Tag: persecution

US Supreme Court Rules NY Gov. Cuomo’s ‘Severe Restrictions’ on Church Attendance Unconstitutional

– November 27, 2020

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that New York’s “very severe” limitations on church attendance in the state’s COVID red and orange zones violate the First Amendment right to the freedom of religion and is not the least restrictive means of preventing infections.

“Not only is there no evidence that the applicants have contributed to the spread of COVID–19, but there are many other less restrictive rules that could be adopted to minimize the risk to those attending religious services,” the court stated in a 5-4 opinion Wednesday evening, with new justice Amy Coney Barrett being among the majority.

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with his liberal colleagues.

In October, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Executive Order 202.68, which presented updated regulations for various public facilities, including fitness centers, hair salons, restaurants, taverns and houses of worship.

Churches in orange zones were required to be “subject to a maximum capacity limit of the lesser of 33% of maximum occupancy or 25 people, whichever is fewer.” Those in red zones were “subject to a capacity limit of 25% of maximum occupancy or 10 people, whichever is fewer.”

View the executive order here.

As a result, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and the Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization Agudath Israel of America filed suit to challenge the restrictions, arguing that they treat religious facilities more harshly than secular venues.

They contended that they have followed all health guidelines and have operated at reduced capacity without any outbreaks, and therefore, it cannot be proven that churches need more stringent regulation.

On Wednesday, following unsuccessful bids in the lower courts, the Supreme Court ruled that Cuomo’s restrictions “cannot be viewed as neutral because they single out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment” since businesses deemed “essential” could literally accommodate hundreds of occupants without penalty.

https://christiannews.net

‘The Next Jihad’: Evangelical leader, rabbi warn about ‘Christian genocide’ in Africa

Samuel Smith – November – 17, 2020

The rise of violent extremist groups throughout Africa, as well as the constant attacks against Christian communities in the continent’s most populated country, has religious leaders fearful that “the next jihad” is underway as world leaders seem to be rushing to address the problem.

“I know one thing has never really changed: No one gives a damn about Africa except for their natural resources or if there is going to be a big party because there is a peace treaty being signed,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, director of the global social action agenda of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights organization with over 400,000 family members.

“That’s just the truth and it’s a terrible truth. It might be one of the vestiges, frankly, of colonialism.”

Cooper teamed up with Rev. Johnnie Moore, a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, to author the new book The Next Jihad: Stop the Christian Genocide in Africa.

The book was written after the unlikely duo traveled together to Nigeria earlier this year to meet with dozens of Christian victims of terrorism from five different regions.

In recent years, Nigeria, the continent’s richest country, has dealt with the rise of Islamic terrorist groups in the northeast (Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province) and an increase of deadly attacks on farming communities carried out by militarized radicals from the Fulani herding community.

In the past few years, it’s been estimated that thousands of Christians have been killed while millions of Nigerians have been displaced from their communities. Some human rights groups have warned that attacks against Christian communities in Nigeria have reached the standard for genocide

https://www.christianpost.com

Alito Warns: Religious Liberty ‘Is in Danger of Becoming a Second-Class Right’

Michael Foust – November 13, 2020

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday delivered an unusually blunt warning about the future of religious liberty and free speech in the United States, saying both were in danger if the justices don’t step in and protect them.

Alito’s comments came during a speech in a virtual gathering of the Federalist Society, a group of conservatives and libertarians dedicated to reforming the legal system.

Alito, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, has been known as a staunch supporter of religious liberty and free speech, although his comments left little doubt how he will lean in future cases involving those two issues.

“It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right,” said Alito, who is Catholic. The pandemic, he bemoaned, “has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,” even though Alito said he was not “diminishing the severity of the virus’ threat to public health.”

Alito used frank language discussing several high-profile cases, including one involving the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order of nuns who run homes for the elderly poor. The Obama administration tried forcing the Little Sisters to carry health insurance covering contraceptives and abortifacients.

