Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Oct. 24th, 2005 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdUganda outlaws marriage for same-sex couples;
Judiciary Panel May Ask Focus on the Family's James Dobson to Testify;
"High School Cheerleader Quits Over Gay Taunts" - also, there were gangs of male students waiting to beat him up, and no, he's not even actually gay;
Chicago school elects gay and lesbian students as Homecoming King and Queen;
Starbucks to quote religious Christian leader; Concerned Women for America wonk Robert Knight says it's "about time," criticises their "secular worldview";
Christian Century talks about Bush administration push for fundamentalist support for Miers;
Interstate Batteries launches a fundraising campaign for CareNet, an anti-abortion fundamentalist network of "pregnancy centres," apparently similar to "LifeChoices" in the PNW. If they're like "LifeChoices," then they would be using some pretty vile tactics, but I don't know that to be true. Their website mission statement says, "Care Net is a Christian ministry assisting and promoting the evangelistic, pro-life work of pregnancy centers in North America";
CWA launches broadside against pro-stem-cell research initiative in Missouri, attacking it as "pro-cloning," which is apparently going to be the new buzzword for anyone supporting research using embryonic stem-cells;
Denmark paper gets series of threats after publishing "cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed" as a free-speech exercise;
Family Research Council action-item supporting anti-GBLT civil rights state initiative in Maine;
FRC pushes poll showing majority support for anti-marriage amendment in Arizona;
FRC supports anti-obscenity prosecutions, attacks Lawrence v. Texas - the ruling that said you couldn't outlaw gayfolk, overturning the so-called sodomy laws - again as a bad precedent leading to worse things.
----- 1 -----
UGANDA OUTLAWS GAY MARRIAGE
September 30, 2005
http://mambaonline.co.za/news/article.php?uid=814
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed a number of constitutional amendments into law in the East African country, which include a ban on same-sex marriage.
The move reflects an ongoing homophobic conservatism exhibited by many governments on the continent.
The amendment states that "marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman". It also says that "it is unlawful for same-sex couples to marry."
The constitutional amendments also remove term limits on the presidency, allowing Museveni to stand again for president. It is this that has raised the most controversy among opposition parties in the country. The bill also makes provision for Swahili to be recognised as Uganda's second official language.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Judiciary Panel May Ask Dobson to Testify
Evangelical Leader Says He Has Been Privy to Miers's Views
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 24, 2005; A05
Long URL elided
The Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to summon a leading conservative Christian to explain the private assurances he says he received from the White House about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, the committee's chairman said yesterday.
Testimony by Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson would heighten the political and religious overtones of the already-high-stakes confirmation hearing for Miers, scheduled to start two weeks from today.
Dobson is among several evangelical leaders enlisted by the White House to vouch for Miers's conservative credentials among right-leaning groups unhappy with her nomination. He spoke with Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove shortly before President Bush announced the nomination, and later hinted he had received privileged information. "When you know some of the things that I know -- that I probably shouldn't know -- you will understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that Harriet Miers will be a good justice," Dobson said told his national radio audience Oct. 5.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said yesterday that his panel is likely to require Dobson and perhaps others to testify about such purported conversations. Asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" whether the committee will "bring some of these people who said they were told things that perhaps they shouldn't have been told, like Mr. Dobson," Specter replied: "my instinct is that they'll be called. And the American people are entitled to clarification."
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
High School Cheerleader Quits Over Gay Taunts
Platte Valley Junior Says Taunts Have Been Going On For Months
POSTED: 12:43 pm CDT October 19, 2005
UPDATED: 1:01 pm CDT October 19, 2005
http://www.nbc5.com/education/5126072/detail.html
KERSEY, Colo. -- A male cheerleader at Platte Valley High School in Weld County, Colo., has quit because he said he's been taunted by other classmates who called him gay.
Cole Graves said the team's picture was posted last week on the Platte Valley High School Web site with the words "I'M GAY" underneath the two male members of the cheerleading squad.
[...]
Graves said that on Friday, four male students were waiting to beat him up because they thought he was gay.
[...]
"I know I'm not gay," he told the Tribune. "It's probably harder for a person who is gay and has to be called names. I feel so sorry for them."
