Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Mar. 17th, 2006 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdIt's kind of amazing that this didn't get picked up last week, but that's what happen when things come out on Friday: Sandra Day O'Connor rips into the largely-theoconservative-prompted attacks on the court system in no uncertain terms. This story should not be ignored. So, of course, I'm getting to it on a Friday. Well, foo. But still, pay attention.
Canadians may want to note that the Canada Family Action Coalition has started pushing the "birth control causes cancer, and by the way, so does abortion" line, and the Canadian Cancer Society is COVERING UP THE TRUTH in order to make more money by treating cancer than preventing it; I don't know whether this is new up there, but it's a long-time tactic in the US.
And now, today's news;
Faith and Freedom Network declares religious supporters of GBLT rights to be "heretics";
***** Sandra Day O'Connor, now retired, slams attacks on court system and the independence of the judiciary; "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings";
Focus on the Family applauds FCC fines for indecency, stating that they are sending a "message"; includes ACTION ITEM to thank FCC, and links on the FCC's new one-page webform for submitting indecency complaints; Penny Nance, special adviser to the FCC, talked to FotF about it, encouraging complaints;
FofF says that polygamy isn't really supported by the BIble, despite the religious nature of the groups suing for it; it's just a "cultural phenomenon adopted by some leaders in ancient Israel;" then they go ahead and blame gays anyway;
***** Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM in Washington State to support anti-marriage/anti-GBLT-rights "Prayer Rallies" and volunteer to work on the anti-gay initiative of Tim Eyman's (tho' they don't use his name);
FotF talks about a recent Supreme Court decision as being a big victory for fundamentalist forces, also talks about how conventional wisdom that you need health exemptions in abortion bans is (in their mind) wrong;
FotF condemns attempt in Colorado to make Plan B available without a prescription;
Concerned Women for America's latest hatefest against Dr. Alfred Kinsey (of the Kinsey Report, which they have always hated and still hate);
Some immigrants are using Great Britain's civil unions law to ease immigration - setting up temporary civil unions in the same way that people have been setting up marriages of convenience for years; but, of course, this means civil unions must be banned;
CWA reprints editorial condemning no-fault divorce in New York State;
CWA attacks health record of RU-486, demands it be pulled immediately from the market;
Poll: South Dakotans overwhelmingly oppose abortion ban as passed by the state legislature;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to demand that HIV+ Gay Games participants be banned from entry to the US; demands that Homeland Security be used to keep people out; "Human lives are at stake";
American Family Association condemns Virginia school board that refuses to ban Gay-Straight Alliance clubs; the ban would be in defiance of the equal-access rules fundamentalists won at the Supreme Court to ensure that religious clubs couldn't be turned away, demonstrating again that it has nothing to do with "judicial activism" and has everything to do with "no fags" and "Christians only";
***** AFA reports and supports Canadian fundamentalist demands that a student newspaper be shut down and all editors fired over their decision to print blasphemous cartoons of Jesus; insists this is "cannot be compared" to Muslim reaction to blasphemous cartoons of Mohammed; funny, I can make that comparison just fine;
AFA supports Oklahoma bill to remove all material containing GBLT-related themes from public spaces in libraries; also any material that is "sexually explicit";
Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney introduces bill to exempt Catholic Charities' adoption services from state civil rights law - specifically, to allow them to refuse to place children with gay and lesbian married couples;
American Family Association ACTION ITEM to thank FCC for fining CBS $3.6M;
Canada Family Action Coalition opens branches in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in Ontario;
Canada Family Action Coalition: birth control, abortion both cause cancer; Canadian Cancer Society disagrees; CFAC accuses them of covering up The Truth to make more money by treating cancer than preventing it; I don't know whether this is new for Canadians, but this has been a standard canard in the US for at least a couple of decades;
Faith and Freedom Network blogs against the Freedom Ride, the Soulforce effort going to religious colleges which ban GBLT students; they seem to have lifted this a lot from previous articles excerpted here in Cultural Warfare Updates, only without giving credit;
"Sound The Alarm," the anti-GBLT website pushing Referendum 65 and the statewide anti-gay "Prayer Rallies" has a vision statement up; it condemns marriage rights, abortion, divorce, and television content; on the "Strategy" page (one click away) they're trying to build up a network of pastors to participate in the various anti-gay, anti-etc activities they want to pursue; they're co-ordinating with Faith and Freedom Network which will send out their action items;
New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade chairman compares gays to neo-Nazis (thanks,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nihilistic_kid);
Iraqi cleric Sistani on gay and lesbian people: "The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing" (thanks, Andrew);
Focus on the Family claims victory over DefCon ads, but they're still sending out another ACTION ITEM to complain to DefCon;
FotF's James Dobson to be speaker at "Values Voters" summit - an anti-gay marriage amendment is nr. 1 on the agenda;
FotF ACTION ITEM to its membership to support an Illinois petition drive to get an anti-marriage-rights amendment on the ballot;
Kansas changes sex education classes to be opt-in-with-parental-permission-only;
Utah governor signs bill requiring written parental permission before abortion;
Kansas fundamentalist groups asking for tighter parental-notification laws, identification of father, other details.
----- 1 -----
Answering “The Religious Coalition for Equality”
Faith and Freedom Network
Thursday, March 16, 2006
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/03/answering-religious-coalition-for.html
“Religious” people supporting gay rights remind me of penguins as birds. They don’t fly.
They don’t fly biblically. "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination" (Leviticus 18:22).
"If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them" (Leviticus 20:13).
"For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error" (Romans 1:26-27).
[...]
Liberals and heretics say Jesus did not condemn homosexuals, not even mentioning the subject. (The implication is that homosexuality must therefore be acceptable.)
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Retired Supreme Court Justice hits attacks on courts and warns of dictatorship
RAW STORY
Published: March 10, 2006
Long URL elided
Via NPR. Rush transcript by RAW STORY. Listen to the audio report here.
Supreme Court justices keep many opinions private but Sandra Day O’Connor no longer faces that obligation. Yesterday, the retired justice criticized Republicans who criticized the courts. She said they challenge the independence of judges and the freedoms of all Americans. O’Connor’s speech at Georgetown University was not available for broadcast but NPR’s legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg was there.
Nina Totenberg: In an unusually forceful and forthright speech, O’Connor said that attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms. O’Connor began by conceding that courts do have the power to make presidents or the Congress or governors, as she put it “really, really angry.” But, she continued, if we don’t make them mad some of the time we probably aren’t doing our jobs as judges, and our effectiveness, she said, is premised on the notion that we won’t be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts. The nation’s founders wrote repeatedly, she said, that without an independent judiciary to protect individual rights from the other branches of government those rights and privileges would amount to nothing. But, said O’Connor, as the founding fathers knew statutes and constitutions don’t protect judicial independence, people do.
[More at URLs]
----- 3 -----
FCC SENDS MESSAGE TO BROADCASTERS ON INDECENCY
Regulator levies a multimillion-dollar fine.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 16, 2006
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039872.cfm
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced
Wednesday it was levying nearly $4 million in fines for
indecency on broadcast TV. The amount is a record-setter.
Altogether, the commission resolved more than 300,000
complaints -- and cited more than 50 programs -- for
instances of indecency from 2002 to 2005.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was unapologetic for the
vigorous enforcement.
[...]
"(This) action was just the first in what will, hopefully,
be many actions taken by the FCC against indecency," PTC
Director of Corporate and Government Affairs Dan Isett
told CitizenLink. "It certainly constitutes an assertive
enforcement of the law."
[...]
Hardest hit was CBS -- whose crime drama "Without a Trace"
aired an episode depicting a teen orgy. More than $3
million in fines was levied against Viacom -- the parent
company of CBS.
[...]
Penny Nance, special adviser to the FCC, told CitizenLink
the commission is authorized to enforce indecency laws
over broadcast television between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. --
and the chairman takes that responsibility very seriously.
