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Showing posts with label Religious Persecution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religious Persecution. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

One Way or Another – The Foxes Need Removed From The Henhouse

John R. Houk, Blog Editor

© October 22, 2024

 

The Telegram Reiner Fuellmich Channel shared a link from the Strategic Culture Foundation with a post using Fuellmich’s incarceration and political persecution on how the once-upon-a-time Free Europe has devolved into despotic tyranny aiming to punish dissenters of the State Narrative. The title: “Lights out for the city on the hill”.

 


The post is about squandered Freedom in Europe. The title got my attention because President Reagan used to promote America as a beacon of Light to the world referring to the USA as a Shining City on the Hill.

 

The Tyranny currently experienced in Europe WILL BECOME America in full measure if Americans allow an election victory in November 2024. OR WORSE, allow yet another installed Election-Coup as in 2020. Americans who still cherish their Liberty, Constitutional Originalism and our Christian Heritage need to rise up on November 5 on such scale that Election/Voter Fraud cannot succeed.

 

WE THE PEOPLE must stop sitting on our hands hoping a corrupted system will right election wrongs in criminal court or civil court. The wicked foxes are running the PEOPLE’S hen house. Unless the foxes are removed from the henhouse, injustice will be the rule of law.

 

And so, read how bad tyranny has become in Europe with an awareness Dem-Marxist government control will bring the same vice-grip against Americans who choose to dissent a Leftist Fundamental Transformation.

 

JRH 10/22/24

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Lights out for the city on the hill

 

By Stephen Karganovic

October 20, 2024

[H/T: Telegram Reiner Fuellmich]

Strategic Culture Foundation

Dr. Reiner Fuellmich (screengrab)

 

The famed “City on the Hill” that many had been tricked into believing was illuminating mankind from on high is now forlorn and largely deserted.

 

Throughout the decades of the Cold War, whilst the blocs were competing, two major attractions worked powerfully to the advantage of the West. Firstly, the comfort and prosperity that it was able to provide to its citizens, which its Eastern rivals could hardly match. The second feature that in the eyes of the world gave the West a huge competitive edge was the comparatively better performance of its institutions in securing individual liberties.

 

The twin advantages of prosperity and the impression that the West valued freedom neutralised successfully most of the theoretical critique of the capitalist social and economic model. The West’s ostensible commitment to personal liberties acted as a powerful magnet. As a political weapon it thus served its purpose effectively. So long as scrupulous adherence to the rule of law and respect for individual rights were seen as their distinguishing characteristic, Western societies were perceived as a desirable alternative to the competing systems, which often disregarded strict legality and did little to reduce arbitrariness.

 

That state of affairs prevailed until roughly the 1990s, when the Western bloc reached the pinnacle of its global might and was widely perceived as triumphant over its adversaries. Since then throughout the Western world the social gains which brought a modicum of comfort and safety to the common people are being systematically dismantled. The sense of legal security that for decades was enjoyed by citizens of Western societies proved equally evanescent. Lawless abuse and vulnerability to the powers that be, phenomena normal elsewhere but long absent from the practice of Western societies and largely faded from the memory of their citizens, are reappearing with a vengeance. On both the domestic and international levels, the “rule of law” has rapidly morphed into its unrecognisable caricature. That metamorphosis has became jokingly known as the “rules based order.”

 

With scant internal opposition or even public awareness, the core countries of the collective West became infected with the contagion of arbitrariness in the interpretation of inherent human rights and application of legal principles erected to protect them. The transformation, which in historical terms took place with lightning speed, has been spearheaded by a ruthless and duplicitous political cabal which directs the flow of events from behind the scenes. It was implemented with the connivance of a judiciary that is utterly corrupt and cowardly in the fulfilment of its professional duties.

 

Breakdown of legality is generally a precursor of worse things to come, which almost invariably takes the form of increasingly egregious abuse of power. That can be illustrated with disturbing but by no means isolated examples of the emerging state of affairs in the countries of the collective West that used to be envied for their freedom. Readers will recall the famous line, “they hate us for our freedom.” That false assertion made in 2001, whilst doing nothing to advance the cause of freedom, introduced an orgy of destruction and mass slaughter.

