Daily Archives: August 9, 2011

EuropeNews: But he does have the right, after having (Islam) preached to him, to say, “I will enter” or “I will not enter this religion.” But to enter it just to leave it whenever he wants? No. This is something which is unacceptable in the religion of Almighty Allah. Show me a constitution anywhere on earth which grants this for its citizens. But rather whoever comes out against the constitution of any nation is accused of treason. Everyone familiar with treason knows that the penalty is death.

The New Republic: Given all this, the Czech Republic’s place in the NORC study poses important questions that apply to gay rights campaigns around the world. It complicates the belief that broad acceptance of homosexuality, while perhaps a long way off in the future, is inevitable. The lessons learned from the Czech Republic reinforce the reality that the battle for gay acceptance is far from over.

Inside Higher Ed: A proposal to merge the University of Louisville’s teaching hospital with a Roman Catholic health system — which would prohibit the hospital from providing sterilizations, abortions and other procedures that go against Catholic beliefs — has provoked an uproar in Kentucky, where residents and lawmakers are questioning the role of religiously affiliated health providers in public medical education and health care.

ABA Journal: The duo worked together in their representation of two California couples who were precluded from marrying because of Proposition 8, which led to the elimination of rights of same-sex couples to marry in California.

AP: Is it a boy or a girl? New research shows that a simple blood test in mothers-to-be can answer that question with surprising accuracy at about seven weeks.

AP: Chile’s conservative president proposed civil unions legislation Tuesday that would give unmarried partners many of the rights now enjoyed only by married couples in the South American nation.

Houston Chronicle: A South Texas judge from Corpus Christi was one of only four judicial nominees confirmed by the Senate before its month-long recess, leaving nearly two dozen still waiting confirmation, officials said Wednesday.

Jeff Mirus at Catholic Culture: Several of our readers have commented on the importance of governmental adherence to a law higher than itself. One of the grave problems in America and many other modern states is that the reigning philosophies of jurisprudence are rooted in positivism, or the idea that right and wrong, particularly in the realm of law, are simply what we say they are. Thus human law does not appear to be accountable to anything beyond itself.

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend-of-the-court brief today in a Supreme Court case arguing that churches do not have the right to discriminate based on non-religious grounds

Big Government: Illinois taxpayers are given the option to donate money to charity each year when they file their state tax returns.
Now, America’s most indebted state is raiding those funds to pay for wasteful spending that the Democratic governor and legislature refuse to cut.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: AU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a case pending before the justices called Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The case deals with a Michigan religious school that fired a teacher because of a medical condition.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill that would award all of California’s 55 Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote in presidential elections.

LifeNews.com: The Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life legal group, filed papers with the Colorado Supreme Court Friday . . . The democratic process and the rule of law should not be sacrificed for the sake of benefiting Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said lead counsel Barry Arrington. “We are confident that the Colorado Supreme Court will acknowledge that the former governor and other state officials were not at liberty to ignore the will of the people on this matter. Colorado voters already decided the issue when they amended the state constitution to prohibit tax dollar subsidies to abortion providers. It is fundamentally wrong, particularly in tight budget times, for taxpayer dollars to be used to fund abortions.”

Reuters: Arkansans shopped until they dropped on Saturday, braving temperatures deep into the triple-digits to take advantage of the state’s first sales tax holiday weekend.

Washington Times: Pummeled by ghastly economic news, President Obama called Monday for more spending and extended tax cuts that he said would help stimulate the economy — but these also could deepen the deficit problems that helped the federal government earn its first-ever debt downgrade last week.

ZENIT – Getting the Words Right: Pro-Life Group Sees Recipe for Success: For the American Life League, the largest Catholic pro-life education organization in the United States, the right use of language is a key factor in winning the battle to protect human life and uphold human dignity.

The Christian Institute: England’s last remaining Roman Catholic adoption agency has been granted an appeal in its long-running legal battle to preserve its religious ethos in the face of sexual orientation laws.

The Christian Institute: The London riots are not just a breakdown of law and order, they are the consequences of a breakdown of morality in our society.

LifeSiteNews.com: The office of Human Life International’s (HLI) European Regional Director Joannes Bucher was recently attacked after a pro-life march in Austria.

Baptist Press:
“I said, ‘Why would it hurt Gov Perry if he runs for president to call the nation to prayer?’” Land said, adding that Abraham Lincoln and George Washington also called the nation to prayer. “I said, ‘This is not considered exotic activity outside the elites and outside the beltway. This is considered normal, healthy activity — when there’s a time of crisis, people come together and pray.’”

