Daily Archives: August 24, 2011

Written by the Ledger’s editorial board, the column’s position is that Christie “should heed voters on gay marriage.”

Gallagher had at her disposal a quite different set of survey results, obtained in the same month by the firm Public Opinion Strategies (commissioned by the Alliance Defense Fund). That poll found only 35% who seemed to accept same-sex marriage, with 62% opposed (I’ll explain that “seemed to” in a moment.) That’s quite a significant difference . . .

But most states can’t do what New York did. Their legislatures can’t legalize gay marriage, because their voters have passed ballot measures that prohibit it under their state constitutions.

It is possible that a few of the most recent votes are not listed below.  Information taken from data on file with ADF. States Marriage Amendments Fall 2008 Vote: 1. Arizona (2008 by 56.5%) 2. California (2008 by 52%) 3. Florida (2008 by …

LifeSiteNews.com: A Dutch priest is standing his ground after following directives from the country’s bishops that anyone who opts for euthanasia is not entitled to a church funeral, according to Radio Netherlands.

LifeSiteNews.com: ome Islamic leaders in Afghanistan are objecting strongly to the proposal made by the country’s health minister, Suraya Dalil, to start government-sponsored contraceptive programs to alleviate poverty and maternal mortality. Afghanistan’s nearly 30 million people are over 99 percent Islamic.

Do Americans Disagree When Church Leaders Mix Religion, Politics?, Christian News: The majority of Americans disapprove of their religious leaders getting involved in politics, reveals data collected from the General Social Survey. And according to one professor, the disapproval has only grown over the past two decades . . . But Southern Baptist ethicist Dr. Richard Land says survey data in the recently published American Religion: Contemporary Trends are too vague to accurately suggest Americans do not want religion mixed into their politics.

Mail Online:
White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10million of U.S. taxpayers’ money on vacations alone in the past year.

EuropeNews: In Germany, where Holocaust denial is punishable by up to five years in prison, Stuttgart University recently capitulated to pressure from resident Turkish Muslims and canceled an event entitled, “Persecution, Expulsion and Annihilation of Christians in the Ottoman Empire 1912-1922.”

The Cutting Edge News: Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of “no-go” areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims.

AP: The Michigan appeals court says medical marijuana cannot be sold through dispensaries.

CitizenLink: “This emanates from some written policies that the people who aren’t religious shouldn’t have to hear religious things. But these policies are leading to people being robbed of the ceremonies they want for their husbands and fathers,” said Liberty Institute President Kelly Shackelford. “We’ve clearly got a director here who’s out of control and is anti-religious, but she thought she could get away with it because of the policy.

NPR (includes audio): An emerging Christian movement that seeks to take dominion over politics, business and culture in preparation for the end times and the return of Jesus, is becoming more of a presence in American politics. The leaders are considered apostles and prophets, gifted by God for this role.

Fox Nation: Religious leaders are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse course and offer clergy a role in the ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Christian Concern: The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has changed the frequency with which figures are published concerning children born outside of wedlock.
Critics say that the changes are part of continued efforts to marginalise marriage as an institution.

The American Spectator: Woodrow Wilson is the president most associated with early 20th century liberalism, second only to Franklin Roosevelt. During the Bush years, every self-described conservative who believed, as Wilson did, that it was America’s mission to “make the world safe for democracy” spoke the language, however unknowingly, of an earlier left-wing liberalism. William F. Buckley and George Will explained in a 2005 interview . . .

Boston.com: A number of priests and laymen in China’s underground Catholic church have been detained in the country’s northwest in a struggle over the appointment of a new bishop, overseas reports said Wednesday.

The Boston Globe: The bill would authorize three Las Vegas-style casinos in three regions, and a fourth gambling hall with up to 1,250 slot machines that could be located anywhere in Massachusetts – all of which backers say would generate much-needed jobs and income for the state.

The Christian Institute: A ‘sex box’ for primary school aged children which includes a wooden penis and a fabric vagina has sparked a storm of controversy in Switzerland. The box is to be used as part of a radical new sex education programme for primary school aged kids in Basel.

LaTimes.com: The state charter school association has received a $15-million grant from the Walton Family Foundation to add 20,000 more charter school students in Los Angeles and 100,000 statewide.

LifeNews.com: The chair of the national Democratic party headlined a small rally in Florida yesterday for the Planned Parenthood, in what is the latest event having Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz working with the abortion business.

Christian Newswire: A large gathering of Presbyterians concerned about the liberal direction of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is convening this week in Minneapolis.

