The 3 - May 21, 2023

This week's edition of The 3, highlighting three recent stories of interest to the Christian community, includes an end to a conflict between an Arizona school district and a Christian university in the state. Also, Christian in India have been victimized in a particular region, including the burning of churches. And, the state of Florida has implements significant protection of medical professionals and is guarding against incursions on people of faith regarding medical decisions. 

AZ school district, university reach agreement

A Phoenix-area school district that had cut ties with a university that espouses Christian principles has made a decision to not only pay $25,000 in attorneys' fees, but also to reinstate the program allowing students from the university to teach in the district's schools.

CBN.com related:

As CBN News reported, Arizona Christian University and the Washington Elementary School District in the Phoenix and Glendale areas of Arizona had an 11-year partnership where ACU students could student-teach in the district's public schools.

The article went on to say:

In February, the five-member school board voted unanimously to end its relationship with the school because it deemed the university's student-teachers Christian faith as a threat to LGBTQ students.

But ACU and the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit in March, and according to CBN, "Washington Elementary School District has now agreed to pay attorneys' fees and reinstate its student-teacher partnership program with ACU after the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit in March."

President of ACU, Len Munsil, is quoted as saying: "This is a complete vindication of the rights of our students to be able to participate as student-teachers in a public school district without fear of religious discrimination," adding, "We obtained everything we wanted in this new agreement, without any sacrifice or compromise to our beliefs and our university's religious purpose."

ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of U.S. Litigation David Cortman said: "By discriminating against Arizona Christian University and denying it an opportunity to participate in the student-teacher program because of its religious status and beliefs, the school district was in blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution, not to mention state law that protects ACU's religious freedom..." Cortman commended the school board for doing "the right thing."  

Christian persecution in India reported in the form of burning churches

Christians faced violence in Manipur, India recently at the hands of Hindus in the region. Baptist Press reported:

Reports of the attacks against Christians included the burning of more than 50 churches, the destruction and looting at more than 1,000 other buildings, with thousands left homeless and fleeing to find safety, injuries to more than 300 and the death of more than 60.

Kamlen Haokip, who is from Myanmar, or Burma and serves as Burmese pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY, is quoted in the article. Members of his extended family live near the Burmese border with India and he is connected to people inside India. The article says that:

Haokip explained there has been long-standing tension between the religious groups in Manipur, specifically the majority Hindu people group (60 percent of Manipur’s population) known as “Meiteis,” and several minority or “tribal” Christian groups such as the “Chin,” “Mizo,” “Zomi,” “Zo” and “Kuki,” which is Haokip’s tribe of origin.

These minority tribal Christians in Myanmar objected to suggested legislation by the Manipur High Court, which they believe will take away several of their rights and affect their religious freedom.

The Baptist Press article related that according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, "a group of more than 60,000 tribal Christians began peacefully protesting in the city..." and violence spread to other cities.  

Florida implements protections doctors

The state of Florida has committed itself to protecting the conscience rights of doctors in the state, a component included in a total of four bills which The Daily Citizen says "protect Floridians from medical tyranny, empower doctors and prohibit gain of function research."

In addition to protecting "the free speech of doctors," according to the article, these bills:

• Prohibit globalized public health institutions, such as the World Health Organization, from dictating policy in Florida
• Provide permanent protections against forced COVID-19 testing, masking and vaccinations. Also protect against any mandate regarding mRNA vaccines and vaccines authorized for emergency use.

Also, doctors would be permitted to "...collaborate with patients to prescribe alternative treatments and protect medical professionals who choose not to use a certain treatment based on their moral, ethical or religious convictions."  

The Daily Citizen article says:

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans saw government authorities use the crisis to weaponize government against people of faith.

Consider the 1,000 U.S. Marines who were fired for refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccination because of their religious beliefs.

Or how about former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s arbitrary and discriminatory in-person worship restrictions that singled out churches for particularly stringent capacity restrictions.

And that’s to say nothing about the harm done to children, who’s educational and psychological development were irreparably harmed due to government mandates.