The 3 - February 28, 2021

This week's edition of The 3 features more recent headlines from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding COVID restrictions, with a recent high court ruling providing relief in one California county.  Also, I have two recent instances of what is called "cancel culture."  Plus, the U.S. House has passed a new bill that grants special rights based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

U.S. Supreme Court grants relief for CA churches from COVID restrictions

Prior to this past weekend, Santa Clara County in California did not allow indoor worship services whatsoever, according to ToddStarnes.com.  But that has changed as the result of a 6-3 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court that was handed down within the past few days.

There were five churches represented by Pacific Justice Institute that had filed a lawsuit against COVID restrictions in the county - Gateway City Church, The Home Church, The Spectrum Church, Orchard Community Church, and Trinity Bible Church.  Starnes reported on Saturday:

Last week the churches first sought an emergency stay in the Ninth Circuit, but that request was denied by the three-judge panel hearing motions. Lawyers for the churches filed an application for an emergency writ of injunction with Justice Elena Kagan who is assigned to the West Coast for emergency motions.

Starnes noted that "Justice Kagan ordered the County to file a response and then referred the matter to the entire Court which sat in conference today. In a 6-3 decision, the high court granted the relief."

Kagan, along with Sotomayor and Breyer, dissented from the ruling; Starnes notes: "After the Supreme Court’s order, Santa Clara County said indoor worship services immediately would be permitted at 20% capacity but other indoor gatherings would remain prohibited for now."

Cancel culture strikes again: Book removed, TV program pulled

The Daily Mail reports the book was a bestseller.  John Stonestreet at Breakpoint.org stated: "The most recent book banned by Amazon is among the most scholarly and thoroughly researched on the issue of transgenderism. When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment was written by Ryan Anderson, recently named president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center."

The Daily Mail article says:

A spokesman for Encounter Books which publishes 'When Harry Became Sally,' told the Wall Street Journal it had been removed for violating Amazon's content guidelines.

Amazon describes 'offensive content' in its publishing guidelines: 'We don't sell certain content including content that we determine is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism, or other material we deem inappropriate or offensive.'

'This harms the entire culture of book authoring, publishing, and reading--as it will have a chilling effect on all aspects of the book market,' Anderson told The Independent.

The Daily Mail reports that four U.S. Senators: Marco Rubio, Mike Braun, Josh Hawley, and Mike Lee have written a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos "demanding further information." In a statement, the senators said: "'When Harry Became Sally prompted important discussions in the national media and among policymakers in 2018, and remains one of the most rigorously researched and compassionately argued books on this subject...By removing this book from its marketplaces and services, Amazon has unabashedly wielded its outsized market share to silence an important voice merely for the crime of violating woke groupthink."

Meanwhile, D. James Kennedy Ministries has reported that its television program, Truths That Transform, has been removed from the Lifetime television network, according to CBN.com. Dr. Frank Wright, President and CEO of the ministry, was quoted as saying: "Because of Lifetime's newfound ban on so-called 'controversial' content, D. James Kennedy Ministries has been forced off the cable channel—to which we have paid enormous fees since 2017 to air our program...," and said the ministry will not "cave to the cancel culture." CBN reported:

Lifetime told the ministry it would no longer air programming that addressed issues like abortion or left-wing financier George Soros. And it refused to carry any DJKM programming – even broadcasts celebrating George Washington – unless the media ministry founded in 1974 agreed to Lifetime's sweeping new demands.

Equality Act passes U.S. House - again

For the second time, the so-called "Equality Act" has passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 224 - 206. ChristianHeadlines.com reports that...

The bill would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – a law that was passed to confront racial discrimination – by adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the list of protected classes for public places, education and employment.

The article also outlines these provisions of this sweeping legislation:

It guarantees that individuals cannot be denied access “to a shared facility, including a restroom, a locker room, and a dressing room, that is in accordance with the individual's gender identity.”

It would force schools to allow biological boys who identify as girls to play on girls’ teams.

Controversially, the bill explicitly forbids individuals from using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 to sue based on claims within the Equality Act. That 1993 law, signed by President Clinton, prevents the government from “substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion.”

ChristianHeadlines.com also points out: "The Senate has never passed the Equality Act. Politico reported it is unlikely to pass that body in its current form."

The 3 - February 21, 2021

In this week's edition of The 3, highlighting three stories of relevance to the Christian community, all the stories are centered around religious liberty, including the case of a Canadian pastor who was placed in jail last week for violations of health orders concerning COVID and church capacity.  Also, the U.S. House will be considering legislation that poses a threat to religious liberty under the guise of preventing discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.  And, a Christian campus organization is getting involved in a lawsuit in which two secularist groups are attempted to overturn a rule from a federal agency that guarantees religious freedom rights of campus organizations.

Canadian pastor jailed for violation of COVID protocols

While people gathered to pray this past Saturday and attended church in perhaps larger numbers than before on Sunday, Pastor James Coates of GraceLife Church in Edmonton, Alberta remained in prison, according to a story on the CTV News Edmonton website.

The site reported: 

The parking lot at the church west of Edmonton appeared to be more full on Feb. 21 than any of the previous Sundays CTV News Edmonton had attended over four weeks.

At one point, people at the gate were overheard telling incomers that the building's total fire code capacity had been reached, encouraging them to watch the livestreamed service outside.

This comes as churches in the province are allowed to meet at no more than 15 percent of capacity.

The article goes on to say that, "On Saturday, supporters said prayers for Coates outside of the correctional facility."  It reports that:

Coates was taken into custody on Feb. 16. He attended a bail hearing and was set to be released on conditions, but kept in custody overnight "after refusing to agree to those conditions," RCMP said.

