Religious Freedom Report 10.15.15 #religiousfreedom

The State Department released it's annual report on religious freedom worldwide, something they have been doing since 1998. The USA is not included in the report. Maybe there was an assumption that since the Constitution protects religious freedom that it would not be an issue. That was, however, in 1998. In 17 years things have changed. 

The military has been taking a lot of hits on religious freedom, mainly pushed by anti-theist Mikey Weinstein and his group. At West Point, a Tech Sgt was reprimanded for letting his superiors know that he did not support the idea of a same-sex wedding being performed at one of the base chapels citing that the chapels are a place of worship and the event would be a "mockery to God." He is right, from a Christian perspective, but many military leaders are diluting anything considered Christian and even going so far as to hire atheists to be chaplains.

Americans United for that imaginary separation of church and state, reported:
Tech. Sgt. Layne Wilson had filed claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the First and Fifth Amendments, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Privacy Act, arguing that his superiors had violated his rights by reprimanding him after he sent an email to a superior officer objecting to a same-sex wedding ceremony held at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Wilson, a Mormon, read an article about the ceremony taking place at West Point’s chapel and got so worked up that he decided to email the Academy’s Commandant of Cadets to protest it.  
“This is wrong on so many levels,” Wilson wrote. “If they wanted to get married in a hotel that is one thing. Our base chapels are a place of worship and this is a mockery to God and our military core values. I have proudly served 27 years and this is a slap in the face to us who have put our lives on the line for this country. I hope sir that you will take appropriate action so this does not happen again.”
Not surprisingly, the commandant didn’t appreciate Wilson’s missive. He forwarded the email directly to Wilson’s UTANG superiors, writing, “I am not sure why he wrote me – maybe he thinks I care about his opinion (which I don’t), or that I am responsible for the policy (which I am not), or that I control the facility (which I don’t), but in any event I believe he may have some problems with the lifting of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and thought that you or his immediate commander might want to further investigate.”

 New York Daily News reported of an incident that is on going in Hawaii over a sign at a Military base. Of course, Mike "Whine"stein is involved:
The Marines are known for standing firm on things, and so far, this is no exception.
According to Military.com, a religious freedom group has pressured the Marine base in Kaneohe, Hawaii to remove a sign in front of the base stating "God bless the military, their families and the civilians who work with them" on the basis that it is unconstitutional.
"This sign will remain in its present location and not be altered in any way," said Col. Sean C. Killeen, commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, in a letter to the group protesting, Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
"This sign has the secular purpose of conveying a message of support, does not advance or inhibit religion or any particular faith, nor does it foster excessive government entanglement with religion."
The MRFF claims that the sign, erected after September 11, 2011, claims it does put those who have religious beliefs above those who do not.
The group's founder, Mikey Weinstein, claims that his group represents 72 Marines of nine different faith groups that either want the signs taken down, or additional signs that represent their faiths. He says that using "God bless" establishes Christianity as "an approved Marine solution for only one faith group."



As for the State Department report, Secretary of State John Kerry reported:
"Religious freedom extends way beyond mere tolerance.....it demands that the practitioners of one faith understand that they have no right to coerce others into submission, conversion or silence, or to literally take their lives because of their beliefs." 

In short, what this has meant in America, is that if one claims he is NOT religious, he is often being given the right to trump anything religious.

PRI reports:
The US is not one of the nations covered in the State Department’s annual report on religious freedom. But religious scholar Reza Aslan says he would give America high marks.
“As a modern democratic constitutional state, we have a commitment to uphold freedoms of religion, human rights, equal rights for all citizens,” Aslan says. “At the same time, however, these commitments are going to constantly be in conflict with some more conservative interpretations of religion.”
The challenge for the US is to uphold its secular values, “while at the same time promoting religious beliefs, even when they sometimes clash with each other,” adds Aslan, author of "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth."  

The State Department report did isolate ISIS as being the main cause of most breaches against religious freedom on a global scale:

Islamic extremists, terrorist groups and rebel organizations are contributing to the daunting challenges for religious freedom around the world, the State Department said in a new report issued on Wednesday.
The government’s analysis gave special blame to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), whose brutal regime of institutionalized rapes, murders and slavery has targeted anyone not conforming to its narrow and extreme version of Islam. 
In other parts of the world, various militias and violent groups have cracked down on religious freedom, whether it’s the extremist group Boko Haram’s rampages through Western Africa or the Pakistani Taliban.
SOURCE:  The Hill

Jerome Socolovsky, wrote an article at Voice of America which states the obvious question in light of current events: As US Preaches Religious Freedom Abroad, Critics See Hypocrisy? 

Part of the article reads:
“We see ourselves as having achieved religious freedom, it’s something that we have,” she said. “But when it comes to other people, we need to manage it, we need to teach them to be tolerant, we need to reform them — which is something that the government, paradoxically, would never do at home.”
That’s because the U.S. Constitution prohibits government from meddling in the religious practice of citizens.
The difficulty — some say impossibility — of achieving absolute religious freedom for everyone came into sharp relief recently with the controversy over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It’s the domestic precursor of the international act, adopted as a federal law in 1993, and has since been adopted by many states.
With same-sex marriage now legal in the United States after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, conservative Christian florists and caterers have sought to use state RFRAs to opt out of providing services for gay and lesbian weddings, triggering protests from gay rights groups.
And with regard to foreign policy, some critics of the international religious freedom effort say there’s an ulterior motive: to make the world safe for Christian missionaries.
Spreading Protestant values?
“The U.S. campaign for international religious freedom is very much a religious campaign,” Belgian political scientist Jakob de Roover wrote several months ago on firstpost.com, an Indian news website. “It seeks to spread Protestant-Christian values across the world but does so under the guise of promoting and protecting human rights that are ‘universally held sacred.’ ” Voice of America

Religious Freedom Report 10.02.15 #religiousfreedom #christianlivesmatter

 A consistent theme amongst the people who oppose religious freedom is that they generally go after a person in his job or vocation. This is most notable if you are government employee, as was the case of Kim Davis and the numerous attacks by the "gay mafia" on the issue of religious conviction vs gay marriage.  The message seems to be this: You can have religious freedom, you just can't be employed at the same time. 

