religious freedom

Stop, Let Me Tell You: Good News Clubs Win Victory in Hawaii

A federal court granted a permanent injunction giving Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) and its Good News Clubs access to school facilities in Hawaii.

The U.S. District Court for Hawaii ruled:

Defendant, Hawaii Department of Education is required, under the First Amendment, to provide Child Evangelism Fellowship access to Defendants’ facilities that is equal to and on the same terms as other similarly situated nonreligious organizations offering programs to students in Hawaii.

The court also ruled that Hawaii’s DOE must pay $100,000 for attorney’s fees and costs. It’s yet another important victory for free speech and religious freedom – both of which are increasingly under assault by government agencies. 

If, like this writer, you grew up in Sunday School or attending a Good News Club you may be familiar with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) songs like “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus – No Turning Back” and “Stop and Let Me Tell You” – with a red stop sign and lyrics explaining, “What the Lord has done for me.” The flip side of the sign is green, exhorting believers, “Go and tell the story, Of the Christ of Calvary.”  

Or you may remember The Wordless Book, a visual tool for sharing the gospel with children, using colored pages to present basic Christian teachings: gold, representing God and Heaven; dark, for man’s sin and separation from God; red, illustrating the blood of Christ and his sacrifice; white, depicting cleansing and forgiveness through repentance and faith; and green, signifying growing in the faith.

CEF has been in ministry for more than 85 years, working “to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, disciple them in the Word of God, and establish them in a Bible-believing church for Christian living.”

The organization is primarily known for its Good News Clubs, where children gather after school for an hour, in churches, homes, schools and community centers, to hear a Bible lesson, memorize Scripture and sing gospel songs.

Other CEF ministries include 5-day Clubs that meet in June; Boxes of Books, supplying missionaries with children’s books; and digital television and radio ministries.

With more 3,500 workers, CEF reached more than 29.2 million children around the world in 2023. In the U.S. alone, CEF has 3,041 Good News Clubs in public schools.

But in Hawaii, the ministry was stymied by six different elementary schools and the Department of Education, which denied the ministry access to school facilities to run it’s after-school Good News Clubs. Hawaii’s DOE operates as a single state-wide school district, and use of facilities was denied even though they were open to other non-religious groups.

Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal aid group dedicated to advancing and defending the gospel, filed a lawsuit on behalf of CEF Hawaii in January 2024. The suit alleged the DOE and the schools discriminated against CEF, “violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, state laws, and school policies.”

The discrimination occurred in spite of the fact that the Equal Access Act, federal law since 1984, requires the nation’s public schools to create a level playing field for the creation of all sorts of student clubs. It is nothing less than amazing that 40 years later, public school administrators still violate it all the time. 

In addition, Hawaii schools were ignoring a similar case, in 2001, where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on behalf of CEF when a New York school denied the organization’s request to use school facilities for its after school program.

In that case, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, the court ruled in a 6-3 opinion that the school violated CEF’s constitutional rights. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the court’s majority, stated in his opinion:

This case presents two questions. The first question is whether Milford Central School violated the free speech rights of the Good News Club when it excluded the Club from meeting after hours at the school. The second question is whether any such violation is justified by Milford’s concern that permitting the Club’s activities would violate the Establishment Clause.
We conclude that Milford’s restriction violates the Club’s free speech rights and that no Establishment Clause concern justifies that violation.

In a statement about this recent victory, Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said:

This is a great victory for Child Evangelism Fellowship, parents, and the students in Hawaii public schools. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities.

He added:

Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a safe space that offers moral and character development from a Christian viewpoint. Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school.

The organization stated, “Liberty Counsel represents CEF nationally and has never lost a case involving Good News Clubs.”

Related articles and resources:

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Federal Judge Refuses to Protect High School Christian Club from Harassment, De-recognition

Fellowship of Christian Athletes Told to Change Its Theology at a Montana High School

Florida High School Won’t Recognize a Student Pro-Life Club Because It’s “Too Political”

Focus on the Family Broadcast: Protecting Your Child’s Faith in Public School

New York High School Rejects New Christian Club After Stalling for Months

Appeals Court Favors Louisiana Ten Commandments Law for Now

Last Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked a district judge’s effort to stop Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law from going into effect across the state.

As reported by the Daily Citizen, a federal judge ruled last Monday that the law is unconstitutional. It currently requires schools accepting public funding to post the Ten Commandments in all classrooms.

The lower court judge’s language requires all state school districts be notified of this latest ruling.

Louisiana’s attorney general filed a motion with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals asking that the notification requirement be paused and for the law to be implemented in school districts not party to the ongoing case.

The court granted the state’s motion for an administrative stay, meaning the lower court ruling will only be applied to the five school districts that filed the lawsuit.

Louisiana has 72 school districts statewide.

The Louisiana attorney general posted on X:

BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit grants our motion to BLOCK the district court’s attempt to enjoin the Ten Commandments law statewide. I look forward to immediately working with all of our school boards who are not involved in this lawsuit to implement the law soon! #lalege

The new law is set to go into effect on January 1, 2025.

The Daily Citizen will continue to report on this developing story.

Related articles and resources:

Judge Temporarily Blocks Ten Commandments in Classrooms, Louisiana Will Appeal

Louisiana’s Ten Commandments Bill is Good for Kids, Communities, and the Nation

Image from Shutterstock.

Judge Temporarily Blocks Ten Commandments in Classrooms, Louisiana Will Appeal

Tuesday morning, a federal district court judge ruled Louisiana’ Ten Commandments law unconstitutional. As it stands now, the law requires schools that accept public funding to post the Ten Commandments in all classrooms.

The 177-page ruling claims that the new law is not only a violation of the First Amendment, but also discriminatory and coercive.

