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Are charter schools "state actors"?

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board has authorized an explicitly Roman Catholic virtual charter school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, to begin operation in the 2024-2025 school year. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a pretend-conservative and Biden for President donor who won the GOP nomination with the help...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 5, 2024 9:09 PM

Hostile reaction to DOJ religious liberty task force

Today Attorney General Jeff Sessions held a press conference announcing the Justice Department's religious liberty task force. The summary of Sessions's statement provided on Good Morning America's Facebook page did not seem at all alarming -- in fact it seemed welcome and overdue: Sessions says the task force will "help...

Posted by Michael Bates on July 31, 2018 7:50 AM

Gov. Fallin signs law to protect Oklahoma adoption agencies from leftist fascists

UPDATED: Gov. Fallin signed SB1140 on Friday evening, May 11, 2018. The Oklahoma legislature has approved (UPDATE: and Gov. Fallin has signed) a bill, SB1140, protecting the rights of an adoption agency to use its own judgment and principles in finding the best home for a child. That seems like...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 11, 2018 11:07 PM

Trump's religious freedom executive order: "A sop"

But Trump is Cyrus or Constantine or something.... Yahoo News: Trump's executive order disappoints religious conservatives "The executive order on the whole looks to accomplish very little of substance, against the backdrop of a lot of show," said John Inazu, a professor of law and religion at Washington University in...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 5, 2017 12:57 PM

Lankford: SQ 790 corrects virus in Oklahoma Constitution

In a November 1, 2016, speech to pastors in Tulsa, U. S. Senator James Lankford likened Article II, Section 5, of the Oklahoma Constitution to a latent computer virus. Lankford warned that unless Oklahomans repeal that section by passing SQ 790, anti-religion litigants will be able to use the provision...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 6, 2016 9:42 AM

Oklahoma SQ 790: The First Amendment, not Oklahoma's special version

Oklahoma State Question 790 is a legislative referendum which would remove a discriminatory and inconsistently applied provision in the Constitution of Oklahoma that deals with the relationship of religion and government. Its passage would allow the People of Oklahoma through our elected representatives to weigh and balance a variety of...

Posted by Michael Bates on October 30, 2016 11:19 PM

LWVTulsa Hot Topic Lunch on SQ 790

The League of Women Voters of Tulsa are holding a "Hot Topic Lunch" at the newly remodeled Central Library next Tuesday, October 11, 2016, to discuss SQ 790. I will be arguing in favor of the state question, which repeals Article II, Section 5, the discriminatory "Blaine Amendment" language in...

Posted by Michael Bates on October 7, 2016 6:34 PM

OKWU's Piper: Personhood is more than proclivities

As many conservatives attempted to explain to their libertarian-leaning friends, the push for "gay marriage" was never about liberty; it's about coercion -- forcing Americans, under penalty of law, to treat same-sex pseudogamy as the equivalent of natural marriage. Five black-robed tyrants have imposed their religious views of human sexuality...

Posted by Michael Bates on July 23, 2015 12:24 AM

Christian bakery faces discrimination charge over pro-"gay marriage" Bert & Ernie cake

Ashers Baking Co, a Christian-owned chain of bakeries in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland, has been sent a letter from the Equality Commission for refusing an order to make a cake featuring a picture of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, the message "Support Gay Marriage," and the logo of an...

Posted by Michael Bates on July 8, 2014 6:03 PM

Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom noon Friday, March 23, 2012

Americans will rally in 140 cities across the nation at noon tomorrow, Friday, March 23, 2012, to protest the Obamacare HHS mandate requiring nearly all private health insurance plans to cover "all FDA-approved prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, surgical sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs," overriding an employer's moral convictions. Tulsa's rally...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 22, 2012 12:53 PM

Remember the persecuted church

This morning, Christians will gather in freedom across America and throughout the western world to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, His victory over death. Although our faith is the object of ridicule and contempt, none of us in the west need fear arrest, imprisonment, or torture because of our faith....

Posted by Michael Bates on April 12, 2009 12:32 AM