Free Republic

A city council in Wisconsin has issued guidelines to its employees suggesting they do not use red and green decorations in public spaces to mark the Christmas holidays for fear of causing offense. The bizarre suggestion was put forward by Deputy City Administrator Melissa Cantarero Weiss in an email under the instruction of City Administrator James Archambo. In the email Weiss encouraged city workers to adopt 'inclusive decorating practices' in how Wauwatosa's municipal buildings are decorated over the holiday season including using more 'winter themed' decorations such as snowflakes or 'snow people'. The message specifically urges employees to choose more...

A private Christian preschool has issued a complaint of religious discrimination against Colorado state officials. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys are representing Darren Patterson Christian Academy, which runs a preschool called “Busy Bees” in Buena Vista, Colorado. The academy was denied state funding of the new universal preschool program (“UPK”) unless it forgoes its religious character, beliefs and exercise. Effective July 1, the UPK program gives every 4-year-old in Colorado a minimum of 15 hours per week of free preschool services for the next year. All licensed preschools in Colorado have been encouraged to join the program, but they must...

Fox News anchor Kayleigh McEnany is set to host the 8 p.m. time slot for the week of May 8 to May 12 after Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson parted the network.

North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan saw drops in total religious adherents of at least 10%.(RNS) — One of the most fascinating aspects of American religion is the peculiarity of its distribution across the United States. We know that large swaths of New England are dominated by mainline Protestants and white Catholics, while parts of South Florida have large Jewish enclaves, and Utah is the base for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Seeing these geographic affiliations up close, however, means looking at religious populations at the county level, which is notoriously difficult. Many local religious...

A dozen Catholic school students were kicked out of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., because they were wearing beanies with a pro-life message. The American Center of Law and Justice is representing the parents of the students from Our Lady of the Rosary School in Greenville County, South Carolina.

Canadian broadcaster Sid Seixeiro mercilessly attacked Christians and insisted that the NHL punish the Philadelphia Flyers for allowing player Ivan Provorov to refuse to participate in the team’s gay pride night on Tuesday. Seixeiro was infuriated when Provorov refused to don a gay pride jersey and sat out the team’s warm-ups ahead of Tuesday’s game, citing his Russian Orthodox beliefs as his reason. After the game, the 26-year-old Provorov told reporters that he “respects” everyone, but his religion prevents his participation in gay pride demonstrations.

A bill to enshrine the right to same-sex marriage into federal law cleared a major procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate Wednesday, with critics saying that a religious freedom amendment added to the legislation doesn't adequately protect those with deeply held beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman. In a 62-37 vote, the U.S. Senate invoked cloture on the Respect for Marriage Act. The support of 12 Senate Republicans enabled the bill to clear the 60-vote threshold for cloture required for most legislation to pass the Senate. Debate on the bill will continue before a final vote...

A group of Republican lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to reassess the U.S. Coast Guard’s policy for “religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccination order,” which will likely force the involuntary discharge of a service member whom President Joe Biden thanked last month for his “heroic work.” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., along with 16 other congressmen, sent a letter to Biden, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan on Monday regarding the administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. Coast Guard members. “Service members that have not obtained a COVID-19 vaccine risk an...

MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill said Monday on “Deadline” that religious leaders need to be pushed to criticize former President Donald Trump. The panel was discussing Trump saying on Truth Social Saturday that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had a “death wish” for supporting Democrats’ bills. He referred to McConnell’s wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, as “China-loving wife, Coco Chow.”

A federal court denied a petition for rehearing in a case surrounding United Airlines’ vaccine mandate — one judge accusing the company of “coerc[ing] its employees into violating their religious beliefs.” Judges for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, widely considered the most conservative federal court, voted 13-4 on Thursday to deny a rehearing. The court also denied United Airlines’ request to vacate a panel opinion from February, which held that the mandate inflicted irreparable harm and remanded the case to district court. Trump-appointed Judge James Ho penned a concurring opinion, admonishing the airline for creating...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mocked Prince Harry, Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, and other foreigners who have taken it upon themselves to intervene in America’s abortion debate.In a speech to Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Summit in Rome, Italy, the conservative justice quipped he “had the honour this term of writing I think the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” referring to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.“One of these was former prime...

