Religious Freedoms
Image via WikipediaThere's some good news on religious liberty coming from courts in New York and Washington State this week.Our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund scored a major victory in New York City last Friday, when a federal judge said the city has to allow churches to continue holding worship services in public schools for the time being. The city evicted churches from public school buildings in February, but the judge said churches are likely to prevail in court based on the First Amendment's promise of religious freedom. The churches, which serve primarily low-income and ethnic congregations, should be allowed to continue renting empty school buildings from the city on weekends, the judge said—just as every other community group is allowed to do.
Also last week, a federal judge in Washington said a state regulation forcing pharmacists to dispense possible abortion-causing drugs against their religious convictions was unconstitutional. In fact, the rule was created several years ago when the governor, along with Planned Parenthood® and other abortion sellers, strong-armed the state Board of Pharmacy into writing it. The judge said it was "drafted for the primary—perhaps sole—purpose of forcing pharmacies (and, in turn, pharmacists) to dispense Plan B over their sincerely-held religious beliefs."
Why do I say "strong-arm"? The evidence in the case was undisputed that the Board of Pharmacy had initially attempted to draft a rule that respected pharmacists' religious and moral convictions. When the governor found out, she "threatened to replace the entire Board if the draft rule was not changed." The result was that the Board enacted a regulation that would allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense controversial drugs for almost any secular reason—but gave no quarter at all to those citing religious reasons. Consequently, some pharmacists lost their jobs. Chilling, isn't it? Particularly when you hear that Washington defended the rule by saying people aren't entitled to their own sincere religious beliefs unless legislators choose to grant it to them. But this week, we can celebrate the fact that two judges saw reason and have upheld religious freedom rights.
As Christians, we know that our rights are endowments from our Creator, not gifts from the state. That's why it's so important that we continue to lift our legislators and judges up in prayer, that they would govern our nation wisely.
