Jan-Dec 2020
Apr-Dec '18
UnShackled
for Life
Freedom to Go 'n Grow Together in Christ
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment to the US Constitution
Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31b-32 (NIV)
There are some in this country that would be happy to forbid praying in public. Yet what better example of people using their first amendment rights than this?
That said, 'Saying Grace' recently set at auction record for a Norman Rockwell painting at $46M.
First Amendment
Jan '19-Sep '19
(09/30/2019) Alabama Students Defy Atheists, Recite The Lord’s Prayer. This is at a football game. Note to all: schools may be fearful of having a prayer at school events, but there is nothing to stop students, parents and others from doing it anyway.
(09/28/2019) Duke Student Government Refuses to Recognize Christian Club. Their basis for it is that to uphold basic biblical values is "discriminatory." Note that it is almost always they Left that imposes their values on conservative, all the while screaming that we are imposing our values on everyone.
(09/25/2019) Donald Trump, the Champion of Religious Freedom. I expected him to be better than Clinton, but he has far exceeded my expectations.
(08/30/2019) Rev. Graham Applauds VP Pence -- 'The Bible Stays' at VA Under Trump Administration. We are very slowly starting to undo the undoing of religious freedom in America. It has been going on for decades and will take some time to return to what the founders intended and the Constitution provides for.
(08/27/2019) Google Staffer Releases Documents Exposing Massive Censorship of Pro-Life, Conservative Web Sites. Lots know that this is going on, but when you never see what you are missing, the absence is going to have an effect.
(08/10/2019) Federal Judge Bans Graduation Prayers, Religious Songs. Things are getting worse, and it isn't only at graduation ceremonies. Now I freely admit that state legislators can pass a law to this effect - the First Amendment only states what the US Congress can and cannot do. But this judge is legislating from the bench. It has been going on a long time. The Left always makes use of the courts to obtain that which they cannot obtain by legislation. There is no shortage of cooperative judges. Hopefully Trump will have another term to keep working on shifting the balance.
(07/26/2019) Ohio School To Remove Ten Commandments Plaque On Display For Almost 100 Years After Atheist Group Whines. What is disturbing is that the government (and others) continually cave, making no effort whatsoever to fight back.
(07/24/2019) Backup plan launched 'to force people of faith to abandon beliefs.' In short, they want to make religious freedom (enshrined in the Constitution) subservient to LGBT "rights."
(07/15/2019) Boston Sued For Booting Christian Flag, While Allowing Islamic Symbols. I don't believe that any flags besides the US flag, state flags, and armed services flags, and possibly other nations flags (under certain circumstances) should fly on government property, here or abroad. But given the other flags that were allowed to be flown, this is a disgrace. I'd be interested to know what, if any, other flags were rejected.
(07/11/2019) This Christian Student Group Was Discriminated Against. It Could Soon Be Vindicated. When Christian groups require that the group leaders be Christian, some colleges are claiming they are discriminating and they lose their official status and everything that goes with it. I am not a fan of lawsuits, but we have to fight back and the courts are the only way to do it, in many cases. Which is why judicial appointments are so critical.
(07/10/2019) Williams College rejects free-speech principles to protect ‘dignitary safety’ of students. Some colleges will twist themselves into unbelievable contortions in order to justify suppressing conservative voices on campus.
(07/02/2019) Democrat Rep. Frederica Wilson: People Who Mock Members of Congress ‘Should Be Prosecuted.’ And these people claim that Trump is a dictator and is stomping on our rights.
(06/13/2019) State moves to take over Christian school. Dozens of agents stage raid over fake rumor, then demand it 'relinquish its moral standards.' This is California. Don't think for a minute that there is not a war on Christianity here in the USA. Since most of us are not yet directly effected, most of us see no need to fight back.
(06/11/2019) Until The Supreme Court Acts, Christians Will Be Punished For Thought Crimes. Yes, but punishing those bringing frivolous lawsuits would help a lot, as well.
(06/09/2019) So awesome. California Democrats redefine First Amendment. Naturally, they wish to outlaw "hate speech," which they define as nay speech that offends members of various groups. All the groups included tend to lean Left. What a surprise!
(06/08/2019) Christian Florist Will Appeal to the Supreme Court in Same-Sex Wedding Dispute. And so she should.
(06/08/2019) The Assault on Religious Freedom Continues: Proposed Bill Would Force Priests to Break Seal of Confession. This is in California.
(05/25/2019) Sacking of Christian Rugby Player Israel Folau Sparks Debate on Religious Speech. This isn't America, but don't believe for a minute that public, religious speech is not being suppressed in the gold old USA. It is.
