"Students of Faith" Video
Kentucky will join other states in adding a public monument of the Ten Commandments on its Capitol grounds. Such monuments are often a gift from an organization within the state. The Fraternal Order of Eagles donated Kentucky’s Ten Commandments monument in 1971 but it was removed in 2002 due to legal concerns.
Individuals and organizations such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, often sue states and cities to force removal of such monuments which they believe conflict with the 1st amendment’s establishment clause. They assert that displaying the Ten Commandments is an establishment of the Christian faith and should not be allowed on public property.
However, the Supreme Court has upheld displays of the Ten Commandments on state and federal properties. The court’s opinion in Van Orden v. Perry held that the Constitution does allow the display of the Ten Commandments on the state of Texas’ Capitol grounds and cites the findings of a district court: “The District Court also determined that a reasonable observer, mindful of the history, purpose, and context, would not conclude that this passive monument conveyed the message that the State was seeking to endorse religion.” This set the precedent for other states like Kentucky.
Regarding the Texas monument, the majority of the justices wrote that: “ Such acknowledgments of the role played by the Ten Commandments in our Nation’s heritage are common throughout America. We need only look within our own Courtroom. Since 1935, Moses has stood, holding two tablets that reveal portions of the Ten Commandments written in Hebrew, among other lawgivers in the south frieze. Representations of the Ten Commandments adorn the metal gates lining the north and south sides of the Courtroom as well as the doors leading into the Courtroom. Moses also sits on the exterior east facade of the building holding the Ten Commandments tablets.
Similar acknowledgments can be seen throughout a visitor’s tour of our Nation’s Capital.”
Read More: https://tinyurl.com/yk7y26tr https://tinyurl.com/ms6jfck7
LEARN & SHARE THIS WEEK'S LESSON
Click here for a printable copy
of the Rosary for America
Join us now:
Pray the Rosary for America
STUDENTS MAY PRAY IN SCHOOL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
ARE NOT “GOD-FREE ZONES”
America’s children need not leave their faith outside the school house door.
For students to be silenced or disciplined by a school authority for appropriate religious expression should never happen. Sadly, young students may well conclude…
JOIN OUR MAILING LIST:
By submitting this form, you are granting: Catholics for Freedom of Religion, Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, 440 West Neck Rd., Huntington, NY 11743 http://www.catholicsforfreedomofreligion.org/ permission to email you.
You may unsubscribe via the link found at the bottom of every email. (See our Email Privacy Policy for details.) Emails serviced by Constant Contact.
Educational resources for parish members who work to support Religious Freedoms.
DONATE NOW!
AT WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES: DEFENDING FREEDOM OF RELIGION
Barbara Samuells, president of Catholics for Freedom of Religion and a parishioner at St. Matthew’s, Dix Hills, shares her experience at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY 2018
IN SERVICE TO THE CHURCH
Click here to watch Barbara on TeleCare TV.
Pope Francis has observed that “religion [cannot] be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life.” Evangelii Gaudium. . . , no. 183. In insisting that our liberties as Americans be respected, Pope Benedict XVI said that this work belongs to “an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture.” Therefore, catechesis on religious liberty is not the work of priests alone. If religious liberty is not properly understood, all people suffer and are deprived of the essential contribution to the common good, be it in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that individuals make every day, both here at home and overseas.
CATHOLICS FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION
MISSION STATEMENT
America’s First Amendment guarantees its citizens five freedoms, the first of which is Freedom of Religion. Freedom of Religion includes the freedom to worship according to one’s beliefs as well as the freedom to practice that faith in everyday life according to one’s conscience.
So that this First Amendment freedom may be practiced and preserved for generations yet unborn it is essential that Americans understand this freedom and the circumstances from which it came. A fitting place for the development of this understanding and protection of Religious Freedom is inside all faith communities.
Catholics for Freedom of Religion offers resources to parish members who work to support Religious Freedom by initiating parish laity groups with these suggested goals:
-
To educate and inspire for Freedom of Religion
-
To remain non-partisan, advocating for no candidate or party
-
To invite and include other faith communities
-
To become a permanent group within each parish to educate every generation of Catholics about our Freedom of Religion…how rare it is, how dearly it was purchased for us and how certainly it is being lost.
-
To recognize and oppose attacks on Freedom of Religion from any source
“We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, that religion, or the duty we owe our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right.” James Madison
“While Americans presume that the Constitution guarantees their rights, in practice our rights survive or disappear based on how firmly we defend them.” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