RCMP is the acronym for Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Equality Act re-introduced into the House of Representatives

The legislation known as the Equality Act, which is intended to prevent so-called "discrimination" due to gender identity or sexual orientation has been introduced into the U.S. House, and because of the new makeup of the Senate and support of the White House, it stands a greater chance of becoming law.

Family Research Council issued a press release, in which FRC President Tony Perkins, is quoted; it states:

"To wrest special privileges for sexual orientation and gender identity, the so-called Equality Act would eliminate women's privacy and safety, forcing them to share public bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and even battered women's shelters with biological males. The harms aren't hypothetical; local laws to this effect have already led to a kindergartener being assaulted in her school restroom, a rape survivor being forced to quit her job, and nine women being harassed in a shelter.

"The bill erodes parental rights and positions the government as lord over churches and other faith-based institutions, potentially dictating how their facilities are used, who they hire, and even punishing them for not falling in step with a view of human sexuality that directly contradicts orthodox biblical teaching. No person of faith or religious institution, whether school, church, synagogue, mosque, business, or non-profit, will escape the Orwellian reach of the Equality Act.

Perkins stated, "The bill would bring a catastrophic loss of religious freedom in America...," and Mary Beth Waddell of FRC said, "It could...be the most pro-abortion legislation to pass the House in a decade, dramatically expanding abortion access and jeopardizing long-standing federal conscience laws."

Christian campus group enters lawsuit filed by secular groups

Ratio Christi Apologetics Alliance, which is a Christian apologetics organization that reaches college students, has announced it will join, as a defendant, a lawsuit filed against a U.S. Department of Education by two secularist organizations, American Atheists and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.  A press release states that:

The lawsuit – brought on behalf of the Secular Student Alliance and one California university student – claims that by ensuring that public universities respect the First Amendment rights of religious groups on college campuses and giving them the same benefits as other campus clubs, the Department of Education somehow discriminates against students of other faiths and non-religious students.

Dr. Corey Miller is President/CEO of Ratio Christi and is quoted as saying, "By bringing this lawsuit against the Department of Education rule, American Atheists and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are in effect doing what they claim to oppose – discriminating against the rights of certain religious students. Disagreement is not denigration. Viewpoint diversity supports rather than undermines the goal of the university, which is the pursuit of truth. Free speech presupposes cognitive liberty." The rule, which went into affect in November of last year, according to the press release, "allows club members to choose only leaders who share the same belief and mission of the club."

The 3 - February 7, 2021

This week's edition of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, there is news out of the U.S. Supreme Court, which has lowered the level of restrictions being placed on churches due to the COVID pandemic.  Also, Texas was set to eliminate taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood in the state during the past week, but a judge stepped in and reversed the plan, albeit on a temporary basis. And, an Illinois student that was apparently being forced to attend a program that presented views of sexuality that contradicted her religious beliefs has been granted a reprieve.

U.S. Supreme Court lowers restrictions on indoor worship in CA

The U.S. Supreme Court has provided a measure of relief for beleagured churches in California that have been desiring to meet indoors, but have been prevented from doing so.  Churches can now hold indoor services, but at only 25 percent capacity, as reported by The Christian Post, which reported that, according to Politico, the ruling came in parallel cases filed by two churches.

The Post article quotes from Justice Gorsuch, who wrote, "We are not scientists, but neither may we abandon the field when government officials with experts in tow seek to infringe a constitutionally protected liberty..." His opinion was joined by justices Alito and Thomas. The article says that Chief Justice Roberts, "took a middle path and voted, along with Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, to lift the ban on indoor worship while retaining the restriction on singing, according to The Wall Street Journal."

Justices Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor dissented from lifting the worship ban. 

TX rejects, court reinstates, Planned Parenthood funding

Last week, it looked as if the state of Texas had successfully eliminated funding for Planned Parenthood under its Medicaid program. However, as KVUE Television reported, that was a short-lived occurrence. The television station's website stated:

Just hours after Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit on the matter, a state district judge in Travis County has temporarily stopped Texas from removing Planned Parenthood from the state's Medicaid program, according to a report from The Texas Tribune.

The report states Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted the temporary restraining order and set a hearing for Feb. 17.

The outlet said that "The State's order, which was to go into effect Thursday, left Planned Parenthood patients with 30 days to find a new provider..."

IL school administration accommodates student opting out of gender studies class

A student at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, senior Marcail McBridge had requested the ability to opt-out of a "Student Gender and Sexuality Program" at the school, and according to Christian law firm First Liberty, "In November, Marcail’s parents notified IMSA leadership that Marcail could not participate in the program because it forces Marcail to violate her religious beliefs. The IMSA leadership repeatedly denied the McBrides’ request and threatened to punish Marcail if she does not participate in the program."  The First Liberty website says that the program "uses sexual language to identify sexual preferences and gender identity."  

First Liberty attorney Keisha Russell said, “Under Illinois law, schools must provide religious accommodations for their students, and they must also honor requests to excuse students from programs with sexual content...Schools should never violate the religious conscience of their students. We hope President Torres ends the school administrators’ clearly unlawful behavior and protects the religious liberty of every student by granting an accommodation to the family.”

The firm wrote a letter to school officials, and they acted promptly - First Liberty's website says:

After receiving a letter from First Liberty Institute, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (“IMSA”) reversed its position and approved senior Marcail McBride’s request for a religious accommodation. Instead of completing the school’s Student Gender and Sexuality Program, the school offered her an alternate assignment.