Daily Archives: October 25, 2010

LifeSiteNews: “Provincial court Judge John Bascom said he will rule early next year whether University of Calgary security officials had the authority to charge Bill Whatcott with trespassing for handing out flyers on campus criticizing homosexuality.”

Cincinnati Enquirer: “A federal judge Monday refused to jump into a dispute between U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus and an anti-abortion group that wants to erect billboards criticizing the congressman.”

Fides: “On October 19, the Chapel was illegally occupied by force by a group of over 20 people who broke into the building and shut themselves inside: they are Muslim faithful who, with the support of some local politicians, are claiming ownership of the building, based on records that Christians consider artifacts. The group has occupied the chapel and, according to information sent to Fides, they intend to seize and sell the building to obtain several million rupees.”

Letter to the editor of the Sheboygan Press: “Sen. Santorum: ‘That doesn’t answer the question. Let’s assume the head is accidentally delivered. Would you allow the doctor to kill the baby?’ Sen. Feingold: ‘That is a question that should be answered by a doctor, and by the woman who received the advice from the doctor.’ This is unbelievable and disgusting. In other words Feingold would allow the murder of an innocent baby. This is morally unacceptable.”

Reuters: “According to a 2002 study of Massachusetts and Vermont teens, only 5 percent to 6 percent of teens had same-sex partners. In the new study, 9.3 percent of teens said they did.”

Boston Herald (AP): “A federal judge has rejected a challenge to New York’s election law brought by an anti-gay marriage group that’s drafted political ads in support of Carl Paladino, the Republican candidate for governor . . . U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara dismissed the lawsuit Monday as premature because state elections officials haven’t classified the organization as a political committee.”

The Herald: “A report by Glasgow City Council into its decision to wind up the Castro Centre, which was spearheaded by a member of the city’s ruling Labour administration who has since been suspended by the party, shows around £64,000 of public money was spent by it before it was axed, considerably more than previously estimated.”

London Evening Standard: “Government figures show that across the UK adoptions by same sex couples rose by a third, from 90 to 120, in the four years to March.”

The Sydney Morning Herald: “Labor senator Doug Cameron says it’s inevitable that laws will be changed to allow gay marriage in Australia.”

BBC: “More than 100 go into hospital every month in England and Wales for an abortion that isn’t their first. Latest figures show 5,423 under-20s were onto their second abortion and for 62 teenagers it was their fourth.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “Interestingly, the economic slowdown has not resulted in birth control budget cuts, but has in fact created a rise in the use of birth control measures as fears over the cost of unplanned pregnancies rise amid the weak economic climate . . . As stated by the new market research report, Europe and the US, together account for a major share of the global market.”

LifeNews: “Now, the main NCI acivist who got the agency to deny the abortion-breast cancer link has co-authored a study admitting the abortion-breast cancer link is true, calling it a ‘known risk factor.’”

Associated Press: “At a Statehouse rally Monday to kick off a bus tour, gay marriage opponents pleaded their case for why voters on Nov. 2 should opt not to retain Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, and justices David Baker and Michael Streit. Iowa voters have never ousted a state Supreme Court justice.”

Times Live: “The bill comprises seven articles including imprisonment and fines for homosexuals, and will be debated by the National Assembly’s committee on society and culture.”

FOX News: “What is it with photo shoots about sexy schoolgirls? . . . Experts tell Pop Tarts that these instances of young women posing suggestively as school girls impact all women by promoting the ideal that the younger the woman, the more appealing she is.”

LifeSiteNews: “A 16-year-old girl secured a temporary restraining order last week from a Texas court that blocks her parents from forcing her to have an abortion against her will . . . ‘No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life – especially one that belongs to someone else – is worthless,’ said attorney Stephen Casey of Round Rock, who belongs to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) alliance.”

Forbes (AP): “New Jersey lawmakers introduced an ‘anti-bullying bill of rights’ Monday that one advocate said would be the toughest state law of its kind in the nation, a proposal that follows the widely publicized suicide of a Rutgers University student who was humiliated online.”

Anchorage Daily News: “In an unusual weekend hearing, retired Superior Court Judge Winston Burbank ruled that the public’s right to know about candidates outweighed Miller’s right to privacy.”

