Another banner year (2016) for violations of Americans’ religious freedoms the Constitution is supposed to protect. First Liberty Institution has compiled a report, entitled for the last five years of all the known religious liberty violations in the U.S. This year’s report about 2016 is entitle “Undeniable.” First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys says, it’s the most comprehensive survey of its kind, which includes 1,400 real-life stories.
“This year’s survey represents a 15-percent increase in just the past year,” Dys explains, “and an alarming 133-percent increase… since we started tracking and publishing this survey in 2012.”
According to the report, hostility toward religious liberty continues to rise in the public arena (government and industry, for example) as well in the realms of education, religious institutions, and the U.S. military.
First Liberty founder Kelly Shackelford cites an incident documented in the report: “One example is Giovanni Rubio, a nine-year-old boy who was told he could bring any book he wanted to school during free reading time. He brought his Bible” – and uproar ensued.
Then there is the case of Alexia Palma, a health educator to the poor in Houston. She objected to teaching pregnant mothers about contraception because of her faith. Management accommodated her, but then new management took over. Palma said: “Next thing you know, I was getting called into a meeting where they told me that I needed to put my religious beliefs aside if I wanted to continue being a health educator there.” She stood firm and was fired. First Liberty, which has a 90-percent win rate, filed suit and the institution settled for an undisclosed amount.
Attacks on religious liberty are paving the way for the biblical prediction that worship laws will eventually violate the religious freedom of faithful seventh-day Sabbath keepers because it sets precedents that will make worship laws seem like the best solution to the secular assault on religious freedom.
“The founders of the [United States] wisely sought to guard against the employment of secular power on the part of the church, with its inevitable result—intolerance and persecution. The Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Only in flagrant violation of these safeguards to the nation’s liberty, can any religious observance be enforced by civil authority.” The Great Controversy, page 442.
Comments
Craig Swift
Thursday September 21st, 2017 at 02:32 PMThis is what is known as fake news. Kelly Shackelford has been lying about Christians being persecuted in the US for decades. First Liberty Institute was originally named Free Market Foundation. A capitalist ideological organization who advocated on behalf of corporations. The only think that has changed is they also now wrap religious issues with their corporate issues. They are based here in Texas…Plano, TX just a few miles from where I live. It will be these type of groups who present fake stories and try to hide their real agenda behind religion that will bring about real persecution. Their report has little if any credibility.
DeLeon
Friday September 22nd, 2017 at 09:43 AMThanks for the clarification. We have enough problems in the world today; we need not have a website that, while representing the moral fabric of the nation, is so desperate as to post mocked up news reports. What does this say about Gods ability to provide and supply needs? Can He not grant wisdom to allow you all to see better topics of discussion?
admin
Sunday September 24th, 2017 at 09:40 AMKTF does not represent the moral fabric of the nation. Our aim is to address the prophecy events as they unfold and link them to bible prophecy. We care not for political or social issues in themselves, but only as they impinge on Bible prophecy. Fake News must be defined by objective fabrication of facts, not on matters of perspective or opinion. Admin
admin
Friday September 22nd, 2017 at 10:12 AMCan you show evidence that the author made up the facts to explain her perspective? If not this is merely a disagreement with her perspective, not fake news. Fake news is like when CNN made up facts and then spun their story, which actually happened several times. They had to withdraw these stories and apologize. Dan Rather lost his cred over false facts. That’s what fake news is. Today the term “Fake News” has now become a pejorative term to denigrate someone of a different perspective. Please supply clear evidence of false facts.
Andre
Wednesday September 27th, 2017 at 08:35 AMThank you for keeping us updated in the light of Bible prophecy. Unfortunately not everyone believes in Bible prophecy,but for members of the church of Bible prophecy this web-page is so informative as it helps us to see how the bible is unfolding rite before our very eyes.
Thank you for the outstanding work.
Regards .
Andre
Marie
Monday October 2nd, 2017 at 11:35 AMA national Sunday law is coming. If you want to see the start of the “big snowball” that will take America by storm, look up Senator Sylvia Allen and what she said while reading her computer screen, not flippant speech off her tongue, in April of 2015. Fake News is when someone calls TRUE news fake. I know MANY people who are being persecuted for their religious beliefs, the author of this article for one and myself in 1993. People who are awake can see that “Freedom of Speech” is slowly eroding away; if you do not think so, then why are honest people who are telling the honest truth being arrested and/or sued. TRUTH is not popular but sci-fi is.