As reported by the Daily Citizen, the state’s House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in the spring and was signed into law by Louisiana’s governor in June.

Supporters of the law say they expected a loss at this stage of the legal challenge.

The state representative who authored the legislation told KEEL News, “The Judge is an Obama appointee and we expected him to rule against us. It is a process.”

In a statement to local media, Louisiana’s attorney general made clear her office intends to defend the Ten Commandments displays in classrooms.

We strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will immediately appeal … This is far from over.

Focus on the Family applauds the state of Louisiana for passing this law and for their resolve to defend it legally.

We are hopeful that it will be more favorably received at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and uphold it as constitutional.

The Ten Commandments have a special significance in American history and Western Civilization. They serve as a framework for secular legal codes of the West. They also convey a set of universal moral guidelines to promote more ethical individuals and societies.

To display the Ten Commandments in classrooms is to remind students of its historical significance and to acknowledge its influence in the development of this country.

According to Louisiana’s attorney general, “This decision only binds five of Louisiana’s many school boards.”

The new law’s deadline for implementation in classrooms is January 1, 2025.

The Daily Citizen will continue to report on this developing story.

Image from Shutterstock.

The “Equality Act” Would Mark the End of Religious Conscience

The mis-named “Equality Act,” also known by its bill number, HR 5, is due for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives next week. The bill would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s list of protected classes, but its real impact will be to significantly change America’s legal landscape, as we have detailed elsewhere.

Perhaps HR 5’s most egregious—and intentional—effect will be to eradicate religious conscience as a defense to acts of government coercion that seek to force businesses and religious institutions to comply with the bill’s radical sexual ideology against their conscience. It’s a blatant attempt to drive faith-based entities from the public life of the nation.

How would this happen?

The bill includes a small paragraph toward the end that says this:

“The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (42 U.S. C. 2000bb et seq.) shall not provide a claim concerning, or a defense to a claim under, a covered title, or provide a basis for challenging the application or enforcement of a covered title.”

Let’s break down what that innocuous-sounding language really means.

When the federal government forces someone to act contrary to their religious beliefs, that person usually has two defenses: The First Amendment’s religion clause, or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, also known as RFRA.

But the U.S. Supreme Court decided in a 1990 case that the First Amendment’s religious freedom protections do not apply to protect religious conscience from what it called “neutral laws of general applicability.” That would include nearly any law that doesn’t target religion by name. That court-created loophole in the First Amendment so motivated a bi-partisan Congress at the time that it passed RFRA in 1993 by a voice vote in the House and by 97-3 in the Senate.

RFRA protects all of us, including faith-based entities and businesses (see the 2014 Hobby Lobby decision) from any government action that “substantially burdens religious free exercise” unless it furthers a “compelling government interest” by the “least restrictive means.” Since 1993, 21 states have also adopted RFRAs of their own.

What HR 5 does is to remove—in most cases—the last religious freedom defense available—RFRA—against the imposition of the bill’s sexual ideology across the nation. Wedding vendors like Jack Phillips will be back in court again with no religious conscience defense to support their refusal to create a wedding cake for same-sex nuptials. Employers would have to provide insurance for abortion and so-called “sex-reassignment” procedures. Doctors and nurses and hospitals will have no defense for refusing to provide controversial medicines such as puberty blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones to people suffering from gender dysphoria, or for declining to remove healthy organs from such people in a vain attempt to change their sex.

Yes, there are conscience laws in other federal statutes and agency regulations that currently offer some conscience protection to religious institutions and healthcare professionals, but those won’t last long if HR 5 is passed. In fact, a court one day could rule that HR 5 supersedes any existing federal conscience protection that might otherwise apply.

This conscience-killing bill would relegate the free exercise of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment, to secondary status outside the public square. For those of us who are concerned that the current anti-Christian worldview we’re witnessing in politics and in the culture is meant to silence the Christian voice completely, the “Equality Act” will become our worst fears realized.

The Satanic Temple is Now a Tax-Exempt “Church” Says the IRS

This story is bound to raise a few eyebrows: The IRS just gave the Satanic Temple (ST) full tax-exempt status. The ST, not to be confused with the Church of Satan, has only been around since 2013. According to its website, members don’t actually believe in the supernatural or worship Satan. In fact the organization’s leader, Lucien Greaves, calls it more of a “resistance movement,” one that, like its more benignly named counterparts such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) or Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU), opposes what it sees as Christianity being too cozy with government.

In other words, it’s a secularist group that strongly supports the “separation of church and state” and sees a theocracy under every high school football game prayer or Ten Commandments monument. It’s basically just another anti-Christian group with a penchant for litigation and garnering media attention.

So why did the ST apply for an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) designation as a “church?” In its own words from an announcement on its website: “This [IRS] acknowledgment will help make sure the Satanic Temple has the same access to public spaces as other religious organizations, affirm our standing in court when battling religious discrimination, and enable us to apply for faith-based government grants.” Not exactly a blood sacrificing, howling at the moon sort of organization.

The IRS has criteria it applies when deciding whether an organization can be called a church, including a creed, doctrine, literature of its own, a religious history, established “places of worship,” etc. An organization attempting to qualify needs to meet most, but not all, of the criteria. We’re not sure how the ST qualified, but if an online store where you can buy satanic mugs and hoodies is a factor, they’ve got that covered.

The ST likes to make publicity waves by offering statues of Baphomet to state and local governments which have monuments like the Ten Commandments on public grounds, or offering to start an “After School Satan Club” at public schools that have Christian clubs. They make outlandish offers to gain media attention.

The latest IRS news, therefore, is just another attempt to get attention (and attract tax-deductible contributions, no doubt) rather than act as a signal that the U.S. government is endorsing satanic worship.