Becket Fund defends release time for South Carolina kids

Eric Rassbach,
National Litigation
Director

On August 31, Spartanburg County School District No. 7 filed a motion asking a South Carolina federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group, and two parents. The Foundation\'s claim in Moss v. Spartanburg County School District is that the District has violated the First Amendment by allowing students to voluntarily go off-campus for private religious instruction.

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International Symposium on religious liberty in Mexico and in the Americas

A symposium entitled: \"Voices: The Lay State and Religious Liberty\" will take place in Mexico City from 25-26 September at El Hotel Presidente InterContinental. At the symposium, religious liberty experts will analyze this fundamental human right as defined in international human rights law and discuss how this right is exercised in Mexico, the rest of Latin America, Canada and the United States.

\"The Voices Symposium will create a new network of experts on religious liberty in the Americas and invite those in Mexico who seek to create a new citizenship to join that network. We will become, in effect, the Facebook of religious liberty for the Americas,\" said Patrick Kelly, Vice President for Public Policy and spokesman for the Knights of Columbus.

Because religious liberty is a fundamental human right for every democracy, the symposium will also seek to inspire nascent voices of religious liberty, particularly in Mexico, and to encourage collaboration between academics, culture creators, and opinion leaders.

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Jail agrees to stop censoring the Bible

Under pressure from civil rights organizations, Rappahannock Regional Jail officials stated they would stop censoring religious material in letters to inmates. The change in policy comes after The Becket Fund and other civil rights organizations protested the censorship of correspondence from a Christian mother to her son. One 3- page letter she sent was censored down to nothing but the salutation, first paragraph, and “Love, Mom.”

“The Bible isn’t pornography and shouldn’t be treated like it,” said Eric Rassbach, National Litigation Director at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which signed the letter. “Wouldn’t it be great if every level of government – local, state, and federal – stopped acting as if the Bible and other religious books are dangerous contraband and instead acknowledged faith’s role in our society?”

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