The 3 - August 26, 2018

This week's edition of The 3, featuring three stories of relevance to the Christian community, includes a ruling by a Federal appeals court against an Alabama abortion ban, in which two of the judges criticized the court ruling responsible for making abortion legal in America.  Also, a bill that would have created another gender category for Massachusetts driver's licenses went down to defeat due to some clever action by an opposing legislator.  And, an Army chaplain and his assistant will no longer face charges due to their work in a situation involving a same-sex couple that wished to attend a marriage retreat.

3 - AL abortion ban ruled unconstitutional by Federal appeals court

In 2016, the Alabama Legislature passed a ban on what are called "dismemberment" abortions, which, according to a National Review story, typically occur between 15 and 18 weeks of pregnancy. The law was blocked by a Federal court judge, and recently, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the lower court decision by a unanimous vote, but what is interesting is that, according to the article, "two of the judges criticized the precedent set by the Supreme Court in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case."

According to the National Review story:

“In our judicial system, there is only one Supreme Court, and we are not it. As one of the ‘inferior Courts,’ we follow its decisions,” Chief Judge Ed Carnes wrote in the ruling. “Our role is to apply the law the Supreme Court has laid down to the facts the district court found.”

The judge also wrote, “Some Supreme Court Justices have been of the view that there is constitutional law and then there is the aberration of constitutional law relating to abortion,” adding, “If so, what we must apply here is the aberration.” 

The article also stated that:

While the judges acknowledged that the state has an interest in reducing the “gruesomeness and brutality” of abortions, they found that the ban on dismemberment abortions constituted an “undue burden,” under the precedent established by Roe.

2 - Bill allowing additional gender designation on driver's licenses stopped in MA

It looked like that in liberal Massachusetts, adding a third gender choice for driver's licenses would be a slam dunk.  A bill to authorize that had already passed the Senate and was heading for passage in the House, until one representative pulled an incredible legislative maneuver.

The Christian Post reports that...

...the bill was ultimately withdrawn due to the efforts of one Republican Rep. Jim Lyons of Andover, MA, who decided to challenge it on its merits and utilize the legislative procedures at his disposal at a critical time.

Lyons moved to require the chamber to vote on dozens of other gender options in addition to the "X" designation for trans-identified persons the bill originally called for. He put forward 73 amendments, demanding a vote on each of the available genders that he had tallied on Facebook, among them "cis woman," "gender fluid," "gender variant," and "genderqueer."

Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, told the Post that "Rep. Lyons called their bluff and demonstrated where the logic of this uncoupling of identity from reality ultimately leads..."
1 - Chaplain and assistant exonerated in case of same-sex couple and marriage retreat

Early Friday (August 24), it looked as if Army Chaplain Scott Squires and his assistant, Staff Sergeant Kacie Griffin, were perhaps on their way to a court-martial for "dereliction of duty," because the Chaplain had scheduled a same-sex couple for a marriage retreat other than the one he was conducting, due to his endorsing agency, the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, having a prohibition on its chaplains demonstrating approval for same-sex marriage. Griffin assisted him in the rescheduling process.

But, as the law firm representing them, First Liberty, announced on its website, things shifted on Friday. The site stated:

Today, the United States Army announced that it has rejected the findings of an investigation, and will abandon charges of “dereliction of duty” against First Liberty Institute clients Chaplain Scott Squires and Chaplain Assistant, SSG Kacie Griffin. An earlier Army report recommended Squires be disciplined for following the rules of the Army and taking three business days to reschedule a marriage retreat he was prohibited by his denomination from facilitating.

“We are grateful that the Army has rejected and abandoned these baseless charges,” said Mike Berry, Deputy General Counsel and Director of Military Affairs to First Liberty. “The United States military is no place for anti-religious hostility against its own military chaplains. Chaplains like Scott Squires assistant Kacie Griffin do not have to give up their First Amendment rights in order to serve their fellow soldiers.”

The 3 - August 19, 2018

On this week's edition of The 3, highlighting three stories of relevance to the Christian community, there is a development concerning an Air Force General's prayer-centered website; the Department of Defense has been asked to investigate.  Also, a controversial bill in California that would stifle freedom of speech concerning God's plan for sexuality has crossed another hurdle. And, Colorado baker Jack Phillips is facing more opposition from a Colorado board, the same one that was called out by the U.S. Supreme Court for hostility toward Jack in the recent case before the high court.

3 - Air Force general with prayer page facing pushback

An Air Force Brigadier General is receiving some opposition to a website devoted to prayer, according to an article on the Los Angeles Times website. The newspaper reports that the website of Brigadier General E. John Teichert is "called 'Prayer at Lunchtime for the United States,' in which the commander says he encourages 'Bible-believing Americans to take time to specifically pray for our nation at lunchtime every day.'"

