Texas Senator Ted Cruz told the students at Liberty University’s convocation to stand up for their faith because Christians in America will be facing increasing attacks.
Cruz said that religious freedom in America “has never been more imperiled than it is right now.”
“Religious liberty has never been more under assault,” Cruz said, “As believers we are called to action, not to sitting quietly hiding our faith under a bushel, but to stand and speak no matter what the consequences.”
Cruz pointed out the mandate by the Obama administration in the Affordable Care Act that requires employers to cover drugs that can induce abortions as an example of the erosion of religious freedom in America. He said the current case at the Supreme Court involving Hobby Lobby is not about birth control but whether the government can “force people to violate their religious freedoms.”
Cruz spoke about two pastors who have been imprisoned because of standing up for their faith and said they were example for the students: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Saeed Abedini.
Obama Administration officials, angry that Israel is refusing their demands in the ongoing peace talks to give land to the Palestinians, are making things harder for ordinary Israelis to enter the country.
In addition, the administration is blocking Israel from a special program that allows citizens to enter the country without a preapproved visa.
Countries on the list include the UK, Sweden, France, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. This means travelers from those countries with valid passports who meet the requirements of an electronic passport can enter the U.S. for 90 days without a visa. Israel has been attempting to be part of the 37 countries in the program.
When asked about their rejection, Obama officials refer to the country’s “treatment of Arab-American travelers.”
Rejections of visas to Israeli citizens have jumped a shocking 80 percent in the last year. The increase is so significant that political leaders such as Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has called on the State Department to end “its widespread, arbitrary practice of denying young Israelis tourist visas.”
Israel, who until the recent administration was considered one of America’s closest allies, has been wondering why countries like Iceland and Latvia qualify for the special visa program while they are repeatedly rejected.
The Chief Justice of the Vatican made a rare attack on a foreign leader by saying that President Obama and his administration has been the most hostile administration ever toward Christians.
Cardinal Raymond Burke told Polonia Christiana magazine that President Obama “promotes anti-life and anti-family policies.”
“It is true that the policies of the president of the United States have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” Burke said. “Now he wants to restrict the exercise of the freedom of religion to freedom of worship, that is, he holds that one is free to act according to his conscience within the confines of his place of worship, but that, once the person leaves the place of worship, the government can constrain him to act against his rightly-formed conscience, even in the most serious of moral questions.”
Burke even took issue with the Affordable Care Act, saying that a law of its nature “would have been unimaginable in the United States even 40 years ago.”
Burke did express some optimism about America, saying that he believes it’s possible that abortion could be overturned in the United States by the younger generation.
Hobby Lobby’s challenge to the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act is scheduled for oral arguments before the Supreme Court Tuesday.
The challenge, if upheld by the court, would establish the right of Christian business owners and other people of faith to operate their businesses based on their beliefs. It would also extend the long-claimed rights of individuals to religious freedom to business entities.
The Obama Administration’s defense in the case is that companies are not individuals and therefore the government can deny free exercise rights and force them to do whatever the government wants in return for being allowed to operate.
Hobby Lobby’s challenge to the law has been folded in with multiple other cases but the company is one of two major for-profit corporations that are issuing a challenge to the law. If the law is upheld, it would cost Hobby Lobby almost $475 million a year to operate without providing the coverage that goes against the owner’s faith.
Hobby Lobby’s attorneys are expected to point out to the court that the Administration has given exemptions to non-profits and religious organizations that have the same objections.
As the Obama Administration ramps up negotiations with Iran to ease international sanctions in return for permanent reductions in their nuclear program, the United Nations has released a report showing that Iran’s persecution of Christians is worse than at any level in the country’s history.
UN investigators found that Iran continues to imprison Christians strictly because of their faith and has designated house churches and evangelical Christians as “threats to national security.” At least 49 Christians were found by the investigators to be held in Iranian jails only because of their Christian faith.
“These are indicators that President Rouhani has no influence over hard-liners, who remain fully in charge of the judiciary and security apparatus, government entities that are responsible for the most severe abuses against religious minorities,” Dwight Bashir, Deputy Director for Policy at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom told Fox News.
