Tag Archives: Global: Marriage and Family

The Telegraph: The former Labour prime minister talks about religion and politics, lessons from the financial crisis and the future of the euro

Religion Clause Blog: Political Research Associates, a Massachusetts-based progressive think tank, yesterday released a new report titled Colonizing African Values: How the U.S. Christian Right is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa. According to the Executive Summary . . .

LifeSiteNews: A senior gov’t official stated that one way to curb Britain’s social problems is to tell mothers with large families not to have any more children.

AP: A new report says conservative U.S. Christian groups are setting up fronts in Africa to fight for anti-gay and anti-abortion legislation.

CNSNews: A report issued by the United Nations-backed Global Commission on HIV and the Law; recommends that nations around the world get rid of “punitive” laws against prostitution – or what it calls “consensual sex work” — and decriminalize the voluntary use of illegal injection drugs in order to combat the HIV epidemic.

Christian Post: Advocacy groups in Ukraine have said that homosexuals in the Eastern European country are being targeted by an increasing amount of intolerance and violence, and have criticized the government for pushing legislation that would criminalize any positive portrayals of homosexuality.

Ed News: A coalition of homeschoolers and supporters arrived in the Swedish capital of Stockholm after a six-day, 120-mile “Walk to Freedom” that was staged to raise awareness about a controversial ban on home education.

Christian Institute: David Cameron risks losing more support from grassroots supporters if he pushes ahead with controversial measures such as gay marriage, local Conservative Party officials have warned.

Washington Post: An annual test of wills between Iran’s morality police and women who dress in ways that are deemed unacceptable has begun in cities across the Islamic republic.

DutchNews.nl: A Dutch political party which operates according to a strict interpretation of the Bible and opposes votes for women has lost its efforts to stop women from becoming MPs on its behalf. | Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij v. Netherlands, No. …

Di-Ve.com: The European Court of Human Rights, in a judgment given last Tuesday 17th July, found a violation of a mother’s rights stemming from the fact that, after her children had been put under a care order, she did not have access to an independent and impartial tribunal to review such order after circumstances had changed.

Christian Institute: A leaked Scottish Government email suggests that gay marriage will have a devastating impact on religious liberty and free speech unless the UK Equality Act is changed.

Christian Institute: Parents in Scotland should be prosecuted for smacking their children, a coalition of children’s charities has said.

LifeSiteNews: The convention redefines gender as a social construct, rather than as a distinction grounded in biology, and suggests violence towards women is systemic with roots in religion and culture.

Christian Institute: The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has turned up the heat on the Scottish Government following its rejection of a gay marriage referendum.

Christian Institute: The Scottish National Party (SNP) will lose the support of Muslims if it pushes ahead with plans to redefine marriage, Muslim leaders have warned.

Christian Institute: Redefining marriage is fraught with legal difficulties and has higher political stakes than previously thought, The Herald newspaper has said. An editorial published today said people who disagree with gay marriage should not suffer discrimination.

LifeSiteNews: A public consultation on a controversial proposal to legalize same-sex “marriage” in Scotland has ended with a disappointment for supporters of traditional marriage after the government announced it has rejected holding a referendum on the issue.

BBC: A leaked e-mail seen by BBC Scotland suggests the Scottish government may not introduce a bill on gay marriage until Westminster changes the law.

Michael Barone at National Review: But there it is, on the home page of the United Kingdom’s Department of Education: “As of 1 April 2012, there are 1776 academies open in England.” “Academies,” as you might expect, means something different in Britain than in the United States. They are, approximately, what we would call charter schools. And there are 1,776 of them largely because of the energy and determination of British education secretary Michael Gove.

Christian Post: Public displays of homosexual activity may be banned in Russia, four months after they were banned in Saint Petersburg, one of Russia’s largest cities.Legislators are planning on making sure that such activity stays behind closed doors, Voice of America reports.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: Ten years after its famous ruling in the case of Christine Goodwin v UK, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is required again to rule on the compatibility of the impediments that prevent transgender people from marrying a person who is of the same biological sex with the European Convention on Human Rights. While the Christine Goodwin judgment concerned the United-Kingdom, this new case, Joanne Cassar v. Malta (n° 36982/11), concerns the small and deeply catholic island of Malta.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: The strange phenomenon that governments use taxpayers’ money to maintain radical homosexualist lobby groups is apparently not limited to the notorious case of ILGA-Europe, which is kept alive by funds received from the European Commission.

Christian Institute: Sir Elton John says it will be “heartbreaking” when the boy being raised by him and his gay civil partner David Furnish discovers he has no mummy.

LifeSiteNews: In North America today, the Christian Church is challenged in the most extreme way in this regard by the issue of homosexuality. There is no other topic, abortion and contraception included, which has made for more gun-shy Church, political and institutional leadership. And that is quite understandable given the current obsession with homosexuality and all things relating to it by the media and so many of the institutional elites. For nearly 20 years the labels of ‘hater’ and ‘bigot’ have been cast upon all those who would dare to question the homosexual lifestyle.

