supervisor to just get one of the other CARTS drivers to pick up this woman"...

Arizona school children are told they can't pray in front of the Supreme Court building ... Two University of Texas Arlington employees are fired for praying over a co-worker's cubicle after work hours ... In Cranston, R.I., a high school banner causes controversy when a parent complains it contains a prayer and demands that it be removed.

There are more legal challenges to prayer in the United States than ever before, says Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist organization whose business is booming as Americans increasingly tackle church vs. state issues.

"We've never had more complaints about government prayer," Gaylor says. "We have just hired a second staff attorney in July.  read more »

A federal appeals court has issued a ruling that a Christian attorney says represents a major setback for churches and other religious institutions.

According to Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University's School of Law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) has been a great tool for churches, giving equal treatment to them and other houses of worship.

"There have been attempts to literally zone churches out of the community, and even outside of the city limits," he reports. "This RLUIPA law has been a great blessing to many houses of worship and has put a stop to some of those discriminatory practices"...

A school district in New Mexico is being sued by a group of students alleging discrimination against their pro-life beliefs.

"Relentless in Roswell" is a group of students from two high schools in New Mexico who performed good deeds around campus.

"They've handed out food, hot chocolate, candy canes and other things to the student body without any opposition or even prior permission from the school," reports Liberty Counsel founder Matt Staver. "They've also helped the janitors with trash and assisted fellow students with their lunch trays"...

A U.S. district judge has heard arguments in a case involving a graduate student in Michigan who was dismissed from a counseling program for not affirming homosexual behavior.

In January 2009, Julea Ward enrolled in a counseling practicum course at Eastern Michigan University. During the course she was assigned a potential client seeking assistance regarding a homosexual relationship. Jeremy Tedesco with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) tells OneNewsNow that Ward knew she could not affirm the client's homosexual relationship without violating her religious beliefs -- and that stance cost her dearly.

"Our client explained very clearly to [university officials] that this is a matter of religious belief and conviction -- and they discarded that and said 'We don't care, we're going to kick you out anyways. We have no interest in accommodating your religious beliefs. You just need to believe like we do or we're going to kick you out of the program'"...

A college student in New York is once again getting the run-around from school officials for trying to express his religious views on campus.

Last year, Joseph Hayon was initially barred by school officials from distributing pro-life material on the campus of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. The matter was resolved only after the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) intervened.

But since Hayon, president of the student Republican Club, wanted to hold an on-campus forum entitled "The Economic, Political, Social, and Legal Outcome on Same-Gender Marriage" to defend the definition of marriage as one man and one woman, another free-speech situation has popped up...

A Christian evangelist is praising a recent court decision which overturned federal convictions against him for preaching on a public sidewalk near the Liberty Bell.

In 2007, the president of Repent America was arrested by a U.S. park ranger after rejecting a verbal permit to move to a free-speech zone away from where he had been preaching. But a three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously overturned convictions against Michael Marcavage in a recent ruling.

"The only thing that I was guilty of that day was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and against the mass murder of children in the womb," Marcavage contends...