Tag: church and state - Page 10

November 2, 2015

Is Your Polling Place In A Church?

Election Day is Tuesday and many of us still travel to a polling place to cast our ballots in person. In many communities the polling place is located inside a church. It is not illegal to have voting in a church but the location still needs to meet election laws such as having no electioneering materials within a proscribed voting zone. What should you look for and what should you do to make sure a church follows the rules?

States differ in how their polling places are set up but I will use Ohio as an example.

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October 20, 2015

Progressive Idea To Restore Balance In Religious Freedoms

The Center for American Progress (CAP) sees the problem with religious freedom after the Hobby Lobby court decision in 2014. Religious freedom is being used as a weapon to discriminate. CAP has some ideas on how to restore the religious freedom balance. They all sound good.

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October 1, 2015

Toledo’s ProMedica Health Picks Politics Over Women’s Health

Sign at the ProMedica protest on Wednesday

Ohio has some of the most ridiculous and onerous abortion ‘regulations’ in the country. One of these ‘regulations’ requires a ‘transfer agreement’ between a hospital and a clinic under the guise of ‘patient safety’. ProMedica, a large private hospital group in the Toledo area is saying it won’t sign a transfer agreement with Toledo’s only abortion clinic because it doesn’t want to take sides in the abortion debate. By refusing to enter into an agreement ProMedica is in fact taking a side and it isn’t supporting women’s health.

Here is a brief explanation of Ohio abortion “regulations”:

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August 7, 2015

President Obama Takes First Positive Steps In Reforming Faith-Based Initiatives

Official Seal for the Executive Office of the President of the United States

This week, the Obama administration took the first positive steps to reform faith-based initiatives within the government. These initial reforms go a long way to protecting the wall of separation between church and state and protecting the religious freedoms of the faith-based groups and the beneficiaries who use the services. I am hoping more reform is coming.

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July 17, 2015

Catholic Group Plans To Take Same-Sex Marriage Debate To School Districts

edited screencap of Kids in class learning

An evangelical Catholic group asked central Ohio Catholics to change the argument against same-sex marriage to ‘a child-focused civil institution that unites children with their mothers and fathers.’ The group wants to move the debate into the schools. It reminds one of how religious conservatives fought against abortion and real sex education by forcing schools to adopt abstinence-only sex education curriculum. We know how that turned out.

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July 1, 2015

First Amendment Overkill Or When Politicians Don’t Know The Law

Soon after the US Supreme Court ruled that LGBT couples could be legally married in all 50 states, many political and religious conservatives lost their minds. Some politicians, like Ohio Rep. Nino Vitale (R-Urbana) either don’t understand civil rights or they just really hate not being able to be bigots. Vitale wants to pass a law that will protect pastors from having to perform same-sex weddings which is already covered under the 1st amendment.

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