ENDA and the Christian Response | Denny Burk

Editor’s Note: This week the Senate is poised to take up the Employment Non-Discrimination of Act of 2013 (ENDA). The law would prohibit some religious business owners from the freedom to hire individuals who share the values of their business. President Obama blogged at The Huffington Post over the weekend in favor of ENDA. This law has wide-ranging implications that directly affect religious liberty. Andrew Walker, Director of Policy Studies with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, has graciously provided an interview to help readers think through this controversial law. Read it below.
Q: What is ENDA?

This week, the Senate is poised to vote on S. 815, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013, an act that makes it illegal for employers to refuse to hire, fire, or otherwise discriminate if a person identifies as homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, or transgender. It specifically relies on the categories of “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” (SOGI).

MORE - ENDA and the Christian Response | Denny Burk

Pansies, Pearls and Pigs

by Barnabas Piper (World Magazine)
Late last month, nationally syndicated columnist and noted gay-rights activist Dan Savage made headlines for his abrasive (abusive?) anti-Bible comments at a high school journalism seminar. He encouraged students to “ignore the [expletive] in the bible about gay people” just like they do about virginity, masturbation, and a few other subjects. Then when offended students began leaving he called it a “pansy [expletive]” reaction.

MORE

Atheist Couple Sues School District to Remove ‘Under God’ from Pledge of Allegiance

(Christian Post)
Oral arguments were heard in a Massachusetts Superior Court on Monday over a lawsuit filed by an atheist couple who believe that their children are being discriminated against because the Pledge of Allegiance – which is said every day in Mass. public school classrooms under state law – contains the phrase "under God."

"The daily recitation in public schools of a pledge declaring that the nation is 'under God' is discriminatory toward atheists and humanists," David Niose, president of the American Humanist Association and lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, stated.
"No child should go to school each day to have the class declare that her religious beliefs are wrong in an exercise that portrays her and her family as less patriotic than believers."  MORE...