Daily Archives: November 19, 2012

Ruth Institute: Within the GOP there is a concerted frontal attack against those who oppose genderless marriage. The aim is to stifle real debate before it can take place. The strategy: marginalize opponents by finding high profile “conservatives” who can help fund and manufacture an illusory cascade of public opinion away from the definition of marriage as one man and one woman.

One News Now: “Well, we are facing the reality that we are before … the same three judges who ruled against us 2-1 in June of 2011,” he tells OneNewsNow. “But we [now] have some different arguments and new evidence, and we are hopeful that they will take a fresh look at this and vote in favor of religious liberty.”

Christian Science Monitor: Eyewitnesses said a male attacker, disguised in a Bui-Bui, a shawl often worn by Muslim women, threw an improvised explosive device into the minibus, tearing it apart and flattening its tires.

Lawrence Journal World: He said births to unmarried women nationwide have increased from around 30 percent in 1993 to 40 percent now. The poverty rate for children in female-headed households is 41 percent, while it is about 9 percent for married couples, he said.

Boston Globe (AP): About 10,000 people marched through Dublin and observed a minute’s silence Saturday in memory of the Indian dentist who died of blood poisoning in an Irish hospital after being denied an abortion.

Inquisitr.com: More than 100,000 people took to the streets in France to protest the government’s plan to approve same-sex marriage and adoption . . . though organizers put the number at 200,000, adding that there were more than 30,000 others holding similar protests around the country.

Robert Oscar Lopez at American Thinker: American conservatives must take a close look at themselves and consider the sad state of our traditional mores: The French are doing a better job making the case for traditional marriage than is the American right. This piece from Libération tells it all. With three simple letters – PME, or “père, mère, enfant” – the protestors stated the no-nonsense, no-beating-around-the-bush reason not to legalize same-sex marriage. “Father, mother, child.”

Telegraph: The Church of England will face a battle in Parliament and the prospect of legal challenges if it fails to approve women bishops on Tuesday, MPs said on Monday.

Christian Today: Christian Solidarity Worldwide has expressed fears for Christians in northern Nigeria after a family was killed in Kaduna State this week. The organisation reports that gunmen opened fire on the home of Yakubu Kayit in Madauchi-Zonkwa.

Christian Institute: Techniques which would create genetically modified babies should be “urgently opposed”, a bioethics group says. The Anscombe Bioethics Centre gave the warning as a Government-backed consultation approaches its conclusion. Commenting on the two techniques being considered, the centre said: “One technique would split genetic motherhood and give the child three genetic parents.

Telegraph: Mr O’Neill, an expert on human rights, was asked to advise on the impact redefining marriage to include same-sex couples could have on schools, churches, hospitals, foster carers and public buildings. Among his conclusions was that schools could be within their statutory rights to dismiss staff who wilfully fail to use stories or textbooks promoting same-sex weddings.

AP: A transgender inmate who won a court order for taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery has no medical need for further electrolysis treatments, a prisons department psychiatrist testified Monday.

Acton Institute Power Blog: Tonight at 6:30 EST on TheBlaze TV, Rev. Robert Sirico will discuss that case, along with a wider discussion of religious liberty and opposition to the Obamacare mandate by other businesses and organizations.

Chicago Phoenix: Case and Northwestern law professor Andy Koppelman spoke Thursday in Evanston, breaking down the legal arguments for same-sex marriage and how anyone with a feminist perspective will benefit from its legalization through the court system. “Ratzinger’s dreams are my nightmares and vice-a-versa,” Case said.

The Mercury: Despite recent gains for gay marriage in a number of states, analysts say you needn’t expect Pennsylvania to join their number anytime soon.

Daily Mail: Lance Gilman is a thriving businessman with dozens of employees. That those workers include a good many prostitutes didn’t faze the people of a rural Nevada county who recently elected him as a Storey County commissioner by a wide margin

ABC (audio): For years gay and lesbian people across much of regional Australia have kept a low profile in their communities for fear of violence and harassment, but things are starting to change. Increasingly people in country towns are organising Equal Love rallies in support of gay marriage rights. On Saturday the border town of Albury-Wodonga held its first rally and it was the largest gay and lesbian event in the town’s history.

