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US legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has told a local health board to back off its church crackdown.

On May 13, ADF sent a letter to Dedham town officials demanding they rescind their cease and desist order. The order prohibits the church from meeting with 10 or fewer people, a number that is permitted for other gatherings under the Massachusetts governor’s COVID-19 emergency order.

Victory Baptist Church received the cease and desist order from the town after the church posted on its website that it would resume services with no more than 10 people.

“The government can certainly concern itself with public health and safety, but it can’t target churches for special punishments that it doesn’t dole out to anyone else,” said ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker.

“It makes no sense for the town of Dedham to demand that this church refrain from meeting with 10 or fewer people when the governor’s executive order explicitly allows that gathering size. The only apparent explanation is that the town wants to harass this church,” he added.

According to the ADF, Pastor Nick White of Victory Baptist Church made clear that the services would be limited to 10 people to comply with the guidelines.

The church has imposed additional conditions upon itself including:

  • Requiring congregants to provide notice of their intention to attend a church;
  • Restricting each service to one hour;
  • Spacing services to allow the church to be cleaned
  • Taking each churchgoer’s temperature;
  • Issuing and requiring congregants to wear gloves and face masks; and
  • Encouraging elderly congregants and those with underlying health conditions to stay home.

“Victory Baptist did not host services last Sunday, but it plans to do so this coming Sunday, May 17, 2020, pursuant to the plans expressed in its previous announcement. And it should be permitted to do so without fear of disruption,” the ADF says in the letter.

“For these reasons, we demand that the Board and Town of Dedham rescind the Order by 12:00 p.m. on May 14, 2020, and refrain from further harassment of this church.”

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The Federal Government should stimulate economic growth by reinstating the Baby Bonus payment, according to FamilyVoice Australia.

“Economic growth is intrinsically tied to population growth”, said FamilyVoice spokesman Darryl Budge.

“To aid economic and budget recovery, the Government should reinstate a generous Baby Bonus payment as a matter of priority.

“This payment could be phased in as the government phases out the JobKeeper policy.”

Population Minister Alan Tudge has pointed out that next year the population growth rate will halve nationally.

The total fertility rate required for population replacement is about 2.1 babies per woman and this has fallen from 2.02 in 2008 to 1.74 in 2018.  Over the past decade it has only been 1.6 on average.

 “It is extremely concerning that the population growth rate is predicted to halve nationally next year.  This will cause ongoing economic pain if it is left unaddressed”, added Mr Budge.

 

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A pro-life group in the US has filed a lawsuit against a college for restricting free speech on campus.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF),  representing Students for Life, filed the lawsuit challenging the policies of Chemeketa Community College, in the State of Oregon, that restrict outdoor speech to a pair of small areas, that are less than 1.5% of the 100-acre campus.

The policy also requires students to obtain permission at least two weeks before speaking in those zones.

Alliance Defending Freedom said the policies have prevented students from engaging in spontaneous expression and promoting their events.

ADF said Students for Life obtained permission to host a debate about physician-assisted suicide but could not distribute flyers outdoors to promote  the event.

“The only permission slip students need to speak on public college campuses is the First Amendment,” said ADF Legal Counsel Michael Ross.

“Students don’t give up their constitutionally protected freedoms when they step on to campus or hold a specific viewpoint,” he said.

“Our clients have the right to peacefully engage and persuade their peers. They also have the freedom to support pregnant and parenting students without censorship or harassment from their school.”

ADF said the college’s policy limits student ability to mobilise in a timely manner in response to breaking political issues.

“Today’s college students are our future legislators, judge, and voters. That’s why it’s so important that public universities model the First Amendment values they’re supposed to be teaching,” said Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom.

“Pro-life students—like their peers—have the freedom to share messages of hope and healing without first asking college administrators for permission to speak.

“Across the country, we are seeing incredible opposition to the pro-life speech of our student leaders and volunteers as they speak for the defenseless and educate their fellow students on abortion,” said Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins.

“But the law and the Constitution are clear on the matter: Public schools cannot silence pro-life groups or force them to self-censor. If Chemeketa Community College wants to respect every member of its community, it will clarify that Students for Life can participate in the open exchange of ideas and ensure that the entire college community becomes a ‘free speech zone’ for pro-life students and their peers.”

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Christian advocacy group FamilyVoice Australia is urging Australian health ministers to mandate the communication of research into foetal pain to anyone planning an abortion.

New research backs a grieving British mother’s legal bid to compel abortion clinics to disclose that unborn children feel pain as early as 12 weeks.

Ana-Maria Tudor, 32, was not informed that her 23-week-gestation baby would feel pain when it was decapitated in April 2017, and is now suing the British Pregnancy Advisory Service that conducted the abortion with NHS funding.

“I did not find out a baby at 23 weeks might be able to feel pain until afterwards. It made me feel awful and I now deeply regret my decision,” Ms Tudor said.

Official guidelines and abortion information booklets in Britain and Australia do not protect a mother’s right to know that babies may feel pain in the first trimester.

Across the western world, unborn babies are not given any form of pain relief during the macabre decapitation (beheading) or limb-from-limb dismemberment procedures.

A recent British Medical Journal research paper highlights findings that point to 12 week old unborn infants possessing pain-sensing neurological pathways.

FamilyVoice spokesman Darryl Budge said this research must lead to updating documents that provide informed consent.

“All Australian health departments must update their websites and information booklets,” he said.

“Health ministers would be irresponsible if they did not instruct abortion clinics about their duty of care to inform parents about foetal pain from 12 weeks gestation.”

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Another US city has reversed its unconstitutional ban on drive-in church services.

In response to the city of Chattanooga ceasing the ban, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing an area church voluntarily dismissed a federal lawsuit that challenged the ban.

Initially the city’s stay-at-home order did not ban drive-in churches, but subsequently Mayor Andrew Berke announced right before Easter that his order specifically prohibited them.

On April 9, Berke posted a message aimed at churches stating that “drive-in services…even in their cars with the windows rolled up, for any length of time, will be considered a violation of our shelter-in-place directive.”

A number of churches in the area were forced to cancel drive-in Easter services.

“Singling out churches for special punishment makes no sense and is very clearly unconstitutional,” said ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker, director of the ADF Center for Christian Ministries.

“It never made any sense that, in Chattanooga, you could sit in your car at a drive-in restaurant, but you couldn’t sit in your car at a drive-in church service.

“We commend the city for changing its policies and respecting the constitutionally protected freedoms of area congregations, which can now participate in alternate versions of worship during this pandemic that are specifically designed to comply with all applicable health and safety recommendations.”

Now that Pastor Steve Ball and Metro Tab Church have been permitted to host drive-in services, the church has been able to not only safely hold worship services but receive donations for victims of a tornado that affected the city.’

On Monday April 27, US Attorney General William Barr issued a memo that instructed federal prosecutors to identify coronavirus-related measures “that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.”

“If a state or local ordinance crosses the line from an appropriate exercise of authority to stop the spread of COVID-19 into an overbearing infringement of constitutional and statutory protections, the Department of Justice may have an obligation to address that overreach in federal court,” the memo read.