Daily Archives: September 27, 2010

Talking Points Memo: “After a series of jokes about conservative that sounded — and were received — more like a stand-up act then a political speech, Coulter told the assembled (and predominantly wealthy) conservative gay crowd why they should oppose same sex marriage, adding, ‘I should warn you: I’ve never failed to talk gays out of gay marriage’ . . . she parroted the losing arguments of the lawyers supporting California’s Prop 8 and told the crowd that the reason she opposes (and they should oppose) same sex marriage is that it is strictly for procreation.”

Miller-McCune: “Anthropologists say 83 percent of societies they have studied traditionally permitted polygyny — marriage with multiple wives. (The more common term ‘polygamy’ has the broader definition of having multiple spouses.) Just 17 percent insisted on monogamous marriage . . . Most evolutionary biologists think monogamy originated as a form of social leveling that reduced male competition for mates, fostered cooperation and led to the rise of successful nation-states . . . ”

MLive.com: “A jury on Friday acquitted four Christian missionaries accused of breaching the peace at the Dearborn International Arab Festival in June, but their attorney says the legal battle is far from over. Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center plans to file a civil lawsuit on their behalf against the City of Dearborn ‘in short order,’ he said this morning on WJR-AM 760.”

For background information, see this ADF Alliance Alert compound tag: http://www.alliancealert.org/tag/state-michigan+topic-islam/

Chuck Colson writing in The Christian Post: “[T]here’s another, little-understood theater in the war on marriage-our struggling economy . . . What do today’s tough times have to do with marriage? In a word, fear. According to Cherlin and Wilcox, ‘Working-class couples still value marriage highly, but with their paychecks shrinking, they don’t think they have enough money to make a marriage work.’ The fear that they can’t afford to get married translates into an alarming increase in cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births. The share of working-class women who were living with someone when they gave birth jumped from 10 to 27 percent in just over a decade.”

Charity Governance Consulting LLC: “Yesterday was Pulpit Freedom Sunday, which was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund . . . We’ve got news for the participants. You sound no different than the imbeciles claiming that the income tax is unconstitutional. Their protests have clogged the federal courts for years . . . it isn’t the IRS that imposed the limit. It’s Congress. The IRS is caught in the middle. They are charged with enforcing the law, and until the Supreme Court rules otherwise or Congress repeals the law, the IRS should enforce it. At the end of the day, the Alliance Defense Fund should be more concerned about selective enforcement of the law rather than the particulars of any given statute.”

Emunah: “The Jewish American Bar Association first caught the attention of local lawyers this month with an advertisement on a bus bench near the Broward County Courthouse that exclaimed ‘Prefer a Jewish lawyer!’ and offered the business’ phone number.”

LifeSiteNews (link includes relevant audio of the interview): “A day after the departure of Pope Benedict XVI from Britain, his senior archbishop, the unofficial head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, told a BBC interviewer that the English bishops had purposely refused to oppose legalizing homosexual civil partnerships . . . ‘In this country, we were very nuanced. We did not oppose gay civil partnerships. We recognized that in English law there might be a case for those. What we persistently said is that these are not the same as marriage.’”

Christian Post: “A mob of Muslim extremists on Thursday shot at and beat dozens of Christians, including one cleared of ‘blasphemy’ charges, in Punjab Province’s Gujrat district, Christian leaders said.”

Mark Steyn writing in The Orange County Register: “Too many people in the free world have internalized Islam’s view of them . . . What does that degree of prostration before their prejudices tell them about us? It’s a problem that Muslims think we’re unclean. It’s a far worse problem that we go along with it . . . President Obama has never said a word about honor killings of Muslim women. Secretary Clinton has never said a word about female genital mutilation. General Petraeus has never said a word about the rampant buggery of pre-pubescent boys by Pushtun men in Kandahar. But let an obscure man in Florida so much as raise the possibility that he might disrespect a book – an inanimate object – and the most powerful figures in the Western world feel they have to weigh in . . . ”

Asia News: “A Pentecostal pastor Shivanda Siddi was arrested in Karnataka yesterday, with the false accusation of forcing conversions to Christianity. Sajan K. George, chairman of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) told AsiaNews that he was simply celebrating Sunday services at his Church Gnanodaya (‘Dawn of Knowledge’) in the Umachagi village, Mundgod Taluk.”

