To the greatest extent possible, all news and quotes are documented by source. Also, there is a link to most stories on the accompanying picture or headline.
If you have any corrections to our stories, or suggestions for news stories, such as personal experience with discrimination, please send us an email by clicking the news desk.
"Talking Points believes anti-Christian bias in this country is off the chart. . . If you don't fight this stuff, it is going to overwhelm all of us,"
Bill O'Reilly, theO'Reilly Factor.
"Make no mistake. We are going to see this across the country, in all 50 states, if people of faith don't speak up to preserve our religious freedom." Brad W. Dacus,President Pacific Justice Institute.
"Nothing short of a great Civil War of Values rages today throughout North America. Two sides with vastly differing and incompatible world-views are locked in a bitter conflict that permeates every level of society. …the struggle now is for the hearts and minds of the people. It is a war over ideas. For now, the outcome is very much in doubt."
-- James Dobson, Children at Risk.
Take Action Today-
You CAN make a difference! Click on the email addresses below and relay how concerned you are with the suppression of Christian speech in Canada, esp. through the Human Rights Commissions. As a result, you will no longer be visiting the country nor making purchases there--until the right to free speech and religion are restored (or whatever you can truthfully say.)
"John deserves the support of every American who loves liberty," said Bob Burney, pastor and Ohio radio personality. Burney has provided the most complete and up to date report on the Freshwater case available. Click here to read his blog.
Freshwater was twice named "Teacher of the Year," including in 2007, but now is under heavy fire for keeping a Bible on his desk and allegedly making other references to his faith.
Contact Mt. Vernon City School Board President Ian Watson at: 740-399-5521 iwatson@mvcsd.us to voice your support for Freshwater.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed a lower court's ruling against an Illinois student, saying the district court must order a Naperville high school to suspend its ban on a T-shirt that reads "Be Happy, Not Gay" while the student's lawsuit proceeds. School officials prohibited student Alex Nuxoll, who is represented by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, from wearing the clothing
In its opinion, the 7th Circuit stated that "people do not have a legal right to prevent criticism of their beliefs or for that matter their way of life." The court also said the school district does not appear to be justified in suppressing Nuxoll's message on the grounds it might provoke "incidents of harassment."
Please Do it With Companies Who Support Christmas- Project Saving Christmas 2008
We have no desire (or ability) to 'force' retailers to acknowledge Christmas. But retailers who exploit the colors, signs and formula of Christmas without recognizing the Holiday itself are hypocritical. For internet, retail, catalog and other shopping outlets, please consider shopping ONLY where there is a clear sign of respect and acknowledgement of Christmas. Support Operation Saving Christmas !
But new law includes religious speech exemption. May 9, 2008 Christian Institute & Lifestienews.com
The British Parliament has retained an amendment allowing religious people to claim freedom of religious expression when charged with "inciting hatred". The House of Lords approved the exception by 14 votes out of 342.The House of Commons was forced to let the wording remain in the bill due to time constraints.
The free speech clause, soon to be law, dictates that incitement to 'homophobic hatred' is not mere disagreement with homosexuality. Yet anyone convicted of intentionally threateing violence to homosexual people faces up to 7 years in prison.
(LifeSiteNews.com) - In local council elections around the country, British voters delivered a devastating blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the ruling Labour party, a signal that many believe may translate into a Tory win, even a majority, in the next general election.
"Anti-discrimination" laws put in place by Labour have seen children and students, journalists, shop keepers and housewives investigated and interviewed by police for possible "hate crimes." Britain's millions of close circuit TV cameras monitor citizens everywhere, even in the smallest country village. (Continued).
Crystal Dixon, an African American and high ranking administrator of the University of Toledo, was fired in early May for expressing her Christian views about homosexuality and objecting to the comparison of so-called “gay rights” with the civil rights struggles of African Americans.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said: “The University of Toledo brags about being friendly to ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning individuals.’ They apparently are also proud of their hostility toward Christians.” Read full article here.
One of the most sweeping gay rights bills in the nation, S. B. 305, legislation now moving in the Ohio Senate, would force businesses, schools (including Christian and private schools) and churches to hire transgender, gay, and bisexual employees or face fines of $25,000 per incident. Gays, cross-dressers, bisexuals and those who are "sexually confused" would be given protected status in employment, teaching, state contracts, working in day care centers, nursing homes, etc. Click here to read the bill.