To streamline the process, he has even instituted a new
system for dealing with complaints.
"The chairman set up on the FCC Web site a one-page
complaint form that enables your readers to, in a couple
of minutes, describe what they saw that they found
offensive, that hurt their families and, with just a click
of a mouse, respond to the FCC."
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Please take time to thank the commissioners
for vigorously enforcing the broadcast indecency law. You
may e-mail all of them at once through the CitizenLink
Action Center.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/issues/alert/?alertid=8588731&type=CU
You may find the FCC's online indecency complaint form
here:
http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475B.cfm
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Polygamists Attempt to Leverage Gay Court Victories
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 16, 2006
from staff reports
SUMMARY: Rulings on same-sex marriage may have unintended
consequences.
Some polygamy-rights groups want the practice of marrying
multiple people decriminalized and are trying to leverage
court decisions that granted privacy rights to homosexuals
to advance their agenda.
Mark Henkel is part of one group that describes itself as
an "organization of Christian polygamists."
"We're a cross-denominational para-church effort," he
said, "supporting both individuals and pastors that come
to this realization that the Bible does not support the
Catholic invention of one man/one woman as a doctrine."
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Sounding the Alarm in Washington State
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 16, 2006
by Mona Passignano, state issues analyst
SUMMARY: Christians urged to defend the family through
prayer rallies.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/statenews/a0039868.cfm
Sound the Alarm -- a network of pastors across the state
of Washington -- invites you to join in prayer for the
state and the nation. According to Executive Director
Jacinta Tegman, the group was "formed to call the pastors
and churches of Washington state to prayer, repentance and
united action."
With the passage earlier this year of a state law granting
protected, special-class status to homosexuals and the
impending Washington Supreme Court decision on same-sex
marriage, she said it is clear the Church must rise up
now. Tegman said those circumstances "compel us to call
the pastors and churches of Washington State to regional
interdenominational prayer rallies."
Sound the Alarm is calling for Christians to come together
and pray for revival. The Rev. H.B. London -- vice
president of church, clergy and medical review at Focus on
the Family -- said he believes "the preservation of the
family in Washington depends on all of us. Together we can
advance the cause of righteousness and claim victory in
the battle to which the Lord calls us."
Rallies will be held at the following locations:
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Please consider attending a prayer rally near
you. Also, if you are a pastor in Washington state, ask
your congregation to attend one of the Sound the Alarm
rallies being held in your area.
For more information, visit the Sound the Alarm Web site
or call at (425) 771-5247.
http://www.soundthealarm.com
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
COMMENTARY: OVERRULING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
The Ayotte case impacted abortion law more than you might think.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
by Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst
March 16, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0039870.cfm
On its surface, January's decision in the New Hampshire
parental-notification case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood,
failed to deliver anything new on the pro-life front, as
the Supreme Court merely sent the case back down to the
lower federal courts for further consideration. After all,
Justice O'Connor emphatically stated in the opening
sentence of the Court's unanimous opinion: "We do not
revisit our abortion precedents today . . ."
So was it just another disappointing victory for precedent
and Roe v. Wade?
The answer is "no," and the reason has nothing to do with
precedent, but everything to do with conventional wisdom.
Much was made of the significance of Supreme Court
precedent at the recent Alito and Roberts confirmation
hearings. "Precedent" is, simply put, a prior court
decision. Judges usually adhere (with certain exceptions)
to the holdings of prior cases of their own court or
courts of higher rank when deciding similar cases. This
adherence promotes continuity and predictability in the
law, which is a good thing.
[...]
For, example, conventional wisdom for a long time held
that abortion regulations had to contain a "health
exception" in order to be constitutional. (A health
exception provides that the statute would not apply in
situations where the health of the mother is endangered.)
State lawmakers learned the hard lesson that if an
abortion regulation could be avoided by an abortionist for
a "health" reason such as the emotional state of the
would-be mother, then all abortion regulation could be
sidestepped and the legislative goal of reducing abortions
would be frustrated. Legislative attempts to leave out a
health exception usually ended up on the wrong end of a
court opinion. When the Supreme Court swatted down
Nebraska's partial-birth abortion ban in 2000 because of
the lack of a health exception, the conventional wisdom
was reinforced.
----- 7 -----
Colorado Legislators Consider Emergency-Contraception Bill
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 16, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Lawmakers in Colorado are considering legislation that
would make it possible to obtain the "morning-after" pill
without a doctor's prescription, The Associated Press
reported.
The Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee
approved the bill Wednesday along partisan lines -- four
Democrats voted in favor, three Republicans against.
Susan Wood, former women's health director for the Food
and Drug Administration, told lawmakers the federal
government has "turned its back on the health of women,"
because it has not made the drug available over the
counter. It's up to individual states, she said, to
legalize the drug.
"If you support women's access to regular birth-control
pills," she said, "then you should support women's access
to emergency contraception."
Critics of the drug, called Plan B, say the hormone
doesn't just prevent an unwanted pregnancy. It can
sometimes keep a fertilized egg from implanting in the
uterus -- essentially an early abortion.
Diane Foley, a pediatrician and adolescent gynecologist in
Colorado Springs, said that isn't the only issue. If teens
don't have to see a doctor in order to access Plan B, it's
likely to increase sexual activity and lead to a higher
instance of sexually-transmitted disease.
----- 8 -----
Kinsey’s Consequences
Concerned Women for America
3/17/2006
By Judy Smith
America has become the unsuspecting victim of his sexual revolution bomb.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10334/CWA/family/index.htm
Before launching into his “research” on human sexuality, Dr. Alfred Kinsey was a confirmed atheist, eugenicist and evolutionist who believed that “religious-based,” “ancient taboos” were to blame for America’s supposedly repressive sexual attitudes and resulting social disorder. The unsuspecting victim of Kinsey’s sexual revolution bomb, America respected fatherhood, motherhood and marriage, and protected its children. Kinsey saw any sexual taboo as abnormal repression and set out, by using science, to break down those barriers to sexual “freedom.” He used and abused science much as the South Korean researcher Hwang did by claiming to have achieved human cloning.
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
UK Immigrants Faking Gay Civil Unions as Quick Ticket to Passports
LifeSite.net
February 22, 2006
By Gudrun Schultz
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06022202.html
LONDON, Great Britain, February 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Immigrants seeking entrance to the UK now have an easier route to follow, thanks to December’s law allowing gay civil unions. Homosexual couples now have the same immigration rights as married heterosexual couples, and can receive a full passport after two years in the country.
In fact, gay couples have an easier time of it since they don’t have to have a physical relationship in order to qualify. There is nothing to prevent any two people, gay, straight or otherwise, from hooking up together in a temporary union in order to gain citizenship.
Immigration lawyers have figured out this loophole and are ready and willing to offer help to potential migrants, the Times reported Sunday. Reporters went undercover to see what help they would get from 12 London solicitors’ firms. The reporters discovered there was no need to even pretend to be gay. Openly stating that they wanted to bring family members or friends into England on the strength of a civil partnership, and then dissolve the partnership, the reporters were given full assurance of the legality of such a move.
One lawyer, Dr. Akbar Malik of Malik Law Chambers, east London, told an undercover reporter who admitted he wasn’t gay, “It doesn’t make any difference.” Asked if the couple had to be in a physical relationship, Malik said, “No, definitely not. People will use [the civil union law], you know…like marriage of convenience…Of course people will use it, no doubt.”
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
New York No Fault Divorce
Concerned Women for America
3/12/2006
By Anne F. Downey
New York Daily News editorial
By Anne F. Downey, Esq.
Published February 26, 2006
No-fault divorce? NO
It would be a grave mistake for New York State to adopt a no-fault divorce system.
