Daily Archives: November 23, 2011

Ventura County Star: Port Hueneme will be the first city in Ventura County to post the words “In God We Trust” in City Hall after a 4-1 vote by the City Council on Monday.

Freedom from Religion Foundation: A new Madison, Wis., public charter school set to operate in a former church has drawn the attention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. FFRF is also asking for a review of why the property has maintained tax-exempt status while it’s been vacant and not being used for worship services.

Jordan Ballor at ActonInstitute PowerBlog: In this week’s Acton Commentary, “Blue Laws and Black Friday,” I argue that the increasing encroachment of commercial activity into holidays like Thanksgiving are best seen as questions of morality and the limits of the economic sphere of existence. The remedy for such issues is best sought at the level of relationship (between consumer and retailer, for instance, as well as employer and employee) rather than at the level of legal remedy, as in the case of blue laws.

Greeley Gazette: The only thing stopping them right now is the court order. They are arguing they should be allowed to force the nurses to assist in the abortions,” Bowman said. “The hospital filed a brief Tuesday, arguing why it should be allowed to break the law and violate the nurse’s conscience rights.” “Abortion institutions around the country think that they can violate clear federal and state laws that prohibit forcing a person to participate in an abortion. This is a very clear violation of religious freedom.”

Daily Mail: Joe Pressil, 36, says he was unaware his girlfriend had taken his sperm to a fertility clinic and is now suing. She had twins, he has to pay child support and he claims no one from the clinic ever contacted him

The Associated Press: European lawmakers narrowly rejected Ireland’s nominee to the European Court of Auditors on Wednesday after deeming him responsible for a €3.6 billion ($5 billion) error in calculating the Irish national debt.

CSMonitor.com: Adams maintains that he did nothing wrong, and the investigation could exonerate him, but the fact that the Texas court took this step is significant, says David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire Crimes against Children Research Center.

World Congres of Families on the Christian Newswire: Spain’s Popular Party won a historic conservative victory in Sunday’s election and the ruling Socialists suffered their worst defeat in 30 years.

bdnews24.com: The Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) has imposed extra taxes on polygamous marriages.

C-Fam Friday Fax: An impressive list of dignitaries launched the San Jose Articles in the national legislature of Uruguay last week. Led by Congressman Geraldo Amarillo, the list included many members of the Uruguayan Congress, several former high-ranking Ministers, medical doctors, professors of constitutional law, and one famous soccer player.

Hugo Restall appears with Sophi Richardson on this video at the Wall Street Journal.

Russ Cochran at Memoria Press: Recently, Rush Limbaugh tied his whole brain, not just half of it, behind his back. In the process he ended up sounding a whole lot like the cultural barbarians he claims to be fighting.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled that the government of Canada may continue to prohibit polygamy and polyamory–a decision that rejects an approach that could have had far-reaching effects on marriage throughout Canada and other countries.

In a 335-page decision released on Wednesday, Chief Justice Robert Bauman ruled in favour of the section of the Criminal Code outlawing polygamous unions.

La Crosse Tribune: Wisconsin abortion foes are cheering the introduction of legislation that would amend the state constitution to extend personhood to the moment an egg is fertilized, although the state’s two largest anti-abortion groups are at odds over the approach.

allAfrica.com: Majority of the girls interviewed by our correspondent, who visited the community recently, confirmed that ‘abortion is a common practice’, adding that it is set as a condition for marriage to ascertain if the girl can give birth.

Boston.com: Rhode Island’s Supreme Court is declining to hear an appeal from state officials who sought to reverse a lower-court ruling that public pensions amount to a contract and cannot be arbitrarily changed.

San Jose Mercury News: An appellate court this week refused to hear the Los Altos School District’s case against Bullis Charter School, setting up either a possible showdown in the California Supreme Court or an end to the long-running legal dispute. For Bullis officials, Monday’s court outcome was an affirmation that the school district had discriminated against it by failing to provide adequate facilities as required by state law.

LifeNews.com: An astounding new video is drawing rave reviews from pro-life advocates around the world for its depiction of the fetal development of an unborn baby.

France24.com: France’s infamous ‘polygamous Muslim butcher’ was back in the headlines Monday, this time because two of his supposed wives were caught wearing the niqab, or full Muslim veil, on the school run. The development is the latest twist in a surreal tale that we have yet to hear the last of.

