Religious Freedom

PHOENIX — An effort to allow people to sue over potential violations of religious liberty cleared the Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday despite opposition from civil liberties groups who warn the measure will inspire waves of lawsuits over alleged First Amendment violations. [ Read more → ]

Former U.S. House Speaker, and failed GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," falsely claimed that Catholic adoption agencies are being "outlawed" in some states where marriage equality laws take effect. [ Read more → ]

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky state House is prepared to hold a vote Tuesday on overriding Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear's veto of a bill that sponsors say is intended to protect the religious beliefs of Kentuckians from government intrusion. [ Read more → ]

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Gov. Steve Beshear will have to decide Friday whether to veto a bill that supporters say would give stronger legal standing in Kentucky to people who claim their religious rights are being violated. [ Read more → ]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A former Tennessee state lawmaker turned anti-gay activist has helped draft a bill in the state legislature that would allow graduate student counselors to reject clients based on religious beliefs. [ Read more → ]

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- LGBT advocates and civil rights groups have joined with the American Civil Liberities Union (ACLU) in calling on Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear to veto a religious freedom bill approved in the state Senate last week. [ Read more → ]

For fifty years, Bob Jones University, in Greenville, S.C., prohibited interracial dating and Bob Jones Jr. once claimed that Catholicism was a “satanic counterfeit” of fundamentalist Christianity. Despite the ugly rhetoric and vile policies, Republican candidates regularly flocked to the school and groveled for its endorsement. The GOP luminaries who appeared at the university include Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, and Bob Dole. This ignoble political ritual ended in 2000 after presidential candidate George W. Bush was excoriated for appearing at the school... [ Read more → ]

LONDON -- More than 1,000 Roman Catholic priests have signed a letter voicing fears that legalization of same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom could threaten religious freedom in a way last seen during “centuries of persecution” of Roman Catholics in England. The letter, published Saturday... [ Read more → ]

When people see their own sons and daughters and friends and co-workers coming out, it creates a crisis of credibility for religious institutions. It leads to countless situations where mean-spirited men like Archbishop John Nienstedt demand blind, irrational obedience and say take it or leave it – and more people are now following their consciences and walking away. [ Read more → ]

What is up for vote in four states this November is civil marriage. A civil marriage is a legal contract within a state; it is not a religious marriage. Pastors will still be able to perform, or not, ceremonies at their will. No pastor will be forced to marry anyone. Period. It is true today and, no matter what the vote is on Nov. 6, it will be true then as well... [ Read more → ]

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Same-sex marriage “jeopardizes freedom rather than expands it,” and “endangers our religious liberty and the right of conscience," according to Bishop Joseph Tyson, the Catholic bishop of Yakima, Wash. [ Read more → ]

Religious Liberty is a buzzword within conservative circles, with organizations like the National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, and the designated hate groups the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, attempting to assert that granting full equality to LGBT people would infringe upon individual religious freedom... [ Read more → ]

You can hold all the traditional values you want, but nothing will make those values rational, sane or relevant to reality, if they have been born of superstition. Sadly, in the eyes of the religious conformists, it seems that rational values are non-traditional. The upsurge in violence and intimidation against LGBTQ people and other minorities is not just physical, it is soul destroying. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from Christian groups in a federal lawsuit that challenged a discrimination policy of the California State University system. [ Read more → ]

There has been so much effort put into overcoming the religious authoritarian control over human societies and individuals. ... Our achievements towards the freedom to live our lives in natural harmony with each other, without being persecuted for whom we love or wish to marry, is threatened in many cultures, by ignorance... [ Read more → ]

ATLANTA — It might pale in comparison to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision against Proposition 8, but the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled on another gay rights case this week. [ Read more → ]

Jeremy Hooper at Good As You calls our attention to Sunday's televised "debate" on same-sex marriage between Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson and National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown. [ Read more → ]

U.S. Roman Catholic bishops on Monday vowed to defend their religious liberty, and in calling the growing acceptance of gay marriage an attempt to marginalize their faith, launched a new website aimed at promoting traditional, heterosexual marriage. [ Read more → ]

I almost understand the argument of “religious liberty.” But then comes that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that just won’t go away – the feeling that “religious liberty” is just another way of saying “allowed discrimination” and that some folks will use the phrase to deflect attention from the victims of this “allowed discrimination.” [ Read more → ]