Religious Freedom – Page 106

Mennonite Business Owners Challenge Obamacare Mandate

Dec 10, 2013JerryReligious FreedomHHS Mandate, Religious Freedom, Religious Liberty

Conestoga, a family-owned cabinetmaking business whose founders are Mennonite, is challenging Obamacare’s abortion-pill mandate requiring businesses to buy insurance policies that include objectionable facets like abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization. The mandate forces Conestoga, Hobby Lobby, and other businesses with religious owners or founders to pay for things contrary to their deeply-held religious convictions.

If you are unfamiliar with the mandate and why it is outrageous, click here to read about it. Below is a video about Conestoga’s lawsuit, including interviews with Conestoga’s CEO and attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom.

Student Banned from Distributing Flier Because of Bible Verse

Dec 5, 2013JerryReligious FreedomReligion, Religious Freedom, Religious Liberty

A seventh-grader in Kansas has been barred from distributing fliers to classmates simply because the fliers contain a Bible verse.

Based on news reports, the school has what appears to be an unconstitutional policy prohibiting students from distributing any material of a religious nature on school property.

Courts have ruled repeatedly that students do not forfeit their religious liberties simply by walking onto school property; as long as they do not disrupt the learning environment, students are free to pray, discuss religion, share their faith, and engage in other forms of constitutionally-protected speech.

Watch the video below for more information on this situation.

CA Costco Labels Bible “Fiction”

Nov 20, 2013JerryReligionReligion, Religious Freedom, Religious Liberty

Costco is in hot water this week after it says “human error” left “Fiction” labels on every copy of the Bible for sale in at least one California store.

Todd Starnes writes he was contacted by a pastor who was outraged on seeing copies of the Bible labeled “Fiction.” Starnes writes,

“He thought there must be some sort of mistake so he scoured the shelf for other Bibles. Every copy was plastered with a sticker that read, ‘$14.99 Fiction.'”

Starnes contacted Costco for an explanation, and was promptly told the labels were the result of “human error.”

The problem is, as Starnes also points out, Costco hasn’t fixed the error. There’s still a pile of Bibles for sale at Costco under the “Fiction” category. Human error or not, that’s a big deal. As KERO-Bakersfield notes, “[T]he Bibles already labeled as fiction on store shelves have not been relabeled. The company did not apologize.”

Labeling the Bible as “Fiction” marginalizes our Christian faith, and refusing to correct that mistake once it’s noticed marginalizes it further. At the very least, it’s insulting; at worst, it shows that maybe Costco doesn’t really think slapping a “Fiction” label on the Bible was such a mistake after all.

Either way, it’s disconcerting.