Free Republic

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to investigate First Baptist Church of Dallas and its pastor for posting videos that endorse a presidential candidate, but the pastor isn't concerned about it. Pastor Robert Jeffress, who is familiar with Americans United's executive director Barry Lynn, introduced Rick Perry at last weekend's Values Voter Summit at the request of the Family Research Council. Following the scuffle about the pastor's subsequent comments on Mormonism being a "cult," the church-state separation advocacy group targeted Jeffress. "Barry Lynn has spent his whole career writing letters to the IRS trying...

Religous conservatives aren't going quietly into the night, Americans United's Barry Lynn tells Salon.Because non-politicians like Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson have garnered the most attention during the GOP presidential primary thus far, another distinctive feature of this cycle’s batch of candidates has gone relatively unnoticed. For all the talk and hype about the GOP modernizing and learning the lessons of the George W. Bush era — and for all the breathless speculation about the millennial generation and how it demands of politicians a different approach — the religious right’s presence within the party remains formidable. The aforementioned...

NEWTON(AP) — State officials say they will end a Bible-based treatment program at Newton prison that has been the subject of a five-year court battle. The Iowa Department of Corrections has notified Prison Fellowship Ministries in Virginia that the program, called the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, will end by mid-March, prison spokesman Fred Scaletta said in a copyright story in The Des Moines Register. Prison Fellowship sponsored a Christianity-based values program for inmates. It had a three-year state contract that ended in June. Prison officials had granted the organization a one-year extension with donations covering the expenses. A provision in the...

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, June 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island is under fire from an activist group that claims his recent column in the diocesean newspaper criticizing Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani for his position on abortion violated the Church’s tax-exempt status. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Tobin to determine whether he violated the Church’s tax-exempt status. The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the group’s executive director, said in a news release that Tobin “appears to have violated federal tax...

Accused Terrorist Wrote Public School Guidelines with ACLU [over 23 references linked below] Abdurahman Alamoudi, President of the American Muslim Council, supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and accused of ties with Osama bin Laden, helped develop "Religious Expression in Public School" with the ACLU which holds the copyright. Launched by Clinton in 1995, these "Presidential Guidelines" greatly impact public schools today. Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, refers to these guidelines as the authority to support the ACLU’s lawsuits restricting Christmas celebrations and removing Nativity scenes from public schools. School districts are pressured to utilize Clinton’s guidelines which he sold to...

If the ACLU happens to sue your small hometown and then demands $1 million dollars for their lawyers, would you call them generous and charitable? Strangely enough, that's exactly what they’ve done to the small town of Dover, Pennsylvania. Following the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State's (AUSCS) federal trial court victory in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board (M.D.Penn. 2005), the ACLU recently announced it would "generously" demand only $1 million in costs and attorneys fees. Why $1 million you may ask? According to the ACLU’s Eric Rothschild, “We think it’s important that the public...

INDIANAPOLIS — A Wiccan activist and his ex-wife are challenging a court order that they must protect their 9-year-old son from what the divorce decree terms their "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." Thomas E. Jones and Tammy Bristol of Indianapolis are fighting a Marion Superior Court stipulation that they shelter the boy from their religion. The Indiana Civil Liberties Union has taken on the case, appealing the December decree to the Indiana Court of Appeals. Jones, a Wiccan activist who has coordinated Pagan Pride Day in Indianapolis for the past six years, said he and his ex-wife were stunned when...

Posted on Tue, May. 03, 2005 Faith-based prison plan questioned By Jack Douglas Jr. Star-Telegram Staff Writer In the West Texas town of San Angelo, where Conrad Hilton built one of his first luxury hotels in 1929, a controversy is brewing over a different type of lodging, one that would accommodate more than 500 convicts. Tom Green County commissioners have signed off on a proposal to build a privately operated "faith-based" prison, billed as the first of its kind in bringing institutionalized Christianity into the cellblock. Proponents say the prison, run by employees with a "Christian world view," would help...

NEW YORK - A video screen showed President Bush boarding a plane for Washington. His purpose: To get to the White House and sign Congress' bill asking federal courts to review the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. Joan Bokaer of TheocracyWatch.org offered her take on the action. "There's something strange about the folks running our country," she quipped. The audience of 500 people responded with some appreciative chuckles. Bokaer, from a social action center affiliated with Cornell University, was speaking at a conference last weekend that denounced conservative Republicans on matters like mercy-killing, abortion, gay marriage, research using human...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign has hired a new director of religion outreach, who is being described by a Catholic group as "a curious choice." Mara Vanderslice, who formerly worked as religion outreach director for Democrat Howard Dean, was raised without any faith and didn't become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism, the Catholic League said on Monday. According to Catholic League President William Donohue, when Vanderslice was in college she was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and...

Move To Expand Colson's Ministry Draws Fire From Civil Libertarians WASHINGTON — Emboldened by the reported success of a Christian rehabilitation program in state prisons, the Bush administration is seeking ways to expand such programs to inmates in federal prisons. The head of the White House office for faith-based initiatives, Jim Towey, told reporters last week that President Bush had asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to seek ways of expanding such programs to federal prisons. Federal prisons offer a faith-based program that is not tied to any one denomination and have not offered Christian-only programs. Bush's plans are causing alarm...

<p>RICHMOND, Va. — In an important victory for First Amendment groups, a federal appeals court ruled Monday that the traditional prayers said before evening meals at the Virginia Military Institute (search) are unconstitutional.</p> <p>The decision upholds a lower court ruling and emphasizes that the extraordinary obedience demanded of VMI cadets doesn't give them the freedom to choose not to participate in what's been called a non-denominational, voluntary dinner prayer.</p>

<p>The director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State is being sued in federal court in Alexandria for not allowing distribution of a tape in which he discusses homosexuality's compatibility with Christianity.</p> <p>In a suit filed April 16, the Phoenix-based Alpha and Omega Ministries says Barry Lynn, a free-speech advocate and director for Americans United, does not want a debate in which he took part televised.</p>