The baseball team at Stony Brook University won’t be able to travel to Mississippi next month for a three-game series with Southern Miss. But it’s not the weather keeping them home – it’s New York’s governor.
Governor Mario Cuomo has banned all non-essential travel to Mississippi because of the Magnolia State’s “religious freedom law” – which is formally known as the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act (HB 1523). It took effect in October.
Tim Wildmon, president of Mississippi-based American Family Association, says the Stony Brook Seawolves will miss out on the chance of some warmer weather baseball against a quality opponent. The three-game series was scheduled to take place in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, between February 23 and 25.
“What usually happens during college baseball season is that teams from the North come south so they can play baseball in February,” he tells OneNewsNow, “and it’s oftentimes difficult to play baseball in February, even in the South.”
Wildmon
Mississippi’s law protects people from discrimination who, because of their faith, believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman, that sex should be reserved for marriage, and that one’s gender is set at birth.
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While many people are gearing up for Supreme Court arguments over the rights of a religious baker, a case involving the rights of a religious fire chief also remains up in the air.
Former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran says he was fired for his Christian faith and beliefs. The case began in 2014 after Cochran self-published a men’s devotional book he had written on his personal time. While the book does mention biblical sexual morality, attorney Kevin Theriot of Alliance Defending Freedom says it was only a brief mention in the 162-page book.
“We had a hearing on whether or not the court would go ahead and decide the case without a trial or that the case would proceed to trial – it’s called a summary judgment,” says Theriot about the November 17 hearing before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
“[At that] hearing both sides presented arguments as to why they think that they should succeed – and what we argued, on behalf of Chief Cochran, is that the city has conceded that they considered the content of the speech and his book about his religious beliefs when they suspended him without pay and when they fired him; and because of that, that violated his constitutional rights.”
Atlanta argues that it is an inclusive city and an inclusive employer. But according to Theriot, Atlanta’s definition of inclusiveness means excluding those that disagree with the city.
“Not only did the mayor say but several of his staff [also] said Look, these were offensive to us and therefore we got rid of him,” he explains. “That clearly violates the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.”
A decision by the judge in Cochran v. City of Atlanta is expected in December or early next year.
( Read more here. )
According to the Christian Post, a coalition of 17 liberal Christian groups sent a letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to reject a bill that would make it official U.S. policy to oppose boycotts of Israel.
The Israel Anti-Boycott Act would amend the Export Administration Act of 1979 to prohibit support of international state-sponsored boycotts of Israel by U.S. citizens engaged in interstate or international commerce.
Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries, says the BDS movement, active now for several years, is attempting to hurt Israel economically.
“It’s an effort,” she says, “to hurt her image around the world.”
( Read the full story here. )
Leave those poor nuns alone. For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet with The Point.
Billydteacher's Blog 
California Colleges wants to kill future students
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What is with California and their colleges? For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet with The Point.
The drama of the California legislature and its colleges and universities continues. After threatening the existence of Christian colleges two years ago, California lawmakers are now debating a bill to require community colleges and state universities to provide free abortion pills upon request to women up to ten weeks pregnant. This would, according to the bill’s sponsor, remove the so-called “burden” of having to secure transport to an abortion clinic for so-called “health care.”
The bill, which would take effect in 2020, would also require campuses who fail to offer the abortion pill to provide a free transportation program to abortion clinics for students who request it.
This “service” would be added to a host of other required “services,” like free contraception and STD testing, and would in fact just about complete the state’s commitment to one of the core ideals of the sexual revolution, the divorce between sex and procreation… an ideal now not only taught in California classrooms but fully integrated on their campus.
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