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Gay Royalty Shares Proud Moment
Suburban Student Body Elects Gay Cheerleader, Jock To Royal Court
POSTED: 1:45 pm CDT October 19, 2005
UPDATED: 3:09 pm CDT October 19, 2005
Long URL elided
CHICAGO -- High school is a time when everyone wants to fit in.
On Tuesday, NBC5's Anna Davlantes introduced viewers to two suburban teenagers who say that fitting in didn't matter when it came time to choosing the school's homecoming king and queen.
[...]
Jen Wohlner and Ryan Cooperman are popular leaders at the school. They're also openly gay, Davlantes said.
So, some people were surprised by what happened in their high school gym a little over a week ago, when the two were chosen as homecoming king and queen.
"The entire gym was completely packed. No one knew who was going to be king or queen," Cooperman said.
Then came the announcement: "I am proud to present to you the homecoming king and queen."
"And they were, like, Ryan Cooperman ... Jen Walner. Everyone exploded. It was just amazing," said a Buffalo Grove student and friend of the royal couple.
So, how is it that a gay student and a lesbian win the biggest high school popularity contest?
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Starbucks to quote Rick Warren
October 23, 2005
United Press International
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20051023-090647-6209r
SEATTLE, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Coffee cups at Starbucks will soon quote the Rev. Rick Warren, but the Seattle-based coffee company denies it is placating religious groups.
Starbucks was criticized last summer by evangelical Christian groups after its coffee cups included a quote from the writer Armistead Maupin saying, "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long."
[...]
"Starbucks has long served up a New Age secular worldview," [Robert Knight] said. "It's about time that they acknowledged that 90 percent of Americans believe in God and that millions of them are Christian."
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Bush courts evangelicals for nominee support
by John Dart
November 01, 2005
The Christian Century
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=1421
Before John Roberts was approved by the U.S. Senate as chief justice, backers of the federal judge, an active Catholic, warned that the nominee should not be put to an unconstitutional "religious test" in evaluations of his suitability. But soon after President Bush on October 3 nominated Harriet Miers, a prominent Texas lawyer and his White House counsel, for another vacancy on the Court, her membership in a pro-life evangelical church in Dallas was cited as a strong sign of her philosophy.
The president's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, lined up support from leading evangelicals such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and the Southern Baptists' Richard Land. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Pat Robertson-founded American Center for Law and Justice, supported Miers, as did Christian right figures Charles Colson and Tony Perkins.
But a number of conservative political commentators, as well as key GOP senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, demurred, voicing disappointment in Miers's inexperience in constitutional law and the lack of a paper trail to gauge her views. Some portrayed Bush's tendency to promote loyal insiders as "cronyism."
By October 10, Concerned Women for America, a large conservative organization based in Washington, announced that it had "learned nothing new that allows us to endorse her." "While we share Miss Miers's evangelical faith," said CWA chief counsel Jan LaRue, "we find the continual emphasis on it by her supporters to be inappropriate and patronizing. It offends the Constitution."
[...]
Issuing a news release reacting to the president's remarks, Patrick Mahoney, director of the conservative Christian Defense Coalition, said, "You cannot have it both ways. Groups and leaders cannot say religion is off limits during the Roberts confirmation and then promote religion during the Miers confirmation for the sole purpose of political gain."
[...]
A longtime friend of Miers, Texas Supreme Court justice Nathan Hecht was encouraged very early by the White House to give interviews about her. Hecht had brought her years ago to Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, where Miers, raised as a Catholic, was baptized.
The congregation identifies itself with Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, a fellowship of independent congregations that—like the mainline Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the conservative Churches of Christ—emerged from the 19th-century restoration movement many called the Campbellites.
The preaching minister at Valley View is Barry McCarty, who has served for 20 years as parliamentarian at annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention. His rulings during fundamentalist-versus-moderate battles often upset moderates.
[...]
Miers herself, however, may be identifying with a group of about 150 members who broke this summer with Valley View to meet as a separate congregation. Her friend Nathan Hecht recently resigned as an elder at Valley View, according to the Dallas Morning News. Miers attended the new group's October 9 service. Asked by a reporter if she was leaving Valley View, she replied simply, "I'm very happy to be here."
