Daily Archives: August 17, 2011

Albert Mohler, Jr. at LifeSiteNews.com: The Christian church has faced no shortage of challenges in its 2,000-year history. But now it’s facing a challenge that is shaking its foundations: homosexuality.

LifeSiteNews.com: A survey of ob/gyns conducted earlier this year found that 94 percent would provide contraceptives to a minor without notifying her parents.

Center for Reproductive Rights: In the first-ever maternal death case to be decided by an international human rights body, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women established that governments have a human rights obligation to guarantee …

Nathan A. Cherry at the Engage Family Minute: The article below is an excellent defense against the mainstream media and homosexual advocacy groups’ attacks on reparative therapy and the ability to leave Jeff Johnston poses an excellent defense for reparative therapy and the ability to be “ex-gay.”

The Washington Post: While apparent front-runner Mitt Romney believes the world is getting warmer and that humans are contributing to that pattern, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday called that “a scientific theory that has not been proven.”

BaltimoreSun.com: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 7, states that every child has the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents. Same-sex marriage drastically erodes this basic right and the protection that authentic marriage affords to children.

LifeNews.com: The state pro-life group in Rhode Island is prepared for pro-abortion Gov. Lincoln Chafee to force state residents to pay for abortions via their tax dollars, and it is acting proactively.

The Province: The B.C. group fighting for the right for assisted suicide has lost its battle in B.C. Supreme Court. Justice Lynn Smith ruled Wednesday that the Farewell Foundation for the Right To Die — a New Westminster organization seeking a legalization of “self-chosen death” — did not have a strong enough case to challenge the Criminal Code section that bans assisted suicide.

Telegraph: Two of the first fines imposed on Belgian women for wearing the full Muslim face veil were paid off on Wednesday – by a man who says women should not wear them.

Richard Landes at the Telegraph: The disconnect referred to in the article constitutes one of the most worrying developments in Western culture over the last decade: between a elite that controls much of the discussion in the public sphere (journalists, academics, talking heads, mainstream politicians) and who fear being called Islamophobes and racists more than they fear Islamist racists, and a population of people who, whenever they voice concern about the behavior of the Muslim neighbors, are told not to be Islamophobic racists. The problems are knotty and painful to disentangle.

Christian Today: According to Iranian news agency, Mohabat News, Dr Majid Abhari, adviser to the social issues committee of the parliament in Iran, said “these missionaries with reliance on huge money and propaganda are trying to deviate our youth”.

Christian Concern: After a recent lull, there has been a fresh outbreak of violence in Nigeria which has resulted in the deaths of at least 15 Christians.

Telegraph: Italy could recover billions of pounds in taxes by legalising prostitution and setting up licensed brothels, a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s party has proposed.

Baptist Press : The New York Times has published a heartbreaking article on yet another monument in the culture of death — pregnancy reduction.

Boston.com: He said some want billions or trillions of taxpayer dollars spent to address the issue, but he added: “I don’t think from my perspective that I want to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into question.”

The Christian Institute: A mum who was advised to abort her baby when her waters broke at 16 weeks but later gave birth to a healthy boy says she wants “everyone to know” about the story.

Teresa Collett at University Faculty for Life: The ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri has sued Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger to stop implementation of a new law (KS House Bill 2075) that prohibits insurance coverage for elective abortions, unless coverage is limited to abortions procedures “necessary to save the life of the mother.”

Teresa Collett at the University Faculty for Life: The Culture Wars Meet State Politics: Gender, Representation and Abortion Policy provides an interesting analysis of the fact that the number of women in a state legislature increases the likelihood that a state will have more liberal abortion policies.

Teresa Collett at the University Faculty Blog: What is the proper legal response to a mother killing her infant child? In Desperate Measures: Rationalizing the Crime of Infanticide, Canadian law professor Isabel Grant examines the crime of infanticide and issues of statutory interpretation that are currently before the Canadian courts. | Alyne da Silva Pimentel v. Brazil

USATODAY.com: Vanderbilt’s Office of Religious Life recently sent professors a calendar of 2011-12 “religious holy days and observances” and a related policy on student absences. The faith listed next to four of the days on the calendar is “Wicca/Pagan.”

Courthouse News Service: Michigan passed an unconstitutional new law that bans the state from awarding public contracts to any group that would require or even encourage unionized labor, union organizers claim in a federal lawsuit. Gov. Richard Snyder signed the Michigan Public Act 98 of 2011 into law on July 19.

