Daily Archives: January 7, 2011

Huffington Post: “Missouri is home to one of the fastest growing Amish populations in the United States. While the majority of the nation’s 250,000 Amish still live in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, a westward migration has pushed settlements into 28 states.”

ADF attorney Heather Gebelin Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “Since this is still the first week of the new year, it’s not too late to make some New Year’s resolutions. Here are some suggestions for college administrators, based on what happened in 2010.”

“These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families.”

Associated Press: “Italian police on Friday warned of a new system by which thousands of Internet users around the world have received spam emails for business offers that actually click through to child abuse material.”

The Oregonian: “Oregon Attorney General John Kroger announced today that he will draft legislation that will make it illegal under state law to look at child pornography on the Internet . . . [the] announcement comes one day after the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that state law doesn’t make it a crime to look at child pornography while surfing the Internet if the viewer doesn’t purposefully download the images, print them out or pay for them.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association’s open support of homosexual clubs in Catholic schools has put them at odds with an explicit directive from the Ontario bishops.”

Providence Journal: “Responding to criticism from the Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, Governor Lincoln D. Chafee promised on Friday that if passed by the General Assembly this session, he would sign legislation recognizing same-sex marriage.”

Politics Daily: “Part of the problem, says Keene, is that ‘everyone thinks their issue is more important than everyone else’s [issue].’ Keene says there are some issues conservatives have come to a consensus on: ‘I think opposition to gay marriage is a consensus issue, now. We wouldn’t team up with GOProud to push gay marriage,’ he said.”

Telegraph: “The new government of Kyrgyzstan has launched a crackdown on militants it claims are linked to extreme Islamic groups.”

Detroit Free Enterprise: “When Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan leaves the bench Jan. 14, Gov. Rick Snyder will have many possible choices to fill her spot. Conventional wisdom suggests he will look for a jurist with Republican roots who can plausibly win a nomination at a GOP convention in 2012 and the general election.”

The Oklahoman: “The state Supreme Court tossed aside a request to block Gov. Brad Henry from filling a vacancy on the high court before he leaves office Monday. Supreme Court justices voted 6-1 to reject a stay sought by state Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, to prevent the Democratic governor from making a record sixth appointment to the high court. Chief Justice Steven Taylor cast the dissenting vote.”

San Francisco Chronicle (AP): “Gov. Jerry Brown will have an early opportunity to shape California’s high court following the surprise announcement that its only Latino justice is stepping down next month. Justice Carlos Moreno, the only Democratic appointee on the state Supreme Court, submitted his resignation to California’s new governor on Wednesday and said his last day will be Feb. 28, according to court spokeswoman Lynn Holton.”

Des Moines Register: “A conservative group that wants to change the way Iowa Supreme Court justices are selected argued Thursday that seven lawyer members on the panel that picks finalists should be directly elected by voters.”

“It is morally wrong to end an unborn human life by abortion. It is also morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to promote abortion at home or abroad.”

The Tampa Tribune: “Requiring churches to file the same detailed tax information as other nonprofits is one of several proposals to be addressed by a national commission created in the wake of an inquiry into six televangelist ministries, including Without Walls International Church in Tampa.”

NPR: “The most widely published text in the English language, the King James Bible, was first released 400 years ago, this year. This version of the bible has had a lasting impact, not only on the Christian faith, but on the way English is spoken and written today. In Tell Me More’s weekly ‘Faith Matters’ segment, host Michel Martin speaks with renown religious scholar, Phillip Jenkins, about its legacy.”

Bluegrass Policy Blog: “Senate Bill 3 from the current legislative session was voted out of the Senate Education Committee this afternoon and now heads to the Senate floor for consideration tomorrow.”

FRC Washington Update: “[W]e are not ‘boycotting’ CPAC. We’re simply not participating. FRC has chosen not to partner with a ‘conservative’ event that places the protection of marriage on the same plane as redefining it . . . We recognize that some organizations represented at CPAC are silent on the issue of homosexuality. But organizations whose whole reason for existence is to promote the forced public affirmation of homosexual conduct should not be welcomed at CPAC, because that is not-by any stretch of the imagination-a ‘conservative’ agenda. By allying itself with liberal social organizations, ACU is abandoning at least a third of the conservative movement.”

AFP: “As Brazil gears up for its annual carnival festivities, a row has broken out over toilets for the exclusive use of gays and transvestites in samba schools readying for the event.”

“An appellate court ruled today that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott may not intervene in a Travis County same-sex divorce case, a finding that lets stand for now the divorce of two women who were married out of state but does not affect Texas’ ban on gay marriage.”

Winnipeg Free Press: “The Supreme Court of Canada says a man who distributed anti-gay pamphlets can challenge the constitutionality of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code.”

Providence Journal: “Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rhode Island on Friday denounced as ‘morally wrong’ legislation recognizing same-sex marriage that has been introduced in the General Assembly.”