That new congregation, which picked Cornerstone Christian Church as its name, is led by Ron Key. He was on the Valley View pastoral staff some 30 years and was its senior pastor the last four.
[...]
Now in the limelight, Miers was found also to have a link to an Episcopal church in Dallas, Church of the Incarnation. She attended its 8:40 a.m. Eucharist October 9 before going to the Valley View breakaway group's Sunday service.
She was accompanied by eight family members. A pew in the chapel is named in honor of Miers's grandparents. "It's no big event," member Harry Winters told the News. "She goes to church here all the time."
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
Interstate Battery’s ‘Charged for Life’ Campaign
10/24/2005
Concerned Women for America
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/9237/CWA/life/index.htm
This week Interstate Batteries launched a campaign to fund Care Net, a network of 900 pregnancy centers across the nation and Canada. Through this campaign, more than half of the proceeds from the sale of batteries, car, boat, camera, power tool, AAA, AA, 9-volt, and hearing aid batteries, will go to the ministry. Care Net spokeswoman Kristin Hansen tells us that the campaign was kicked off this weekend at NASCAR’s Subway 500 in Martinsville, VA. There, the hood of Bobby Labonte’s #18 car featured the Care Net/Interstate Batteries/’Charged for Life’ logo. Click here to listen.
For more information:
Joe Gibbs Racing
www.Care-Net.org
Interstate Batteries
Again, if you would like to participate, contact your local CareNet pregnancy center for an order form. You can also order online and place the word “CareNet” in the coupon code box. Proceeds from online sales support CareNet’s national office.
----- 8 -----
Missouri Stem-Cell Initiative Permits All Cloning
Poses the state's greatest threat to the sanctity of early human life.
10/24/2005
By Mary E. Traeger
Concerned Women for America
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=9235&department=CWA&categoryid=life
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. – James 4:17
The new Missouri constitutional proposal coming from pro-cloning advocates is by far the greatest threat to the sanctity of early human life that we have faced in Missouri. The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures has been formed to tie the hands of the citizens and the Missouri Legislature from regulating or banning human cloning or embryonic stem-cell research. The Coalition’s initiative is called the "Missouri Stem-cell Research and Cures Initiative."
The language emanating from this Coalition blurs the facts of when life begins and obscures the meaning of human cloning. This well-financed group of biotech interests and private individuals plans to gather 150,000 signatures on petitions to amend the Missouri Constitution. They mean to place a referendum on the 2006 Missouri ballot to keep all human stem-cell research "permitted by federal law" allowable in Missouri, regardless of the funding source. This is an unprecedented, over-the-top endeavor by the biotech industry to shield itself from moral or legal restrictions and would provide permission to ignore universal ethical codes that protect humans from dangerous experimentation.
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
Holy war against newspaper
By The Copenhagen Post
http://www.jp.dk/english_news/artikel:aid=3334090/
Internet collages threatening Denmark and daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten with death and retribution have begun circulating on the internet after the newspaper published caricatures of Muslim prophet Mohammed
Bombs exploding over pictures of Danish daily Jyllands-Posten and blood flowing over the national flag and a map of Denmark are among the images circulating on the internet after the newspaper printed twelve cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed last month.
Daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported that the internet collages, posted in the name of an unknown organisation calling itself 'The Glory Brigades in Northern Europe', showed pictures of various tourist attractions in Denmark and stated that 'The Mujahedeen have numerous targets in Denmark - very soon you all will regret this', amongst other things.
Another picture showed soldiers, armed with bombs, over a map of Denmark, with blood spattered over parts of the country.
The front page of Jyllands-Posten featured prominently on many of the four collages. The newspaper has been criticised by Muslims for printing the cartoons, and was forced to hire security guards after receiving hate mail and death threats over the telephone.
The newspaper asked illustrators to make the cartoons after reports that artists were reluctant to illustrate a book on Mohammed for fear of Muslim retribution. The daily's editors said the cartoons were a test of whether the threat of Islamic terrorism had limited the freedom of expression in Denmark.