Bethany Blankley, Senior Editor for Constitution.com, writes:
 

The Bible is most often used when courts require oaths of office for U.S. Presidents and elected officials. The Judeo-Christian God is mentioned in all 50 state constitutions. The Supreme Court opens each session verbally declaring, “God save the United States of America.” The founders did not seek to create a theocracy understanding Biblical Christianity to be non-coercive. They understood that only through Biblical principles freedom and liberty exist (Gal. 5:1). As Dostoevsky and others from atheist countries assert, “if there is no God, everything is permitted.” 
The founders knew that in every human spirit lies an innate desire to be free. That spirit of freedom became the personification of American character. As Ronald Reagan said in 1952, “America is less of a place than an idea, and if it is an idea, and I believe that to be true, it is an idea that has been deep in the souls of Man.” As the soul informs the mind, heart, and body, it also informs every area of life in which people live—including politics The founders knew that in every human spirit lies an innate desire to be free. That spirit of freedom became the personification of American character. As Ronald Reagan said in 1952, “America is less of a place than an idea, and if it is an idea, and I believe that to be true, it is an idea that has been deep in the souls of Man.” As the soul informs the mind, heart, and body, it also informs every area of life in which people live—including politics


Mikey Weinstein continues his attacks on religious freedom and the military.  Chris D'Angelo Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii wrote:

A large sign was erected on a Hawaii military base in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with the message, "God bless the military, their families and the civilians who work with them."
Now, 14 years later, a nonprofit religious rights group is demanding it be removed, claiming it violates the Constitution.
In a Sept. 24 message to Col. Sean C. Killeen, commanding officer of Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Oahu, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation said the sign is a "brazen violation" of the Constitution's Establishment Clause and "sends the clear message that your installation gives preference to those who hold religious beliefs over those who do not, and those who prefer a monotheistic, intervening god over other deities or theologies."

Ron Crews, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty issues the following statement:
 "Only someone with a great misunderstanding of the First Amendment or an axe to grind against religion would claim that such a slogan poses a threat or is in any way unconstitutional. The real threat is posed by those who want to whitewash any reference to God from public discourse -- even ones as innocuous and uplifting as this one."

 From the Alaska Dispatch News:
 Twenty-one states have enacted legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of one’s sexuality, and Alaska has been grappling with the same question since 2008 when similar legislation failed.
On Tuesday night, the Anchorage Assembly expanded anti­discrimination protections in the city.
A broad social question exists about how to balance equality with religious freedom. Should we allow individuals or businesses the right to refuse services to members of the LGBT community on the grounds of religious freedom?
A public debate on just that issue took place at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub in Anchorage Wednesday evening, co-sponsored by the UAA Seawolf Debate Team and Alaska Dispatch News.   Video of that debate is HERE

 Bill Piatt, professor at the St. Mary’s University School of Law and president of the Catholic Lawyers’ Guild of San Antonio, wrote in a recent Op/ed:

Our constitutional system recognizes the delicate balance between the First Amendment’s requirements that we neither establish a religion nor interfere with the free exercise of religion. We have long recognized, for example, the right of conscientious objectors to refrain from combat. The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized a religious right to refrain from saying the Pledge of Allegiance or saluting the flag. Parents have been allowed a religious exemption from sending their children to public schools.
Similarly, employers may refrain from providing birth control to employees when they otherwise would be required to do so under the Affordable Care Act. Inmates have been allowed to exercise dietary and grooming choices in the name of religion. Employers have been required to accommodate the religious holidays of their employees.

These accommodations are sometimes controversial because of the conflicting values at issue. However, they represent a better approach than having the government attempt to force compliance in the face of a freedom of religion objection. Such coercion is counterproductive; it inflames resistance while, at the same time, it denies basic constitutional rights. Accommodating Kim Davis’ religious beliefs by allowing her to refrain from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, with her deputies acting in her stead, strikes a balance.
As other matters arise involving free exercise of religion issues, we should strive for accommodation, not compulsion.


 Adventist review:

More than 17,000 people rallied at a Seventh-day Adventist-organized event in Madagascar to pledge their support for religious liberty.
The daylong “Festival of Religious Freedom,” held in a sports arena in the capital, Antananarivo, was the first such event to be held in the Indian Ocean island nation.
The festival drew community and national leaders, including Interior and Decentralization Minister Olivier Mahafaly.
The event was jointly sponsored by the Adventist Church’s Southern Indian Ocean Union and the Adventist-affiliated International Religious Liberty Association, or IRLA.
Its purpose, said organizers, was to focus national attention on an often-overlooked yet fundamental human right and to express gratitude to the government for continuing to protect the ability of all Malagasy citizens to worship in peace and security.
“It’s a civil liberty that, too often, we take for granted,” said IRLA secretary-general Ganoune Diop.
“Yet recent reports show that more than two-thirds of the world’s population lives in countries where religious freedom restrictions are rated ‘high’ or ‘very high,’” Diop said. “If we cherish religious freedom, it’s good to express our gratitude, as well as call attention to the challenges others face in places where freedom is restricted by laws or by social hostility.”