Persecution Watch

Discussion in 'The Signs of the Times' started by Fatima, Jun 11, 2014.

  1. Fatima

    Fatima Powers

    Bakery Found Guilty of Discrimination and Forced to Pay Damages to a Gay Activist for ‘Injury to Feelings’ Is Fighting Back

    A bakery in Northern Ireland at the center of a legal battle that has attracted international attention plans to appeal a discrimination conviction that its Christian owners received earlier this month after refusing to make a cake with a message supporting gay marriage.

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    Photo credit: Shutterstock


    Ashers Baking Company, which is being supported by the Christian Institute, a U.K. legal group, announced that its owners will appeal a ruling from Judge Isobel Brownlie that demanded that the company pay $765 in damages for “injury to feelings” to a gay activist.

    Brownlie ruled that Ashers Baking Company had discriminated based on sexual orientation and political beliefs after a man named Gareth Lee asked for a cake that included the line “Support Gay Marriage” and the bakery, owned by Colin and Karen McArthur, declined.

    “After much careful and prayerful consideration given to legal advice, we have decided to appeal the judgment handed down last Tuesday,” the family said in a statement issued on Thursday. “We continue to insist that we have done nothing wrong as we have discriminated against no individual but rather acted according to what the Bible teaches regarding marriage.”

    The McArthur family said that the judge’s ruling seems to trample Christian ideals and that it will have a negative impact on society.

    “Our hope and prayer would be that an appeal will allow us and other Christians to live out their faith in Jesus Christ in every part of their lives, including their workplace,” the statement continued.

    Brownlie had a very different view on the matter, though, claiming that the bakers were in the wrong.

    “The defendants are not a religious organization. They conduct a business for profit,” the judge said. “As much as I acknowledge their religious beliefs, this is a business to provide service to all. The law says they must do that.”

    As TheBlaze previously reported, the case against Ashers was brought by Northern Ireland’s equality commission. Lee had requested that the cake include the line “support gay marriage” along with an image of Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie.


    Ashers Baking Company responded by citing its owners’ evangelical Christian faith in the refusal, the Guardian reported.

    The refusal to make the cake resulted in a legal conundrum, with the bakery being taken to court under Northern Ireland’s 2006 Equality Act, which makes discrimination illegal.
     
  2. miker

    miker Powers

  3. Fatima

    Fatima Powers

    Court rules against Little Sisters plea to avoid way to bypass mandate By Catholic News Service

    DENVER (CNS) -- The Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious entities are not substantially burdened by procedures set out by the federal government by which they can avoid a requirement to provide contraceptive coverage in health insurance, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 14.

    In a lengthy opinion that considered arguments raised by the organizations under First Amendment religious rights protections and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the court said the groups are not substantially burdened by filing out a form or notifying Health and Human Services via email or a letter that because of their religious-based objections to the mandated coverage, they will not provide it.

    The ruling is the latest in a string of circuit court decisions finding that nonprofit religious institutions may not be protected from complying with the procedures set out by HHS for being excused from what is known as a mandate to provide coverage for a variety of types of contraceptives in employee health insurance.

    "The departments have made opting out of the mandate at least as easy as obtaining a parade permit, filing a simple tax form, or registering to vote -- in other words, a routine, brief administrative task," wrote Judge Scott M. Matheson Jr. He was joined by two other judges in parts of the ruling. However, Judge Bobby Baldock in a partial dissent from the majority's decision, said he would rule that the religious exercise rights of self-insured employers are more substantially burdened than are those that have outside insurers. "Moreover, less restrictive means exist to achieve the government's contraceptive coverage goals here," he wrote.

    Under the Affordable Care Act, all health insurance plans are required to provide coverage for birth control drugs and procedures. If providing such coverage is morally objectionable according to their faith, churches themselves and other institutions that primarily employ and serve members of the churches are exempt.

    Nonprofit religious entities such as church-run colleges and social service agencies are not exempt, but HHS created what is known as an "accommodation" under which such organizations may file a particular form or notify HHS that they will not participate for religious reasons. The contraceptive coverage is then provided to those organizations' employees, but through third parties, and with no cost or further involvement to the employer. Entities that refuse to comply with the mandate are subject to significant fines.

    The organizations that sued say that the acts of filling out the form or notifying HHS are a substantial burden on their religious rights because the steps implicate them in the ultimate provision of contraceptives. The court disagreed.

    In addition to the Little Sisters, who operate homes for the aged, the ruling affects Christian Brothers Services and Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust, the Catholic ministries through which the Little Sisters obtain their health coverage, and included challenges to the procedures filed by Southern Nazarene University, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Mid-America Christian University, Truett-McConnell College and Reaching Souls, an Oklahoma-based a nonprofit corporation founded by a Southern Baptist minister that trains pastors and evangelists and provides care to orphans in Africa, India and Cuba.

    Matheson's ruling took into account the Supreme Court's June 2014 Hobby Lobby decision, which found that the owners of the for-profit chain of crafts stores had a legitimate claim that their religious beliefs are burdened by the mandate for contraceptive insurance.

