Daily Archives: August 28, 2009

Christian Post: “School officials in Spencer, Iowa, are putting the brakes on a proposed ‘religious liberty’ policy that would allow students to critique Darwinism and study the Bible, among other things. Protests and criticism from nonreligious groups and advocates have led officials to reconsider implementing the policy.”

Christian Newswire: “This week the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ordered that the Chicago-based Thomas More Society could file an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the New York State Catholic Conference to defend traditional marriage in the case of Kenneth Lewis v. New York State Department of Civil Service.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “You’ve heard that Equality California and other same-sex marriage groups suggest waiting until 2012 to ask California voters to approve same sex marriage. But don’t sleep on seeing a ballot measure in 2010 just yet. As we speak, the 700,000-member Courage Campaign is pumping more than $200,000 into researching and focus-grouping possible ballot language around California . . . ”

ACLU: “A federal judge today struck down unconstitutional portions of Connecticut’s campaign finance law because they unfairly discriminated against third party candidates. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Connecticut filed a lawsuit challenging the law on behalf of the Green and Libertarian Parties of Connecticut and several individuals in July 2006.”

Green Party of Conn. v. Garfield, No. 3:06cv1030 (D. Conn. Aug. 27, 2009)

Gary Bauer writes at Townhall: “Enhanced interrogation is not to be considered lightly, but the use of enhanced interrogation techniques does not require moral people to abandon their beliefs. Rather, it is precisely during these difficult times that one’s beliefs about life, justice and mercy become indispensible. Just War Theory applied to the thorny issue of torture acknowledges the dignity of all human life and the abhorrence of torture. But it also creates a set of conditions that, if met, justify the use of force to save innocent lives facing imminent death.”

Law.com: “The challenge, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, is one of four lawsuits in different parts of the country that ask federal courts to strike down all or parts of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) . . . Although he called the Massachusetts challenges ‘well-planned and coordinated,’ Brian Raum, senior counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund, which supports the 1996 law, said, ‘I think all four suits are serious challenges. We are confident they ultimately will not prevail. The federal law is clearly constitutional.’”

Baptist Press: “The race for Iowa District 90 usually would go unnoticed if not for the fact that the high court issued its ruling in April legalizing ‘gay marriage’ . . . The Alliance Defense Fund — an intervenor in the case — applauded Carter’s ruling. ‘Marriage is not just any two people in a committed relationship,’ ADF attorney Brian Raum said in a statement.”

WWMT: “Some college professors at Calvin College are angry over a memo urging that they not support gay issues, such as same sex marriage. The Board of Trustees at Calvin College sent the memo in August. The memo says that it’s not acceptable to the board for faculty and staff to teach, write, or support homosexual issues.”

The Oregonian: “The massive new headquarters for Planned Parenthood Columbia-Willamette under construction at Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Beech Street has become a focus for community tension about abortion.”

Religion Clause Blog: “The Petoskey, Michigan School Board, during a closed portion of its August 18 meeting, voted unanimously to change the school calendar so that “Winter Holiday Break” is now called “Christmas Break” . . . in response to an e-mail (full text) from the Board’s treasurer, Jack Waldvogel . . . ”

Tri-City Herald: “After a two-month delay, the Pasco Planning Commission is expected to vote Sept. 17 on a controversial proposal for a Planned Parenthood facility in Pasco.”

ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Moody Radio Morning Program to discuss the case of a nurse forced to participate in an abortion.

The MP3 runs just over 13 minutes.

Related ADF media information page on the case, Cenzon-DeCarlo v. The Mount Sinai Hospital: ADF rebuts NY hospital’s claim that pro-life nurse can’t sue

ADF attorney Steve Aden appeared on Relevant Radio’s Drew Mariani Show to discuss pending litigation that challenges government funding of embryonic stem cell research.

The MP3 runs just over 9 minutes.

Related ADF press releases

What’s Wrong With the World: “It is absolutely obvious to anyone who reads the ADF’s motions that the court has ordered the child into public school so that she will be in an environment more hostile to her faith and hence more challenging to it.”

Concord Monitor (AP): “The Alliance Defense Fund has asked a family court judge to reconsider a decision last month that sends the 10-year-old daughter of Brenda Voydatch to a public school in Meredith.”

Sioux City Journal: “U.S. Rep. Steve King, who announced Thursday he will not run for governor, said any successful GOP candidate will have to support amending Iowa’s Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.”

AP: “Crist also passed on a chance to please party conservatives by picking former Sen. Dan Webster.”

This post may be updated.

Yahoo (Advocate): “An upcoming documentary about Playboy founder Hugh Hefner reveals information about his earlier years, including his early advocacy for gay inclusiveness.”

More information is available on the NARTH website here.

“The names and addresses of donors to Referendum 71 will not be exempt from public disclosure, the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission decided today.”

San Francisco Chronicle:Asexuals leave the closet, find community
“The movement is a testament to how vital sexual identity is to self-worth. But the public emergence of asexuals also raises questions for sexuality researchers – mysteries involving the fluidity of sexual identity and the link between romance, which many asexuals enjoy, and sexual attraction . . . . AVEN members have one concrete goal: changing the authoritative Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to make explicit that asexuality is not a ‘hypoactive sexual desire disorder.’”

The Connecticut Post: “The neighbor of a Main Street bar featuring exotic dancers is appealing the city zoning officer’s decision to issue a cafe permit to the establishment.”