 

A striking representation of the breakdown of the legal order is the illegal kidnapping and incarceration in Germany on fabricated embezzlement charges of German-American lawyer, Dr. Reiner Fuellmich. The German judicial system is fully complicit in this appalling travesty. There are many solid reasons for the deep state cabal’s virulent hatred of Dr. Fuellmich. He was the spoiler who in 2020 had the temerity to found the Covid pandemic research committee, just as the social control experiment was gaining momentum. The committee did outstanding work under the leadership of Dr. Fuellmich to expose the sordid motives and homicidal objectives of the orchestrators of the bogus medical emergency. That was a major blow to them, the more so because it was delivered successfully under conditions of nearly total informational blockade. Dr. Fuellmich’s ultimate, and perhaps overambitious, naively conceived goal of a medical Nurenberg to bring the culprits to justice unfortunately could not be achieved. But the very thought of it must have given rage to those he intended to be prosecuted.

 

This agenda has been long planned,” Dr. Fuellmich summarised his Committee’s findings. “It’s ultimately unsuccessful precursor was the swine flu some 12 years ago, and it is cooked up by a group of super-rich psychopathic and sociopathic people who hate and fear people at the same time, have no empathy, and are driven by the desire to gain full control over all of us, the people of the world.”

 

The time came however for the psychopaths to get their sweet revenge, and the operation was not exceedingly difficult because they happen to control the mechanisms of power. Eleven months ago Dr. Fuellmich was imprisoned in Germany on the false allegation made by a former colleague, who may have been infiltrated by security agencies into the Covid Committee, that he misused the organisation’s assets for personal benefit. A charge that under German law is a misdemeanour and for which there is no precedent of lengthy pre-trial incarceration resulted in imprisonment that has now lasted for over 400 days, under Abu Ghraib conditions, except that it is in Germany and not in Iraq. For a shocking portrayal of those detention conditions, see here. And see here for the disgraceful procedural deficiencies of the trial itself, which currently is in progress. The proceedings are stained by practices incompatible with the image of Rechtsstaat that is misleadingly cultivated by Germany, along with the rest of the collective West regimes associated with it.

 

The lawless persecution of Dr. Fuellmich in reality is for the “offence” of performing a remarkable public service by uncovering and documenting the fraudulent nature and sinister background of the Covid “pandemic.” It is, however, but the tip of the iceberg in the collapse of the rule of law in societies that portray themselves as its champions. The breakdown of legality and its dire impact on the elementary freedoms of citizens, rendering them utterly defenceless before the demands of unaccountable Power, can be illustrated by additional examples.

 

In Ireland, the entire Burke family of Christian believers who refuse to bend their knee to the dictates of gender ideology is being targeted for vindictive persecution. One of the sons, Enoch, who is a school teacher, has so far spent over 400 days in solitary confinement, like Dr. Fuellmich in Germany. His “offence” is that in formerly Christian and Catholic Ireland he refuses to use the pronoun preferred by one of his students who claims other than his biological gender. Enoch Burke is a law breaker because he holds that acquiescence to the gender identity charade would be a violation of his religious principles. In fact, Enoch Burke is being punished for refusing to debase himself as a professional educator and as a free human being by confessing falsely, under the duress of his persecutors, that 2 + 2 = 5. Nothing short of such  a recantation of his conscientiously held beliefs would satisfy his country’s legal and educational overseers, who have manifestly gone berserk. He therefore remains in an Irish prison, despite  being assured of instant release if only he signalled submission to their lunatic demand. For an insight into the broad official scope of that lunacy, see here.

 

Enoch’s brother Simeon, who has completed his law studies with honours, is being excluded from admission to the Irish Bar for reasons that have not yet been revealed with full clarity but which appear to be related also to his firmly held religious world-view, identical to his brother’s.  In contemporary Ireland that seems to disqualify one from working in a professional capacity. For good measure, Enoch and Simeon’s father, Enoch Burke Sr., has also been punished, for objecting to LGBT symbols on Irish postal vehicles. For his insolence, taxpayer Burke was informed that henceforth he may come to the local post office if he wishes to pick up his mail, but that it will no longer be delivered to his home address.

 

As in the Fuellmich case, the collective and exemplary punishment meted out to the Burke family is being kept out of the public eye as much as possible. Political and even religious figures refuse to take a stand or comment on it, and the controlled media studiously avoid discussing the subject.