Los Angeles Times: “In its own subtle, perhaps unintentional way, the show’s latest season feels more LGBT-friendly than ever.”

ChristianNewsWire: “On Friday, October 22, 2010, Circuit Court Judge Edward Ramsey for the 10th Judicial District of Jefferson County, Alabama, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, their founder, Jeff White, and others, from engaging in constitutionally protected activity . . . This morning the hearing was held and the TRO dissolved.”

ADF’s Weekly Update is on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPt2K3XT3MQ

Christian Post: “Hundreds King, N.C., residents have held protests and camped out at the city’s Central Park for nearly two months after city officials were pressured into removing a Christian flag from the park’s Veterans Memorial . . . City officials cited financial costs as the reason for the flag’s removal after it received complaints from the American Civil Liberties Union, in conjunction with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.”

OneNewsNow (AP): “New Hampshire is one of five states to have legalized homosexual ‘marriage.’ Two men getting married in Portsmouth on Saturday wanted to publish a marriage notice in the Union Leader of Manchester but were refused.”

ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on the Paul Edwards Program to discuss this: Mich. woman accused of civil rights violation for seeking Christian roommate at church. | MP3 audio 10:55 mins

WZZM 13 and WOOD TV

Santa Monica Mirror: “Equal rights supporters lauded the first chance for an Equal Benefits ordinance in Santa Monica for same sex and heterosexual domestic partners.”

Indian Express: “In the year since the Delhi High Court passed a landmark judgment overturning a 150-year-old law and legalising consensual homosexual relationships between adults, more and more women stuck in unhappy marriages have filed for divorce on the grounds that their husbands are ‘homosexual’.”

EU Observer: “Macedonia has delayed judicial, administrative and economic reforms over the past twelve months, the European Commission is set to conclude in its annual progress report to be published in November . . . The long criticised and hotly debated Macedonian anti-discrimination law also figures in the list of shortcomings for not listing sexual orientation as a ground for protection.”

South Bend Tribune: “The South Bend Common Council plans to vote today on a long-standing proposal to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”

The Epoch Times: “In his debut statement to the United Nations General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee, the recently appointed Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, boldly demonstrated that he won’t ignore China, at once a permanent member of the Security Council and a chronic abuser of religious freedom.”

Politico: “Human Rights Campaign and the Courage Campaign, a large California grass-roots group, have filed an IRS complaint against an affiliate of the National Organization for Marriage and are diving into the California Senate race with a new online ad campaign . . . The offensive comes amid a season of finger-pointing and recrimination among gay rights groups and their presumed friends in Congress and at the White House.”

JTA: “New Zealand Jewish life is in jeopardy if the community loses its legal battle over the ban on kosher slaughter, Jewish leaders there warned.”

Robert D. Kaplan writing in the Los Angeles Times: ” . . . Whereas 20% of Muslims live in the Middle East, 60% are in Asia, according to the Pew Research Center . . . Islam in the eastern tropics . . . shares the moral space with other traditions, so that secular politics flourish. Indonesia has more Muslims than any other country in the world, yet it is not an Islamic state. But this benign version of Islam is now being challenged by modern technology, which allows for the influx of Saudi money and religious ideology.”

Reuters: “Among its findings, the report says Muslim pupils and parents in France are increasingly making religious demands on the state school system and that teachers should rebuff these demands by explaining the country’s principle of laïcité, the official separation of church and state.”

Boston Herald: “Massachusetts’ four Roman Catholic bishops are urging Catholics to vote in next week’s elections in a way that will ‘enhance human dignity’ . . . It urged voters to weigh abortion, same-sex marriage, religious freedom, and the well-being of the poor in their decisions.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “The right to a religious exemption belongs to a particular religious believer because of his religious beliefs, whatever they might be. The right does not belong to a religious group (setting aside certain religious associational rights that are not relevant here), nor does it belong to a person by virtue of his membership in a group. As a result, small sects, minority groups within sects, and even idiosyncratic religious believers are as protected as large sects. One doesn’t need a note from one’s priest to prevail in a religious exemption case.”

