Daily Archives: September 3, 2010

Baptist Press: “A Chinese pastor and his wife were slain Aug. 31 at Penglai Christian Church, where Lottie Moon, an icon of Southern Baptist mission work, served in the early 1900s in Penglai, China.”

St. Petersburg Times: “St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster is taking a responsible and appropriate step by extending same-sex health benefits to the city’s rank-and-file police officers in a union contract ratified Friday.”

The Christian Institute: “‘Homosexual rights’ campaigner Peter Tatchell has repeated his call for the age of consent to be lowered to just 14. His position has been strongly rebuffed in the past, with one commentator saying that sex is for people who can cope with the consequences, ‘In a word, adults.’”

LifeSiteNews: “As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) prepares to receive a report on the controversial funding practices of their anti-poverty arm, one diocese has proposed a plan to cut off the group’s shadier associations. The diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph also suggested in a Monday post on its Catholic Key blog that its plan to reform the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which it has implemented on a local level, could be used as a template for revamping national CCHD operations . . .”

The Christian Institute: “A controversial attempt to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland is being supported by a humanist campaign group. The End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill, proposed by independent MSP Margo MacDonald, would allow terminally ill people and those who are ‘permanently physically incapacitated’ to seek assistance in ending their lives.”

The Christian Institute: “Two people have been arrested in connection with the death of a severely disabled man at the highly controversial Dignitas facility in Switzerland.”

The Volokh Conspiracy: “On August 19th, Justice Kennedy gave an address that included an interesting passing remark about the role of blogs . . . Justice Kennedy adds: ‘I’ve found, what my clerks do now, when they have interesting cases — They read blogs.’”

Patriarch Antonius Naguib, the head of the Coptic Catholic Church, interviewed at Aid to the Church in Need: “The easiest way to get out of a marriage, for a Christian whether its the man or the woman, is to become Muslim – for them it is easy to divorce and have the benefit of full rights against the other partner or spouse and full custody of the children.”

Baptist Press: “Seven years after Alabama removed a Ten Commandments monument from a government building under federal court-order, the state of Oklahoma is preparing to erect its own Ten Commandments monument on capitol grounds, and supporters say they have the backing of recent Supreme Court precedent . . . The monument will use identical language and even an identical design to one on the Texas state capitol grounds — the same one the Supreme Court upheld in its 2005 Van Orden v. Perry decision.”

CNSNews: “Delaware Republicans call Senate hopeful Christine O’Donnell a liar who ‘could not be elected dog catcher’ in a fierce attack that underscores GOP fears of the tea party-backed candidate knocking off top recruit Rep. Mike Castle and winning the nomination.”

CitizenLink: “LifeWay Research released its latest survey on Millennials – Americans born between 1980 and 1991 –and found that 61 percent either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with same-sex marriage.”

The Iona Institute: “Increasing intolerance of religion in Irish public life is “an indication of an incipient totalitarianism that would obliterate the most fundamental freedom there is,” according to one of Ireland’s leading commentators. Writing in the Irish Times, John Waters said that Irish culture ‘has decided that the declaration of religious conviction is always “offensive.”‘ And he rejected the idea that religious believers could not assert that their religion had a unique claim on the truth.”

LifeNews: “The regional affiliate of Planned Parenthood where teenager Holly Patterson died from using the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug first lost its affiliation with Planned Parenthood in early August. Now, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate faces an audit form the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service.”

“A federal judge overturned Nebraska’s ban on flag mutilation Thursday, clearing the way for Kansas church protesters to continue trampling on the U.S. flag when they protest at military funerals.”

Law.com: “Asylum seekers’ rate of success in the nation’s immigration courts is the highest it has been in 25 years and one significant factor is increased legal representation, new research has found. In fiscal year 1986, immigration judges denied almost nine out of 10 asylum requests. In the first nine months of fiscal 2010, only half of the requests were rejected — a record low, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research organization at Syracuse University.”

LifeNews: “The troubled abortion business Steven Chase Brigham runs in four states got more bad news as two of the abortion practitioners he employees have lost their medical licenses. The Maryland medical licenses of George Shepard, Jr., of Delaware and Nicola I. Riley of Utah, were suspended on Tuesday.”