 

Not to round off this complex picture of civilizational decline but merely to supplement it with another unsettling detail, the institution of thought crime portrayed in George Orwell’s novel, once considered no more than literary fiction, appears now to be enshrined in British law. For the present it appears to be a pilot programme, perhaps a precursor to even more frightening things to come. It operates as a prohibition of prayer within a designated exclusion perimeter around abortion “clinics” in Great Britain. The incriminating prayer would presumably be for the souls of children that departed this world due to the medical attention that they received in those establishments. The private performance of such unauthorised religious offices is now prohibited as it may cause “harassment and distress” to the employees of the “clinics” and their clients. And ominously, according to the Home Office, “anyone found guilty of breaking the law will face an unlimited fine.” One wonders if the European Court of Human Rights would have anything to say about such open-ended punishment schemes. Was anything of the sort ever before recorded in the annals of civilised jurisprudence?

 

Interaction between the thought police, who of course are merely “following orders,” and citizens suspected of mentally violating the “law” may be watched here by all who cherish their liberty and human integrity.

 

Wretched British jurisprudence (sceptics should also take a look here) can now boast its first successful prosecution of a thought crime violator. British Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was recently found guilty of silently praying for his aborted son inside an abortion “clinic” buffer zone. For that he was sentenced conditionally to two years in prison and fined £9000 in costs for His Majesty’s court’s expense and trouble in prosecuting him. The courts still are not imposing “unlimited fines,” as the Home Office prescribes, but for a retired person like Smith-Connor, who must support a family, arguably even that is a considerable sum.

 

And Smith-Connor, be it noted, is far from being the only victim of abortion-related thought crime harassment in the United Kingdom.

 

Also for the record, the theme here is not one’s personal position on Covid, transgenderism, or abortion. The central issue in every one of the cited instances, and others of a similar sort too numerous to mention, is the evident crumbling in the collective West of the legal order. That makes it possible to impose on peaceful citizens draconian punishments wholly disproportionate to the alleged conduct they have been accused of. To what limits will the severity of punishment extend, or is it potentially as “unlimited” as the threat of monetary assessment the British Home Office is prepared to impose on those undertaking to silently pray in public for unborn babies?

 

The famed “City on the Hill” that many had been tricked into believing was illuminating mankind from on high is now forlorn and largely deserted. Its lights are getting progressively dimmer, life in it increasingly intolerable. Its deceived inhabitants and ardent admirers are dispersing in every direction. Word is out that a new City of great luminosity and magnetic attraction is being erected elsewhere, and that its architects will soon meet, in Kazan.

 

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Wednesday, September 21, 2022

My Intro to Cooke’s ‘Why Did King Charles III Do That?’


John R. Houk, Blog Editor

© September 21, 2022

 

Tony Cooke was one of Instructors in the days I attended what was then RHEMA Bible Training Center (Now RHEMA Bible Training College) in the two-year program 1982-84. And so yup, I signed up to be on his email list from the Tony Cooke Ministries website.

 

On September 16 I received an email that caught my attention under the subject, “Why Did King Charles III Do That?

 

The UK lost their longest reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II and her oldest son Charles assumed the throne as King Charles III. The reason the subject title caught my attention is I am fully aware King Chuck is fully behind the elitist agenda of the Globalist World Economic Forum (WEF) which offers ZERO that is pleasant toward American Liberty (I hope Americans see the Declaration of Independence irony here) and Individual Freedom.

 

Alas … Brother Cooke addressed none of my Prince Chuck concerns. BUT pieced together an interesting piece of Church history that addresses Religious Liberty using the newly minted King Charles III signing an oath “to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland.” I have to wonder how much King Chuck will honor that oath considering his WEF Globalist pedigree.

 

So, let’s join Tony Cooke on this historical snapshot of Church history in regard to UK history from the email.

 

JRH 9/21/22

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Why Did King Charles III Do That?

  

King of Hearts (Suicide King – another irony?) & Title

 

By Tony Cooke

Sent via TCM

Sent 9/16/22 7:59 AM

 

Shortly after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the announcement was made that her son, Prince Charles, would succeed her and would be known as King Charles III. Two days after her passing, at the ceremony where Charles III was formally proclaimed the new King of England, he signed an oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland. This was all part of the established protocol for an incoming monarch.
 