“The situation of Christians and other religious minorities in Iran is very dire because the Iranian regime is a Sharia state. This dictatorship oppresses viciously all these precious groups with the abhorrent justification of Islamic law and by that it violates Iran’s constitution and a long-lasting tradition within Persian culture of peaceful tolerance and respect towards fellow Iranians with diverse religious backgrounds,” Saba Farzan of the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy added.
Christians arrested for their faith have been sentenced to up to 10 years in jail.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to receive a less than friendly welcome at the White House tomorrow for a meeting with President Obama.
The President will tell Netanyahu that if he refuses to endorse Obama’s framework for peace with the Palestinians, Israel will face a bleak future and that time is running out for the country as a Jewish-majority democracy.
The President is also expected to tell Netanyahu he alone is the only Israeli that could lead his people away from the edge of oblivion.
The President said during a Thursday interview if Netanyahu rejects the Obama plan, he has to present an alternative approach. President Obama said that it would very hard for Netanyahu to provide a plausible plan.
The President also said in the interview that he believes Middle Eastern leaders in Iran and Syria know that he is serious about using force if they try to avoid agreements made with the international community.
A German family seeking to escape persecution of Christian homeschoolers fled to America looking for freedom and now will be sent back to Germany by the Obama administration.
The Supreme Court denied to hear the appeal of the Romeike family on Monday clearing the way for the administration to force them out of the country.
The administration claimed that because of the goal of Germany was for an “open, pluralistic society” that forcing children to engage in a government school where their values would not be taught or held up for ridicule would allow them to act as fully functioning citizens.
The Home School Legal Defense Association said this is just another step in the Obama administration’s overall campaign to crush religious freedom in the United States.
“The Obama administration’s attitude toward religious freedom, particularly religious freedom for Christians is shocking,” Michael Farris, HSLDA Chairman, told Fox News’ Todd Starnes. “I have little doubt that if this family had been of some other faith that the decision would have never been appealed in the first place. They would have let this family stay.”
In Germany, where homeschooling is illegal, the family will likely have their children taken away by the government.
Israeli leaders are slamming John Kerry in the Israeli press after Kerry’s comments that appeared to lend credence to anti-Semitic boycotts by some countries and organizations.
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett lashed out after Kerry told world leaders at the Munich Security Conference that Israeli could be “delegitimized” around the world and face more boycott campaigns unless they make a peace deal with the Palestinians.
“We expect our friends around the world to stand beside us against anti-Semitic boycott efforts targeting Israel,” Bennett said. “Not for them to be their amplifier.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded a little more discretely by focusing on the issue of boycotts.
“Firstly, they only serve to make the Palestinians become more entrenched in their stance of refusal,” Netanyahu said. “Secondly, no pressure will make me abandon the State of Israel’s vital interests, of which security of the civilian population is foremost.”
The State Department has tried to roll back Kerry’s comments by saying that the Obama administration did not support boycotts.
An overwhelming majority of Israelis believe that the United States and the Obama Administration will do nothing to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The poll from the Times of Israel newspaper said that 64% of Israelis believe that President Obama will not stop Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon. Only 22% of voters surveyed believed that the President and America would stand up to Iran.
The poll also showed that President Obama had a 33% approval rating among Israeli voters and a 50% disproval rating. A surprising finding was that even among the 33% that approved of Obama, only 46% of those believed he had the ability to stop Iran from making a nuclear weapon.
The poll also showed that despite the poor approval rating overall, President Obama was approved by more Israeli voters than any Israeli politician except for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who had a 51% approval rating.)
The Obama administration has filed a federal hate-crimes charge against a white man accused of targeting a black man for a “knockout game” attack.
The charge marks the first time the administration has taken action on a “knockout game” case after multiple reports of African Americans targeting whites and Jews.
“Suspected crimes of this nature will simply not be tolerated,” said Kenneth Magidson, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “Evidence of hate crimes will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted with the assistance of all our partners to the fullest extent of the law.”
Conrad Alvin Barrett, 27, reportedly attacked a 79-year-old black man in Fulshear, Texas. Justice Department officials said they brought the case because they wanted to make a point about hate crimes.
Barrett reportedly videotaped himself beating the black man and then showed it to people in a restaurant. One of the people was an off-duty peace officer. The victim suffered lost teeth and a broken jaw.