The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts: “On Thursday, November 4 at 8:00pm, the Edmund Campion Debate Society presents Dr. Peter Kreeft and Mr. Robert Spencer on ‘Resolved: That the Only Good Muslim is a Bad Muslim.’ Speaking in the affirmative will be Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, frequent guest on FoxNews, ABC, BBC, and many other media, and author of nine books on Islam, including The New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad . . . Speaking in the negative will be Dr. Peter Kreeft of the philosophy department at Boston College, author of more than 45 books, including the recently released Between Allah and Jesus: What Christians Can Learn from Muslims. One of Mr. Spencer’s former teachers, Dr. Kreeft will argue that Catholics and Muslims belong to sister, Abrahamic faiths, and should cooperate to resist the secularization and moral decay that prevail in the postmodern, post-Christian West.”

newsdesk.org: “The June launch of a Pakistani birth-control hotline has garnered a mixed bag of praise, skepticism, and condemnation from medical and religious leaders in the country. The hotline, which was created by Pakistani and Dutch women’s rights organizations, advises women on the use of misoprostol to self-induce abortions.”

The Voice of Russia: “Representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate are against the wording which defines childbirth as ‘the separation of the product of conception from the mother’s body’. The deputy head of the Orthodox Church’s department for relations between the church and society, Father Georgy Roshchin, shared his views in an interview with the Voice of Russia.”

Pink News: “Four gay and four straight couples are to challenge the UK’s ban on gay couples marrying and straight couples having civil partnerships. The Equal Love campaign, organised by gay rights activist Peter Tatchell and OutRage!, will see the couples registering to hold ceremonies they are not entitled to and taking legal action if they are turned away.”

Nancy Pearcey writing at The Washington Post / On Faith: “Postmodernism also explains the dictates of political correctness that permeate the classroom today. Speech codes derive from the idea that individuals are products of social forces–race, class, gender, sexual orientation . . . In public schools, secular ideas are treated as objective, unbiased, and suitable for the classroom, while religious ideas are treated as strictly personal and private. Ironically, this would rule out of bounds the worldview that inspired the American Founders, who maintained that human rights are ‘endowed’ by the Creator.”

Catholic News Agency: “Archbishop Broglio explained to CNA what he sees as the basic flaw in Judge Phillips’ ruling, which declared that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ denied homosexual soldiers their rights to freedom of speech and due process . . . ”

Breitbart.tv: “Two Ames churches that will host satellite voting during services this month are part of a trend blurring the line of church-and-state separation, the Iowa ACLU said Wednesday. ‘Combining polling places with religious services is an invitation to the abuse of both religion and the civic act of voting,’ said Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.”

Santee Patch: “While it is tradition to begin Santee City Council meetings with nonsectarian invocations, not everyone believes it should continue.”

Bernama: “Stern action will be taken against individuals or political parties which raise sensitive religious and racial issues when campaigning in the upcoming Batu Sapi parliamentary seat by-election.”

ADF Attorney David French responds to Robert VerBruggen’s (NRO) criticisms of his “Christianity, stigma, and suicide” column: “First, the argument that comes largely from external (typically Leftist) critics of Christianity is that Christian opposition to homosexual behavior creates a ‘climate’ conducive to suicide. I think this is frankly absurd . . . what is the Left’s argument? That the mere existence of people who think homosexual behavior is wrong makes it more likely that a person who identifies as gay will kill himself? . . . My argument is that sin affects the conscience in ways that can be quite profound — and that effect often exists regardless of the existence of any external moral critique. Within orthodox Christian theology, it’s understood that the ‘requirements’ of God’s laws are written on the human heart. In other words, people do, as you put it, ‘naturally process a given behavior as sinful,’ at least until hearts are hardened or consciences corrupted.”

Spectator: “In the weeks since Michael Gove introduced a law allowing top-rated schools to break free from local authority control, trade unions have been on the hunt for anyone daring to express interest in this offer. Heads have been sent letters, demanding they reveal their intentions. Those who do not reply are told they had better prepare for a battle. A secret war which will decide the future of English education is underway.”

Daily Herald: “Executive Director Jan Czarnik said what happened at Wednesday’s debate and subsequent criticism directed at moderator Kathy Tate-Bradish was an attempt by supporters of Republican candidate Joe Walsh of McHenry and tea party members to bully the organization.” Seeing Red AZ has video of the event.

