The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians said Monday that Turkey’s new constitution should grant equal rights to minorities in the country and safeguard religious freedoms. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I met with members of a parliamentary subcommittee seeking an all-party consensus in drawing up a new constitution, which will replace the one ratified in [...]
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Religious leaders told a House panel Thursday the Obama administration was violating basic rights to religious freedom with its policies for requiring that employees of religion-affiliated institutions have access to birth control coverage. The unity of the religious leaders contrasted with the partisan divide among lawmakers on the Oversight and Government Reform [...]
WASHINGTON — Religious leaders of different faiths stoked the national debate over contraception Thursday, converging on Capitol Hill and charging the Obama administration with attempting to violate their religious freedoms. Leaders from the Catholic, Jewish, Baptist and Lutheran faiths joined in opposition to a proposed federal mandate that would require church-affiliated employers to cover birth [...]
Think what you wish of President Barack Obama’s attempt Friday to end a fierce skirmish over insurance coverage of drugs that prevent conceptions and induce abortions. The president said he would guarantee that coverage, without cost to female recipients. Under his modified mandate, he said, “religious organizations won’t have to pay for these services, and [...]
At this university, most debates about reproductive morality center on abortion, so the furor last week regarding whether Catholic universities and hospitals needed to cover contraception in employee heath care plans may seem a more foreign concern. However, the debate illustrates an important clash between liberal and religious ethics over the scope of the state’s [...]
Martin Griff / The Times of TrentonBishop David M. OâConnell in a January 2010 photo. By The Most Rev. David M. O’Connell I have heard it said often that “reasonable people can disagree without becoming disagreeable,” and I’d like to believe that, although I do not always find it to be the case. Some people [...]
The controversy over President Obama’s order on contraception and religious institutions is not going away as a political issue. The two sides seem to be hardening their positions. The divide between many American Catholics and their bishops remains. And it’s raising questions over who benefits most in the run-up to the presidential election. Is it [...]
The controversy over President Obama’s order on contraception and religious institutions is not going away as a political issue. The two sides seem to be hardening their positions. The divide between many American Catholics and their bishops remains. And it’s raising questions over who benefits most in the run-up to the presidential election. Is it [...]
The advice to “quit while you’re ahead” is so seldom taken, that I feel little compunction in supplying it alike to friends and enemies. Those with “envelopes to push,” like those with sticks to prod animals, tend not to notice the moment when they have gone too far. There are profound moral considerations here, but [...]
Congressman Chuck Fleischmann commented on President Obama’s decision to “compromise” on his assault against religious freedom. “It is sad that this President, and his Administration, thought it was a good idea to infringe upon the religious rights of so many Americans in the first place. The First Amendment, and the freedom for one to openly [...]
Editor: Both the American and Pennsylvania constitutions guarantee freedom of religion, and by implication, freedom from religion. The freedoms they both offer have been the subject of fierce battles for hundreds of years. Regrettably, when the Pennsylvania House of Representatives considered Resolution 535 last month that declared 2012 the “Year of the Bible,” there was [...]
When David Axelrod signaled that the Obama administration might be open to “compromise” on its new contraception policy, I started to worry. The policy requires health plans to cover birth control without a deductible or co-pay, upsetting social conservatives who think religiously affiliated institutions deserve an exemption. What might “compromise” mean? In many Democratic dictionaries, [...]
Slightly more than 25 percent of American adults are Catholic, according to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, while the same survey lumped Scientologists into the 1.2 percent, grab-bag category of “new religious movements and other religions.” In other words, it’s easier to be coldly analytical, even dismissive, of beliefs that aren’t very popular, even [...]
USA Today: Contraception Mandate Violates Religious Freedom In an election-year hothouse, the issue has quickly become caricatured as the Obama administration’s “war on Catholics” versus the Republicans’ “war on contraception.” It is neither. The administration tried to strike a balance and simply failed. The First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom deserves more weight than the [...]
The recent conflict between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration is minimally about contraception, modestly about abortion and overwhelmingly about religious freedom. Framing this simply as an out-of-touch church opposing contraception is grossly mistaken. The new health care bill is trying to outflank established conscience protections by denying them to faith-based organizations that provide [...]
