Free Republic

Thursday December 17, 2009 Appeal to be Filed in Case of Photographer Fined for "Discrimination" ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) will appeal a New Mexico judge's decision to uphold a ruling by the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission against an Albuquerque photography company. The commission ruled that the company, run by a young Christian husband and wife, was guilty of "sexual orientation" discrimination under state antidiscrimination laws for declining to photograph a same-sex "commitment ceremony."   "Christians in the marketplace should not be subject to predatory legal attacks for simply...

Friday December 4, 2009 Pastor Boissoin Exonerated: Judge Rules Letter on Homosexuality Not "Hate" Speech By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiCALGARY, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Christian pastor who was hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal (AHRT) for writing a letter to the editor on homosexuality has been exonerated by a Court of Queen's Bench judge who ruled the letter was not a hate crime but legitimate expression allowed under freedom of speech.Pastor Stephen Boissoin told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that he was "overjoyed and relieved" that the lengthy, stressful and expensive seven year legal battle over his letter to the...

NORTH ANDOVER — First it was the menorah on the town common. Now it's the Merry Christmas sign on the fire station. The town has put an end to a longtime holiday tradition ordering firefighters to take down their homemade Merry Christmas sign from outside the fire station after people complained. The sign had been up for a week before it was taken down Friday. Fire Chief William Martineau said the sign was made by firefighters some 50 years ago and was never an issue before. "I think Christmas is officially a religious holiday. But to all of us, it...

Monday November 30, 2009 UK Christian Relationship Counselor Sacked for Opposing Same-sex Partnerings By Hilary WhiteLONDON, November 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Christian marriage counselor has joined the burgeoning ranks of those in the UK who have been sacked for their Christian religious beliefs. Gary McFarlane, a 48-year-old solicitor and part-time counselor with a relationship counseling charity, was sacked when he refused to endorse same-sex relationships as equivalent to those of heterosexual couples. McFarlane has lost his chance at appeal with the Employment Appeal Tribunal in which he claimed unfair dismissal and discrimination contrary to the Employment Equality (Religion...

Three Pastors: Life, Death, and Religion in Muslim Iran In November 1993, not far from ancient Babylon, where Daniel was thrown into the lions' den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were pitched into Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, the Rev. Mehdi Dibaj huddled in a Mazandaran Province prison cell praying about how he could defend himself from capital charges. A compactly built 60-year-old man, his short, salt-and-pepper hair bristled above dark, deep-set eyes and bunchy cheeks. His cell contained a cot, a hole-in-the-floor toilet, a line of small snapshots of his four children, and, under the high window that afforded light, a...

Police arrested 22-year-old Abdul Walid Hamid of Hayward on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 4, after he reportedly tore a crucifix from a person's neck and scared others at Stoneridge Shopping Center. Hamid, an employee at a mall kiosk near Starbucks, has been charged with battery, terrorist threats and grand theft. According to reports, Hamid was yelling "Allah is power" and "Islam is great" while holding a pen in a fist over his head. Witnesses said he shouted anti-Christian comments, said police. Lt. Mike Elerick of the Pleasanton Police Department said the man was not provoked and didn't threaten violence,...

The FBI is investigating terrorism threats posted on a homosexual blog that appear to be aimed at Christians. Pro-family activists have drawn attention to a disturbing exchange on a homosexual blog run by Joe Jervis of New York. The exchange takes place between individuals named Fritz and Tex in the comment section of a blog discussing the Maine homosexual marriage defeat and pro-family activists Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality. LaBarbera says the two commentators discussed carrying out acts of terrorism against Christians. "One guy [Fritz] sort of raises [the concept] and...

By 1939, more than 10,000 Catholic schools had been closed and the Catholic boys and girls sent to Nazi public schools for indoctrination. Catholics are constantly confronted with the claims that Pope Pius XII was complicit in the Holocaust, that vast numbers of Catholics collaborated with Hitler's diabolical regime, and that Catholic priests, nuns, and bishops were ardent members of the Nazi Party and supporters of its policies. It is true that many Catholics turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, and others remained silent out of fear for their lives and the safety of their families. There were certainly...

Last night, by a comfortable margin of 53-47%, the citizens of Maine became the 31st state to vote down gay marriage (as has every single state that has given its citizens a chance to vote on the issue). Not surprisingly, the mainstream liberal press is beside itself with frustration, especially because it drives yet another nail in the "inevitability" and "wrong side of history" arguments we are often fed. As I wrote on National Review this morning, Maine voted for traditional marriage "despite it being a liberal state, despite a 2-1 funding disadvantage, despite aggressive legal action against traditional-marriage...

VULGAR CATHOLIC HALLOWEEN COSTUMES October 29, 2009Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on this season’s Halloween costumes:There are costumes depicting Jesus, priests, nuns, ministers, rabbis and imams, and most of them are innocuous. But there are two costumes that are vulgar, and, as usual, they are designed to offend Catholics: a priest with an erection and a pregnant nun, often sold as a pair. Some immigrant groups are upset about an illegal alien costume, but even those who are complaining don’t say it is vulgar. A mere depiction of Muhammad in a Danish cartoon that was anything but vulgar...

