Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Religious Liberty

April 02, 2013

Report: Mass Murder of Christians in Syria

(HT: Pravoslavie.ru. Also see the interview with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) in the new issue of Religion & Liberty on the dire situation of Christians in Syria.) In his interview to the MEDIA, a Hierarch of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Bishop Luke of Seidnaya, has disclosed the scale of persecutions suffered by Orthodox Christians of this region since the very beginning of the uprising against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, reports Agionoros.ru Continue Reading...
March 20, 2013

Religious Liberty is for Money-Makers Too

Increasingly, governments and private parties are arguing that there is only one appropriate view of the relationship between religion and money-making: Exercising religion is fundamentally incompatible with earning profits. This claim has been presented recently by state governments and private parties in litigation over pharmacy rights of conscience, and by state governments enacting conscience clauses with regard to recognizing same-sex marriages (non-profits are sometimes protected, but never profit-makers). Continue Reading...
March 05, 2013

Lawmakers Push for Conscience Rights to be Included in Budget Bill

Fourteen members of Congress—including 13 women—sent a letter to the House leadership today asking that conscience rights be included in the upcoming budget bill. They mentioned specific violations of conscience rights, including the HHS Mandate: “This attack on religious freedom demands immediate congressional action,” the 14 lawmakers wrote. Continue Reading...
March 04, 2013

When Free Speech Died in Canada

When future historians attempt to narrow down the exact point at which the concept of free speech died in Canada, they’ll likely point to Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott, specifically this sentence: Truthful statements can be presented in a manner that would meet the definition of hate speech, and not all truthful statements must be free from restriction. Continue Reading...
February 26, 2013

Obama Administration to Federal Judge: We Can Force Your Wife to Violate Her Religion

Has there ever, in the history of America, been a presidential administration as dismissive of religious liberties as the Obama Administration? The Administration seems to truly believe that when religious beliefs come into conflict with one of the President’s pet policies—such as employers being forced to pay for contraceptives and abortifacients—that religious liberties must be set aside. Continue Reading...