Free Republic

An atheist group wants to censor what priests, pastors, rabbis and other clergy say in their sermons by threatening an IRS challenge of their tax-exempt status.Generally, the leaders of houses of worship in America have the constitutional right to preach and promote anything short of an outright endorsement of a political candidate. But now, that freedom is being challenged.In 2012, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit atheist organization that advocates strict separation of church and state, sued the Internal Revenue Service seeking to force the agency to question the tax-exempt status of churches and other houses of worship if they...

While I was at the recent Napa Institute gathering, I got to know Kristina Arriaga, Executive Director of The Becket Fund, which defends religious freedom. They guided the Hobby Lobby decision to a good conclusion and for that we owe them a lot. I had this note from them today. It included this: [quote] Dear Friends, I grew up in a household where we were expected to pepper all tales with a bit of Cuban exaggeration. This was, after all, essential for good storytelling. So, in a way, I wish I were making this up. Within the IRS, there is,...

Is the Internal Revenue Service a threat to religious liberty? As the IRS continues to come under well-aimed fire for harassing conservative groups, on Friday it secured a final court order formalizing what amounts to a secret agreement to monitor the pulpits of ill-favored churches. The serious danger, as former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams told Fox News, is that the IRS will start treating “theology as politics,” and regulate it accordingly. Lovers of liberty should be very concerned. According to a June 27 IRS letter to the Justice Department, 99 churches merit “high priority examination” for allegedly illegal...

Conservative writer and CNN talking head S.E. Cupp recently put out a video describing how she has been welcomed among conservatives even though she is an atheist. This led Hot Air's Allahpundit to chime in with his own experiences, citing myself and National Review's Charles Cooke as other examples of atheists on the Right. And we're not the only ones. There's Heather Mac Donald and Walter Olson, and a whole website devoted to the issue. Among marquee names, there are a few famous agnostics/atheists like Charles Krauthammer and George Will. When you start looking, we're everywhere. I pretty much agree...

Is the Internal Revenue Service a threat to religious liberty? As the IRS continues to come under well-aimed fire for harassing conservative groups, on Friday it secured a final court order formalizing what amounts to a secret agreement to monitor the pulpits of ill-favored churches. The serious danger, as former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams told Fox News, is that the IRS will start treating “theology as politics,” and regulate it accordingly. Lovers of liberty should be very concerned. According to a June 27 IRS letter to the Justice Department, 99 churches merit “high priority examination” for allegedly illegal...

First Amendment: Government's assault on religious liberty has hit a new low as the IRS settles with atheists by promising to monitor sermons for mentions of the right to life and traditional marriage. A lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asserted that the Internal Revenue Service ignored complaints about churches' violating their tax-exempt status by routinely promoting political issues, legislation and candidates from the pulpit. The FFRF has temporarily withdrawn its suit in return for the IRS's agreement to monitor sermons and homilies for proscribed speech that the foundation believes includes things like condemnation of gay...

I n the United States, conventional wisdom holds that you should raise your child to be religious. Taking the kids to church is the default; leaving them home requires justification. Push parents to explain why they should pass on their religion—apart from a principled urge to keep the faith—and they’re likely to tell you studies prove that kids do better with religion than without it. Mark Joseph Stern Mark Joseph Stern Mark Joseph Stern is a writer for Slate. He covers science, the law, and LGBTQ issues. But is religion really good for kids? That might depend on what kind...

What Exiting Is and Isn't Virno believes a radical disobedience is needed to challenge the state's ability to command. This cannot be expressed through resistance to a specific law on the grounds, for example, that it contradicts a constitution. Such resistance is actually a vote of confidence in the state qua state; that is, such activists fight to enable a purer vision of state authority rather than against the idea of a state itself. A wholesale rejection is required. And, yet, revolutionaries who violently confront the state usually suffer one of two fates: they are slaughtered or otherwise broken or...

From day one, angry atheists have made outlandish claims about the Ground Zero Cross – the two intersecting steal beams in the shape of a cross that was found in the wreckage of the World Trade Center following 9/11. Not only have they made these absurd claims in public (calling it “offensive and repugnant”), they’ve made them in federal court. Now a federal appeals court is calling them out and demanding they provide a rational explanation as to how their “offense” constitutes a constitutional claim. When the American Atheists first filed their lawsuit in state court seeking to have the...