The history of Christianity in England is loaded with intricacies and complexities, and much of it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with what Jesus taught and promoted. In certain eras, political maneuvering abounded and the ruling party in religious conflicts would sometimes banish, behead, or burn opponents at the stake. Threats and intimidation were commonplace. “Live and let live” was certainly not the prevailing attitude of those who held religious and political power.
 
Before we examine why King Charles III signed a document respecting the sovereignty of the Church of Scotland, let’s look at Charles I (1600-1649) and Charles II (1630-1685). King Charles I followed the reign of King James I (who authorized the production of the Authorized Version of the Bible, also known as the King James Bible). King Charles I opposed and took action against any group that resisted the State Church, especially the Scots. While there were many factors involved in his political demise, he was eventually tried for treason and executed.
 
Later, Charles II ascended to the throne of England. As a playboy, he would be known and remembered as the “Merry Monarch.” Believers, including those in Scotland and Ireland, who did not want their churches under government control were targeted by the King and by Parliament. Puritans (those who wanted to “purify” the church of England) suffered during this time as the Church of Scotland, which wanted to operate independently based on a Presbyterian form of church government.
 
Britannica states that “The Conventicle Act of 1664 punished any person over 16 years of age for attending a religious meeting not conducted according to The Book of Common Prayer. The Five Mile Act of 1665 prohibited any ejected minister from living within five miles of a corporate town or any place where he had formerly served.”[1] In other words, if you don’t operate your church under the State Church and its directives, you were going to suffer.
 
We want to take a quick look at two Scottish ministers who stood up against governmental and ecclesiastical tyranny, John Knox (1514-1572) and Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661).
 
In 1547, John Knox and other Protestants were taken prisoner and he served as a galley slave (chained and rowing) for nineteen months. Later he spent time exiled in Geneva, but he eventually returned to Scotland to work toward a church free from government control. It is said that Mary Queen of Scots remarked, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.”
 
As he approached death, Knox prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus. Sweet Jesus into Thy hand I commend my spirit. Be merciful, Lord, to Thy Church, which Thou hast redeemed. Give peace to this afflicted commonwealth. Raise up faithful pastors who will take charge of Thy Church.” The epitaph on his grave read, “Here lies a man who in his life never feared the face of man.”
 
Samuel Rutherford, a Scottish Presbyterian pastor, lived in a century that saw many suffer martyrdom for their faith. At one point, Rutherford himself was banished from the city where he pastored and was forbidden to preach. Through the influence of Rutherford and others, a National Covenant was signed in 1638 (during the time of Charles I’s reign). This document expressed their resistance to the imposition of State Church regulations on their worship based on the fact that Jesus Christ is the true head of the Church. It is said that some Scots signed this covenant in their own blood.
 
Later, Rutherford authored a book entitled Lex Rex (The Law of the King). In this work, he stressed God’s absolute authority and argued for limited governmental authority. Under the reign of King Charles II, this book was banned and burned. When Rutherford was charged with treason and demanded to appear before the authorities, he was already on his deathbed and responded with this statement: "I have a summons already from a superior judge, and it is better that I answer my first summons. I now go to be where few kings and great people come."
 
Summary
Today in America, we think nothing of different denominational and independent churches existing and working peacefully side by side. This has not been the case through much of western history. Our freedoms are due in large part to the battles for religious freedom in Europe, even to the point that the initial statement in our Constitution’s First Amendment is: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
 
Also, we can better understand why one of the first actions taken by the new King of England, Charles III, was to sign a document guaranteeing respect for the independence of the Church of Scotland. It is all rooted in history.
 
Great Statements by John Knox (1514 – 1572)

 

John Knox (1514 – 1572)

 

The Scriptures of God are my only foundation and substance in all matters of weight and importance.”

 

“Live in Christ, die in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death.”
 
“A man with God is always in the majority.”
 
“Lord, give me Scotland or I die!”
 
“When I think of those who have influenced my life the most, I think not of the great but of the good.”
 
“O Lord Eternal, move and govern my tongue to speak the truth.”
 
“None have I corrupted, none have I defrauded; merchandise have I not made.”

Great Statements by Samuel Rutherford (1600 – 1661) 

 

Samuel Rutherford (1600 – 1661)

 

“Believe God's love and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your rock is Christ, and it is not the rock that ebbs and flows but the sea.”
 