FindLaw (AP): “There are so many great things about Mormon culture and the LDS church, but it is not a safe place for gay and lesbian people,” said Jarvis, 42, a seventh-generation Mormon who came out in 1993 and has since left the church . . . The study, which includes families of all faiths, has also found that family religious acceptance or rejection also has a profound outcome on an LGBT youth’s mental well being and safety.”

Wall Street Journal: “At stake, in addition to the mortgage-interest deductions, are child tax credits and the ability of employees to pay their portion of their health-insurance tab with pretax dollars. Commission officials are expected to look at preserving these breaks but at a lower level, according to people familiar with the matter.”

WATE (Knoxville, TN): “Football game prayer policies differ widely in local school districts. In Anderson County, some schools observe a moment of silence before a game. In Sevier County, there is a prayer before some football games. In Blount County, there was a student-led prayer at William Blount High School Friday night.”

Northwest Florida Daily News: “The Liberty Counsel filed the complaint Wednesday. It claims the school district filed motions on behalf of Pace High School Principal Stephen Shell without his knowledge or consent. The motions in question are part of a lawsuit filed by the Liberty Counsel on behalf of two dozen people who claim the First and 14th Amendment rights of teachers and students are being violated by a consent decree signed by the district more than a year ago to end an earlier lawsuit.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal has released a short guide aimed at tax professionals and California’s registered domestic partners explaining the consequences of a significant shift in federal tax policy as they file their tax returns for 2010.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal client Dr. Robert Franke, who was evicted from a Little Rock, Arkansas, assisted living facility because he has HIV, has been invited by the White House to participate this week in a conference on HIV and aging. Dr. Franke, a retired educator and former minister, will attend the meeting with his daughter, Sara Bowling, and Lambda Legal HIV Project Staff Attorney Scott Schoettes. Schoettes will speak on a panel addressing issues likely to affect seniors living with HIV.”

Barna Group: “Most Americans believe that the Christian faith has made positive contributions to American society during the past few years. A new nationwide survey from The Barna Group reveals that most of those contributions fall into one of three categories. Surprisingly, the survey also discovered that Americans are even more likely to identify negative contributions to society by Christianity in recent years.”

“Ms. Pratten, 28, is seeking to have B.C.’s Adoption Act declared unconstitutional because it gives adopted children rights to obtain records of their biological parents that are not provided to people who are conceived with the help of donated eggs or sperm.”

Religion Clause: “According to the Washington Post last week, an Ohio-based clergy group, ClergyVOICE, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service on Oct. 12 (full text) challenging the tax-exempt status of the Fellowship Foundation, the organization that sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast. The Foundation received two $25,000 checks in 2004 from the Missouri-based Islamic-American Relief Agency which was included on a Senate Finance Committee list of organizations that finance terrorist activities.”

Religion Clause: “Yesterday’s London Mail reports that Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has converted to Islam after having a holy experience at the shrine of Fatima al-Masumeh in the city of Qom during a visit to Iran six weeks ago.”

Religion Clause: “On Friday, a petition for certiorari (full text) to the U.S. Supreme Court was filed in Cooke v. Tubra. In the case, an Oregon state appellate court held that jurisdiction over an interim pastor’s defamation claim against his former church and two of its officers is not necessarily barred by the First Amendment.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “That’s the argument made in Reedy v. Schneider National, Inc. (E.D. Pa. filed Oct. 15, 2010). Vasant Reddy says that he has ‘a sincerely held religious belief that he cannot consume, possess, or transport alcohol or tobacco,’ and that he informed Schneider National of this. He also says that ‘less than 5% of the loads Defendant transported contained alcohol and/or tobacco,’ which means that it would not have been an ‘undue hardship’ for Schneider to accommodate him. Nonetheless, he says, he was ordered to transport a load with alcohol, and was fired because he refused to transport it. (See the Philadelphia Inquirer for more.)”

Jonathan H. Adler writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “The Huffington Post reports that Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Or) is investigating articles of impeachment for Chief Justice Roberts in response to the Court’s decision in Citizens United.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “Not reported by the Post are the specific ways that the Obama DOJ is refusing to enforce the law in a race-neutral manner. Specifically, Coates, who as the Post reports was hired by President Bill Clinton from the American Civil Liberties Union, testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that: 1) Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes ordered DOJ attorneys only to enforce ‘traditional types of [voter intimidation] cases that would provide political equality for racial and minority language voters’ . . .”

