Editorial: Let chaplains attend to the condemned
Appeals court rules Texas Bishops involved in fetal burials need not share information with abortion clinics
Texas churches’ request for FEMA relief moving forward
Lawyers for health agency, religious nonprofits present case to federal appeals court
April 7, 2015, Houston Chronicle
The federal government Tuesday took its case against Houston Baptist University and a group of other Texas religious nonprofits to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the groups not only want to deprive their workers of mandated birth control options but prevent anyone else from providing them.
Eric Rassbach, a Becket Fund for Religious Liberty lawyer representing the Houston university and Marshall’s East Texas Baptist University, later said his clients believe that, like churches, they should simply be allowed not to provide forms of contraception they find objectionable.
Health care law forces choices that violate Christian university’s mission
April 2, 2015, Houston Chronicle
ETBU should never have been put in this position. Freedom of religion – which includes the freedom to believe and act in accordance to your beliefs no matter what the government says – is our most fundamental right. Our rights, after all, do not come from the state; therefore, the state cannot take them away.
Unfortunately, the federal government has devoted countless hours and resources to fighting those who object in the courts – and the Becket Fund has spent the last four years fighting for a fair exemption for religious employers. Apparently, the government really needs to beat down on Americans who don’t sign onto their agenda. These Americans include ETBU, 29 other universities, and religious charities like our clients, the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Catholic nuns who literally beg to support their homes for the elderly poor.