Free Republic

All three networks this morning predictably reacted negatively to President Trump signing an executive order to scale back federal regulations on religious organizations. Calling the order “controversial,” the three networks warned the bill would likely cause discrimination and fretted about forced birth control coverage. Yet not one of the networks interviewed a religious group that would be affected positively by this order.

President Donald Trump today signed an executive order that would allow religious organizations to endorse political candidates and expand participation in politics. The executive order signed today also enables private employers to use religion as a pretext to deny reproductive health care to their employees. “The actions taken today are a broadside to our country’s long-standing commitment to the separation of church and state. Whether by executive order or through backroom deals, it’s clear that the Trump administration and Congressional leadership are using religion as a wedge to further divide the country and permit discrimination. We intend to file suit...

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday will ease restrictions on political activity by churches and charities, White House officials said, but has backed away from a broader religious liberty order that would have allowed faith-based organizations and companies to avoid serving or hiring gay people. Conservative religious leaders who were fierce supporters of Mr. Trump’s candidacy had pushed the president to provide faith organizations with much more sweeping relief from Obama-era regulations that protect gay men, lesbians and others from discrimination. Instead, in an executive order, Mr. Trump will offer a vague promise to “protect and vigorously promote religious liberty.”...

President Donald Trump will take executive action on Thursday to ease a ban on political activity by churches and other tax-exempt institutions as part of an order on religious liberties, a senior White House official said on Wednesday. Trump's executive order to mark the National Day of Prayer will also mandate regulatory relief to religious employers that object to contraception, such as Little Sisters of the Poor, the official said in a briefing.

The executive order President Trump is expected to sign Thursday will be focused on the Johnson Amendment and allow non-profit organizations to deny certain health coverage for religious reasons, administration sources told Fox News Wednesday. Trump will instruct the Treasury Department and the IRS to not enforce the provisions of the Johnson Amendment regarding political activity in churches and non-profit organizations, according to sources. The timing and contents of the order, which would come on the National Day of Prayer, are still "very fluid" and there are still several drafts, according to a senior administration official. The Johnson Amendment, named...

This guy's idea And a good idea it is, as far as it goes. With religious liberty under assault both legally and culturally, an executive order designed to protect it is surely welcome for the Christian bakers, florists and photographers who don’t want to be forced to take part in a gay “wedding.” But it remains to be seen whether the order that’s coming Thursday will hold up any better than the one Pence signed into law in Indiana. It also remains to be seen what force of law a president’s executive order will have, but we’re going to find...

After wrapping up his first 100 days in the White House on Saturday, President Donald Trump plans to hit a new set of issues, including religious liberty, tax reform, and school choice, a White House official told The Daily Signal.“We want to have legislation that has a profound impact on religious liberty, one that has profound impact on education, that has profound impact on health care,” Helen Aguirre Ferré, White House media affairs director, said in an interview Friday.Ferré added: These are just some of the issues we are working on that’s going to be absolutely critical going forward, not...

May 1 - The US Supreme Court on Monday left intact California's ban on "gay conversion" therapy aimed at turning youths under age 18 away from homosexuality, rejecting a Christian minister's challenge to the law asserting it violates religious rights. The justices, turning away a challenge to the 2012 law for the second time in three years, let stand a lower court's ruling that it was constitutional and neither impinged upon free exercise of religion nor impacted the activities of clergy members.

Evan Michael Minton, a former legislative aide in California, wants to change from being a woman to a man. As part of the process, Minton sought a hysterectomy at Mercy San Juan Medical Center, part of the Dignity Health Care chain. As a Catholic institution, Mercy San Juan does not perform elective hysterectomies. A spokeswoman for the hospital explained that such procedures may only be performed to treat a serious medical problem, and when there is no alternative treatment available. Mercy immediately referred Minton to another hospital within the Dignity chain—one that is not Catholic—and the procedure was performed within...

"LGBT agenda will be unhinged." A new religious liberty executive order protecting Christians from the onslaught of former community organizer Barack Obama's radical LGBT agenda may be in the works soon, says former Donald Trump advisor Ken Blackwell. “My anticipation is that we will see an Executive Order and it will be more than window dressing,” Blackwell, senior fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at the Family Research Council, told LifeSiteNews, predicting that Obama's “aggressive LGBT agenda will be unhinged." “We have a great plan to attack the administrative state,” he said. “We will have to be very meticulous...

