US Supreme Court Upholds Prayer

This week, the United States Supreme Court issued a great ruling in favor of religious liberty. The court ruled that legislative bodies may begin their meetings with prayer, even if the prayer is Christian in nature or directed toward a specific deity.Prayer In the 5-4 decision, Justice Kennedy wrote, “Ceremonial prayer is but a recognition that, since this Nation was founded and until the present day, many Americans deem that their own existence must be understood by precepts far beyond the authority of government.”

This case concerned the city of Greece, NY, and its City Council meetings, which begin with a prayer. Most often, that prayer is a Christian one. The opposition argued that these prayers violated the First Amendment, which prohibits the establishment of a specific religion, because they did not seek out a more diverse group of prayer leaders. The majority ruled that the City Council prayers did not violate this law, because the Council did not coerce all attendees to participate in the prayer, and they did not offer any benefits to those who did participate.

We celebrate this victory for prayer, handed down by the highest Court in our Nation!

Join our discussion on Facebook and Twitter, and let us know what you think of this decision.

A Victory in California...and The National Day of Prayer

A Victory in California!           Let us give you some good news from California! Recently, we were contacted by Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute and Pastor Rick Moore of Calvary Church and StateChapel Laguna Niguel. Pastor Rick was attempting to rent city facilities from the City of Laguna Niguel in order to launch his new church. However, when Pastor Rick contacted the City, he learned that although the City rented their facilities to nonprofit organizations, the City could not rent to religiously based organizations because of a discriminatory provision embodied in the City’s ordinances.

          With help from Advocates for Faith & Freedom and Liberty Legal Institute, we were able to properly advise Pastor Rick and the City Council about the unconstitutionality of the policy prohibiting the rental to religious organizations. After a public hearing last month, the City Council voted unanimously to eliminate the discriminatory policy so that churches could rent City facilities just like other nonprofit organizations.

            Thank God for this victory!

National Day of Prayer is TODAY

          Please join us today, May 1, 2014, as we pray for our nation, our leaders, our families, our schools, our churches and ministry leaders, our children, and our future on this National Day of Prayer.

          Please go to our Facebook or Twitter page and share with us what your prayer is today.  Let’s join together as one to lift up our voices to our Almighty God and ask for His providence and guidance!

How Hobby Lobby and Others are Taking a Stand for Religious Liberty

Yesterday, March 25, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases challenging the religious liberty issues at stake with the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare): Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. andConestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius.           What are these important cases about?
Religious Liberty in the Courts Obamacare requires that businesses provide health care for their employees, and that health care must include coverage for all contraceptives, at no cost to the employees.

Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties have stated that they don’t have a problem covering most forms of birth control for their employees, but their religious beliefs do not support the use of emergency contraceptives meant for use after conception because they believe that the result of these emergency contraceptives is an abortion.

The question that these companies are presenting to the court is – do for-profit businesses have the right to exercise the religious beliefs of their owners in the workplace?   At issue in the Hobby Lobby case is whether a federal law passed in 1993 called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects Hobby Lobby from being forced to pay for emergency contraception.

At issue in the Conestoga case is whether the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the company from being forced to pay for emergency contraception.

Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties are joined by at least 45 other for-profit companies that have brought cases to trial regarding the contraception mandate of Obamacare.  In addition, there are separate cases right now that focus on the rights of religiously-affiliated organizations and the mandate.

It will likely be a few months before we hear a decision from the Supreme Court in these cases.  In the meantime,please pray for the companies as they continue to stand up for religious liberty.

Update on the Brynn Williams Case

Last month, we told you about the case of Brynn Williams, who had prepared a short “Christmas tradition” speech to share with her first grade class. Before Brynn Williamsshe was able to recite John 3:16 – and just 10 seconds from the end of her speech—she was stopped.  You can read the full case here. In response to recent statements made by employees of the Temecula Valley Unified School District, please click here to see additional documentation in support of Brynn’s and the Williams’ claims. This documentation has been submitted to the school board for their review and for a hearing on the matter. 

           We stand behind the statements of our clients. We believe the evidence and analysis of the facts contradicts statements made by both the principal and teacher (see Attachment 4 for an in-depth review of the facts).

Regardless of the specifics of the actual incident, we have always held that this is not about the principal or the teacher. Our claim is and always has been that the principal and teacher were enforcing practices and policies of the District as they were required to do. Those practices and policies have always been the focus of our efforts and we are requesting that the Temecula Valley Unified School District adopt a policy that protects the religious liberty of students and implements training for teachers and administrators. If you have any questions regarding the Williams' claim, please review our response here.

"Jesus Is Not Allowed In School" Case Gathers Major Media

This week, we told you about our new case, in which our young client, Isaiah Martinez, brought a gift for his classmates: Candy canes with a Christian Isaiah Martinezmessage attached explaining the legend of the candy cane.  After conferring with the principal, his first grade teacher removed the Christian message from the candy canes and told him, “Jesus is not allowed in school.”  You can read the full story of this case here. This is an important case, and one that all parents, students, and teachers deserve to hear about.  The message is critical – our children should not be subjected to hostility from their public school teachers and administrators simply because they are Christians and desire to live out their faith in the place they spend a significant portion of their time…at school.

We are grateful that this case is being amplified by the media so that more families will be encouraged to stand for our religious liberty.  Here are a few of the media links:

          Please keep our clients and Advocates in your prayers as we continue to pursue this matter.  If you’re interested, you can read more about our cases and work within the public schools here.

