Daily Archives: May 4, 2017

President Trump marked the National Day of Prayer by signing an executive order aimed at boosting religious freedom by easing IRS restrictions against political activities by tax-exempt religious organizations, including churches.

Declaring "no one should be censoring sermons," Trump announced the order, which fulfilled a campaign pledge, during a Rose Garden ceremony Thursday attended by religious leaders, activists and Vice President Pence.

We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced again and we will never stand for religious discrimination, Trump said before signing the order, which states it is now administration policy is to protect and vigorously promote religious liberty.

EXECUTIVE ORDER: PROMOTING FREE SPEECH AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

The ban on political speech from the pulpit is rooted in an amendment introduced in 1954 by then-Democratic Sen. Lyndon Johnson that gave the IRS authority to punish tax-exempt charitable organizations, including churches, for making political endorsements or getting involved in political campaigns.

The order directs the IRS to exercise maximum enforcement discretion to alleviate the burden of the so-called Johnson Amendment.

In addition, it instructs the Treasury Department not to target the tax-exempt status of churches and other institutions if they express support for political candidates.

The order also directs the Department of Justice to ensure religious protections are afforded to individuals and groups, such as Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns who take a vow of poverty in serving the elderly.

In his introductory remarks, Pence said the National Day of Prayer is a time to reaffirm the vital role people of faith play in American society and praised the president for marking the day in such a public manner.

Trump campaigned against the ban and pledged in his address to the Republican National Convention that he would work very hard to repeal that language and to protect free speech for all Americans.

Trump called up several of the Little Sisters of the Poor members and congratulated them on their landmark victory in the Supreme Court over the issue of the contraceptive mandate included in ObamaCare.

According to Trump, more than 50 religious groups filed lawsuits against the Obama administration for violating their religious liberty.

Before the final order was released, several religious liberty groups expressed support for the administrations actions.

The first freedom in the Bill of Rights is religious freedom. America was born on the foundation of religious freedom and it is one of our most cherished liberties. There could be no better day to sign an executive order on religious freedom than the National Day of Prayer, said Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel.

Mark Rienzi, counsel for The Becket Fund, said on Twitter he was encouraged by the promise of the protection coming from the White House and looked forward to seeing the final language.

The Becket Fund is the public interest law firm which has represented the Little Sisters of the Poor in their fight to be exempted from ObamaCares contraceptive mandate.

The executive order drew critics from the left and the right.

"If the EO on religious liberty ends up being what media outlets are currently reporting, then it'll be woefully inadequate,"tweeted Ryan Anderson, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The American Civil Liberties Union argued the executive actions constitute a broadside to our countrys long-standing commitment to the separation of church and state that will divide the nation and permit discrimination.

"President Trumps efforts to promote religious freedom are thinly-veiled efforts to unleash his conservative religious base into the political arena while also using religion to discriminate. Its a dual dose of pandering to a base and denying reproductive care. We will see Trump in court, again, said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero in a statement.

Excerpt from:

Trump marks National Day of Prayer, signs executive order on religious freedom - Fox News

Timothy Anderson admitted that he sold heroin, lots of it. And that he didnt intend to stop. But he said he did so as a student of Esoteric and Mysticism studies, and that he had created a religious nonprofit group to distribute heroin to the sick, lost, blind, lame, deaf and dead members of Gods Kingdom. So prosecuting him criminally would be a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed in 1993 to prohibit the government from unduly burdening a persons exercise of religion.

Anderson was on to something here. (Except for the part about distributing to the dead. That may have been a bit off.) The Supreme Court previously ruled under the religious freedom act that a small sect of a Brazilian religion could import ayahuasca, containing the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine, because a sect in New Mexico used it as part of a sacramental tea. And the government has also given an exception to Native Americans for peyote, even though both it and ayahuasca are Schedule 1 drugs, considered the most dangerous in the narcotics pyramid.

