A Tennessee lawmaker is proposing that the Bible become the official state book.
Rep. Jerry Sexton introduced HB 615 that would amend the Tennessee code to make the acknowledgement.
The statement that would be added is simple: “The Holy Bible is hereby designated as the official state book.”
Tennessee has created a number of state symbols in recent years, naming the tomato the state fruit in 2003 and the Eastern boxing turtle the state reptile in 1995. The state also has several “state songs” including “Tennessee Waltz” and “Rocky Top.”
Another Representative, Jame VanHuss, has submitted a resolution to add text to the state Constitution that would acknowledge the rights of citizens come from God.
“We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God, our Creator and Savior” House Joint Resolution 71 reads.
As usual when the Bible is going to be acknowledged by a public official, anti-Christianists have been launching complaints.
Rob Boston of the anti-Christian group Americans United for Separation of Church and State also wrote a blog post about the matter saying “I doubt the Bible played a major role in how any of them became a part of the United States.”
A New York student who had been told that she could not start a Christian club called “Dare To Believe” has now been given the go ahead to start the group.
Liz Loverde was told in September that she could not start the club. Principal Carolyn Breivogel said that the club’s existence would be a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The Liberty Institute contacted the school on behalf of Loverde when her family sought help to protect the girl’s constitutional rights. The group told the school the denial of the Christian group was a violation of the Equal Access Act of 1984.
The school then reversed its decision and approved the Christian group along with other student groups.
“It took a lot of courage for a 15-year-old girl to come forward to reveal that her principal said Christian clubs are illegal,” said Jeremy Dys, senior counsel of the Liberty Institute. “It is always a scary position for students to take a stand against government school authorities who hold significant power over their everyday lives. We look forward to Wantagh High School respecting Liz’s religious liberty at school.”
The school denied that they had refused to allow the group.
A Christian teenager has sued his school after he was prohibited from praying, singing and discussing religious topics with classmates during the school’s “free period.”
Chase Windebank, a senior at Pine Creek High School, has been leading a group for the last three years that meets during what the school calls the “seminar” period. On Mondays and Wednesdays students can participate in a variety of activities and students with passing grades may also do so on Fridays.
“During the free time, students are permitted to engage in a virtually unlimited variety of activities, including gathering with other students inside or outside; reading; sending text messages to their friends; playing games on their phone; visiting the bathrooms; getting a snack; visiting teachers; and conducting official meetings of school clubs,” states Alliance Defending Freedom.
The school claims that because the “Seminar” is considered class time, they’re now banning Christian students from meeting. The school has not backed down despite it being shown that their actions are violations of the Constitution.
“Public schools should encourage the free exchange of ideas. Instead, this school implemented an ill-conceived ban that singles out religious speech for censorship during free time,” remarked ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco.
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.
While millions of American Christians are celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision protecting religious freedom, one prominent Baptist pastor is cautiously warning that the celebration of freedom may be short lived.
Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas says that while the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling “stopped the greatest attempted assault on religious liberty in history”, the case is a sign that the government is going to increase attempts to strip away the religious freedom of Christians.
“The Obama administration was basically saying that you can be religious and pro-life in your church, synagogue or at home on the weekend, but when you go to work on Mondays, you have to give up those beliefs and become pro-abortion,” Jeffress said to the Christian Post. “There is no such thing in the Constitution as the separation of faith from the rest of your life.”
Jeffress said that the mainstream media and pro-abortion activists have been repeating the complete lie that those who want to protect the life of unborn children are nothing more than religious fringe extremists.
“It is a part of the belief system of tens of millions of Protestants, Catholics, Jewish people and people of all faiths,” he said. “This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. In this ruling, I think the court is very sound in saying that we have the right to uphold and exercise those beliefs.”
The bulk collection of phone records of Americans by the National Security Agency has been found to likely violate the Fourth Amendment.
Judge Richard Leon ruled Monday that the NSA’s mass collection of “metadata” falls under the Constitution’s prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure. The ruling in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is viewed as a blow to the Obama administration.
Observers say the case will very likely go all the way to the Supreme Court.
“The government does not cite a single case in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent terrorist attack,” Judge Leon wrote in his decision. “Given the limited record before me at this point in the litigation – most notably, the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented because searching the NSA database was faster than other investigative tactics – I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism.”
The ruling by the judge says the lawsuit brought by a conservative lawyer and the father of a Navy soldier is likely to be successful. The judge did grant a reprieve to the NSA by placing his order to stop the NSA collection efforts on hold until the government can appeal.
Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled the law dictating rules for the parliamentary elections is invalid, meaning that parliament must be dissolved and a new law put in place.
As a result of the decision, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces announced they have full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly. The assembly will write the new constitution for the nation. SCAF has been in control of Egypt since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Continue reading →