Religious Freedom

Freedom of religion is an internationally recognized fundamental human right. But in these increasingly secular times, efforts are ongoing to limit believers from living according to their faith outside of church, synagogue, mosque, or temple and home. In other words, religious freedom is being intentionally shriveled into a tepid and essentially toothless freedom of worship.

Canada is leading that charge and, in the process, becoming increasingly authoritarian. For example, even though the Canadian Charter explicitly guarantees “freedom of conscience and religion,” Ontario doctors with a religious objection to committing euthanasia or abortion were denied conscience protections by courts, thereby requiring them to kill or refer to a doctor they know will kill (“effective referral”) or face professional discipline. The judge ruled that if they didn’t like it, they should get out of medicine. (Not coincidentally, some 16,500 people were killed by doctors and nurse practitioners in the country last year.)

In Quebec, public religious practice is in danger of being further suppressed than it already is. The province previously banned the wearing of religious symbols by public sector employees. Now, the ruling government wants to curtail religious practices more broadly and has filed Bill 9, “An Act Respecting the Reinforcement of Laicity in Québec,” toward attaining that end.

Israel is under continual attack and terroristic threat. But some Israeli West Bank settlers are engaging in violence of their own, against a Christian Palestinian village called Taybeh, the last wholly Christian town in the West Bank and, historically, the place to which Jesus withdrew (Ephraim) before his Passion according to the Gospel of Saint John. Three village priests — one Greek Orthodox, one Catholic, and one Melchite Greek Catholic — have issued a public letter begging for help: On Monday, July 7, 2025, settlers deliberately set fire near the town’s cemetery and the historic Church of Saint George (Al-Khadr), dating back to the 5th century — one of the oldest religious landmarks in Palestine. Were it not for the Read More ›

The Southern Poverty Law Center was once a courageous and righteous organization that, among other real achievements, bankrupted the KKK and Aryan Nations in civil court. This, at a time when acting against such vile groups openly was truly dangerous.

Alas, those righteous days are long gone. Today, the SPLC is a radical progressive activist organization that (one might say) hates orthodox Christianity as much as it does racists by labeling conservative Christian organizations “hate groups” because they oppose radical gender ideology and abortion.

This practice is dangerous. After SPLC mislabeled the Christian-oriented Family Research Council a hate group for opposing LGBT policy agendas, a fanatic used the center’s “hate map” to target the organization in 2012, shooting up the FRC’s lobby and wounding a security guard.

St. Catherine’s Monastery, located in the Sinai Desert in Egypt, has been a sacred Christian site since the 500s. Even after the Islamic Conquest, the monastery’s monks had warm relations with Mohammad, who wrote a letter granting protection to the monastery, which has helped maintain St. Catherine’s independence for many hundreds of years. But lately, that protection has eroded. A court has just ruled that the property should be owned by the state. This led to fears that the monks were going to be turned out and the site expropriated as a tourist attraction (as distinguished from a pilgrimage destination). From the Greek City Times: Ownership of the monastery and all its assets is now transferred to the Egyptian state. Read More ›