Religion met with growing hostility in America, new report finds

Mark 13:13 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

The United States is seeing a growing number of cases of religious discrimination and persecution, according to a new report from an religious freedom advocacy group.

The First Liberty Institute, formerly known as the Liberty Institute, released its annual look into the state of religious freedoms in the United States on Friday.

The 376-page report titled “Undeniable: The Survey of Hostility to Religion In America” contains 1,285 of what the nonprofit calls “attacks on religion in America.”

In a news release, the organization claims that number has doubled since it first published the annual report in 2012. But the most recent report includes older cases, some of which date back to the 1980s, that were not among the 600 cases that were published in the group’s first report.

Still, the new report contains dozens of cases that worked their way through the legal system or were mentioned in media reports in 2015. The organization has said it handled more than 400 religious liberty cases last year, a record total, and was bracing to eclipse that number in 2016.

“Hostility to religion in America is rising like floodwaters, as proven by the increased numbers of cases and attacks documented in this report,” First Liberty Institute President, CEO and Chief Counsel Kelly Shackelford wrote in the report. “This flood is engulfing ordinary citizens who simply try to live normal lives according to their faith and conscience.”

The report details cases in schools, churches, ministries, the military and the public arena.

In his introduction to the report, Shackelford argues that the hostility is a “national problem” that should concern all Americans — not just those of faith — because of its broad impacts.

“Religious freedom is in the First Amendment because all other freedoms rest upon it. Without the concept of a higher authority to make government accountable to unchanging principles of justice, all other freedoms are at risk of being violated, redefined, or revoked by government,” he wrote.

The report contains a broad range of allegations of religious discrimination against people of a variety of faiths. Notably, they include a high school football coach in Washington State who was suspended after he prayed on the 50-yard line, a substitute teacher in New Jersey who was fired after he gave a student a Bible, a Jewish prisoner who was denied Kosher meals and a Muslim woman who said a clothing store did not hire her because of her religious headscarf.

Shackelford concluded his introduction on a positive note, writing “the vast majority” of challenges to religious freedoms in the report were illegal and would not hold up in court.

“It succeeds only because of its own bluff and the passivity of its victims,” he wrote. “Hostility to religion can be defeated in the legal system—but only if challenged by Americans like you.”

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