Free Republic

The Heritage Foundation's Ryan Anderson (with whom I happen to disagree on same-sex marriage) appeared on Ed Schultz's MSNBC program (cough) last night to discuss Indiana's religious freedom law, and the resulting conversation culminated with the host instructing producers to silence Anderson's microphone. End of Discussion: Schultz advances one false or misleading narrative after another, then loses his composure when Anderson (or "Mr. Ryan," as Schultz calls him at one point) replies with rapid-fire factual corrections. Schultz interrupts Anderson's first answer almost immediately to contest the statement that Indiana's law is effectively the same as other RFRAs, including the federal...

Some intriguing details from NPR: In Washington, D.C., construction is underway on the Museum of the Bible, an eight-story, $400 million enterprise funded by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green.Green is a Pentecostal known for donating to conservative evangelical universities and developing a public school curriculum based on the Bible. After the craft store’s controversial victory in this summer’s Supreme Court ruling over contraception, some people worry the new museum will come across as evangelical propaganda. But organizers behind Green’s latest venture say it won’t be a memorial to evangelism.The Museum of the Bible will house the more than 40,000 artifacts...

his past summer, Toronto comedian Megan MacKay, uploaded a mockery video of Christians she called the, “Hobby Lobby Makeup Tutorial.” “This closely held corporation called Hobby Lobby which is a craft store company,” she begins, “recently went to the Supreme Court and said,’ We don’t want to have to pay for a woman’s contraception because we are Christian and we don’ believe in that and the Supreme County said ‘sure…” We could certainly debate her analysis of the Hobby Lobby case and what it was about another time. For this blog, we are pointing out MacKay’s outright disrespect of Christianity...

The Supreme Court is heading in the wrong direction by allowing a corporation to impose its religious beliefs on its employees, according to David Gans, the director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Citizenship Program at the Constitutional Accountability Center.Gans co-authored the new book titled Religious Liberties for Corporations? Hobby Lobby, the Affordable Care Act, and the Constitution with Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute.“This is the first time the Supreme Court has said corporations have this right in more than 200 years in our nation’s history,” Gans said during an event at...

Faith-based nonprofit organizations that object to covering birth control in their employee health plans are in federal court Monday to challenge a birth-control compromise they say still compels them to violate their religious beliefs. The plaintiffs include a group of Colorado nuns and four Christian colleges in Oklahoma ... The groups are appealing to the 10th Circuit in Denver, the court that ruled last year that for-profit companies can join the exempted religious organizations and not provide the contraceptives. The U.S. Supreme Court later agreed with the 10th Circuit in the case brought by the Hobby Lobby arts-and-crafts chain. The...

An Oklahoma school district is reportedly walking back plans to begin offering students an elective course on the Bible after facing pressure from a major atheist group. The class, called “The Book: The Bible’s History, Narrative and Impact,” was developed, in part, by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green, and it was set to launch in Mustang Public Schools, Raw Story reported. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) said on its website Tuesday that the district canceled the class after Hobby Lobby allegedly did not provide the district with the final curriculum for approval and did not “commit to providing legal...

Evangelicals are mobilizing for the midterms.Pundits may be declaring the culture wars over, but conservative Christians are donning their battle gear and rushing back to the front lines. In recent months, a coalition of conservative evangelical organizations has been pursuing an aggressive voter mobilization campaign that involves a combination of high-tech tools, briefings for pastors, and rallies simulcast to mega-churches around the country. The goal of these gatherings is to drum up outrage over recent political skirmishes, including the Hobby Lobby lawsuit, and to persuade believers that their religious freedoms are under attack by ungodly forces. During one recent event,...

In a speech stressing the importance of protecting America's religious liberties and other inalienable rights that so-called "radical" Democratic policies are trying to limit, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, reflected on his own family's path toward the Christian faith, which included his father abandoning him and his mother when he was three years old before returning to them after finding Jesus. Before Rev. Rafael Cruz became an evangelical Texas pastor and one of the nation's most notable and quotable congressional parents, he and his wife, with their toddler son, lived in Canada and worked in the oil and energy business....

An Israeli museum on Thursday unveiled what it says in the oldest known Jewish prayer book in the world, dating back to the 9th century A.D. The prayer book, about 10 centimeters (four inches) long and seven centimeters wide, is written in Hebrew, contains about 50 pages, and is still in its original binding. It was donated to the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem by Oklahoma businessman Steve Green, a devout Christian and owner of one of the largest collections of rare biblical artifacts in the world. Green’s family controls the Hobby Lobby crafts store chain, which won a closely-watched...

Leadership: Say this for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz: He routinely takes principled stands on tough issues, even if it puts him at odds with his own party. Case in point: His comments this week in support of nuns and Israel. With the White House filing a new brief signalling it intends to force Catholic Sisters to violate their religious beliefs, the Texas Republican strongly defended religious liberty. Despite its defeat in the Hobby Lobby case, the White House last Monday was back at it, filing a brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado explaining a rule...

