In a vote of 70-23, the United States Senate approved the nomination of Callista L. Gingrich as the United States Ambassador to the Vatican. Gingrich, the wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (m. 2000), is an author, documentary producer, and former congressional aide. Her husband, Newt Gingrich, was raised as a Lutheran who became Southern Baptist during graduate school […]
California Governor Jerry Brown signed a new law that will prevent state and local agencies and employees from disclosing information about a person’s religious beliefs to the federal government for use in creating a database for law enforcement or religious purposes.
Last Friday a federal judge in Wisconsin issued a ruling that a federal statute that exempts housing for members of the clergy from taxation violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether to hear a cases brought by three California faith-based pregnancy counseling organizations that are challenging a California law that require every licensed pregnancy center in the state to inform its clients of publicly funded abortion and contraception services. The organizations claim that the law violates their freedom of speech by requiring them […]
he U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit on behalf of four former employees of a Texas physician who allegedly discriminated against them on the basis of religion by unlawfully requiring them to attend daily Bible studies, requiring them to discuss religious matters in these meetings, and for terminating them for religious reasons. According to the EEOC's complaint, […]
Los Angeles, California – On September 19, 2017, the board of directors of Founders First Freedom, a non-profit organization that promotes religious liberty, voted to merge with ReligiousLiberty.TV, a website dedicated to celebrating liberty of conscience. Founders First Freedom was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2005 to carry forward the desire of John and Cecil Hedrick and the Hedrick […]
esterday, by a margin of 211 to 198, the U.S. House of Representatives quietly voted to defund IRS investigations of church political endorsements as part of a massive spending bill. On the bottom of page 21 of the text of the 2018 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill, the drafters included the following language: SEC. 116. None of the funds […]
Since the days of Thomas Jefferson, religious freedom has been at the absolute center of American values and an essential component of our foreign policy, and it is especially relevant right now for all of the obvious and tragic reasons.
— John Kerry, Remarks at the Swearing-in Ceremony for Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom David Saperstein – February 20, 2015