'House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that when Sunday dawns, she is more a praying woman and far less a partisan politician.“I was thinking about it on Sunday when I was praying for the Republicans in church, as I do at least every Sunday,” Ms. Pelosi also said, during a press conference on Capitol Hill. :“I pray for the Democrats and the Republicans, for our country."' Nancy Pelosi: I pray for Republicans ‘every Sunday’(Washington times (June 20, 2014) Yes I believe you on that Nancy, but Satan is too busy in the middle East right now to help you in...

Tim Lambesis, lead singer and founder of Christian metalcore band As I Lay Dying, recently confessed that he and other members of his band had become atheists but kept claiming to be Christians so they could keep making money selling records to Christians. In a wide-ranging interview with Alternative Press shortly before he was sentenced to six years in prison last month for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife, Meggan Murphy Lambesis, the singer addressed a claim he made last year in a YouTube video about his spiritual allegiance after fans started saying he had become...

WASHINGTON – The United States Navy has denied an application from an outspoken atheist who sought to become a chaplain to the Godless in the military. As previously reported, 38-year-old Jason Heap submitted his application last July, noting that he had earned master’s degrees from both Oxford University and Brite Divinity School, with substantial experience in human resources. He also successfully completed the necessary paperwork and all the required physical tests. Heap told reporters at that time that a position as chaplain would be a chance for him “to give back to my country."

Atheist parents and students wanted the Pledge of Allegiance banned in schools in Massachusetts because it contains the phrase "under God," but the state's highest court has ruled that reciting it does not violate the commonwealth's constitution or laws. "We hold that the recitation of the pledge, which is entirely voluntary, violates neither the Constitution nor the statute [which prohibits discrimination in Massachusetts public school education] ...," the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said Friday in Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District. "Simply being offended by something does not make it a violation of the Massachusetts Constitution," said Senior Legal Counsel...

The Pledge of Allegiance does not discriminate against atheists and can be recited at the start of the day in public schools, Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Friday. The Supreme Judicial Court said the words “under God” in the pledge reflect patriotic practice, not a religious one. They acknowledged that the wording has a “religious tinge” but said it is fundamentally patriotic and voluntary. The court was ruling in a 2010 lawsuit filed by an atheist family from Acton who claimed that the daily recitation of the pledge in classrooms violated their three children’s equal protection rights under the state constitution,...

Humorist: Brad Stine Tolerate This! "Atheists Are Irrational"

The hot seat just got hotter for Air Force officials at today’s [March 14, 2014] House Armed Services hearing. With the backdrop of Scripture scrubbing and Christian harassment at the branch’s Academy, a routine budget debate turned into a fireworks display over the Air Force’s growing hostility towards faith in the ranks. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Walsh were originally scheduled to talk about branch spending until conservatives intervened, demanding a detailed explanation of the events that unfolded at the Academy. Representatives from Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) to Democrat Mike McIntyre (N.C.)...

...‘Christian’ Putin has returned the brutal heel of the Marxism-Leninism ideology which made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union down on the people of Russia’s newly-acquired Crimea. Throughout the 70-year history of the Soviet Union, Christianity was suppressed and persecuted uninterrupted until Pope John Paul 11, President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher brought down the Iron Curtain and Soviet Communism. {SNIP} The Soviet Union didn’t change when it became plain Mother Russia. The KGB tiger called Putin has never changed his stripes. With yesterday’s cheers still resounding from the overwhelming 96.77 percent for Crimea to...

Author’s Note: Those wishing to follow this column should note that the subject of the controversy, a course syllabus, can be accessed here (http://www.uncw.edu/soccrm/documents/proceduresyllabus.pdf). Last Friday I was sitting in my office with a couple of students. We were going over an exam and talking about the schedule for the rest of the semester. While we were talking, I got an unexpected email from another professor. I shared it with my students. After reading it, they begged me to respond and to share my response with others. Because I am a faithful public servant, I decided to honor their request....

There has been so much news lately of schools, organizations, and individuals being harassed by atheist groups, but this one sets a new low. In this case, a grieving mother erected a roadside cross where her son was killed, and now an atheist group has forced her to take it down. What is wrong with these people??? As reported by The Press Enterprise, a roadside cross was erected for 19-year-old Anthony Vincent Devaney who in May 2012 was killed crossing a street. A complaint prompted the American Humanist Association in Washington, D.C., to intervene, contending the placement of the symbol...

An atheist group is suing to prevent the World Trade Center Cross from being put on display at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The 17 foot steel crossbeam was found in the wreckage at Ground Zero in the days after the September 11 attacks. For many, the cross was a symbol of hope during a time of tragedy. …