Please email Judiciary Committee Chairman senator David Goodman or call him at 614-466-8064 to express your strong concern with this legislation.(Read More).
A lobby for homosexuals and transgenders in Maine has announced plans to "shadow" individuals who collect signatures on the "YES for Marriage and Equality" pro-family referendum, which would put a marriage protection plan on the 2009 election ballot.
In a report in the New England Blade, Betsy Smith, executive director of the Equality Maine activist organization, outlined "a plan that asks volunteers to stand with the people the [Christian Civic] League recruits to collect signatures for the petition."
"They need to call off this totalitarian campaign of intimidation and apologize," said Michael Heath of the Christian Civic League. "Yesterday wouldn't be soon enough," he said in a statement.
SAGUENAY, QUEBEC, May 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The city of Saguenay, Quebec, has been ordered by the Quebec Human Rights Commission to stop offering prayers at city hall. The city’s mayor has responded defiantly saying that the prayers would remain a part of the town meetings.
He said the decision of the Commission was non-binding and that the decision was itself discriminatory against people who want to pray.
“They think this contravenes human rights, I agree ... some 20 people around the table want to pray and to prevent them from doing so would infringe on their rights,” Mr. Tremblay said.
The Tecumseh Project
The Tecumseh Project is an alliance of Christians of various backgrounds working together to protect and reclaim religious liberty in the West. The cultures of North and South America, and Western Europe, today present growing threats to historic freedom of religion. We won't stand by and invite hard persecution on our children and grandchildren when we still have the freedom to act. Join our confidential email list today!
(Who said it? "There's nothing quite like the smell of a smoldering civilization.")
In a raid remniscent of Gestapo raids of the 1930s and 1940s, Scotland Yard arrested 200 Londoners in a pre-dawn sweep across 29 burroughs last week in their 8th annual Operation Athena.
The operation tackles domestic, homophobic and race hate crimes and coincided this year with the International Day Against Homophobia. Det Supt Gerry Campbell said: "We have community safety units in every London borough who are dedicated to the investigation of these crimes, and 213 LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual and transgender) liaison officers.
Homeschooling parents in California have been worried that the state may prevent them from educating their children following a February Superior Court ruling. The court has agreed to rehear the case, and on Monday, Gov. Schwarzenegger and California’s attorney general filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in favor of homeschooling. Nineteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives added their voices of support by having the Liberty Counsel file an amicus brief on their behalf recently.
Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), the leading voice for martyred Christians worldwide, will host its annual National Mission Conference in Bartlesville, OK on two weekends (June 20-22 and 27-29) on the campus of Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Click here to learn more.
Conservative watchdog Elaine Donnelly predicts the Supreme Court will overturn a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, dealing with the military's ban on homosexuals.
Three judges from the 9th Circuit reinstated a lawsuit filed by a former Air Force nurse and lesbian who was discharged in October 2007. A 1993 law passed by Congress bans homosexuals from serving in the military.
Major Margaret Witt sued the Air Force based on Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy which prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members, but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being homosexual or are in engaged in homosexual behavior. Read full story here.
Cardinal says its adoption agencies cannot remain Catholic and conform to the Sexual Orientation Regulations.
WESTMINSTER, May 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Under the leadership of Cormac Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, the Catholic Church in England has recently disaffiliated itself from three of the country's largest adoption agencies. The Church stated that its adoption agencies "cannot remain Catholic and conform to the Sexual Orientation Regulations."
The Church is not only being forced to abandon its own adoption charities in England, but has also been subject to much "moral cornering" in several states in the US. Massachusetts, Mississippi, Utah, and Florida are experiencing similar government 'strong-arm' tactics,
GATINEAU, Quebec, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Quebec youngster has used the courts to avoid parental discipline in a "landmark" case. The 12-year-old girl, who is too young to be named, went to court to force her father to overturn his decision not to allow her to go on a school trip. Her father had decided to ground her after he found out she had posted photos of herself on a dating website against his wishes.
The sixth grader then took her father to court, arguing that his punishments were too severe.
Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier of the Quebec Superior Court ruled today that denying the girl permission to go on the school trip was an excessive punishment. The girl's lawyer, Lucie Fortin, said, "She's becoming a big girl" and described the school trip as "a unique event in her life", the Globe and Mail reported.
Officials in Ramsey County, Minnesota have sent letters to more than 800 churches and related entities demanding various documents to justify the tax-exempt status of the ministries. Christian legal experts call the move illegal harassment.