The Glory Brigades have similarities with another internet group calling itself 'Al-Queda's Chapter in Northern Europe', which has also posted threats against Northern European countries and praised the London bombings in July.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Reject Special Rights Based on Sexual Orientation
October 24, 2005 - Monday
Maine (more on this state)
Forward to a Friend!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL05J09&f=PG03I03
As concerned citizens of the state of Maine, it is extremely important that you oppose this new law granting protections to people based on "sexual orientation" that is on the November 8th Referendum Ballot.
Governor Baldacci knew the people of Maine had voted twice in seven years to repeal pro-gay special rights. By voting YES to reject his attempt to single-handedly overrule you the people, you will help restore the proper balance of power in Augusta.
What you're voting on:
You're voting to REPEAL (reject) the law passed by Governor Baldacci and the Maine Legislature arbitrarily assigning minority class status to homosexual and bi-sexual behavior.
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
New Poll: Support for Arizona Marriage Amendment High
Issue No.: 22
by: Charmaine Yoest
Family Research Council
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=CU05J19&f=PG03I03
The Arizona Republic has released a poll which shows a significant margin of support for the Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment. Support for the amendment is at 57 percent, with only 37 opposing and another 6 percent undecided.
The text of the amendment reads in part:
. . .ONLY A UNION BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN SHALL BE VALID OR RECOGNIZED AS A MARRIAGE BY THIS STATE. . .AND NO LEGAL STATUS FOR UNMARRIED PERSONS SHALL BE CREATED OR RECOGNIZED BY THIS STATE . . .THAT IS SIMILAR TO THAT OF MARRIAGE. . .
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
FRC Supports Obscenity Laws
October 21, 2005 - Friday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 21, 2005 CONTACT: Amber Hildebrand, (202) 393-2100
FOR RADIO: J.P. Duffy
Family Research Council
Pat Trueman, Senior Legal Counsel for Family Research Council, Encourages Tough, Constitutional Boundaries on Obscenity
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR05J07&f=PG03I03
Washington, D.C. - Pornography distributors argued their case before a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. California-based Extreme Associates Inc. and its owners, Robert Zicari and his wife Janet Romano, had been indicted for distributing videos that depicted women being raped and having their throats slit.
United States Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan obtained an indictment against the company for violating federal law, but U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster dismissed the indictment. Under federal law, an individual may view obscenity in the privacy of their home, but may not distribute obscene material in interstate commerce, as the defendants in this case did. Judge Lancaster, however, found the federal obscenity laws unconstitutional as applied in this case. Ms. Buchanan brought an appeal. A decision is not expected for several months.
Patrick Trueman, senior legal counsel for the Family Research Council released the following statement:
"The lower court's ruling that dismissed the indictment was without any basis in law. Judge Lancaster appears to be another activist federal judge who thinks he has the power to fashion law to his liking. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld federal obscenity laws and has given no indication that it will change its position on the matter."
"Judge Lancaster's ruling relies on Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, which held state consensual sodomy laws unconstitutional, in part because they are based on morality. Judge Lancaster's opinion citing freely from the Lawrence case indicates that morality is no basis for law. One can only imagine what our country will look like if all laws based on morality are held unconstitutional."
Patrick Trueman is the former head of the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity section from 1987 through 1992.
Judiciary Panel May Ask Focus on the Family's James Dobson to Testify;
"High School Cheerleader Quits Over Gay Taunts" - also, there were gangs of male students waiting to beat him up, and no, he's not even actually gay;
Chicago school elects gay and lesbian students as Homecoming King and Queen;
Starbucks to quote religious Christian leader; Concerned Women for America wonk Robert Knight says it's "about time," criticises their "secular worldview";
Christian Century talks about Bush administration push for fundamentalist support for Miers;
Interstate Batteries launches a fundraising campaign for CareNet, an anti-abortion fundamentalist network of "pregnancy centres," apparently similar to "LifeChoices" in the PNW. If they're like "LifeChoices," then they would be using some pretty vile tactics, but I don't know that to be true. Their website mission statement says, "Care Net is a Christian ministry assisting and promoting the evangelistic, pro-life work of pregnancy centers in North America";
CWA launches broadside against pro-stem-cell research initiative in Missouri, attacking it as "pro-cloning," which is apparently going to be the new buzzword for anyone supporting research using embryonic stem-cells;
Denmark paper gets series of threats after publishing "cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed" as a free-speech exercise;
Family Research Council action-item supporting anti-GBLT civil rights state initiative in Maine;
FRC pushes poll showing majority support for anti-marriage amendment in Arizona;
FRC supports anti-obscenity prosecutions, attacks Lawrence v. Texas - the ruling that said you couldn't outlaw gayfolk, overturning the so-called sodomy laws - again as a bad precedent leading to worse things.
