Free Republic

PICKENS COUNTY, S.C. – A high school valedictorian from South Carolina ripped up his approved speech on stage this past weekend, and minutes later, delivered the Lord’s Prayer in defiance of the school district’s decision to no longer include prayer at graduation ceremonies. Roy Costner IV drew loud applause and cheers when he surprised attendees of the Liberty High School graduation at Clemson’s Littlejohn Colliseum on Saturday. “From the ACLU sending FOIA requests to every district in the state this year after the Chesterfield County case, then the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent us a complaint about religion at...

So a school district, that has already lost in a lower court, attempting to ban both religious belief and free expression thereof, now wants to spend tax-payer money to attempt to thwart those same rights of religious belief, and free expression. Welcome to all that is the fascist thinking of the leadership of the Kountze Independent School District, located just outside Beaumont, Texas. Similar to the scandals occupying Washington DC right now there is a "big picture" lesson in the story of the Kountze High School cheerleaders: "If the atheist left of America have enough tax-payer money at hand, they...

COEUR d'ALENE - Gary Brown wouldn't tell The Press anything more than he told a Fox News reporter about the genesis of a video in which North Idaho school-age children say that because of their Christian beliefs, they've endured ridicule and had their rights trampled on in public schools. The video titled "The Thaw" features kids who participate in Reach America, a Coeur d'Alene-based Christian ministry and education program run by Brown. The video has been rapidly gaining viral ground on the Internet. By Saturday afternoon, it had been viewed just shy of 84,000 times. Brown told Fox News' Todd...

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an inter-denominational student ministry that builds communities across campuses in the U.S., revealed that one of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing was involved with their organization. Chinese national Lingzi Lu, 23, was one of the three people who lost their lives in last week's twin blasts that rocked the Boston Marathon, which also injured more than 170 others. "(Lu) was involved with the international student ministry we have at Boston University. She attended a retreat that we sponsored last fall. She was friends with people in the InterVarsity International Student ministry with the graduate and...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A cadet quitting West Point less than six months before graduation says he could no longer be part of a culture that promotes prayers and religious activities and disrespects nonreligious cadets. Blake Page announced his decision to quit the U.S. Military Academy this week in a much-discussed online post that echoed the sentiments of soldiers and airmen at other military installations. The 24-year-old told The Associated Press that a determination this semester that he could not become an officer because of clinical depression played a role in his public protest against what he calls the unconstitutional...

A newly approved Christian fraternity at Yale University may be denied official recognition and student group funding because it plans to restrict membership to men who believe in Jesus. Just days after the leaders of Beta Upsilon Chi (BYX) announced the Yale chapter's formation, the student newspaper reported that the group "will have to change its membership rules if it intends to comply with Yale's anti-discrimination policies."

<p>It’s football time in Tennessee where longtime gridiron traditions are cherished – from Rocky Top to the Pride of the Southland Marching Band. At the start of every game inside the colossal Neyland Stadium, thousands of the football faithful rise to their feet, remove their hats and pause for the pre-game prayer.</p>

The world stands silent. The individual must rise up and defeat this evil. It's just that simple. More from the new Egypt that big media adores and boot licks. Coptic Christian Student Murdered By Classmates for Wearing a Cross AINA In mid-October Egyptian media published news of an altercation between Muslim and Christian students over a classroom seat at a school in Mallawi, Minya province. The altercation lead to the murder of a Christian student. The media portrayed the incident as non-sectarian. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic news website, refuted this version and was first to report that the...

A young Christian at an purity rally spreads the word. True love doesn’t wait after all. That’s the implication in the upcoming October issue of an evangelical magazine that claims that young, unmarried Christians are having premarital sex almost as much as their non-Christian peers. The article in Relevant magazine, entitled “(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It,” cited several studies examining the sexual activity of single Christians. One of the biggest surprises was a December 2009 study, conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, which included information on sexual activity. While the study’s primary report did not explore...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Some Vanderbilt University religious groups will have to change their policies or risk being shut down. The university told Nashville's News 2 a number of groups are in violation of the school's nondiscrimination policy. In a statement, Vanderbilt University said, "Last academic year, an undergraduate made an allegation of discrimination against a student organization. As a result of that allegation, we sought to ensure that the more than 300 student organizations were aware of their need to comply with the university's longstanding nondiscrimination policy." Stephen Siao is the president of the college Republicans. "The policy that they've...

