Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Catholic bookstore in Jacksonville filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging a city law that requires Queen of Angels Catholic Bookstore to speak against its beliefs and to silence its religious views to remain in business. Queen of Angels is a Catholic bookstore that serves the Jacksonville community by selling books, crucifixes, and other Catholic resources to the public…
“Christie established Queen of Angels bookstore to serve the Jacksonville community and to share her Catholic beliefs, but city officials threaten her with unlimited fines if she does so,” said ADF Senior Counsel Hal Frampton. “This case is the latest example of government officials across the country using radical ideology to cancel those who disagree. Punishing someone because of their views not only runs afoul of the First Amendment, but it also has devastating consequences for free speech, working professionals, women, and children.”
ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, Queen of Angels Catholic Bookstore v. City of Jacksonville, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division. Read More»
Alliance Defending Freedom | “Catholic bookstore challenges Jacksonville law requiring it to speak against its religious beliefs” | February 22, 2023
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In Jacksonville, FL.
I would expect this in San Francisco or Chicago, but I am surprised to see just how much headway the LGBTQ steamroller has made in a relatively conservative part of the country.
Tom – yes, indeed. The irony in all of this (or maybe disgust would be a better word) is that the people pushing the the LGBTQ+ agenda are a very small minority, according to opinion polls taken by various independent organizations. Yet, they get front row seats at the theater of shout because the media supports them. And by media I mean not just the broadcast TV and radio news and commentary sources, though they are bad enough, but the social media outlets which are much, much worse about spreading FUD.
But the real problem in the context of this current post is the “church” itself. And by that I mean mainline protestant denominations who have supported the drift to the acceptance of anyone with any particular deviation as normative to “christianity” (and I’m using lower case letters here on purpose). As Machen foresaw coming one hundred years ago in his landmark “Christianity and Liberalism,” mainline denominations have abdicated anything even close to orthodoxy for the acceptance of popular political and social trends. I know of one mainline denomination who has not only gone along with the entire spectrum of apostasy, from casting a blind eye to lodge memberships, to female ordination, to every kind of late 20th Century deviation of the LGBTQ+ agenda, but have also modified scripture passages such as John 14:6 to say, ” I am A way, truth, and life” vs. the fully accurate Greek containing the articles “THE” throughout the passage.
As Machen said, these “modernists” are of a different religion (than true Christianity). The problem is that they’re getting the audience, though in many cases they represent a declining membership despite their abdication. So… the “church” as it is often viewed by the general public, needs to clean up its act before we can expect any turning away from these kinds of violations. If I knew of a way that could force these false “christian” denominations to remove any semblance of true Christianity from their banners I would support it.
But as Pogo from the well-known newspaper comic strip was once known to have said while he was gazing upon a woods littered with all kinds of human refuse, “We have met the enemy and he is us.* ”
*A parody or paraphrase of Admiral Perry’s famous quote during the battle of Lake Erie, “We have met the enemy and he is ours.” Unfortunately, in this case he is not ours, but he is God’s to deal with. Pray, praise, and partake – of the sacraments, that is, until we see full consummation of his kingdom.
In addressing a group of priests back in 2010, the late archbishop of the Chicago diocese, Francis Cardinal George, said, “… I expect to die in bed [which he did], my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square…” Back then it was a little hard to believe, but not anymore.
We went from “tolerance and acceptance” which we all knew from the beginning it wasn’t, to comply with our worldview or be punished. Things “prophesied” by men like Francis Schaeffer that were going to happen years ago are playing out in real time.