Daily Archives: June 13, 2011

Express.co.uk: THE Arab Spring may spell the death knell for Christians in parts of North Africa and the Middle East, campaigners warned last night.

The Sun |Showbiz|TV: A DESPERATELY ill man will be shown on TV choking and begging for water before he dies in a suicide clinic.

Telegraph: A Christian mental health worker has been sacked after passing colleagues a booklet warning of the physical and psychological damage some women suffer after an abortion.

LifeSiteNews.com: After the broadcast of a homosexualist advertisement during the family-friendly Fox show American Idol prompted outrage, the founder of the ad campaign has confirmed that such advertisements are intended to promote the message of the gay rights lobby to young children in households that normally wouldn’t support it. One conservative leader has now demanded that Google, Fox, and Disney-Pixar sever their ties with the campaign.

LifeSiteNews.com: But Democrat Rep. Jim Fannon made a motion to recommit the bill to the Committee on Appropriations based on the argument that it would not comply with federal law, specifically the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment, an annual appropriations rider that prohibits federal funding of abortion, includes an exception for cases involving rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother.

Wesley J. Smith at LifeNews.com: But Belgium has jumped so enthusiastically off the euthanasia cliff, it only took them a few years before coupling voluntary euthanasia with organ harvesting. . .

LifeNews.com: Relying on a new law that Planned Parenthood has taken to court to strip it of taxpayer funding under Medicaid, Indiana officials have said the abortion business is no longer qualified to participate in a tax rebate program.

John Garvey: Why We’re Going Back to Single-Sex Dorms – WSJ.com (via Google): Hooking up is getting to be as common as drinking. Sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox, who heads the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, says that in various studies, 40%-64% of college students report doing it. The effects are not all fun.

» Reports Of Muslims Stoning Praying Jews At Western Wall After Friday Prayers (VIDEO) – Big Government: There are reports that Muslims stoned praying Jews at the Western Wall today. That would be the equivilant of Jews stoning Muslims at Mecca.
Here is video of the incident, although it is hard to make out what is happening.

Reuters: Falling birth rates will slow the world’s Muslim population growth over the next two decades, reducing it on average from 2.2 percent a year in 1990-2010 to 1.5 percent a year from now until 2030, a new study says.

BuenosAiresHerald.com: Erdogan is expected to pave the ways for the Turkish institutions to welcome “European values and standards,” said in a statement presidents of the European Community and European Consul , Jose Manuel Durao Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy.

Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Catholic opposition forced China to halt illicit ordination: China’s plans to ordain a new bishop without permission from the Holy See were thwarted by the concerted opposition of the Catholic laity, and the resistance of the priest who was chosen for episcopal office, according to Sandro Magister of L’Espresso.

LifeSiteNews.com: Over eight thousand Paraguayans have joined themselves to a Facebook page with a simple message: Spain’s pro-abortion “Secretary of Equality” isn’t welcome in their country.

Asia News: In August 2009, ten people died, eight burnt alive. Four churches were destroyed. Threats against Christian witnesses force them to flee to avoid further violence. Muslim leader says Christians “deserve” to be murdered. Catholic priest wonders whether minorities will ever have justice.

Asia News: Changes to the criminal code are currently under review. Anyone preaching or trying to persuade others to change religion could get up to five years in prison and almost US$ 700 in fines. Christians fear new code could restrict religious freedom and be used by Hindu extremists.

Center for Reproductive Rights: Today, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a class action lawsuit against Texas’ new abortion ultrasound law on behalf of Texas medical providers performing abortions and their patients. The law prohibits a woman from getting an abortion unless the doctor providing the abortion performs an ultrasound on the woman, takes steps to show and describe the ultrasound images to her, and plays the sound of the fetal heart.

Wesley Smith at Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: These kind of stories are appearing with greater regularity in the UK papers: A Christian discusses his or her faith with a colleague, or offers to pray with a patient–and gets the sack and/or is put through the job discipline ringer.

The Volokh Conspiracy:
. . objection from the Kootenai County Constitution Party: Christians of Kootenai County should be dismayed at the appearance of a Hindu demon, Ganesh, statue that is currently found on Sherman ave in Coeur d’Alene. The godless group of individuals that manage the “art” of the city have approved this abomination by Rick Davis to be displayed on Sherman Ave.

