Author: Religious News

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado baker who won a partial U.S. Supreme Court victory after refusing to make a gay couple’s wedding cake because of his Christian faith lost an appeal Thursday in his latest legal fight, involving his rejection of a request for a birthday cake celebrating a gender transition.

The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that that the cake Autumn Scardina requested from Jack Phillips and Masterpiece Cakeshop, which was to be pink with blue frosting, is not a form of speech.

It also found that the state law that makes it illegal to refuse to provide services to people based on protected characteristics like race, religion or sexual orientation does not violate business owners’ right to practice or express their religion.

Relying on the findings of a Denver judge in a 2021 trial in the dispute, the appeals court said Phillips’ shop initially agreed to make the cake but then refused after Scardina explained that she was going to use it to celebrate her transition from male to female.

“We conclude that creating a pink cake with blue frosting is not inherently expressive and any message or symbolism it provides to an observer would not be attributed to the baker,” said the court, which also rejected procedural arguments from Phillips.

Phillips, who is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, maintains that the cakes he creates are a form of speech and plans to appeal.

“One need not agree with Jack’s views to agree that all Americans should be free to say what they believe, even if the government disagrees with those beliefs,” ADF senior counsel Jake Warner said in a statement.

John McHugh, one of the lawyers who represent Scardina, said the court looked carefully at all the arguments and evidence from the trial.

“They just object to the idea of Ms. Scardina wanting a birthday cake that reflects her status as a transgender woman because they object to the existence of transgender people,” he said of Phillips and his shop.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the

Colorado baker Jack Phillips is back in court, and this time he is seeking to appeal a ruling that punished him for refusing to bake a cake celebrating a gender transition.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, a Colorado district court judge fined Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop last year for refusing to bake the cake for Denver Attorney Autumn Scardina.

Scardina, a transgender woman, filed a lawsuit against Phillips in 2017 for refusing to design the gender transition cake because it did not align with his Christian faith.

On Wednesday, attorneys with the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom argued before the Colorado Court of Appeals that the ruling violated Phillips’ First Amendment rights. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Phillips.

“No one should be forced to express a message that violates their beliefs and conscience,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jake Warner, who argued in court on Phillip’s behalf, in a statement.

“Activists and state laws have threatened artists like Jack and graphic artist Lorie Smith because they can’t express messages on marriage and gender that violate their core beliefs. In this case, an activist attorney demanded that Jack create expressive cakes to test him and ‘correct the errors’ of his thinking,” Warner added. “The attorney even promised to sue Jack again if the case is dismissed for any reason. Free speech is for everyone. The Constitution protects the freedom of every American to express ideas even if the government disagrees with those ideas.”

On the same day Scardina requested the cake, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a separate case involving Phillips, who was already facing legal actions for refusing to bake a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding in 2012. The nation’s high court ruled in favor of Phillips in 2018.

According to The Denver Post, ADF is also representing Denver web d

(RNS) — Catholic bishops from Colorado asked Catholic lawmakers who voted in favor of abortion rights legislation earlier this year to “voluntarily refrain from Holy Communion,” according to an open letter signed Monday (June 6) and provided to Religion News Service.

“Voting for RHEA was participating in a gravely sinful action because it facilitates the killing of innocent unborn babies,” the bishops’ letter said, referring to the Reproductive Health Equity Act, “and those Catholic politicians who have done so have very likely placed themselves outside of the communion of the Church.”

The letter was signed by the Rev. Samuel J. Aquila, archbishop of Denver, and his auxiliary bishop, the Rev. Jorge H. Rodriguez; the Rev. Stephen J. Berg, bishop of Pueblo; and the Rev. James R. Golka, bishop of Colorado Springs.

The legislation, signed into law on April 4, prohibits state and local public entities from denying an individual’s right to use or refuse contraception, and their right to continue with a pregnancy or have an abortion.

“A pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion and to make decisions about how to exercise that right,” the act says. “A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of this state.”  

According to the bishops’ letter, hundreds testified against the bill in the Colorado House and Senate. The bishops wrote that they have made efforts to speak with the Catholic lawmakers who voted for the bill to “ensure that they understand the Church’s teaching on receiving Holy Communion,” but note that few lawmakers have accepted the invitation to meet.

The letter condemns these Catholic lawmakers for viewing “pre-born babies” as “worth less than those who have the gift of being born” and thanks four Catholic lawmakers who voted against the bill.

In an email to Religion News Service, Colorado Catholic Conference executive director Brittany Vessely said the conference estimates that around 10 baptized Catholic lawmakers voted for the legislation. By asking these lawmakers to “voluntarily refrain” from communion, Vessely said, the bishops place the burden of the decision “upon the consciences and souls of those politicians who have chosen to support this evil and unjust law” rather than on church leaders.

“The bishops also pray that these Catholic lawmakers will publicly repent and seek absolution through the sacrament of reconciliation,” she added. 

RELATED: Pelosi now barred from Communion in at least four dioceses

Jamie L. Manson, president of Catholics for Choice, said in a statement that Colorado’s Catholic bishops should listen to their people, noting that one in four abortion patients is Catholic. 

