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I believe that in the United States, the religious civil liberties that are guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution are of utmost importance to disciples of Jesus.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

The United States was founded on the principle that God, not government, is the source of our fundamental rights. Our Founders, including the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, understood this clearly:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men. …

Here is some great news.

The Supreme Court delivered a major victory for religious liberty this week when it sided with a Catholic foster care agency over the city of Philadelphia, legal experts say.

The high court also signaled it may be ready to overturn a 1990 case that has been used to limit religious liberty.

The justices, in a unanimous 9-0 decision, ruled that the city of Philadelphia violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment when it tried forcing Catholic Social Services to place children in same-sex homes. “It is plain,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, “that the City’s actions have burdened CSS’s religious exercise by putting it to the choice of curtailing its mission or approving relationships inconsistent with its beliefs.”

Luke Goodrich, an attorney for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said the unanimous composition of the ruling “sends a powerful message that religious Americans are free to serve.”

“They don’t have to change their basic beliefs about marriage and family in order to join hands across faith lines and serve the neediest in society,” Goodrich tweeted.

The court’s ruling, he said, is not “narrow” as some claim.

“This is a profound victory for religious freedom,” Goodrich wrote. “It provides strong, UNANIMOUS protection for people of faith to serve the needy. And it forecasts even stronger protections in the years to come.”

Read more here —> Court’s Decision Was a ‘Profound Victory for Religious Liberty’ in LGBT Disputes: Experts