Free Republic

WASHINGTON – A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit filed earlier this year that sought to remove the motto ‘In God We Trust’ from American currency.As previously reported, well-known atheist Michael Newdow, who has filed numerous suits challenging the mixture of God and government, submitted a complaint in the Southern District of New York this past March, asserting that the motto violates the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution as it serves to proselytize unbelievers.“[T]he American dollar travels all over the world, into every country of the world, and frequently gets behind the Iron Curtain, and if it...

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.

On Sunday, top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett used the pulpit of Martin Luther King Jr.'s old church in Atlanta to launch a partisan political attack, calling out Republicans for refusing to support another Obama spending scheme. Jarrett appeared on today's Morning Joe. Mika Brzezinski broached the subject of Jarrett's in-church remarks. But instead of questioning the propriety of using the pulpit for such partisan purposes, Brzezinski simply offered Jarrett an opportunity to repeat her attack on Republicans. Joe Scarborough later pointed out the huge MSM double standard—observing how the New York Times and Washington Post would have been whining about...

A North Carolina state university has put out a list of approved "gay-friendly" churches for faculty and students raising concerns by at least one professor that taxpayers are inadvertently involved in "telling people where to go to church." An office with the University of North Carolina's Wilmington campus began circulating the list late last month. It was compiled as part of a broader guide to gay-friendly businesses, nonprofits, health centers and other services in the area. The "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex and allied students, faculty, staff, and alumni" office described the document as a "local resource guide" for...

The Establishment Clause says that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Liberals interpret this as "Separation of church and state," while constitutional conservatives interpret this as meaning that there can be no official state religion. Regardless of how you interpret this, allowing Sharia Law within the U.S. would be incompatable with either interpretation. Some might say that states can make exceptions for Sharia Law, but that would reopen what once was: states can have official state religions or allow for recognition of particilar denominational beliefs, which was practiced at one...

(CNSNews.com) - If a recent appeals court decision is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Christian cross could soon become an unconstitutional symbol -- even in places like Arlington Cemetery, a conservative advocacy group warns. The case, Davenport v. American Atheists, Inc., “may very well be the most important religious liberty case in decades,” the Family Research Council said. The case dates to 2005, when an atheist group sued the Utah Highway Patrol and the Utah Transportation Department, arguing that roadside memorial crosses honoring fallen state troopers constitute a state establishment of religion. The memorials are fully funded...

It begins… A Florida school not only banned Christmas but banned everything associated with Christmas including Christmas colors… Because someone might be offended.

I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the LOVE of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Rom 15:30 There was one person at the Portland Christmas Tree lighting who understood the spiritual importance that Christmas Tree lighting represented. When Mohamed Osman Mohamud shouted Allah Akbar and pushed the button on his fake bomb expecting to blow up thousands of Infidels he was attacking the one real enemy of Islam, Jesus Christ. Never mind Pioneer Square in Portland has outlawed any mention of Christ or even the name Holiday,...

Developers of the controversial Park51 Islamic community center and mosque located two blocks from Ground Zero earlier this month applied for roughly $5 million in federal grant money set aside for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The audacious move stands to reignite the embers of a divisive debate that dominated headlines surrounding the ninth anniversary of the attacks this fall, say people vested in the issue. The application was submitted under a “community and cultural enhancement” grant program administered by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment...

    Politics is not the only place where some pretty brassy statements have been made and repeated so often that some people have accepted these brassy statements as being as good as gold. One of the brassiest of the brass oldies in the law is the notion that the Constitution creates a "wall of separation" between church and state. This false notion has been so widely accepted that people who tell the truth get laughed at and mocked.A recent New York Times piece said that it was "a flub of the first order" when Christine O'Donnell, Republican candidate...

Rocco Landesman is the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Boy, does he know how to spin the official line on offensive art. In a recent interview in Cincinnati, he was asked vaguely about controversy. "The best art taps into deep feelings, sometimes to comfort and sometimes to confront. Art can be very uncomfortable," Landesman said. "That can lead to strong reactions. For some of us, it draws us into the arts over our lifetimes and careers. For others, it creates strong negative feelings." Landesman wasn't being asked specifically about negative feelings over the Loveland Museum Gallery in...

The Establishment Clause provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Amdt. 1. As a textual matter, this Clause probably prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion. ... Perhaps more importantly, the Clause made clear that Congress could not interfere with state establishments, notwithstanding any argument that could be made based on Congress’ power under the Necessary and Proper Clause. ... Nothing in the text of the Clause suggests that it reaches any further. The Establishment Clause does not purport to protect individual rights. By contrast, the Free Exercise Clause plainly protects individuals against congressional interference...

A Montana woman accused of destroying a piece of art some say depicted Jesus Christ committing a sex act pleaded not guilty this morning to a charge of criminal mischief, a Class 4 felony. Kathleen Folden waived her right to a preliminary hearing and is scheduled for a three-day trial in January. Folden's appearance was brief. In her arrest affidavit, Folden admitted to visiting the Loveland Museum/Gallery on Oct. 6 for the sole purpose of destroying the print of Enrique Chagoya's "The Misadventures of Romantic Cannibals."...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has expressed a willingness to ban protesters from burning the Koran as the modern day equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater.The Supreme Court has ruled burning the American flag in protest is protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.Breyer spoke to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America today:But Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on "GMA" that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater,” Breyer...

(Reuters) - The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy. The Democratic comptroller's spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack. "If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds...

In a recent meeting of the Marion City Council, local resident Ken Kessler proposed erecting a display of the Ten Commandments that would stand in a public square. There have been two meetings so far where the issue has been discussed, but no decision has yet been made. According to Mayor Robert L. Butler, the Ten Commandments monument will again be on the agenda during the next meeting of the Marion City Council on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010. It didn't take long for self-avowed atheist Rob Sherman to rush downstate to Marion and threaten the city with a lawsuit if...

The cry, "That violates the separation of church and state!" has been the centerpiece of the secularist drive to marginalize Christianity in the public sphere since the 1940s. The real -- and often neglected -- question is what precisely that separation means and how it should be interpreted and applied.The secularists' interpretation of the establishment clause -- the line of the First Amendment that reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" -- ultimately rests upon anti-Christian prejudice and involves cherry picking from certain founders' writings. In recent years, we...

You always read about it in the paper, you see it on the news, in fact some deny that it actually happens, but this year the ACLU came to town and did try to steal Christmas. Recently, our Nativity Scene and Menorah were removed from the Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania Courthouse Lawn. These Christmas displays have been used for the past 20+ years without issue; well that’s until a group identifying themselves as “The NEPA Freethought Society” decided to make an issue of it. This group claims their purpose is to: To serve as a watchdog, support system, and advocate on behalf...

If one examines the Courts opinion in the 1962 case and cross-references it with modern arguments by groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation, they will find an argument for implied compulsion where no actual compulsion exists. As articulated by Justice Douglas in his 1962 opinion, “It is said that the element of coercion is inherent in the giving of this prayer… [students in a classroom are] in a sense a “captive” audience.” This view resonates rhetorically with the contrived idea the First Amendment is intended to protect people from religion, rather than its explicit intent to protect the free...

A Mission Viejo high school history teacher violated the First Amendment by disparaging Christians during a classroom lecture, a federal judge ruled today. James Corbett, a 20-year teacher at Capistrano Valley High School, was found guilty of referring to Creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense” during a 2007 classroom lecture, denigrating his former Advanced Placement European history student, Chad Farnan.