A Texas school district has covered two plaques dedicating the school and its students to the Lord because of an anti-Christian group’s threat.
The Midlothian Independent School District confirmed plaques at Mountain Peak Elementary School and Longbranch Elementary School because of the threats of anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The plaques read: “Dedicated in the year of our Lord 1997 to the education of god’s children and their faithful teachers in the name of the Holy Christian Church.” The plaques also contain the phrase “Soli Deo Gloria” which means “Glory To God Alone.”
“It should go without saying that a public elementary school may not proclaim ‘glory to God alone’ nor dedicated itself to a particular church,” FFRF said in a statement. “We do applaud the school district for taking swift action to correct this Constitutional action.”
“Although MISD has not been threatened with a lawsuit,” Superintendent Jerome Stewart told Fox News’ Todd Starnes, “the school district’s attorney advised that it would not prevail in court if it refused FFRF’s request and a lawsuit followed.”
A virulent anti-Christian organization is threatening a Mississippi school district after a pastor delivered a prayer and sermon at a convocation for teachers this month.
The American Humanist Association sent a letter to the superintendent of the Jackson Public School District on Monday claiming they were representing an anonymous teacher who attended the event. The AHA claims the teacher said attendance at the event was mandatory.
The speaker was Pastor Roy Maine, who works as an electrician in the district. He was invited to deliver an opening prayer and he offered words of exhortation during his invocation.
The anti-Christian group says their anonymous client described the event as “one long church service.”
Attorney Monica Miller of the anti-Christian group said that if the school does not bar the use of religious speech at events they could file a lawsuit.
“This letter serves as an official notice of the unconstitutional activity and demands that the school district terminate this and any similar illegal activity immediately. To avoid legal action, we kindly ask that you notify us in writing within two weeks of receipt of this letter setting forth the steps you will take to rectify this constitutional infringement,” Miller wrote.
The school district acknowledged receiving the letter but did not offer a public response to the letter’s content.
A Christian owner of a pizza business is the latest believer to be targeted by the virulent anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The Wisconsin-based group is threatening Steven Rose, owner of Bailey’s Pizza in Searcy, Arkansas. The business offers what he calls an “old school country atmosphere” and on Sundays offers a 10% off if you bring in a church bulletin.
The anti-Christianists claim that making such an offer violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act which states “all persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, … without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.”
The FFRF claims that they’re discriminating against people who aren’t Christians.
Rose says that the offer is just one of many other offers including discounts for police, fire departments or the Boy Scouts. Rose also says the deal does not specifically state “for Christians” but that you need a bulletin. He said that anyone can bring in a bulletin regardless of their beliefs.
Christian organizations are demanding the Internal Revenue Service release the details of a deal they made with the anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation to target churches and their tax-exempt status.
The agreement between the IRS and the anti-Christianists was part of a hearing in federal court on July 17th to settle a lawsuit brought in 2012.
The virulent anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation said that churches were illegally influencing the outcome of elections by talking to congregants about political issues from the pulpit during services.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition says that the IRS has a history of harassment of conservative and Christian groups, making this secret deal with those aiming to destroy Christians dangerous for all Americans.
“Given the history of the IRS in harassing, persecuting and infringing on the First Amendment rights of Christians and other people of faith, this is a deeply disturbing development,” said Ralph Reed, chairman of Faith & Freedom Coalition. “For the Christian community to be targeted for increased enforcement power and the threat of loss of tax-exempt status by this scandal-plagued agency defies logic, common sense, and any sound legal basis.”
The group is not the only ones looking into the secret deal. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has sent letters to the IRS and Department of Justice demanding to see all communications between the government and the anti-Christianists.
The U.S. Navy has issued a directive ordering the removal of all Bibles from lodges and hotels run on U.S. Navy bases after complaints from an vehemently anti-Christian organization.
“The current direction is to remove all religious material from Navy Lodge guest rooms,” read an email to a Navy chaplain from The Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM). “For those Navy Lodges with religious materials currently in guest rooms, the Navy Lodge General Manager will contact the Installation Chaplain’s office who will provide guidance on the removal procedure disposition of these materials.”
The American Family Association who received a separate copy of the e-mail directive confirmed the e-mail’s contents.
The violently anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a complaint with the military claiming the existence of the Bibles in the hotel room meant the government was automatically endorsing the text.
Kathleen Martin, a spokesman for NEXCOM, avoided giving a direct answer to the issue when confronted by FoxNews reporter Todd Starnes.
“We looked at our policy — and realized there wasn’t a consistent policy regarding Navy Lodges,” she told Starnes. “We decided we needed to have some consistency and be consistent with the Navy.”