Science Progress: “Researchers at Oxford University recently discovered that a genetic defect with the PLC zeta protein in sperm leads to infertility in men because proper functioning of this protein is needed to allow fertilization. This discovery is not only important to men suffering from this type of infertility; it also presents the possibility that researchers could develop a male contraceptive that would inactivate the PLC zeta protein, and that would probably have fewer unpalatable side effects than other male contraceptives under research.”

Law.com: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit has upheld a lower court ruling requiring Massachusetts prison officials to allow two Muslim inmates access to televised prayer services. The court’s Aug. 24 ruling expanded the circuit’s sparse case law on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a federal law passed in 2000 to strengthen the right of religious expression for prisoners and in land-use planning.”

Asia News: “Catholic women of the village of Dewtola can no longer go to mass because of continual threats from local Muslims.”

“[Washington Families Standing Together] has sued the secretary of state in an attempt to keep Referendum 71 from qualifying for the November ballot . . . ”

Cumberland Times-News: “After a several-year struggle to have some control over adult entertainment, commissioners approved an ordinance Tuesday that restricts adult businesses from locating within 2,500 feet of a school, church or residential area.”

CNN International: “The bill, approved Thursday by a vote of 40-13, must pass the Senate. Because the ruling Frente Amplio party holds a majority, the bill’s passage is almost assured in the Senate, which must vote before September 15.”

ADF attorney Erik Stanley and Anglican Bishop Rick Painter of the Cathedral of Christ the King Church in Phoenix, Arizona appeared on KPXQ Radio to discuss efforts to silence the Church Bells.

The MP3 runs just over 40 minutes.

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the rights of those who oppose marriage redefinition.

The MP3 runs just over 33 minutes.

Angus Deaton, Princeton University: “In this paper, I use data from the Gallup World Poll to study the within and between country relationships between religiosity, age, and gender, as well as the effects of religiosity on a range of health measures and health-related behaviors . . . In most countries, religious people report better health; they say they have more energy, that their health is better, and that they experience less pain. Their social lives and personal behaviors are also healthier; they are more likely to be married, to have supportive friends, they are more likely to report being treated with respect”

Des Moines Register: “[The National Organization for Marriage] will likely need to form its own Political Action Committee and disclose its donors if it continues its Iowa activities, a state official warned today.”

David French writing at National Review Online Phi Beta Cons: “This week, Texas A&M agreed to recognize Freshman Leaders in Christ (FLiC) for the upcoming school year. University officials had officially denied recognition because the group limited its membership to freshman Christians. After an exceedingly cordial and open discourse with FLiC, the university reversed course. A&M should be applauded for two reasons.”

“Without God there could be no American form of government nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first the most basic expression of Americanism.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

OneNewsNow: “Abstinence education is celebrating a legal victory in Croatia . . . ‘So the potential of this case was to completely liberalize sexual education throughout Europe,’ [Roger Kiska] explains.”

WORLDmag.com: “A New Hampshire court has ordered a mother to cease homeschooling her 10-year-old daughter and put her into a public school . . . Alliance Defense Fund-allied attorney John Anthony Simmons said the ruling is troubling because the court based its decision on Amanda’s faith rather than the quality of her education: ‘Every time you have a court order that uses a wrong standard or misapplies constitutional law, everyone’s rights are eventually at stake.’”

WorldNetDaily: “A 10-year-old homeschool girl . . . has been told by a New Hampshire court official to attend a government school because she was too ‘vigorous’ in defense of her Christian faith . . . The recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda V. Sadler, but it is being challenged by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who said it was ‘a step too far’ for any court.”

CitizenLink: “The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has asked a New Hampshire court to reconsider its decision to order a 10-year-old home-schooled girl into public school. ‘Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children,’ said ADF-allied attorney John Anthony Simmons.”

LifeSiteNews: “Human rights advocates are calling the case of a German homeschooling family ‘a critical human rights battle.’ On September 22nd, the Schmidt family of southern Bavaria in Germany will face a hearing in which government officials will decide if they may keep custody of one of their sons.”

NJ.com: “Catholic bishops in New Jersey have begun a campaign against same-sex marriage in anticipation of a possible vote on the issue by state legislators sometime after the November election. The bishops directed Catholic priests throughout the state to distribute in parish bulletins last Sunday a 2,300-word letter opposing same-sex marriage.”

Liberty Counsel: “. . . has filed a Petition for Certiorari at the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Erica Corder, a high school graduate with a 4.0 GPA who was denied her diploma until she issued a publically disseminated, coerced, written apology for presenting a thirty-second valedictory speech that included a religious reference.”

CNET: “Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet. They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft (excerpt) . . . ”

“Avoid the phrase ‘ban gay marriage,’ the talking points suggest, adding that opponents ‘know it causes us to lose about ten percentage points in polls.’”

fter receiving a letter from the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom written on behalf of a Christian student club, Texas A&M officials agreed Thursday to continue recognizing the group as an official university student organization without forcing it to abandon its core beliefs and purpose.

Kerry Abrams and Peter Brooks, Marriage as a Message: Same-Sex Couples and the Rhetoric of Accidental Procreation (June 9, 2009). Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1416770

“This article examines the accidental procreation argument through the lenses of anthropological theory, history, literature, and constitutional law. We conclude that marriage has sometimes been used to channel male heterosexuality into reproduction, but to argue that this goal is the sine qua non of marriage is to vastly oversimplify its history in both law and culture. We then undertake a genealogy of the accidental procreation argument and speculate about its possible effects on the institution of marriage. We suggest that if courts continue to insist upon a definition of marriage that is so distinct from the actual practice of the institution, the law may actually be less and less influential in regulating intimate behavior.”