“Instead, in typically self-aggrandizing fashion, they’ve closed their ears, hardened their hearts, and dismissed these people of faith and the pro-choice majority who supports them as ‘unworthy,’ turning Jesus’s gift of his Body and Blood — his ultimate example of welcome and inclusion — into a weapon of division and exclusion,” wrote Manson. “The contrast between these so-called ‘shepherds’ in Colorado and the Good Shepherd they claim to serve speaks for itself.”

The RHEA ci

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law on Monday that pro-lifers say legalizes abortion up to the moment of birth by declaring that the unborn child “does not have independent” rights in the state.

The new law, dubbed the “Reproductive Health Equity Act” by supporters, calls abortion a “fundamental right” and says governments shall not “deny, restrict, interfere with, or discriminate against” an individual’s decision to “have an abortion.”

“A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of this state,” the new law says.

Supporters say the law is intended to protect legal abortion in the face of potential Supreme Court action on the issue. The high court is expected to issue a decision in a high-profile case by July and could overturn or severely curtail Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

Polis, in a statement, said the bill “codifies existing protections in statute.”

“This bill simply maintains this status quo regardless of what happens at the federal level and preserves all existing constitutional rights and obligations,” said Polis, a Democrat.

Pro-life activists, though, said the act goes beyond current law. Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, said the new Colorado law legalizes “abortions through all nine months, up until the moment of birth.”

“Besides the all-out war against children in-utero, because it defines abortion as a right, the law could also be used to attempt to force medical professionals to commit or participate in abortions,” Rose said. “There are zero conscience protections in the law.”

Besides the all-out war against children in-utero, because it defines abortion as a right, the law could also be used to attempt to force medical professionals to commit or participate in abort

A controversial Colorado bill that would legalize abortion for all nine months of pregnancy and that declares the fetus has no rights passed the state House of Representatives Tuesday.

The bill, known by supporters as the Reproductive Health Quality Act (HB 1279), declares abortion a “fundamental right” and notes that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade in the coming months. It passed the state House Tuesday, 40-24.

Pro-life activists call the bill radical and say it would roll back common-sense pro-life laws, such as parental notification requirements for teens and girls. 

The bill, if passed and signed into law, “could make Colorado the most radical abortion state in the country,” the Colorado Catholic Conference said.

The language of the bill itself has sparked controversy. 

“A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of this state,” the bill says.

It further states that a pregnant individual “has a fundamental right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion and to make decisions about how to exercise that right.”

Governments shall not “deny, restrict, interfere with, or discriminate against” an individual’s right to “have an abortion,” the bill says.

The Colorado Catholic Conference says the bill would “allow on-demand abortion for the full 40 weeks of pregnancy” and “allow abortion discrimination based on sex, race, or disability.” It also could “prohibit regulation of abortion based on the health of the woman or her baby,” the conference said. 

“HB 1279 violates the fundamental human right to life for millions of preborn children,” the conference said. “And it is out-of-touch with the desires of millions of Colorado voters. We must show Colorado lawmakers that they legislate on behalf of the people – and the people of Colorado do not want to live in the most radical abortion state in the country.”

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CNN reports that the shooter also wounded two other men, both of whom are pastors at the church. They were taken to the hospital and are expected to recover.

Jesus Montoya Villa fled the scene, and police are looking for him.

“It wasn’t just a random shooting inside this church,” Aurora Police spokesperson Matthew Longshore said at a news conference.

Madrid’s brother David Soto said his sister had ended the relationship with Jesus Montoya Villa, News 9 reports.

“As far as we know, there was a breakup, and she didn’t want anything to do with him. He kept following her and wouldn’t leave her alone,” Soto said. “She was an avid churchgoer, and ultimately that’s where she lost her life.”

Madrid was an active member of the church. She graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder and worked as a healthcare worker.

Madrid’s daughter, Adeya Vidales-Madrid, 16, told police that she hopes the shooter is caught.

“I want them to know that I want him to turn himself in, or for somebody to give information about him because he took my mom in a very cruel way that she did not deserve to go through,” she told news reporters.

Madrid’s mother, Carmen Herrera, echoed those sentiments.

“They took her from all of us. They took her from this world that she loved helping everybody in,” Herrera said. “She was such a loving person for everyone. Please help us get him. We have to get him off the s

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — When a Colorado woman found out her hospital wouldn’t approve her kidney transplant surgery until she got the COVID-19 vaccine, she was left with a difficult decision pitting her health needs against her religious beliefs.

Leilani Lutali, a born-again Christian, went with her faith.

Even though she has stage 5 kidney disease that puts her at risk of dying without a new kidney, Lutali, 56, said she could not agree to be vaccinated because of the role that fetal cell lines have played in the development of vaccines. Several types of cell lines created decades ago using fetal tissue are widely used in medical manufacturing but the cells in them today are clones of the early cells, not the original tissue.

“As a Christian, I can’t support anything that has to do with abortion of babies, and the sanctity of life for me is precious,” she said.