The Bibles were placed free by the Gideons.
An anti-Christian organization is threatening to sue the Missouri National Guard because a display of Bibles was located on a base.
The anti-Christian American Humanist Association had a lawyer send a threatening letter to the Missouri National Guard demanding the removal of a display of Gideon Bibles from the General Services Administration building in St. Louis.
The AHA claims that the Bibles in a government building “represents a clear breach of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution.”
“The machinery of the U.S. military … is being used to distribute Bibles,” the letter claims. “ … The religious endorsement is particularly egregious in this case because unlike in many of the school cases where private citizens distributed the Bibles, the government is the entity distributing the Bibles here.”
The Bibles are available for someone to take if they want them but they are not given to soldiers nor are soldiers required to take them. Various courts have permitted similar placement of Bibles across the nation.
However, the anti-Christianists say the mere existence of the Bibles is coercion.
A Portland, Oregon children’s ministry is coming under fire from a group of citizens who object to kids being told that all human beings are sinners who need salvation through Jesus Christ.
Portland residents are attacking the Portland chapter of Child Evangelism Fellowship over their voluntary summer camps in the area. The CEF teaches children as part of their camps that everyone, including them, are sinners and that because of Jesus Christ our sins can be forgiven.
Some of the “never mention sin” group have started a group called Protect Portland Children to harass parents into not taking their children to CEF events. The group was founded by an anti-Christianist who aims to keep the group from not only speaking to children at camps, but keep the group from having Bible study groups at area schools this fall.
The group says that they’re not saying anything that hasn’t been said for 2,000 years.
“The message of the gospel, teaching of the core Christian tenets of the Christian faith that have been taught for 2,000 years in the Bible is what we’re teaching,” CEF Vice President Moises Esteves said. “There’s nothing new here.”
A federal appeals court has told a group of anti-Christianists that “the cross at Ground Zero” is not an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
The group American Atheists had demanded the cross be removed because it violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
“American Atheists contend that the Port Authority and the foundation impermissibly promote Christianity in violation of the Establishment Clause and deny atheists equal protection of the laws by displaying the cross at Ground Zero in the museum unaccompanied by some item acknowledging that atheists were among the victims and rescuers on September 11,” read the opinion.
“American Atheists acknowledge that there is no historic artifact that speaks particularly to the loss of atheists’ lives or to atheists’ rescue efforts … we conclude that American Atheists’ challenge fails on the merits. Accordingly, we hereby affirm the judgment in favor of appellees.”
The president of American Atheists says it’s not fair that a cross is in the 9/11 Museum and his group can’t put up some kind of tribute to atheists, even though the “cross” wasn’t given by any Christian group but rather discovered as part of the debris of the Twin Towers.
“They’re trying to Christianize 9/11 with this cross and it’s not American and it’s not fair,” said David Silverman.
The anti-Christianist group will likely appeal the decision.
The vehement anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation has coerced an Indiana school district to ban staff from leading prayer.
The group said an anonymous person contacted them about a teacher leading prayer at a school-sponsored event. Teacher Jeffrey Burress confirmed he lead a prayer at Sarah Scott Middle School at an awards ceremony.
“The district should make certain that teachers in its schools are not unlawfully and inappropriately indoctrinating students in religious matters by encouraging them to engage in prayer,” the anti-Christian group wrote in a letter to the school.
School superintendent Daniel Tanoos said that he disagreed with the actions of the group but that the school’s lawyer said the move had to be done. Tanoos said he would allow students to lead prayer at events if they choose to do so because that is constitutional.
The FFRF has been targeting Christians around the nation that lead or participate in prayers in public schools.
The virulent anti-Christian group Americans United for Separation of Church and State is again attempting to have a memorial removed because it has a cross in it.
A war memorial in King, North Carolina featured a Christian flag and a sculpture of a soldier kneeling before a cross. U.S. District Judge James A. Beaty ruled Tuesday there is sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial.
The “plaintiff” in the case is Steven Hewett, who is being represented by Americans United, who claims that the “King’s veterans’ memorial only honors Christian veterans.”
The Christian flag had been removed from the memorial in 2010 after the ACLU and Americans United both made threats against the city. The citizens of the community were outraged that organizations from outside the town were coming in to censor their free speech rights.
The flag was part of a lottery that the town held every year that allowed a veteran to choose what flag flew every week. Citizens United was angry that the majority of the time people chose to fly the Christian flag.
The American Legion as joined the case to defend the statue saying that the cross is a symbol of graves worldwide that thus it is not a violation of the Constitution.