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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups. The church’s haul may have reached -- or even exceeded -- $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found. Houses of worship and faith-based...

The American church has a problem. It's one part fear, one part confusion and one part apathy. Pastors, priests and rabbis have long swallowed the false notion that all things religious and all things political are somehow mutually exclusive - that never the twain shall meet. Leading up to Ronald Reagan's landslide presidential victory in 1980, Rev. Jerry Falwell, the founder of Liberty University, captured the crux of the church's apathy problem. "I'm being accused of being controversial and political," he said. "I'm not political. But moral issues that become political, I still fight. It isn't my fault that...

Scheduled town hall meeting to be held at church STOCKTON, Calif. (KCRA) —The city of Stockton is being threatened with a lawsuit because of a prayer rally, and a scheduled town hall meeting that is set to be held at a church. "As long as there is crime and homicides in Stockton, I'm going to continue to lead the city in prayer," said Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva. Silva said he does not believe he did anything wrong when he held a 12-hour prayer rally in Stockton last week. "I don't think I did anything wrong. My city had its 40th...

The Sword and the KeysKey to resolving the issues regarding how the church must relate to the state is an understanding of the distinct functions Scripture assigns to each authority. Church and state are actually both ministers of God that are appointed to fulfill certain tasks. Historically, human beings have always run into trouble when the state attempts to do the work of the church and the church attempts to do the work of the state.

Though the City of Houston has backed off its demand for local area ministers to submit copies of their Sunday sermons to the City’s attorneys, it is now demanding copies of any non-sermon speeches they may have made. Mayor Annise Parker, Houston’s first openly lesbian mayor, defended this blatant invasion of freedom of speech, arguing that “Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) is the law of this land. No one is entitled to speak out against the law, especially not church leaders.” “Churches have special exemptions from government taxes,” Parker pointed out. “As a quid-pro-quo for this benefit they ought to...

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...

Should “In God We Trust” adorn the chambers of Washington state’s Pierce County Council? That’s the apparently controversial question facing councilmembers on Tuesday, a day after a council committee decided to bring the proposal to a vote of the full seven-member council, the Tacoma News Tribune reports. Councilman Jim McCune, the Republican sponsor of the measure, said the national motto is inspiring and patriotic — and he’s unclear why the proposal has created such controversy. “’In God We Trust’ is universal,” he told the newspaper. “It doesn’t have ‘In Muhammad We Trust,’ it doesn’t have ‘In Jesus We Trust.’” Council...

A church is in a clash with Nevada County after being told to take down a sign with an American flag and a message to support the troops. Simple Truth Church put up the sign to cover an old, rundown billboard. However the “Support Our Troops” sign is becoming quite controversial. If the church doesn’t remove the sign, it could be fined.

Hooray for the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Unlike all too many liberal courts throughout the country, which have held that atheist hate speech against Christians is perfectly okay, the Sixth ruled last week that such anti-religious malice is not protected by the First Amendment. The case dates back to 2010, when the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist hate group based in Madison, Wisconsin, wrote a series of letters to Jim Fouts, Mayor of Warren, Michigan, demanding that the city remove a nativity scene from a holiday display it has put up for years. Mayor Fouts told the...

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over its lax response to church politicking. The group argues that the tax agency is violating the Constitution by allowing tax-exempt churches and religious organizations to get involved in political campaigns. The suit points to several examples, including a full page newspaper ad by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The ad, which showed a photo of Rev. Billy Graham, urged Americans to vote along biblical principles. The 94-year-old evangelist also met with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in October and promised to do all he...

“I don’t think, generally, Christians are being persecuted in this country.” So said Barack Obama, during his first run for the White House. The president won’t be able to make that claim this time around. Not after the release this week of the “Survey on Religious Hostility in America,” jointly produced by Liberty Institute and the Family Research Council (the recent target of such religious hostility). Liberty and FRC declare, “Hostility to religious liberty has reached an all-time high, and the attacks are increasing at an unprecedented rate.” Their well-researched survey documents more than 600 cases of bigotry against people...

