Religious News From Around the Web August 2, 2021

More Religious Rights vs LGBTQ Rights; Force Catholic Hospital to Perform Abortions Says New York Civil Liberties Union; Religious Americans Less Likely to Believe in Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life; Designer Loses Case for Refusing to Make Same-Sex Website; Communist Dictators and Religious Belief; Olympic Athletes of Faith

More Religious Rights vs LGBTQ Rights
Some justices on the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Catholic agency in Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia, are seen as questioning the future of Employment Division v. Smith, a landmark decision known for changing the scope of free exercise doctrine. Similar questions on religious freedom and LGBTQ rights are also at the center of debate over the proposed Equality Act in Congress. The bill aims to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in a wide range of areas.

Force Catholic Hospital to Perform Abortions Says New York Civil Liberties Union
The New York Civil Liberties Union said Monday that state regulators should require a Catholic Health System to offer abortions and other procedures banned by the Catholic Church at a planned new hospital in Lockport, NY.

Religious Americans Less Likely to Believe in Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
Religious and secular thinkers alike have long discussed what the implications for religion would be if humans discovered intelligent life on other planets. In the United States, highly religious adults are much more skeptical about the possibility of extraterrestrial life compared with those who are less religious, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Designer Loses Case for Refusing to Make Same-Sex Website
A U.S. appeals court has ruled against a web designer who didn’t want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples and sued to challenge Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, another twist in a series of court rulings nationwide about whether businesses denying services to LGBTQ people amounts to bias or freedom of speech. “The government should never force creative professionals to promote a message or cause with which they disagree,” said the Alliance Defending Freedom that represented the designer. “That is quintessential free speech and artistic freedom.” The group said it would appeal

Communist Dictators and Religious Belief

Communist regimes begin by crushing and stripping away the religious liberty of its citizens. And once a dictatorial ruling elite succeeds at destroying religious freedom and subjugating houses of worship, it’s only a matter of time before other fundamental freedoms — economic, political and social — are ripped away as well.
Athletes of Faith Compete in Olympics
The controversy and context surrounding the 2020 Olympics pose an opportunity to think about the Games through a lens of faith. From a Muslim track and field athlete to Israel’s first surfer, here is a guide to the Games for the religiously-minded. These are the Olympians to watch in Tokyo who have publicly spoken about their faith and its impact on their athletic careers.