Daily Archives: December 13, 2010

Christian Post: “Partnerships between the Washington, D.C., faith community and the city government, mired by scandals and neglect, will be restored in the New Year, Mayor-elect Vincent Gray promises.”

Fox News: “Kids who once thrilled at sitting on Santa’s lap at the 14th Street McBurney YMCA’s wildly popular annual holiday luncheon will now suffer the icy embrace of a talking snowman and his sidekick, an anonymous penguin, at today’s event.”

Courier Press: “County clerks in Illinois, who will be responsible for implementing a new state law permitting civil unions of same-sex or other couples, say they have little information yet about how the process will be done.”

KTTC [AP]: “Minnesota’s solicitor general says a 1971 state Supreme Court ruling that banned gay marriage is still strong enough that a judge should dismiss a Hennepin County lawsuit seeking to let gays marry in Minnesota.”

“The Defense Department should eliminate restrictions on women serving in combat units and end all ‘gender restrictive policies,’ according to a blue-ribbon panel created by Congress . . . ”

Missoulian: “Attorneys for seven gay couples are asking a Montana judge to rule, prior to going to trial, that they’re being discriminated against by the state because it’s not allowing them the same rights as married couples under Montana’s Constitution.”

“The Alliance Defense Fund has sent letters to 137 Tennessee school districts informing them that they do not have to deny students and teachers their constitutionally protected right to recognize Christmas just because of threats issued by the American Civil Liberties Union.”

BusinessWeek: “The Brazilian government says gay couples in a stable relationship are entitled to the same social security pension benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples.”

Sydney Morning Herald: “An Australian study of HIV transmission has revealed an alarming culture shift in which younger gay men appear more willing to take sexual risks and so become infected with the virus earlier.”

Manila Times: “Rep. Kaka Bag-ao of Akbayan party-list, the principal author of House Bill 515, or the Act prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and providing penalties, noted that such homophobia is stirred by the fact that the country has no standing policy on human rights abuses against lesbians, gays bisexual and transgenders (LGBT).”

“Prospective parents put off by the rigor of traditional adoptions are bypassing that system by producing babies of their own—often using an egg donor from one country, a sperm donor from another, and a surrogate who will deliver in a third country to make what some industry participants call ‘a world baby.’”

Reuters: “A Catholic church that has been a landmark in Algeria’s capital for over a century officially re-opened on Monday after restoration work, providing a symbol of religious tolerance in the mainly Muslim country.”

Trend: “Members of the Adventists of the Seventh Day, whose propaganda has been prohibited by Azerbaijani law, were detained in Sumgayit today.”

The Hill: “Senate Democrats and Republicans joined together Monday afternoon to advance an $858 billion package of tax cuts and benefits, setting up a political showdown with the House.”

Times of Malta: “Labour MP Evarist Bartolo is to present a Private Member’s Bill that would make it easier for trans-gender people to change the gender annotation on their official documents, without having to undergo a lengthy and intrusive court process.”

Zenit: “Father Lombardi noted: “The importance of the new report is precisely in its giving a long and detailed series of examples of intolerance toward Christians in Europe: acts of vandalism, of hatred, toward Churches and religious symbols, manifestations of hatred and offences against persons.”

Zenit: “A report just published found that the middle class is experiencing increased levels of divorce and unmarried mothers, and that marriage problems are not limited to people with lower levels of education and income. The 2010 edition of The State of Our Unions, ‘When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America,’ was released on Monday. It is a joint effort by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values.”

When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America

Fox News: “Deputy Attorney General Monica Marquez is the first female Hispanic Colorado Supreme Court Justice and she is also the first openly gay jurist on the state’s high court.”

Janet E. Smith writing at Zenit: “The media are obsessed with the issue of the Catholic Church and condoms because they seem to believe that condoms are the solution to preventing the transmission of the HIV. Might it be time they began to think about other organizations, such as themselves, that might bear some responsibility? Who can deny that if people were living by the Church’s teaching on sexuality, if people were having only married heterosexual sex, there would be no problem with the HIV (and a host of other problems)?”

Senator Mark Leno Press Release: “Senator Mark Leno introduced legislation today that helps address the nation’s bullying crisis by ensuring that historical contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are accurately and fairly portrayed in instructional materials. Senate Bill 48, known as the FAIR (Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful) Education Act, adds the LGBT community to the existing list of under-represented cultural and ethnic groups already listed in the state’s inclusionary education requirements.”

