Religious Liberty

"A federal judge temporarily blocked the state of New York on Tuesday from forcing medical workers to be vaccinated after a group of health care workers sued, saying their Constitutional rights were violated because the state’s mandate disallowed religious exemptions." - C.Leaders/AP

Related...

"In an order issued Monday, the Virginia Supreme Court granted an appeal to review the merits of a lower court decision in favor of elementary school teacher Byron Tanner Cross and agreed to keep an injunction reinstating the teacher in place." - CPost

"The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday (Aug. 31) voted to authorize a $400,000 payment to settle a legal battle with Grace Community Church over lead pastor John MacArthur’s defiance of COVID-19 restrictions in the early months of the pandemic. Under the agreement, which the board unanimously approved without discussion, the state of California will also pay the church $400,000." - RNS

"Police arrested Muhammad Yahya Waloni, a former Protestant who became a Muslim in 2006 and later an imam, from his home in the national capital of Jakarta on Thursday" - CPost

"Evangelical ethicists and legal scholars agree that many followers of Christ object to the COVID-19 vaccines, but they’re split on whether any of the objections commonly articulated among believers constitute religious objections. The distinction between religious liberty objections and more general objections could become a key issue as more businesses require employees to be vaccinated." - BPNews

"If you are part of, say, an offshoot of Christian Science that thinks any medical treatment is a lack of faith in God, you may have a legitimate religious liberty claim, showing what your religion teaches and how you cannot carry out your faith in such circumstances. That still would not allow you to walk unmasked and coughing through a Walmart, but it would be a good-faith question to address." - Moore

"Part of the history of us Missouri Synod Lutherans, a church body that was started by German immigrants fleeing persecution from the state church, is how congregations switched from the German language in worship to English, due to the patriotic anti-German sentiments of Americans during World War I." - Veith

"I’ve seen posts that claim that Army chaplains cannot pray in Jesus’ name when they conduct their worship services. Some people claim that chaplains are forced to conduct services for other religions. Hopefully this post will help clear up some of these common myths related to military chaplaincy." - Tim McKnight