(05/17/2019) House Passes Bigoted, Anti-Christian 'Equality Act' with 8 GOP Votes. Well, the Dems are great at naming their bills. This bill intends to make Christians second or third class citizens, however. Hardly "equal."
(05/11/2019) Bible verse ignites ferocious battle at high school. Don't think Christianity is being suppressed? A coach was forced to resign because he allowed players to wear donated shirts with a Bible verse on them during warm-ups.
(05/07/2019) It Turns Out We Weren’t Crazy After All. Social media is absolutely, positively censoring Christians and conservatives. There simply is no question that it is being done.
(04/28/2019) Tim Scott: Too Many Public Colleges ‘Are Silencing the Voices of Faith-Based Student Groups.’ We need to fight back and I am glad to see that some in the Senate, at least, are doing just that. But remember that the key is the courts, and we really need to be appointing good judges far beyond 2020. The 2016 election prevented disaster, the 2020 will determine whether we can continue on the right track.
(04/26/2019) The Attacks on Christians and America's First Freedom.
(04/26/2019) Student Activists Outraged as Williams College Tries to Adopt Pro-Free Speech Policy. :students were disruptive and eventually started yelling at white, male professors to sit down and “acknowledge their privilege”
(04/16/2019) Students at Baylor University try to shut down Matt Walsh's talk about Christian values. Baylor is supposedly Christian. Note that Christians NEVER shut down Leftists. But we are the haters and the oppressors.
(04/13/2019) ‘Unplanned’ Movie Director on Censorship: ‘Why Does This Only Seem to Happen to Conservatives?’ Because it DOES only happen to conservatives. Google or some other biggie classifies Unplanned as "propaganda."
(04/13/2019) Yale Law School offers vague ‘accommodation’ to Christian groups after banning them. There really is a war on Christianity going on, and almost all the fighting is coming from those on the attack. The defenders? We are not doing very much. Most of us are not (yet) effected by these attacks, so it is easy to ignore them. But the cumulative effect is significant and still we hardly notice.
(04/12/2019) Is there a No Republicans Need Apply sign in Academia? Yes. The University of Colorado is considering rejecting their only finalist for the job of President because it turns out that he is a former GOP Congressman. Great candidate, outshone all others. Until, that is, they discovered he is a conservative. The outcry is immense. Question: why do conservatives never get outraged when liberals are considered for academic positions?
(04/11/2019) No, the College Free-Speech Crisis Is Not a Right-Wing Conspiracy. But the Left most definitely hates free speech.
(04/08/2019) Why the Equality Act of 2019 is dangerous legislation. "Dangerous" is almost an understatement. It would result in a spate of discrimination lawsuits against churches for simply trying to uphold biblical standards. Does anyone think that the LGBT activists would not deliberately provoke situations at churches in order to sue? Every single, bible-believing church would be at risk. I fear the GOP in the Senate will be afraid to kill this, forcing Trump to look like a bad guy if he vetoes.
(04/04/2019) House Dem: Religious rights must bow to LGBT. This is actually proposed legislation, and it would severely damage freedom of religion in America, but it is even worse than that, if you can imagine. If you think I am exaggerating, read the article. Could such legislation be Constitutional? Certainly not, except that depends on the judges. Liberal justices would have no problem supporting it, so keep that in mind as we approach the 2020 elections.
(04/01/2019) Yale Law School Yanks Stipends From Students Who Work For Christian Firms. 3% of the population has managed to control the other 97%.
(03/29/2019) Should Government Workers Have to Avoid Religious Symbols and Clothes? Canada is considering a bill that would forbid it. One would think that here in the USA the First Amendment would forbid such restrictions. But the courts have basically taken the position that any religious expression by a government employee on "company" time qualifies as "establishing" religion. Of course, the fact that Congress isn't doing it is conveniently ignored by the courts.
(03/28/2019) Texas AG Ken Paxton Officially Launches Investigation Into Chick-Fil-A Ban. Good. For the government to be specifically punishing certain businesses because of things they are free to do under the Constitution (donate money to charities of their choice), we have an infringement of First Amendment rights. And no, Chick-fil-A does not discriminate against homosexuals, nor do the organizations they donated to. Social Justice Warriors (and the Left, in general) need to start paying a price for stomping on the rights of others.
(03/28/2019) USA Today desperate to protect mainstream media ‘blacklists’ The Federalist for getting Russia story RIGHT. An editorial was rejected because it cited The Federalist and USA Today deems The Federalist unreliable. This from a paper that has been among the leaders in pushing the collusion narrative.