Long URL elided
A number of states that allow no-fault divorce are now re-thinking the “beauty” of the no-fault system. In a 2003 poll, 49% of those surveyed said divorce should be harder to obtain and only 26% said it should be easier. Here are some problems with this process.
First, no-fault divorce gives leverage to a spouse who wants to leave the marriage, rendering powerless the spouse who wants to preserve the union. Statistics indicate that four out of five no-fault divorces are unilateral – the spouse seeking divorce is able to terminate the marriage even though the other spouse has done no wrong.
Second, whenever we pass a law to make something legal, we give it our tacit approval. In other states that have adopted no-fault divorce, studies show that eliminating fault has led to an increase in divorce rates, perhaps as much as 25%.
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
CWA: RU-486 Claims Two More Women’s Lives
Concerned Women for America
3/17/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10349/MEDIA/life/index.htm
Concerned Women for America (CWA) expressed outrage that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still refuses to pull the abortion pill RU-486 from the market even after announcing today that two more women who took the drug have died.
“The FDA has pulled other drugs that have caused fewer deaths and less severe complications than RU-486. Why the double-standard for an abortion drug that is now linked to the deaths of seven healthy women and over 800 other reported complications?” stated Wendy Wright, president of CWA.
The FDA admits that only 10 percent of complications suffered by patients from drugs get reported. Over 800 complications due to RU-486 have been reported to the FDA.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006
Poll shows abortion ban unpopular
Pollsters hired by Focus: South Dakota contacted 630 voters in state randomly
From staff and wire reports
Aberdeen (SD) News
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/14111347.htm
PIERRE - From staff and wire reports
A scientific poll done for a political group that concentrates on issues indicates a majority of residents oppose a proposed state law seeking to outlaw most abortions in South Dakota.
Pollsters hired by Focus: South Dakota contacted 630 South Dakota voters by telephone for random interviews from Thursday through Saturday, and 62 percent said the legislation is too extreme, 33 percent said they support the bill and the rest were undecided.
When people were asked if they thought the abortion ban should be put on the November ballot, 72 percent answered yes. Pollsters found that 79 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of independents, and 65 percent of Republicans favor a statewide vote on the issue.
Fifty-seven percent of those polled said they would then vote to override the proposal, 36 percent would keep the ban and the rest were undecided about the measure.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Ask Homeland Security to Help Check HIV Transmission
Bush Administration needs to put public health above political correctness
March 15, 2006 - Wednesday
Forward to a Friend!
https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06C06&track=0
Imagine my surprise when I learned that the U.S. Government has granted "Designated Event Status" to the 2006 Gay Games to be held in Chicago this July. The "Gay Games" are an event known as much for after-hours sexual activity as for on-field athletic competition. In fact, on the official Chicago Gay Games web site just as much emphasis is put on "entertainment" as on the event itself. This entertainment includes links to bathhouses and clubs where illicit and illegal activity is allowed.
Special foreign visitor status comes with privileges for the several thousand who will travel to the U.S. - a federal blanket waiver that permits non-U.S. citizens with HIV/AIDS to enter the United States to participate in or observe the Gay Games. Those travelers are eligible to apply for a single-entry B-2 travel visa that is valid from a week before the quadrennial event until six days after the closing date. The tragedy is that there are Americans who may well be infected with a deadly disease as a direct result of this most unwise decision. Why should this administration feel the need to bow to the politically correct crowd?
Please contact the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman within the Department of Homeland Security. Ask the office to revoke this almost unprecedented waiver. Human lives are at stake.
[Webform to send complaint letter at URL - no, the complaint letter isn't editable, they've caught on to that]
----- 14 -----
Board Ignores Parents and Their Concerns Over Campus GSA Clubs
By Jim Brown
March 16, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/162006c.asp
(AgapePress) - A Virginia school board has thumbed its nose at parents in Richmond who are pushing for a ban on "Gay Straight Alliances" and other student clubs that promote teen sexual activity.
Parents and citizens collected more than 700 petitions of registered voters in Chesterfield County, asking that GSAs and other sex-based clubs be banned from public schools. Fifteen opponents of the clubs addressed the board on Tuesday night (March 14), including an attorney from Florida-based Liberty Counsel, who affirmed the board's authority to prohibit sex-based clubs based on the federal Equal Access Act.
However, the board voted 5-0 to approve a new policy that falls short of banning homosexual student clubs. Kevin Hoeft with the group Concerned Citizens of Chesterfield County calls the outcome "devastating."
[...]
Hoeft says he will be monitoring how the school board responds when local Gay Straight Alliances take part in the National Day of Silence, an event designed to increase the acceptance of homosexual sex among young people.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Canadian Student Newspaper in Hot Water Over Controversial Cartoon of Christ
Caricature Not News, but a Poke at Christianity, Says Observer
CAUTION: This story contains terms some may find offensive
By Jim Brown
March 16, 2006
American Family Association/Agape Press
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/162006e.asp
(AgapePress) - Canadian Christians are calling on the University of Saskatchewan to shut down its student newspaper after it published a pornographic cartoon blaspheming Jesus.
One week after running an editorial explaining why it would not publish derogatory cartoons of Islam's prophet, Muhammad, The Sheaf published an editorial cartoon depicting Jesus fornicating with a pig. The Saskatoon Christian Centre has called on the president of the university to close The Sheaf until all of its editorial staff are fired.
Randy Donauer, a spokesman for the Christian Centre, says The Sheaf controversy cannot be compared to the news story involving Muhammad cartoons and the ensuing Muslim violence.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
Oklahoma Lawmakers Want Libraries to Limit Access to Objectionable Material
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 16, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/162006b.asp
(AgapePress) - A proposed bill in the Oklahoma Legislature would require public libraries that receive state funds to remove materials containing sexually explicit content or homosexual themes from general reading areas.
The proposed law easily passed a State House panel last week and now heads to the full House for a vote. The bill would withhold state funds from public libraries that do not put objectionable material in a special place. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy, says the bill is reasonable.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
Massachusetts' Governor Files Bill to Grant Exemption to Catholic Charities
By Eric Francke
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 16, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/162006g.asp
(MassNews.com / AgapePress) - On Wednesday Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney filed a bill aimed at granting exemption to Catholic Charities from the statutory prohibitions of discrimination against homosexuals in their adoption policies. But it appears his proposal has little support from political leaders in the State House and Senate.
The First Amendment rights of Catholic Charities to adhere to their religious principles came under attack last week when state officials announced that the organization had to comply with state guidelines in allowing children to be placed in same-sex households, despite recent pronouncements from the Vatican and Boston's four bishops condemning the practice.
Romney's bill, called "An Act Protecting Religious Freedom," authorizes religious organizations to provide adoption services in a manner that is consistent with their religious mission -- specifically, exempting them from anti-discriminatory language regarding same-sex couples. Romney noted that such couples could still adopt from a number of other adoption programs in the state. According to Associated Press, Massachusetts House and Senate leaders have already said they will not support Romney's effort.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
American Family Association
Donald Wildmon, Chairman
Please forward this message to your family and friends!
You did it! FCC fines CBS $3.6 million for 'Without A Trace'
[Online as of March 17, 2006]
http://afa.net/thanksFCC.asp
In January, 2005, we asked you to join us in filing formal complaints against CBS and their affiliate stations for broadcasting Without A Trace, complete with an extended teen-age orgy scene. Within days, 165,997 AFA on-line supporters had filed formal complaints with the FCC.
This week, the FCC announced it agrees with you and is fining 111 CBS stations $32,500 each for broadcasting this indecency. This major accomplishment happened because you took action! This is the largest fine ever against the networks and their stations.
In addition, the FCC reaffirmed a $550,000 fine against CBS for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl.
I want to thank you for taking time to get involved. This proves we can make a difference when we join together!
The FCC will be bombarded with complaints by Hollywood, the media, and liberals such as the ACLU. They must get letters of thanks from those who appreciate their enforcement of the indecency laws! We must let them hear from us!
