Dr Paul Allen

Image via Wikipedia There'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

Image via Wikipedia Should pastors separate the Christian wedding ceremony from the civil rite? U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker did not surprise observers when he  decided on August 4 to overturn   Proposition 8 , California’s ban on same-sex marriage . But as  Albert Mohler and others have noted, Walker handed advocates of homosexuality a clear victory with strongly worded language that dismissed defenders of traditional marriage as irrational. He dispatched with centuries of custom and wisdom, taking it upon himself to redefine marriage and assert, “Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage.” He also drove a wedge between religious and civil marriage: Marriage in the United States has always been a civil matter. Civil authorities may permit religious leaders to solemnize marriages but not to determine who may enter or leave a civil marriage. Religious leaders may determine independently whether to recognize a civil marriage or divorce but that recognition or lack th