Religion Clause: “In an en banc opinion in Alcazar v. Rosas, (9th Cir., Dec. 10, 2010), the full 9th Circuit vacated the portion of the 3-judge panel’s decision that adopted a new definition for who is a minister for purposes of the ‘ministerial exception’ doctrine.”

Washington Post / The Checkup: “A new analysis disputes the contention that women who have abortions are more prone to mental health problems. Julia Steinberg of the University of California, San Francisco, and Lawrence Finer of the Guttmacher Institute examined data collected by the National Comorbidity Survey.”

New York Times: “95 percent of Poles identify themselves as Catholic, but only 41 percent attend Sunday Mass regularly. In the big cities of Warsaw and Krakow, only about 20 percent attend Mass regularly on Sundays, according to the Institute of Statistics of the Church. Supporters of the church also said that the numbers dropped far below the 41 percent when it came to accepting moral mandates about issues like divorce and in vitro fertilization, both of which the church opposes and a majority of people appear to support . . . ”

LifeNews: “Taking advantage of an appeals court ruling striking down an injunction against his forcing Americans to pay for embryonic stem cell research, the Obama administration is looking at more funding . . . ”

LifeNews: “Sidewalk counselors tell us the facility owner, friends and staffers consistently display extreme perversion and hateful bigotry toward anyone opposing their efforts. In Rockford, it seems they’ve seen it all . . . ”

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “With its Race to the Top competition, the federal government dangled the prospect of a share of $4.35 billion for those states ready to enact reforms, especially related to improving teacher and principal performance . . . In the end, only 12% of the union’s local leaders endorsed a plan that might have brought in more than $250 million in school funding to Wisconsin.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “If you want a look at pure cultural defenses that do set up a separate legal rule for people who belong to a particular group, check out Rhode Island General Laws § 15–1-4:
‘The provisions of §§ 15–1-1 – 15–1-3 shall not extend to, or in any way affect, any marriage which shall be solemnized among the Jewish people, within the degrees of affinity or consanguinity allowed by their religion.’”

Pacific News Center: “Governor Camacho has vetoed the controversial informed consent on abortion bill. The measure called for a 24 hour waiting period and was meant to provide women options on abortion before going through with the procedure.”

“I do not believe that, under the present state of the law, that the Supreme Court is likely to overthrow [Don't Ask, Don't Tell]. And I think I’m in accord with the ACLU in that view.”

Barna Group: “1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate . . . 2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented . . . 3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life . . . 4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating . . . 5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church . . . 6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.”

Daily Mail: “Let me give you an example of what it’s like to teach children in the bottom set at Key Stage 3 level (those aged between 11 and 14) at a bog-standard comprehensive school, not in some inner-city hellhole, but in one of the leafier suburbs of a town in the Midlands. Last month, an 11-year-old boy walked late into my class and proceeded to disrupt it so badly that I could not teach. He threw pencils at his classmates, called out when I asked him not to, refused to work and disrupted all the other pupils until finally I had to have him removed from the classroom because he called me a ‘f****** cow.’”

Guy Milliere writing at Hudson New York: “There are no political alternatives here: in every European country, political parties fall into one of two camps:Protest Movements that foment and channel discontent and resentment though they have no chance to prevail in national elections; and Incumbent Establishment Parties that offer only statism, political interventionism, redistribution and stagnation. Even if an elected politician actually did try to move in an encouraging new direction, his efforts would be quickly squelched: Europe’s key decisions are now made in technocratic and bureaucratic spheres where voters have no sway.”

Associated Press: “Jordan says its peacekeeping mission to Afghanistan is meant to help fellow Muslims rather than the American military, in response to opposition criticism.”

ABC: “New laws in New South Wales are about to put an end to people paying overseas surrogates to have their babies. Community Services Minister Linda Burney has introduced legislation extending the ban on commercial surrogacy to overseas arrangements.” Via Wesley J. Smith.

LifeSiteNews: “After decades of involvement in coercive population control measures, including abortion, contraception, and sterilization of women, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is admitting that policies it has championed are causing a serious imbalance in the ratio of male to female births in Vietnam.”

The Physicians Foundation: “The Physicians Foundation today released the results of a national survey of physicians that finds strong negative feelings towards the new health care reform law and fear that patient care will suffer in the months and years ahead. The survey was intended to gauge physicians’ initial reaction to the passage of health reform and to learn the ways in which they plan to respond to it.” Via Wesley J. Smith.