Please take time to thank the FCC for their actions by sending them a letter of support.
Click Here to Thank the FCC Now!
Just as important, I need you to help us grow. Please forward this email and encourage your friends and family to be a part of this great work. Our children are worth the effort!
If you agree our efforts such as the complaints against Without A Trace , please make a small contribution to AFA by clicking here .
Sincerely,
Don
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association
----- 19 -----
New Family Action Council in Ontario
Canada Family Action Coalition
March 16, 2006
Long URL elided
Once a dream, now a reality. Hastings Prince Edward Family Action Council was born on January 21/06. We have brand new organization to advance the Judeo-Christian cause in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in Ontario.
Our motto: Fair in our dealings, firm in our convictions and friendly with all.
Our mission: to inform, motivate and activate our community in defending and promoting Judeo-Christian values in matters which directly or indirectly affect the traditional family.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
What the Canadian Cancer Society isn’t telling CBC’s Wendy Mesley could be killing Canadian women
For Immediate Release
March 16, 2006
Maurice Vellacott MP
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/life/cancer-info-withheld.htm
OTTAWA – “If the Canadian Cancer Society is not telling Canadians the truth about the birth control pill’s link to breast cancer, what else is the Canadian Cancer Society withholding?” asked MP Maurice Vellacott, commenting on CBC reporter Wendy Mesley’s documentary, “Chasing the Cancer Answer” which aired recently on CBC’s Marketplace.
Pathologist Dr. Samuel Epstein, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of the book, Cancer-Gate: How to win the losing cancer war, told Mesley that Canada is in a cancer epidemic and the Canadian cancer establishment is not informing Canadians about the vast body of information on the avoidable causes of cancer.
When asked about the birth control pill, Dr. Epstein told Mesley, “The pill is the largest unregulated human trial that’s ever been conducted.” The World Health Organization issued a press release in July 2005 stating that the birth control pill is carcinogenic and slightly increases the risk of cervical, liver and breast cancer. When questioned why this updated warning was not passed on to Canadian women, Barbara Wylie of the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) told Mesley, “I’ll have our folks take a look at it, Wendy.”
[...]
Vellacott asks, “Why will the Canadian Cancer Society not take an objective look at what the research says about the link between abortion and breast cancer if they’re serious about prevention?” Dr. Epstein accuses the cancer establishment of “damage control” (screening, diagnosis, treatment) rather than prevention. Vellacott notes that pharmaceutical companies don’t make money by preventing cancer. The Canadian Cancer Society spends only 10% of its budget on cancer prevention, according to the Marketplace Documentary. Vellacott asks, “I wonder how much money the Canadian Cancer Society is receiving from pharmaceutical companies? I hope that the cancer establishment does not let interests other than women’s health dictate its business.”
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Gay Activists Are Giving A Mixed Message
Faith and Freedom Network
Friday, March 17, 2006
Long URL elided
“Equality Ride,” a bus full of protestors backed by the gay-advocacy group, Soul Force, made their second of 19 planned visits to Christian colleges Tuesday at Regent University.
They are visiting colleges and military academies that they say discriminate against homosexuals through policy that preclude sexual immorality.
The protestors held pamphlets that supposedly told what the Bible says – and doesn’t say about homosexuality.
One by one the protestors crossed the police line, looking into the TV cameras saying, “There are students across that line and I want the chance to talk to them.”But it was clearly a media stunt, because there were no students on the other side of the police line, just uniformed officers waiting to escort them to a squad car.
[More at URL]
----- 22 -----
Sound The Alarm
The Vision
Online as of March 17, 2006
http://www.soundthealarm.com/vision.html
Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord. Do not make Your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ Then the Lord will be jealous for His land and take pity on His people.” –Joel 2:17-18
We know that God is holy. We know that He has called us to a lifestyle of obedience, and we know that He calls the Church to influence and change the culture. Yet the Church has largely stood on the sidelines, allowing the culture to influence the Church, rather than herself exerting a godly influence on the culture. The Church has stood back and watched abortion become legal, prayer taken out of schools, no-fault divorce become available, and rampant profanity pollute TV, movies and airwaves – not to mention the ongoing removal of all vestiges of Christian references and symbols in our nation. Now, here we are, looking down the barrel at the same-sex marriage issue.
Certainly there are efforts to organize. The word is going out. A stirring has begun and yet … if we are not careful, we will miss the real issue.
We must not set our guns a-blazing at the evil around us until we recognize the apostasy that lies within us. Our own hearts must be broken. We have no authority to address the evil of our day unless we repent and call upon the Lord for the Church. Let those who minister before the Lord weep. Let them cry out to the Lord for His Church. The Church is the problem; the Church holds the answer. Doing nothing is not an option. The promise that God gave Jeremiah echoes in our own circumstances today. "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.” (Jeremiah 18:7,8)
[Ed. Note: here's a link to their anti-gay pastor's video, referring to GBLT-folk as a "common enemy" for Christians: http://www.soundthealarm.com/download/Mayday_lrg.mov - talks a lot about how the battle has to start in the church itself, which is actually kind of neat and not things I have issue with, but then goes on to talk about how the November, 2004 elections were "a gracious answer to the prayers of God's people offered up all over our land" but warns against believing that "the battle has been won"; "darkness still covers the land." Sets the fight against civil marriage rights for gay and lesbian people up as a critical test for the body of Christ.]
----- 23 -----
NY St. Pat's chairman compares gays to neo-Nazis
Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:24 PM ET
By Claudia Parsons
Long URL elided
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The man in charge of Manhattan's St. Patrick's Day parade has fueled a controversy by saying allowing a gay group to join Friday's march would be like permitting neo-Nazis to participate in an Israeli parade.
In an interview with The Irish Times, parade committee chairman John Dunleavy defended the organizers' decision to bar the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization from participating in the biggest St. Patrick's Day party in the world.
"If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?" Dunleavy was quoted as saying.
"People have rights. If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?" he said.
[...]
The gay rights campaigners' cause has been taken up this year by newly elected City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the first openly gay woman to lead the council and an Irish American.
She boycotted the Manhattan march after failing to persuade organizers to lift their veto. Quoted in The Daily News, she condemned Dunleavy's comments, saying: "They are so outrageous, I don't even think they dignify a response."
[More at URL]
----- 24 -----
Iraqi cleric wants gays killed in "most severe way"
March 16, 2006
The Advocate
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid28049.asp
In the midst of sectarian violence that threatens to drag Iraq into civil war, the country's influential Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a violent death order against gays and lesbians on his Web site, according to London-based LGBT human rights groups OutRage.
Written in Arabic, the fatwa comes from a press conference with the powerful religious cleric, where he was asked about the judgment on sodomy and lesbianism. “Forbidden,” Sistani answered, according to OutRage, “Punished, in fact, killed. The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”
[...]
“Sistani's murderous homophobic incitement has given a green light to Shia Muslims to hunt and kill lesbians and gay men,” said Hili. “We hold Sistani personally responsible for the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Iraqis. He gives the killers theological sanction and encouragement.”
[More at URL]
----- 25 -----
LIBERAL ATTACK GROUP BACKS OFF DOBSON ALLEGATION
DefCon now acknowledges pro-family leader took no money from Abramoff.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 17, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039887.cfm
The liberal group Campaign to Defend the Constitution
(DefCon) is backing away from its claims that Focus on the
Family Chairman Dr. James Dobson took "casino cash" from
disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, 10 days after launching
an ad campaign designed to smear the pro-family leader.
In the March 25 issue of World magazine, DefCon's Jessica
Smith -- identified as the group's "interim director" --
says unambiguously: "We don't accuse James Dobson of
taking any money."
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Want to let members of DefCon's advisory
board know what you think of its lies against Dr. Dobson?