For a church, mosque or synagogue, the answer is mostly straightforward. But for the massive network of religious-run social service agencies there is no simple solution. Federal law lays out several criteria for the government to determine which are religious. But in the case of the contraception mandate, critics say Health and Human Services Secretary [...]
It has not even been two years since Obamacare was enacted, and already the President’s health care law has taken another victim — the religious freedoms Americans hold dear, as reflected by the First Amendment. The Obama Administration recently reaffirmed a rule under Obamacare that requires many religious employers to provide health care coverage for [...]
“A direct attack on religious liberty.” Echoing the words of many Catholic authorities and their socially conservative allies, that’s what Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Mitt Romney, has said about a new rule announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. By Aug. 1 of this year, says the rule, all private health [...]
An Obama administration mandate requiring all employers to offer health plans with no-cost birth control for women raises several red flags — and not just for Catholics. It’s a move that impinges on the conscience of some Americans. And that’s not a road the federal government should travel down. President Barack Obama caused shockwaves throughout [...]
WASHINGTON — One of Barack Obama’s great attractions as a presidential candidate was his sensitivity to the feelings and intellectual concerns of religious believers. That is why it is so remarkable that he utterly botched the admittedly difficult question of how contraceptive services should be treated under the new health care law. His administration mishandled [...]
WASHINGTON — One of Barack Obama’s great attractions as a presidential candidate was his sensitivity to the feelings and intellectual concerns of religious believers. That is why it is so remarkable that he utterly botched the admittedly difficult question of how contraceptive services should be treated under the new health care law. His administration mishandled [...]
By Jeb Phillips The Columbus Dispatch Sunday January 29, 2012 6:26 AM View Slideshow Retired Army Capt. Jason Torpy Two of the most-prominent national organizations fighting for religious freedom in the U.S. military have roots at Ohio State University. Retired Army Capt. Jason Torpy incorporated the nonprofit Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers while getting [...]
The swirl of criticism around the creation of the Office of Religious Freedom distracts from the more important issue of the role of religion in world affairs. The ORF will be a branch of the Foreign Affairs Department. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has said the office will promote religious freedom; he has not said [...]
By DAVID SKEEL A pair of momentous new government decisions on religion—in particular on whether religious institutions are exempt from secular laws—has given advocates of religious liberty a severe case of whiplash. Early this month, the Supreme Court held (in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) that a Lutheran school’s [...]
BY TIMOTHY M. DOLAN Religious freedom is the lifeblood of the American people, the cornerstone of American government. When the Founding Fathers determined that the innate rights of men and women should be enshrined in our Constitution, they so esteemed religious liberty that they made it the first freedom in the Bill of Rights. In [...]
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The Obama administration announced Friday that it would give Catholic hospitals and other religious institutions an extra year to comply with a new requirement that most health plans provide contraceptive benefits at no cost to their members. The administration, however, held fast to the mandate that most health plans eventually offer free contraception. That infuriated [...]
Gingrich couldn’t believe his luck. With a gleam in his eye, he thrashed Williams, and Steve Kornacki believes he may have given his candidacy one last shot with his savvy thumping of Fox’s leading black commentator. It hurt to watch. If Newt gets the nomination – he won’t, but a Democrat can dream – he’ll [...]
slideshow (Washington, DC) – Leaders of some of the largest religious communities in the United States have joined together in an open letter to all Americans to voice their shared concern for marriage and religious freedom. The letter, titled “Marriage and Religious Freedom: Fundamental Goods That Stand or Fall Together,” was released January 12th. Signers [...]
Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: I’m Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Later in the program, we are going to talk about the kinds of things you could be doing now [...]
This week we commemorate and honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the values of freedom and equality that Dr. King fought so hard for. This week (Jan 16) we also celebrate Religious Freedom Day, which commemorates the passage of the Virginia Statue for Religious Liberty, 226 years ago. This statute laid [...]