The Daily Caller: “The conservative coalition has always been unstable. And homosexuality may be the issue on which it shatters . . . Peter Wehner says that these groups could give the impression ‘that they do not have the arguments needed to win on the merits’ . . . By voting with their feet, however, social conservatives are not giving up, they are taking a public stand — which creates a forum to make their case more effectively.”

Paul Kengor writing in The American Spectator: “As the 112th Congress is sworn in, an already endangered species is nearing extinction in the Capitol Building: the pro-life Democrat. This increasingly rare bird is in the process of committing political suicide.”

Washington Examiner: “Confronting President Barack Obama, the new Republican-led House took a first step Friday toward a symbolic vote to repeal his landmark health care overhaul law, which would provide coverage to more than 30 million now uninsured.”

Louisville Courier Journal: “The Kentucky Senate passed a bill Thursday that requires a woman seeking an abortion to be shown an ultrasound image of her fetus before the procedure takes place. Senate Bill 9, which also requires that information about abortion be given to the woman at a face-to-face meeting the day before the procedure, passed on a 32-5 vote.”

David and Amber Lapp writing at First Things: “A renewed society-wide resolve to strengthen marriage is not a matter of patricians ‘imposing’ their love of marriage on others who are resistant to marriage—it’s about helping those Americans who arguably value family the most realize their dreams of raising a flourishing, intact family. As Wilcox reports, 1993 data shows little variation by class in Americans agreeing that marriage is ‘very important’ or ‘one of the most important things to them’: 76 percent of Middle Americans agree, and 79 percent of upscale Americans agree.”

NH Journal: “Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead in New Hampshire in the early stages of the race for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, according to a new survey commissioned by NH Journal and conducted by Magellan Strategies. The survey is the first statewide survey of Granite State Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in 2011.”

LifeNews: “Sen. Beau McCoy introduced the bill yesterday that would prevent state-regulated health care plans from covering abortions unless necessary to save the life of the mother. If passed, the legislation would apply to plans both inside and outside of the health insurance exchanges that will be established under the federal health reform law.”

Telegraph: “The YWCA, which was set up in 1855 to help young women going to London for the first time, has now become ‘Platform 51′ . . . However, officials at the World YWCA headquarters in Geneva told the Daily Mail that none of the 124 branches in other countries intended to follow suit.”

Monsters and Critics: “At least 20 people were injured in clashes between members of two Muslim sects seeking control of a mosque in Bangladesh’s south-eastern Chittagong district on Friday, police said.”

California Catholic Daily: “[Joe Infranco], senior counsel of the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, criticized the ruling. ‘It’s tragic that the court chose a twisted and tired interpretation of the First Amendment over the common sense idea that the families of fallen American troops should be allowed to honor these heroes as they choose,’ he said.”

Dutch News: “A Catholic high school in Volendam is guilty of discrimination on religious grounds for banning a Muslim pupil from wearing a headscarf, the equal opportunities commission said on Friday.”

Henry Samuel writing in The Telegraph: “Mr Sarkozy made the statement while giving his annual address to religious leaders as Coptic Christians were due to celebrate Christmas yesterday, according to the eastern Orthodox church calendar.
‘We cannot accept and thereby facilitate what looks more and more like a particularly perverse programme of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing,’ said the French president.”

The (Greene County) Daily Mail: “The Palenville pagan sect fighting for the town’s recognition as a religious entity says it will not stop, even if it needs to go federal. The Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater’s ongoing tax battle with the Town of Catskill has entered its fifth year, with the municipality continuing to deny a religious property tax exemption it once granted for 2006.”

My Fox Detroit: “The small sabers worn under people’s clothing are in the middle of a controversy in Canton where a fourth grader who follows the religion and its customs brought one to Bentley Elementary School.”

All Voices: “According to a report by the International Christian Concern (ICC) (www.persecution.org) some of the Christians were only recently released after being detained for their faith.”

UCANEWS: “Protestants in the South Korean city of Incheon have gathered to urge the government to revise the country’s re-development plan to save thousands of churches from demolition.”

Compass Direct: “Following the arrest of 11 Christians at gunpoint on Tuesday (Jan. 4), three house church leaders remain behind bars for ‘holding a secret meeting,’ according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).”

ChristianNewsWire: “This week in St. Joseph County Criminal Court, the Thomas More Society filed a motion to compel answers in a pretrial deposition of a former University of Notre Dame official in the case of the 88 pro-life demonstrators who were arrested on the University’s campus before the 2009 Commencement ceremonies as they protested the honoring of President Barack Obama.”

Jonah Goldberg writing at Townhall: “For years we’ve been hearing about how the peaceful religion of Islam has been hijacked by extremists. What if it’s the other way around? Worse, what if the peaceful hijackers are losing their bid to take over the religion?”

MinnPost: “Rabbis at Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis are joining a smattering of leaders at other congregations in the state and around the nation who will no longer sign civil marriage licenses as a protest against state laws that don’t recognize gay marriages.”

