Free Republic

PLANTATION— At the height of hurricane season, city officials are looking ahead to the holidays and putting their faith in something larger than snowmen, penguins and toy soldiers. Since the Broward chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union complained – twice – about the city's "inappropriate" holiday display in Liberty Tree Park, city officials have been trying to avoid another December dilemma.

This December, on courthouse lawns and other public places across America, you’ll see decorative lights, Santa and his reindeer, snowmen, “holiday trees,” and maybe even an angel or two. The only guest who’ll probably be missing from this birthday party is the guest of honor himself. Oddly, there’s even room for elves, tin soldiers, candy canes, and sugarplums — just no room for Christ. The lunacy of celebrating a holiday called Christmas that commemorates the birth of Christ without recognizing Christ could only happen in the philosophically inconsistent but politically correct America. Think of it: You can openly celebrate Christmas...

The challenge of a generation. We have arrived at a unique moment, and just perhaps a critical moment, in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. At the time of the American Revolution, Catholics accounted for less than 1 percent of the population of the 13 colonies — a tiny population clustered primarily in my native Maryland and a few counties of Pennsylvania. Yet within a few decades of the founding, the great tides of European immigration that began to wash onto the shores of the new nation — those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as...

The claim that American women as a group face systemic wage discrimination is groundless. Today is Equal Pay Day. Feminist groups and political leaders have set aside this day to protest the fact that women’s wages are, on average, 78 percent of men’s wages. “This date symbolizes how far into 2010 women must work to earn what men earned in 2009,”says the National Committee on Pay Equity. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has enlisted supporters to wear red “to represent the way the pay gap puts women ‘in the red.’” There will be rallies, speak outs, mass mailings...

The left's paranoia about the intersection of Christianity and the public square continues unabated. It's amazing how much they fear something that represents such a little threat to them. In his column in the British newspaper The Guardian, Northeastern University associate journalism professor Dan Kennedy rails against Republicans' "intolerance" of secularism and accuses them of representing a threat to the First Amendment. In their penchant for projection, leftists accuse conservatives and Republicans of intolerance, when in fact, their own intolerance dominates the issues of freedom of speech and religion. Liberals accuse conservatives of being theocrats, when they are the ones...

The First Amendment of our Constitution states not the words “separation of church and state,” but rather the following: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… How did this become construed to mean “separation of church and state”? By a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, in which he states: I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a...

A conservative activist and Illinois comptroller candidate was escorted from the Illinois State Capitol building Wednesday when he tried to remove a sign put up by an atheist group. William J. Kelly announced Tuesday that he planned to take down the sign put up by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and on Wednesday, he tried to make good on his plan. But Kelly said when he turned the sign around so it was face down, state Capitol police were quick to escort him away.

The county still has no approved Nativity scene or Christmas tree, more than a week after Loudoun's Board of Supervisors reversed a committee's decision to ban public displays. The supervisors will probably change that at a special meeting Thursday by ironing out details about who can set up displays...The meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. at the school administration building in Ashburn, an hour before a scheduled public input session on the budget. On Dec. 1, supervisors voted, 7 to 1, to allow community groups "equal access" to the grounds. A decision last month to bar any structures, religious or...

Leesburg, Virginia: Looks like the traditional Loudoun County Courthouse Christmas displays will be absent this year. For almost 50 years the Rotary Club of Leesburg has placed a Christmas tree on the courthouse grounds, Leesburg Today reported. For 20 years, Dennis and Debbie Welch has set up the courthouse nativity scene. But a new policy from the Facilities and Grounds Committee of the Loudoun County Courthouse prohibits any displays, according to Leesburg Today. Phil Rusciolelli has spearheaded the Rotary Club's Christmas tree initiative the past five years.

SANTA ANA – The removal of a Christmas tree from the Orange County Superior courthouse Monday has prompted a petition among court employees to have the tree – connected to a gift drive for poor children – put back. The six-foot artificial tree, which was adorned with tags seeking toy donations to 'Operation Santa Claus,' was removed Monday after a member of the public complained about the tree being in the courthouse, court spokeswoman Gwen Vieau said. "It's a public building and we have to serve the diversity of our community,'' she said. The tree had been put up in...