San Diego County officials agreed Wednesday to rescind a cease-and-desist order issued to a pastor holding a small Bible study in his home. In a letter to the pastor, the county’s chief administrative officer apologized for the incident involving a code enforcement officer who issued the order after reportedly asking the pastor’s wife inappropriately probing questions about the study. The letter informed Pastor David Jones and his legal counsel Dean Broyles, president of the Western Center for Law & Policy, an Alliance Defense Fund allied organization, that the order was wrongfully issued and that the county would conduct a thorough...

The issue of legalizing same-sex marriages continues to be at the forefront of debate. On Tuesday the Californian Supreme Court upheld a referendum, Proposition 8, which modified the state constitution to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples. The referendum invalidated a previous decision by the state's Supreme Court that resulted in the legalization of same-sex marriage. In the weeks preceding the latest decision same-sex marriage was legalized in three states. As a result, five states now allow such marriages -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Iowa. As a May 27 article in the Washington Post pointed out, four of these states...

Friday May 22, 2009 British Churches to be Forced to Hire Active Homosexual Youth Workers under Equality Bill By Hilary WhiteLONDON, May 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com ) - British churches will be forced to accept practicing homosexuals or "transsexuals" in positions as youth workers and similar roles, under upcoming equality legislation, the government has said. The Labour government's Equality Bill will prohibit churches from refusing to hire active homosexuals even if their religion holds such behavior to be sinful, said deputy equalities minister Maria Eagle.The legislation is due to come into force next year, and churches fear that it will...

MISSION VIEJO, CA – A federal judge is expected to rule any day now on whether a high school history teacher accused of disparaging Christians in class violated the First Amendment and should be disciplined. Capistrano Valley High School teacher James Corbett, a 36-year educator, was sued in December 2007 by sophomore Chad Farnan for purportedly promoting hostility toward Christians and advocating "irreligion over religion" in violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause. The clause, which prohibits the government from making any law "respecting an establishment of religion," has been interpreted by U.S. courts to also prohibit government employees from...

Le Monde Responds to Massive TFP Protest: “These Lambs of God Can Bite” Reparation to Our Lord is heard: At 500 per hour, protest emails nearly bring Le Monde’s own server down Written by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo    Wednesday, April 01 2009   When the largest French newspaper Le Monde published a blasphemous cartoon ridiculing Our Lord Jesus Christ and spewing hatred against the Pope, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition Family and Property (TFP) and its America Needs Fatima campaign asked its friends and supporters to protest. The notoriously leftist newspaper hardly expected the flood of...

British Bigotry State-sponsored Persecution of Christians Across the Pond Martin Blackshaw REMNANT COLUMNIST, Scotland Ted Atkinson, the sort of chap the UK throws in prison these days (Posted 03/31/09 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) On March 4 this year, Catholic pensioner Ted Atkinson was imprisoned for 12 weeks for the ‘crime’ of sending pro-life material to pro-abortionists. Unlike the national media furore sparked by Bishop Richard Williamson’s Holocaust reductionism, however, the Atkinson case was passed over in relative silence since the mass murder he deplores—the killing of babies in the womb—is generally supported by the media. I will come back to the particulars...

Luxury hotel manager fired after making vulgar Ash Wednesday remarks The New York Palace Hotel / Niklaus Leuenberger New York City, N.Y., Mar 26, 2009 / 11:56 pm (CNA).- The manager of the luxurious New York Palace Hotel was fired after obscenely ordering a Catholic employee to clean the ashes from his forehead on Ash Wednesday.According to the New York Daily News, on Feb. 25 the hotel’s managing director Niklaus Leuenberger told bell captain Mike Murray “Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face,” referring to the ashes Murray had received at an Ash Wednesday service.The 893-room five-star hotel is 55...

It's settled: Tractor trailer displaying Christian message remains along NY highway NYDOT agrees with ADF attorneys to let gospel trailer stay on owner's property Friday, March 13, 2009, 1:55 PM (MST) | ADF Media Relations | 480-444-0020 Comments   Related Links Court: Gospel message stays on NY public highway BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys representing a Christian man reached a favorable settlement with the New York Department of Transportation, which agreed to allow Daniel Burritt's trailer donning a gospel message to remain on his private business property along a public highway.  The tractor trailer had previously been...

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a lawsuit Monday against officials of Pennsylvania's Kutztown University and its police chief. The officials punished a police officer who refused to arrest a group of Christians sharing their faith on campus. Steven Armbruster was ordered by K.U. Police Chief William Mioskie to remove the group of Christians from campus for "disorderly conduct." Armbruster, who said he saw no evidence of disorderly conduct by the Christians, explained to Mioskie that he believed this would violate the group's constitutional rights. Armbruster was placed on administrative leave, suspended without pay for five working days...

Anti-Christian: a "Socially Acceptable Prejudice" International Security Group Affirms Discrimination Exists VIENNA, Austria, MARCH 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- One does not have to live in Africa or Asia to be the victim of anti-Christian discrimination; according to an intergovernmental security group, there are plenty of victims in Europe and America.This was the conclusion from a meeting sponsored by the U.N. ad hoc Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, an international group that has 56 member states spread across Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and North America. The meeting last Wednesday brought together experts and representatives of states in the intergovernmental...