Four years ago, when Baker was the GOP nominee, we did an assessment of Baker’s far-left, anti-family view and actions. Well, as we cruise into the Sept. 9 primary with Baker against conservative underdog Mark Fisher, it’s time for an update. Needless to say, things have only gotten worse. These days it’s very seductive for the GOP across the country to think that they can avoid confrontation with the Left by abandoning their supporters’ principles on “culture war” and “hot button” issues and instead promoting on things like “good management.” But that’s wishful thinking. (See the recent post, “The Left...

After losing to Hobby Lobby at the Supreme Court in a case about whether certain businesses who object to paying for abortion-causing drugs for their employees must follow the HHS mandate, the Obama administration has revised the HHS mandate rules.The revisions target religious nonprofits and those pro-life companies like Hobby Lobby.The Obama administration released a fact sheet on the newly-proposed HHS mandate rule pertaining to non-profit organizations and closely held for-profit entities, like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties. The factsheet on the new rules makes it clear that the HHS mandate violates the conscience rights of non-profit organizations and...

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, stopped at a Hobby Lobby store in her district on Wednesday – not to pick up some craft supplies for one of her kid’s school projects, but to alert people to the store’s existence and urge people not to shop there. “I want people to know that this Hobby Lobby is here and they should vote with their purses and their pocketbooks, and women should not shop here. If you didn’t know this Hobby Lobby was here before, know it now and don’t shop here. They don’t...

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, stopped at a Hobby Lobby store in her district on Wednesday – not to pick up some craft supplies for one of her kid’s school projects, but to alert people to the store’s existence and urge people not to shop there. “I want people to know that this Hobby Lobby is here and they should vote with their purses and their pocketbooks, and women should not shop here. If you didn’t know this Hobby Lobby was here before, know it now and don’t shop here. They don’t...

WARNING: Strong language…. Planned Parenthood is tweeting congrats to Maggie Award Winners: Irin Carmon, Jessica Valenti, Janet Mock, and Zerlina Maxwell, Sara Austin deputy editor of Cosmopolitan. Also allegedly receiving the award is Maya Rhodan Reporter at TIME. The Maggie Award is named after Planned Parenthood’s racist founder, Margaret Sanger. Sanger once bragged that she gave a dozen speeches to the Klan. Looks like these recipients are not bothered by the racism aspect of this award, no shock here. Jessica Valenti, a board member for NARAL and a columnist for The Guardian responded to receiving Planned Parenthood’s Maggie Award, Thrilled...

The Heritage Foundation recently showed a documentary entitled “One Generation Away: the Erosion of Religious Liberty.” This bold documentary emphasized the importance of preserving our natural liberties, and expressed fear that they could easily be taken away as a secular government grows. rick santorum EcoLight Studios, a Christian movie company owned by former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, will distribute the film in theatres this September to convey an important message—freedom can be taken away far easier than it is given. Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum presented the film at the Heritage event, saying that “The fight to protect our...

Apparently the phony “war on women” has made its way to the Supreme Court. Upset by the fact that a majority of the justices on the high court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby’s religious freedoms, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is now accusing them of being sexist.In a new interview with pro-abortion media icon Katie Couric, Ginsburg lashes out at her colleagues and claims they have a “blind spot” towards women because they decided that Hobby Lobby should not be forced to pay for drugs that cause abortions for their employees.Never mind that polls show a majority of women oppose the...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg evolved this summer from a mere figure of authority into a liberal celebrity when she authored the dissenting opinion in the Hobby Lobby case. Ginsburg’s dissent, which has been ubiquitously dubbed “scathing” and/or “blistering” in the press, prompted the left to craft a cult of personality around her. Liberal outlets dubbed her “Notorious R.B.G.,” whiny folk artists converted her opinion into a terrible but nevertheless widely shared song, and The New Republic laughably dubbed Ginsburg “the most popular woman on the internet.” Take that, Kate Upton.All this hero worship was entirely unearned, but...

Following the Hail Satan chant in during laws that would restrict late term abortions in the state of Texas, a new effort is underway by the Satanic Temple to interject “religious protection for women with health needs that are being complicated by unreasonable laws.” In a statement released Monday, the Satanic Temple said that it will use the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision to exempt its believers from state-mandated informed consent laws that require women considering abortions to read pro-life material. MSNBC which drank the Koolaid reports that,”in other words, the Satanic Temple wanted a conscience clause from laws...

It is one thing to be ignorant of a law. There are so many out there that none of us can keep track of them all, including the lawyers. It is quite another matter to be behind the curve on a statute you are debating. feminist majority foundation While the outcome of the Hobby Lobby Stores v. Burwell case is still heavily debated, it remains important to consider why the Supreme Court ruled the way it did in this controversial case. This issue received considerable attention at a recent Feminist Majority conference in which the importance of creating a women’s...