[From 1993: Signing of Religious Freedom Act Culminates 3-Year Push]

Before his trial in St. Louis in 2015, Anderson demanded that the case against him be thrown out, noting that the religious freedom act states that the government may substantially burden a persons exercise of religion only if it is in the furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling interest. Anderson wrote that he was running a faith-based system that offered detoxification treatment by the distribution and controlled use of heroin to consenting adults only as a method of bringing the individual to a drug-free state. He stated that he did not formally ascribe to any organized religion and that his religion beliefs derive from his transcendental union with the divine, court records show.

A federal judge in St. Louis did not hold a hearing on this motion, records show. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel found that the government has a proper and compelling interest in the regulation of heroin, that prohibition of heroin was the least restrictive means of achieving that interest, and denied Andersons motion. A jury then convicted Anderson of conspiracy and distribution and Sippel sentenced him to 27 years in prison.

Anderson appealed. And the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit,issued last week and first reported by the Kansas City Star, acknowledged that a reasonable observer may legitimately question how plausible it is that Anderson exercised a sincerely held religious belief by distributing heroin. But since there had not been any hearings to explore the underpinnings of Andersons faith, and no one wants to be attacking anyones religion, the 8th Circuit assumed that the government substantially burdened his exercise of religion. Was that legal?

Well yes, the court ruled. Not just because it was heroin, though. Circuit Judge Raymond Gruender wrote that there was no claim that the recipients of the heroin used it for their own religious purposes. That distinguished it from the groups who have won accommodations for the sacramental use of peyote and [ayahuasca], on one hand, and Andersons religious exercise on the other, Gruender wrote. He also noted thatAndersons religious exercise involves heroin distribution, not just holy individual usage, and that Anderson has indicated that he will not stop distributing heroin under any circumstances, stating that he does not want to compromise his faith in any way.

And so, for now, there remains no exception in federal law for the religious use of heroin. Anderson can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judging by his voluminous pro se filings in St. Louis, that seems likely.

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Heroin dealer cites religious freedom as his defense. Court says yeah, but what about the buyers? - Washington Post

New York Daily News

Twitter roasts Trump on religious freedom: 'Unless you're Muslim' New York Daily News The man who once called to shut down Muslim immigration vowed Thursday that we will never, ever stand for religious discrimination and it didn't go over well. President Trump took flak on Twitter after waxing rhapsodic about religious tolerance at ...

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Twitter roasts Trump on religious freedom: 'Unless you're Muslim' - New York Daily News

Common Dreams

Reflections on World Press Freedom Day Common Dreams This year's theme for the 2017 World Press Freedom Day Critical Minds for Critical Times: Media's role in advancing peaceful, just and inclusive societies is one of the most important days honouring press freedom. Inevitably, the impact of media has ... Media Freedom Largely Stable Worldwide in 2016Gallup There's Not Much to Celebrate on World Press Freedom DayForeign Policy (blog) Burundi: Differing Views On Press Freedom in BurundiAllAfrica.com Amnesty International -The San Diego Union-Tribune -Washington Post all 316 news articles »

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Reflections on World Press Freedom Day - Common Dreams

Taiwan appeared to make a sudden leap forward in press freedom this year, moving up six places to secure the 45th spot in the2017 World Press Freedom Index.

However, its climb should concern people about the state of media freedom especially in Asia, according toReporters Without Borders, the media watchdog nonprofit that releases the annual ranking.

That's because Taiwan's jump does not reflect real improvements, but rather a global worsening of the situation in the rest of the world, the group said in a statement. In particular, it masks the decline of media freedoms in other Asian countries, as well as the growing threat of press freedom predators in the region, such as China and North Korea.

In this area, the situation reflects the global situation that prevails in the 2017 RSF World Press Freedom Index: a world in which strongmen are on the rise and attacks on the media have become commonplace, even in democracies, the group said.

The Paris-based organization (also known internationally by its French name, Reporters sans Frontires, or RSF) pointed to China exerting economic and political pressure to influence Taiwanese media. Taiwan is a self-governing democratic island that China considers part of its territory, and Beijing is extremely sensitive to questions about Taiwan's status.

[Taiwan was already diplomatically isolated. Now Beijing wants to make it worse.]

It isnot unusual for some Taiwanese media outlets to take stances that echoChinese Communist Party propaganda,Taipei RSF bureau director Cdric Alvianitold The Washington Post by phone Wednesday, which the United Nations has declared World Press Freedom Day.