    On July 10, HHS issued a new set of rules in light of the Hobby Lobby decision, extending to closely held, for-profit companies the same accommodation it created for the nonprofits. The rules would apply to for-profit entities owned by five or fewer individuals which are not publicly traded. The HHS press release about the rules said that based on available information, that definition would include "all of the for-profit companies that have challenged the contraceptive-coverage requirement on religious grounds."

    Matheson said that unlike in the Hobby Lobby case, the federal government had provided a process of accommodating the plaintiffs' religious objections to the requirement for contraceptive coverage.

    The accommodation makes the situation unlike typical cases brought under RFRA, he said. In Hobby Lobby and other recent RFRA cases, "the government either required or prohibited acts of religious significance to the plaintiffs. In the cases before us, the government has freed plaintiffs from the responsibility to perform the act they consider religiously objectionable -- namely, providing contraceptive coverage.

    "Nonetheless, the plaintiffs argue an act they do not consider objectionable in itself -- completing a form or writing to HHS -- becomes objectionable because it either causes the provision of contraceptive coverage or renders them complicit in the provision of contraceptive coverage. Therefore, unlike the aforementioned cases, we are in the slightly different position of considering whether an otherwise unobjectionable act, understood in context, constitutes a substantial burden on plaintiffs' religious exercise." It does not, the court concluded.

    Daniel Blombert, counsel at the Becket Fund, which represents the Little Sisters of the Poor, said in a statement that "we will keep on fighting for the Little Sisters, even if that means having to go all the way to the Supreme Court."

    The Becket Fund statement also included a comment attributed to Sister Loraine Marie Maguire, mother provincial of the order. It framed the ongoing legal battle as a choice "between our care for the elderly poor and our faith," adding "we should not have to make that choice."

    The 10th Circuit was the fifth federal appeals court to decide that religious rights of faith-based institutions are not burdened by the process of filing the form or notifying HHS that due to religious objections an employer will not be providing coverage for contraceptives. The rulings said that the act of notifying the government is not what "triggers" access to birth control, as the Little Sisters and other plaintiffs have argued. The ACA legislation itself is what triggers someone being able to receive contraceptives, the courts said.

    In addition to the 10th Circuit, the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and D.C. Circuits have ruled similarly, all in decisions issued after last summer's Hobby Lobby ruling. Some of those cases are likely to reach the Supreme Court in the coming term, but it has not yet accepted one.

    Legal challenges to the contraceptive mandate by for-profit and nonprofit employers have played out on separate tracks. For-profit cases like Hobby Lobby's moved through the courts faster, as HHS several times reworked its rules for how nonprofits might seek to be taken out of the contraceptive mandate portion of the ACA.
     
  4. Fatima

    Fatima Powers

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    Obama DOJ Plans To Investigate…The Group That Busted Planned Parenthood
    Instead of investigating whether Planned Parenthood illegally trafficked baby body parts, Obama's DOJ is targeting the group behind the undercover videos
    July 23, 2015 By The Federalist Staff
    The U.S. Department of Justice announced plans to investigate the group that produced undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood employees admitting that they harvest and sell organs ripped from the bodies aborted babies. Politico reported the news of the coming DOJ investigation earlier today:

    JUSTICE TO PROBE CENTER FOR MEDICAL PROGRESS — While congressional committees investigate Planned Parenthood’s practices, the Justice Department agreed to look into whether the group that released the sting videos obtained the footage legally. In response to a request by House Democrats, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday afternoon that Justice would “review all of the information and determine what the appropriate steps moving forward would be.” Planned Parenthood has staunchly defended its practices and claims that the Center for Medical Progress illegally obtained its footage, then excessively edited it to misrepresent what the organization does.

    The DOJ investigation of the Center for Medical Progress, which, unlike Planned Parenthood, is not in the business of killing healthy, viable unborn babies in order to sell their organs for cash, was announced after several Democratic lawmakers called for the organization to be targeted:

    Four Democrats in Congress — Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Zoe Lofgren, Jerry Nadler, and Yvette Clarke — have written to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, asking them to open investigations into the Center for Medical Progress. The Democrats say the videos were filmed as part of an “elaborate scheme” — using “fake identification” and without the approval of the Planned Parenthood doctor who appears in them.

    It’s interesting that Lynch decided so early to make a statement about the group. There are certainly more videos to come, and if Planned Parenthood’s panicked press releases are any indication, the footage may be far more damaging than anything that’s been revealed thus far. However, given the abject politicization of multiple agencies under Obama’s command — including the Internal Revenue Service, which targeted conservative non-profits, and the DOJ, which has been hesitant to investigate Obama allies — it seems unlikely that Lynch and those who report to her will ever crack down on Abortion, Inc.
     
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  5. CrewDog

    CrewDog Guest



    Here is the team of Obama's Department of Just-Us that is assigned to investigate the High Crimes & Misdemeanors of Obama's and Democrat Party's members and allies:
    View attachment 3219
    Copyright © 2003 David Monniaux

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!​
     
  6. Beth B

    Beth B Beth Marie

    Amen Miker!!
     
