Who to Call if Your School Faces a Lawsuit Over Religious Liberty

Religious Freedom

Schools have been a religious liberty battleground since 1962 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared school-sponsored prayer off-limits. Over 50 years later the lines are still being drawn.

Conway public schools were targeted last year by the Freedom From Religion Foundation for their long-standing policy of allowing youth pastors to visit members of their youth group at school during lunch—just as other friends and family members of students are allowed to do. Thankfully, the Conway School District didn’t cave in to the anti-religious demands of this out-of-state group. They called my friend Kelly Shackelford at the Liberty Institute in Plano, Texas. Kelly and his team provided free legal help.  The Conway school district pushed back, and the youth pastors were able to keep visiting students at the school.

Public schools are not religion-free zones. Students don’t surrender their First Amendment rights of religious freedom just because they walk through the door of a public school building.  If some groups had it their way, prisoners in our jails would have more religious liberty than 7th graders sitting in a classroom.

There are several organizations with the legal expertise to help schools push back when threatened.  In most cases, this help is free. If you are a student, teacher, or school administrator facing the threat of legal action over alleged First Amendment violations, call one of the groups listed below.

For more information on religious liberty in public schools, click here.

READ MORE

Come to a Pro-Life Rally Next Week!

Abortion, , ,

You are invited to a free pro-life rally next week!

On Friday, August 29, Family Council will join Family Research Council Action, Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America, and Students for Life of America for a pro-life rally in the Arkansas Capitol Building.

The rally will be held in the Rotunda of the State Capitol Building in Little Rock from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.

The goal of the rally is to draw attention to the federal Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and urge Senators to support the bill and allow it to come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate.

This is commonsense, pro-life legislation that tracks closely with a law passed in Arkansas last year.

Confirmed speakers for the rally include Josh Duggar of Family Research Council Action; Jerry Cox of Family Council; and Laurie Lee of Susan B. Anthony List.

Click here to register for the event FOR FREE. If you have any questions about the rally, please call our office at (501) 375-7000. We hope to see you there!

READ MORE

“Eugenics Just Got Miniaturized”

Abortion, Life, , , ,

John Stonestreet from the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview has a short, one-minute radio spot explaining a troubling way in which eugenics is making a comeback in our society.

Generally speaking, eugenics is the idea that:

  • Some people’s lives are made unlivable by the burden of disease or disability, or
  • Some people represent an undue burden to others due to disease, disability, ethnicity, or some similar factor.

Historically, the solution eugenics offers to this “burden” has almost always been to kill the person in question or forcibly sterilize them, preventing them from reproducing.

Stonestreet writes,

It’s the 19th-century pseudoscience at the root of Nazism and the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous Buck v. Bell forced sterilization decision. But Eugenics, the idea that some lives are unworthy of life, is far from dead. In fact, it’s making a subtle and troubling comeback.

Doctors in the U.K. have just announced that they’ve pioneered the most effective embryo-screening technique to date, allowing couples with potential genetic illnesses to avoid giving birth to genetically diseased children.

‘Parents at risk of passing on a genetic disorder,’ said Paul Serhal, at the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health, ‘are faced with heartbreaking implications. . . [This] breakthrough…means that parents affected may be able to pursue treatment confident that their condition wouldn’t be handed down.’

Stonestreet goes on to say the “treatment” parents could seek would most likely be abortion. Listen to the full radio spot below.

[audio:http://bit.ly/1q4C4bp|titles=John Stonestreet – It’s Still Eugenics]

READ MORE