The Hindu: In a case of how the Indian caste system has been imported into Britain, a young Hindu-Sikh couple have sued their British employers of Indian origin for alleged discrimination on the basis of caste.

The Detroit News: Michigan should eliminate 45 trial court judgeships and four appeals court judges, all by attrition, the State Court Administrative Office said in a report released Wednesday.

Maine’s Secretary of State approved language Wednesday for a citizen’s initiative that would ask Mainers once again if they want to allow same-sex couples to marry.

As more and more U.S. couples decide to have children without first getting married, a group of 18 family scholars is sounding an alarm about the impact this may have on those children.

NYTimes.com: American children are more likely to have parents who never married than parents who are divorced. That is one finding in the latest report from the National Marriage Project, which is based at the University of Virginia and which conducts research on marriage and family in the United States.

SeattlePI.com: Making good on a campaign promise, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin married a lesbian couple in a small ceremony in his office.

Ron Paul clobbers Rick Perry in latest poll | The State Column: A poll conduced by Azimuth Research Group finds Mr. Paul leading Mr. Perry in their home state of Texas. Answering the question, “If the Texas Republican primary were held today, which presidential candidate would you be most likely to vote for?” 22 percent of those polled selected Mr. Paul. Just 17 percent of respondents voted in favor of Mr. Perry.

OneNewsNow.com: Pro-lifers in Oklahoma have won a major court victory that will allow one organization to keep its records confidential to protect its supporters.

LifeSiteNews.com carries the text of the test.

LifeSiteNews.com: After facing criticism from the media and the Canadian Egyptian Congress, Toronto’s Coptic Orthodox leaders have renewed their threat to remove up to 4,000 families from the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) should it fail to protect Catholic teaching in the schools.

LifeSiteNews.com: eruvian pro-life organizations are sounding the alarm over a string of pro-abortion and anti-family appointments being made at the country’s Ministry of Women following the election of socialist Ollanta Humala.

Phyllis Schlafly at Townhall: USA Today published one of its colorful front pages last week detailing how America has not only grown dramatically in population over the last two decades, but has radically changed ethnically, geographically and culturally. The most costly of the many changes is the fact that having children has become increasingly detached from marriage.

ADF Attorney Matthew Bowman at Townhall: When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently put forth their new health coverage mandates, people of faith – and particularly people of faith who operate and work for faith-based organizations – saw the pro-abortion administration’s handwriting on the wall. For included in the mandate is a requirement that all insurance plans, and the people who pay for them, provide free coverage for drugs and devices that can destroy early embryos.

Daily World: A national group of atheists and agnostics has sent a letter to the St. Landry Parish School System protesting a prayer rally held last week at Opelousas High School, and asked that Superintendent Michael Nassif reprimand OHS Principal Rodney Johnson.

GoDanRiver.com (includes video): Stop sectarian prayers at public meetings. That’s what the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has asked of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors. The American Civil Liberties Union sent the letter Tuesday to the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors asking them to stop opening meetings with Christian prayers that “explicitly refer to Jesus Christ” or instead hold nonsectarian prayers.

Armstrong Williams at Townhall: Now that the debt ceiling charade is over (for now) and the politicians have smugly retreated to their lavish homes and offices, the average American is faced with the stark reality. How are we going to get back to work to rebuild the wealth that was lost over the past few years?

LifeSiteNews.com: The astonishing story of a Maryland family with 11 children, ranging in age from 1 to 12, has been featured in a back-to-school piece by the Washington Post Newspaper. The August 10 story chronicles the Kilmer household’s day-to-day life and details how they manage to stay lighthearted and have fun while balancing what some might consider an impossibly difficult lifestyle. Read the Washington Post story here.

Education News: Governors and teachers’ unions are going head-to-head in several states across the country, and the public feels caught in the middle, a new survey on the public’s perception of U.S. schools finds.

Greg Pfundstein at Public Discourse: New York’s new sex education mandate excludes abstinence-only options and forces all city school children to learn about “safe sex” in the sixth and seventh grades.

Daily World: A national group of atheists and agnostics has sent a letter to the St. Landry Parish School System protesting a prayer rally held last week at Opelousas High School, and asked that Superintendent Michael Nassif reprimand OHS Principal Rodney Johnson.

