SCOTUS Decision on Religious Freedom: An Orthodox Perspective

It was hard yesterday, on a quiet summer Sunday in rural central Pennsylvania, to imagine that the small factory across from the lot where we’re building our Orthodox mission temple would have its fate decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC today.

But it did.

Conestoga Wood Specialties, owned by a Mennonite family, was, along with better-known Hobby Lobby, owned by an Evangelical Protestant family, the focus of today’s final Supreme Court decision for this season.

The case centered on whether companies because of their owners’ religious beliefs could opt out of government-required contraceptive insurance coverage (which some deem abortifacient) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or face crippling fines that would have forced Conestoga (continue reading)

Hallelujah! Victory for the Hahns, Religious Freedom

Freedom is the Ultimate Winner in Conestoga Wood and Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Decision

Pennsylvania Family Institute applauds ruling as important First Amendment victory

Liberty in America was affirmed and protected today as the United States Supreme Court sided with advocates for First Amendment freedoms, and rejected government overreach into the lives of those who own and operate businesses.

Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI) congratulates the Hahn Family, old-order Mennonites from Lancaster County and the founders and owners of Conestoga Wood Specialties, who challenged the federal government’s contraceptive drug coverage mandate.

“The Hahns made it very clear from the start being forced to provide employee coverage for drugs that can cause an abortion would be a severe violation of their religious faith and conscience, (continue reading)

Time is running out for Gov Tom Corbett to stand up for PA law and republican party values

RNC Resolution for Marriage and Children 2013

Whereas, the institution of marriage is the solid foundation upon which our society is built and in which children thrive; and it is based on the relationship that only a man and a woman can form; and

Whereas, support for marriage has been repeatedly affirmed nationally in the 2012 Republican National Platform, through the enactment of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 (signed into law by President Bill Clinton), and passed by the voters of 41 States including California via Proposition 8 in 2008; and

Whereas, no Act of human government can change the reality that marriage is a natural and most desirable union; especially when procreation is a goal; and

Whereas, the future of our country is children; it has been proven repeatedly that the most secure and nurturing environment in which to raise healthy well adjusted children is in a home where both mother and father are bound together in a loving marriage; and

Whereas, the U. S. Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of laws adopted to protect marriage from the unfounded accusation that support for marriage is based only on irrational prejudice against homosexuals; therefore be it

Resolved, the Republican National Committee affirms its support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and as the optimum environment in which to raise healthy children for the future of America; and be it further

Resolved, the Republican National Committee implores the U. S. Supreme Court to uphold the sanctity of marriage in its rulings on California‟s Proposition 8 and the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.

As adopted by the Republican National Committee on April 12, 2013.