The Republic: Only 39 couples in Rhode Island have obtained civil unions since state lawmakers gave same-sex couples the option earlier this year.

OneNewsNow.com: Texas is now the 25th state to offer “Choose Life” specialty license plates.

CBS News: The Texas family law judge whose daughter secretly videotaped him savagely beating her in 2004 has been suspended as a judge by the Texas Supreme Court.

Cambrian News: He told Cambrian News that he was informed by volunteers at the branch on Market Street that the shop refuses to sell the Bible due to the religiously neutral status of the organisation.

Houston Chronicle: Plans to include a living nativity scene in the courtyard of the Springhill Branch Library have stirred controversy in this north Webster Parish city.

CBS News: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has signed an agreement ending his 33-year rule, transferring power to the country’s vice president.

NorthWestOhio.com: The holiday season is starting off on a sour note for one Toledo church.

Herald-Mail.com: “This is awful. Who would do something like this?” she said as she looked at the creche in front of Central Presbyterian Church on Memorial Square.

Medicine Hat News: Jesus may have walked on water but it’s likely He needed a bit of help to walk away from a Bow Island grocery store’s nativity scene late last week.

ClayTodayOnline.com: The Clay County School will seek a preliminary injunction against a Green Cove Springs minister who has led prayer at four schools for the past 12 years. Declaring that students’ safety and dangerous traffic situations are a concern, Superintendent Ben Wortham also announced Tuesday, Nov. 22, that he would immediately order principals at those schools to issue trespass letters to the Rev. Ron Baker and his followers if they come onto school grounds after the Thanksgiving holiday.

USA Today: The FBI arrested seven Ohio men on federal hate crime charges in connection with a bizarre series of Amish hair-cutting attacks, the Associated Press reports.

The Washington Post: Democratic legislators are furiously lobbying the White House to hold the line on a health reform regulation that requires insurance companies to provide contraceptives without co-pay, my colleague N.C. Aizenman reported this morning.

The Herald Sun carries this report: Preaching tolerance bayside. “ABOUT three years ago, Rob Buckingham, senior pastor of Melbourne’s vibrant Bayside Church, delivered a ground-breaking sermon that was to echo around the world.” In response to the report Bill Muehlenberg at Culture Watch has written this response, Are we selling out Christ.

Education News: Fear the Roo,” the University of Akron slogan tied to its marsupial mascot, could take on a totally different meaning if it became fair game for an X-rated website.

NECN.com: The city of Jacksonville will revise its rules on public demonstrations following a federal judge’s decision to grant an injunction sought by anti-abortion protesters who say the current ordinance violates their rights to free speech.

Catholic Culture: The Archdiocese of San Francisco has won a legal battle to avoid taxes on the transfer of parish properties.

Catholic Culture: The Dominican superior in Baghdad has told Aid to the Church in Need that the situation has worsened for Christians in recent weeks amid fears that extremists are infiltrating churches.

NCPA Policy Digest: Since the beginning of the recent recession, the employment-population ratio for high-school age youth (16-17 years old) has fallen by nearly a third, to its lowest level ever. However, this recession has exacerbated a longer-run downward trend that actually began in the 1990s and accelerated in the early 2000s. Given the longevity of this trend, it is a mistake to assert that current levels of teenage unemployment are due largely to the recent recession, as this appears not to be the case, says researcher Christopher L. Smith.

LifeSiteNews.com: A Canadian pro-life organization is running an award-winning media campaign on adoption this November, National Adoption Awareness Month

LifeSiteNews.com: A new documentary film released Monday explores how children conceived through anonymous sperm donations are left searching for their true identities, and questions whether the “anonymous father” industry of sperm donation should exist at all.

LifeSiteNews.com: The U.S. Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) most recent data on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases reveals that among homosexual black men the syphilis rates rose a staggering 134% between 2009 and 2010. During the same time frame, syphilis rates among the general population fell by 1.6%.

LifeSiteNews.com: In a rare successful pushback against the pro-gay rights corporate culture, customers of Bank of America and the Cisco Corporation have won a promise from the two companies not to discriminate against employees or vendors who publicly oppose same-sex “marriage.”

It was Geron that started this whole mess.