UCHealth requires transplant recipients to be vaccinated because recipients are at significant risk of contracting COVID-19 as well as being hospitalized and dying from the virus, spokesman Dan Weaver said. Unvaccinated donors could also pass COVID-19 to the recipient even if they initially test negative for the disease, he said.

“Studies have found transplant patients who contract COVID-19 may have a mortality rate of 20% or higher,” he said.

It’s not clear how common this type of policy is.

The American Hospital Association, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems and networks in the United States, said it did not have data to share on the issue. But it said many transplant programs insist that patients get vaccinated for COVID-19 because of the weakened state of their immune system.

While any type of surgery may stress a patient’s immune system and leave them vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 later, organ transplants recipients are even more at risk because they have to take a powerful regime of drugs to suppress their immune system to keep their body from rejecting the new organ, which is seen by the body as a foreign object, Nancy Foster, AHA’s vice president for quality and patient safety policy said in a statement.

“Further, if patients were to wait to get their vaccine until after the surgery, it is unlikely that their immune system could mount the desired antibody reaction given that they are taking anti-rejection medications,” she said.

Transplant centers in Washington, Vermont, Massachusetts and Alabama have polices requiring that recipients be vaccinated, according to news reports.

Cleveland Clinic recently decided to require COVID-19 vaccinations for both transplant recipients and living donors, the organization said in a statement.

Some health care systems recommend or strongly encourage vaccination for transplants, including the Mayo Clinic and Sentara Healthcare, two of t

A Christian school in Loveland, Colorado, has agreed to comply with state health officials in implementing COVID-19 protocols after previously refusing to do so.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, Resurrection Christian School (RCS) recently had an outbreak where nearly 40 people were confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19.

In response, Larimer County officials issued an order last Thursday stating that the school must implement numerous COVID-19 protocols or possibly be shut down.

The protocols include universal mask mandates and social distancing. They also require the school to record vaccination statuses for all students and staff and “conduct contract tracing for quarantine of all close contacts” for those who have not been fully vaccinated or who tested positive for COVID-19 within 90 days of a reported confirmed illness.

At the time, the school refused to comply with the order. According to the school’s superintendent, Jerry Eshleman, the decision to mask and vaccinate children should solely be left up to the parents. Additionally, RCS had sought legal counsel in pushing back against the order.

On Tuesday, Larimer County Health Department spokesperson Kori Wilford told The Christian Post that RCS has decided to cooperate with health officials in putting the protocols into place.

“RCS is working with our team to implement practices and protocols designed to keep as many students and staff learning and working safely, in person, while the outbreak resolves,” Wilford explained.

“The best practices required of RCS are proven strategies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and stop the current climb in cases associated with the outbreak,” she asserted. “The hope is that by implementing these measures quickly, the risk to students, staff, and visitors to the school will be reduced, and in-person learning can

Public health officials are threatening to shut down Resurrection Christian School (RCS) in Loveland, Colorado if the school fails to comply with state COVID-19 protocols.

In an order issued last Thursday, public health officials call on RCS to implement several steps following a recent COVID-19 outbreak at the school, where 36 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus. Twelve others are believed to have possibly fallen ill with COVID-19 since the school year started on Aug. 17.

According to the protocols, the school must implement universal masking for all staff, students, and visitors for at least two weeks or through Sept. 26, or until the outbreak is resolved. Additionally, the Christian school must implement social distancing guidelines in and outside of the classroom and create seating charts, rosters and lists indicating the vaccination status of all students and staff.

As reported by CBN News, RCS must also “conduct contract tracing for quarantine of all close contacts” for those who have not been fully vaccinated or who tested positive for COVID-19 within 90 days of a reported confirmed illness.

“LCDHE is concerned about the health of the students, staff, and visitors of RCS and the failure thus far to effectively implement any control measures. It has resulted in additional cases and unnecessary risk to those in the school,” the public health order states in part. “Maintaining in-person learning is the primary goal, but this cannot be possible if the outbreak continues and cases increase.”

Kori Wilford, a spokesperson for the County Health Department, noted that if the school refuses to implement the protocol, then “it would be risking the opportunity for the outbreak to expand and impact the health and safety of students and staff. “

“If additional measures such as wearing masks, increased distancing and improving ventilation are not effective in stopping an increase in cases, a closure would be the next step to protect public health,”

“It is clear that the Taliban is a violent organization,” wrote the congressman, noting that he “did not find a single fact check on any of their tweets, nor any warnings for false or misleading content.”

“It is impossible to see how the accounts of [Taliban members] Zabihullah Mujahid and Yousef Ahmadi do not violate your policies.”

Lamborn said he worried that Twitter has a political bias “in its algorithms.”

A Twitter spokesperson told Newsweek his week that the company “continues to proactively enforce our rules and review content that may violate Twitter rules, specifically policies against glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.”

The official said that Twitter will hold the Taliban accounts to its content standards.

In comparison, Facebook does not allow content that promotes the Taliban.

“The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law, and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday.

In January, former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter after hundreds of pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Some pointed to Tr