Washington Times: “Today, Big Government, not the private sector, is Big Labor’s bread and butter. That’s why union officials push relentlessly for higher taxes and bigger government and seem completely unconcerned that the policies they advocate will slash overall private-sector job growth in future years . . . Earlier this year, the U.S. Labor Department reported that for the first time ever, a majority of unionized workers across America are now government employees.”

Washington Secretary of State / From Our Corner: “Judge Richard Hicks of Thurston County Superior Court has just lifted the ban on releasing initiative petitions under the state’s Public Records Act. His decision does not allow release of Referendum 71 petitions, however, since those are still the focus of a federal lawsuit brought by foes of same-sex marriage, and the federal judge has released a ban on release at this point.”

The Blog of LegalTimes: “The federal courts are grappling with the consequences of a little-noticed new law that bars the payment of federal salaries to non-U.S. citizens. The law could affect more than two dozen currently hired judicial law clerks who hail from nations including Canada and Australia.”

Star Advertiser: “Gov. Linda Lingle’s appointment of Associate Justice Mark Recktenwald as chief justice sailed through Senate confirmation yesterday, but she won’t get to name his replacement on the five-member Hawaii Supreme Court.”

ADF Attorney Joel Oster writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “A recent decision by a federal district court in Connecticut has sent a very troubling message to those holding religious beliefs – you are not full members of society, but second class citizens! . . . In an effort to appease the anti-religious crowd, the courts are now stripping away the basic rights of Christians. Last month, a federal district court stopped the Enfield Public School District from holding graduation ceremonies at the First Cathedral, a very large Baptist church in the area.”

CitizenLink / Family News in Focus features an audio report with quotations from ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence on the recent 7th Circuit ruling in Badger Catholic, Inc. v. Walsh. | Related ADF News Release.

CitizenLink: “Carroll Conley recently joined the Maine Family Policy Council as its new executive director. A native of Maine, Conley understands his audience and the issues; yet, he also brings a fresh perspective to the challenges he will face in defending the biblical concepts of family, faith and freedom.”

ADF Attorney David French writing at Phi Beta Cons: “Reflexive hatred for America, contempt for ordinary Americans, appreciation for Islam, disgust for American conservatism, and acceptance of anti-Semitism as ultimately Israel’s fault are all characteristics of the modern American academic mindset. These are a set of attitudes not so much based on facts as based on a strange kind of cultural consensus. Of course Americans who oppose the mosque are bigots. Of course Islam is not the problem. Of course Imam Rauf is a moderate. Of course this is all just whipped up by Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.”

LifeSiteNews: “Planned Parenthood and pro-abortion medical practitioners this week kicked off a campaign to snuff out the Colorado Personhood initiative, which aims to extend personhood to all human beings from the beginning of their biological development, as it heads to voters in November.”

Associated Press: “The University of California, Irvine has upheld its decision to suspend a campus Muslim group after some of its members disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador at a campus event.” For background information see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/state-california+topic-education+topic-islam/

Robert VerBruggen writing at National Review Online / Phi Beta Cons: “Democracy and capitalism are hardly ‘natural,’ but these institutions have done a great job of channeling humanity’s natural drives into productive and peaceful pursuits. So it is with monogamy. Men may have a natural urge to stray, and women may have a natural urge to pursue higher-status men than their current partners, but the institution of marriage does us a service by putting the brakes on these tendencies.”

Courthouse News Service: “A Missouri appeals court refused to block a law that imposes tougher regulations on the state’s adult-oriented businesses. As of Aug. 28, strip clubs and adult video stores must close at midnight and full nudity and video-viewing booths are not allowed behind closed doors.” Opinions for Western Appellate District

Peter J. Boyer writing at The New Yorker: “The objection to [geneticist Francis Collins] was his faith—or, at least, the ardency of it. Collins is a believing Christian, which places him in the minority among his peers in the National Academy of Science . . . The President had found not only a man who reflected his own view of the harmony between science and faith but an evangelical Christian who hoped that the government’s expansion of embryonic-stem-cell research might bring the culture war over science to a quiet end. On August 23rd, however, Judge Royce C. Lamberth, of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, halted federal spending for embryonic-stem-cell research, putting hundreds of research projects in limbo and plunging the N.I.H. back into a newly contentious national debate.”