“The Little Sisters are women who have dedicated their lives to caring for the elderly, regardless of religion. They run homes that have won high praise,” Alito said. “… Despite this inspiring work, the Little Sisters have been under unrelenting attack for the better part of a decade. … If they did not knuckle under and violate a tenet of their faith, they faced crippling fines – fines that would likely have forced them to shut down their homes.

“The current administration tried to prevent that by adopting a new rule, but the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey – supported by 17 other states – challenged that new rule. Last spring, the Little Sisters won their most recent battle in the Supreme Court – I should add by a vote of 7 to 2. But the case was sent back to the court of appeals, and the Little Sisters legal fight goes on and on.”

Alito mentioned other cases, too, including the high-profile one involving Jack Phillips, a cake artist and Christian who was told by the state of Colorado he must design a cake for a same-sex wedding or risk violating the law.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Washington D.C. Bill Allows Children 11 Years and Older to be Vaccinated Without Parental Knowledge

Dawn Richardson – November 6. 2020

On Oct. 7, 2020, during a hastily scheduled virtual meeting,1 four District of Columbia Council members making up the Health Committee2 amended and unanimously passed a minor consent bill, B23-0171.3

The bill would not only permit children aged 11 years and older to give consent for doctors and other vaccine administrators to give them vaccines without their parents’ knowledge or consent, but would also require insurance companies, vaccine administrators and schools to conceal from parents that the child has been vaccinated.

On Oct. 20, 2020,4 the entire DC Council voted in favor of the bill 12:15 on the first reading in yet another virtual online meeting6 with no public testimony. It was announced that the second reading, which will be the final vote, will take place on Nov. 10, 2020.7

NVIC issued an alert8 through the online NVIC Advocacy Portal when the bill had it’s first public hearing in June of 2019 advising opposition to the bill, which violated parental medical informed consent rights.

Testimony was taken,9 and NVIC submitted testimony against the bill.10

B23-0171 then sat for over a year untouched and unmoved.

In a revealing statement Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), the chair of the DC Health Committee which passed the bill, explained why the bill was all suddenly being revived and pushed through so quickly.

Gray was quoted in The Washington Post as saying,

“the hope of an imminent corona­virus vaccine gave the bill new urgency.”11

Primary sponsor of this bill, DC Council Member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), emphasized that coronavirus vaccines were her the main reason why she wants to remove parents from the process of vaccinating children.

Advocating for passage of her bill, she stated:

And given our ongoing pandemic and the incredible work being done to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, it’s more important than ever I think that we reduce any and all barriers to these treatments and this legislation aims to do just that by increasing access to vaccines for minors who choose to get vaccinated but have not been unable to do so.12

If this bill passes, it is clear that minor children will be at risk of being pressured and coerced into getting a COVID-19 vaccine behind their parents’ back once it is available and added by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to the childhood vaccine schedule recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) .

https://medicalkidnap.com

American Synagogue Under Siege

Charles Jacobs and Ben Poser – October 20, 2020

In an outrage to the Jewish community, it has apparently become acceptable for people to picket synagogue services, and accuse the Jews inside of murder, imperialism, and the very acts of genocide visited upon them by the Nazis.

The members of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, endure the vile taunts of protesters holding signs reading “Resist Jewish Power,” “Jewish Power Corrupts,” “No More Holocaust Movies,” “Boycott Israel,” “Stop U.S. Aid to Israel,” and “End the Palestinian Holocaust” every Shabbat. What’s more, this unconscionable behavior has not just been the weekly norm recently, but every single Shabbat (Saturday) since 2003.

“They portray themselves as kindly types who bring their detractors tea and wish them a nice day, while they espouse Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic global conspiracy theories… And their hate fails to alarm some progressive leaders who would be rightfully shouting from the rooftops if this were a mosque,” Beth Israel’s rabbi, Nadav Caine, told Ryan Stanton of Michigan Live.

