Recently, churches in states that have redefined marriage–such as New York and others–have wondered whether new marriage laws require them to permit same-sex weddings on church property.
Alliance Defending Freedom has the answer: In short, church property is private property, and the church is protected by the First Amendment when it comes to the activities it does and does not permit on its property.
Family Research Council has collaborated with others to produce a list of encroachments of religious liberty in the military.
Increasingly, members of the armed services–especially chaplains–have found themselves at odds with their superiors over religious expression.
Examples of anti-religion activity include Rev. Billy Graham’s son Franklin being dis-invited to the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer event after criticizing Islam’s treatment of women; Christian prayers being banned at funeral services at the Houston National Cemetery; Walter Reed Medical Center banning Bibles; and an Army Reserve Equal Opportunity instructor labeling Catholics and Evangelical Christians as “extremists” alongside Al Quaeda, Hamas, and the KKK.
You can download the complete list, Clear and Present Danger, here.
Family Research Council has also put together a broader list of encroachments of religious liberty, The Survey of Religious Hostility in America. You can download that list here.
“Religious liberty belongs to no party, no ideology, no creed: It is our common property and our shared inheritance,” said William Galston. Galston, a political scientist and advisor to former-President Bill Clinton, was honored on May 30 at the National Religious Freedom Award Dinner in Washington, D.C.