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Religious Freedom
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Courageously, former supermodel and fashion entrepreneur Kathy Ireland made the Yezidis her cause. According to the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation: “As this horrific genocide unfolded, Kathy not only lobbied Congress to respond, but responded herself by supporting women-led initiatives to rescue Yezidis and address the hatred and prejudices that created an environment where such atrocities could occur. To this day, almost 3,000 Yezidi women and children remain missing and almost 300,000 Yezidis still live in displacement camps in northern Iraq.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
To say that a person’s faith is very personal and important is to state the obvious. To observe, however, that what a person believes is part of that person, and as often as not defines that person, takes empathy and a wish to understand people as individuals, rather than as a demographic mass.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
To this day, the effects of that shot continue to be felt as nations come to grips with the concept of individual freedom.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
I sang it in school. I sang it at home. I sang it in the car while riding with my parents. And I must say, in all honesty that at age 6 I had no clue what it meant.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
We talked as he cut my hair and I discovered that he’d only been living in the U.S. for 18 months. I asked what he thought of the U.S. and without any hesitation he said, “This is the greatest country in the world.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Like many Americans, I tend to take for granted that we have religious freedom in this country.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
There is a lot to deal with to set things right and bring about true religious freedom in the world.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
What the pandemic showed me is that we can no longer take our faith and congregations for granted. A time may come again where we could be separated indefinitely from the real-world, flesh-and-blood, brick-and-mortar, united practice of the religions we hold so dear. As such, since our church re-opened, my family and I have been even more “religious” about attending.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
As a 7th grader, I visited the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., where there is a quote in huge letters around the inner dome of the building. It reads: “ I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The New York State decision is not going to be the end of the discussion. Other cases are pending. Legislative bodies have become involved, such as a bill introduced into the Oklahoma State Senate to prevent government bodies from restricting lawful religious activities and recognizing the essential nature of churches.