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this: Parents stopped from forcing Texas teen to have abortion.  | MP3 audio 15:00 mins

Associated Press: “Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it’s not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn’t Catholic enough.”

Associated Press: “The European Union agreed Monday to review in detail Serbia’s request to join the bloc, an application that is warmly endorsed by Washington but that divides EU members.”

Associated Press: “The conservative mayor of Castellammare di Stabia, Luigi Bobbio, says he wants to restore public decorum through a set of norms that include banning football games in public parks, blasphemy, and ‘very skimpy clothes.’”

Associated Press: “A Catholic church in the central Swiss city of Lucerne has sparked controversy among believers with an AIDS awareness campaign that involves distributing to teenagers condoms bearing the slogan ‘protect thy neighbor as thyself.’”

New York Times: “If elected, Ms. Sparks would be the first transgender supervisor in San Francisco — the liberal enclave where Harvey Milk was elected as one of the nation’s first openly gay officials in 1977, and perhaps the only place where Ms. Sparks might be considered right-of-center. But she is not the only transgender person campaigning for public office this fall. And unlike in years past, when such candidates were often considered mere curiosities, several are within striking distance of historic victories.”

Fox News: “Portland [Maine] residents will vote Nov. 2 on a proposal to give legal residents who are not U.S. citizens the right to vote in local elections, joining places like San Francisco and Chicago that have already loosened the rules or are considering it.”

Hoosier Nation: “Christians not only have to lay aside their ethics when sexual perverts demand them to make anti-Christian symbols for anti-Christian holidays, but now they apparently have to lay them aside in their publicly expressed preference of a roommate . . . [Joel Oster] with the Alliance Defense Fund disagrees with the suit. ‘Clearly this woman has a right to pick and choose who she wants to live with.’”

The Observatorium: “In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a single, 31-year-old woman named Tricia posted a request on her church’s bulletin board seeking a roommate. Now she’s in trouble from the Michigan Department of Civil Rights for violating the Fair Housing Act by ‘discriminating against those of other faiths’ . . . The Alliance Defense Fund is on the case, pointing out that the FHA is directed at landlords, housing management services, and the like, and that Tricia is none of those – she’s simply a single woman looking for someone to share housing expenses.” | ADF News Release

Omaha World-Herald: “The Omaha City Council is to consider Tuesday whether to amend municipal ordinances to protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people against discrimination . . . The Nebraska Family Council, which spearheaded the petition drive that put Nebraska’s same-sex marriage ban on the ballot in 2000, is working to oppose the ordinance change, said Al Riskowski, who serves as the group’s executive director. He said his Nebraska group is being assisted by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy organization.”

San Bernardino County Sun: “A new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press finds that among religious groups, encountering political information at church is most common among black Protestants, with 36 percent of voters who regularly attend services saying information on political parties or candidates has been made available at their place of worship . . . [Dean Broyles, president of the Escondido-based Western Center for Law and Policy] pointed to the Alliance Defense Fund’s “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” held this year on Sept. 26. Pastors around the country made a point on that day to preach about the moral qualifications of candidates seeking political office.”

The News-Gazette: “An adjunct professor fired and rehired by the University of Illinois says he’s pleased with some, but not all, of an academic freedom committee’s report . . . Howell and an Alliance Defense Fund attorney, [David French], are less happy with the committee report when it comes to a suggestion they interpreted as contradicting itself that students have no right to be offended, then lending weight to that sense of personal offense.” | ADFMedia.org Dr. Kenneth Howell resource page

Wayne Grudem writing at Townhall: “[I]n 1954, Congress amended the Internal Revenue Code to restrict the speech of non-profit organizations. This amendment . . . required churches to refrain from promoting or opposing any political candidate by name . . . The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Christian legal defense organization, has recently questioned the validity of this IRS policy because they believe that the policy is an unconstitutional violation of freedom of religion and freedom of speech.” | The Pulpit Initiative | Speak Up Movement / Church / Pulpit Initiative