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) lawyer Douglas Napier says: "They've got specific laws on the books in Minnesota that tell them that churches don't have to do this. And, certainly, from a First Amendment standpoint, there are serious issues of entanglement here, and overreaching." Read full story.
Education Minister Caitriona Ruane, a member of the Sinn Fein Party, is importing school uniform policies from London which led to schools being able to ban students from wearing crucifixes and Sikh religious bangles.
Gregory Carlin, a pro-faith campaigner in the UK who has fought for the religious rights of students in England to wear crucifixes and religious symbols of other faiths, said that Ruane's measures are 'anti-faith measures' and would mean the "Anglization of Ulster's schools."
"Ulster's parents," he said, "will not tolerate a policy of anti-faith Anglization in our schools by a discredited Sinn Fein politician. I intend to challenge Ms Ruane's decision to adopt the English guidance."
A Michigan high school wrestling coach is outraged after being dismissed from his post of 35 years for allegedly allowing his former assistant — a local clergyman — to try converting students to Christianity.
The coach, Jerry Marszalek, allowed the Rev. Trey Hancock to discuss religion with members of the team at the Dearborn public high school, which has a predominantly Muslim student body, the Detroit News reported Wednesday
Hancock admitted to discussing Christianity with Muslim youths, telling the paper, “I consider it my work to pastor to anyone who is within my reach.” But Hancock also insisted that he never spoke about religion on school grounds or as part of his work with the wrestling team.
Marszalek criticized the decision, saying he never witnessed Hancock discussing religion with students:"The principal has never, ever attended a practice or a wrestling meet, but he makes judgments on the team according to which Arabic parent complains about another parent, who is a Christian minister, and I get lumped in."
A crowd of 200-300 parents packed a Board of Education meeting Tuesday to support principal Imad Fadlallah, who is credited with turning the once troubled school around, the Detroit News reported..".
ACLU Wants Mansfield Judge Punished for Continued Display of Ten Commandments-Gongwer News Service May 30, 2008
Seven years after it began, a legal battle resumed Thursday over an Ohio judge's posting of the Ten Commandments in his Mansfield courtroom.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio asked U.S. District Judge Kathleen O'Malley to require Judge James DeWeese of Richland County common pleas court to explain why he should not be held in contempt for disobeying her order to remove the display.
At issue is a case that dates to March 2001 when the ACLU filed suit contending that display of the religious text in a public building was unconstitutional.
In June 2002 Judge O'Malley ordered immediate removal of the material. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case.
The age of consent for sex in England, Scotland and Wales is now 16. It was raised from 13 in 1885 following years of campaigning by evangelical social reformer Josephine Butler.
The Children's Commissioner in Scotland, Kathleen Marshall, has faced criticism for backing Scottish Law Commission proposals to legalise sex between 13 to 15 year olds.
Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, said:
"The Children's Commissioner seems to want to put the clock back to 1884."
Ironically, as so-called 'progressive' elites manipulate legal morality, they play into the hands of a new dark age. We aren't moving forward so much as we are moving backward in some areas, including in moral issues such as sexual activity. Read Full Story.
The American Civil Liberties Union lost in a big way in its lawsuit against the Wilson County School System in Nashville, TN, according to attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund.
"The court acknowledged that Christians cannot be discriminated against for their beliefs and that personal prayer, mentions of God, and Christmas references are constitutionally appropriate in school,” said ADF Senior Counsel Nate Kellum.
The Court ruled these activities constitutional:
• The playing of a song with a religious reference in honor of a three-year-old cancer victim.
• “See You at the Pole” student prayer event
• National Day of Prayer observances.
• Meetings on campus by the group Praying Parents.
• Christmas and Thanksgiving observances with religious references.
"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." - 18th centuryGerman Playwright, Johann Goethe.
" All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797).
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has signed a bill that has shocked residents, and opened up the state to an entangled mess of lawsuits and sexual exploitation.
The bill adds transgendered people to the list included in the state's non-discrimination law. That means bathrooms must be universally open to "transgenered" people, including in schools, and businesses will be required to hire transgenders, even if they are owned and operated by Christians who oppose the lifestyle on moral grounds. Read full story.