The Daily News Journal: “A witness in court today accused the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro’s leaders, including Imam Ossama Bahloul, of being supporters of Sharia law. ‘I see several things that are a red flag from a security standpoint,” Frank J. Gaffney Jr. said during a hearing before Chancellor Robert Corlew III. ‘They have engaged in activities that should be worrisome to this community.’”

Des Moines Register: “Protecting rights has taken an odd turn in Sioux City, where a faction on the city’s Human Rights Commission has itself been filing religious discrimination charges with the state – against its own director, a fellow commissioner and a newspaper. Critics allege an anti-gay agenda linked to members’ affiliations with a particular church. By law, the commission must protect gay civil rights.”

Nicholas D. Kristof writing in The New York Times: “Over the next decade, some astonishing new technologies will spread to fight global poverty. They’re called contraceptives. This is a high-tech revolution that will affect more people in a more intimate way than almost any other technological stride. The next generation of family planning products will be cheaper, more effective and easier to use — they could be to today’s condoms and diaphragms what a smartphone is to the bricklike cellphones of 20 years ago.”

McClatchy: “Congress is deadlocked over virtually every major issue still pending this year, including key economic matters such as a detailed federal spending plan and extending Bush-era tax cuts, yet lawmakers still hope to leave Washington by Friday and not return until mid-November.”

Gulf News: “Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Monday said the government will start providing contraceptives to poor couples in a bid to control the growth of the country’s population which has ballooned to more than 90 million.”

OneNewsNow: “Homosexual activists have been working especially hard in eastern Pennsylvania to include language that caters to their lifestyle. Diane Gramley, president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, confirms that that part of the state is definitely under attack. ‘They’ve been approached to either create a human relations ordinance or to add . . . “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to an existing ordinance,’ Gramley reports. ‘And currently, Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County is the most recent one.’”

Eurasia Review: “A group of women’s rights activists delivered a petition with five thousand signatures to the Iranian parliament urging the legislative body to ‘bar polygamy.’ ILNA reports that the petition was delivered by 40 women who called on the parliament to halt all efforts in ‘promoting temporary marriages and polygamy.’”

Bay Windows (GLBT Newspaper): “The Global Forum on MSM & HIV has called on Nepal’s Home Ministry to issue ‘third sex’ citizenship cards to transgender people in accord with a 2007 Supreme Court decision.”

The Christian Institute: “A disability campaign group is to protest tomorrow against a Scottish assisted suicide bill, declaring that disabled people want assistance to live. Inclusion Scotland is demonstrating outside the Scottish Parliament from 9.30am against the controversial End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill which is spearheaded by Margo MacDonald MSP.”

Associated Press: “BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. says it has no way of providing government officials with the text of encrypted corporate e-mails its devices serve up. But if the companies that employ BlackBerry phones want to hand over the encryption keys to their e-mail, it won’t object . . . ”

Michael Foust reports at Baptist Press: “The Obama Justice Department is asking a federal judge to keep the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on homosexuals in place, arguing that rulings in other circuits upholding the ban prevent the judge from issuing a nationwide injunction against the 17-year-old policy.”

The Manly Daily: “Warringah could soon follow the lead of City of Sydney Council in creating a ‘commitment register’ that would recognise both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships. Cr Jason Falinski has put forward the proposal, which would allow unmarried couples to register their commitment to each other through a process managed by council.”

ADF Attorney Joe Infranco appeared on ABC 15 (AZ) to discuss Pulpit Freedom Sunday. NBC 4 (TN) also covered the initiative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvs0LDLj_Ng
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The Enterprise: “A Buddhist temple to be built in Raynham may end up as one of the world’s largest and will be home to about 16 Thai monks. The 50-acre South Street East property will include a meditation center, dormitory, temple, museum and gardens . . . Proponents for the project are seeking a variance on the town’s 40-foot height bylaws. The soaring steeple complies with local and FAA regulations, said Been Wang, of Architectural Resources Cambridge.”

MoroccoBoard News Service: “According to a news release from International Christian Concern (ICC), on Sept.17, the Moroccan newspaper Al Massae reported that Harder and Sanhi Russell were expelled from the country for ‘carrying out acts of proselytism’ in the city of Kenitra.”

