And even though we now have a Christian President
in the White House again, the war against
this nation’s Judeo-Christian values marches
on.
This time it’s a condo located in Florida.
Where a woman has now filed a federal lawsuit
when her condominium complex home owner’s
association told her she couldn’t host her
weekly Bible study group or play Christian
music in the common area anymore.
Donna Dunbar who is a lay minister with the
Seventh-Day Adventist Church and a recipient
of the President’s Volunteer Service Award
from former President Barack Hussein Obama
told WFTX-TV that her condo in Port Charlotte,
Florida, is just too small for her nine-person
study, so giving notice ahead of time they
use the complex’s common area to conduct
their weekly religious study.
The religious liberty law firm First Liberty
Institute sent a letter to Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Ben Carson last week,
explaining the situation and demanding action.
Dunbar later explained that all they do is
study the Bible and sing some karaoke songs
at her meeting.
All this mess started when on February 6th
the Cambridge House Board, without warning,
passed a resolution stating that prayers and
other religious services or meetings of any
nature are not permitted in the common areas.
This ban also included the removal of any
and all religious paraphernalia from the premises.
One of which included a decorative angel and
statue of a Catholic saint.
But perhaps what upset Dunbar the most was
when she found a sign placed on the common
area piano which read, “Any and all Christian
music is banned!”
Lea Patterson from the Judicial fellow at
First Liberty Institute, in a statement to
the media, said that the unequal treatment
of citizens stemming from religion violates
federal law and the first amendment. And that
she’s confident that Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development will fix this mess as
quickly as possible.
I wonder if this would be an issue if they
would be studying the Koran instead of the
Bible?
Via CharismaNews:
“Hostility against Christian Americans is
growing at an alarming rate, according to
a new survey from the Family Research Council
and Liberty Institute.
The Liberty Institute’s Jeff Mateer noted
that while last year’s survey was based
on 600 cases, “this survey that we’re
releasing right now is almost 1,200. So we’ve
almost doubled in just one year.”
One such case involved college student named
Audrey Jarvis, who was asked twice to remove
her cross, or at least hide it, at a student
orientation.
“My supervisor came up to me out of nowhere
and asked me to remove my cross necklace because
he thought it would be offensive to incoming
freshmen,” she recalled.
Jarvis received an apology from her college,
but couldn’t forget how hurtful the man
was who found her cross so objectionable.
“I think he was just kind of ignorant to
the fact that his words could offend me in
attempting to not offend somebody else,”
she said.
In another case, Air Force Senior Master Sgt.
Phillip Monk got in trouble with his lesbian
commanding officer when she ordered him to
answer how he felt about gay marriage.
“This is about religious freedom because
I expressly stated that I had a religious
conviction that wouldn’t allow me to answer
the question the way it was posed to me,”
Monk said.
Former NFL running back Craig James found
himself a victim of growing anti-faith sentiment
when just one hour into a new job as a FOX
Sports analyst, he was booted off the air.
James and the Liberty Institute insist it
was because a top network manager disapproved
of a statement James made about gay marriage
15 months before in a political debate.
“They knew who I was, what I stood for,”
James told CBN News. “And I’m being punished—I
was fired—for my religious beliefs.”
FOX says James just wasn’t a good fit, but
Liberty Institute is fighting to get James
his job back.
“This is not about Craig James,” the former
NFL running back said. “This is about an
American who had a job and someone came back—a
big corporation—and said, ‘Hey, we can’t
allow you on our network because of your belief
and definition of what marriage is.'”
With some 1,200 cases like these documented
in the new Religious Hostility Survey, Mateer
says he’s frightened for his country.
“The threats are increasing at a dramatic
rate, and this survey demonstrates that,”
Mateer said.
Mat Staver’s Liberty Counsel also fights
for the rights of people of faith.
“What we’re seeing is instead of religious
liberty being protected as it is affirmed
by the First Amendment, people of religious
faith, particularly Christians, are finding
themselves the targets of discrimination,”
Staver said.
Monk says now when Christians facing hostility
must hold steady, mostly for other believers.
“They need to see us stand firm in our faith,”
he told CBN News. “And when they see that,
I think we’ll see a turn of events.”
Mateer noted that when believers fight back,
they almost always win. So only by meekly
accepting defeat will they let the enemies
of religion triumph.
“They’ve stated their objective is to
remove God from our public life. Well, if
we remain silent, that’s going to happen,”
Mateer warned.”
