Columnist.
There wasn't room at the inn for Jesus -- and now there isn't room at the Navy's Lodges either! After a string of good news on the religious liberty front, the Navy seems to be falling back into the military's bad habits on anti-faith censorship. Despite a longtime partnership with the Gideons, the director of the Navy Lodge program is tossing the nightstand Bibles, explaining that the giveaways will now be at the commanders' discretion. The directive, which was signed back in mid-June, started taking effect recently, as housekeepers and other sailors were instructed to purge the lodges of the free Bibles. At least two employees -- one Lodge worker and an active duty serviceman -- contacted our friends at AFA and Fox News to blow the whistle on the change. "We were told today... that due to a new policy by the CEO of NEXCOM, Rear Admiral Robert Bianchi, we were to remove the Bibles from the rooms," a housekeeper said. "They told us to put them in boxes, where they would be taken to a donation center somewhere."
At W.W. Bridal Boutique, it isn't unusual to see two women shopping for wedding dresses. What *is* unusual is two women shopping for wedding dresses for the same ceremony. That's the predicament Victoria Miller found herself in as the owner of the Pennsylvania shop. When a lesbian couple contacted the store for an appointment, Victoria explained that she couldn't help the women find gowns for a ceremony that violates her Christian faith. Right now, an employee explained, the Bloomsburg store doesn't service same-sex weddings. Instead of showing the tolerance their movement claims to practice, the women turned to social media to bully the shop -- trashing its online reviews and sparking a city-wide firestorm. Miller, whose orthodox beliefs are in the bulls-eye, isn't backing down. "We feel we have to answer to God for what we do," she told reporters, "and providing those two girls dresses for a sanctified marriage would break God's law."
It took Christian families fleeing into the mountains and innocent children being beheaded, but the Obama administration is finally engaging in Iraq. As men and women are driven into the night with only the clothes on their backs, the President, facing growing criticism for his inaction, authorized limited U.S. airstrikes. Their targets: a radical fringe of jihadists determined to exterminate the country's dwindling non-Muslim population. A reluctant President Obama, who has stood by as Christians were told to convert or be killed, announced the decision to bomb ISIS Thursday night. Even then, he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge the gravity of the crisis, calling it a "potential act of genocide." After months of religious persecution, the administration's hand was finally forced when thousands were trapped on Mount Sinjar without food and water. While we're grateful to see the White House take a stand against the religious genocide in Iraq, the question on everyone's minds is: is it too little too late? Short of sustained and aggressive action, there are few options but to write the epitaph for the oldest, continuous Christian community in the world.
If you believe the latest polling, then you know that the midterm elections are the GOP's to lose. And based on the decisions of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), some of the GOP want to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! While the Republican National Committee (RNC) has been on a conservative course correction under the current chairman, Reince Priebus, the NRCC and its Senate counterpart -- the NRSC -- have gravitated toward moderates over fidelity to the GOP's core principles.
Most of us would love to get the IRS to go to church -- but not to censor what's being said there! Unfortunately, that seems to be the next stop on the agency's intimidation tour, thanks to a new settlement between the President's favorite tax bullies and the extremists at the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). In late July, the government persuaded the Freedom From Religion Foundation to drop its lawsuit by striking a deal with the atheist group. They had sued the IRS to get it to do what it already does: harass religious Americans. Apparently, the radicals at the Foundation felt like churches were being left out of the administration's conservative targeting party and took the IRS to court for refusing to crackdown on churches that spoke freely about moral or political issues from the pulpit. According to FFRF, the IRS promised to rewrite its policies and take a harder line against pastors exercising their First Amendment rights.
When the Obama administration talks about a mandate "accommodation," you can be sure the only thing they're accommodating is their radical agenda. A month after the Supreme Court gave ObamaCare one of its biggest black eyes, the President's team is back at the drawing board, desperate to find a new way to force family businesses and nonprofits to violate their pro-life convictions.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati will hear cases on Wednesday challenging the male-female definitions of marriage found in the constitutions of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan. Each of those states had defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and each was declared unconstitutional by federal district courts in those respective states. The four cases have been consolidated into one appeal that will be considered by a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit.
Just last week, the State Department released its 2013 *International Religious Freedom Report*. The report highlights numerous religious freedom violations taking place world-wide throughout 2013, and documents many of these violations in a serious and detailed manner which will be helpful to a variety of interested groups and policy makers. This attention to international religious freedom issues is welcome as news of religious oppression increases worldwide. In recent weeks, all available evidence indicates a genocide is underway in Iraq as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) kills and drives off Christians and exterminates Christian culture. Yet at the same time, we are reminded of our own country's role as a safe haven for the persecuted as Meriam Ibrahim made her way Thursday night to freedom in the United States.
Earlier this week, in a transparent act of judicial slight-of-hand, two judges on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a pro-life bill in Mississippi unconstitutional. They enjoined the law not because of what it says -- it merely brings abortion regulations back in line with state standards for ambulatory surgical centers -- but because holding abortionists to standard medical standards would shut down the last abortion facility in the state. In other words, two unelected justices decided that keeping abortionists in business is more important than the safety of women. Even more amazing is that the same Circuit ruled in favor of a very similar law in Texas.
