(1) Christian cross has no place on L.A. County seal, judge rules (LA Times)
In a long-awaited ruling, a federal judge has sided with plaintiffs who argued it was unconstitutional for Los Angeles County supervisors to place a Christian cross on the county seal.
A divided Board of Supervisors voted in 2014 to reinstate the cross on top of a depiction of the San Gabriel Mission, which appears on the seal among other symbols of county history. They were sued by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and a group of religious leaders and scholars, who said placement of the cross on the seal unconstitutionally favored Christianity over other religions.
(2) Holy Bible on List of ’Challenged’ Books at Libraries
“You have people who feel that if a school library buys a copy of the Bible, it’s a violation of church and state,” says James LaRue, who directs the Office for Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association, which released its annual 10 top snapshot of “challenged” books on Monday, part of the association’s “State of Libraries Report” for 2016.
“And sometimes there’s a retaliatory action, where a religious group has objected to a book and a parent might respond by objecting to the Bible.”
LaRue emphasized that the library association does not oppose having Bibles in public schools. Guidelines for the Office for Intellectual Freedom note that the Bible “does not violate the separation of church and state as long as the library does not endorse or promote the views included in the Bible.” The ALA also favors including a wide range of religious materials, from the Quran to the Bhagavad Gita to the Book of Mormon. LaRue added that the association does hear of complaints about the Quran, but fewer than for the Bible.
(3) New Louisiana Governor to Rescind Predecessor’s Religious Liberty Executive Order
The new governor of Louisiana plans to rescind an executive order issued by former Gov. Bobby Jindal that provided religious liberty protections to objectors of same-sex “marriage.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat and Roman Catholic, plans to make the move in the “near future,” according to his press secretary, and write his own order in its place.
“Governor Edwards will issue the executive order, but it is in the drafting stage,” Shauna Sanford, told Deadline. “As far as Jindal’s religious liberty order, the governor intends to rescind it in the near future.”
Jindal, also a Roman Catholic, had issued the order last May after legislators failed to pass a religious freedom bill, the “Marriage and Conscience Act,” which was struck down in a House committee 10-2.
(4) Rubio will push international religious freedom bill in final months in Senate (WorldMag)
“It’s a priority for us,” Rubio told me in an interview at his Capitol Hill office. “We can’t impose religious liberty, but we have a moral and, quite frankly, a national security obligation to make sure we’re a voice on behalf of it around the world.”
(5) See How Americans’ Belief in God Has Changed Over 70 Years (TIME)
Fifty years after TIME posed the question Is God Dead? on the cover of the magazine, Americans’ belief in a supreme deity appears to be declining.
The article, which focused on a group of Christian theologians grappling with the idea of a world without an active God, cited a 1965 poll by Lou Harris finding that 97% of Americans still believed in God. By the time Gallup asked the same question in 2014, that number had fallen to 86%, with 12% of Americans claiming no belief and 2% with no opinion.
But according to Frank Newport, Gallup’s editor-in-chief, these numbers don’t tell the whole story.
(6) The Messiah Cometh: Hobby Lobby’s Museum of the Bible Descends on the Nation’s Capital
(7) University of Sydney evangelical students vote to keep Jesus
An evangelical student group has refused to remove a vow to Jesus from its constitution despite being threatened with deregistration from the Sydney University student body.
The Sydney University Evangelical Union was issued an ultimatum by university’s student union last week to remove a requirement that new members sign “Jesus is Lord” or be deregistered from the university.
(8) Paul Kengor: Donald ’Jesus’ Trump
It has been hard enough for me, as a Reagan scholar, to forebear claims by Trump supporters of alleged commonalities between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Some lost soul, in a fit of madness, composed a list of 15 uncanny “similarities” between the two. The list has gone viral and has been sent to me too many times. I’ve resisted responding to it, and — pray God — I will not need to.
But speaking of God, other analogies are being made by Trump supporters that wrench my stomach so hard that I need to vent as a form of therapy.
…Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow Christians, this is insanity — misguided sentimentality at best, hysterical blasphemy at worst. Okay, I realize that some of you like Donald Trump. I can’t comprehend it, but I see it. Got it. But please, I beg you, literally in the name of God, please stop comparing your Donald to Jesus Christ or invoking him as some sort of political Messiah or some form of God’s chosen one.
We didn’t like it when secular liberals were engaging in their Obama worship. This is just as bad. I thought people on our side were smarter than this, and certainly more grounded in their faith. Enough is enough.
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