"Every woman and little girl will have to fear that a male will walk into their restroom and relieve themselves or worse," said Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family. "This is a payback for Tim Gill and two other billionaires who have essentially bought the state legislature by their political contributions," said Dobson. Listen to Dobston's statement here. Call Gov. Bill Ritter (303) 866-2471 or email himnow to register your disgust.Coloradoans should call their state legislators!
Madrid, Jun 1, 2008 / 09:04 pm (CNA).- The association Educacion y Persona has denounced a new textbook that aggressively attacks the Church and is part of the government-sponsored school course Education for Citizenship. The textbook will be used by 15 year-olds. Read full story.
BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, June 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - UK police have refused to apologise for the actions of a Muslim community support officer who threatened to arrest two Christian ministers for "hate crimes," because they were preaching Christianity in a Muslim area, according to British media reports
Naeem Naguthney, 30, a Muslim police community support officer (PCSO), threatened the ministers: "You have been warned. If you come back here and get beaten up, well you have been warned." .
Christian ministers Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, were handing out leaflets and speaking with four Muslim youths about Christianity in Birmingham, when Naguthney told them to cease-and-desist from preaching to Muslims.
"He said we were in a Muslim area and were not allowed to spread our Christian message," Cunningham told the Telegraph. "He said we were committing a hate crime by telling the youths to leave Islam and said that he was going to take us to the police station."
Ask the Birmingham police department why Christians don't have free speech in their city, or why threatening these ministers was not a hate crime:Birmingham Police Email.
LOS ANGELES, June 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The California Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, has certified the California Marriage Protection Act ("Amendment") for the November 2008 ballot. The Amendment to the California Constitution states: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
"We're so grateful to the over 1.1 million voters who signed the marriage petition in time for the November election. Passing this amendment is the only way for the people to override the four supreme court judges who want to re-define marriage for our entire society," said Ron Prentice, CEO of the California Family Council and Chairman of the ProtectMarriage.com coalition.
A recent poll conducted on May 30, 2008 by ccAdvertising shows that 56% of California residents support marriage as one man and one woman. Read more here.
OTTAWA, June 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Keith Martin has introduced a motion in the House of Commons calling for a public examination of the Canada Human Rights Act and the Commission and Tribunal that stem from it. The motion calls on the Federal Government to hold public hearings across Canada on this matter.
"I just returned from the Canadian Association of Journalists AGM where I attended a debate with a member of the CHRA," said Martin. "After the debate it became even more obvious that the Act needs to be modernized. The CHRA member had little understanding of the deep flaws and misuses of the Act by the Commission and the trampling of free speech that the Commission sometimes engages in."
"There was no recognition of the problems inherent in Section 13(1), nor was there any recognition of the absurdity that Section 13(2) of the Act exonerates some people for saying the same thing that the CHRA can use 13(1) to prosecute other people for," said Marin.
A Wisconsin judge has ruled that the state's marriage protection amendment is constitutional.
In November 2006, Wisconsin residents voted overwhelmingly to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Opponents of the amendment -- having lost at the ballot box -- turned to the courts.
Dane County Circuit Judge Richard G. Niess has now ruled that the amendment does not violate state law. Austin Nimocks, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says his organization defended the marriage amendment because it promotes and encourages strong families "through traditional marriage."
The California Supreme Court will not stay its decision authorizing homosexuals to "marry" in that state, even though voters will consider a constitutional amendment to ban the practice in November. The court issued its 4-3 decision on June 4th, 2008. Homosexual 'marriages' became legal in California at 5 p.m. June 16.
"When the California Supreme Court denied this stay, especially in light of the marriage amendment being certified for the November ballot, it indicates a clear political agenda," says Attorney Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. "I believe that judges acting as judges, and not as legislators, would have granted the stay." Read full story.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia introduced the following joint resolution; HJR 89, which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
JOINT RESOLUTION-
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:
Article--
Section 1. This article may be cited as the `Marriage Protection Amendment'.
Section 2. "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."
NAMUR, June 5, 2008, (LifeSiteNews.com) A Belgian bishop has been cleared of charges laid against him by a homosexual activist group.
Monsignor André-Mutien Léonard, Bishop of Namur, was charged with homophobia under the pretext of the country's 2003 Anti-Discrimination Act.
The accusations against Bishop Léonard pertained to his comments in an interview that appeared earlier this year in TéléMoustique, a weekly magazine in Belgium. Last week, the Belgian courts ruled that, though the Bishop's comments may have been hurtful to homosexuals, they were not severe enough to be considered slander or discrimination.
