Daily Archives: October 28, 2011

The Washington Post: Air Force Major General Cecil Richardson shared the unique life of a military chaplain during special services at Arlington National Cemetery this week to dedicate monument honoring 14 rabbis who died while serving in the U.S. military.

ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: An Egyptian court is reported to have sentenced a man to three years in jail and hard labor because he ”intentionally insulted the dignity of the Islamic religion and attacked it with insults and ridicule on Facebook.”

The Action Alert is here.

ADF Attorney Greg Baylor at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: In an interesting bit of “reasoning,” Banzhaf contends that CUA has no good religious reason for not better “accommodating” Muslim prayer because nearby Georgetown University will soon offer Muslim prayer space at a new interfaith center. Surely Banzhaf doesn’t think the Archbishop is legally obliged to either tear down the Basilica or build a mosque on the CUA campus? Right?

Chuck Colson at LifeNews.com: Colombia has a rich Catholic heritage, so it’s no surprise that Colombians are prolife. Their laws once reflected that, but thanks to the U.N. and others, abortion is now legal.

LifeNews.com: Human rights campaigners are releasing new details of a four-hour beating top Chinese forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng, a blind attorney, endured by local family planning officials.

or, while it might be above President Obama’s pay grade to define when life begins, FRC is happy to support this amendment showing that a person’s a person no matter how small.

Miami Herald: Republican Rep. Charles Van Zant will introduce his twice-failed “Florida for Life Act” during the 2012 legislative session, a proposal that bans abortion in nearly every circumstance.

Connecticut Post: The item, introduced by Councilman Robert Walsh, D-132, in May, would have required “sexually oriented” establishments to obtain annual licenses.

Domain Name Wire: Companies that don’t want their trademark attached to a .xxx domain name have until the end of the day to take action.

ABC News: On Nov. 8 Mississippi voters will decide whether a fertilized egg should be considered a “person,” a movement organized by Christian activist and “part-time farmer and tractor salesman” Les Riley who chairs an organization advocating for constitutional rights.

LifeNews.com: The pro-abortion United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with speak with Philippine President Benigno Aquino during her stop in Manila next month on the eve of what is set to be one of the largest pro-life gatherings in the Philippines this year.

The Washington Post: A George Washington University law professor who filed a human rights complaint against Catholic University this summer when it eliminated coed dorm floors has filed a second complaint against the school, saying the rights of Muslim students are being violated.

Reuters: When hundreds of Tunisians drove through the capital sounding their horns and waving scarves this week to celebrate the election victory of an Islamist party, there was little jubilation in the Ennasr neighbourhood.

RFI: A French court has ruled that a private nursery had the right to fire an employee for wearing Islamic head-cover, leading its lawyer to hail an advance for secular forces in the country.

Europe News: A French court Thursday cancelled a construction permit for a mega-mosque in the southern city of Marseille that had been touted as a potential symbol of Islam’s growing place in France

Businessweek: It’s a killer applause line for Republican audiences, but scrapping the Affordable Care Act would not be nearly as straightforward as Romney and his White House rivals make it sound.

Austrian Times Online News – English Newspaper: People’s Party (ÖVP) State Secretary Sebastian Kurz has called for a reform of Austria’s anti-forced marriage law. Forced marriages are not a criminal offence under the current regulations if carried out abroad.

The Local: Three women wearing head scarves completely shielding their faces were denied entry to a Gothenburg courtroom on Friday during the remand hearing of one of the suspects in the Röda Sten murder plot case.

The Christian Institute: The Scottish Office has told a Westminster Committee that it has no view on whether redefining marriage in Scotland should be subject to a referendum.

The Christian Institute: The Scottish Government will carry on with its controversial Sectarianism Bill – despite criticism that it is needless and may damage free speech.

The Christian Institute: ormer leader of the Scottish National Party, Gordon Wilson, has been kicked off the board of Dundee Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) – because of his support for traditional marriage.

Bloomberg: Uganda’s parliament voted to reopen a debate on a bill that seeks to outlaw homosexuality that may be expanded to include the death penalty for gay people.

Capitol Confidential: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced Friday that she would introduce a bill barring federally-funded foster care and child adoption agencies from discriminating against potential adoptive parents because of their sexual orientations or gender identities.

Catholic News Agency (CNA): The Puerto Rico Senate passed a new penal code on Oct. 24 that keeps in place the territory’s prohibition against abortion.