January 16 is Religious Freedom Day in the United States, affirmed by President Barack Obama in the customary proclamation last Friday. However, not everyone in the US is as sure as the President that his administration “continues to stand with all who are denied the ability to choose, express, or live their faith freely”. Just [...]
The “distinguished professor” twisted the ruling into a pretzel, or perhaps Gordian knot. It was about employees, not leaders, and the less than distinguished SCOTUS said laws protecting Constitutional freedoms, including religious freedom, didn’t apply any longer to “church groups”. Fine, then let’s get real and start TAXING all church properties and business interests, other [...]
From Congressman Randy Neugebauer Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON, D.C. — I would like to share some information with you regarding the work my Congressional Prayer Caucus colleagues and I have been doing to protect religious liberty in America and preserve our nation’s rich spiritual heritage. Our initiatives recognize the influence of faith in our nation’s [...]
In what some legal analysts consider the most significant decision covering religious freedom in the last 20 years, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled January 11 that a religious organization has the right to fire an employee under the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s “ministerial exception” clause. The case, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, [...]
By Peter Landers The Supreme Court may have trouble figuring out modern developments such as the dozens of channels on cable TV (“What do you call it, you surf?” wondered Justice Anthony Kennedy yesterday), but when it comes to centuries-old English laws, the justices feel right at home. Chief Justice John Roberts starts out his [...]
Religious freedom is “the first of human rights, for it expresses the most fundamental reality of the person. All too often, for various reasons, this right remains limited or is flouted”. On January 9, Holy Father Benedict XVI pronounced his traditional annual address to the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See [...]
Religious freedom is in the headlines again. From federal healthcare policies, to changing marriage laws in the states, to employer regulations on hiring, firing, and benefits, an array of recent government actions has many religious organizations alarmed, not just about the underlying policies themselves, but about their impact on the right of religious believers freely [...]
It’s easy to make a bad argument against the Harper government’s plan to establish an Office of Religious Freedom within the Department of Foreign Affairs. You grumble that religion has often been oppressive, and thunder that Canada as a secular state ought not be pursuing religious objectives. Eventually, you subside. More related to this story [...]
Foreign Minister John Baird speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill, November 25, 2011. (REUTERS/Chris Wattie) Change text size for the story Print this story Report an error Foreign Affairs minister John Baird believes in religious freedom. Just ask him. In interviews in recent days, Baird — not someone we’d [...]
Recommend this article to your friends. Print Email Monday, January 16 is Martin Luther King Day. Most schools recognize the day — as they should. But will they teach students about Dr. King’s Christian faith, which motivated and guided his campaign for civil rights? During his Birmingham civil rights campaign, Dr. King required every participant [...]
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (Pic via myfloridalegal.com) The Associated Press is reporting that the groups who have been challenging a legislatively created measure set to appear on the 2012 ballot are not going to challenge the court-ordered rewrite that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi submitted late last month. The amendment, if passed, would allow [...]
First things first: I’m largely agnostic on the intrinsic merits of the new initiative by the Conservative government to establish an Office of Religious Freedom within the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I say this because excessive argument about what’s effectively a microstructure in a sizable federal department perpetuates a long-standing weakness in [...]
WASHINGTON (BP) — A bipartisan panel has urged the Obama administration to place religious liberty and other human rights at the center of its relations with North Korea as the brutally repressive regime transitions to new leadership. The appeal came barely a week before North Korea’s communist dictatorship was named Jan. 4 by the organization [...]
-7 SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Wednesday, January 4, 2012 SUBMIT Join | Sign-In Letters to the Editor Home News Letters to the Editor Religious freedom under attack Posted 6 minutes ago Regarding the Conservative party’s proposal to create an office of religious freedom in the new year, one doesn’t have to go to Pakistan and China, Sudan [...]
Commenting on the adoption by the United Nations Human Rights Council of Resolution 16/18, “Combating Intolerance, Negative Stereotyping and Stigmatization Of, and Discrimination, Incitement to Violence, and Violence Against Persons Based on Religion or Belief,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that “Together we have begun to overcome the false divide that pits religious sensitivities [...]