Monthly Newsletter - October 2009 E-Update Oct 8, 2009
Stories in this newsletter:
New Hampshire federal judge throws out challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance
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A New Hampshire federal judge dismissed atheist activist Michael Newdow’s constitutional challenge to recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in Hanover, New Hampshire public schools. Judge Steven McAuliffe ruled that the schools’ morning Pledge recitation—including the words “one Nation under God” did not violate the First Amendment because saying the Pledge is completely voluntary and the Pledge is not a prayer.
The judge dismissed the case in response to a motion filed by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty on behalf of three Hanover families and the Knights of Columbus. The Becket Fund’s clients are children who attend the targeted public schools and who want to keep saying the Pledge of Allegiance complete with the words “under God”; the parents of those children; and the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization that spearheaded the effort to add \"under God\" to the Pledge 55 years ago. Continue reading...
Belmont Abbey College retains Becket Fund to defend itself against EEOC
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Belmont Abbey College retained The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty to join its legal team and help defend the school against the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In July the EEOC accused Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in North Carolina, of discriminating against its female employees by not covering contraceptives in its health insurance plan.
“When he went to Notre Dame and the Vatican, President Obama talked a good game about protecting conscience. But when his administration went to Belmont Abbey, where the rubber meets the road, it was a very different story,” said Kevin “Seamus” Hasson, president and founder of The Becket Fund. Continue reading…
Carl A. Anderson inaugurates Mexico City symposium: \"Voices, the Lay State, and Religious Liberty\"
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At the inauguration of the International Symposium “Voices, the Lay State and Religious Liberty\" that is being held at the Intercontinental President Hotel in the Mexican capital, Anderson said that Christianity is looking to create political ethics, not political theology.
“These political ethics should be the same as our personal ethics. They should be consistent with our well-formed Christian conscience. Furthermore, as Pope Benedict has pointed out, our understanding as Christians that humanity is imperfect, and that politics too is imperfect, mitigates against our acceptance of radical, political solutions, which consider themselves perfect. This is the promise –and failure—for instance of communism and liberation theology”, said Anderson.
“Tremendous progress has been made in securing the religious liberties of the Catholic Church and of Catholics generally over the past several decades. President Calderón is the latest of four consecutive presidents who have worked to reduce or eliminate the legal constraints and disabilities that had been forced upon the Church earlier in the 20th Century. Analyzing the situation of religious liberty in the Western Hemisphere, Anderson said that threats no longer come from the barrel of the gun. “They are more subtle, and they are more likely to come from laws that attack individual rights of religious conscience than from targeting the institutional church”. Continue reading…
The Becket Fund in the news
* Discrimination = $400,000 legal bill - A bad case of religious discrimination may end up costing Northern Texans $400K. Read or watch the story at WFAA.
* Victory for religious freedom - It is still OK to be \"under God\" in America. Read the report from Catholic News Agency.
* A dangerous resolution on defamation - The Becket Fund defends the rights of people. CNS News shows how that is being challenged at the UN.
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