MyNorthwest.com: “The latest Rasmussen Reports survey in Washington shows Rossi with 48 percent of the vote and Murray with 46 percent. Three percent prefer a different candidate, and three percent are undecided.”

Sydney Star Observer: “Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young today reassured people that the Greens’ commitment to marriage equality was ‘rock-solid’, and said she would re-introduce a new Marriage Equality Bill on the first day of Parliament and push for a conscience vote.”

The ADF Alliance Alert Daily Categorical Email Digest will not be published on Monday, September 6th. Normal publication will resume on Tuesday, September 7th.

Breitbart: “Tens of thousands of Muslims poured into the heavily guarded Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem for the last Friday prayers of the holy month of Ramadan.”

The Denver Daily News: “Opponents and proponents of a ballot initiative that aims to ban abortion in Colorado clashed at the Capitol yesterday, exchanging words of passion over the controversial initiative. Opponents had scheduled a campaign kick off at the Capitol to fight the Amendment 62 initiative. But proponents crashed the rally, arguing that their opposition is ‘relying on scare tactics to frighten voters.’” Ballotpedia: Colorado Fetal Personhood, Amendment 62 (2010)

OneNewsNow: “There appears to be a growing acceptance of children being conceived out of wedlock among the nation’s youth. In 2002, 25 percent of teenage males admitted to never having sex, the main reason for abstaining being the possibility of pregnancy. However, the latest figures show that number has dropped to 12 percent. Moreover, more male teenagers agree that it is okay for an unmarried female to have a child. That number rose from 50 percent to 64 percent in 2006-2008.”

MassLive.com (The Republican): “Christine M. Judd, who lost her job as dean of students at Cathedral High School after marrying her female partner in August, said Friday she will take no legal action against the diocese . . . She clarified, however, that she keeps open the possibility of legal action against a person who shared information with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield that triggered the pressure from the diocese for her to resign.”

U.S. Department of State: “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will host an Iftar to celebrate the Holy Month of Ramadan on Tuesday, September 7 at 7:00p.m., at the Department of State.”

LifeSiteNews: “A top pro-life professor at the University of Notre Dame is calling into question the motives of the university after Bill Kirk, a long-time member of the Notre Dame community and the only administration member to join a protest against President Obama’s appearance on campus, was abruptly terminated . . . Notre Dame philosophy professor David Solomon, the founder and director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, said in a column published in The Rover that he sees a connection between Kirk’s ‘removal from office’ and what he called ‘the background of other events at Notre Dame that inevitably raised questions about its real motivation.’”

“Opposition by bishops and Church leaders has led to a secondary controversy, highlighting the deep rift between church and state in Mexico, and causing accusations to fly from both sides of the divide . . ”

Jean-Francois Cope, president of the Union for a Popular Movement political party, has a warning for the West and for America. ‘We cannot accept the development of such practice because it’s not compatible with the life in a modern society, you see,’ he said. ‘And this question is not only a French question. You will all have to face this challenge.’

LifeSiteNews: “A coalition of Mexican organizations focusing on human rights and life and family issues is protesting the recent decision by the governor of the state of Guanajuato to dramatically reduce the maximum sentence for infanticide. Governor Juan Manuel Oliva has announced the new legislative initiative following a massive national campaign by pro-abortion organizations to gain the release of seven women convicted of infanticide. The groups claimed the women were really incarcerated for spontaneous ‘abortions.’” Related: Women Convicted of Infanticide Released following Pressure from Mexican Pro-Abort Groups

Newsroom: “A series of high-level meetings between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and an official from the People’s Republic of China is expected to lead to ‘regularized’ operations for the Church in China . . . ‘It is important to understand what the term regularizing means, and what it does not mean,’ Church spokesman Michael Otterson said. ‘It does not mean that we anticipate sending missionaries to China. That issue is not even under consideration.’” Via Religion Clause.