A federal appeals court ruling this week could significantly diminish public university religious groups' ability to restrict membership and leadership to students who agree with their teachings. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that San Diego State University's nondiscrimination policy for officially recognized campus groups is constitutional. The policy is based on a nondiscrimination policy used at all the schools in the California State University system. Two Christian groups sued SDSU in 2005, alleging the policy violated their free-speech and religious-freedom rights. For the groups to be recognized as official campus groups, they were required to allow all...

In a recent column for USA Today, Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero argues that public schools should do away with giving students’ days off for religious holidays because honoring Christian holidays in this manner is unfair to other religions. “As I read the First Amendment,” writes Prothero, “using taxpayer dollars to prop up Christianity and Judaism at the expense of Hinduism is unconstitutional, whether the number of parents who won’t send their children to school on [the Hindu festival of] Diwali totals 80 or 800.” Prothero suggests that those who agree with him should clamor to have every religious...

Friday September 17, 2010 Christian Students Suspended for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts with Bible Verses ROSWELL, New Mexico, September 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New Mexico School principal has penalized three Christian students with suspensions for giving fresh Krispy Kreme Doughnuts with Bible verses to each of their teachers, according to the public advocacy group Liberty Counsel. This school is already named in a pending lawsuit filed by Liberty Counsel on behalf of families and students who were bullied, and one suspended, for exercising their freedom of religion by distributing abstinence wristbands and plastic models of babies at 12 weeks...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court says a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won't let gays join. The court on Monday turned away an appeal from the Christian Legal Society, which sued to get funding and recognition from the University of California's Hastings College of the Law.

NCAA - No Christians Allowed Anymore? As a huge sports fan I found it interesting over the weekend when I discovered that without so much as a whisper the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) sucker punched the First Amendment of the Constitution. Among the proposed rule changes rolled out by the NCAA for the upcoming year is a ban on messages that appear on eye-black. Eye-black is the gummy black tape like stuff that football players wear beneath their eyes to eliminate glare from light. It goes without saying that the most notorious player who adorned himself with eye-black was...

Lawmakers in Michigan are preparing to call on the carpet leaders of taxpayer-supported universities across the state after top officials at Eastern Michigan University expelled from a counseling program a Christian student who refused to argue in support of the homosexual lifestyle. As WND reported, trouble began for master's program student Julea Ward when she refused to accept a client whose issue concerned a homosexual relationship.The school expelled her from the counseling program March 12, 2009, for refusing to abrogate her own personal religious beliefs and support the homosexual lifestyle.

A sharply divided US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in a case examining whether a California law school can refuse to officially recognize a Christian student group that requires its members to embrace biblical passages denouncing homosexuality. Officials at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law in San Francisco said the group’s stance violates the school’s antidiscrimination policy – including bans on discrimination based on religious belief or sexual orientation.

WASHINGTON — In a case that pits nondiscrimination policies against freedom of religion, the Supreme Court is grappling with whether universities and colleges can deny official recognition to Christian student groups that refuse to let non-Christians and gays join. The high court was to hear arguments Monday from the Christian Legal Society at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. The Christian group said its constitutional freedoms of speech, religion and association were violated when it was denied recognition as a student group by the San Francisco-based school.

A lower court's "hostility" towards Christianity will stand after the U.S. Supreme Court today refused to intervene in a school district's censorship of a kindergartener's choice of literature for a class reading. "By refusing to hear Mrs. Busch's case, the U.S. Supreme Court has endorsed the kind of hostility toward religion that should never be found in an American public school," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which took on the Newtown Square, Pa., case. As WND reported, Donna Busch accepted an invitation to visit her son Wesley's kindergarten classroom at Culbertson Elementary School to read a...

2nd-grader sent home for crucifix drawing Dad says teacher became upset when boy drew himself on a cross Dec . 15, 2009 TAUNTON, Mass. - An 8-year-old boy was sent home from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after he was asked to make a Christmas drawing and came up with what appeared to be a stick figure of Jesus on a cross, the child's father said Tuesday. Chester Johnson told WBZ-TV that his son made the drawing on Dec. 2 after his second-grade teacher asked children to sketch something that reminded them of the holiday. Johnson said...