“It says: ‘Any person who otherwise meets the eligibility requirements [in law] may marry any other eligible person regardless of gender.’”

Boston.com (AP): “A Vermont high school’s winter ball has been canceled at least in part because of slow ticket sales caused by a ban on the style of dancing known as ‘grinding.’”

Boston.com (AP): “Officials at a New Hampshire high school say they will no longer allow a group to distribute safe-sex kits to students because the contents include flavored lubricant and candy as well as condoms.”

Boston.com (AP): “The Illinois House has approved a plan to abolish capital punishment in a whirlwind reversal on a historic vote.”

Kevin Staley-Joyce writing at First Things: “The inevitability of marriage’s decline . . . is as culturally invidious as it is philosophically fallacious. But hope and moral courage toward marriage are not the sort of virtues the culture encourages when its public discussion of marriage is colored by this politically expedient despair, and the blind and self-serving belief that being happy is the only thing that matters.”

KOAT: “Thousands of people who work for the state could lose benefits for their families. In 2003, Gov. Richardson allowed state workers in domestic partnerships to buy into the state’s insurance plans for their partners.”

Religion Clause: “In Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield v. City of Springfield, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 345 (D MA, Jan. 4, 2011), a Massachusetts federal district court rejected a number of constitutional challenges as well as a challenge under RLUIPA to action declaring a closed Springfield, Massachusetts Catholic church to be a local historic district.”

CNN Money: “The economy added 103,000 jobs in December — falling short of most expectations. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate sunk to 9.4%, its lowest level since May 2009, confusing some economists.”

Reuters: “The U.N. refugee agency voiced concern on Friday that Greece’s proposed 12.5 km-long fence at its border with Turkey will shut out asylum-seekers fleeing violence and abuse in their troubled homelands.”

“The city health department last month released statistics that showed 39 percent of pregnancies ended with induced termination in 2009.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “The Perry case, which is attempting to overturn the voters’ definition of marriage in Prop 8, is a spectacular example of misused words and shifting meanings. The distortions begin with an assault on the very word ‘marriage,’ which has always referred to a union of two different but complementary entities . . . All this pales, however, in light of the casual assertion (advanced by those seeking to overturn the will of voters in Prop 8 ) that same-sex couples ‘procreate.’ Um, no … they do not; or rather they cannot – by definition.”

Wendy Kaminer writing in The Atlantic: “[I]t’s not entirely surprising to hear a lawyer for the conservative Christian Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) assert that commemorating a public war memorial with a giant cross is merely a ‘common sense idea.’ He was protesting a 9th Circuit ruling (PDF) that a Latin cross is a sectarian religious symbol, maintained by the state in violation of the First Amendment. Whether the cross is a secular or religious symbol is indeed a question that can be answered with reference to common sense, and the Court answered it correctly, to ADF’s dismay.”

CBN: “The New Hampshire Supreme Court is considering whether it should force the 11-year-old daughter of a divorced couple to attend public school . . . ‘The (lower) court went beyond the disagreement between the parents and offered the opinion that the child was being raised with rigid religious views and had not had the opportunity to be exposed to other points of view to challenge these views,’ ADF attorney [Joseph Infranco] said.” | Article includes a short CBN News video report that excerpts a phone interview with Infranco.

WorldNetDaily: “The Supreme Court in New Hampshire today was asked to reverse a lower court decision that ordered a homeschooled student who was ‘well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level’ into a public school because she was too ‘vigorous’ in defense of her Christian faith. ‘Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children,’ said John Anthony Simmons, an attorney allied with the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Associated Press: “A senator’s high-profile investigation of spending by televangelists wrapped up after more than three years Thursday with no penalties for the pastors who refused to cooperate and no definitive findings of wrongdoing . . . leading evangelical organizations worried that Grassley’s inquiry could lead to changes in tax rules for all religious nonprofits, so the groups protested . . . The Alliance Defense Fund, a religious liberty legal group founded by James Dobson of Focus on the Family and other influential evangelicals, protested.”

Prakash Shah, A Reflection on the Shari’a Debate in Britain (December 1, 2010). Studia z Prawa Wyznaniowego (Studies of Ecclesiastical Law), Vol. 13, pp. 71-98, 2010; Queen Mary School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 71/2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1733529

“The Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech on Civil and Religious Law in England in February 2008 provoked and range of responses from outrage to sympathy. The speech aimed to delineate the contours of a new relationship between the ‘law of the land’ and religious law, particularly Muslim law or shari’a. This article aims to explore the extent to which the Archbishop’s ideas can bear fruit under current conditions of thinking and teaching about law. It places the Archbishop’s speech in the context of historical and existing regimes of legal plurality whereby states recognise more than one legal order. It then goes on to examine some of the detail in the Archbishop’s speech and examines the responses to it. Finally, the article examines the constraints and opportunities in achieving the greater level of attention to religious law which the Archbishop advocated within the framework of British legal systems.”