Religion Clause: “In Chabad of Mid-Hudson Valley v. City of Poughkeepsie, (NY App. Div., Aug. 31, 2010), a New York state appellate court held that the display of an 18-foot high menorah on public property in downtown Poughkeepsie (NY) did not violate the Establishment Clause . . . The court concluded however that the Establishment Clause was violated in ‘allowing the plaintiffs to use municipal funds, labor, and equipment for the nightly menorah lighting, even if the plaintiffs repaid the City for such labor and equipment . . .’”

Insider Online: “Jim Van Eerden, the producer of the film, told a group of bloggers at The Heritage Foundation today that he wants the film to help promote a national conversation about the importance of getting government spending under control. The film will release to theaters on October 15, but it will be shown in private screenings around the country throughout September. If you are interested in hosting a screening, you can find out how to do that at IWantYourMoneyScreenings.net.”

Ann Woolner writing at Bloomberg: “Known for English-language Internet sermons urging jihad on Americans, [Anwar al-Awlaki] has crossed the line from propagandist to become a leading al-Qaeda operative, authorities say . . . President Barack Obama’s administration earlier this year authorized his killing . . . Does an American abroad, who isn’t on a battlefield fighting fellow Americans, have the same protection as he does at home not to be killed by the government? Under what circumstances would such a killing be legal? Who gets to draw up the rules? Those are the questions posed by a lawsuit filed this week by two civil liberties group on behalf of the cleric’s father against Obama and other administration officials.” | ACLU Press Release; Complaint in Al-Aulaqi v. Obama, No. 10cv10-1469

David W. Kirkpatrick writing at EducationNews.org: “In its Beck decision in 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workers can only be required to pay dues or fees for costs directly related to collective bargaining. The decision awarded a dues reduction of 79 percent to Harry Beck, who had been an active union member and who launched the appeal. It shouldn’t surprise you that neither unions, including teacher unions, nor government agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board, make any effort to notify workers, including teachers, of this right. A telling example of pro-union bias where neutrality should be expected was demonstrated by, of all positions, President Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, who has been quoted as saying, ‘In order to maintain themselves, unions have got to have some ability to strap their members to the mast.’”

The Hill: “Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said Thursday he is pressuring national Democrats to take on Tea Party-backed Joe Miller (R) and invest in the state’s Senate race. Begich, who will soon be the state’s senior senator, said he is working to drum up support and national party backing for Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams (D) who will face Miller in November.”

Associated Press: “Pawlenty defended his order that seeks to limit his state’s participation in the new health care overhaul law that makes available funds for states to try new medical models . . . ‘Instead of all just running around saying, “We’ll take the money because it’s free money,” let’s call it what it is: The federal government is basically a drug dealer trying to give out free samples, or give people a taste, get them further addicted,’ Pawlenty said.”

The Hill: “After Joe Miller’s surprise win over Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in the Republican Senate primary, observers started taking a second look at another Tea Party candidate: Christine O’Donnell. O’Donnell is challenging popular Rep. Mike Castle for Delaware’s Republican Senate nomination.”

Dr. Gary Scott Smith writing at The Center for Vision & Values: “This September 12 marks the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s historic speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in which he countered religious objections to his candidacy and promised to honor the separation of church and state . . . Kennedy insisted that no Catholic prelate should tell a Catholic president how to act and that no Protestant minister should tell his parishioners for whom to vote . . . Religious bodies must not try to impose their ‘will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials.’”

ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “Late last month, a state court of appeals held that North Carolina violated the state and federal constitutions by delegating the power to enforce state criminal law to Davidson College because Davidson has a connection to the Presbyterian Church (USA) . . . [The court] rather plainly encouraged the state supreme court to revisit controlling precedent and divide religious colleges into two categories — ‘religiously affiliated’ ones (on whom the state could constitutionally confer benefits) and ‘pervasively sectarian’ ones (on whom the state could not). Davidson presumably would fall into the first category, whereas more Christ-centered institutions would fall into the second . . . However, differentiating among religious entities based upon their degree of religiosity is a dangerous business.”

The Christian Institute: President Obama’s administration has formally challenged a court order which temporarily blocks federal funding of embryonic stem cell (ESC) research in the United States . . . [ADF Attorney Steven H. Aden] said: ‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments prohibited by federal law that destroy human life. The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos.’”