The House voted yesterday on a resolution that authorizes the House of Representatives to sue the President for his repeated disregard of the Rule of Law and the separation of powers. The outstanding question remains whether courts will grant the House standing or not. Under the Constitution, it's the duty of Congress as the legislative branch to make the laws and the Executive Branch to see that they are faithfully executed. Under Obama, however, these roles have become increasingly blurred and, unsurprisingly, always at Congress' expense. Laws passed by the Legislative Branch have been delayed, waived, selectively enforced and, in some cases, created out of whole cloth to suit the President's needs without input from Congress.
Whether it's erasing a Bible verse on a white board or the banning of pocket-sized Gideon Bibles from an Air Force base, our military service members, under the Obama administration, have experienced an unprecedented rise in the suppression of their religious speech. Members of the Missouri National Guard are now finding out that even associating with church members is enough to trigger a secularist clampdown. Last week, the boys and girls of Bible Baptist Church in Carthage, Missouri were planning to salute the guardsmen at the church's Vacation Bible School. You can probably guess what happened next. Fox News' Todd Starnes talked to the pastor who told him, "We were going to thank them for protecting our religious liberty," said Pastor Hogan. "It was more of a promotion for the military -- to show the kids what the military does." But at the last minute, the National Guard canceled the visit, blamed federal policy and told the pastor that "if the National Guard had assets on church property it would look like the National Guard is sponsoring the Baptist religion."
Despite Congress's gridlock on a host of issues related to our national security and economic stability, last week included two bright spots for conservatives interested in common-sense policy reforms. The good news: coming just a day after news of Meriam Ibrahim's safe travels with her family to Italy, Congress gave advocates of international religious freedom one more reason to celebrate. Late Friday, the House passed by unanimous consent S. 653, the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act of 2014, a bill which establishes a Special Envoy to advocate for religious minorities in the region of the world most impacted by the violent persecution of believers.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) has a dubious name. While it may sound like it would help Americans and people around the world with disabilities, the treaty could dangerously undermine United States laws protecting persons with disabilities, specifically the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
As Iraqi Christians fled Mosul this weekend, the horror of having to leave home because of one's faith was met with the further indignity of being stripped of all but the clothes on their backs. The jihadists of ISIS forced out the last remaining Christians whose legacy in Mosul goes back to the very origins of Christianity.
With the world in deep turmoil, and a struggling economy, Americans are looking for leadership to confront these many challenges. What kind of leadership do we see coming from the White House?
In two weeks, the Senate will be taking a long break -- from what, no one really knows. Thanks to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the chamber has been in perpetual siesta, only stirrings from their slumber just long enough to stage a meaningless crusade for "free" birth control, which most women already have.
Forget birth control. America needs border control! But that's not something the nation is likely to get from this Senate, whose leaders are too busy chasing women's votes to put out the real fires over immigration, the economy, or the Middle East. Of course, the greatest irony of this contraception push is that liberals thought it would help them in November, when in reality, it's turning into the best advertisement for a conservative takeover yet! It may come as a surprise to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), but women are capable of looking past their reproductive systems to the serious issues facing America. With just a handful of weeks left on the legislative calendar, they know those are the conversations leaders should be having -- not a trumped-up political show over pills that they have more access to than ever. Still, the President's party plowed ahead anyway, eating up precious time to misrepresent a Supreme Court ruling that exempted religious employers from covering drugs that run counter to their faith by preventing or ending a pregnancy.
Senate Democrats have certainly proven there's a "war on women" -- a war on women's intelligence! While America sinks under the weight of the Left's failed policies, Harry Reid and company are busy insulting the female voters they claim to speak for. Instead of serious discussions about the crises of immigration, the economy, the IRS or Middle East, the Left is taking up valuable legislative time with gratuitous debates over abortion and birth control. If liberals are such devoted feminists, why do they insist on reducing women voters to the sum of their reproductive organs? Having two X chromosomes doesn't mean women are incapable of caring about the issues Senate Democrats are ignoring. Yet that's exactly what this Majority Leader is banking on with feisty hearings over political show bills that have zero chance of passing both chambers and little significance if they did. It's an offensive -- if not risky -- strategy for the party desperate to keep its grip on the Senate. And based on Tuesday's Judiciary hearing, Reid's stunt is less about opening an honest conversation and more about opening the wallets of hard-line Democratic donors.
The Supreme Court's mandate ruling isn't getting rave reviews from liberals, but voters certainly approve. Based on the latest Gallup numbers, the firestorm over birth control is pretty well contained to Democratic Cloakroom on Capitol Hill, where liberal leaders desperately -- and apparently, ineffectively -- fan the flames. After the justices left for summer, new polling says Americans gave them high marks for the term, which included some of the most significant religious liberty cases in a generation. More voters approve of the justices' job (47%) than disapprove (46%), hardly a sign of nationwide outrage over the Court's mandate opt-out. It seems most people don't share the Left's hysteria over the Hobby Lobby/Conestoga Wood Specialties ruling, which empowered family businesses to operate according to their religious convictions.
There are just three weeks on the legislative calendar before November, and Democrats plan to spend all of them fixing the nonexistent "crisis of contraception." The world is literally falling to pieces, along with the U.S. economy, and liberals think *we're* obsessed with social issues? Democratic liberals think the future of the free world hinges on employers being forced -- under the threat of crippling fines -- to provide drugs that can end a pregnancy. Days after a new report showed that free birth control is being covered in record numbers, liberals are complaining that the Supreme Court won't trample the First Amendment to deliver even more. Tossing aside tax, diplomatic, ObamaCare, military, and other reforms, Senate liberals are plowing ahead with their ridiculous agenda to overrule the Supreme Court.