We've made it easy for you to send a single message to
several board members. Just visit the CitizenLink Action
Center.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/issues/alert/?alertid=8564286&type=CU
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Values Voters Summit Set
SUMMARY: Dr. James Dobson, national leaders to appear at Sept. 22-24 D.C. event.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 17, 2006
from staff reports
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039878.cfm
The 2004 election is often referred to as "the year of the
values voter," but a recent poll shows many of those
social conservatives are disgruntled with the results of
their hard work.
Many are beginning to lose heart, so pro-family groups are
looking for a way to get them engaged again.
Representatives of Focus on the Family Action, FRC Action
and the American Family Association were just a few of the
pro-family leaders who on Thursday announced a "Values
Voters Summit" to be held Sept. 22-24 in Washington, D.C.
Spokesman Buddy Smith said the event's purpose -- which
will feature appearances by Focus on the Family Action's
Dr. James Dobson and possibly President Bush -- is to make
a difference in elections this November and in 2008.
[...]
Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action
League of North Carolina, is frustrated that values voters
are not seeing the issues they care about being addressed
more aggressively by Congress -- issues like prayer in
schools, abortion, the proper role of judges, the media's
impact on politics and the defense of marriage.
"I can't think of another issue more important, or that
Congress would be more able to pass, perhaps, then a
federal marriage amendment," Creech said. "They need to
get cracking."
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR ILLINOIS MARRIAGE REFERENDUM
Petition drive would place the issue on the ballot.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 17, 2006
by Jenny Tyree, associate analyst, marriage
http://www.family.org/cforum/statenews/a0039877.cfm
One month remains for Illinois residents to complete the
process for placing a marriage referendum on the November
ballot. Protect Marriage Illinois (PMI) and nearly 20,000
volunteers are attempting to gather at least 283,111
signatures by the April 20 deadline.
The state's primary is March 21 and is a focal point for
signature gatherers. PMI hopes to have more than 2,000
volunteers at polling places.
"We're confident that if we can get a good volunteer
turnout on the 21st we can reach the actual number of
needed signatures that day," said Peter LaBarbera,
executive director of the Illinois Family Institute.
"Hopefully we can reach 500,000 signatures by April 20."
The additional signatures would be insurance against
flawed petitions and attempts by opponents to disqualify
signatures.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: If you'd like to help gather signatures, you
may contact PMI through its Web site.
http://www.protectmarriageillinois.org
There is a button at the top right of the page to download
and print the petition. You'll need the free Adobe reader
to view the document.
http://www.adobe.com
Or you may call, toll free, (877) 787-8011.
[More at URL]
----- 28 -----
Kansas Requires Parental OK for Sex-Ed Classes
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Parents in Kansas will now be required to give written
permission before students can participate in
sex-education classes, The Associated Press reported.
In the past, most Kansas school districts had the opposite
policy. All children participated unless parents signed a
form to keep their kids out.
Steve Abrams, chairman of the school board, said some
parents have expressed concern that they were unaware
their children were taking sex-education courses until
they'd already started. The new policy will make that
impossible.
"It's about empowering parents," he said. "That's the
bottom line."
Other states, including Arizona, Nevada and Utah, require
parents to opt in their students for sex-education
courses.
----- 29 -----
Utah Teens Must Get Parental Permission for Abortion
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Gov. Jon Huntsman signed into a law a bill that requires
any minor seeking an abortion in Utah to get written
permission from parents, NewsMax reported.
Previously, the state required parents to be notified, but
did not mandate they give permission.
Girls can seek an exception in juvenile court for cases of
abuse, incest or if the minor is estranged from her
parents.
The state Health Department reported that Utah has one of
the lowest abortion rates in the country.
----- 30 -----
Bill Would Require Those Seeking Abortions to Show ID
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Family advocates in Kansas are asking state legislators to
support a bill that would tighten parental-notification
laws, LifeNews.com reported.
Any adult who accompanies a minor to an abortion clinic
would have to show identification and explain their
relationship to the girl. Both would be asked to disclose
the name of the father, if known.
Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director of Kansans for Life,
told lawmakers the law is needed in order to protect teens
from being forced to have an abortion by sexual predators
trying to cover sexual abuse. It is also to make sure
teens aren't accompanied by an adult who is helping them
get a secret abortion.
"The state has an interest in promoting the health and
safety of young girls experiencing an unplanned
pregnancy," she said.
Last month the Kansas Supreme Court told Attorney General
Phill Kline he could seek the records of some minors who
had obtained an abortion to determine if there was
evidence of statutory rape. The name of the girl will not
be disclosed unless it is determined a crime has been
committed.
Canadians may want to note that the Canada Family Action Coalition has started pushing the "birth control causes cancer, and by the way, so does abortion" line, and the Canadian Cancer Society is COVERING UP THE TRUTH in order to make more money by treating cancer than preventing it; I don't know whether this is new up there, but it's a long-time tactic in the US.
And now, today's news;
Faith and Freedom Network declares religious supporters of GBLT rights to be "heretics";
***** Sandra Day O'Connor, now retired, slams attacks on court system and the independence of the judiciary; "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings";
Focus on the Family applauds FCC fines for indecency, stating that they are sending a "message"; includes ACTION ITEM to thank FCC, and links on the FCC's new one-page webform for submitting indecency complaints; Penny Nance, special adviser to the FCC, talked to FotF about it, encouraging complaints;
FofF says that polygamy isn't really supported by the BIble, despite the religious nature of the groups suing for it; it's just a "cultural phenomenon adopted by some leaders in ancient Israel;" then they go ahead and blame gays anyway;
***** Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM in Washington State to support anti-marriage/anti-GBLT-rights "Prayer Rallies" and volunteer to work on the anti-gay initiative of Tim Eyman's (tho' they don't use his name);
FotF talks about a recent Supreme Court decision as being a big victory for fundamentalist forces, also talks about how conventional wisdom that you need health exemptions in abortion bans is (in their mind) wrong;
FotF condemns attempt in Colorado to make Plan B available without a prescription;
Concerned Women for America's latest hatefest against Dr. Alfred Kinsey (of the Kinsey Report, which they have always hated and still hate);
Some immigrants are using Great Britain's civil unions law to ease immigration - setting up temporary civil unions in the same way that people have been setting up marriages of convenience for years; but, of course, this means civil unions must be banned;
CWA reprints editorial condemning no-fault divorce in New York State;
CWA attacks health record of RU-486, demands it be pulled immediately from the market;
Poll: South Dakotans overwhelmingly oppose abortion ban as passed by the state legislature;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to demand that HIV+ Gay Games participants be banned from entry to the US; demands that Homeland Security be used to keep people out; "Human lives are at stake";
American Family Association condemns Virginia school board that refuses to ban Gay-Straight Alliance clubs; the ban would be in defiance of the equal-access rules fundamentalists won at the Supreme Court to ensure that religious clubs couldn't be turned away, demonstrating again that it has nothing to do with "judicial activism" and has everything to do with "no fags" and "Christians only";
***** AFA reports and supports Canadian fundamentalist demands that a student newspaper be shut down and all editors fired over their decision to print blasphemous cartoons of Jesus; insists this is "cannot be compared" to Muslim reaction to blasphemous cartoons of Mohammed; funny, I can make that comparison just fine;
AFA supports Oklahoma bill to remove all material containing GBLT-related themes from public spaces in libraries; also any material that is "sexually explicit";
Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney introduces bill to exempt Catholic Charities' adoption services from state civil rights law - specifically, to allow them to refuse to place children with gay and lesbian married couples;
American Family Association ACTION ITEM to thank FCC for fining CBS $3.6M;
Canada Family Action Coalition opens branches in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in Ontario;
Canada Family Action Coalition: birth control, abortion both cause cancer; Canadian Cancer Society disagrees; CFAC accuses them of covering up The Truth to make more money by treating cancer than preventing it; I don't know whether this is new for Canadians, but this has been a standard canard in the US for at least a couple of decades;
Faith and Freedom Network blogs against the Freedom Ride, the Soulforce effort going to religious colleges which ban GBLT students; they seem to have lifted this a lot from previous articles excerpted here in Cultural Warfare Updates, only without giving credit;
"Sound The Alarm," the anti-GBLT website pushing Referendum 65 and the statewide anti-gay "Prayer Rallies" has a vision statement up; it condemns marriage rights, abortion, divorce, and television content; on the "Strategy" page (one click away) they're trying to build up a network of pastors to participate in the various anti-gay, anti-etc activities they want to pursue; they're co-ordinating with Faith and Freedom Network which will send out their action items;
New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade chairman compares gays to neo-Nazis (thanks,
nihilistic_kid);Iraqi cleric Sistani on gay and lesbian people: "The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing" (thanks, Andrew);
Focus on the Family claims victory over DefCon ads, but they're still sending out another ACTION ITEM to complain to DefCon;
FotF's James Dobson to be speaker at "Values Voters" summit - an anti-gay marriage amendment is nr. 1 on the agenda;
FotF ACTION ITEM to its membership to support an Illinois petition drive to get an anti-marriage-rights amendment on the ballot;
Kansas changes sex education classes to be opt-in-with-parental-permission-only;
Utah governor signs bill requiring written parental permission before abortion;
Kansas fundamentalist groups asking for tighter parental-notification laws, identification of father, other details.
