Free Speech

A scorecard developed by the Secular Coalition for America has created debate over whether candidates should be allowed religious views or forced to follow a secular constitution.

The scorecard is a review by the coalition based on candidates’ stances on religious based issues. It was developed to help secular and nontheistic Americans to elect a candidate who would support their views. However, most presidential candidates received failing marks for mentioning their religious beliefs.

President Barack Obama was voted to have the most “secular stance,” but still only received average scores. Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum scored all but one “F” on the scorecard. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul also fell somewhere in between with mixed scoring, but few A’s. more >>

In Green Bay, Wis., the local school district is making an effort to accommodate Muslim students' prayer schedules without interfering with classes or the Constitution. But what school officials consider a testament to religious freedom, others consider a form of special treatment that Christians do not enjoy.

An influx of nearly 200 refugees – many of them Muslim – from war-torn Somalia into the Green Bay area is what has led to the accommodations, which include allowing Muslim students to use empty classrooms or alcoves during recess to pray. Under federal law, public schools cannot deny the right to prayer to any student. Some Muslims pray five times a day at specific, designated times.

"The issue of students praying in school has come up a number of times this year, in part because we have an increasing number of students who practice the Islam faith, many of whom are Somali students," said Barbara Dorff, student services director, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "It is our responsibility to find a private place for these students to pray and to allow them to pray." more >>

President Obama signed into law a controversial $662 billion military funding bill titled the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year’s Eve.

Obama vowed to interpret the meaning of the legislation moderately and that he would not necessarily use all the powers granted to the executive branch under the new law. The new bill details how the military is to be funded and also expands the powers of the federal government in regards to the War on Terror to include indefinitely detaining terrorist suspects without trial – even U.S. citizens. The U.S. military now also has the authority to conduct anti-terrorism operations on American soil.

The law is considered by many to be extremely vague and therefore policy makers on both sides of the aisle are leery. Obama stated that he signed the bill into law with “serious reservations.” more >>

A federal court issued an order Tuesday that will permit two Christian men to share their faith and pass out Gospel tracts during a Duluth, Minn., holiday lights show held in a city park, temporarily reversing the city’s decision last year to ban their evangelism from the event.

Although the court ruling is a temporary injunction, the Alliance Defense Fund claims a victory in its case defending the two Duluth-area residents, saying that they have prevented the city from enforcing what amounts to a “First Amendment ban on people desiring to share their faith at a city park.”

Last year, non-government organizers of the “Bentleyville Tour of Lights” alerted city officials about the men’s actions at the park, according to ADF. Police then told the two men to leave the event based upon objections of an event official who called their views “religious crap.” more >>

Google’s anti-competition practices are a cause for concern for the Senate’s Antitrust Subcommittee and the National Religious Broadcasters, which claims the search engine is violating free speech.

Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), both members of the Subcommittee on Antitrust Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, urged the Federal Trade Commission in a Monday letter to investigate Google Inc.’s practices regarding competition.

The letter expressed concern that the search engine has switched from simply identifying Web pages that are most relevant to users’ queries without bias to producing results that blatantly favors its own products. more >>

A Catholic civil rights group says that the attempt by atheist activists to remove nativity scenes and faith-related symbols from the public square during Christian holidays is proof that they have targeted Christianity.

The Catholic League, considered the denomination’s largest civil rights organization in the U.S., stated on its website that the “War on Christmas” is getting “crazy.”

League President Bill Donohue said that because atheist activists often become most visible in their actions against Christian symbolism during the Christmas and Easter seasons, it “is proof that their real hatred is of all things Christian.” more >>