----- 1 -----
UGANDA OUTLAWS GAY MARRIAGE
September 30, 2005
http://mambaonline.co.za/news/article.php?uid=814
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed a number of constitutional amendments into law in the East African country, which include a ban on same-sex marriage.
The move reflects an ongoing homophobic conservatism exhibited by many governments on the continent.
The amendment states that "marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman". It also says that "it is unlawful for same-sex couples to marry."
The constitutional amendments also remove term limits on the presidency, allowing Museveni to stand again for president. It is this that has raised the most controversy among opposition parties in the country. The bill also makes provision for Swahili to be recognised as Uganda's second official language.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Judiciary Panel May Ask Dobson to Testify
Evangelical Leader Says He Has Been Privy to Miers's Views
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 24, 2005; A05
Long URL elided
The Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to summon a leading conservative Christian to explain the private assurances he says he received from the White House about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, the committee's chairman said yesterday.
Testimony by Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson would heighten the political and religious overtones of the already-high-stakes confirmation hearing for Miers, scheduled to start two weeks from today.
Dobson is among several evangelical leaders enlisted by the White House to vouch for Miers's conservative credentials among right-leaning groups unhappy with her nomination. He spoke with Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove shortly before President Bush announced the nomination, and later hinted he had received privileged information. "When you know some of the things that I know -- that I probably shouldn't know -- you will understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that Harriet Miers will be a good justice," Dobson said told his national radio audience Oct. 5.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said yesterday that his panel is likely to require Dobson and perhaps others to testify about such purported conversations. Asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" whether the committee will "bring some of these people who said they were told things that perhaps they shouldn't have been told, like Mr. Dobson," Specter replied: "my instinct is that they'll be called. And the American people are entitled to clarification."
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
High School Cheerleader Quits Over Gay Taunts
Platte Valley Junior Says Taunts Have Been Going On For Months
POSTED: 12:43 pm CDT October 19, 2005
UPDATED: 1:01 pm CDT October 19, 2005
http://www.nbc5.com/education/5126072/detail.html
KERSEY, Colo. -- A male cheerleader at Platte Valley High School in Weld County, Colo., has quit because he said he's been taunted by other classmates who called him gay.
Cole Graves said the team's picture was posted last week on the Platte Valley High School Web site with the words "I'M GAY" underneath the two male members of the cheerleading squad.
[...]
Graves said that on Friday, four male students were waiting to beat him up because they thought he was gay.
[...]
"I know I'm not gay," he told the Tribune. "It's probably harder for a person who is gay and has to be called names. I feel so sorry for them."
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Gay Royalty Shares Proud Moment
Suburban Student Body Elects Gay Cheerleader, Jock To Royal Court
POSTED: 1:45 pm CDT October 19, 2005
UPDATED: 3:09 pm CDT October 19, 2005
Long URL elided
CHICAGO -- High school is a time when everyone wants to fit in.
On Tuesday, NBC5's Anna Davlantes introduced viewers to two suburban teenagers who say that fitting in didn't matter when it came time to choosing the school's homecoming king and queen.
[...]
Jen Wohlner and Ryan Cooperman are popular leaders at the school. They're also openly gay, Davlantes said.
So, some people were surprised by what happened in their high school gym a little over a week ago, when the two were chosen as homecoming king and queen.
"The entire gym was completely packed. No one knew who was going to be king or queen," Cooperman said.
Then came the announcement: "I am proud to present to you the homecoming king and queen."
"And they were, like, Ryan Cooperman ... Jen Walner. Everyone exploded. It was just amazing," said a Buffalo Grove student and friend of the royal couple.
So, how is it that a gay student and a lesbian win the biggest high school popularity contest?