----- 1 -----
Answering “The Religious Coalition for Equality”
Faith and Freedom Network
Thursday, March 16, 2006
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/03/answering-religious-coalition-for.html
“Religious” people supporting gay rights remind me of penguins as birds. They don’t fly.
They don’t fly biblically. "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination" (Leviticus 18:22).
"If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them" (Leviticus 20:13).
"For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error" (Romans 1:26-27).
[...]
Liberals and heretics say Jesus did not condemn homosexuals, not even mentioning the subject. (The implication is that homosexuality must therefore be acceptable.)
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Retired Supreme Court Justice hits attacks on courts and warns of dictatorship
RAW STORY
Published: March 10, 2006
Long URL elided
Via NPR. Rush transcript by RAW STORY. Listen to the audio report here.
Supreme Court justices keep many opinions private but Sandra Day O’Connor no longer faces that obligation. Yesterday, the retired justice criticized Republicans who criticized the courts. She said they challenge the independence of judges and the freedoms of all Americans. O’Connor’s speech at Georgetown University was not available for broadcast but NPR’s legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg was there.
Nina Totenberg: In an unusually forceful and forthright speech, O’Connor said that attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms. O’Connor began by conceding that courts do have the power to make presidents or the Congress or governors, as she put it “really, really angry.” But, she continued, if we don’t make them mad some of the time we probably aren’t doing our jobs as judges, and our effectiveness, she said, is premised on the notion that we won’t be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts. The nation’s founders wrote repeatedly, she said, that without an independent judiciary to protect individual rights from the other branches of government those rights and privileges would amount to nothing. But, said O’Connor, as the founding fathers knew statutes and constitutions don’t protect judicial independence, people do.
[More at URLs]
----- 3 -----
FCC SENDS MESSAGE TO BROADCASTERS ON INDECENCY
Regulator levies a multimillion-dollar fine.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 16, 2006
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039872.cfm
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced
Wednesday it was levying nearly $4 million in fines for
indecency on broadcast TV. The amount is a record-setter.
Altogether, the commission resolved more than 300,000
complaints -- and cited more than 50 programs -- for
instances of indecency from 2002 to 2005.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was unapologetic for the
vigorous enforcement.
[...]
"(This) action was just the first in what will, hopefully,
be many actions taken by the FCC against indecency," PTC
Director of Corporate and Government Affairs Dan Isett
told CitizenLink. "It certainly constitutes an assertive
enforcement of the law."
[...]
Hardest hit was CBS -- whose crime drama "Without a Trace"
aired an episode depicting a teen orgy. More than $3
million in fines was levied against Viacom -- the parent
company of CBS.
[...]
Penny Nance, special adviser to the FCC, told CitizenLink
the commission is authorized to enforce indecency laws
over broadcast television between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. --
and the chairman takes that responsibility very seriously.
To streamline the process, he has even instituted a new
system for dealing with complaints.
"The chairman set up on the FCC Web site a one-page
complaint form that enables your readers to, in a couple
of minutes, describe what they saw that they found
offensive, that hurt their families and, with just a click
of a mouse, respond to the FCC."
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Please take time to thank the commissioners
for vigorously enforcing the broadcast indecency law. You
may e-mail all of them at once through the CitizenLink
Action Center.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/issues/alert/?alertid=8588731&type=CU
You may find the FCC's online indecency complaint form
here:
http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475B.cfm
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Polygamists Attempt to Leverage Gay Court Victories
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 16, 2006
from staff reports
SUMMARY: Rulings on same-sex marriage may have unintended
consequences.
Some polygamy-rights groups want the practice of marrying
multiple people decriminalized and are trying to leverage
court decisions that granted privacy rights to homosexuals
to advance their agenda.
Mark Henkel is part of one group that describes itself as
an "organization of Christian polygamists."
"We're a cross-denominational para-church effort," he
said, "supporting both individuals and pastors that come
to this realization that the Bible does not support the
Catholic invention of one man/one woman as a doctrine."
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Sounding the Alarm in Washington State
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 16, 2006
by Mona Passignano, state issues analyst
SUMMARY: Christians urged to defend the family through
prayer rallies.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/statenews/a0039868.cfm
Sound the Alarm -- a network of pastors across the state
of Washington -- invites you to join in prayer for the
state and the nation. According to Executive Director
Jacinta Tegman, the group was "formed to call the pastors
and churches of Washington state to prayer, repentance and
united action."
With the passage earlier this year of a state law granting
protected, special-class status to homosexuals and the
impending Washington Supreme Court decision on same-sex
marriage, she said it is clear the Church must rise up
now. Tegman said those circumstances "compel us to call
the pastors and churches of Washington State to regional
interdenominational prayer rallies."
Sound the Alarm is calling for Christians to come together
and pray for revival. The Rev. H.B. London -- vice
president of church, clergy and medical review at Focus on
the Family -- said he believes "the preservation of the
family in Washington depends on all of us. Together we can
advance the cause of righteousness and claim victory in
the battle to which the Lord calls us."
Rallies will be held at the following locations:
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Please consider attending a prayer rally near
you. Also, if you are a pastor in Washington state, ask
your congregation to attend one of the Sound the Alarm
rallies being held in your area.
For more information, visit the Sound the Alarm Web site
or call at (425) 771-5247.
http://www.soundthealarm.com
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
COMMENTARY: OVERRULING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
The Ayotte case impacted abortion law more than you might think.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
by Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst
March 16, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0039870.cfm
On its surface, January's decision in the New Hampshire
parental-notification case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood,
failed to deliver anything new on the pro-life front, as
the Supreme Court merely sent the case back down to the
lower federal courts for further consideration. After all,
Justice O'Connor emphatically stated in the opening
sentence of the Court's unanimous opinion: "We do not
revisit our abortion precedents today . . ."
So was it just another disappointing victory for precedent
and Roe v. Wade?
The answer is "no," and the reason has nothing to do with
precedent, but everything to do with conventional wisdom.
Much was made of the significance of Supreme Court
precedent at the recent Alito and Roberts confirmation
hearings. "Precedent" is, simply put, a prior court
decision. Judges usually adhere (with certain exceptions)
to the holdings of prior cases of their own court or
courts of higher rank when deciding similar cases. This
adherence promotes continuity and predictability in the
law, which is a good thing.
[...]
For, example, conventional wisdom for a long time held
that abortion regulations had to contain a "health
exception" in order to be constitutional. (A health
exception provides that the statute would not apply in
situations where the health of the mother is endangered.)