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has requested an investigation.  The Times website states:

The foundation has asked the Defense Department to determine whether Teichert’s conduct “interferes with or violates the civil liberties of service-members and civilians under his command” or “the diversity or equal opportunities of service-members and civilians under his command.”

And, true to form, the foundation claims that there have been multiple complaints.

Teichert is the installation commander at Edwards Air Force Base.  The story states:

On his religious website, Teichert goes only by “John,” and writes that he is an active duty brigadier general who has served in the Air Force since 1994, “and who was saved by grace through faith in Christ in 2004.”

“The Lord has blessed his career while burdening his heart with the need for our nation to return to its Christian foundation,” his bio reads.

The website features a prayer list, which includes “President Trump, Vice President Pence, and the Trump administration,” “a return to our Biblical foundation,” “recognition of God’s preeminence in our lives and in our land” and “the unborn,” among others.

2 - California Senate passes bill banning materials offering hope to gay individuals who wish to break free

The bill has been on the radar of a number of Christian groups throughout this year, and the California Senate has now passed bill AB 2943.  The California Family Council reports that...

...AB 2943 is the radical bill from Assemblymember Evan Low and the LGBT Legislative Caucus. With Thursday’s vote, elected leaders told churches and those with biblical beliefs about gender and sexual orientation that advocating for their views could get them sued.

The article goes on to say, "This bill attacks the freedom of Christians...to find the services and resources from counselors, schools, and faith-based organizations that help them live out their biblical convictions regarding sexual behavior and gender identity." It also states, "Legal experts confirm that by targeting financial transactions, AB 2943 threatens religious non-profits, churches, and pastors who provide paid resources to help people practice their faith."

So, materials that point to the Biblical perspective that people who struggle with same-sex attraction or homosexuality would be banned in the state.

However, there is a small ray of hope.  The Senate made some small adjustments in the bill, so it has to go back to the other chamber, the Assembly, which has until August 31 to pass it.

1 - Jack Phillips possibly heading back before Colorado Civil Rights Commission

It looks as if Colorado cake baker Jack Phillips, fresh off his victory at the U.S. Supreme Court that allowed him to decline to provide a cake for a same-sex wedding celebration, may be back before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission again.

The Alliance Defending Freedom website reports that:

On June 26, 2017, the same day that the Supreme Court agreed to take up Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, an attorney asked Phillips to create a cake designed pink on the inside and blue on the outside, which the attorney said was to celebrate a gender transition from male to female. Phillips declined the request because the custom cake would have expressed messages about sex and gender identity that conflict with his religious beliefs. Less than a month after the Supreme Court ruled for Phillips in his first case, the state surprised him by finding probable cause to believe that Colorado law requires him to create the requested gender-transition cake.

The website states: "Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Phillips and his cake shop filed a federal lawsuit late Tuesday against those officials for doubling down on their anti-religious hostility."

The Supreme Court had already chided the Colorado commission for hostility toward Phillips, and ADF contends that the body is at it again. ADF says:

As the new lawsuit explains, “The Constitution stands as a bulwark against state officials who target people—and seek to ruin their lives—because of the government’s anti-religious animus. For over six years now, Colorado has been on a crusade to crush Plaintiff Jack Phillips…because its officials despise what he believes and how he practices his faith. After Phillips defended himself all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won, he thought Colorado’s hostility toward his faith was over. He was wrong. Colorado has renewed its war against him by embarking on another attempt to prosecute him, in direct conflict with the Supreme Court’s ruling in his favor. This lawsuit is necessary to stop Colorado’s continuing persecution of Phillips.”

The 3 - August 12, 2018

On this week's edition of The 3, exploring three stories of relevance to the Christian community, a former high school football coach in Washington state has found some support by a legendary college coach and other high-profile people.  Also, a well-known evangelist has had billboards advertising an upcoming crusade in California removed.  And, a Midwestern university has taken strong action against a number of campus organizations, including faith-based groups.

3 - Legendary college football coach stands with high school coach who lost job for praying

Joe Kennedy is the former assistant high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington who, for years, would walk to midfield to pray following games - that is, until the school district stepped in to restrict him from doing so.  Even after he was told not to do it, he believed that he had a constitutional right to pray in the way he did, and he was terminated.

He has gone to court and has been rejected by a Federal district and appeals court - so he has his eyes set on the highest court in the land, according to Tallahassee.com, which reported on former Florida State head football coach Bobby Bowden becoming involved in the case by filing a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Kennedy.  The newspaper's website stated:

The former Florida State football coach has joined members of Congress, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and 12 attorneys general in their effort to have the U.S Supreme Court hear the case of a former high school football coach suspended for praying on the field.