  7. Beth B

    Beth B Beth Marie

    So evil I cannot even find the words to express how bad our world is....sadly, God does need to intervene. May God help us.....!
     
  8. Mario

    Mario Powers


    Fatima,

    I'm sorry to say nothing shocks me anymore.

    Safe in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
     
    Beth B likes this.
  9. PotatoSack

    PotatoSack Powers

    classic attack the messenger. sighh. where has america gone.
     
    Beth B likes this.
  10. Sanctus

    Sanctus Guest

    Discretion advised: I hope I don't cause offence by posting this up, but on the topic of persecution it is a particularly hostile and viscous article in a newspaper today, that shows how distorted and aggressive the sentiment towards Catholicism in Ireland is becoming and how it effectively is being promoted at this stage by the media. The article is about a saint, Little Nellie, who suffered for God, however this article completely fails to recognise the purpose of her suffering, rather seeing it as an "exploitation" by the Church:

    http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/little-girl-first-communion-magdalene-2300770-Aug2015/
     
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  11. Sanctus

    Sanctus Guest

  12. Scolaire Bocht

    Scolaire Bocht Archangels

    Terrible slant in that story about Little Nellie alright Sanctus, sneering at the Church constantly and this is reported to be the most popular online news source in Ireland now.
     
    Sanctus likes this.
  13. Fatima

    Fatima Powers

    I watch very little TV, but on Fox News tonight, Megan Kelly interviewed the lady who was a clerk of court who was arrested and jailed for 6 days for not giving out gay marriage licenses. A recent convert to Christianity, she is a beacon of Christian courage for us all. Very well spoken, very convicted within her faith and very filled with the Holy Spirit is she. I pray that when I am tested I can pass as well as she did in standing up for Christ's teachings.
     
    Julia likes this.
  14. Fatima

    Fatima Powers

    And then to hear our infamous president say this: Not so sure the woman who was jailed above believes this lie!

    Obama to Pope Francis: ‘Here in the United States, We Cherish Religious Liberty'
    By Melanie Hunter | September 23, 2015 | 10:36 AM EDT


    [​IMG] .insert-box .insert-caption { max-width:475px; } @media (max-width: 475px) { .insert-box .insert-caption { width: 100%; } }
    President Barack Obama and Pope Francis in a welcoming ceremony at the White House (AP Photo)
    (CNSNews.com) – In a welcoming ceremony

    (CNSNews.com) – In a welcoming ceremony at the White House for Pope Francis, President Barack said Wednesday that Americans “cherish religious liberty,” but around the world “children of God, including Christians are targeted and even killed because of their faith.”

    “You remind us that people are only truly free when they can practice their faith freely. Here in the United States, we cherish religious liberty. It was the basis for so much of what brought us together,” Obama said.

    “And here in the United States, we cherish our religious liberty, but around the world at this very moment, children of God, including Christians are targeted and even killed because of their faith. Believers are prevented from gathering at their places of worship. The faithful are imprisoned, and churches are destroyed,” the president added.
     
  15. miker

    miker Powers

    I think this pretty much demonstrates where Francis stands on religious liberty. Glad he made this unscheduled stop!

    http://news.yahoo.com/pope-visits-u-nuns-involved-obamacare-contraception-lawsuit-021905130.html
     
  16. PotatoSack

    PotatoSack Powers

    Freedome of religion protection continues to unravel here in the U.S. Big corporations have proven to be as evil as our government, as they are pressuring and threatening to pull out of business ventures if legislation is passed in GA that would have protected small businesses from having to provide services for lbgt people...you know, those bakers and photographers for weddings, etc. Probably priests too in conducting wedding ceremonies...

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/28/us/georgia-north-carolina-lgbt-bills/index.html
     
  17. FatimaPilgrim

    FatimaPilgrim Powers

    I emailed Governor Deal and asked him "how many pieces of silver did they have to give you to betray our Lord?"

    think he'll answer?

    These things must come as the sheep continue to be separated from the goats and it's useful I think for all to learn that there is NO political solution to the massive problems we face, which is why getting worked up about the election this year is pointless. just remember that God has a plan and He wins :)
     
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  18. PotatoSack

    PotatoSack Powers

    sparrow and Heidi like this.
  19. CrewDog

    CrewDog Guest

    sparrow likes this.
  20. CrewDog

    CrewDog Guest

    Speaking of PERSECUTION!! ....... Get a load of this $%?#!!
    Can you imagine if some College Professor, Politician or Citizen were to proclaim: "Treat BlackLivesMatter, Planned Parenthood, La Raza and/or any LGBT Group like Nazis." They would be fired and investigated by the Department of Just-Us and excoriated by "The Media" 24/7!!
    "Harvard Law Professor Says Treat Conservative Christians Like Nazis"

    http://dailysignal.com/2016/05/09/h...ays-treat-conservative-christians-like-nazis/

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    PS: Not to early to be stockin' up on those favorite Christmas Stocking Stuffers ... Ya Know!!?? .. Spam, Bullets-n-Beans!! :(
     
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