FIC Blog

[Update: Although the Fortnight for Freedom has come and gone, FIC’s 2012 Religious Liberty Tour will continue. The speaking schedule at the end of this blog post will be updated regularly with more events.]

You know about the increasing attacks on religious liberty overseas and even here in our own country. In fact, if you are a regular reader of FIC’s email alerts, you know that Connecticut is oftentimes the first place where attacks on faith and family are launched and that the Family Institute of Connecticut plays a key role in fighting back.

In the last few years FIC has become a de-facto anti-defamation league for Christians and other people of faith in Connecticut. We helped beat back an outrageous legislative assault on the Catholic Church. We secured the strongest religious liberty protections against same-sex “marriage” in the nation. We defended First Cathedral, a Baptist mega-church in Bloomfield, against the ACLU.

As a guarantor of religious freedom in Connecticut, it was natural for FIC to take up the fight against the federal HHS mandate, which will require religious institutions and other employers of conscience to pay for and provide abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilizations even if it violates their beliefs.

This is not just a Catholic issue. If the federal government can do this to the biggest religious denomination in the country then it has the power to force all of us, whatever our denomination, to violate our beliefs.

That is why Family Institute of Connecticut is pleased to join the Catholic Church, the Family Research Council and other organizations in observing a “Fortnight for Freedom,” a period of prayer and public education beginning today (June 21) and concluding on America’s Independence Day, July 4th. These two weeks have been set aside to celebrate our heritage of religious liberty and educate the American people about the growing threats to our first freedom.

At the request of the Archdiocese of Hartford, FIC executive director Peter Wolfgang has been on a speaking tour in local churches to make people aware of how the HHS Mandate threatens our freedoms and what we can do about it. But religious liberty isn’t just a Catholic issue. The stakes are enormous…and all people of faith need to stand together to defend our freedom as believing citizens.

Below is the current list of Peter’s Presentations on Religious Liberty. Please join us at one of these events:

• Monday, June 25, 7:30 pm: Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, Chiara Center, San Damiano Room 275 Finch Ave, Meriden
• Tuesday, June 26, 7 pm: Face of Pro-Life live call-in TV show. Contact Friars of the Immmaculate at friars@figuadalupe.com to locate station near you.
• Saturday, June 30, 1 pm: My Father’s House, 39 North Moodus Road, Moodus
• Tuesday, July 3, 7 pm: St. Catherine of Siena, 265 Stratton Brook Road, West Simsbury
• Saturday, July 7, 12:05 pm: Special Edition Saturday on WATR, 1320 AM, Waterbury
• Tuesday, July 10, 7 pm: St. Joseph Church, 31 Oak Street, Winsted
• Sunday, July 22, 6:30 pm: Southbury Baptist Church, 114 Roxbury Road Southbury
• Tuesday, July 24, 7:30 pm: St. Joseph Parish Center, 48 Middlesex Ave, Chester
• Thursday, July 26, 7 pm: St. Augustine Church, 35 Washington Ave, Seymour
• Wednesday, August 1, 7:30 pm: Immaculate Conception, 74 West Main Street, Waterbury
• Friday, September 14, 7:30 pm: Knights of Columbus Council 1155, St. James Church Hall, 896 Main Street, Manchester
• Sunday, October 14, 5:00 pm: Church of the Nativity, 48 East Street, Bethlehem (starts with pot luck dinner)
• Monday, October 15, 1747 Poquonock Avenue,  Windsor (tentative, to be confirmed)
• Saturday, October 27: Connecticut Catholic Men’s Conference, East Hartford (tentative, to be confirmed)
• Monday, October 29: Holy Trinity Parish, Wallingford (tentative, to be confirmed)

As you can see, the dates above extend well beyond the Fortnight for Freedom. If you are a religious institution in Connecticut that would like to have Peter as a speaker, please contact Mary Lou Peters at the Archdiocese’s Pro-Life Ministry office at 203-745-7300.

Though Peter’s appearances are being booked through the Archdiocese, we encourage you to call whether you are Protestant, Catholic or Jewish. As a non-sectarian pro-family organization, Family Institute of Connecticut defends the religious liberty of all believers in Connecticut.

This FIC Blog post, originally an email alert to our members, has already been updated to include information that was not in the original message. Be sure to check this post regularly for more updates. (And check out Peter’s response to a Hartford Courant editorial criticizing the Fortnight for Freedom.)

Except for goodwill offerings being taken at the events, FIC is not being paid for most of Peter’s speeches. We rely entirely on God’s providence and your generosity to pay our bills. Please click here to send your most generous tax-deductible donation to FIC during these lean summer months, when we struggle to survive. All contributions will be doubled during our Matching Grant Campaign.