Ahlul Bayt News Agency: “Muslims in Italy have written to the country’s president Giorgio Napolitano claiming their constitutional rights are being violated by the anti-immigrant policies of the Northern League party.”

Christian Today: “Nepal’s draft constitution has left Gospel for Asia with mixed feelings after a legislative committee last week proposed retaining a ban on activities aimed at religious conversions . . . The draft constitution guarantees the right of religious denominations to control their own affairs but the legislative committee wants a clause upholding a ban on encouraging conversions which has existed in Nepal since 1951.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer: “A society that respects religious liberty also allows diverse claims of truth to compete beside one another, creating an atmosphere of civil debate, transparency, and respect. The modern doctrine of religious liberty may have been incubated in America, but there are ample precedents for it in the Islamic world . . . Today’s Muslim world, however, is sadly lacking in religious freedom: according to a 2009 Pew Forum report, seven of the top 10 countries with the greatest government restrictions on religion are predominantly Muslim, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and Malaysia.”

Associated Press: “. . . For this incident, Shenouda blamed the press for possibly misquoting Bishoy and said that ‘we are the ones who are guests since Muslims are the majority.’ Coptic Christians make up around 6 to 10 percent of the country’s 80 million people. Prior to the 7th Century Arab invasion, Egypt was majority Christian . . . ”

UPI: “The dominant conservative bloc in the U.S. Republican electorate is populated by older and more religious voters, polls indicate.”

The Post: “A dedication ceremony for the Richland Avenue Improvements Project Saturday was interrupted by a man protesting the ceremony’s opening prayer read from the Koran. Athens City Sheriff Officers escorted the man from the premises.”

Denver Post: “And the Church of Christ, Scientist is lobbying the federal government to give its members an option to buy health insurance that covers this kind of spiritual care . . . ‘If the government is going to take the extraordinary step of requiring Americans to buy health insurance, they should be responsive to the kinds of health care Americans are relying on,’ said Gary Jones, federal manager of the Christian Science Committee on Publication. ‘That should include skilled nonmedical nursing care and treatment through prayer.’”

The Blog of LegalTimes: “Federal judges tend to avoid getting publicly involved in U.S. Senate confirmation battles, but a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit became an exception this week with a nomination involving a former clerk of his. Senior Judge Jon Newman of the 2nd Circuit has called at least one senator to lobby on behalf of the nomination of Robert Chatigny to the same New York-based appeals court. Chatigny, a federal district judge in Connecticut, clerked for Newman three decades ago, and they have chambers in the same federal courthouse in Hartford, Conn.”

KETV: “The Lyons-Decatur school district has booked the Todd Becker Foundation for a presentation within the school. The ACLU said the foundation is a proselytizing religious organization.”

CNN: “The United Nations is partnering with faith based organizations and their vast network of donors, development groups, and grass roots organizers to bring aid to developing countries around the world. You could say they are putting their money where their mouth is. Except both groups have been putting money up for a long time . . . According to United Nations Foundation executive director Elizabeth Gore, this partnership is a natural step in the fight against global poverty and disease.”

Casa Grande Dispatch: “At the center of the Wyoming controversy is a remote ranch where the Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel want to build a 144,000-square-foot French Gothic-style monastery and coffee-roasting barn. The monastery will feature a church that seats 150, with one spire rising 150 feet. The proposal triggered a clash between ranchers who live miles apart, trying to protect their quiet, rural open spaces, and the hermit monks who live a secluded, spartan life of prayer and meditation and are looking for more room to meet their expanding order and maintain their privacy.”

KPUA (AP): “[The] two major candidates to succeed Lingle in December, with just more than five weeks before the Nov. 2 general election, are signaling little desire to focus attention on the issue. Still, civil unions may be a campaign subtext, particularly among conservative religious leaders who organized anti-civil unions rallies at the Capitol.”

Los Angeles Times / L.A. Now: “Disneyland has agreed to allow a company intern to wear her religious headscarf at work, according to a Muslim rights group that intervened after the woman was told she would have to work in the stockroom.”

The Heritage Foundation / Education Notebook: “New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker appeared on Oprah last Friday to accept a $100 million gift from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Derrell Bradford, executive director of Excellent Education for Everyone in New Jersey, told the New York Post that ‘the mayor has a very compelling vision about what should be done with the schools. He was able to convince Mark to be part of it.’”