Multiple amicus briefs – including Bowden’s – were filed this week on behalf of Joe Kennedy to the nation's highest court. There is no guarantee the Supreme Court will accept the case that has attracted national attention.

The article also said:

According to his amicus brief on Kennedy’s behalf, Bowden said he believed "no coach should have to set down their faith when they pick up a whistle."

The brief further explained, "In coach Bowden's view, the Circuit Court's opinion jeopardizes an observant coach's ability to impart these life lessons and otherwise strips them of their spiritual identity while in the presence of their student-athletes by categorically eliminating at the public schoolhouse gate their First Amendment rights to engage in any form of religious expression."

2 - Crusade ads removed from Southern California mall

This coming weekend, thousands will converge on Angel Stadium in Los Angeles for the Harvest Southern California Crusade, featuring evangelist Greg Laurie.  But, one attempt to promote the crusade has been eliminated, according to ToddStarnes.com.  Starnes reported that;

Billboards depicting evangelist Greg Laurie holding a Bible were removed from a popular outdoor mall in Southern California after numerous complaints and at least one “serious threat.”

The management of Fashion Island declined to say why they took down the billboards, but the contract between Harvest Crusade and the shopping mall includes a clause about the right not to display any materials that could be construed as “vulgar or offensive.”

The billboards were promoting the upcoming SoCal Harvest gathering – expected to draw tens of thousands of people to Angel Stadium, CBN News first reported.

Todd also reported:

After the initial complaint, the Christian organization revised the advertisements to include only the word “Harvest” with the dates of the event.

Harvest executive director John Collins is quoted as saying, "Then they came back and said they just wanted the ads completely removed and they refunded us..."  Starnes also reported that:

Collins told CBN News. “It’s sad that our culture is at this degree of intolerance…There’s such intolerance against Christianity that we aren’t allowed to state that or to publicly advertise this event. That’s amazing.”

On his blog, Laurie wrote:

We enjoyed working with the Irvine Company and displaying our banners in their amazing malls. I hope to work with them again in the future.

Everybody needs to just relax a little bit. I see images on billboards and displays in stores that I find offensive all the time. I do not complain or boycott. I just think as Christians we ought to have “equal time” and a voice in the marketplace.

1 - IA Christian student group rejects LGBT leadership

The University of Iowa is currently conducting a purge of student organizations that it seems to believe is discriminating against other students. ChristianHeadlines.com ran a story about the Christian organization, Business Leaders in Christ, which, according to the article...

...says it has the right as a religious group to require members to affirm a statement of faith. The controversy began in 2016 when the group refused a leadership position to a gay student because he did not affirm its beliefs.

The article goes on to say:

“The University is discriminating against [us] because of our religious beliefs, while allowing other student groups to form around their shared values and beliefs,” Jacob Estell of Business Leaders in Christ told The College Fix. “We have not changed our mind or caved in to the University’s wishes.”

According to Christian Headlines, "The university stripped the group of its official status, but the group sued and won in court earlier this year. That lawsuit is still pending."  Earlier, the Gazette, based in Cedar Rapids, had reported that:

The University of Iowa has deregistered another 38 student groups after a federal judge found it unequally enforced its human rights policy by kicking off campus a student organization that had barred an openly gay member from becoming a leader.

At least 22 of the newly deregistered groups are organized around religion, culture or ideology.

It looks as if the Business Leaders in Christ lawsuit set off a disturbing series of events, according that publication:

Although merits of the case have yet to be decided, with a jury trial scheduled for March 2019, a U.S. District Court judge agreed BLinC was singled out and ordered the university let the group remain on campus until the legal dispute is resolved.

Before the judge’s ruling, UI attorneys said the school did not proactively enforce compliance with its policy but rather responded only to complaints.

After the ruling, the university in late January and early February reviewed hundreds of its student organizations’ governing documents and found 356 were out of compliance by failing to have the full and correct human rights clause in their constitutions.

That large group has been whittled down to the 38 that have been dismissed from campus, with some Greek organizations having until September 4 to comply.

The 3 - August 5, 2018

This week's edition of The 3, my weekly blog post dealing with three stories of relevance impacting the Christian community, I spotlight a ruling against prayer at the beginning of school board meetings in a district in California.  Also, a women who had encountered a man in the ladies' locker room at a Michigan health club has received a favorable court ruling.  Plus, the U.S. Attorney General has announced a task force to support religious liberty.

3 - 9th Circuit strikes down prayer at beginning of governmental meetings

There does seem to be more confusion about the issue of prayer before public meetings of government bodies. It could have been concluded that the 2014 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case involving the town of Greece, New York, may have settled it, but more appeals court rulings have muddied the waters.