In Taiwan, the Taiwanese tycoons also have their own businesses in China, Alviani said. It's easy for China to put pressure on the business executives and say, 'Okay, you have to be nice with the media you own. We want you to cover the story this way or we don't want you to mention that.'

Alviani also pointed to Apple TV recently allegedlyblocking a satirical comedy show that is critical of the Chinese government ironically titled China Uncensored not only in mainland China but also in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are not subject to Chinese law. Reporters Without Borders last month condemned the tech company's move as setting a dangerous precedent for international corporate submission to the demands of Chinese censorship.

This kind of self-censorship is much more serious than the one a single reporter would apply to himself, Alviani said.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told The Post "there was a couple day period" when the show was not available in Taiwan and Hong Kong but that it has since been made accessible there.

[On World Press Freedom Day, student shares her opinion on why a free press matters]

Despite the obstacles, Taiwan continues to hold the highest rank for press freedom among Asian countries, followed by South Korea (at 63rd place) and Mongolia (69th), according to this year's index. Coverage of political scandals in South Korea which led to the impeachment and ouster of Park Geun-hye this year proved that the media there maintained its independence, the group said.

However, the public debate about relations with North Korea, one of the main national issues, is hampered by a national security law under which any article or broadcast 'favourable' to North Korea is punishable by imprisonment, the group pointed out.

It was Taiwan's relative freedom thatled Reporters Without Borders to decide this year to open its first Asia bureau in Taipei, rather than in Hong Kong or elsewhere in Asia.

Hong Kong dropped four places on the World Press Freedom Index from 2016, coming in at 73rd this year. Media there continue to face challenges when covering stories that are critical of mainland China, and reporters have faced physical intimidation and oppression.

This is the kind of thing that made us think twice, because if we open an office in Hong Kong, our communications and safety might not be ensured, Alviani said. To open an original bureau, you need to find a place that is stable, a place where you could foresee what is happening in coming years.

[PostLive: World Press Freedom Index 2017]

Alviani said that RSF journalists have been reporting from Taipei since last month, in a sort of soft opening for the new bureau, and that it will be fully operational in the coming months.

Part of the bureau's focus will be on the countries that hold many of the worst kinds of records for media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region, including:

The group called out Chinese President Xi Jinping as the planet's leading censor and press freedom predator and one of the biggest reasons Chinaranks 176th among 180 countries on this year's index. Only Syria, Turkmenistan, Eritrea and North Korea are ranked lower.

On Wednesday, World Press Freedom Day, China further clamped down on the media, issuing regulations that go into effect June 1, according to Reuters.

The rules apply to all political, economic, military, or diplomatic reports or opinion articles on blogs, websites, forums, search engines, instant messaging apps and all other platforms that select or edit news and information, Reuters reported. All such platforms must have editorial staff who are approved by the national or local government Internet and information offices, while their workers must get training and reporting credentials from the central government.

The Chinese government's censorship and restrictions on media and the Internet, combined with its growing economic and political power, have the potential to affect othercountries and private companies, Alviani said.

China's philosophy is more like everyone is free to do whatever they want to report but within a certain limit, and this limit is never very clear, he said.In philosophical terms, freedom has to be unconditional. If you're free within certain limits, you are not free.

The Washington Post and Reporters Without Borders held a conversation on freedom of press around the world. The program featured a presentation of the 2017 World Press Freedom Index followed by a conversation with Tom Malinowski, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and journalists from Syria, Turkey and Canada, moderated by The Post's Dana Priest. (Washington Post Live)

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Transcript: The Washington Post Hosts Reporters Without Borders 2017 World Press Freedom Index

Why people made such a big deal about the Trump-Taiwan call

With Chinas Xi at Mar-a-Lago, will Trump forget Taiwan?

China brazenly arrests a Taiwanese activist and the Trump administration says nothing

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World Press Freedom Day: The bad news about press freedoms in ... - Washington Post

As some Americans celebrate their religious freedom, other Americans have found themselves in messy lawsuits related to prayer.