Teacher to First Grader: "Jesus is not allowed in school"

On December 13, 2013, first grader Isaiah Martinez took Christmas gifts intended for his teacher and classmates at Merced Elementary in the West Covina Unified School District. Each gift consisted of a traditional candy cane with a message attached that recited the legend of the candy cane. The legend references a candy maker who created the candy cane to symbolize the life of Jesus Christ. Isaiah’s older sister told him about the legend of the candy cane and Isaiah asked if he could share it with his teacher and his classmates. Isaiah and his sister then purchased candy canes, printed the candy cane message and tied a copy to each candy cane.

When Isaiah brought his Christmas gift to school, his teacher took possession of the candy canes.Is faith allowed in school? After conferring with the school principal, the teacher told Isaiah that “Jesus is not allowed in school” and, at the apparent direction of her principal, ripped the candy cane message from each candy cane, threw the messages in the trash, and handed the candy canes back to Isaiah for delivery to his classmates. Isaiah then nervously handed the candy canes to his classmates in fear that he was in trouble for trying to bring a little Christmas cheer and “good tidings” to class.

We sent a demand letter to the West Covina Unified School District demanding a written apology and has demanded that a new policy be adopted to prohibit school officials from bullying and intimidating Christian students and religiously affiliated students.

A copy of the demand letter can be found here, which provides more depth to the facts as asserted by the Martinez family along with relevant legal arguments.

Robert Tyler, Advocates' General Counsel, said, “Advocates for Faith & Freedom has experienced a surge in phone calls from students and their parents across the country who are victims of religiously motivated bullying; not bullying by other students, but bullying by teachers and school officials.” He continued, “The pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction that public schools are becoming a place of hostility toward Christian and other religiously-based worldviews.  It’s time to push the pendulum back in the right direction where kids can experience true tolerance without religiously motivated hostility from their teachers and school officials.”

Please join us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up-to-date on our progress in this case and others.

 

 

Last Chance to Help Us in 2013

Dear friend,

        A quick reminder that today is your LAST CHANCE to give a tax-deductible gift to Advocates for Faith & Freedom this year.

There’s still time to help us as we carry out this work to defend our First Amendment liberty to spread the Gospel of Jesus and to live out our faith in our daily lives.  We’ve taken on numerous new cases in the last few months; you can read about these important matters here.

Your gift can be made securely online at http://www.faith-freedom.com/donate/.  Or you may send a check postmarked by today to our office:

24910 Las Brisas Road, Suite 109 Murrieta, CA 92562

If every person on our email list gave just $25, we would make tremendous headway with our 2014 budget.  Please consider giving $25 or more today.

We know you receive a lot of requests at this time of year, and we thank God every day for you and your faithfulness to this ministry!

No "Justice" This Year?

We have had several people call our office and ask about our annual Justice Gala, a fundraising event typically held in October in Southern California.  This year, we decided not to hold the gala, for two main reasons: 1.  Organizing, staffing, and executing Justice is a large financial commitment each year, and

2.  Many times, the finances and resources we have available to carry out our core mission – defending the First Amendment right to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ – are impacted.

          But, there’s still a BIG way you can help us financially…

This year, we decided to put a greater effort towards year-end fundraising to help support the flurry of new cases that have been coming into our office over the past few months.  You can read about these new cases here.

Normally, around 400 people attend our Justice Gala, at $150 per ticket.  If we can get that same commitment from you, our supporters, we will be able to put a full $60,000 towards our cases and our mission to defend religious liberty in the courts!  At this point, we are at about 10% of our fundraising goal.

          Are you able to give a tax-deductible gift of $150 before the end of the year?  If so, please visit this page to find out how you can donate online, by mail, or by phone.

We appreciate each and every one of you – thank you and God Bless!

Help Advocates Fight for Christmas!

Will you help us preserve the real meaning behind Christmas?christmas baby           We are looking for cases where people have been denied the right to celebrate the true meaning behind Christmas because of the ever present hostility directed at Christianity!  Here are some examples of the hostility we’re talking about:

  • One South Carolina charter school canceled its annual Operation Christmas Child toy drive, since The American Humanist Association threatened them with a lawsuit.  The group claimed that the school’s actions violated the Constitution, since Operation Christmas Child is a project of the Christian relief agency Samaritan’s Purse.
  • A neighborhood in Orange County, in which several homes put up elaborate lights and decorations for the benefit of the community were told they needed to take down some of the lights because they are a violation of City ordinances.  They were confused, since they had done this for the last 5 years without any city interference.
  • One Wisconsin school district told music educators that, for holiday programs, they had to either: 1) Include 5 non-religious holiday songs for each religious one; 2) Hold a music program with no holiday music at all; or 3) Cancel the concerts.

          If you have heard of a situation like one of these, or experienced it yourself, please contact our office so our lawyers can intervene.

We want to make sure that parents, students, teachers, governmental agencies, property owners and businesses owners don’t cower to the threat of the so-called “separation of church and state.” That phrase is not in our Constitution and does not require us to remove all semblance of Christ from this season celebrating His birth!

God bless you and Merry Christmas!

A Case at the Supreme Court

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case regarding compulsory prayer before governmental meetings. supreme_court_building The town of Greece, NY, decreed in 1999 that all town board meetings would begin with prayer.  The vast majority of clergy asked to lead the prayer are from Christian churches, which some say violates their First Amendment right to freedom of religion, since individuals have vastly different belief systems.

In addition, when the clergy accept the invitation to pray before the meetings, they are then acting on behalf of the government.  Some argue that this crosses the line between “separation of church and state.”

What do you think?  Do you think that compulsory prayer before governmental meetings should be done away with?  Do you think the town should have to simply provide prayer in a more inclusive way, honoring different belief systems?  Or, do you think they should be allowed to continue in the way they’ve conducted business for the past 10+ years?  Join the discussion on Facebook and let us know!