By Fabian Carballo – 2014 was a very interesting year, full of ironies and reoccurring themes. Here are some of the biggest stories that consumed our national attention for better or worse.
Last week, WorldNetDaily published an editorial by Scott Lively where he scolds American Christians for allowing religious pluralism to become accepted. Religious pluralism, Lively argues, violates the First Commandment which states, “Thou shall have no other gods before Me.”
In his article, entitled “The Deadly ‘Religious Liberty’ Trap,” Lively argues that the “wall of separation of church and state” metaphor had been wrongfully used as a “as a justification for declaring all religions to be equal with Christianity in America, and equally subservient to secular humanist authority.”
Lively’s solution to this situation “is to stop arguing for ‘religious liberty’ and resume our proclamation of the superiority of Christ and His Word over all opposing faiths (along with tolerance for people of other faiths – that’s how it worked before [Everson v Board of Education (1947)]. Its goal must be nothing less than an official reaffirmation of the Bible as our legal and cultural foundation, which would require overturning Everson and its juridical progeny.”
Households throughout the United States are celebrating a presidentially designated Thanksgiving Day. It provides us an opportunity to reflect on the blessings we enjoy as a nation and personally.
The history of this holiday goes back to the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Mass., in the late autumn of 1620. Although the New World saw intermittent European activity after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, in the minds of many, American history truly began with the Pilgrims.
Because most of the occupants of the Mayflower had belonged to a persecuted religious minority in England — Congregationalists, part of the dissenting church movement — they came seeking freedom to practice religion in concert with each individual’s own conscience. But the Pilgrims’ quest was by no means the only reason America came to be viewed as a shelter from religious persecution and intolerance.
On November 6, 2014, attorney Lee Boothby died at the age of 81 in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Boothby was known for his relentless advocacy for religious liberty.
On October 29, 2014, Houston mayor Anissa Parker announced that she is asking city attorneys to drop the controversial subpoena of pastors’ communications. Parker claimed the subpoenas were still appropriate […]
October 16, 2014 – Adventist News Network [dc]S[/dc]ergei Litovchenko, pastor of the Horlivka Seventh-day Adventist Church in eastern Ukraine, has been released and is being reunited with his family after […]
We loudly celebrate July 4 because on that day in 1776, our forebears declared their independence from Great Britain. But it was the ratification of our Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, that dictated what kind of government the recently liberated colonists — and you and I — would live under.
ATLANTA, GA, September 23, 2014—Today, Liberty Institute and Parks, Chesin & Walbert, attorneys for Dr. Eric Walsh, a leading public health expert, who holds both a medical degree and Ph.D. and serves as lay minister with the Seventh Day Adventist Church, filed an official charge of discrimination with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Georgia Department of Health offered Dr. Walsh a job in May, which he accepted, announced his employment publicly, but then top officials laughed about their decision to terminate his position as Director of Public Health for the region of northeast Georgia based upon Dr. Walsh’s religious beliefs.
According to a survey released September 22, 2014 by Pew Research Center, 72% of Americans think that religion is losing its influence on American society while only 22% believe that it is increasing its influence. Of these, 56% believe that this loss of influence is a “bad thing.” Of the 22% who believe that religion is gaining influence, 12% say that it is a “good thing” while 10% say that it is not.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has recently filed suit in two cases alleging that employers violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when they failed to accommodate holy day observance practices of employees.