Free Republic

or Clothing Should free speech and religious rights be restricted the moment a person begins working for the government? This is the very question that some politicians in Quebec, Canada, are asking. Leaders in the province could soon make a definitive decision that would essentially ban public workers from wearing discernible religious symbols. The regulation would be part of the proposed “Charter of Quebec Values,” a set of laws that would ensure a strict line is drawn between church and state. In what can only be described as sweeping, civil servants, teachers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, police and public day care...

Memphis mother Erica Shead said she was angry after her 10-year-old daughter Erin, told her Wednesday, she wasn’t allowed to write about God for a school assignment. “It was so cute and innocent. She talked about how God created the earth and how she’s doing the best she can,” said Shead. Shead said Erin was told she can’t use God as an idol for the assignment.

A judge is allowing a San Diego-area school district to teach yoga, rejecting the claims of disgruntled parents who called it an effort to promote Eastern religion. Yoga is a religious practice, but not the way that it is taught by the Encinitas Union School District at its nine campuses, San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer said in Monday’s ruling. Meyer said the school district stripped classes of all cultural references including the Sanskrit language. He noted that the lotus position was renamed the “crisscross applesauce” pose.

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that a man can sue the state of Oklahoma over its license plates. The man, Keith Cressman, has argued that the state's standard license plate, which depicts a Native American shooting an arrow into the sky, goes against the separation of church and state, according to a report from Tulsa World. He sued a number of state officials in 2011. That lawsuit was initially dismissed in 2012 but has since been reinstated by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. According to Tulsa World, the court ruled that the image of Allan Houser's...

A church-state separation group touting its access to Defense Department officials is taking credit for the removal of a painting from an Idaho Air Force base on Friday that featured a Bible verse within an hour of making the demand. The organization, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has called for the court martial of military personnel for “proselytizing,” having met with Pentagon officials in the past. The group is citing this victory in Idaho as proof of its influence over the U.S. military. The painting in the Wagon Wheel dining hall at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho showed...

A longtime substitute teacher in Phillipsburg, NJ, has been fired after he shared a Bible verse with a student – and upon request gave the child a Bible. The Phillipsburg School Board voted Monday night to terminate the employment of Walter Tutka. He was accused of breaking two policies – distributing religious literature on school grounds and another policy that directs teachers to be neutral when discussing religious material. “It’s unfortunate the Phillipsburg School District chose the path of religious hostility and intolerance against a retired man serving his community and simply responding to a student’s intellectual curiosity,” Hiram...

The Prime Minister’s plans for gay marriage could leave churches facing legal action unless they agree to same-sex unions, it emerged today.Legal advice reportedly sent to David Cameron warns that church could be sued under human rights legislation if they refuse to allow the services to proceed. Exemption granted to the Church of England by the Coalition Bill to prevent it having to conduct gay marriages is “eminently challenge-able” in the European Court of Human Rights. It also warns that the Government's insistence that protections put in place for other religious groups who don't want to marry homosexuals could be...

An Egyptian magazine claims that six American Islamist activists who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy. The Dec. 22 story published in Egypt's Rose El-Youssef magazine (read an IPT translation here) suggests the six turned the White House "from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood." The story is largely unsourced, but its publication is considered significant in raising the issue to Egyptian readers. The six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland...

“Wicked.” “Crazy.” “Extremist.” Those are the words Americans United For Separation of Church and State uses in reference to the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. But the organization, which claims to fight to “ensure religious freedom for all Americans,” is not using those words to describe Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old who shot and killed 27 innocent souls. No, its reproach is directed at the “religious right,” including such figures as Mike Huckabee and William J. Murray, for daring to suggest that the eviction of God from the nation’s public schools just might have contributed to the rise of school-related violence and...

A decade ago, a British philosopher put forth the notion that the universe we live in might in fact be a computer simulation run by our descendants. While that seems far-fetched, perhaps even incomprehensible, a team of physicists at the University of Washington has come up with a potential test to see if the idea holds water. The concept that current humanity could possibly be living in a computer simulation comes from a 2003 paper published in Philosophical Quarterly by Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford. In the paper, he argued that at least one of...

While pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey today, President Obama absolved it with what he called a "special dispensation," making the Sign of the Cross over the gobbling turkey. It appears that Obama made a left handed, backward sign of the cross.

A federal judge has issued a ruling siding with the Obama administration saying that it has the right to force Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned and run company, to pay for drugs for women that may cause abortions.The privately held retail chain with more than 500 arts and crafts stores in 41 states filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over its HHS mandate. The company says it would face $1.3 million in fines on a daily basis starting in January if it fails to comply with the mandate, which requires religious employers to pay for or refer women for abortion-cause...

The rigors of teaching apparently got to Michigan State University professor John McCarthy Monday. According to multiple sources, the math teacher stripped naked in the middle of his Calculus 1 class and started shouting obscenities.

One year after the military began allowing gay, lesbian and bisexual service members to openly proclaim their sexuality, some conservative groups continue to call for an end to the change in policy. But their pleas are falling largely on deaf ears on Capitol Hill, where most lawmakers seem content to focus on other issues. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty (CARL), which represents more than 2,000 chaplains serving the armed forces, said it is cataloging examples of negative consequences that have resulted from the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. After Congress voted in December 2010 for...

Every year around this time, questions come up about churches being involved in political elections. Questions like, “Can my church talk about issues that are at stake in the election,” “can my church pass out voter guides,” or “what if a candidate wants to address my congregation?” Admittedly, it can be confusing for churches and pastors to know what is allowed during an election season. Much of this confusion stems from the vagueness of the tax code and the accompanying IRS regulations. To help, Alliance Defending Freedom has created many resources for you to utilize this election season. Guidelines for...

(CNSNews.com) – At an event officials say was planned before the attacks in Libya that killed four Americans on Sept. 11, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Libyan Ambassador to the U.S., Ali Aujali, celebrated the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at the State Department on Thursday. The Eid ul-Fitr reception was held almost a month after the official end of the month on Aug. 19, delayed, officials say, because of Clinton’s travel schedule. “The date [of the reception] was set purely because of scheduling considerations, especially given lengthy travel abroad recently,” a State Department spokesman...

Publication date: March 20, 2012 "The Gospel of Barack Hussein Obama According to Mark" is designed to initiate the reader into a meditation on what it means to be human, what it means to be a manifestation of God, and how Barack Obama is a unique and important manifestation of God’s desire for human flourishing. In a blend of words from his public speeches, imagined conversation, and fictional situations, the book highlights Obama’s real stance on social justice and, in particular, economic and political empowerment. It juxtaposes ancient Biblical form and contemporary reality, challenging the reader to see and seek...

The Democratic National Committee is raising a number of eyebrows after choosing to proceed with hosting Islamic “Jumah” prayers for two hours on the Friday of its convention, though it denied a Catholic cardinal’s request to say a prayer at the same event. Watch the promotional video, via the Bureau of Muslim Affairs, which is partnering with the DNC for the event. The first two minutes are rather dry, but around 2:04 a muezzin sings the call to prayer with an American flag background, and the video “picks up” considerably:

Now, no one gets the discount. A water park in the heart of the Bible Belt is ending the $5-per-person discount it had been offering on its entrance fee to church groups after the head of a secular charity that caters to inner-city youths requested the same deal for its kids. The Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock, Ark., had been knocking a few dollars off the price of admission for people who came to the park with their church group. The entrance fee was lowered 50 percent to $5 for children who came in that context. However, when...

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama, who is moving ahead with a regulation that forces observant American Catholics to act against their consciences and the teachings of their faith, will be one of the keynote speakers at an Oct. 18 white-tie fundraiser hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The fundraiser—the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner--will benefit the foundation, which Cardinal Dolan serves as board president. The foundation's website says it provides funding “for healthcare causes.” Al Smith, a three-term governor of New York, became the first...