Well some good news 🙂 ~ yesterday the Supreme Court actually reaffirmed America’s freedom of religion ~ from CBN News:

In a surprising unanimous decision from the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, all nine justices ruled the government has no right to tell a religious organization what ministerial employees it can hire and fire.

 
Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC began here in Michigan at the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School (Redord,MI). Cheryl Perich, an elementary teacher who also led chapel devotions, became ill and unable to work, so the school replaced her with a substitute. As the Wall Street Journal related;

In the middle of the school year she sought to return and then, instead of attempting to work out the dispute through the church’s reconciliation process, she threatened to sue.
 
As relations broke down, the church congregation voted to withdraw her “call” to the ministry, and she ceased to be eligible for her prior job. She sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, with the support of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

 
Although federal statutes, which ban employment discrimination based on race, sex, age and disability, do not contain an express exception for church employees, for 40 years the lower courts have applied a “ministerial exception,” preventing the government from having a say in minister selection or retention.

Courts have reasoned that the separation between church and state protects the ability of churches to choose their own clergy just as it protects the state from any control by churches.

 
Before Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, the Supreme Court had never spoken to the issue. World Magazine has a good recap of their decision:

“We are reluctant … to adopt a rigid formula for deciding when an employee qualifies as a minister,” Roberts wrote in the decision. Kagan and Alito, in their concurring opinion, wrote that the “title” of minister “is neither necessary nor sufficient,” given the variety of religions in the United States, but rather courts must defer to the religious organization’s evaluation of the employee’s role.
 
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in favor of the teacher, saying she did not qualify as a minister because she spent more minutes of the day teaching secular subjects than religious subjects. The Supreme Court scoffed at that idea. “The issue before us … is not one that can be resolved by a stopwatch,” Roberts wrote.

 
This little aside in the article was pretty amusing:
 

(Justice)Alito, perhaps dryly, added 1 Corinthians 6:1-7 in the notes of his concurring opinion, verses that tell believers not to go before “the ungodly for judgment.”

 

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Related:
 

While the court’s decision is definitely good news for religious liberty, the pessimist in me wonders whether the followers of Allah might not use the case to advance Shariah law. After all, the 10 Circuit Court of Appeals just decided that the voter-approved Oklahoma law banning any implementation of Shariah law was unconstitutional ~ Shariah in America’s courts ~ Koranic law: Coming to a city near you
 
Although Holder’s Department of Injustice (& Assorted Atheists) felt that the church case was worthy of prosecution, this, apparently is not: Obama’s DOJ Refuses to Investigate #OccupyWallStreet’s Threat to Public Safety. Nope, no agenda here folks.
 
LCMS before the Supreme Court
 

Yesterday, January 6th, was the Feast of the Epiphany – or Three Kings’ Day. Traditionally celebrated by the church on the first Sunday following the 6th, Epiphany is a celebration of the arrival of the Wise Men to worship the newborn Christ Child.
And, I may add, the reason our Christmas decorations are still up. 🙂
 
January 6th is also the day that is traditionally observed as the birth date of Joan of Arc. In fact, yesterday, the French celebrated her 600th birthday…
 

And how typical of the magic of Joan’s story that she should have been born on so important a Christian holiday, the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrating Christ’s baptism and the coming of the Magi. Just another wonder in the life of the transcendent young woman who heard the voices of angels and presented the dauphin of France with a secret sign that only he would know, a sign that convinced him of her authenticity as a messenger from God.

Source: Kansas City Star ~ Celebrating the real Joan of Arc

 
Except, no one is certain when the “Maid of Orleans” was actually born. The Star’s article points out that the coincidental date with Three Kings Day was probably chosen for purely political purposes;

Which is a shame because of all the stories in the world, Joan’s is one of the least in need of embellishment. She should not be remembered because she showed the dauphin some trinket, or was an illegitimate member of the French royal family, or revealed secrets that no one else knew (all of which are, like the Jan. 6 date, almost certainly mythological). What makes Joan an iconic figure, as inspirational today as she was six centuries ago, was her faith, her unswerving dedication to her cause and, above all, her astounding bravery. It was this bravery that was demonstrated at her very first battle when, as the wounded French soldiers, bloodied and disheartened, streamed back to the safety of the walls of Orleans, 17-year-old Joan rushed out into the crush of arrows and swords to give battle.

Mark Twain’s Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc is probably the least known of all his works. But it’s my favorite – actually one of my all-time favorite books, period – and it was also his personal favorite:

“I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none.”
~ Mark Twain ~

 
Twain fictionalizes Joan’s story somewhat, but only to better tell the tale. The miracles of her life and accomplishments need no embroidering. It’s an excellent book and a wonderful story. One that inspires the reader to look beyond daily trivialities to higher things.

“Consider this unique and imposing distinction. Since the writing of human history began, Joan of Arc is the only person, of either sex, who has ever held supreme command of the military forces of a nation at the age of seventeen.” ~ Louis Kossuth ~