John G. Browning at Inside Higher Ed: The Harvard Law Review, arguably the most prestigious and widely circulated law review, had a circulation of 10,895 in 1963–1964. By the 2010–2011 academic year, that figure had plummeted to 1,896.

Washington Post: I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States,” Rubio told GQ. “I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that.”

Tulsa World: A Ten Commandments monument was installed Thursday on the north grounds of the state Capitol

Richmond Times Dispatch: In his first term, President Barack Obama has had an unprecedented impact on what was long considered the most conservative federal appeals court in the country. Except for the handful of cases that make it to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the court of last resort for the states of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and North and South Carolina.

Blunt.Senate.Gov: “Religious liberty isn’t about one group or one set of beliefs – it’s about protecting Americans’ First Amendment rights. This decision is a step in the right direction toward stopping the Obama administration from infringing on these fundamental freedoms,” said Blunt.

Liberty Counsel: “This law places the state between the client and the counselor,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “This law intrudes on the fundamental right of self-determination to seek counseling that aligns with the client’s religious and moral values. This law forces counselors to overrule their clients who choose to prioritize their religious or moral values above unwanted same-sex sexual attractions,” said Staver.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a complaint Friday with the Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction on behalf of a hearing-impaired preschooler denied disability benefits for tuition payments because her parents chose to enroll her in a Columbus faith-based preschool.

LifeNews: “With President Obama and his party still in control of most of Washington, stopping ObamaCare will require both bold state leadership and vigorous oversight by Members of the House of Representatives. Such action will be critical in protecting the American people and our economy from the impact of this disastrous federal law.”

Robert George and David L. Tubbs at NRO: For this reason and others, the Court should, absent a constitutional amendment defining marriage one way or the other, respect the constitutional allocation of powers and principles of American federalism and allow each state legislature to make policy in this area. The Court should be equally deferential to state referenda (such as Proposition 8 in California) and the 30 amendments to state constitutions that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. These initiatives are constitutionally legitimate and reasonable policy measures, launched largely because of the provocations of state-supreme-court judges who have redefined marriage for the people of several states. Whatever the liberal pundits have been saying since Election Day, the redefinition of marriage throughout the United States is not “inevitable.” And if the Supreme Court were to invalidate Proposition 8, it would be an act of judicial usurpation even more egregious than its abuse of power in Eisenstadt.

WorldNetDaily: The leader of a Christian outreach in China says the recent power transition in the Communist government could mean good things for long-persecuted Christians there.

Hilary White at LifeSiteNews: But I dive in because it seems as if the whole world has suddenly fallen into a frenzy to murder Irish children. I’ll say it again, just so we’re clear: the calls for legalisation of abortion in Ireland, always carefully framed in the media and parliaments as a matter of “women’s rights,” is a call for the unrestricted slaughter of innocent children.

LifeSiteNews: Following numerous revelations of abortions performed or promoted in hospitals affiliated with the Catholic Church in Spain’s Catalonia region, the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers is addressing the issue in its annual International Conference, which began on November 15 and ends on Saturday.

LifeNews: Catholic Fordham University is coming under fire from pro-life advocates for rejecting a pro-life speaker but then deciding it is okay to bring pro-infanticide speaker Peter Singer to campus. Fordham University’s president Fr. Joseph McShane, S.J. determined conservative and pro-life author Ann Coulter was too “hateful and needlessly provocative” to speak on campus.

LifeNews: In 1992, Planned Parenthood had 922 clinics across the country. Bill Clinton was elected president that year. Planned Parenthood publicly announced a goal to have 2,000 clinics by the year 2000.

Sentinel and Enterprise: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is gearing up to hear a court case that could permanently strike the phrase “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance recited by schoolchildren.

Marietta Daily Journal: “In recent years, the tactic of many in the atheist community has been, if you can’t beat them, join them,” said Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center and director of the Newseum’s Religious Freedom Education Project in Washington. “If these church groups insist that these public spaces are going to be dominated by a Christian message, we’ll just get in the game — and that changes everything.” . . . “If they want to hold an opposing viewpoint about the celebration of Christmas, they’re free to do that — but they can’t interfere with our right to engage in religious speech in a traditional public forum,” said William Becker, attorney for the committee. “Our goal is to preserve the tradition in Santa Monica and to keep Christmas alive.”

