A Christian couple have been charged with a criminal offence after taking part in what they regarded as a reasonable discussion about religion with guests at their hotel.
Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were arrested after a Muslim woman complained to police that she had been offended by their comments.
They have been charged under public order laws with using ‘threatening, abusive or insulting words’ that were ‘religiously aggravated’.
[…]After the incident, the couple voluntarily attended St Anne’s Street police station in Liverpool, where they were interviewed under caution.
In July they were arrested and charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 and Section 31 (1) (c) and (5) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
This kind of law reminds me of Section 13(1) up north in Canada. These hate speech laws are passed by the left to undermine the inalienable right of free speech. It is selectively applied by the left against their enemies (e.g. – Christians) for the benefit of special interest groups favored by the left (e.g. – Muslims).
Recently, the popular Chief Minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh died in a helicopter crash.What was not widely known before his death was that Reddy was a Christian! One of a small 3% minority of Christians in India, which is dominated by the Hindu religion. Let’s see whether his Christian faith made any difference in the way he was perceived by others.
Andhra Pradesh plunged into gloom Thursday as it became known that Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had died in a helicopter crash in the dense Nallamalla forests.
People cried inconsolably in the state secretariat, the chief minister’s camp office and Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of the ruling Congress party.
“He is my God. I can’t believe he is no more,” wailed a Congress party worker.
“He gave life to several people through Rajiv Arogyasri (health insurance scheme for poor). Nobody had imagined he will lose his life this way,” said another Congress worker.
Riding on the sympathy wave following the death of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh made a sweep of the byelections to local bodies.
Of the 18 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies that went to polls two days ago, 15 fell in Congress kitty.
[…]The same was the case with the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies where Congress clinched 12 out of 17 that went to by-elections.
[…]In municipal corporations, [Congress] won four out of five wards…
After statues and temples immortalising late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the popular leader who died in a helicopter crash early this month will come alive on the silver screen.
Telugu actor Rajasekhar will play the role of YSR, as the late leader was popularly known. Producer-director Puri Jagannath announced Monday evening that he would make the Telugu film titled Rajasekhara Reddy.
Flanked by actor couple Rajasekhar and Jeevitha, Jagannath said he was feeling honoured to make a movie on the towering leader, who enjoyed unbelievable popularity among masses.
“YSR was immensely popular. A large number of his fans died of shock or committed suicide after hearing about his death in the helicopter crash,” he said.
This brings me to the role of religious minorities in India…
Christians form around 3 per cent of the population of India. There are not many very big Christian landowners or Christian industrial houses… Nevertheless, the community enjoys 100 per cent literacy and has done more for education and medical services of our country than others put together. I would hazard a guess that crime rates including corruption among Christians are probably the lowest.
By contrast, Sikhs who are the richest minority, forming around 2 per cent of the population, have 30 per cent illiteracy, high rate of crimes of violence, and probably the highest incidence of liquor and drug addiction. Worst of all is the plight of the largest minority, the Muslims who form about 13 per cent of our population. Although they have a few multi-billionaires … their literacy rates are the lowest, particularly among women… Instead of getting on with things that matter like education and health-care, their leaders waste most of their time asserting their separateness.
I regard Rajasekhar Reddy as the best example of what a state Chief Minister should be and the Christian contribution to India’s welfare as something other communities should emulate.
Meanwhile, in the West, we have the ACLU trying to suppress the public expression of the very faith that rationally grounds good works. You cannot have the good works of Christianity without the Christian beliefs. How hard is this for atheists to understand? On the atheistic view, survival of the fittest and the pursuit of pleasure in the here and now is rationally grounded. Self-sacrificial love for your neighbor is irrational on atheism.
A judge has ruled in favor of two Florida school administrators who faced contempt charges for saying a prayer at a school luncheon, according to a group that helped represent them.
U.S. District Judge M.C. Rodgers ruled Thursday in favor of Frank Lay, principal of Pace High School in Pace, Florida, and school athletic director Robert Freeman, the Liberty Counsel said.
Lay and Freeman could have faced up to six months in prison and fines if convicted. They were accused of violating a consent decree banning county school employees from initiating prayers during school events.
[…]But the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawsuit led to the consent decree, has maintained students have a right to be free from administrators who foist their personal religious beliefs on them.
Fascism is the idea that the state suppresses the inalienable rights of its citizenry by substituting the values and duties of the government (the rulers) for the values and duties of individuals.
Here’s how it works:
Inalienable human rights are granted by the Creator
Only the Creator of the universe can grant inalienable human rights to his creatures
Freedom of religious expression is self-evidently an inalienable human right
Christians exercise their freedom of religious expression
Atheists in the ACLU don’t believe in a Creator
If there is no Creator, then “rights” are just social conventions that vary by time and place
So atheists in the ACLU cannot ground inalienable human rights
Without an inalienable right to freedom of religious expression, suppressing the religious liberty others is permissible
Atheists in the ACLU can use government to silence, suppress and imprison unwilling Christians
Atheists in the ACLU are offended by the free expression of Christianity in public
Therefore, atheists in the ACLU find it rational to suppress the human rights of their neighbors using state coercion
There is no such thing as human rights in an atheistic “survival of the fittest” universe.
Atheists in the ACLU prefer to use the state to suppress any public religious expression, because the public expression of religion makes them feel badly. The feelings of atheists is sufficient to justify silencing, suppressing, imprisoning and in even killing people who make them feel bad. They are not so much interesting in debating the merits of the cosmological argument – they just want to shut down dissent so they can feel comfortable about their atheism.
Here is my entire series of posts explaining why moral behavior is irrational on atheism. Their worldview just doesn’t ground objective moral values, objective moral duties, self-sacrifice and the significance of moral decisions. And when the chips are down, they show their fascist colors. Atheists want to dismiss the claims of objective morality so they can pursue pleasure, and they don’t want you using your freedoms to remind them of their own depravity.
UPDATE: Kreitsauce is from the panhandle and writes this comment below:
I’m from the Florida panhandle, and we thought this whole thing was ridiculous because:
1. Lay and Freeman have done an unbelievable amount of good for the school and the community. It’s real Christianity making a difference that has had such a profound impact.
2. The school already teaches a Bible elective.
3. The school meeting where the prayer took place was housed in a church.
4. The prayer was spontaneous, not a willful violation of criminal law.
5. All protests have been peaceful, even in the face of opposition. The believers have mostly been praying and singing hymns.
6. Lay and Freeman have strong student, community, and parent support.
WINTERY KNIGHT 