The Huffington Post: The states launched an unprecedented avalanche of attacks against Planned Parenthood in their 2011 legislative sessions, but Planned Parenthood is battling back in the courts. Eighteen states have passed one or more measures to limit the services the family planning provider can offer . . .

LifeNews.com: he Parliament in Poland has voted down legislation that would strengthen the nation’s existing pro-life laws by instituting a complete ban on abortions in the Catholic eastern European nation.

TheHill.com: China’s military is “steadily closing the technological gap with modern armed forces” and remains calibrated for a conflict with Taiwan, according to an annual Pentagon report released Wednesday.

Erik Stanley at Speak Up Movement Church Blog : His sermon finished, he offered the benediction, and then deliberately disrobed in front of his congregation, revealing the uniform of a military officer beneath his clerical robes. He descended from the pulpit, marched to the back door of the church, and ordered the drums to beat for recruits.

Christian Newswire: Operation Rescue has been notified that a tenth abortionist will face a disciplinary hearing this fall before the Texas Medical Board based on a complaint filed by Troy Newman the group’s president.

In talking to folks in the Senate, they feel confident that the three-fifths majority they need to send the amendment on will be there . . . The House, as has been the case all year, is a less settled proposition . . .

An anti-Christian force, Change.org, funded by George Soros, is the forum for these activists.

Catholic Culture: Three years after an anti-Christian rampage left an estimated 100 dead and 50,000 homeless, the government of the Kandhamal district in the eastern Indian state of Orissa is forbidding the construction of new churches and the rebuilding of churches that had been destroyed.

Santa Rosa Press Gazette: The American Civil Liberites Union last week called into question the City of Milton’s sponsorship of the Santa Rosa County God and Country Rally. The rally in question is set for Sept. 11 at Milton High School Stadium and was being sponsored by the City of Milton in kind regarding insurance only.

OneNewsNow.com: A transgender individual who was sent a letter by a DMV worker has received thousands of dollars in damages, but a pro-family activist is concerned over the “transgender sensitivity training” prompted by the suit.

OneNewsNow.com: News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, is preparing to publish a magazine devoted to planning “gay” and lesbian weddings with the debut issue of Wedding Pride next month. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) deems it sad that the news operation trusted by many Americans is supporting homosexual marriage. But he says it is an indication of the direction the network is headed.

Religion Clause: Alliance Defense Fund announced that last week 22 representatives of religious groups that endorse military chaplains wrote a letter (full text) to Congressional leaders urging action to protect religious liberty as the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” becomes effective.

WSJ.com: More than half of the country’s top 50 law firms may have overstated a key measure of profitability in a closely watched ranking, according to an industry analysis prepared by a major bank.

BBC News: he number of people involved in forced marriages in the Bristol area has risen “significantly”, police have said.

Religion Clause: Film maker Greta Schiller, working with the National Center for Science Education and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is launching the “Celebrate Science” campaign beginning Aug. 28 in Tallahassee, Florida. A press release issued Monday announced that the Campaign will feature a new film, “No Dinosaurs In Heaven,” in cities around the country.

ABC: Some Federal MPs spent today reporting back to Parliament about their constituents’ views on same sex marriage. Of the 30 MPs who took part in the debate, only five said that they would like same sex couples to be allowed to marry, and one other reported community support for a change to the Marriage Act . . .

Santa Rosa Press Gazette: The American Civil Liberites Union last week called into question the City of Milton’s sponsorship of the Santa Rosa County God and Country Rally. The rally in question is set for Sept. 11 at Milton High School Stadium and was being sponsored by the City of Milton in kind regarding insurance only.

Olive Branch News: DeSoto County School Superintendent Milton Kuykendall says a group accusing the district of endorsing prayers before high school football games cares more about money than freedom of religion according to The DeSoto Times Tribune.

Minnesota Public Radio: The Independence Party of Minnesota, one of three political parties in Minnesota with major party status, announced on Tuesday that it is joining the campaign to defeat a ballot measure that would place a ban on marriage for same-sex couples in the Minnesota Constitution if passed by the voters in 2012 (Minnesota Independent).

The Australian: LABOR’S factional leaders are poised to strike a deal to declare the vexed issue of same-sex marriage a conscience vote in order to defuse a potential brawl on the floor of December’s national conference.

Spero News: The authorities abandon plans for a new place of worship for Muslims in the capital, which had led to protests and tension. The prefect: the area “not suitable”.

Samuel Gregg at Public Discourse: Candidates in the 2012 presidential race should champion two principles for reviving America’s economy: the Adam Smith principle for limiting government and the subsidiarity principle for regulating government intervention.