John Satawa's family has displayed a nativity scene on a street median in Warren, Mich., virtually every Christmas season since 1945, but following an intimidating letter sent by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Satawa's county has put stop to the 63-year-old tradition. The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation proclaims its purpose in the letter to the Road Commission of Macomb County was to "protect the fundamental constitutional principle of separation of church and state." But Satawa contends there's nothing unconstitutional about his privately owned and maintained Christmas display. With the help of the Thomas More Law Center, Satawa has filed...

Good for thought herein: This month, in 1790, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States achieved an important milestone: the installation of the first bishop, in the first American see of Baltimore. Father John Carroll’s consecration — fittingly, on the Feast of the Assumption, 1790 — marked the Church’s transition from infancy to adolescence in our country. More than being mere Catholic history trivia, Carroll’s tenure as bishop provides important lessons, especially in the realm of civic engagement, for Catholics today. But will we, the holy mother Church’s laity and clergy, continue to ignore these principles of living our...

Cardinal Sean O'Malley celebrates Mass on camera Arlington, Va., Jun 18, 2009 / 07:24 am (CNA).- The members of PBS’ national board have voted to ban any new religious programming from their affiliate stations, citing both concerns about “public trust” and a 25-year-old rule that has never been rigorously enforced. Anticipation of the vote already resulted in one station cancelling its Mass for Shut-Ins. The 1985 rule in question requires PBS affiliates to air only non-commercial, non-partisan and non-sectarian content. Reportedly six affiliates broadcast “sectarian” programs produced by local religious groups, such as the Mass for Shut-Ins. These affiliates...

On Tuesday June 16, 2009 the Board of Directors of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) met in its offices in Crystal City, located in Arlington, Virginia, to discuss the pressing issues they face. Top on its agenda was to consider whether it would continue airing “religious programming” or allow any more such programming to be aired on its member stations in the future. In explaining its mission on its’ own website the Corporation notes “…that PBS is a private, nonprofit corporation, founded in 1969, whose members are America’s public TV stations. PBS provides quality TV programming and related services to...

A Public Broadcasting Service board in Washington will decide Tuesday if WLAE-Channel 32 can continue its daily live broadcast of the Catholic Mass celebrated at St. Louis Cathedral.

Some see it as the universal symbol of sacrifice in World War I, others see it as the undisputed sign of Christianity, but it will be up to the Supreme Court to make a final determination as to whether a 7-foot cross remains standing in a California desert to memorialize war veterans. The cross was first erected in 1934 in what is now the federally protected Mojave Desert Preserve by a group of veterans whose doctors advised them that the desert heat would help them recover from shell shock. Veterans today say this war memorial and others like it across...

To the Rev. Les Puryear, a prayer without Christ is not a prayer. So when Puryear, the pastor of Lewisville Baptist Church, recently offered a prayer at a meeting of the Forsyth County commissioners, he prayed in the name of Jesus Christ. Prayer to a specific deity is at the heart of a lawsuit against Forsyth County and a controversy that has dragged on since 2006. The issue could, however, be coming toward an end. A judge could rule on the lawsuit next month. The lawsuit is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two county residents....

The proposal to reduce the income tax deduction for charitable contributions may be the first major salvo in an attempt to eliminate religion through the back door. Ever since the founding of these United States charitable organizations have played an important role in our social structure. Whether they were primarily religious or simply interested in good works, they earned a special role in making America a better nation and a better society than it would otherwise be. As a result of this, when the federal income tax went into effect in 1913 a special classification was carved out within the...

Without dissent, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that governments may accept permanent religious monuments in public parks without violating the Constitution. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., wrote for the Court in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum (07-665). Such a monument, whether government financed or privately donated, must be considered “government speech,” conveying a message that it wishes to get out about “esthetics, history, and local culture.” Four Justices filed concurring opinions, representing the views of six Justices, thus requiring their views to be taken into account in determining just when governments may put up such monuments on public property.

Militant atheists are intent on evicting God from the public square in America. The latest development is a suit filed by Michael Newdow against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Pastor Rick Warren, and several others who will be participating in the upcoming Presidential inaugural ceremonies. Newdow contends that the inauguration plans violate the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Newdow complains that when Chief Justice Roberts administers the Oath of Office to President-Elect Obama and closes with the traditional "so help me God," he will be giving impermissible government sanction to the...