Free Speech

After being called an "evil little thing" by a local politician, receiving violent threats via social media from classmates, and having her home address publicized in a newspaper – 16-year-old Jessica Ahlquist has returned to school as the apparently not-so-popular student who managed to have a 50-year-old prayer banner removed from campus.

Ahlquist, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), recently won a court case against her public school, Cranston High School West, that required officials to remove a prayer banner from its walls – and her challenge, and resulting victory, has angered residents. 

In the wake of that decision, Ahlquist, a self-proclaimed atheist, has faced rampant cyberbullying from peers and strangers alike. The abuse is so bad, Ahlquist says, that she might have to transfer to another school. more >>

Polish pop star Dorota “Doda” Rabczewska was recently fined 5,000 zlotys ($1,450) by Polish authorities for defaming the Bible in a 2009 interview, which shows, observers say, that Poland still clings to its strong Roman Catholic roots even as it faces a more secularized culture.

In a 2009 interview, Rabczewska said she had trouble believing the Bible “because it’s hard to believe in something that was written by someone drunk on wine and smoking some herbs,” according to The Blaze.

Doda received much flak from the religious community at the time of her comments. more >>

Spirits were high in the freezing temperature Monday morning as a group of 70-odd protesters called for economic and social equality in front of the New York City Federal Reserve bank in downtown Manhattan.

The area, located only one block away from Zuccotti Park, where the "Occupy Wall Street" (OWS) movement originated, has already seen the banners and heard the slogans. But the Monday protest – held on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – was also complete with prayers and hymns. Protesters evoked the spirit of brotherhood and unity, while also evoking the legacy of King, the most revered civil rights activist in the United States.

“Occupy the Dream” (OTD) was born when members of the African-American faith community joined forces with OWS to launch “a new campaign for economic justice inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., faithful to its philosophical origin,” organizers said in a recent statement. Monday was only the first day of an initiative that is intended to last until the goal is achieved. more >>

The “Occupy” movement is back, and this time it joins forces with progressive religious leaders in a siege of 13 locations of the Federal Reserve Bank across the nation as the country celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day Monday.

The new movement is led by Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., a legendary civil rights activist who worked with King, and the Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple Church in Baltimore, Md. Chavis was the North Carolina State Youth Coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under King and has worked closely with hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons in recent years. Bryant is a popular pastor and cultural personality in a growing church with a congregation of over 10,000. The men are being joined Monday by Occupy Wall Street protesters, students and newcomers to the movement calling for economic equality.

The date of this renewed class action event is not coincidental, as the movement's leaders made it clear they are going to allude to the legacy of Dr. King while demonstrating in front of the bank buildings, showing that the “99 percent” is still not appeased and ready to protest the economic inequality in the country. more >>

The head of a national chapter of the Ku Klux Klan is siding with the law in a property battle between an African-American church and a white nationalist shop in South Carolina.

As previously reported by The Christian Post, a circuit judge in Laurens, N.C. ruled earlier this month that New Beginnings Missionary Baptist Church is the rightful owner of a building that also houses The Redneck Shop, an infamous white power shop and KKK museum.

The white supremacist store began in 1996, only for one of the klansmen behind it to sell the property deed to the Rev. David Kennedy's church after a dispute with another KKK member a year later. The decision continues courting controversy given the awkward living arrangements between the black church and the white shop at the historic Echo Theater. more >>

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing a library in rural Missouri for constitutional violations after a community member complained to the rights group that she was denied access to witchcraft and astrology websites on the library’s Internet.

Anaka Hunter says she was denied access to the websites by the director of the Salem Public Library in the town of Ozark in Salem, Mo. The ACLU claims public libraries are constitutionally obligated to provide access to all content that has not been deemed pornographic.

Hunter requested to view a Wicca (or witchcraft), website and Wikipedia page, as well as Astrology.com and the Encyclopedia of Death and Dying – a website that seeks to objectively detail all faiths’ teachings on death. more >>