Tag Archives: Religious Freedom Restoration Act

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Defending Religious Liberty

How does Illinois compare to Oklahoma and Florida in protecting religious liberty? Do we have weak or strong protections for health-care workers, the ability of religious organizations to refuse participation in marriage and weddings that violate religious beliefs, and exemptions to childhood immunization requirements. What are the states with the best safeguards of free exercise in the nation?
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Radical Pro-Abortion Bill in Washington D.C.

Last Friday, by a vote of 218 to 211, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a radical pro-abortion bill that would essentially codify Roe v. Wade. The so-called "Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021" (H.R. 3755) would create an absolute right to abortion in federal law, superseding all state laws. The vote fell along party lines, with only one Democrat—U.S. Representatives Henry Cuellar (D-TX)—voting against the bill.
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Agnostics, Orthodox Jews, Catholics and Evangelicals Agree: ‘Equality Act’ is Dangerous to Human Rights

The Newsweek article by Natasha Chart and Rabbi Yaakov Menken begins with these words: “It would be hard to accuse an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and an agnostic feminist leader of walking in lockstep.” All the more would this be true if you added Catholics to the mix, then threw in some evangelicals. What cause could bring such disparate people together, all united as one?
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Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church v. Pritzker

While a number of cases have reached the U.S. Supreme Court challenging government pandemic restrictions that limit churches’ and members free exercise of religion, Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church v. Pritzker presents direct legal conflict between jurisdictions (traditionally the primary basis for Supreme Court hearing) and raises crucial additional questions that need resolution by the U.S. Supreme Court, to re-protect and strengthen our first and most important liberty.

For these reasons, IFI has joined an Amicus Brief in support of Elim Romanian.

Until 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court had rightly afforded the highest level of protection to our first freedom, the …

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Opponents’ Blueprint for a “Secular” Constitution Would Be Unrecognizable to America’s Founders

Recently, an activist group known as the Secular Democrats of America (SDA) sent a document to the president and the administration with a directive “to take back the mantle of religious freedom and pluralism.”

On the surface, the title—Restoring Constitutional Secularism and Patriotic Pluralism in the White House—makes the SDA’s mission sound appealing.
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Klein v. Oregon: Religious Liberty & Freedom of Speech vs. Gay Rights

Among recent actions by the U.S. Supreme Court, a four-sentence order may set the stage for the court to eventually address the collision between free speech and religious freedom on one hand and gay rights on the other. The order voided a judgment by the state of Oregon that had imposed a $135,000 fine on Portland-area bakery owners—the Kleins—for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. Oregon maintained that its anti-discrimination law condemned such a rebuff even when the bakery owners’ religious convictions run counter to participating in a same-sex wedding.
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Banning Christianity: U.S. House Passes Faux-Equality Act

The U.S. House of Representatives just passed the disastrous and dishonestly titled Equality Act that if passed into law will not merely gut First Amendment protections but effectively ban Christianity and any other religions that teach that homoerotic acts and cross-sex impersonation are immoral.This proposal (H.R. 5) passed Friday afternoon by a vote of 236 to 173 (with 23 not voting). The Illinois Congressional delegation voted along party lines.
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Vice President Pence’s Religious Persecution Warning is Already Here!

Hoosiers know that our own Mike Pence is one of the best orators in Washington, DC. It was no surprise to hear the positive reviews the Vice President received from his commencement speech at Liberty University on Saturday.
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Christian College Wins Legal Battle Against Obamacare Birth Control Mandate

A federal court has granted a Christian liberal arts college in Pennsylvania a permanent injunction against the Obama-era abortion pill mandate that required the school to be complicit in providing health care coverage that violated its religious convictions.
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ACLU Backs Measure Restricting Religious Liberty

The American Civil Liberties Union has found another way to demonstrate it is turning its back on the Constitution by insisting on the restriction of religious freedom.
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Must We Have Sharia in America?

American courts are being told that certain outrageous activities are actually normal, constitutionally protected, Islamic religious behavior.
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Rights of Conscience Lawsuit Filed in Response to SB 1564

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing an Illinois doctor and two pregnancy care centers filed suit in state court against Gov. Bruce Rauner after he recently signed a bill into law that forces doctors and medical facilities to promote abortion regardless of their ethical or moral views on the practice.

ADF sent a letter to Rauner in May on behalf of numerous pro-life physicians, pregnancy care centers, and pregnancy care center network organizations advising him that the bill, SB 1564, would violate federal law and therefore place federal funding, including Medicaid reimbursements, in jeopardy. ADF also warned legislators about the problems …

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New LGBT Target: Doctors

Remember the 11,588,500 word bill passed by Congress in 2010, accompanied by the hopeful promise of easy-access healthcare? The bill that continues to cause the closure of small businesses and price hikes in the insurance market? That’s right, the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) strikes again.
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Three Upcoming U.S. Supreme Court Rulings Christians Should Know About

In what is already a controversial session amidst the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on many cases in the upcoming months that will have wide reaching effects in American life. Here are three decisions which Christians should know about.
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Georgia Guts Religious Freedom Bill

On Wednesday night, the Georgia legislature introduced new language to its religious freedom bill and passed the bill in mere hours. Haste makes waste. This new language significantly waters down a religious freedom bill that had real force even though it was, as we pointed out three weeks ago, already lacking in certain respects.
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