Eric Ormsby reviews What Ever Happened to Modernism? by Gabriel Josipovici in The Wall Street Journal: “Modernism is a kind of anguished repudiation—’a response to the simplifications of the self and of life that Protestantism and the Enlightenment brought with them.’ Its intimacy lies in the stubborn effort, especially on the part of Modernist novelists, to render those little hesitations, those sieges of doubt, those anxious questionings that beset us even as we attempt to construct some credible narrative of our lives. The true Modernist narrative always involves a disrupted momentum . . . The origins of Modernism lie in disillusion or, more precisely, in what the German poet Friedrich Schiller called ‘the disenchantment of the world’ . . . In the mid-16th century, the old certainties, the immemorial rituals, the hierarchies of the heavens and earth seemed to crumble. As Mr. Josipovici explains, Schiller’s phrase was taken up early in the 20th century by the sociologist Max Weber, who used it to explain the radical transformation of the world that occurred after the Protestant Reformation, from a divinely appointed cosmos, alive with numinous presences, to a bustling marketplace of enterprise, production and rampant individualism.”

The Hindu: “The Bharatiya Janata Party has suggested that religion and religious practices be left to the ‘private domain of players’ and that it would not be wise to depart from the secular tradition of the Commonwealth Games by using religious music during any function associated with it.”

Al-Masry Al-Youm: “Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al-Adly warned the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) opposition movement on Monday that police would prevent the group’s candidates from using religious slogans in their electoral campaigns in the run-up to parliamentary elections scheduled for 29 November.”

Indianapolis Star: “Leaders of St. John United Church of Christ on the Far Eastside claim city officials have meddled in the functions of the church by forcing a historic designation on the congregation’s 96-year-old building and surrounding 5-acre property on the northeast corner of Washington Street and German Church Road.”

WOOD TV: “The ACLU of Michigan wants to take up the cause of a transgender Mona Shores High School senior who was denied a chance to become homecoming king.”

FOX News: “In a scathing critique claiming incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer has made no significant impression on Washington, D.C., the editorial board at the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday declined to offer an endorsement in California’s heated Senate race.”

National Organization for Marriage (“NOM”) has filed suit in federal court challenging Florida’s restrictions on ads and mailings that reference candidates positions on issues. NOM wants to run radio and television ads, send mail directly to Florida residents, and post copies of these items on its web page. These items all address the issue of marriage. In particular, the items focus on candidates positions concerning traditional and gay marriage, including civil unions. NOM simply wishes to exercise its Freedom of Speech rights under the First Amendment, rights recognized and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Public Discourse has the text of an address by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver to the Religion Newswriters Association: “In practice—at least in the eyes of ordinary people I hear from every week—a new body of ideas seems to shape the limits of acceptable thought in American public life. This new orthodoxy seems to influence the selection of religious news and how that news gets presented. It seems to frame which opinions are appropriate and which ones won’t be heard. And it seems to guide the historical narrative that media present to their audiences. At its core, it has a set of assumptions about the nature of human life, the purpose of government, and the proper role of religion in the lives of individuals and in society that veers away from past American habits of thought. This new thinking seems to presume a society much more secular and much less religious than anything in America’s past or anything warranted by present facts; a society where people are free to worship and believe whatever they want, so long as they don’t intrude their religious idiosyncrasies on government, the economy, or culture.”

Guardian: “A small army of bloggers and tweeters is filling the gaps left by traditional media in Mexico that are increasingly limiting their coverage of the country’s drug wars because of pressure from the cartels . . . One editor on a regional paper – who does not want to be named for security reasons – has meticulously followed directives from the dominant local traffickers ever since a story she published about a shoot-out, based on an official report, earned her a death threat a couple of months ago.”

In Rhode Island, NOM wants to communicate with citizens and spend money to support the advancement of current issues by placing ads on the radio and TV and by posting content to its website. Rhode Island, however, through a series of laws, restricts the ability of groups such as NOM to act as a voice even though the Freedom of Speech clause in the Constitution guarantees this right. NOM knows that such activity is essential to help citizens effectively make correct and informed decisions on these important issues.

Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives for President George W. Bush from 2002-2006, writing in the Wall Street Journal, “Pastors For ObamaCare?” [full text via Google News]: “[O]n Tuesday President Obama and his director of faith-based initiatives convened exactly such a meeting to try to control political damage from the unpopular health-care law . . . Tuesday’s call is no small disappointment to those of us who thought Mr. Obama deserved credit for keeping the faith-based initiatives office at the White House at a time when many fellow Democrats wanted him to put it in the Smithsonian.”

Detroit Free Press: “A jury acquitted on Friday four Christian missionaries who were accused of inciting a crowd while videotaping themselves proselytizing to Muslims at the Dearborn Arab International Festival in June.”

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit received 25 friend-of-the-court briefs Friday in support of California’s voter-approved constitutional amendment that protects marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”

AFP: “UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday announced a 40-billion-dollar drive to improve the health of women and children, which he said would save millions of lives around the world . . . Of the eight key development targets set a decade ago, cutting deaths of women during pregnancy and childbirth and those of children younger than five have seen the least progress.”

Religion Clause: “Senator Arlen Specter and Rep. Brad Sherman announced on Friday that they were introducing bills to amend Title VI to also ban discrimination on the basis of religion in order to protect Jewish, Muslim and Sikh students from harassment at schools and colleges receiving federal funds. The House version is HR 6216. The bill is a reaction to the position taken by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights that Title VI does not apply to anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, and by implication members of other groups that have both religious and ethnic characteristics.”

Arizona Daily Star: “Arizona’s university presidents said they’ll start privatizing some operations, pursue a state financial-aid program and reduce the average tuition by the end of the decade. The Arizona Board of Regents approved those actions among 10 sweeping recommendations from the three university presidents on Friday that will change the way Arizona’s universities operate.”

Telegraph: “While recognising that he was simplifying the Church’s position, Dr Williams said in an interview: ‘There’s no problem about a gay person who’s a bishop. It’s about the fact that there are traditionally, historically, standards that the clergy are expected to observe.’” AP: Archbishop of Canterbury: Gay rows wounding church

Christian Concern For Our Nation: “The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has withdrawn its case against a Christian man charged under public order legislation in relation to ‘offence’ caused to homosexuals. Paul Shaw was charged by Essex Police with a ‘hate crime’ after an election leaflet was distributed in Colchester that called for a review of whether homosexual acts should remain legal.”

New York Times: “Justice Breyer describes the court in its early years, when it decided few cases and the ones it decided were trivial. From that lowly state, the court has earned considerable authority, but it has also forfeited legitimacy with bad decisions, some so bad they were ‘ignored or disobeyed’ . . . The court’s ‘infirmity’ shows that its legitimacy in the public’s eyes ‘cannot be taken for granted,’ he writes. His pragmatic means are intended ‘to help maintain the public’s trust in the Court, the public’s confidence in the Constitution, and the public’s commitment to the rule of law.’”

Associated Press: “He says unions have often been resistant to change as they try to protect their members – but that many of them are now working with states on reforms including charter schools, and imposing higher standards and accountability.”

pecifically, NOM desires to run television and radio ads, send out mailers, and post these items to its website. New York law, however, restricts the rights of groups such as NOM from having their voice heard in the midst of relevant discussions in society concerning these critical issues. New York cannot completely ban NOM from speaking as the Constitution protects the Freedom of Speech. However, New York still silences speech by labeling NOM as a ‘Political Committee,’ which label imposes layer after layer of burdens on NOM and similar groups that wish to exercise their constitutional rights to speak.

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the battle over normalization of homosexual conduct in the military. | MP3 audio 20:30 mins

LifeNews: “A new study bandied about by the mainstream media over the weekend claiming abortion is not linked with teen depression is full of problems, according to one of the world’s leading researchers on abortion and the adverse mental health issues women face afterwards . . . Priscilla Coleman, a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green University, tells LifeNews.com the study contains several problems. Coleman says its publication in a journal run by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, a former arm of the Planned Parenthood abortion business, means the study is ‘hardly unbiased.’”

Associated Press: “Judge Thomas Griffith questioned whether the work would really be irreparably harmed or just delayed if the government ultimately can win the ongoing case.”

The Hill: “House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called Congress’ expected adjournment before acting on the Bush-era tax cuts the “most irresponsible thing that I have seen since I have been in Washington, D.C.”