(03/21/2019) Trump set to issue order on campus free speech. As it regards the First Amendment, I hope it covers all aspects of the FA, not just the speech part.
(03/18/2019) The Silencing of the Lambs. Those that believe in the Bible really are being silenced. The silencing is being done on multiple fronts. Read the article and weep. But just because our voices are being silenced, that doesn't mean we should cooperate and be silent. Speak up!
(03/14/2019) State to vet's widow, 84: Stop Bible studies. OK, so we have it much better than Christians in the Middle East and China. That doesn't mean Christians are not under attack right here in the USA, the land of freedom of religion.
(03/07/2019) Portland State officials, police stand by as protester shuts down gun-rights talk with a bell. A single protester shut down the talk. Administration officials and campus police stood by and did nothing. Friends, if we do not start fighting back - and fighting to win - the USA is going to become nothing but another European wannabe and the lights of the shining city on a hill will be turned off permanently.
(03/05/2019) Christian Cake Artist Again Defeats Colorado Bureaucrats. There's a lesson to be learned from this. Take the offense and fight back. Phillips has won because he sued the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, rather then just sit back and let them harass him. Bravo!
(02/22/2019) Democrats Take Down Another Judicial Nominee Simply Because He’s A Christian. Unless we do more fighting back, it is only going to get worse.
(02/19/2019) Left To State Supreme Court Candidate: You Can’t Be A Good Judge Because You’re A Christian. The Left want to drive Christian - serious ones, at least - out of politics and out of the public square. They are working hard at it. Are we bothering to fight back?
(02/07/2019) Why Preachers Fear Speaking Out on Tough Issues. I would argue that from a biblical perspective, many of these issues are not tough at all. They are crystal clear! The problem is that the membership of many churches include both conservative and liberal Christians. Pastors are afraid of offending a significant portion of the membership.
(02/01/2019) ‘Another day, another university ban’: College bars Ben Shapiro in the name of ‘unity, love, respect.’ This is serious stuff. There simply is no question that the Left is trying to suppress all conservatives views and drive us completely out of the public square. And they are being very successful in doing just that. One reason it took me a while to become a conservative / Christian some 40 years ago was that I was simply not exposed to any conservative / Christian thinking. Things are far worse today than back then.
(02/01/2019) A Digital Iron Curtain Descends Over the Internet. Why free speech on the web - as we once knew it - will be over within a decade. Are things really this bad? Very possibly. When I was a kid in school, we were actually taught why free speech - even speech we vehemently disagreed with - was so important. I don't know what the schools are teaching now, but given that something like 70% of our youth think that "hate" speech should be banned, it is clear that our schools are doing a lousy job. I believe that the First and Second Amendments are that which most distinguish the USA from all other countries. And naturally, they are both under assault from the Democrats and the Left.
(01/30/2019) Texas’ New Anti-Christian Bills and Why Christians Should be Concerned. Basically, an number of legislators want certain "anti-discrimination" laws to trump the First Amendment. Pass the law and see if the courts will uphold it. Who cares about religious freedom?
(01/21/2019) Sue the Bastards! I agree 100%. If the MSM - and private citizens, as well - are left free to destroy people's lives through slander and blatant misrepresentation, then we are going to see more and more of it, primarily from the Left aimed at conservatives.
(01/21/2019) North Korea, America, and the Media: How Different Are We? Less than you might think.
(01/17/2019) School: Kids can't share details on Bible promotion. Of course not! Every progressive knows that the Bible is dangerous. More seriously, the Bible most assuredly is dangerous to the progressive agenda, and progressive educators are fully aware of this.
(01/16/2019) Liberal Groups Bash Karen Pence For Teaching At Christian School. Anyone who thinks the Left is not hostile to biblical Christianity should seriously reconsider.
(01/13/2019) Senator Mazie Hirono Is Right. We Must Intern the Knights of Columbus in Camps. This, of course, is satire. But more and more, the Dems in the Senate have been attacking nominees for their religious beliefs. We may mock, but I fear it is going to get much worse. I guarantee that if Amy Barrett is nominated to the SCOTUS, she will be attacked for her religious beliefs - they will be labeled "too extreme." Christianity - that which is rooted firmly in the Bible - is possibly the biggest obstacle to the progressive agenda. A personal note: many years ago, I attended a couple of KofC events since my wife was part of a community band that played for them. I am an evangelical, not a Catholic, but what a great bunch of people! Are the Democrats concerned that charitable organizations are going to "infringe" on the government's power? One of our biggest problems is the gradual government usurpation of private - especially religious - charity.