Our country has had a long heritage and a long history in honoring prayer in the public space, Jeremy Dys, senior counsel with First Liberty Institute, told LifeZette. Dys law firm is the largest in the country to defend the religious freedom of Americans.

Faithful Americans around the country observe the National Day of Prayer today, on May 4 this year. President Harry Truman first established the day of prayer back in 1952.

While the right to live out ones faith is a core foundation of First Amendment principles, American citizens have faced threats to praying in public spaces and even inside their homes. These are issues that are very serious and growing across the country, Dys said.

Related: College Student Banned from Reading Bible Before Class

In the past, legal threats have arisen related to National Day of Prayer celebrations.

Maybe we will get through this year without receiving reports of city leaders going to their national day of prayer celebrations in their towns and being threatened with lawsuits as a result, Dys said.

On this years celebratory prayer day, there are ongoing cases in courts across the nations. In the vicinity of Seattle, Washington, high school football coach Joe Kennedy has found himself in a legal fight for prayers said at the 50-yard line after football games. For years, Kennedy held to his prayer tradition by thanking God after Bremerton High School games.

After the game, once his coaching duties were completed, hed go out to the 50-yard line, take a knee and for about 30 seconds offer a silent prayer of thanks for the game, and the players and everything else, Dys said.

School officials suspended Kennedy in October 2015 and ordered him to stop praying on the field. The lawsuit is ongoing as First Liberty helps defend Kennedy in court.

Another disturbing suit related to prayer involves an elderly woman who wished to pray in her home. Yet law enforcement officers ordered Mary Anne Sause, a retired Catholic nurse, not to pray in her home in Louisburg, Kansas.

"Late one night she got a knock on the door. It was the police," Dys said. The incident happened in November 2013.

Two police officers came to her home and threatened her with jail time.

"Frightened, Sause requested ... permission to pray [from one of the officers]," according to First Liberty. "The officer allowed it, and Sause knelt, beginning to pray silently. But when the second officer returned to her apartment and saw her kneeling in silent prayer, he ordered her to 'get up' and 'stop praying.' Terrified, Sause complied."

Related: Two Moms, a Bible Class, and a Very Ugly Lawsuit

Sause lived alone in government housing.

"The officers continued to harass her, forcing Sause to reveal any scars or tattoos on her body. They then flipped through the codebook to see how they could charge her," according to First Liberty. "Only at the end of the encounter did they tell her that they were there for a minor noise complaint because her radio was too loud."

"It was one of the worst nights of my life."

A district court dismissed Sause's legal complaints yet First Liberty is still fighting the case. First Liberty appealed the court's ruling in September 2016.

"The police are supposed to make you feel safe, but I was terrified that night," Sause said. "It was one of the worst nights of my life."

These two cases are far from the only prayer fights Dys and his colleagues at First Liberty have undertaken. This year and always, we need to thank God and remember our freedoms every last one of them.

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On National Day of Prayer, Americans Fight for Religious Freedom - LifeZette

St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): The President of the Media Workers Association of Grenada, Shere-ann Noel, believes the diminished relationship between the media and the government has hindered press freedom in Grenada.

Ms. Noel who was speaking to WINN FM for World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd, discussed the current state of affairs regarding free media in Grenada.

Based on certain situations that have occurred over the past year, weve had certain media houses encounter problems entering the court, we have had a newspaper write to the bar association about an incident where one of the lawyers tried to hinder the worker from actually taking a picture of the said lawyer to accompany her writing and reporting from the court. So, to an extent, I will say that the freedom of the press in Grenada has diminished somewhat and media people need now to take a more affirmative stance in terms of how they approach the work and actually take a stance for what it is you want or what you want to do within the realms of your freedom. Because yes, it is freedom the press, but we all know everything has a particular limit, and that is my actual take on it.

Ms. Noel says that despite difficulties of obtaining information from the government, the people of Grenada were actively engaged with the media, oftentimes assisting them in their reporting.

However, the President of the Grenada Media Workers Association added that the taboo nature of certain issues in Grenada often prevented media houses from getting adequate information to report accurately on incidents.