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Starbucks to quote Rick Warren
October 23, 2005
United Press International
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20051023-090647-6209r
SEATTLE, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Coffee cups at Starbucks will soon quote the Rev. Rick Warren, but the Seattle-based coffee company denies it is placating religious groups.
Starbucks was criticized last summer by evangelical Christian groups after its coffee cups included a quote from the writer Armistead Maupin saying, "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long."
[...]
"Starbucks has long served up a New Age secular worldview," [Robert Knight] said. "It's about time that they acknowledged that 90 percent of Americans believe in God and that millions of them are Christian."
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Bush courts evangelicals for nominee support
by John Dart
November 01, 2005
The Christian Century
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=1421
Before John Roberts was approved by the U.S. Senate as chief justice, backers of the federal judge, an active Catholic, warned that the nominee should not be put to an unconstitutional "religious test" in evaluations of his suitability. But soon after President Bush on October 3 nominated Harriet Miers, a prominent Texas lawyer and his White House counsel, for another vacancy on the Court, her membership in a pro-life evangelical church in Dallas was cited as a strong sign of her philosophy.
The president's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, lined up support from leading evangelicals such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and the Southern Baptists' Richard Land. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Pat Robertson-founded American Center for Law and Justice, supported Miers, as did Christian right figures Charles Colson and Tony Perkins.
But a number of conservative political commentators, as well as key GOP senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, demurred, voicing disappointment in Miers's inexperience in constitutional law and the lack of a paper trail to gauge her views. Some portrayed Bush's tendency to promote loyal insiders as "cronyism."
By October 10, Concerned Women for America, a large conservative organization based in Washington, announced that it had "learned nothing new that allows us to endorse her." "While we share Miss Miers's evangelical faith," said CWA chief counsel Jan LaRue, "we find the continual emphasis on it by her supporters to be inappropriate and patronizing. It offends the Constitution."
[...]
Issuing a news release reacting to the president's remarks, Patrick Mahoney, director of the conservative Christian Defense Coalition, said, "You cannot have it both ways. Groups and leaders cannot say religion is off limits during the Roberts confirmation and then promote religion during the Miers confirmation for the sole purpose of political gain."
[...]
A longtime friend of Miers, Texas Supreme Court justice Nathan Hecht was encouraged very early by the White House to give interviews about her. Hecht had brought her years ago to Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, where Miers, raised as a Catholic, was baptized.
The congregation identifies itself with Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, a fellowship of independent congregations that—like the mainline Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the conservative Churches of Christ—emerged from the 19th-century restoration movement many called the Campbellites.
The preaching minister at Valley View is Barry McCarty, who has served for 20 years as parliamentarian at annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention. His rulings during fundamentalist-versus-moderate battles often upset moderates.
[...]
Miers herself, however, may be identifying with a group of about 150 members who broke this summer with Valley View to meet as a separate congregation. Her friend Nathan Hecht recently resigned as an elder at Valley View, according to the Dallas Morning News. Miers attended the new group's October 9 service. Asked by a reporter if she was leaving Valley View, she replied simply, "I'm very happy to be here."
That new congregation, which picked Cornerstone Christian Church as its name, is led by Ron Key. He was on the Valley View pastoral staff some 30 years and was its senior pastor the last four.
[...]
Now in the limelight, Miers was found also to have a link to an Episcopal church in Dallas, Church of the Incarnation. She attended its 8:40 a.m. Eucharist October 9 before going to the Valley View breakaway group's Sunday service.
She was accompanied by eight family members. A pew in the chapel is named in honor of Miers's grandparents. "It's no big event," member Harry Winters told the News. "She goes to church here all the time."
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
Interstate Battery’s ‘Charged for Life’ Campaign
10/24/2005
Concerned Women for America
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/9237/CWA/life/index.htm
This week Interstate Batteries launched a campaign to fund Care Net, a network of 900 pregnancy centers across the nation and Canada. Through this campaign, more than half of the proceeds from the sale of batteries, car, boat, camera, power tool, AAA, AA, 9-volt, and hearing aid batteries, will go to the ministry. Care Net spokeswoman Kristin Hansen tells us that the campaign was kicked off this weekend at NASCAR’s Subway 500 in Martinsville, VA. There, the hood of Bobby Labonte’s #18 car featured the Care Net/Interstate Batteries/’Charged for Life’ logo. Click here to listen.
