Is a second Hobby Lobby case in the works? Meggan Sommerville is a sixteen-year Hobby Lobby employee in Aurora, Illinois who has been denied access to the store’s restroom because she is transgendered. Sommerville underwent legal gender transition in 2010 but has not yet had gender-reassignment surgery.
ASI 2014: Dr. Eric Walsh on Persecution and the Refiner’s Fire
On August 9, 2014, Dr. Eric Walsh presented the closing address at the Adventist Services and Industries convention at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan entitled “Facing Fire.”
Rabbi David Sapperstein Nominated as State Department Religious Freedom Ambassador (ANN)
July 28, 2014 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | ANN staff [dc]S[/dc]eventh-day Adventist leaders said they applauded the announcement of a nominee for a religious freedom advocacy position at the U.S. Department of State, a post that has been vacant since October. The White House today announced that Rabbi David Nathan Saperstein would be…
Opinion: Persecuted in America?
By Ryan Bell – In the United States, the claim that Christians are being persecuted is unsubstantiated. Of course there are cases of intolerance. Christians in predominantly secular contexts, like public universities and large cities like New York and Los Angeles, do experience discrimination, but it hardly rises to the level of what could be credibly called persecution.
Opinion on the Hobby Lobby Decision: More Equal Than Others
By Jason Hines – Today the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that Hobby Lobby and other closely held corporations can refuse to cover certain forms of contraception in the insurance plans they provide to employees because of their “religious beliefs.” Now I put religious beliefs in quotes because despite the Court’s decision, I refuse to admit that corporations, created in order to separate themselves from the people who create them, can have religious beliefs.
Supreme Court Rules Closely-Held Corporations Have Religious Rights
Most business owners set up corporations as legal alter-egos to avoid being held personally responsible if their businesses get sued, but in this case, the employers (in Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood, and Mardel) are saying that their corporations can still manifest the owners’ religious beliefs even if it comes at the potential expense of their employees. The Supreme Court agrees.
U.S. Supreme Court Affirms Right to Pro-Life Political Speech
On June 16, 2014 the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in the much-anticipated case, Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus. Justice Thomas delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court finding in favor of the Pro-Life group, Susan B. Anthony List (SBA). The court ruled that SBA and co-petitioner COAST (Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes) have standing to challenge an Ohio election statute under which they had been threatened with prosecution for holding members of Congress responsible for their voting record.
Sudanese Christian Woman Detained at Airport after Release from Prison
Fox News is reporting that 24 hours after she was released from prison, Miriam Ibrahim, the 27-year-old Christian woman who had been arrested and sentenced to death for refusing to convert to Islam, has now been re-arrested. An Islamic court of apostasy had convicted her for refusing to embrace Islam and for committing adultery by…
Is Your Window Open? – Dr. Eric Walsh Speaks About His Recent Experience
Dr. Eric Walsh speaks on his recent experience at the Advent Hope Sabbath School in Loma Linda, California on May 31, 2014. Click to listen: https://www.audioverse.org/english/sermons/recordings/6163/is-your-window-open.html
Prince Charles Writes on Plight of Christians in the Middle East
By Prince Charles – For more than twenty years, I have tried to build bridges between Islam and Christianity and to dispel ignorance and misunderstanding between them. Islam is the second largest faith community in the world and the second largest in Britain, and so bridges between Islam and Christianity are something that must concern every responsible person.