Eric Canter, via Daniel Foster at The Corner: “To ensure an expedited process moving forward, I call on President Obama and Attorney General Holder to join Attorney General Cuccinelli in requesting that this case be sent directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Jeremy Dys writing at The Engage Family Blog: “Now, let me sum up: the Canadian military – who has fully embraced open homosexual conduct in their military – has issued a directive concerning individuals who will convince a psychologist to write a note to a surgeon that the person is trapped in the wrong body and that surgeon is to mutilate that individual’s genitals to “correct” what must amount to a birth defect.”

Associated Press: “Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan says she is facing a ‘steep learning curve’ in her first months on the bench as she is drafting her first opinions and trying to acclimate to life as a judge.”

Associated Press: “Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated his resolve to prosecute hate crimes while standing behind the methods used in anti-terrorism cases during a speech Friday night before a Muslim advocacy group near San Francisco.”

Associated Press: “The parents of a New Hampshire teenager are asking school officials to stop teachers from using a book that refers to Jesus Christ as a ‘wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist.’”

Associated Press: “Three military veterans who were discharged under the law that prohibits gays from serving openly in uniform sued the government Monday to be reinstated and to pressure lawmakers to repeal the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law before a new Congress is sworn in.”

Family Policy Council of West Virginia: “Late Thursday, the United States Senate rejected a measure (57-40) that would have normalized homosexual behavior in the military and allowed taxpayer dollars to be used to fund abortion-on-demand on military bases. The only member of the U.S. Senate to break with his party was Sen. Joe Manchin.”

ACLU: “The Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Connecticut filed a lawsuit today with the U.S. District Court in New Haven, Connecticut against the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs for their failure to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests seeking government records documenting incidents of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military. ”

Thomas More College of Liberal Arts: “In a symposium sponsored by Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, nearly 200 visitors gathered to listen as three prominent figures addressed the role of the Catholic statesman in 21st century America—in the light of the example of St. Thomas More, and of the legacy of President John F. Kennedy’s epochal ‘Houston Speech,’ in which then-Senator Kennedy promised an audience of Protestant ministers that he would keep his political conscience free of Catholic influence. It is a promise that the Kennedy family and its political heirs would keep with a vengeance, as the symposium revealed.”

Daily Local: “Some parents say a health curriculum supplement under consideration by the Downingtown Area School District is inappropriate. District officials were poised to make a decision Friday regarding the sexual-education program Amnion that teaches abstinence-only education.”

Hometownlife.com: “A Bentley Elementary School fourth-grader will be allowed to continue wearing a religious emblem, despite its resemblance to a weapon, while Plymouth-Canton Community Schools administrators determine an appropriate course of action, probably later this week.”

Nathan A. Adams writing at Patheos: “Consequently, every year at this time, secular and other opponents emerge in Grinch-like fashion to put an end to the most religious of the displays, celebrations, story-telling, and caroling on public property. The time is past due for the courts to dismiss these cases and send the “Grinch” packing: 1) to the extent any private displays or celebrations are allowed on public property and 2) as a natural reflection of the cultural importance Americans assign to these holidays.”

Hurriyet Daily News: “Turkish State Minister Faruk Çelik introduced a new draft curriculum for compulsory religious classes Monday in continuing efforts to accommodate the country’s Alevi community’s demands that new textbooks be produced for the classes.”

Hudson New York: “The German state of Lower Saxony will start including Islam in its schools’ core curriculum as part of an initiative to counter growing anti-Islam sentiment in Europe. Dr. Bernad Althusmann, Minister of Education in Lower Saxony announced that schools there will start including Islamic education in their main curriculum . . . ”

Michael C. Dorf writing at FindLaw: “[I]n this column I will consider what the oral argument revealed about four issues: (1) Whether there is jurisdiction to entertain the appeal; (2) whether the fact that California’s Proposition 8 took away a right that had been previously recognized is constitutionally significant; (3) what standard of scrutiny applies to state laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; and (4) whether a summary decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 controls the outcome of the case.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on the Mike Gallagher Show to discuss this: Swedish government’s 18-month-long seizure of 9-year-old boy pushing parents to emotional brink. | MP3 12:03 mins

LifeSiteNews: “Pro-life leaders are worried that an announced merger between Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa will lead to a spread in abortion, including so-called ‘telemed’ abortions.”

Christian Science Monitor: “The key symbol in the matter is Aasia Bibi, a 45-year-old Christian woman currently facing the death penalty on the charge of insulting the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad. Government officials originally promised to pardon but she continues to languish in jail. Some analysts say that the government’s apparent willingness to bow to Islamist extremists in the matter could undermine the country’s gains in the ongoing battle against the Taliban.”

Guardian: “The Christian owners of a Cornish hotel told a court today that they turned away a gay couple because their faith prevented them from allowing unmarried guests to share a room.”