Arguments in a high-profile religious liberty case caused tempers to flare on both sides of the Supreme Court's ideological divide Wednesday. The high court waited for several months to hear Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, and did so with a full nine-justice court bolstered by the addition of Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined the court this month. At issue in Trinity Lutheran is whether Missouri violated the Constitution in its decision to bar a church-operated daycare and preschool from a state program that provides funding to nonprofits to resurface playgrounds. Missouri's Constitution includes a provision that prevents public...

It seems that Jordan A. Maney is not as committed to “diversity” and “love” as she would have us believe. Recently, Ms. Maney, the black owner of a San Antonio event planning business, “All The Days Event Co.,” got a bit upset when she was asked to plan the wedding for a couple whose chosen venue contained the word “plantation.” ... As ATTN also notes, Maney also told the inquiring customer on the receiving end of her discrimination, “You’re having a wedding at a grave-site essentially. How are you going to laugh and celebrate on so many people’s blood, and...

RICHMOND, Va. — The Democratic governor of Virginia has vetoed a religious freedom bill which would have prohibited the government from punishing those who believe in biblical marriage and conduct their public lives in accordance with that conviction. “Although couched as a ‘religious freedom’ bill, this legislation is nothing more than an attempt to stigmatize,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe asserted in a statement on Thursday in rejecting S.B. 2314 and H.B. 2025. “No person shall be required to participate in the solemnization of any marriage, or subject to any penalty by the Commonwealth, or its political subdivisions or representatives or agents,...

An Oregon couple who were forced to pay $135,000 after declining to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple had their first appearance before the Oregon Court of Appeals on Thursday, as they continue to fight back against the massive judgement. Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, are arguing that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries — the state agency responsible for discrimination claims — violated their religious liberty, due process and free speech, after forcing the bakers to pay $135,000 to the lesbian couple at the center of the dispute. The Klein v....

Bush emphasized to host “Today” host Matt Lauer the importance to “worship freely.” “I think it’s very important for all of us to recognize one of our great strengths is for people to be able to worship the way they want to or not worship at all,” Bush said. “The bedrock of our freedom, a bedrock of our freedom, is the right to worship freely. And I — you see, I understood right off the bat, Matt this, that is an ideological conflict. And people who murder the innocent are not religious people. They want to advance an ideology. And...

The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice held a hearing on the state of religious liberty in America. Four people offered testimony at the February 16 hearing: * Kimberlee Colby, director, Center for Law & Religious Freedom * Hannah Smith, senior counsel, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty * Rabbi David Saperstein, former United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom * Casey Mattox, senior counsel, Alliance Defending FreedomColby, Smith, and Mattox expressed concern at developments that have taken place in recent years, while Saperstein (an Obama administration appointee) worried that religious liberty may be used to excuse...

According to a left-wing website, The Nation, the president is circulating a draft of an executive order on religious liberty that will bring civil rights protections for Christians into the 21st century. Its stated purpose is "to guide the executive branch in formulating and implementing policies with implications for the religious freedom of persons and organizations in America." Christian organizations include even "closely held for-profit corporations, operated for a religious purpose, even if its purpose is not exclusively religious." It is a perfectly appropriate executive order because it is a directive from the head of the executive branch, the president,...

Catholic Church to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Mormons, specifically bar or strongly discourage their clergy and churches from endorsing or campaigning for candidates. Any change to the Johnson Amendment wouldn’t affect those strictures. Expanding religious freedom is a defining issue for religious conservatives who propelled President Trump to the White House, and the centerpiece of Trump’s religious freedom agenda is ending the 1950s-era law that says houses of worship can lose their tax-exempt status if they engage in partisan campaigning.Indeed, Trump won’t just overturn that ban — known as the Johnson Amendment — but, as he...

A Washington florist who refused to participate in a same-sex wedding lost a unanimous decision yesterday at the state Supreme Court. The 9-0 ruling rejected her claim to a First Amendment right to exercise her right to religious liberty in favor of the state’s anti-discrimination law. The next step for Barronelle Stutzman will be the US Supreme Court, as KIRO reported lat night:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The Associated Press has more details on the next steps. Stutzman’s legal counsel insists that the First Amendment allows for free exercise of religion, and that commerce does not limit it....

Seattle, Wash., Feb 16, 2017 / 03:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Washington state florist must pay fines and legal costs for conscientiously objecting to serving a same-sex wedding, as the state’s supreme court upheld a lower court’s decision on Thursday. “It’s wrong for the state to force any citizen to support a particular view about marriage or anything else against their will. Freedom of speech and religion aren’t subject to the whim of a majority; they are constitutional guarantees,” Kristin Waggoner, senior counsel with the group Alliance Defending Freedom who argued the case before the Washington Supreme Court, stated Feb....