For more information:
Joe Gibbs Racing
www.Care-Net.org
Interstate Batteries
Again, if you would like to participate, contact your local CareNet pregnancy center for an order form. You can also order online and place the word “CareNet” in the coupon code box. Proceeds from online sales support CareNet’s national office.
----- 8 -----
Missouri Stem-Cell Initiative Permits All Cloning
Poses the state's greatest threat to the sanctity of early human life.
10/24/2005
By Mary E. Traeger
Concerned Women for America
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=9235&department=CWA&categoryid=life
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. – James 4:17
The new Missouri constitutional proposal coming from pro-cloning advocates is by far the greatest threat to the sanctity of early human life that we have faced in Missouri. The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures has been formed to tie the hands of the citizens and the Missouri Legislature from regulating or banning human cloning or embryonic stem-cell research. The Coalition’s initiative is called the "Missouri Stem-cell Research and Cures Initiative."
The language emanating from this Coalition blurs the facts of when life begins and obscures the meaning of human cloning. This well-financed group of biotech interests and private individuals plans to gather 150,000 signatures on petitions to amend the Missouri Constitution. They mean to place a referendum on the 2006 Missouri ballot to keep all human stem-cell research "permitted by federal law" allowable in Missouri, regardless of the funding source. This is an unprecedented, over-the-top endeavor by the biotech industry to shield itself from moral or legal restrictions and would provide permission to ignore universal ethical codes that protect humans from dangerous experimentation.
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
Holy war against newspaper
By The Copenhagen Post
http://www.jp.dk/english_news/artikel:aid=3334090/
Internet collages threatening Denmark and daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten with death and retribution have begun circulating on the internet after the newspaper published caricatures of Muslim prophet Mohammed
Bombs exploding over pictures of Danish daily Jyllands-Posten and blood flowing over the national flag and a map of Denmark are among the images circulating on the internet after the newspaper printed twelve cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed last month.
Daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported that the internet collages, posted in the name of an unknown organisation calling itself 'The Glory Brigades in Northern Europe', showed pictures of various tourist attractions in Denmark and stated that 'The Mujahedeen have numerous targets in Denmark - very soon you all will regret this', amongst other things.
Another picture showed soldiers, armed with bombs, over a map of Denmark, with blood spattered over parts of the country.
The front page of Jyllands-Posten featured prominently on many of the four collages. The newspaper has been criticised by Muslims for printing the cartoons, and was forced to hire security guards after receiving hate mail and death threats over the telephone.
The newspaper asked illustrators to make the cartoons after reports that artists were reluctant to illustrate a book on Mohammed for fear of Muslim retribution. The daily's editors said the cartoons were a test of whether the threat of Islamic terrorism had limited the freedom of expression in Denmark.
The Glory Brigades have similarities with another internet group calling itself 'Al-Queda's Chapter in Northern Europe', which has also posted threats against Northern European countries and praised the London bombings in July.
[More at URL]
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Reject Special Rights Based on Sexual Orientation
October 24, 2005 - Monday
Maine (more on this state)
Forward to a Friend!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL05J09&f=PG03I03
As concerned citizens of the state of Maine, it is extremely important that you oppose this new law granting protections to people based on "sexual orientation" that is on the November 8th Referendum Ballot.
Governor Baldacci knew the people of Maine had voted twice in seven years to repeal pro-gay special rights. By voting YES to reject his attempt to single-handedly overrule you the people, you will help restore the proper balance of power in Augusta.
What you're voting on:
You're voting to REPEAL (reject) the law passed by Governor Baldacci and the Maine Legislature arbitrarily assigning minority class status to homosexual and bi-sexual behavior.
[More at URL]
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New Poll: Support for Arizona Marriage Amendment High
Issue No.: 22
by: Charmaine Yoest
Family Research Council
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=CU05J19&f=PG03I03
The Arizona Republic has released a poll which shows a significant margin of support for the Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment. Support for the amendment is at 57 percent, with only 37 opposing and another 6 percent undecided.