LifeNews.com: Desperate for ways to operate without the millions of our tax dollars, plans are underway to close Planned Parenthood clinics and merge affiliates.

LifeNews.com: The Catholic Church’s stance on reproductive technologies is wildly unpopular. I think it is for two reasons. The first is that the Supreme Court has made up a constitutional right that is not actually in the Constitution, the “reproductive right.”

Humanosphere: This year, the Girl Up campaign says it has mobilized 150,000 American teens around the issue of child brides. Organizers say the disturbing prospect of 100 million child brides in the next decade has galvanized American teenage girls, who are demanding action on behalf of their young counterparts around the world.

He wants the pro-life House Speaker to exercise the rights of the House of Representative to take the lead on spending and government funding issues.

AP: A convicted murderer suing Massachusetts prison officials for a sex-change operation says a recent federa

WSJ.com (via Google): The Supreme Court is likely to decide by January whether a ruling on the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s health law will come before or after the November 2012 election.

The Washington Post: Just before leaving town for the August recess, senators confirmed four of President Obama’s judicial nominees. The disappointing news is that they left 20 perfectly qualified nominees languishing on the floor without a vote.

Freedom From Religion Foundation: The state of Wisconsin appears to have removed a link to a religious anti-abortion group from its website after receiving a letter of objection from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Jacksonville Daily News: Commissioners called on County Manager Jeff Hudson to give the invocation during the regular meeting, as he had during the Aug. 1 meeting, but referencing a recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling over the issue of invocational prayer, Hudson refused to give an invocation. County Attorney Lesley Moxley in a two-page memorandum informed commissioners Monday afternoon about the Court of Appeals ruling in Joyner, et al. v. Forsyth County, N.C. . . .

Ruthann Robson at SCOTUSblog: The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8 are both subject to judicial review under a standard at least as rigorous as rational basis. There are serious and worthwhile arguments that courts should employ a more rigorous standard of review than rational basis in same-sex marriage litigation. However, federal district judges in two important decisions that may be heading to the United States Supreme Court have concluded that DOMA and Proposition 8 cannot survive even the low standard of rational basis.

Religion Clause: Seeking to counter reports accusing Israel of creating a mass exodus of Palestinian Christians from Palestinian areas, the Jewish Council on Public Affairs yesterday announced the release of a report (full text) on the size of the Christian population in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza.

Religion Clause: The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that yesterday the Liburn, Georgia city council voted 3-1 to approve the controversial rezoning request of a Muslim congregation to build a 20,000 square foot worship center to meet the needs of the city’s growing Muslim population.

WTOP.com: The caller, Bill from Manassas, explained he teaches in a Catholic school, where students who had attended public schools would often say they were forbidden from praying or expressing their faith in public schools.

JSOnline: The six-month saga that was Wisconsin’s state Senate recall movement ended Tuesday with Democrats retaining two seats – and Republicans still in possession of a week-old, razor-thin 17-16 majority.

Christian Post: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit filed against a Missouri school district for filtering what it calls “educational lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender content” has no legal grounds or traction and will likely be thrown out, speculated Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) Senior Counsel David Cortman. “There is no basis in law for the claims that the ACLU are making in that case,” he said.

The National Law Journal: Louisiana College has about 1,500 students and is based in Pineville, La. It is owned by the Louisiana Baptist Convention, and the law school’s curriculum will have a Christian focus. Johnson has held a variety of positions with the Alliance Defense Fund, which seeks to “defend religious liberty.”

WSJ.com (via Google): In 2007, 390,000 tax filers reported adjusted gross income of $1 million or more and paid $309 billion in taxes. In 2009, there were only 237,000 such filers, a decline of 39%. Almost four of 10 millionaires vanished in two years, and the total taxes they paid in 2009 declined to $178 billion, a drop of 42%.

HSLDA: t also does not appear that the state legislature has authorized the state board to promulgate rules or regulations regarding homeschooling in West Virginia. In fact, if there is any change needed, it in the area of deregulation—not increased regulation.

Americans United: Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the ACLU of Indiana and the national ACLU today asked a federal court to block an Indiana city’s plan to use public funds in support of a religious school.a

AP: The idea to cut wireless communications to quell a brewing protest – a tactic that has put San Francisco’s subway system in the middle of a global free speech debate – first came to the agency’s chief spokesman in the middle of the night.

Waldron, Jeremy, What are Moral Absolutes Like? (August 8, 2011). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1906850