Advocates for Faith and Freedom reports on a case it has been involved in, regarding the Chino Valley Unified School District in California.  It states in a recent press release:

...the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals ruled that the Chino Valley Unified School District board policy that allows invocations before the start of school board meetings is a violation of the Establishment Clause. The Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals came to a different conclusion in 2017 in American Humanist Association v. McCarty.

Robert Tyler of Tyler & Burch, LLP and legal counsel for the district, is quoted as saying, “This requires the Board to censor or otherwise remove individuals who attempt to say a prayer, or anything that might resemble a prayer, during the public comment period,” adding, “Such an overbroad injunction is a clear violation of the right of private citizens to address their local representatives in public meetings and is dangerous to the First Amendment.”

The press release also says:

In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld ceremonial prayer at city council meetings in Town of Greece v Galloway. In that decision, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy noted the historical significance of such invocations. “Ceremonial prayer is but a recognition that, since this Nation was founded and until the present day, many Americans deem that their own existence must be understood by precepts far beyond the authority of government…,” Kennedy wrote.

During the previous session of the high court, it refused to hear a case out of North Carolina, in which the 4th Circuit had ruled against prayer before government meetings. UPI.com reported:

The Supreme Court's decision not to hear the case leaves in place a lower court's 2017 decision that Rowan County, N.C., commissioners' practice of leading mostly Christian prayers before public meetings and inviting the public to join violates mandated separation of church and state in the First Amendment.

And, earlier this year, the 6th Circuit, in a ruling involving the entire court, according to The Christian Post, ruled "...in favor of a Michigan county's invocation policy for monthly public meetings that allow commissioners to give prayers." The article stated:

In a decision released by the full court on Wednesday, a majority of the Sixth Circuit concluded that Jackson County Board of Commissioners' invocation policy was constitutional.

So, you seem to have different decisions coming up of multiple circuits on similar cases; that could mean the high court will accept one or perhaps more of these in the future.

2 - Court rules in favor of woman in gym dispute

A Michigan woman who had filed a lawsuit against Planet Fitness because of an "unwritten" policy allowing men who identify as women to use the women's locker room received a positive ruling from the Michigan Supreme Court recently.

Liberty Counsel reported:

Yvette Cormier's lawsuit against Planet Fitness was filed in Midland County in 2015 after her membership was canceled because she warned fellow gym members over several days about seeing a biological man, who claims to be “transgender,” in the women’s locker room. Planet Fitness told her that it allows people to use the locker room that matches their “identity.” Midland County Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Beale dismissed the lawsuit in 2016. Cormier then appealed the decision to the Michigan Court of Appeals. The appeals court affirmed Beale's ruling in June of 2016, but Cormier then took her case to the Michigan Supreme Court, which reversed and sided with Cormier.

Liberty Counsel has an interest in this case, certainly: as it states on its website:

Liberty Counsel represents “Mrs. H” whose membership was canceled at Planet Fitness in Leesburg, Florida, because she objected to a man in the women’s locker room.

Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, stated: “This is a safety issue for women who understandably do not want to share a locker room with men. This is also discrimination based on sex and violation of state law. Planet Fitness cannot have secret policies and expect to get away with it..."

1 - Sessions announces Religious Liberty Task Force

The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a strong message to people of faith in America: we hear you and we will defend your First Amendment rights to freedom of religion.  This past week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the formation of a Religious Liberty Task Force.

The National Religious Broadcasters website reported:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week announced, “The Task Force will help the Department fully implement our religious liberty guidance by ensuring that all Justice Department components are upholding that guidance in the cases they bring and defend, the arguments they make in court, the policies and regulations they adopt, and how we conduct our operations. That includes making sure that our employees know their duties to accommodate people of faith.”

This announcement follows previous action, as the website points out: "Per the direction of President Donald Trump in his May 2017 executive order signed on the National Day of Prayer, the DOJ last year issued an extensive guidance for all federal agencies on religious freedom."

Jerry A. Johnson, President and CEO of NRB, stated: “Just one week after the State Department’s historic ministerial, the creation of this new DOJ task force is yet another powerful testament to the seriousness of the Trump administration as it seeks to defend religious freedom,” adding, “I am encouraged by top leaders working to right wrongs against people of faith here in the U.S. and abroad. While such action is common sense to many Americans, it sadly is not to many ‘progressive’ elites.”

I spoke with Jeremy Dys, Deputy General Counsel of First Liberty Institute, about the formation of this task force, as well as two recent incidents involving religious freedom in the military.  You can listen to or download that conversation here.