Russell Shaw at Our Sunday Visitor: Catholic Church agencies are closing their doors under new laws, policies gutting conscience rights

Society of St. Pius X: : Bishop Bernard Fellay has asked all the rectors of seminaries and district superiors of the Society of Saint Pius X to organize, in reparation for the interreligious meeting in Assisi (October 27, 2011), public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Stations of the Cross, celebration of the Mass pro propaganda fidei [for the propagation of the faith], or the recitation of the Rosary, as individual circumstances allow.

Vatican Insider: Pope Shenouda III has asked for the release of all those who were arrested during the event which led to the massacre of dozens of Copts by the military on Sunday, October 9. But meanwhile, a meeting that was to lead to a law that would unify rules for the construction of places of worship concluded without success.

The Washington Post: An Illinois Supreme justice’s successful bid to keep his seat last year was the nation’s costliest retention election in a quarter century, legal-reform groups said Thursday in a report raising worries that increased money going into once-ignored races could undermine the judicial system.

Iowa Independent: Although candidates in Iowa Senate District 18 agreed local residents haven’t been asking about the social issues that seem to be the focus of national media and third-party groups regarding this special election, they nonetheless received and answered questions on those topics during a League of Women Voters forum Thursday night.

Hindustan Times: Forty years after the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, abortion is now increasingly being used to kill unborn daughters. The situation is grim and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) says 7,000 fewer girls are born everyday in India than should be.

Monitor Board of Contributors: Same-sex marriage is good for kids | Concord Monitor:
On Oct. 25, the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill to revoke the state’s same-sex marriage law and replace it with a poor excuse for civil unions. Proponents of same-sex marriage repeal insist over and over, like an annoying, online pop-up ad you can’t get rid of, that their measure is necessary for the welfare of New Hampshire’s children.

11alive.com: Shorter University now requires all faculty and staff to sign a “personal lifestyle statement” that rejects certain behavior on religious and moral grounds.

Rome News-Tribune: Federal grant and loan funds received by Shorter University students will not be affected by a new requirement that employees sign a personal lifestyle statement, said Andy Davis, an attorney for the school.

NYTimes.com: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, hailed as a hero at a gala dinner for the state’s largest gay rights group, issued a passionate plea on Thursday for other states to follow New York’s lead and allow gay couples to wed.

Ralph Richard Banks at The Atlantic: Those who are best positioned economically to live without a partner or to have a child without being married are the least likely to do so

WREG: Town’s residents have placed hundreds of crosses in their yards around the city

CBS News: A federal judge heard arguments Thursday on whether a central Missouri school district should be barred from using Internet filtering software that has prevented automatic access to some websites with information on gay, lesbian and transgender issues.

The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from
reliance upon Almighty God as set forth in the public speeches and proclamations
of American Presidents . . .

LifeNews.com: A leading pro-life organization is seeking more information on the public records destroyed by the former administration of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in connection with a case the state attorney general filed against Planned Parenthood.

Religion Clause: Henderson was fired after he sought permission to schedule his lunch break at a time that allowed him to attend Friday Jumma prayers.

Religion Clause: Insofar as teacher Martha Braun claimed she was dismissed because she was an Episcopalian, the court concluded that the school is protected by the exemption in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (42 USCS § 2000e-1) that permits religious educational institutions to hire and fire on the basis of religion.

Religion Clause: Some expressed disappointment that Catholics will still not be able to become king or queen.

Francis X. Rocca at WSJ.com: This audacious goal has unsettling implications for Catholicism’s relations with other faiths. After all, if religion is of more than merely subjective value, and if its many varieties are not just different expressions of the same reality, it follows that some religions are truer than others. And Benedict has never hidden his conviction of where the truth in its fullness lies. However undiplomatic it may seem in certain contexts, Benedict’s emphasis on objective truth is, by his lights, essential to the agenda for which he prayed in Assisi.

Jack Hunter at the Daily Caller: Many conservatives say, “I like Ron Paul, except on foreign policy.” Perhaps thinking they’re going for the jugular, Paul’s critics like to first cite his contention that our foreign interventions breed more Islamic terrorism than they quell, often saying the congressman somehow “blames America” for our troubles. Yet, according to the Pew poll, a majority of our soldiers — who you might think know a thing or two about what causes Islamic terrorism — actually agree with Paul on this point. More significantly, Paul’s overall foreign policy of avoiding going to war where there is no clear national interest is where the congressman is most in line with public sentiment.

W. Bradford Wilcox . . . talks to National Review Online about what exactly fertility and marriage have to do with the economy

But this strange state of affairs also presents an opportunity: as the economy evolves, it’s time to embrace new ideas about romance and family—and to acknowledge the end of “traditional” marriage as society’s highest ideal.