The local protest group in question, Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, is led by Henry Hirskovitz: “We’re not there because they’re Jews. We’re there because they’re Jewish Zionists,” he told the same reporter. Hirskovitz, apparently a former congregant who fell out with the temple due to political differences, leads an organization whose website proudly features a picture of a woman holding a sign saying, “Zionists Picnic While Palestinians Starve. The World is Watching.” This is Jewish anti-Semitism at its purest.

After 16 years of suffering such venomous harassment, in 2019, long-time Beth Israel congregant Marvin Gerber had had enough and filed a lawsuit against Hirskovitz and his deluded, hate-filled protestors. The suit cited how their actions were insulting to the congregation, impeded their ability to walk to the temple and pray in peace, and exposed young children to vicious anti-Jewish propaganda. Miriam Brysk, a Holocaust survivor and member of a smaller synagogue located on Beth Israel’s grounds, joined as a second plaintiff.

On August 19, 2020, in her official opinion, District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan Victoria Roberts stated that Hirskovitz and his group’s actions constituted lawful speech and peaceable assembly protected under the First Amendment.

Gerber plans to appeal the decision. But in the meantime, the rabbi and his congregation can and should take the initiative against these brainwashed defamers of Israel.

https://www.frontpagemag.com

Anti-Semitism in Germany ‘sharply rising,’ warns security agency

DW – October 9, 2020

One year after an attack on a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle, the head of Germany’s domestic security service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has warned that Germany is experiencing a “steep rise” in anti-Semitism.

“In the past two years, criminal offenses, including acts of violence, against Jews and Jewish institutions in Germany have increased significantly,” BfV chief Thomas Haldenwang said in an interview Friday with the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

On October 9, 2019, an armed 27-year-old man attempted to shoot his way into a packed synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism. A well-secured door prevented him from carrying out an attack inside. The man then killed two bystanders before fleeing and later being taken into custody.

Last week, a man dressed in military fatigues attacked a Jewish man outside a synagogue in Hamburg.

Haldenwang said Friday that attacks at synagogues were especially disturbing because of Germany’s dark past with National Socialism.

“Germany has a special responsibility for Jewish life,” he said, adding that Jews in Germany have reason to be worried about facing violence and hostility while in public.

The danger especially comes from radicalized “lone wolf” attacks, said Haldenwang.

“Security services must be especially vigilant with this,” said Haldenwang. “Above all, society must be made aware that we need to work together in fighting emerging anti-Semitism.”

https://www.dw.com

Catholic and Jewish leaders sue New York over 10-person limit on services and mask mandate

Nicholas Rowan, Staff Writer – October 09, 2020

Catholic and Jewish leaders Thursday afternoon sued New York after the implementation of increased coronavirus restrictions on worship services.

Both groups argued that the new restrictions, which took effect Tuesday in “red zone” parts of New York City, imposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and enforced by Mayor Bill de Blasio, are unnecessarily harsh and violate the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. Jewish leaders, led by the Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America, added that the restrictions single out Jews for special treatment because they impede the celebration of a series of holidays beginning Friday.

The group argued that it’s possible to hold safe, socially distanced services, in contrast to the protests against the restrictions that many Orthodox Jews have taken part in over the past week. Rabbi Chaim Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel, added that the new 10-person limit on gatherings would make it impossible to celebrate the holidays Hoshana Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah properly this weekend.

“Social distancing, masking, and all health precautions must, of course, be observed,” he said in a statement. “However, we think that it is possible to stay safe and at the same time have more than ten people in a Shul building that is meant to hold hundreds.”

Catholic leaders, led by Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, in their suit said that the new restrictions and the 10-person cap “arbitrarily reduce capacity,” even after the diocese followed the state’s previous coronavirus restrictions.

“This religious community will be denied its most fundamental right, the free exercise of religion, for no legitimate reason whatsoever,” said Randy Mastro, the diocese’s attorney.

https://www.conservativereview.com

Idaho Police Arrest 3 at Outdoor Church Worship Event in Defiance of Mask Mandate

Ezra Dulis – September 20, 2020

Police in Moscow, Idaho, arrested three people Wednesday for violating social distancing rules as their church sang hymns and Bible psalms outdoors — an event held, in part, to protest the city mayor’s mask mandate, which runs to January 2021.