“Retailers should beware of online activists who spread misinformation to pressure retailers to discriminate against customers and charities with Judeo-Christian moral views, including marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”

Walter E. Williams at Townhall: Decent people should not obey immoral laws. What’s moral and immoral can be a contentious issue, but there are some broad guides for deciding what laws and government actions are immoral.

OneNewsNow.com: “We are taking steps, working with organizations like Alliance Defense Fund and other groups like that, to say that if there are chaplains who are in anyway harmed or become victims in this process that there are some legal recourses we can take to provide protections for them.”

OK for school district employees to pray (OneNewsNow.com): “Contrary to what the Freedom From Religion Foundation is arguing, this is not a government establishment of religion by any stretch of the imagination, except for theirs,” contends David Cortman of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). Jeremy Tedesco, also of ADF, adds . . .

OneNewsNow.com: “Christian employees should not be singled out for discrimination,” contends Roger Kiska, an ADF attorney based in Croatia. “No one should have to hide their faith or act contrary to it, especially when public employees of other faiths are accommodated, but Christians are not, which appears to be what happened in some of these cases. That type of intolerance is inconsistent with the values that civilized communities should have.”

Christian Post:
David Cortman, the defense fund’s senior legal counsel told the Idaho Press-Tribune, “In our opinion, the court failed to perform any meaningful analysis of any issue in the case including the seminal one: whether there is any educational purpose to ban all religious documents from objective teaching.” Cortman also accused the circuit judges of ignoring the right of local school districts to choose their own curriculum and texts. “Censoring classical books, including religious books, does not improve a student’s education,” he said in a statement. “It harms it.” [more]

The Issaquah Press: Jonathan Scruggs, litigation staff counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal advocacy group based in Scottsdale, Ariz., said the decision to single out people handing out leaflets is a problem. Scruggs and other attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund represent Ascherl in the case. “Quarantining freedom of speech to certain areas just does not comply with the First Amendment,” Scruggs said. Salmon Days receives financial and logistical support from the city, and requires a municipal permit to operate. “If you’re going to allow a person to sit there and eat his hot dog, or you’re going to allow people to line up in line or stand at booths, or to stand still and watch something — for example, you could have 10 people just standing still talking about football,” he said. “There’s no reason to allow those things, and yet ban a person from both standing and walking around with a pamphlet in his hand.”

LifeSiteNews.com: “ACLU is pushing its radical sexual agenda for children by intimidating school districts with a long string of scare tactics disguised as a concern over censorship,” said David Cortman, Senior Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). “In truth, these school districts have no obligation to cave to the ACLU’s unwarranted demands. Our children come first.” [more]

Care2 Causes: The self-described Christian Legal Group the Alliance Defense Fund has been given permission by the European Court of Human Rights to intervene in four British appeal cases where religious rights have butted heads with the UK’s equality laws that, among other protections, allow gay rights to be given more weight than religious expression in the public sphere. [whole article focuses on ADF]

Rasmussen: Still, Paul, popular with many in the Tea Party movement, runs better against the incumbent than another Tea Party favorite, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.Obama leads Palin 50% to 33% among all likely voters, making her the only potential GOP candidate to date against whom the president’s support has risen out of the 40s.

Victoria Pynchon at Forbes: Fifty thousand legally married same-sex couples anxiously await the probable eventual Supreme Court decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which overturned as unconstitutional California’s ban on same-gender unions.

TheHill.com: The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) found that only 8.4 percent of lawmakers majored in economics or a related field, while just 13.7 percent studied topics related to business or accounting.

The Hill: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday estimated deficits over the next 10 years will total $3.5 trillion, about half of what was projected at the beginning of the year.

LifeNews.com: Texas Governor Rick Perry, who entered the GOP presidential race less than two weeks ago, is the latest Republican presidential candidate to sign a pro-life pledge put forward by the Susan B. Anthony List on abortion and judges.

NCPA Policy Digest: Borrowing looms large in American life from homes to cars. But the explosion of student debt in the last decade is a pernicious trend that the colleges themselves are encouraging. As this semester begins, college loans are nearing the $1 trillion mark . . .

Campaign 2012: “The Obama Administration strongly opposes all aspects of China’s coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilization.” The spokesman added that Biden found the policy ‘repugnant’ and was trying to point out to the Chinese that the one-child policy was economically unsustainable.

FT.com: Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has increased his stake in the New York Times Company just weeks after the US newspaper group repaid the emergency $250m loan it took from Mr Slim in 2009.