The Act, written by Thomas Jefferson, allowed Virginia to become the first state to separate church and state and remains part of Virginia’s constitution. It was later used as a model for other state constitutions as well as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
On November 6, 2012 voters in many states had the opportunity to make decisions on a number of state laws through ballot measures. Voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington voted in favor of measures that would legalize same-sex marriage. Voters in Minnesota rejected a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and voters in North Carolina voted to define marriage as solely existing between one man and one woman.
The Jackson Sun has interviewed Walter “Chick” McGill and Lucan Chartier about their trademark dispute with the Seventh-day Adventist Church (their church is named “Creation 7th Day Adventist”) that has landed both of them in jail for contempt of court. Although later released, McGill and Chartier maintain that they could be incarcerated again if they refuse to change the name of their church, which they believe was given to them by God.
Rajdeep Singh writes in the Washington Post about AB1964, recently signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown. Excerpt: When my Sikh father immigrated to America in 1970 to practice architecture,employers told him that he could have a job only if he removed his turban and shaved his beard. He refused to abandon his faith…
California Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign workplace religious accommodation legislation this weekend. AB 1964 will amend Section 12940 of the Government Code, which prevents employers from discrimination based on a person’s religious belief or observance. The existing code reads, “Religious belief or observance, as used in this section, includes, but is not limited…
Excerpt: “What the judge did was wrong in that he held the mosque to a much higher standard than any other institution applying for a land-use permit in Rutherford County,” said Eric Rassbach, a lawyer with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm that helped file the lawsuit on behalf of the…
Excerpt: A U.S. District Court judge in Honolulu has rejected arguments from two lesbians who said that Hawaii’s 1998 ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. According to court documents released Wednesday, Judge Alan Kay dismissed the lawsuit, Jackson v. Abercrombie, saying that a decision like this should be left to the Legislature – not the…
The U.S. State Department has released the 2011 report on international religious freedom. While significant areas of concern are present, there are also some signs of hope. The website with the report is quite helpful and easy to navigate. Visit: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm
Last week two Christian pastors were jailed in the United States for violation of court orders involving two different types of property disputes.
Remarks of President Ronald Reagan on the 200th anniversary of Signing of the the U.S. Constitution on September 18, 1987. [dc]A[/dc]s we stand here today before Independence Hall, we can easily imagine that day, Sept. 17, 1787, when the delegates rose from their chairs and arranged themselves according to the geography of their states, beginning…