“They lose nothing who gain Christ.”

"My faith has no bed to sleep upon but omnipotence.”

“Jesus Christ came into my prison cell last night, and every stone flashed like a ruby.”

“Make not Christ a liar in distrusting His promise.”

“Grace tried is better than grace, and more than grace; it is glory in its infancy.”

“I seldom made an errand to God for another, but I got something for myself.”

 

Footnote

 

[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protestantism/The-Restoration-1660-85

 

Bible teacher and author Tony Cooke graduated from RHEMA Bible Training Center in 1980 and received degrees from North Central University (Bachelor’s in Church Ministries) and Liberty University (Master’s in Theological Studies/Church History). His ministerial background includes pastoral ministry, teaching in Bible schools, and directing a ministerial association. Tony’s passion for teaching the Bible has taken him to more than thirty nations and nearly all fifty states. He is the author of a dozen books, of which, various titles have been translated and published in eight other languages. Tony and his wife, Lisa, reside in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and are the parents of two adult children

 

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Copyright © 2022 Tony Cooke Ministries, All rights reserved.

 

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Monday, June 27, 2022

Joe Kennedy & Religious Liberty

John R. Houk, Blog Editor

June 27, 2022

  

Coach [Praying] Joe Kennedy. (Image credit: First Liberty Institute) – Photo via CBN News

 

In recent SCOTUS rulings, Trump appointed Justices added Conservative Judicial clout enabling the Supreme Court to protect the 2nd Amendment in NY State and help protect the lives to unborn persons by striking down Roe v. Wade.

 

I discovered today that Leftist-haters of Religious Liberty on taxpayer supported property took another SCOTUS smackdown reversing 9th Appellate Courts approval of Bremerton High School persecution of then Asst. Football Coach Joe Kennedy for praying on the Football Field after games. I posted on Bremerton High School’s religious persecution of Coach Kennedy before he was discharged for his acts of faith way back in 2015.

 

Below you can read a couple of reports on Joe Kennedy’s Religious Liberty being upheld first from The Epoch Times and then from The Conservative Treehouse (or is it The Last Refuge, I never get that straight). Honorable mention goes to CBN News.

 

JRH 6/27/22

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Supreme Court Rules in Favor of High School Football Coach Fired for Post-Game Prayers

Decision overturns the oft-reversed 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

 

 

People walk past the Supreme Court building during a rainstorm in Washington on June 23, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

 

By Matthew Vadum

June 27, 2022 Updated: June 27, 2022

The Epoch Times

 

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 27 that a school district in Washington state violated First Amendment religious freedom protections when it fired high school football coach Joseph Kennedy for leading personal prayers at the 50-yard line after games.

 

The decision is regarded as a victory for religious freedom.

 

In the case, the high court held that the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal.

 

The court found that the U.S. Constitution neither requires nor allows governments to suppress such religious expression.

 

Coach Joseph “Joe” Kennedy, who no longer works for the taxpayer-funded Bremerton School District in Washington state, claimed his rights were violated when the district forbade him from praying in view of the public after games.

 

The school district argued that when Kennedy prayed midfield after games, he was viewed by onlookers as a coach who was serving as a mentor and role model.

 

In this theory of the case, Kennedy was acting as a government employee at that moment, which would mean that he was engaging in speech that constituted government speech that isn’t protected by the First Amendment.

 

But the majority of Supreme Court justices disagreed with the school district in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (court file 21-418), an appeal from the frequently overturned U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

 

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion (pdf) for the court. All six conservative justices, including Gorsuch, ruled in favor of Kennedy; all three liberal justices ruled against him. Oral argument was heard April 25.

 

Gorsuch noted that Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach in the Bremerton School District “because he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks” during a period “when school employees were free to speak with a friend, call for a reservation at a restaurant, check email, or attend to other personal matters.”

 

In other words, Kennedy offered “his prayers quietly while his students were otherwise occupied.”

 

The school district disciplined him because it believed anything less might lead a reasonable observer to mistakenly conclude that it endorsed Kennedy’s religious beliefs, Gorsuch wrote.

 

The district was wrong to do so, the justice added.

 

“The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s. Nor does a proper understanding of the Amendment’s Establishment Clause require the government to single out private religious speech for special disfavor.

 

“The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike,” Gorsuch wrote.