State lawmakers learned the hard lesson that if an
abortion regulation could be avoided by an abortionist for
a "health" reason such as the emotional state of the
would-be mother, then all abortion regulation could be
sidestepped and the legislative goal of reducing abortions
would be frustrated. Legislative attempts to leave out a
health exception usually ended up on the wrong end of a
court opinion. When the Supreme Court swatted down
Nebraska's partial-birth abortion ban in 2000 because of
the lack of a health exception, the conventional wisdom
was reinforced.
----- 7 -----
Colorado Legislators Consider Emergency-Contraception Bill
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 16, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Lawmakers in Colorado are considering legislation that
would make it possible to obtain the "morning-after" pill
without a doctor's prescription, The Associated Press
reported.
The Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee
approved the bill Wednesday along partisan lines -- four
Democrats voted in favor, three Republicans against.
Susan Wood, former women's health director for the Food
and Drug Administration, told lawmakers the federal
government has "turned its back on the health of women,"
because it has not made the drug available over the
counter. It's up to individual states, she said, to
legalize the drug.
"If you support women's access to regular birth-control
pills," she said, "then you should support women's access
to emergency contraception."
Critics of the drug, called Plan B, say the hormone
doesn't just prevent an unwanted pregnancy. It can
sometimes keep a fertilized egg from implanting in the
uterus -- essentially an early abortion.
Diane Foley, a pediatrician and adolescent gynecologist in
Colorado Springs, said that isn't the only issue. If teens
don't have to see a doctor in order to access Plan B, it's
likely to increase sexual activity and lead to a higher
instance of sexually-transmitted disease.
----- 8 -----
Kinsey’s Consequences
Concerned Women for America
3/17/2006
By Judy Smith
America has become the unsuspecting victim of his sexual revolution bomb.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10334/CWA/family/index.htm
Before launching into his “research” on human sexuality, Dr. Alfred Kinsey was a confirmed atheist, eugenicist and evolutionist who believed that “religious-based,” “ancient taboos” were to blame for America’s supposedly repressive sexual attitudes and resulting social disorder. The unsuspecting victim of Kinsey’s sexual revolution bomb, America respected fatherhood, motherhood and marriage, and protected its children. Kinsey saw any sexual taboo as abnormal repression and set out, by using science, to break down those barriers to sexual “freedom.” He used and abused science much as the South Korean researcher Hwang did by claiming to have achieved human cloning.
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
UK Immigrants Faking Gay Civil Unions as Quick Ticket to Passports
LifeSite.net
February 22, 2006
By Gudrun Schultz
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06022202.html
LONDON, Great Britain, February 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Immigrants seeking entrance to the UK now have an easier route to follow, thanks to December’s law allowing gay civil unions. Homosexual couples now have the same immigration rights as married heterosexual couples, and can receive a full passport after two years in the country.
In fact, gay couples have an easier time of it since they don’t have to have a physical relationship in order to qualify. There is nothing to prevent any two people, gay, straight or otherwise, from hooking up together in a temporary union in order to gain citizenship.
Immigration lawyers have figured out this loophole and are ready and willing to offer help to potential migrants, the Times reported Sunday. Reporters went undercover to see what help they would get from 12 London solicitors’ firms. The reporters discovered there was no need to even pretend to be gay. Openly stating that they wanted to bring family members or friends into England on the strength of a civil partnership, and then dissolve the partnership, the reporters were given full assurance of the legality of such a move.
One lawyer, Dr. Akbar Malik of Malik Law Chambers, east London, told an undercover reporter who admitted he wasn’t gay, “It doesn’t make any difference.” Asked if the couple had to be in a physical relationship, Malik said, “No, definitely not. People will use [the civil union law], you know…like marriage of convenience…Of course people will use it, no doubt.”
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
New York No Fault Divorce
Concerned Women for America
3/12/2006
By Anne F. Downey
New York Daily News editorial
By Anne F. Downey, Esq.
Published February 26, 2006
No-fault divorce? NO
It would be a grave mistake for New York State to adopt a no-fault divorce system.
Long URL elided
A number of states that allow no-fault divorce are now re-thinking the “beauty” of the no-fault system. In a 2003 poll, 49% of those surveyed said divorce should be harder to obtain and only 26% said it should be easier. Here are some problems with this process.
First, no-fault divorce gives leverage to a spouse who wants to leave the marriage, rendering powerless the spouse who wants to preserve the union. Statistics indicate that four out of five no-fault divorces are unilateral – the spouse seeking divorce is able to terminate the marriage even though the other spouse has done no wrong.
Second, whenever we pass a law to make something legal, we give it our tacit approval. In other states that have adopted no-fault divorce, studies show that eliminating fault has led to an increase in divorce rates, perhaps as much as 25%.
[More at URL]
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CWA: RU-486 Claims Two More Women’s Lives
Concerned Women for America
3/17/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10349/MEDIA/life/index.htm
Concerned Women for America (CWA) expressed outrage that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still refuses to pull the abortion pill RU-486 from the market even after announcing today that two more women who took the drug have died.
“The FDA has pulled other drugs that have caused fewer deaths and less severe complications than RU-486. Why the double-standard for an abortion drug that is now linked to the deaths of seven healthy women and over 800 other reported complications?” stated Wendy Wright, president of CWA.
The FDA admits that only 10 percent of complications suffered by patients from drugs get reported. Over 800 complications due to RU-486 have been reported to the FDA.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006
Poll shows abortion ban unpopular
Pollsters hired by Focus: South Dakota contacted 630 voters in state randomly
From staff and wire reports
Aberdeen (SD) News
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/14111347.htm
PIERRE - From staff and wire reports
A scientific poll done for a political group that concentrates on issues indicates a majority of residents oppose a proposed state law seeking to outlaw most abortions in South Dakota.
Pollsters hired by Focus: South Dakota contacted 630 South Dakota voters by telephone for random interviews from Thursday through Saturday, and 62 percent said the legislation is too extreme, 33 percent said they support the bill and the rest were undecided.
When people were asked if they thought the abortion ban should be put on the November ballot, 72 percent answered yes. Pollsters found that 79 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of independents, and 65 percent of Republicans favor a statewide vote on the issue.
Fifty-seven percent of those polled said they would then vote to override the proposal, 36 percent would keep the ban and the rest were undecided about the measure.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Ask Homeland Security to Help Check HIV Transmission
Bush Administration needs to put public health above political correctness
March 15, 2006 - Wednesday
Forward to a Friend!
https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06C06&track=0
Imagine my surprise when I learned that the U.S. Government has granted "Designated Event Status" to the 2006 Gay Games to be held in Chicago this July. The "Gay Games" are an event known as much for after-hours sexual activity as for on-field athletic competition. In fact, on the official Chicago Gay Games web site just as much emphasis is put on "entertainment" as on the event itself. This entertainment includes links to bathhouses and clubs where illicit and illegal activity is allowed.
Special foreign visitor status comes with privileges for the several thousand who will travel to the U.S. - a federal blanket waiver that permits non-U.S. citizens with HIV/AIDS to enter the United States to participate in or observe the Gay Games. Those travelers are eligible to apply for a single-entry B-2 travel visa that is valid from a week before the quadrennial event until six days after the closing date. The tragedy is that there are Americans who may well be infected with a deadly disease as a direct result of this most unwise decision. Why should this administration feel the need to bow to the politically correct crowd?
Please contact the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman within the Department of Homeland Security. Ask the office to revoke this almost unprecedented waiver. Human lives are at stake.
[Webform to send complaint letter at URL - no, the complaint letter isn't editable, they've caught on to that]
----- 14 -----
Board Ignores Parents and Their Concerns Over Campus GSA Clubs
By Jim Brown
March 16, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/162006c.asp
(AgapePress) - A Virginia school board has thumbed its nose at parents in Richmond who are pushing for a ban on "Gay Straight Alliances" and other student clubs that promote teen sexual activity.