Julie Hilden writing at FindLaw: “On September 20, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that two Oregon statutes that had criminalized giving sexually-explicit material to minors violated the First Amendment. In theory, these statutes were intended to target the reprehensible practices of ‘luring’ and ‘grooming,’ by which adults expose minors to sexually-explicit material as part of their attempt to have sex with the minors. And of course, no party to the case has contested the point that an adult’s having sex with — or attempting to have sex with — a minor is wrong and should be illegal. However, the Oregon statutes at issue did not criminalize the combination of luring or grooming and sex with a minor, whether achieved or attempted. Instead, the statutes allowed prosecutions to occur when no sex by an adult with a minor had occurred, had been attempted, or had been intended.”

WOOD TV: “Some Mona Shores High School students say administrators stole the homecoming king throne from the rightful winner — a transgender senior . . . Assistant Superintendent Todd Geerlings said the issue is simple: The ballots gave two choices — vote for a boy for king and a girl for queen.”

LifeSiteNews: “‘Pastors and churches shouldn’t live in fear of being punished or penalized by the government—in this case, the IRS,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Erik Stanley]. ‘ADF is not trying to get politics into the pulpit; we want to get government out of the pulpit.’”

ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “We reported back in June that a preliminary ruling in Kennedy v. Villa St. Catherine eroded the freedom of religious organizations. In an unusual development (and as a result of some good lawyering by St. Catherine’s attorneys), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to go ahead and review that ruling early. ADF, on behalf of itself and the National Association of Evangelicals, recently filed an amicus brief in the case, urging reversal of the lower court’s dangerous ruling.”

CBN News: “‘What in essence the IRS has been doing for the last 56 years — is setting up a system of intimidation and censorship and really establishing itself as kind of the orthodoxy police — telling pastors, “You can talk about anything you want to from scripture, but you can’t talk about the issue of what’s right about what the scripture says about candidates and elections,”‘ said [Erik Stanley], a senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.”

In These Times: “Tom Daubert, a caregiver and director of Patients and Families United, the medical marijuana advocacy group that spearheaded the 2004 I-148 campaign, says most of the opposition in the state has come from ‘conservative, so-called right-wing church groups’ . . . Daubert’s assertion that a certain conservative Christian element is behind efforts to repeal the law is also correct . . . David Lewis (not to be confused with Montana State Senator David Lewis (R-Helena)) is the treasurer and spokesman for Safe Communities Safe Kids . . . While Safe Communities Safe Kids does not bill itself as a faith-based group, the sole entity that signed on to support their ballot initiative was the Montana Family Foundation, a right-wing Christian group with ties to Focus on the Family and the Alliance Defense Fund.”

OneNewsNow: “‘What the lower court said here in essence is that it violates the United States Constitution to define marriage and to preserve marriage as the union between a man and a woman,’ [ADF Attorney Jim Cambell] explains. ‘So if that decision were to be upheld, it could have ramifications throughout the entire country.’”

Pastors from approximately 100 churches nationwide participated in the Alliance Defense Fund’s third annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday on Sept. 26. The pastors preached sermons related to biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates or current government officials, exercising their constitutional right to free religious expression despite a problematic Internal Revenue Service rule that activist groups often use to silence churches.

The Tennessean: “Sunday was the third year for the conservative Christian group Alliance Defense Fund’s ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday,’ in which pastors around the country defy the tax code that restricts church and nonprofit political activity in exchange for tax-exempt status . . . [David Shelley, pastor of Smith Springs Baptist Church in Nashville] said he was spooked by the angry messages, including one that said harm would ‘rain down’ on his 60-member church.”

ABC News: Nearly 100 pastors across the country took part in Pulpit Freedom Sunday today, an in-your-face challenge to what the government says can and cannot be said in church . . . ‘We believe that a pastor has a right to speak whatever he believes without fearing the government will somehow censor what he says or threaten to take away his tax exemption,’ ADF spokesman [Erik Stanley] said.”

Ian Talley writing at the Wall Street Journal / Washington Wire blog: “The group aims to force a legal battle over existing tax rules, said [Erik Stanley], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. Under current law, the Internal Revenue Service can revoke the tax-free status of churches, or other nonprofit groups, that use their lecterns to stump for or against politicians. ‘ADF is not trying to get politics into the pulpit; we want to get government out of the pulpit,’ Stanley said.”