 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. The dissent characterizes Kennedy as a wrongdoer.

 

“This case is about whether a public school must permit a school official to kneel, bow his head, and say a prayer at the center of a school event,” Sotomayor wrote. “The Constitution does not authorize, let alone require, public schools to embrace this conduct.”

 

The Supreme Court is wrong to ignore “the severe disruption to school events caused by Kennedy’s conduct, viewing it as irrelevant because the Bremerton School District … stated that it was suspending Kennedy to avoid it being viewed as endorsing religion.”

 

Kennedy was responsible for “repeated disruptions of school programming and violations of school policy regarding public access to the field as grounds for suspending him.”

 

“This decision does a disservice to schools and the young citizens they serve, as well as to our nation’s longstanding commitment to the separation of church and state.”

 

The Supreme Court issued three opinions in total in already argued cases on June 27.

 

The court is trying to dispose of a backlog of cases before it leaves for summer recess. With the release of the three opinions, four remain to be released in the court’s current term.

 

When it wraps up, Justice Breyer is expected to formally leave the court and be replaced by Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s nominee who was narrowly confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 7.

 

On June 27, the court announced it will next issue opinions on June 29.

 

This is a developing story. This article will be updated.

 

Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist and a recognized expert in left-wing activism.

 

Copyright © 2000 – 2022 The Epoch Times

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Freedom Wins, Supreme Court Sides with High School Coach Fired for Praying on Field After Games

 

By Sundance

June 27, 2022

The Conservative Treehouse

 

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Joseph Kennedy [Full Ruling Here] saying the Bremerton school district in Washington state was wrong to fire him for praying after football games with players of both teams. By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that Coach Joseph Kennedy’s conduct was protected by the First Amendment.

 

In 2015, Kennedy had been a part-time football coach at Bremerton High School for seven years. Coach Kennedy would pray at midfield after each game, alone, with players and with players of the opposing team joining him. When the school district learned about Kennedy’s prayers, they told him to stop. Kennedy refused, and despite wide support from parents and the community the district fired him.

 

 

Joseph-Kennedy-Washington-State-Prayer-in-School

 

Justice Neil Gorsuch delivered the court’s opinion and was joined in full by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. Gorsuch explained that the government’s only real justification for its decision to fire Kennedy “rested on a mistaken view that it had a duty to ferret out and suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech. The Constitution,” Gorsuch concluded, “neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination.”

 

(Via Christian Post) […] “Kennedy prayed during a period when school employees were free to speak with a friend, call for a reservation at a restaurant, check email, or attend to other personal matters. He offered his prayers quietly while his students were otherwise occupied. Still, the Bremerton School District disciplined him anyway,” wrote Gorsuch.

 

“Both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s … The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”

 

In response to today’s opinion, Kennedy said, “This is just so awesome. All I’ve ever wanted was to be back on the field with my guys. I am incredibly grateful to the Supreme Court, my fantastic legal team, and everyone who has supported us. I thank God for answering our prayers and sustaining my family through this long battle.”

 

Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO and chief counsel for First Liberty, a religious liberty law firm based in Plano, Texas, which represented Kennedy, hailed the court’s decision as a “tremendous victory for Coach Kennedy and religious liberty for all Americans.” (more)

 

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” 

Matthew 18:20

 

football-prayer

 

“Will you pray with me?” or “will you allow me to pray with you?”  These are examples of the strongest proactive affirmations of fellowship, love and faith you can bring to any encounter. Prayer works. However, it is not enough to simply to stop and pray, we should immediately affirm the intent of the moment. We should pause, gather or assemble, and pray in His name. That is where the Spirit of Jesus will manifest. Seek to gather with others in the name of Jesus and experience His presence in the moments of life.

 

Fellowship is important. There are many biblical commands concerning “one another” because God does not want us to be alone. Isolation and/or aloneness is not living, it can be painful and harmful to our spirit. Burdens weight most when carried alone. Fellowship is the connective tissue that brings life to our journey. When you feel hardship, pray. When you see hardship, pray. When you find hardship in another, pray.

 

There is no level of experience needed for prayer, nor is there an apprenticeship for faith. While living, pay attention. When you see a burden reach out, feel, connect, and begin… “Dear God,”….. the rest will follow.

 

© 2022 The Conservative Treehouse