Fox News / Live Shots: “Fab Cusson says the Bible helped him beat an addiction to the painkiller Oxycontin five years ago. Now he wants to share the Scripture passages he says saved his life… by displaying them on electronic roadside signs . . . the town’s [Chichester, NH] planning and zoning boards have turned him down twice. They first turned down his application, then refused to grant him a variance . . . Cusson has hired a lawyer from the Alliance Defense Fund, which deals with freedom of religion cases. Cusson’s attorney, Michael Tierney says like the Bible, Chichester’s laws are open to interpretation. ‘My client has the right to proclaim a Biblical message in line with the variance and zoning ordinance criteria. We believe that the zoning ordinance was not correctly applied in this case.’”

Yale Daily News: “Rizzolo’s laboratory is one of about a dozen facilities on campus that use stem cells. Haifan Lin, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center, said he did not yet know how the moratorium will affect Yale researchers . . . ‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments — prohibited by federal law — that destroy human life,’ said [Steven Aden], the legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which advised the party that brought the lawsuit to court.”

The Daily Telegraph: “Two missing MPs could have swayed a NSW Lower House decision to support a Bill allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. Yesterday’s decision came down to two votes, with 45 members voting for the Bill and 43 voting against it after two days of vigorous debate.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Obama Administration is appealing the decision, and said that a stay ‘should not be denied for the benefit of two scientists whose only alleged harm is increased competition from other meritorious research projects that may ultimately save lives.’ As a result of the injunction, NIH has cut off funding to its eight ‘intra-mural’ hESC research projects . . . ‘We think it’s a start,’ [Steven Aden], Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, told LifeSiteNews.com in a telephone interview.”

At the Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh provides excerpts from the ruling in In re Wean (Tex. Ct. App. Aug. 31).

WorldNetDaily: “A career officer in the U.S. Army acting as a judge in the prosecution of Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin today ruled that the military is no place for Barak Obama’s presidential eligibility to be evaluated. Army Col. Denise R. Lind today ruled in a hearing regarding the evidence to be allowed in the scheduled October court-martial of Lakin that he will be denied access to any of Obama’s records as well as any testimony from those who may have access to the records. With her decision, Lind mirrored a number of federal judges who have ruled on civil lawsuits over Obama’s eligibility. They have without exception denied the plaintiffs’ access to any requested documentation regarding the president’s eligibility.”

Toronto Sun: “A social conservative group is calling for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to fire one of his cabinet ministers. Campaign Life Coalition, a lobby group that fights against abortion, said Thursday that International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda is opening Canada up to funding the procedure against government policy and the will of Parliament.”

LifeSiteNews: “Following a meeting with the local archdiocese, a Catholic hospital chain in Boston appears to have reversed its earlier position that a newly-acquired secular hospital would be allowed to continue its practice of providing contraception, sterilizations, and abortion referrals.”

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: “Fortunately, Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, falls Sept. 10 this year, when New York City schools will already be closed for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year observance. Choudhury is not sure what she’ll do in mid-November for Eid al-Adha, an annual observance that concludes the period when Muslims make the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca. Her dilemma is shared by hundreds of thousands of Muslim students around the country, except for those enrolled in the dozen or so school districts that recognize one or both of the Eids.”

Steven Aden, a lead attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented the adult stem cell researchers who filed the case against the Obama administration, applauded the decision. ‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments — prohibited by federal law — that destroy human life,’ he said. ‘The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos.’

re . . . The grim employment picture is familiar, but what’s less widely known is that they are losing not only jobs but also their connections to basic social institutions such as marriage and religion. They’re becoming socially disengaged . . .

Christian Post (Compass Direct): “Muslims led by a hard-line cleric on Friday resumed building on a Christian cemetery in Mandi Bhawaldin, desecrating more graves in spite of a local government order to halt construction, according to the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA).”

Yahoo News: “A well-known Australian Muslim cleric has called for the beheading of Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders, a newspaper said on Friday.”

The Hill: “House Republicans’ first move in the majority would be to extend tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) suggested Wednesday evening.”