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden will be available for media interviews Tuesday following his oral arguments in favor of lifting an order that stalled the Arizona Abortion Consent Act.

WSJ.com: —The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld a Nevada state law barring local lawmakers from voting on matters in which they are judged to have a conflict of interest.

LifeNews.com: All but one county in Tennessee has revoked taxpayer funding Planned Parenthood receives now that the Metro Public Health Department will receive the $335,000 federal grant for family planning services that went to the abortion business.

AJC.com: The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday declined to reconsider a recent decision that declared the state’s charter school law unconstitutional and which left an estimated 16,500 students wondering where they would be getting an education next school year.

Religion Clause: In Semarang, Indonesia, four panels of district court judges last week convicted 17 Muslims of destroying public property and assault in connection with sectarian violence that took place last February in the central Java town of Temanggung.

Religion Clause: News.az reports that on Friday, Azerbaijan’s Parliament passed controversial amendments to the country’s Law on Religion. Islamic religious organizations must now report to the Caucasus Muslims Department, while other religious groups must report to the State Committee for Working with Religious Structures or to the Ministry of Justice . . .

PRNewswire-USNewswire: “A coalition of local and national LGBT activists will hand-deliver a petition to leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention at their annual meeting calling on the SBC to apologize for the harm its teachings have caused the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Prior to delivering the petition, an historic ‘Teach-In’ will take place outside of the SBC’s convention.”

Las Cruces Sun-News: The El Paso City Council on Tuesday will hold a public hearing on a measure that would reverse an initiative passed by voters in November. The council is considering an ordinance that would restore health benefits to 19 gay and unmarried partners of city employees.

Orlando Sentinel: With support from Central Florida’s gay community, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said he plans to ask the City Council to consider such a registry this summer, but it’s unlikely Orange County leaders will move as quickly.

San Diego Gay and Lesbian News: The Kenyan Parliament will decide tomorrow, 14 June, on the appointment of Dr Willy Mutunga and Nancy Baraza to that country’s top judicial and public prosecutorial jobs. Both have a pro-gay history and that – plus Mutunga’s earring – have led to an enormous fight . . .

Church delays priest’s gay-friendly Mass – BostonHerald.com: “Some people have said that by celebrating a liturgy we were supporting a Gay Pride agenda,” the Rev. John Unni told a standing room only crowd at St. Cecilia’s yesterday during his sermon. “I confess I don’t know what that is. As a Catholic, my only agenda — just like Jesus — is to love and accept one another.”

EMG.rs: The police arrested 137 people, including 25 underage protesters who caused incidents during the first gay pride parade in the biggest Croatian coastal city of Split on Saturday. Eight persons were injured in violence, the Split police said at a news conference on Saturday evening.

KETV Omaha: Elnes, who leads an Omaha church of 1,500 members at 87th Street and Pacific Street, said more than 100 ordained Christian ministers have signed the proclamation, including leaders from Lutheran, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Methodist and Presbyterian churches.

Rapid City Journal: The Rapid Valley couple joins a growing number of South Dakotans staying away from a marriage license. Over a 30-year period, the number of marriages in South Dakota dropped by 33 percent from 8,800 marriages in 1980 to 5,887 marriages in 2009.

English archbishop: Marriage a ‘public good’ | National Catholic Reporter: He said that in contrast cohabiting relationships were inherently unstable because they were effectively negotiable.
Such arrangements were largely dependent on the fulfilment of high expectations for their success and not rooted in the mutual “acceptance of the other for who they are,” he said. “When relationships are provisional, with an understanding that each can walk away, there is a sense in which each of the partners is always on probation,” Archbishop Nichols said. “They are never fully accepted.”

NYPOST.com: The Siena College survey released this morning shows 37 percent rank passage of Cuomo’s agreed-upon two percent cap on local property tax hikes as lawmakers’ top concern, compared to 14 percent each for same-sex marriage and a renewal of current rent regulations. Some 22 percent believe approval of the ethics overhaul announced earlier this month by Cuomo and legislative leaders should be their chief issue.

NYTimes.com: “I’m not aware of a single donor who would support a ballot measure campaign,” said Chad Griffin, the co-founder and board president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights. “A ballot would be unwise, foolish and, in fact, dangerous.”

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a challenge by a Mexican-born man to a citizenship law that treats men and women differently . . .

AP: A judge has overturned a kindergartner’s expulsion from a Philadelphia charter school for touching his teacher on the thigh.

Sacramento Bee: Ultimately the bankruptcy court, while declining to address the constitutional issue, ruled that the joint bankruptcy could go forward because the couple are legally married. The federal government has yet to appeal but is likely to do so, Feist said.

ADF attorney Daniel Blomberg appeared on Across America with Gary Freeman to discuss the battle over marriage in Wyoming. | MP3 audio 39 mins | Wywatch Family Action | Chris Adamo

Albany Times Union: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide says he believes the votes are there to legalize same-sex marriage, and that his “expectation” is that it will come to a vote in “the latter part of the week.”

Latimes.com: A federal district judge in San Francisco has scheduled a hearing Monday over whether the retired federal judge who struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage should have his ruling wiped from the legal record because of his relationship with a man.

Boies, Olson Video: “The freedom to marry is a constitutional right as recognized in Loving v. Virginia.”: “The freedom to marry is a constitutional right as recognized in Loving v. Virginia,” Boies says in the video. “All committed and loving Americans should be able to marry the person they love without government interference.”

U.S. State Department (includes video): Hi, I’m Daniel Baer, a deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor here at the State Department and on behalf of Secretary Clinton and my colleagues here in Washington and at embassies and consulates around the world, I’m delighted to be able to wish everyone a Happy Pride.

Scott Yenor at Public Discourse: The logic of contract and the movement to conquer nature have resulted in the triumph of autonomy and demise of the family. The first of a two-part series.

Brooke Terry at EducationNews.org: Texans for Voluntary Taxpayer Savings addresses misconceptions about federal control, private schools and school choice in Texas’s SB 1 bill.

ADF attorney Brian Raum at The Daily Caller: New York is faced with a monumental decision, the full consequences of which we cannot begin to predict. One thing is sure, however: if the politicians succeed with their “highest priority,” it will guarantee, by design, that more children will be raised without either a mother or a father. That may be a side of history that Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg want to be on, but I and most other Americans do not.

Charisma: “Christians should be allowed to express themselves on public school campuses just like everyone else,” said David Cortman of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian organization of attorneys who filed a lawsuit against the school district on the women’s behalf.

wbir.com: Member of the Alliance Defense Fund and an Allied Attorney filed a suit against Pellissippi State Community College after they allegedly told a student he could not speak about his faith and hand out materials on campus.

LifeSiteNews.com: Documents obtained in early 2010 by the Alliance Defense Fund and Pro-Life Wisconsin proved the late-term abortion scheme by the hospital was designed to supply the school with fresh fetal body parts for research.

Christian Post: “There is absolutely nothing unconstitutional about a Bible verse on a brick when a school opens up a program for anyone to express a personal message,” ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman stated. “Christians should be allowed to express themselves on public school campuses just like everyone else.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education: Mark Dew, 44, said in his lawsuit that college police officers told him he could not preach in a campus courtyard, although a college vice president later said he could apply for permission to solicit on the campus and pay $30 a day to do so if his application was accepted. The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization, filed the suit on his behalf.

FoxNews.com (AP): To them, the gay-rights lobby has morphed into a relentless bully, pressuring companies and law firms into policy reversals, making it taboo in some circumstances to express opposition to same-sex marriage. “They’re advocating for a lot of changes in the name of tolerance,” said Jim Campbell, an attorney with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund. “Yet ironically the tolerance is not returned, for people of faith who don’t agree with their agenda.” [this article is widely distributed via AP]

Dent, George W., No Difference?: An Analysis of Same-Sex Parenting (May 20, 2011). Ave Maria Law Review, Forthcoming ; Case Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2011-11. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1848184

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Austin R. Nimocks will hold a press conference Monday, following a hearing that concerns motions filed by the legal team defending California’s constitutional amendment protecting marriage. The primary motion asks the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to vacate then-District Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that threw out the amendment.