Azusa Pacific University Men’s Choir Sings in Capitol Rotunda on Gohmert Led Tour Washington, DC –Last night, Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) gave the Azusa Pacific University Choir a tour of the United States Capitol. The men’s choir provided music for the 2012 National Day of Prayer events in Washington, D.C. During an after hour tour, the choir preformed an impromptu acapella, but powerfully moving rendition of Holy, Holy, Holy, in the Rotunda of our nation's Capitol. Surrounded by so many evidences of God's blessings on this nation, the echoing notes certainly moved those present and just might move you as...

Following outrage from parents; a changed version of "God Bless the USA" has been pulled from an upcoming school assembly concert. According to parents, children at Stall Brook Elementary school were told to sing "We love the USA" instead of "God Bless the USA" during the chorus of the popular Lee Greenwood song.

The Story: After the Obama administration's announced that health insurance coverage would require the inclusion of contraception and abortifacients, several Christian leaders---including Chuck Colson, Richard Land, and Rick Warren---called on evangelicals to stand with Catholics in civil disobedience to this law.The Background: In a special edition of his weekly video segment, Chuck Colson said: We have come to the point---I say this very soberly---when if there isn't a dramatic change is circumstances, we as Christians may well be called upon to stand in civil disobedience against the actions of our own government. That would break my heart as a former...

Jarrett’s partisan pulpit speech may have violated IRS church-state rules 12:14 AM 01/17/2012 Valerie Jarrett’s partisan speech at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church may have violated the IRS tax rules for churches’ political activities, said a prominent free speech attorney. “It is problematic under current regulations,” said Erik Stanley, a senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is campaigning to roll back IRS curbs on believers’ speech. But if the IRS concludes that the church violated the IRS code, the ADF “will represent the church, just as it would represent any church for what is said from the pulpit,”...

On the Sunday before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett visited Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to give a political speech, in support of her boss (Barack Obama) and congressional Democrats: "Teachers, and firefighters, and policemen, whose jobs are now in jeopardy because Congress--well let me be specific--because the Republicans in Congress," Jarrett told the crowd. According to the CBS affiliate in Atlanta, at this point, "Before she could finish her sentence, people in the congregation were laughing, and applauding." At the Sunday service, Jarrett also brought up Osama bin Laden's death in order...

We live in a secularized world of nation states in which traditional religion, especially Christianity, is unwelcome. Rooted in the “Enlightenment,” this view supports a secularized and authoritarian public square enforced by government and that progress requires forcing religion ever backward into remote corners of society. In short, America has become a secular theocracy with a civic religion of national politics (nationalism) occupying the public realm in which government has replaced God...

We live in an increasingly secularized world of massive and pervasive nation states in which traditional religion, especially Christianity, is ruled unwelcome and even a real danger on the basis of a purported history of intolerance and “religious violence.” This is found in most all “public” domains, including the institutions of education, business, government, welfare, transportation, parks and recreation, science, art, foreign affairs, economics, entertainment, and the media. A secularized public square policed by government is viewed as providing a neutral, rational, free, and safe domain that keeps the “irrational” forces of religion from creating conflict and darkness. And we...

Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is one of the most important Religion Clause cases of the last fifty years. ...There is a difference between a secular approach to governance and secularism, an ideology at odds with properly accommodating religious faith,churches,religious institutions and religious speakers. ...The Establishment Clause was intended to protect against the establishment of a National Church and a forced adherence to its doctrine by all citizens. It was more aptly understood as an Anti-Establishment Clause. Sadly, the interpretation of the Clause has devolved into an interpretation of a Church/State separation which is...

Wednesday the United States Supreme Court delivered a knockout blow to the White House in the cause of religious liberty. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a unanimous court swatted away the government’s claim that the Lutheran Church did not have the right to fire a “minister of religion” who, after six years of Lutheran religious training had been commissioned as a minister, upon election by her congregation. The fired minister -- who also taught secular subjects -- claimed discrimination in employment. The Obama administration, always looking for opportunities to undermine the bedrock of First Amendment religious liberty, eagerly agreed....