Portland Press Herald: The ACLU of Maine said it plans to alert the U.S. Justice Department about some of the controversial statements by Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster, the group said Friday. But the specific issue they are raising may be a moot point.

Lexology.com: According to Myriad Genetics, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court should not grant review in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. Details about the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decision on remand from the lawsuit’s previous sojourn before the U.S. Supreme Court appear in Issue 41 of this Bulletin. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has requested that the Court review the Federal Circuit’s decision.

Courier-Journal: Citizens represented by the group American Atheists are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal of a lawsuit challenging a Kentucky law that credits Almighty God with homeland security.

Douglas NeJaime at Jurist: Now that the popular vote has swung the other way, it is not simply the political calculus that has changed but the legal landscape as well. For opponents of same-sex marriage, their streak at the ballot box has supported their arguments against judicial intervention in favor of marriage equality. With these recent results, it becomes increasingly difficult to paint the judiciary — and the US Supreme Court in particular — as an overreaching, out-of-touch institution on the question of same-sex marriage. This new dynamic comes just as the Supreme Court prepares to consider the issue.

CNSNews: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday that Congress should stop placing legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow and effectively lift the debt limit to infinity.

Education News: The growth in market share of students for Milwaukee charter schools underscores important changes in the local landscape for such publicly financed, independently operated schools. MPS, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the City of Milwaukee are approving more charter schools, and a growing number of those proposals are coming from national operators.

Religion Clause Blog: . . . Alliance Defending Freedom issued a press release announcing the decision, and the Washington Postreported on the decision.

Religion Clause Blog: ABC News reports that a state trial court judge in Oklahoma has sentenced a teenager to a probation arrangement that includes a requirement that he attend the church of his choice every week for ten years.

Intolerance Against Christians: November 2012: A gothic chapel, a protected heritage monument which had just been renovated, was vandalised by graffiti in Haßfurt.

Intolerance Against Christians: November 2012: Government officials in Brussels banned the Christmas tree in the city center out of concerns that the local Muslim population might find it “offensive.”

John B. Londegran at Public Discourse: A common trope in social policy debates is to claim that the public’s changing opinion on the policy at stake, rather than the policy’s moral or substantive justifications, merits changing the platform of one’s preferred political party. This notion seems recently to have taken root on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, and several commentators have reacted.

Matt Bowman at Townhall: So whatever the Obama administration declares is secular is secular, because they said so. The areas of human life where people spend most of their waking hours—education, business, and healthcare—are, by edict, “secular.” And whatever is secular, the government controls. The Obama administration lost that argument unanimously at the Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor. Let’s hope they lose it again when the abortion pill mandate cases reach the high court.

First Things: This is welcome news. Next semester, Stanford Law School will start the nation’s first law school clinic focusing on religious liberty. Here’s the announcement from the Stanford website . . .

Religion Clause Blog: As part of his trip to Burma (Myanmar), President Obama spoke today at the University of Yangon in Rangoon. (Full text of speech.) His speech included a plea for the country to deal with the ethnic-religious violence faced by the Rohingya Muslim minority, and the persecution of ethnic minority Chin Christians in Kachin state . . .

The Hill: The Senate reauthorized federal research and intervention activities on premature births in a voice vote Thursday night.

National Right to Life News Today: The following are comments by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.Cap., as he accepted the annual Meese Award Nov. 16 in Washington, D.C., from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which specializes in legal defense of religious liberty.

World: “It’s outrageous for pastors and churches to be threatened or punished by the government for applying biblical teachings to all areas of life, including candidates and elections,” ADF legal counsel Erik Stanley told Focus on the Family’s Citizen Link last month. He added that the purpose of the October event was “to make sure that the pastor, and not the IRS, decides what is said from the pulpit.”

AP: A majority of the church’s governing General Synod is ready to say yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s all wrapped up. The vote needs a two-thirds majority in order to be approved, and an unlikely coalition of advocates and opponents of female bishops may have enough strength to derail the motion. Some voices on both sides argue that the church’s compromise asks them to concede too much.