Just curious, has anyone obtained religious exemption as a DoD contractor working on a military base?

A federal judge in Cincinnati granted a temporary order this week blocking Air Force action against 18 service members including 11 who currently or recently served at Wright-Patterson in Dayton who are fighting the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. A federal judge in Cincinnati is stopping Air Force action against 18 servicemembers fighting the COVID-19 vaccine including 11 who currently or recently served at Wright-Patterson in Dayton. The servicemembers sued earlier this year over the denial of religious accommodations for refusing shots. The First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) does, in fact, apply to the military, contrary to...

I got contacted by a FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) recruiter. I know. They are evil companies and every single of them requires a jab. Has anyone working in FAANG companies gotten a religious exemption for the jab? For new hires, I imagine it's hard to get an accomodation.

The Supreme Court on Friday shot down an appeal from a group of New York City school teachers who sought to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing it violated their religious freedom.Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected the emergency appeal on Friday, the same day as the deadline for city employees to comply with the mandate or face losing their jobs.Sotomayor did not offer an explanation, which is the court’s usual procedure.The appeal was filed Tuesday by 15 Department of Education workers, who claimed the city was violating their religious freedoms by not accepting their exemption claims.The city requires that religious exemption...

A tiny administrative agency in the District of Columbia announced a new policy Tuesday that will likely serve as a model for a whole-of-government push to assemble lists of Americans who object on religious grounds to a COVID-19 vaccine.The Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia—a federal independent entity that assists officers in the District of Columbia courts in formulating release recommendations and providing supervision and services to defendants awaiting trial—announced a new records system that will store the names and “personal religious information” of all employees who make “religious accommodation requests for religious exception from the federally mandated...

The Salvation Army wants its white donors to give it more than just money this Christmas season. Its leadership is also demanding they apologize for being racist. It's part of a push by the Christian charitable organization to embrace the ideas of Black Lives Matter, an activist group working to, among other things, "dismantle white privilege" and "disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure." The Salvation Army's Alexandria-based leadership has created an "International Social Justice Commission" which has developed and released a "resource" to educate its white donors, volunteers and employees called Let's Talk about Racism. It asserts Christianity is institutionally...

These holy women need the fierce protection and ongoing support of Catholic laity in the face of a coordinated onslaught by this papacy to undermine, secularize, and monetize this cloistered order.'FAIRFIELD, Pennsylvania (LifeSiteNews) — A community of traditional nuns have rejected Vatican instructions aimed at undermining their contemplative way of life. Catherine Bauer, the official spokeswoman for the traditional Carmelite nuns of Fairfield, Pennsylvania, has given an interview to Catholic World Report explaining the situation of these nuns in the wake of a recent apostolic visitation that took place at the end of September. She described the changes being demanded...

Help needed with Religious Exemption prep!My company came out with a vax mandate and I have filed for a religious exemption. My initial request had the following statements... I received a message today that they want to have an interactive discussion about my request... The focus of the discussion is to learn more about your religious beliefs and restrictions, and discuss potential accommodations.I am a little nervous as to what they might ask, how I might respond, etc. I don't want to lose my chance at an exemption by fumbling my responses. Any guidance and resources would be appreciated. Below...

I have been reading about the types of questions for those who applied for religious exemptions for the COVID vaccine. Here is a list Please describe whether, as an adult, you have received any vaccines against any other diseases (such as a flu vaccine or a tetanus vaccine) and, if so, what vaccine you most recently received and when, to the best of your recollection. 2. If you do not have a religious objection to the use of all vaccines, please explain why your objection is limited to certain vaccines. 3. If there are any other medicines or products that...