FFRF: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation is awaiting a response from the Onslow County Board of Commissioners regarding Sheriff Ed Brown’s decision to blatantly violate the constitution via the distribution of an overtly religious message . . . Sheriff Brown placed an advertisement in the Jacksonville Daily News on Oct. 23, 2011. ”

FFRF.org: “Explicit political endorsements on his church’s website by a California pastor drew the attention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has requested an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Churches are barred from endorsing candidates as a condition of their tax-exempt status.”

San Antonio Express-News: Controversial crosses on a tower at the new Texas A&M University-San Antonio campus have been removed.

Religion Clause: . . . the Islamic affairs ministry, shut down the blog of Ismail Khilath “Hilath” Rasheed because it contained anti-Islamic material.

Religion Clause: In Calvary Christian Center v. City of Fredericksburg, Virginia, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134290 (ED VA, Nov. 21, 2011), a Virginia federal district court upheld the city of Fredericksburg’s denial of a special use permit to Calvary Christian Center that wanted to lease space in its church to the operator of a private day school for disabled children.

Catholic Culture: Police in largely Muslim Jammu and Kashmir, India’s northernmost state, arrested Protestant pastor C.M. Khanna on November 19 on charges of fomenting religious enmity and converting Muslims through financial allurements.

Pacific Justice Institute: The Southern California city that issued citations against homeowners Chuck and Stephanie Fromm, for holding Bible studies in their home, has reversed course after attorneys for Pacific Justice Institute took the case to court. The city recently dropped its action against the couple and refunded the fines they had paid. However, the city has not yet changed its laws that led to the controversy.

Duluth News Tribune: The men have support from two national Christian groups, the Thomas Moore Society and the Alliance Defense Fund. “Our clients simply want to be able to walk through this event and exercise their right to expression,” said Jonathan Scruggs, attorney for the Alliance. “The key factor here is that the city owns the park and operates the park and does not abdicate authority of it being a public place simply because they have given a permit to a private entity.”

ADF Attorney Gary McCaleb at The American Thinker: Foley & Lardner, LLP is a large and successful law firm. Focused on serving business clients, it has more than 1,000 attorneys in over 60 offices throughout the United States and across the globe. And although a firm that large is necessarily diverse, we recently found that diversity is not enough when the Human Rights Campaign is looking over your shoulder.

The New American: Frustrated by what he perceived to be a violation of his rights, Racaniello took his case to the Alliance Defense Fund, which informed officials that they would take the case to court if the township did not permit Racaniello to post his cross anywhere he would like on his own property. The ADF’s assertions forced the New Jersey city officials to relent.

StarTribune.com: “Our concern is with the city because it’s the city that has the power to kick us out of the park,” said Jonathan Scruggs, a staff attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund.
“We’ve litigated similar cases along these lines elsewhere,” he said. “A private individual technically can’t violate your First Amendment Rights.”

Robert Costrell at the Wall Street Journal (via Google): In the heated debates over government collective bargaining, a simple fact is often lost: Benefits for teachers and municipal workers are often more expensive than they are for state employees, let alone for workers in private business. The disparity between runaway local costs and more restrained state benefits is the key rationale—often misunderstood—for the efforts of Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Ohio and other states to limit local collective bargaining over benefits.

News from The Associated Press: The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Utah’s immigration enforcement law, arguing that it usurps federal authority and could potentially lead to the harassment and detention of American citizens and authorized visitors

News from The Associated Press: Denmark’s government wants to allow same-sex couples to get married in formal church weddings, instead of the short blessing ceremonies that the state Lutheran Church currently offers.

News from The Associated Press: Newly found coins underneath Jerusalem’s Western Wall could change the accepted belief about the construction of one of the world’s most sacred sites two millennia ago, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday.

News from The Associated Press: Israel expects a “grave erosion” in its peace agreement with Egypt and is even preparing for the possibility of the historic deal collapsing altogether, a Cabinet minister said Wednesday, in the first official assessment of the unrest rocking Israel’s southern neighbor.

Latimes.com: People entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico are believed responsible for more than one-third of human-ignited wildfires in Arizona over a five-year period, according to a government report that could stoke congressional debate over illegal immigration.

Real Clear politics links to the video of the discussion.

The Hill: The Justice Department withheld records about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s role in healthcare reform, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said Tuesday.