Officers arrested Gabriel Rench, Rachel Bohnet, and Sean Bohnet, according to Moscow Report, a local independent news outlet. A video uploaded to social media shows Bohnet, a local music teacher, and his wife telling officers they refused to comply with an inaudible order. Moscow Report says the apparent infraction is that they refused to show identification.

Update: The Moscow Police Department’s daily activity log lists the reasons for the arrests as “public health emergency order” violations.

Footage of the couple’s arrest shows the church body singing the hymn “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” as officers place them in handcuffs.

Rench is a co-host of Cross Politic, a Christian political talk show, and a candidate for county commissioner. “You guys should not be doing this,” he told officers as they walked him to a squad car. “And doing this kind of crap for the mayor, this is embarrassing. You guys are stronger than this.”

Released that same day, Rench appeared on his talk show to discuss the arrest, playing extended footage of his conversation with officers. One of his companions is heard telling the officers “We backed you guys” at recent Black Lives Matter protests advocating to defund the police. “They didn’t send you [to enforce social distancing] with BLM to go do that when they said defund you guys. We backed you guys.”

“I got booked in jail; I was in jail for about two hours,” he said. “And as they were de-booking me, or whatever they call it, I’m walking out and I go by their office, which is right next to where I’m getting booked out. And there’s three deputies in the officer, and two of them aren’t wearing masks and sitting right next to each other. And I said, ‘hey, should they get arrested?’”

https://www.breitbart.com

Kroger Fires Christian Employees Who Refused to Wear LGBT Rainbow, U.S. Suit Says

Michael Foust – September 16, 2020

An Arkansas Kroger store violated federal anti-discrimination law when it reportedly fired two employees who refused to wear LGBT-themed aprons due to their religious beliefs, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

According to the Miami Herald, a dress code by the Conway, Ark., grocery store required employees to wear a rainbow-colored heart emblem on the bib of the apron. The women “believed the emblem endorsed LGBTQ values and that wearing it would violate their religious beliefs,” the EEOC said in a news release summarizing the suit.

Kroger disciplined the two women and eventually fired them, an action that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The EEOC charges Kroger with religious discrimination.

Both women are Christian.

The two women “offered to wear the apron with the emblem covered and the other offered to wear a different apron without the emblem, but the company made no attempt to accommodate their requests,” the EEOC said.

“Companies have an obligation under Title VII to consider requests for religious accommodations, and it is illegal to terminate employees for requesting an accommodation for their religious beliefs,” said Delner-Franklin Thomas, district director of the EEOC’s Memphis District Office. “The EEOC protects the rights of the LGBTQ community, but it also protects the rights of religious people.”

The EEOC tried but failed to reach a pre-litigation settlement, the news release said. The lawsuit seeks “monetary relief in the form of back pay and compensatory damages, as well as an injunction against future discrimination,” the EEOC said.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

At Least 500 Ethiopian Christians Reported Slaughtered in Relentless Attacks Since June

– September 4, 2020

An Ethiopian Christian leader called for an international inquiry into the slaying of hundreds of Christians, including pregnant women, children and whole families, in ongoing Oromo Muslim extremist attacks in the parts of the Oromia regional state, extending south, south-east and east of Addis Ababa, since the end of June. According to reports, more than 500 were killed.

The coordinated killings, targeting Christians from a wide range of ethnicities including Oromo Christians, began soon after the alleged assassination of a popular Oromo singer, Hachallu Hundessa, who was shot dead on 29 June, while driving in the outskirts of the capital.

The attackers are from the Oromo ethnic group, which has traditionally been Muslim, and are members of Qeerroo (meaning, “bachelors”), an Oromo male youth movement.

In door-to-door attacks on Christian households the Qeerroo extremists arrived in cars and, armed with guns, machetes, swords and spears, sought out and slaughtered Christians. Children were forced to witness their parents being brutally murdered with machetes.

https://christiannews.net