You still have people who feel that the media shouldnt speak out on certain issues, so certain information is still hidden from the media. There are a lot of issues in Grenada, some of which are becoming very prevalent in the news in terms of incest, molestation, and issues in politics, and certain media outlets that actually go the extra mile to get the information still have serious problems in terms of accessing that information to enlighten the public.

In this years World Press Freedom Index the OECS which was ranked as a group, fell from thirty on the index to thirty-eight in the world. Ms. Noel said that the government of Grenada is working towards increasing the level of freedom available to the media.

To be honest with you, there has been ongoing dialogue, there were certain things put within the bill over the past years that they have retracted that would have hindered the freedom of the press. At this point in time they are trying to get media to come together as a unit and be more involved in getting a media policy because at this point there is not really a documented media policy in Grenada, so I think the extra effort from them in trying to get the media to get that policy is a step in the right direction in terms of government and trying to ensure that freedom of the press.

Ms. Noel added that journalists can advance press freedom in the region by treating their profession with importance and focus on their duty as journalists.

Author: Jendayi OmowaleEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Noel: Conflict Between Media And Government Hinders Press Freedom - WINN FM

How do you capture the loneliness of being kept in a locked room? The shades are pulled. You have no books, TVor smartphone, and you're handcuffed to a radiator. Oh yeah it's also been months, and you have no idea if you'll ever be released.

That was the task of cartoonist Guy Delisle in his new book "Hostage." It tells the story of Christophe Andr, who was kidnapped in 1997 while working for Doctors Without Borders. It was his first assignment, and he was in Ingushetia, a Russian republic in the Caucasus. Andrwoke up in the middle of the night to intruders, who kidnapped him and took him over the border into Chechnya.

"They kept him in a room where the door was locked. He couldn't see the light," says Delisle. "They would bring him food three times a day. He was completely subject to them." Worse still, Andrwas handcuffed to a radiator. He couldn't even walk around. That isolation and desperation and complete lack of freedom are what Delisle wanted to capture.

"We don't see what's on the outside. We only see the experience that Christophe has been through. He thought he would be there for just a weekend. And then three days go by. And then a week. And then two weeks. And then you start thinking about months, and then you go crazy."

Delisle has always been fascinated with kidnapping stories. "I was always thinking, what would I do in a situation like that? This book is kind of an answer to that," he says. Delisle's goal: "I really wanted to have the reader feel the time goby, so you get into Christophe's head and really experience what it is to have no control over your life. That was the main subject of the book."

Andr, the hostage, eventually escaped. A number of years later, he sat down with Delisle and told his story. It took hours and much of Andr's memories were the small details. "There are lots of little moments that he described to me. A noise he would hear. There was some boy playing with a ball in the corridor and that drove him crazy."

Another time, his captors forgot to reattach him to the radiator. The door was still locked. "Even though he wasn't able to escape the room, for the first time he was able to touch the wall that he had been watching for weeks and weeks. He was describing that as a kind of a freedom moment inside a jail feeling."

Another trick Andrused was indulging his obsession with military history. Instead of thinking about his family, which made him sad, hewent through the alphabet. For each letter, he thought of a famous battle fought by Napolean, or anAmerican Civil War general. Thatcoping strategy impressed cartoonist Delisle. "For me, someone who draws and writes comic books, it's interesting to see that you can survive with your own imagination."

Andrmanaged to escapeafter four months of captivity. One night his captors forgot to lock the door. He returned home but avoided the media. Then in 2003, when Delisle approached him about his interest in telling his story through cartoons, Andrwas open to it.Delisle says "Hostage," the book, has been especially helpful for Andr's family. "It's actually very nice because they've heard a lot of the story, but to see him and to almost feel physically what he experienced, was a relief for them, who of course had lived the experience with a lot of stress."

Eventually, Andr's captors asked Doctors Without Borders for a ransom of $1 million. Andrwas incensed, and in his proof-of-life call with his employer the first contact he had with them since his capture Andrbegs them not to give them one cent. "To say that after two months of captivity is truly heroic," says Delisle.

And the truly surprising end of the story is this: Just six months after he escaped, Andrshowed up at Doctors Without Borders and asked for a new assignment. He stayed on with them for another 20 years.

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This is what a complete lack of freedom looks like | Public Radio ... - PRI