The text of the amendment reads in part:
. . .ONLY A UNION BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN SHALL BE VALID OR RECOGNIZED AS A MARRIAGE BY THIS STATE. . .AND NO LEGAL STATUS FOR UNMARRIED PERSONS SHALL BE CREATED OR RECOGNIZED BY THIS STATE . . .THAT IS SIMILAR TO THAT OF MARRIAGE. . .
[More at URL]
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FRC Supports Obscenity Laws
October 21, 2005 - Friday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 21, 2005 CONTACT: Amber Hildebrand, (202) 393-2100
FOR RADIO: J.P. Duffy
Family Research Council
Pat Trueman, Senior Legal Counsel for Family Research Council, Encourages Tough, Constitutional Boundaries on Obscenity
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR05J07&f=PG03I03
Washington, D.C. - Pornography distributors argued their case before a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. California-based Extreme Associates Inc. and its owners, Robert Zicari and his wife Janet Romano, had been indicted for distributing videos that depicted women being raped and having their throats slit.
United States Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan obtained an indictment against the company for violating federal law, but U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster dismissed the indictment. Under federal law, an individual may view obscenity in the privacy of their home, but may not distribute obscene material in interstate commerce, as the defendants in this case did. Judge Lancaster, however, found the federal obscenity laws unconstitutional as applied in this case. Ms. Buchanan brought an appeal. A decision is not expected for several months.
Patrick Trueman, senior legal counsel for the Family Research Council released the following statement:
"The lower court's ruling that dismissed the indictment was without any basis in law. Judge Lancaster appears to be another activist federal judge who thinks he has the power to fashion law to his liking. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld federal obscenity laws and has given no indication that it will change its position on the matter."
"Judge Lancaster's ruling relies on Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, which held state consensual sodomy laws unconstitutional, in part because they are based on morality. Judge Lancaster's opinion citing freely from the Lawrence case indicates that morality is no basis for law. One can only imagine what our country will look like if all laws based on morality are held unconstitutional."
Patrick Trueman is the former head of the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity section from 1987 through 1992.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 09:07 pm (UTC)This was in the 90s, so they may not be as bad anymore. But the goal was to grab people who might go to Planned Parenthood and subject them to fundamentalist anti-abortion activism, up-close and personal.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 09:37 pm (UTC)So much for the 'religion of peace'. Did you hear that piggy banks are getting banned in England? Have to make those folks happy before they cut your head off or blow something up after all.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-25 04:11 am (UTC)Notice that all throughout England right now, Government offics are starting to ban any thing pig related, even pictures. I didn't see any government action to stop that, did you?
no subject
Date: 2005-10-25 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-25 04:39 pm (UTC)Council offices are local government offices in England.
Muslims angry at plan to bring back historic statue of wild pig (http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/001320.php)
There's more, just do some searches. The top two were buzzing in the English press recently.
Not to argue, but...
Date: 2005-10-25 04:59 pm (UTC)The second is over a year old (published in March 2004).
I just have not seen much on this, although admittidly I do not follow the British press.
Re: Not to argue, but...
Date: 2005-10-25 05:08 pm (UTC)Also check out South East Asia and the likes. Buddist Monks for example are being machine gunned or Macheted to death with daily regularity my muslims, who are not tolerant of any other faith and kill unbelievers there with regularity (and as the governments are Muslim friendly, or run, a blind eye is turned to this behavior, or it is even encouraged).
It's only a matter of time until these practices start here in the USA, look at the lawsuit the FBI filed two weeks ago due to the preaching of anti-American hate in all American mosques that was being funded by our 'friends' in Saudi Arabia. And then remember that good muslims also believe that women are property, gays should be killed, and lying to unbelievers is often necessary.
Re: Not to argue, but...
Date: 2005-10-25 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-25 11:50 pm (UTC)And plans to rebuild the Florentine Boar statue are going ahead after 2000 residents around the park signed a petition in favor of it.
So all over Britain bureaucratic busy-bodies are trying to ban pigs, but not succeeding. No doubt the banks will change their minds about the piggy banks in a few weeks.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-25 04:27 am (UTC)I had this brilliant idea once of having people carry video footage of themselves having het sex in case they needed to prove anything. It's no stupider than these homophobes...