The Australian: Policy Exchange said yesterday that the number of divorces had decreased in The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and South Africa since gay marriage was introduced. It added that while there was a slight rise in Spain it was more likely to be the result of an “express divorce bill” passed in the same year.

Press Association on Google News: Holding a referendum on same-sex marriage would be unfair and a “colossal” waste of taxpayers’ money, according to equality campaigners. The warning comes after the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland said a vote should be held on proposals to legalise gay marriage because of “intense public interest” in the issue.

CBS: An Australian Olympic married couple claims they have been prohibited from sharing a room in the London Olympic Village, even though gay couples are reportedly allowed to do so.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: In a democratic society, politics should be based on the exchange of rational arguments, not on negative campaigning and name-calling. This poster does not present any reasoned arguments in favour of same-sex marriage or gay adoption. Instead, its apparent purpose is to prevent the exchange of rational arguments from taking place and to belittle, marginalise and denigrate those holding different views. Their message is simple: Don’t listen to the arguments of our opponents — they are BAD and IGNORANT people.

Christian Institute: A majority (55 per cent) agree that “marriage should continue to be defined as a life-long exclusive commitment between a man and a woman”. Only 38 per cent disagree.

AP: The Russian government officials arrived with a Moscow television crew in tow at the gates of a ranch for adopted children in remote northwestern Montana and demanded to be let inside.

OnIslam.net: The largest mosque in the Australian state of Victoria has sparked a controversy by calling on Muslim women to encourage husbands to take polygamous wives instead of divorce.

Christian Concern: Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said: “The Archbishop is right that there is no mandate to redefine marriage. It is a political move with consequences that few politicians have yet to engage with. “It will redefine and weaken the institution of marriage itself, it will change what is taught in schools, and it will severely threaten religious freedoms. “The European Court is likely to insist that both homosexual and heterosexual married couples are treated in exactly the same way under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, regardless of any Government safeguards. “Therefore, further down the line, churches may well be forced to host same-sex weddings. This would signal the effective end of religious freedom in the United Kingdom.”

AP: Russia’s parliament on Tuesday ratified a long-awaited agreement with the United States . . .

Telegraph: Christianity is in danger of ‘sliding out of cultural memory’, the Church of England’s head of education has warned, as he unveiled a new drive to use its network of schools to spread the religion.

Christian Institute: A judge has ruled that a gay man can progress with a legal battle against a longstanding blood donation safeguard in Northern Ireland.

Christian Institute: Children who were smacked are more likely to suffer from mental health problems in later life, a controversial study has claimed. But questions have been raised about the study’s methods and the results do not actually provide any evidence that smacking causes mental illness.

Wisconsin Gazette: The ministry, in letters to a series of advocacy groups and agencies, said it is considering the legalization of same-sex marriage because of the increasing number of LGBT families.

LifeSiteNews: Lucas said, “What we have found is that a partnership between corporations and the US government is very powerful. We are working with some NGOs and some corporations on a global LGBT partnership. The corporations are co-funding with the US government these civil society organizations around the world.” USAID is well known for pushing contraception, legalized abortion, and sterilization on developing countries all over the world in its population control programs.

AP: The Church of England on Monday put off a final decision on allowing women to serve as bishops because of continuing disagreements . . .

Canada.com: The nationwide survey commissioned by Postmedia News and Global TV, which examined the state of Canadian values, revealed that a majority would support a law that places limits on when a woman can’t have an abortion, such as during the last trimester of her pregnancy. But support for an outright ban on all abortions is weak.

Australian: A LIBERAL Party branch that could endorse Tony Abbott’s gay sister as a candidate for Sydney lord mayor has written to the Opposition Leader, urging him to allow his MPs and senators a conscience vote on same-sex marriage.

LifeSiteNews: Homosexual activists disrupted a hearing on Thursday in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies on proposed legislation to permit psychologists to treat homosexuals who wish to change their orientation, an activity currently prohibited by the country’s Federal Council of Psychology (CFP).

Iona Institute: The number of stay-at-home mothers is falling by almost 10,000 per annum, despite the steep rise in unemployment figures, according to figures from the 2011 Census.

Stuff.co.nz: France’s new Socialist government is to legalise marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Friday, reflecting a shift in public attitudes in the majority Catholic nation.

BBC: The governor of a US state embroiled in a legal row over gay marriage has urged Scotland’s politicians to give a lead on equality legislation.

Reuters: “Things were much better before the evangelical movement,” said Frank Mugisha, director of the gay rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). He accuses Uganda’s born-again pastors of spreading propaganda, including that homosexuals are “recruiting” young children.

BBC: The number of new UK graduates working in jobs like cleaning or bar work has almost doubled to 10,000 in five years, according to government statistics.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: However, when the Ugandan authorities investigated the case (which probably they would have done even without the gentle exhortations by the European Parliament), it turned out that the murderer of David Kato was not a fanaticized “homophobe”. Instead, he was a male prostitute. A “crime committed on the basis of sexual orientation”? In a certain sense, yes, given that only homosexuals run the risk of being slain by male prostitutes whom they refuse to pay for their services . . .