LifeSiteNews.com: Fr. Shenan Boquet (bo-KAY), the pastor of St. Gregory Barbarigo Parish in Houma, Louisiana has been named the President of Human Life International.

LifeSiteNews.com: Despite a recent British Columbia Supreme Court ruling to fast track the lawsuit of a Lou Gehrig’s disease sufferer challenging Canada’s law against euthanasia and assisted suicide, Canada’s Justice Minister says the Conservative government will not reopen the issue in Parliament.

LifeSiteNews.com: Last Tuesday, Duquesne University filed a lawsuit against Pittsburgh-based health insurance company Highmark Inc. for improperly paying reimbursements for contraceptive claims the Roman Catholic institution had specifically prohibited from coverage.

LifeSiteNews.com: The Jesuit-run Marquette University has punished a Christian group for dismissing an officer after he revealed himself as a practicing homosexual.

Courthouse News Service: The federal government and 11 states claim the nation’s second-largest for-profit chain college, Education Management Corp., defrauded states and the nation of $11 billion in financial aid.

LifeNews.com: When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie repeatedly vetoed state taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business, he said it didn’t need taxpayer funds in part because clinics are available across the state that provide health care for women without also doing abortions.

LifeNews.com: The American Center for Law and Justice, a pro-life legal group, today urged a federal appeals court, on behalf of 41 members of Congress and more than 25,000 Americans who signed petitions in support of the law, to reverse a lower court decision and uphold an Indiana law that prohibits federal funds from going to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood.

San Antonio Express-News: The 71,000-seat stadium had been divided in half, but by midmorning organizers had to open the upper decks.

Advocate: The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation often shines the spotlight on a media outlet that has been reckless in its handling of LGBT portrayals. By doing so, the organization can help rehabilitate the outlet’s message and image. But now GLAAD is in the position of responding to a media spotlight placed on it.

FoxNews.com: Embracing a policy of “Do Tell,” the Dutch military is joining Amsterdam’s annual Gay Pride parade for the first time this year, with uniformed men and women saluting the crowds from a boat chugging through the city’s canals.

AFP: bout 60 lesbian couples will tie the knot in Taiwan’s biggest same-sex mass wedding in the hope that the island will soon follow New York to legalise gay marriage, an organiser said Tuesday.

Toronto Sun: Some Muslim parents fear a handful of Toronto imams are turning their children into young radicals during Friday prayer services at some public schools.

NYTimes.com: AIDS is on the rise in many Muslim countries, driven by men having sex with other men in secret because of homophobia, religious intolerance and fear of being jailed or executed, according to a new study.

ADF, allied attorneys challenge $18 million in contracts awarded to abortionists with petition to Colo. Supreme Court

Governor O’Malley’s Blog: Last week, Governor O’Malley responded to a letter from Archbishop O’Brien regarding the definition of marriage.

BaltimoreSun.com: In the days before Gov. Martin O’Malley announced his support for same-sex marriage, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien privately urged him against “promoting a goal that so deeply conflicts with your faith.”

S.F. Chronicle: Citing the Defense of Marriage Act, the Obama administration denied immigration benefits to a married gay couple from San Francisco and ordered the expulsion of a man who is the primary caregiver to his AIDS-afflicted spouse.

Religion Clause: In DiGeronimo v. Fuchs, (NY S.Ct. Richmond Cty., Aug. 4, 2011), a New York trial court dismissed a medical malpractice claim brought against a doctor who saved a woman’s life by giving her a blood transfusion.

Religion Clause: Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria created controversy when it issued guidelines for Shariah-compliant financial institutions.

Religion Clause: In Utah, according to yesterday’s Salt Lake Tribune, it is common for high school students to take advantage of the state’s released time program to enroll in LDS seminary classes that are offered in LDS Church-owned buildings near public high schools.

Religion Clause: Michael v. Letchinger, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86685 (ND IL, Aug. 5, 2011), involves zoning and tax disputes between George and Susan Michael and the village of Lake Bluff, Illinois. The Michael’s converted a portion of their expensive lake front home into what they claimed was an Armenian Orthodox Church, because Susan’s health made it difficult for her to travel to an existing church in Chicago. They transferred ownership to a new religious corporation they created.

JournalNow.com: Under the resolution the commissioners approved, the county must reach an agreement with the Alliance Defense Fund Inc. Under the agreement, the fund, a conservative Christian organization, would continue to pay the county’s legal costs in the case . . . Marshall called the ADF a racist and sexist organization founded by right-wing ministers who want to change the American democratic government into a theocracy. “The Christian right is totally out of control,” Marshall said. “I can’t support anything that says the government should be run by the Bible and not the Constitution.” Witherspoon said he doesn’t agree with the ADF as messengers, but he agrees with the message.