Related:

UK: Christian B&B owners sued for discrimination against same-sex couple

AFP: “Indonesian Christians appealed to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for protection on Monday after Muslim vigilante groups, backed by police, surrounded their homes and forced them to leave.”

Fox News: “Members of a Christian group are protesting what they call discrimination after a city in Florida left a manger out of a holiday display.”

SanaNews: “The religious parties of the country have announced to launch movement on the expected amendment in blasphemy laws by the government.”

Dropout Nation: “If education is truly the most-important civil rights issue of this era, it means that black churches must play their part in ensuring that every child in the pews and communities they serve are educated in cultures of geniuses. It is as important for them to step up and embrace school reform as it was for them to combat Jim Crow segregation fifty years ago.”

OneNewsNow: “Britain’s interior minister said Sunday she will consider barring from the country a Florida pastor who threatened to burn a Quran on the anniversary of 9/11.”

Associated Press: “At his local mosque in England, Taimour Abdulwahab alarmed elders with his extreme views on Islam. On the Internet, he posted videos of Chechen fighters and abused Iraqi prisoners.”

New York Times: “A new wave of Iraqi Christians has fled to northern Iraq or abroad amid a campaign of violence against them and growing fear that the country’s security forces are unable or, more ominously, unwilling to protect them.”

TIME: “Authorities refused to comment on press reports naming a 29-year-old, Iraqi-born Swede as the perpetrator, nor is it known if the explosions were the work of a single individual or a terrorist cell. But already the incident has raised an uncomfortable question for a country that prides itself on open democracy: Can Sweden continue to guard civil liberties while meeting 21st century security threats?”

RICHMOND, Va. — “No one should be forced to pay for an unconstitutional federal takeover of health care that will funnel taxpayer dollars into the pockets of abortionists and lead inevitably toward death panels for the elderly and infirm. Congress …

ADF attorney Roger Kiska appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this: Swedish government’s 18-month-long seizure of 9-year-old boy pushing parents to emotional brink. | MP3 runs 14:51 mins

“I don’t recall a single reporter asking Mr. Gates why, if ending the policy by court order would harm the military, it would be less disruptive if done by the lame-duck Congress. Mr. Gates himself hinted at the answer: Training (i.e. brainwashing) could begin earlier. Think about that.”

“A federal judge issued a ruling today on a Virginia lawsuit against the ObamaCare health care law that allows abortion funding and he said the program is unconstitutional in part.”

NewJerseyNewsRoom.com: “Thirty years later, public lightings of Chanukiot (Chanukah menorahs) are part of the holiday season, along with Christmas trees, Santa Claus and symbols of Kwanza. According to Chabad, there are 15,000 public candle lightings around the globe this year — including many in towns throughout New Jersey — from Teaneck to Trenton, from Hoboken to Haddonfield, from Morristown to Margate — a bright victory for religious freedom, and a result of legal battles fought in courtrooms from sea to shining sea.”

Bruce Bialosky writing at Townhall: “The NCPA identifies 159 new federal agencies in which bureaucrats define what medical care you may or may not receive. But is that true? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce states there are 183 new federal agencies. It’s perverse enough that all these agencies are being created. But if two reputable organizations can analyze this legislation and still disagree on how much bureaucracy springs from its pages, what hope will we ever have to survive this mind-warped beast?”

NECN [AP]: “Protesters say they’re trying to call attention to Maryland’s abortion laws after the opening of a clinic in Germantown that’s believed to be offering late-term abortions.”

Independent Catholic News: “The European Court of Human Rights is issuing a ruling this week on whether Ireland’s restrictions on abortion violate women’s human rights. The ruling, which could have significant implications for Irish abortion law, is based on a case taken by three women in Ireland who say their health was put at risk by being forced to go abroad for abortions, according to a report in the Irish Times, issued by Lifezine today.”

FOX 19: “Christians living in Brookville are ready to push back after a formal complaint to remove the nativity from government property.”

Staten Island Advance: “A Nativity scene’s removal from the St. George Ferry Terminal has sparked an online debate still raging about political correctness and the celebration of Christmas.”

KULR 8: “The ACLU is moving forward with a lawsuit against the state of Montana demanding same sex couples be granted the same equal protections as married couples. The response comes exactly one month after the state of Montana filed a motion for dismissal in the case.”

ACLU of Montana’s info page (including documents) for the case is here.

Grand Rapids Press: “Having already sued three Michigan cities for banning medical marijuana, the American Civil Liberties Union now might get involved in a case in Kent County.”