Christian Concern: A new report has found that children are increasingly being drawn into internet pornography, sending sexual text messages to their friends and even acting out scenes they have seen in pornographic films. The report, released by the charity ‘Family Lives

The Christian Institute: Parents are to be asked whether internet pornography should be automatically blocked on computers, Government ministers have revealed.

NY Times: The policeman spoke with calm and assurance as he insisted that he could not have raped the teenage daughter of a local shepherd, because a mullah had married them just before intercourse.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: Piero Tozzi gave a speech to the World Congress of Families in Madrid in which he discusses how human rights are being used to advance the homosexual agenda and what that means in an international context. Here’s a link to the speech. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can also read the transcript in English.

Catholic Culture: Greek Orthodox officials in Thessalonika decried plans for a Gay Pride march, and encouraged residents to join in protests of the event this past weekend.

LifeSiteNews: The Communist Party of Australia has weighed in on that nation’s debate over marriage, stating that redefining the age-old institution is a vital pillar of the Marxist war against capitalism and the Church.

SciDev.net: The Commission on Science and Technology (CSTD), in collaboration with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), plans to publish a series of case studies highlighting best practice in gender equality policies in science, technology and innovation (STI) of governments around the world.

Telegraph: Christians need to overcome their own feelings of embarrassment, shame and disgust about homosexuality, the Archbishop of Canterbury has insisted.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: . . . the Landgericht Köln (Cologne High Court), found in a recent judgment that the circumcision of a young boy at the request of his parents was an illegal assault against the boy’s bodily integrity, which, in principle, constitutes a punishable crime.

Christian Institute: Over eight million of the Conservative Party’s core supporters are unlikely to back issues such as same-sex marriage marriage, it has been claimed.

Christian Institute: A Labour MSP has vowed to press ahead with new laws to criminalise paying for sex, but her hopes for fast-tracking the proposals have been dashed.

SMH.com: For the first time, Australia’s same-sex couples who describe themselves as “married” have been recorded in census data.

ADF Blog: lmost three years ago today, an unspeakable nightmare befell a loving innocent family simply because they wanted to educate their seven-year-old son from home.

Christian Institute: A safeguard that prevents blood donations from men who have ever had medically risky gay sex will stay in Northern Ireland, the province’s Heath Minister has said.

Telegraph: The Deputy Prime Minister said that laws allowing homosexuals full marriage rights are inevitable, saying the current debate is about “when”, not “if” to make the change.

Elizabeth Marquardt at Family Scholars: The United Nations is apparently atwitter over the fact that more parents — or, let’s be real, single mothers — are abandoning infants in so-called “baby boxes” at hospitals across Europe.

Christian Institute: About 50,000 of the respondents are understood to be opposed to changing the definition of marriage, winning the consultation battle by more than 2:1.

Telegraph: Inspectors have praised infant schools for supporting their cross-dressing students, with children as young as four being labelled as “transgender”.

Telegraph: People who oppose gay marriage are being treated like homophobes and bigots by those who call for tolerance, Lord Carey has said.

LifeSiteNews: Trustees of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board voted this week to ban the distribution of Gideon Bibles in their schools, marking an end to a long tradition of giving grade 5 students, with parental consent, their own copy of the Scriptures.

LifeSiteNews: The U.S.-based Alliance Defense Fund and Home School Legal Defense Alliance are providing legal advice. “The government shouldn’t abduct and imprison children simply because it doesn’t like home schooling,” said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska. “This family’s human rights have been unimaginably violated.”

One News Now: But now, says Roger Kiska of Alliance Defense Fund, the courts have finally sided with the family, stating the unanimous and extensive testimony of friends and family favoring Christer and Annie could not be ignored. “Social services has been evil, to put it in one word,” the attorney tells OneNewsNow . . . “… It’s happening in Germany, it’s now happening in Bulgaria — and when these things happen in Europe, they tend to make their down to the United States rather quickly,” warns Kiska. “There’s been a slew of bad precedent that the United States Supreme Court and state supreme courts have taken from Europe. So I think everyone needs to be aware.” [more]

HSLDA on the Christian Newswire: ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska says the family’s human rights have been unimaginably violated. “The government shouldn’t abduct and imprison children simply because it doesn’t like home schooling,” said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska. “We …

AP: . . . he believes lawmakers will maintain a ban on same-sex marriage when the contentious issue is voted on later this year.

Christian Concern: Professor Ronald Rohner, who conducted the review, stated: “In the US, Great Britain and Europe, we have assumed for the past 300 years that all children need for normal healthy development is a loving relationship with their mother. “And that dads are there as support for the mother and to support the family financially but are not required for the healthy development of the children. “But that belief is fundamentally wrong. We have to start getting away from that idea and realise the dad’s influence is as great, and sometimes greater, than the mother’s.”

Abdul Khaleque and Ronald P. Rohner
Transnational Relations Between Perceived Parental Acceptance and Personality Dispositions of Children and Adults: A Meta-Analytic Review
Pers Soc Psychol Rev May 2012 16: 103-115, first published on September 1, 2011 doi:10.1177/1088868311418986

Christian Institute: Michael Farmer, who has been the Conservative party co-treasurer since March 2012, has given nearly £4 million to the Conservative Party in the past four years.