WXII12.com The Triad: The Alliance Defense Fund represented Forsyth County in the case and disagreed with the 2-1 ruling, arguing that the decision is in “conflict with other federal court decisions and out of step with the history of invocations in America.”

ADF attorney Kevin Theriot at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: If passed, ENDA would add “sexual orientation” to the list of characteristics upon which an employer cannot discriminate. This is unlikely to have much direct effect on churches . . . But it could affect them indirectly if they have separate ministries such as schools or day care facilities that are not expressly religious and all employees are not required to subscribe to church doctrine . . .

Top Legal Issues That Concern Churches – Issue #4 Church Autonomy
Top Legal Issues that Concern Churches – Issue #3 Other Taxes
Top Legal Issues That Concern Churches – Issue #2 Property Taxes
Top Legal Issues That Concern Churches – Issue #1 Land Use

ADF attorney Joe Infranco at The Speak Up Movement Church Blog: The cause of this kerfuffle is a girder resembling a cross, which will be included in the National 9/11 Memorial in New York. Yet, there is one highly unusual twist in this latest lawsuit in the campaign to expunge public symbols of our religious history: Human hands did not fashion the cross-shaped beams.

ADF attorney Erik Stanley at Speak Up Movement Church Blog: Ask any committed Christian these days and they will tell you that they sense something is wrong in America.

The Issaquah Press: The incident attracted attention from the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal advocacy group based in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Christians shouldn’t be threatened with arrest and censored by being quarantined to isolated ‘expression areas’ when they want to share their beliefs,” Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Nate Kellum said in a statement. “The city ordinance mandating the zones effectively censors anyone wishing to express his or her beliefs through the distribution of literature. That violates the constitutionally protected right to free speech in public areas at a free event that’s open to everyone.”

Speak Up Movement University Blog: The stereotype of the arrogant, leftist professor in the ivory tower occasionally shows up in real life in a manner that shows that the truth is stranger than fiction . . . Finally, I cannot let your smug reference to Galileo go unchallenged. Firstly, as a matter of simple fact, your history is all wrong. Galileo never uttered the words you mistakenly placed in his mouth. I provide for your edification a primer on the matter under my signature.

Rasmussen Reports™: A plurality of American adults believed the country entered a recession in November 2007. A majority has believed that the country is in a recession every month from February 2008 until now.

Teresa Collett at the University Faculty for Life Blog: Walter Hoye, a California pastor and sidewalk counselor, filed a federal constitutional challenge to the City of Oakland’s “Mother May I” ordinance restricting speech outside abortion clinics after having been arrested twice for approaching women seeking to enter abortion clinics. The case is Hoye v. Oakland.

Teresa Collet at the University Faculty for Life Blog: In 1974 Austria removed all criminal penalties for abortions in the first three months of pregancy. While most people interpret this action as making abortion legal, some public authorities argue that the change merely removed any penalty for conduct that remains illegal (or at least publiclly disfavored) . . .

NCPA Policy Digest: A growing chorus of economists and educators think that the higher education industry will be America’s next bubble. Easy credit, high tuition and poor job prospects have resulted in growing delinquency and default rates on nearly $1 trillion worth of private and federally subsidized loans.

County commission votes to appeal 4th Circuit ruling on invocations that conflicts with other courts, American history

AP: Student protesters who have snarled Chile’s universities and high schools with weeks of strikes and demonstrations called Monday for a national referendum on their demand for free and high-quality education.

AP: A senior government minister in Australia has announced that her lesbian partner is pregnant.

AP: When Dani bin Misra was released from prison last week after serving just three months for smashing in the skull of a member of a Muslim sect, this conservative Indonesian town let out a triumphant cry.

The Hill: The nation could lose its top credit rating from yet another rater over the next year if policymakers lose their grip on fiscal discipline, Moody’s Investors Service said Monday.

Daily Mail : Was it him? George Soros, 80, has been mentioned as potentially being the mystery investor who won a $1billion bet that the credit rating would fall

CBS Philly: Mayor Michael Nutter today announced a tighter weekend curfew in the Center City and University City regions of the city, as he continues grappling with the threat of “flash mobs” in Philadelphia.

Mail Online: Asked if plastic bullets could be used, Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh said: ‘That’s a tactic that will be used by the Metropolitan police if deemed necessary.’