Washington Post (AP): Matthew S. Bowman, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom, which brought the suit on behalf of Tyndale, said in an email that Bible publishers “should be free to do business according to the book that they publish.” He added: “The Obama administration is not entitled to disregard religious freedom.” The Health and Human Service Department declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Crisis Magazine: The success that the gay community has achieved in shedding the “deviant” label has relied upon convincing the heterosexual world that homosexual behavior is perfectly normal. The recent uproar over a social work course titled “Deviant Behavior” at Franciscan University of Steubenville—which lists homosexuality as a form of deviant behavior—demonstrates just how vigilant the gay community remains in confronting anyone who might suggest that homosexual behavior could be anything but normal. It also shows how difficult it is for faithful Catholic institutions to teach students what the Church says about the nature of homosexual acts.

The Hill: Republicans are seeking to oust Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who is up for his first reelection after his narrow 2008 win.

NY Times: The Federal Communications Commission appears to be close to adopting rules that would relax a longstanding ban on ownership of both a newspaper and a television or radio station in large metropolitan media markets.

The Hill: Retiring Rep. Ron Paul plans to deliver speeches on college campuses next year and beyond, continuing his message of liberty and reducing the size of the federal government. In an interview with The Hill, the Texas Republican clearly indicated that he isn’t ready for the rocking chair.

Christian Post: Churches shouldn’t be treated differently than other entities in Tennessee – such as college bookstores, family wellness centers, and hospital gift shops – that are tax exempt by law,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley in a statement.

WorldNetDaily: He noted he and a handful of other conservative leaders, including Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, Gary Bauer and Gen. William Boykin, had met with the GOP candidate to encourage him to address social issues important to Christians across the nation. “We begged him to deal with eight issues. We listed first the sanctity of life, marriage, religious life, ‘Don’t Ask,’ ENDA, on it went,” Dobson said. “We said we really are not here to jump on you, but evangelicals are not excited about your candidacy, not energized. … You could connect if you’ll even mention these things. “He nodded and he smiled and he was gracious as he always is, and he went out and was silent,” Dobson said.

James Capretta and Yuval Levin at WSJ – Why ObamaCare Is Still No Sure Thing: Talk of the law’s inevitability is intended to pressure these governors into implementing it on the administration’s behalf. But states still have two key choices to make that together will put them in the driver’s seat: whether to create state health-insurance exchanges, and whether to expand Medicaid. They should say “no” to both.

AP: City lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would prohibit nudity in most public places, a blanket ban that represents an escalation of a two-year tiff between a devoted group of men who strut their stuff through the city’s famously gay Castro District and the supervisor who represents the area.

Christian Post: As you read this, Pastor Behnam Irani’s health is in critical condition and there is a very real chance he will die in Ghezel Hesar prison if he remains in his current condition,” Christian Solidarity Worldwide explains in a statement shared with The Christian Post by Kiri Kankhwende, press officer for the organization.

WSJ (via Google): Senate Republicans hunkered down this week to reflect on their drubbing last week. Perhaps they should have invited Bama football coach Nick Saban to give them pointers on how to identify and recruit talent. A lesson in blocking wouldn’t hurt either. The GOP fumbled every opportunity to pick up a Senate seat save for in Nebraska, where political amateur Deb Fischer steam-rolled veteran Bob Kerrey

Greg Lukianoff at WSJ: At Yale University, you can be prevented from putting an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote on your T-shirt. At Tufts, you can be censured for quoting certain passages from the Quran. Welcome to the most authoritarian institution in America: the modern university—”a bizarre, parallel dimension,” as Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, calls it.

CBS: Election officials missed a deadline Sunday to report results of a two-day recount in GOP Rep. Allen West’s race to remain in Congress, apparently sealing unofficial results giving the win to Democrat Patrick Murphy.

Stacy A. Scaldo, Life, Death & the God Complex: The Effectiveness of Incorporating Religion-Based Arguments Into the Pro-Choice Perspective on Abortion, 39 Northern Kentucky Law Review 421-465 (2012).

NY Times: Limbaugh echoed a Republican theme that was voiced before and after the election: Barack Obama has unleashed a coalition of Americans “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it — that that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them” — as Mitt Romney put it in his notorious commentary on the 47 percent. You can find this message almost everywhere on the right side of the spectrum . . . In fact, the 2011 Pew Research Center poll Bennett cites demonstrates that in many respects conservatives are right to be worried: