In today’s News:
Concordia Chicago delivers face masks
Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Ill., specially delivered 250 face masks To Holy Family School, Chicago, a university partner through Chicagoland Lutheran Educational Foundation. Concordia River Forest Alumni Association launched their “buy one, give one” face mask initiative in June to support fellow graduates. Within the first 48 hours, alumni and friends purchased more than 100 masks. Proceeds from this initiative provide personal protective equipment to faculty and staff at university partner schools and support current undergraduates through the Gard Student Assistance Fund. Additional “mask drops” will be made in the future.
Christian student group is reinstated
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Bozeman High School students and their Christian student club, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, have secured recognition of the student group as an official non-curricular club and policy revisions from Montana school district officials, allowing the group equal access to resources and the ability to recruit new members. The school responded by reinstating the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ official status as a non-curricular club and changing its policies to ensure that similar unconstitutional actions don’t occur in the future. Bozeman High School recognizes many different non-curricular clubs on campus, including the Climate Crisis Club, Sexuality and Gender Alliance, Human Rights Club, Project X2+ and Native American Club.
New Labor Department rules
The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a new rule intended to foster “full and equal participation” of religious groups as federal contractors. The final rule will become effective Jan. 8, two weeks before the presidential inauguration. It is the latest development in the long-running battle over how to balance religious rights with other, particularly LGBT, rights. The Trump administration’s focus on religious liberty has been hailed by conservatives and questioned as discriminatory by advocates of church-state separation and LGBT activists, who are concerned that religious exemptions will deprive same-sex couples’ access to services.
Democrats claim abortion funding restriction is racist
House Democrats and their witnesses at an appropriations committee hearing yesterday characterized the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from funding abortions, as “clearly racist.” The Hyde Amendment prevents federal funding of abortions except “to save the life of the woman,” or in the case of incest or rape. It was passed in 1976 and was upheld by the Supreme Court in a 1980 ruling. The Hyde Amendment, which is a budget provision, has been passed every single year, no matter the party of the president or the party in control of congress. Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who were pro-abortion presidents, signed appropriations bills that included the Hyde Amendment.
