Washington County Election Officials Refuse to Kowtow to Atheists

Elections, , , ,

According to the Associated Press, Washington County election officials in Arkansas will continue using churches as polling sites despite complaints from an atheist group.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation reportedly sent a letter to the election commission discouraging the commission from using churches as polling sites on Election Day.

However, when it’s all said and done, there is no constitutional problem with letting a church serve as a polling site–and as the AP notes, election commissioners have struggled in the past to find enough polling locations for elections.

You can read more here.

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Arkansas A.G. Signs Amicus Brief in Defense of Religious Liberty

Religious Freedom,

Last week Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office signed an amicus brief in the case of Trinity Lutheran v. Pauley.

In a nutshell, the case has to do with whether or not a religious organization can be barred from participating in programs available to other organizations simply because the organization happens to be religious. This particular case centers on, of all things, a type of recycling program in which scrap tires are used to provide safe, rubber surfaces on children’s playgrounds in Missouri.

Alliance Defending Freedom writes,

“The [amicus] briefs support a church-run preschool and daycare center that the state of Missouri said is qualified for the program, which provides reimbursement for recycled tire products to surface children’s playgrounds, but then disqualified from the program anyway only because the church is religious.”

Of course the real question, here, is not so much about recycled tires as it is about the State of Missouri trying to discriminate against churches and religious organizations in its public programs.

The amicus brief signed by Attorney General Rutledge’s office reads in part,

Missouri claims that its Scrap Tire Program serves to convert old rubber into a safer environment for all Missourians, from those who live near dump sites to children who fall on softer surfaces. So why is it relevant that an applicant for such a grant happens to be a church?

The answer is very simple: It isn’t relevant. Being religious does not disqualify a person or organizations from participation in public life, plain and simple.

If you would like to thank the Arkansas Attorney General for standing up for religious liberty, you can call her office at (501) 682-2007.

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Denying True Coexistence

Religious Freedom,

John Stonestreet with the Colson Center for Christian Worldview has released an excellent commentary on the growing intolerance for basic religious liberty.

Stonestreet writes,

Exhibit A is the new Mississippi law that ensures that churches and other religious groups aren’t punished for declining to participate in weddings against their convictions, or for setting personnel and housing policies based on their deeply held beliefs.

Further, this law allows private businesses and schools to set their own policies for bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms. In that sense, the law models peaceful coexistence on very contentious social issues.

But one corporation, IBM is claiming that, “(T)his legislation will permit discrimination against people based on their marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.”

Not so, according to Jennifer Marshall. The law protects those with religious scruples from being discriminated against. “What the new law does,” she points out, “is to prevent discrimination by ensuring the government will not force people to violate their consciences in very specific contexts spelled out by the law.”

You can read Stonestreet’s full commentary here or listen to it below.

[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/2016/042116_BP.mp3|titles=No Tolerance for Religious Tolerance?]

Photo Credit: By Nevadaresident (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons.

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