William J. Doherty and Leah Ward Sears at The Washington Post: Still, many are skeptical about whether we can lower the divorce rate without trapping more people in bad marriages. This skepticism is fueled by two common assumptions: Divorce happens only after a long process of misery and conflict; and, once couples file for divorce, they don’t entertain the idea of reconciling.

The New American: “A Christian organization should not be targeted for discrimination when it is simply seeking to publicize its voluntary meetings just like other community groups do,” said ADF attorney Matt Sharp. “The district would have people believe that the Constitution requires a religious organization to be singled out in this manner when, in reality, the Constitution strictly prohibits this type of discrimination. The courts have repeatedly upheld this.”

CBN.com: The Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the county, said the High Court should decide whether public bodies are required to find out in advance what will be said in prayers that precede their meetings.

The Hill: The Obama administration on Thursday approved hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to California’s Medicaid program that the state had requested to shore up its dismal finances.

TheHill.com: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday rejected a proposal by the Democratic members of the congressional supercommittee on deficit reduction, declaring its $1.3 trillion in tax increases unacceptable.

OneNewsNow.com: “Obviously, this is a complete violation of the constitutional rights of the group for being excluded merely because they’re Christians,” contends ADF attorney David Cortman. “This was a secular assembly approved by the school, and yet this far-left group wants them prohibited merely because they’re Christian.”

Education News: We have to bring back balance to male-female relations on campus. As long ago as the early 1990s, the now-dead magazine Lingua Franca was calling attention to the “chilly” attitude toward males on our campuses. Now it’s much worse, and we don’t know if the chill is a factor in the growing male aversion to higher education and the high male drop-out rate. But we do know that there are many ominous indictors.

Education News: The passed six bills Thursday that give parents more options for their children’s education, including one that lifts restrictions on the number of cyber charter schools that can open and the number of students that can enroll in them.

ADF Attorney Matt Sharp at the Washington Examiner: In what has increasingly become a troubling sign of the times, an Oklahoma public schools district has barred a community-led Christian club for students from publicizing its before-school meetings on the Northeast Elementary campus.

Christian Post: Daniel Blomberg, litigation staff council for the Alliance Defense Fund, says what the case is really about is “social engineering.” He says it sends a message that men and women are fundamentally interchangeable.

Religion News In Brief | Fox News (AP): The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Tulsa by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Owasso Kids for Christ. It alleges the school unconstitutionally prohibits the group from distributing religious flyers, from taking part in an open house and from using the school’s public address system.

Fox News: A coalition of social workers, psychologists and family therapists demanded Monday that the state adopt rules that would require certain mental health professionals to offer referrals to gay patients if they refuse to treat them because of religious beliefs.

WXII The Triad: Lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund Inc. filed the request for Supreme Court review on Thursday.

The Republic (AP): The ruling “imposes an unwieldy requirement that government police the language of prayers,” ADF lawyers said in their appeal. “Does the Constitution require the government to censor prayer content to exclude sectarian references?”

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP – Attorneys at Law: Columbia associate Jay Thompson was recognized with the 2010 Scarborough Award . . . Mr. Thompson also represented the Alliance Defense Fund and provided legal advice and assistance on S.C. law regarding constitutionality of prayer at city council meetings. He handles criminal domestic violence cases as well.

CBN.com: e lawsuit against Owasso Public Schools was filed in federal court this week by the Alliance Defense Fund.

JournalNow.com: Mike Johnson, an attorney working with the Allied Defense Fund who argued the case before the 4th Circuit, said the ACLU and Americans United were advocating “censorship.” “They don’t want private citizens invited by the board to express themselves according to the dictates of their consciences,” Johnson said.

News from The Associated Press: Human rights activist and poet Michael D. Higgins looked on course Friday to be elected Ireland’s president after his main rival suffered a last-minute collapse in support, according to senior politicians, electoral officials and an opinion poll.

News from The Associated Press: The Palestinian request for full membership in the U.N. Cultural Agency goes to a vote on Monday.

News from The Associated Press: Greeks have launched a wave of civil disobedience against the embattled government’s austerity measures designed to appease international creditors, which provided rescue loans to the country.

Breitbart: Paris police have arrested around 20 Christian fundamentalists who burst into a theatre and threw stink bombs to protest against a play featuring the face of Christ drizzled with fake excrement.

CBS Washington: Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens told CBS Washington that the protesters have been given special treatment and free reign of the park and have not had to comply with the strict liability and security provisions that the city required of a Tea Party Tax Day in 2009.

Liberty Counsel: Today Liberty Counsel is launching its ninth annual “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,” pledging to be a “Friend” to those who recognize Christmas and a “Foe” to those who censor it.