Parents and citizens collected more than 700 petitions of registered voters in Chesterfield County, asking that GSAs and other sex-based clubs be banned from public schools. Fifteen opponents of the clubs addressed the board on Tuesday night (March 14), including an attorney from Florida-based Liberty Counsel, who affirmed the board's authority to prohibit sex-based clubs based on the federal Equal Access Act.
However, the board voted 5-0 to approve a new policy that falls short of banning homosexual student clubs. Kevin Hoeft with the group Concerned Citizens of Chesterfield County calls the outcome "devastating."
[...]
Hoeft says he will be monitoring how the school board responds when local Gay Straight Alliances take part in the National Day of Silence, an event designed to increase the acceptance of homosexual sex among young people.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Canadian Student Newspaper in Hot Water Over Controversial Cartoon of Christ
Caricature Not News, but a Poke at Christianity, Says Observer
CAUTION: This story contains terms some may find offensive
By Jim Brown
March 16, 2006
American Family Association/Agape Press
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/162006e.asp
(AgapePress) - Canadian Christians are calling on the University of Saskatchewan to shut down its student newspaper after it published a pornographic cartoon blaspheming Jesus.
One week after running an editorial explaining why it would not publish derogatory cartoons of Islam's prophet, Muhammad, The Sheaf published an editorial cartoon depicting Jesus fornicating with a pig. The Saskatoon Christian Centre has called on the president of the university to close The Sheaf until all of its editorial staff are fired.
Randy Donauer, a spokesman for the Christian Centre, says The Sheaf controversy cannot be compared to the news story involving Muhammad cartoons and the ensuing Muslim violence.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
Oklahoma Lawmakers Want Libraries to Limit Access to Objectionable Material
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 16, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/162006b.asp
(AgapePress) - A proposed bill in the Oklahoma Legislature would require public libraries that receive state funds to remove materials containing sexually explicit content or homosexual themes from general reading areas.
The proposed law easily passed a State House panel last week and now heads to the full House for a vote. The bill would withhold state funds from public libraries that do not put objectionable material in a special place. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy, says the bill is reasonable.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
Massachusetts' Governor Files Bill to Grant Exemption to Catholic Charities
By Eric Francke
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 16, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/162006g.asp
(MassNews.com / AgapePress) - On Wednesday Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney filed a bill aimed at granting exemption to Catholic Charities from the statutory prohibitions of discrimination against homosexuals in their adoption policies. But it appears his proposal has little support from political leaders in the State House and Senate.
The First Amendment rights of Catholic Charities to adhere to their religious principles came under attack last week when state officials announced that the organization had to comply with state guidelines in allowing children to be placed in same-sex households, despite recent pronouncements from the Vatican and Boston's four bishops condemning the practice.
Romney's bill, called "An Act Protecting Religious Freedom," authorizes religious organizations to provide adoption services in a manner that is consistent with their religious mission -- specifically, exempting them from anti-discriminatory language regarding same-sex couples. Romney noted that such couples could still adopt from a number of other adoption programs in the state. According to Associated Press, Massachusetts House and Senate leaders have already said they will not support Romney's effort.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
American Family Association
Donald Wildmon, Chairman
Please forward this message to your family and friends!
You did it! FCC fines CBS $3.6 million for 'Without A Trace'
[Online as of March 17, 2006]
http://afa.net/thanksFCC.asp
In January, 2005, we asked you to join us in filing formal complaints against CBS and their affiliate stations for broadcasting Without A Trace, complete with an extended teen-age orgy scene. Within days, 165,997 AFA on-line supporters had filed formal complaints with the FCC.
This week, the FCC announced it agrees with you and is fining 111 CBS stations $32,500 each for broadcasting this indecency. This major accomplishment happened because you took action! This is the largest fine ever against the networks and their stations.
In addition, the FCC reaffirmed a $550,000 fine against CBS for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl.
I want to thank you for taking time to get involved. This proves we can make a difference when we join together!
The FCC will be bombarded with complaints by Hollywood, the media, and liberals such as the ACLU. They must get letters of thanks from those who appreciate their enforcement of the indecency laws! We must let them hear from us!
Please take time to thank the FCC for their actions by sending them a letter of support.
Click Here to Thank the FCC Now!
Just as important, I need you to help us grow. Please forward this email and encourage your friends and family to be a part of this great work. Our children are worth the effort!
If you agree our efforts such as the complaints against Without A Trace , please make a small contribution to AFA by clicking here .
Sincerely,
Don
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association
----- 19 -----
New Family Action Council in Ontario
Canada Family Action Coalition
March 16, 2006
Long URL elided
Once a dream, now a reality. Hastings Prince Edward Family Action Council was born on January 21/06. We have brand new organization to advance the Judeo-Christian cause in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in Ontario.
Our motto: Fair in our dealings, firm in our convictions and friendly with all.
Our mission: to inform, motivate and activate our community in defending and promoting Judeo-Christian values in matters which directly or indirectly affect the traditional family.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
What the Canadian Cancer Society isn’t telling CBC’s Wendy Mesley could be killing Canadian women
For Immediate Release
March 16, 2006
Maurice Vellacott MP
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/life/cancer-info-withheld.htm
OTTAWA – “If the Canadian Cancer Society is not telling Canadians the truth about the birth control pill’s link to breast cancer, what else is the Canadian Cancer Society withholding?” asked MP Maurice Vellacott, commenting on CBC reporter Wendy Mesley’s documentary, “Chasing the Cancer Answer” which aired recently on CBC’s Marketplace.
Pathologist Dr. Samuel Epstein, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of the book, Cancer-Gate: How to win the losing cancer war, told Mesley that Canada is in a cancer epidemic and the Canadian cancer establishment is not informing Canadians about the vast body of information on the avoidable causes of cancer.
When asked about the birth control pill, Dr. Epstein told Mesley, “The pill is the largest unregulated human trial that’s ever been conducted.” The World Health Organization issued a press release in July 2005 stating that the birth control pill is carcinogenic and slightly increases the risk of cervical, liver and breast cancer. When questioned why this updated warning was not passed on to Canadian women, Barbara Wylie of the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) told Mesley, “I’ll have our folks take a look at it, Wendy.”
[...]
Vellacott asks, “Why will the Canadian Cancer Society not take an objective look at what the research says about the link between abortion and breast cancer if they’re serious about prevention?” Dr. Epstein accuses the cancer establishment of “damage control” (screening, diagnosis, treatment) rather than prevention. Vellacott notes that pharmaceutical companies don’t make money by preventing cancer. The Canadian Cancer Society spends only 10% of its budget on cancer prevention, according to the Marketplace Documentary. Vellacott asks, “I wonder how much money the Canadian Cancer Society is receiving from pharmaceutical companies? I hope that the cancer establishment does not let interests other than women’s health dictate its business.”
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Gay Activists Are Giving A Mixed Message
Faith and Freedom Network
Friday, March 17, 2006
Long URL elided
“Equality Ride,” a bus full of protestors backed by the gay-advocacy group, Soul Force, made their second of 19 planned visits to Christian colleges Tuesday at Regent University.
They are visiting colleges and military academies that they say discriminate against homosexuals through policy that preclude sexual immorality.
The protestors held pamphlets that supposedly told what the Bible says – and doesn’t say about homosexuality.
One by one the protestors crossed the police line, looking into the TV cameras saying, “There are students across that line and I want the chance to talk to them.”But it was clearly a media stunt, because there were no students on the other side of the police line, just uniformed officers waiting to escort them to a squad car.
[More at URL]
----- 22 -----
Sound The Alarm
The Vision
Online as of March 17, 2006
http://www.soundthealarm.com/vision.html
Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord. Do not make Your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ Then the Lord will be jealous for His land and take pity on His people.” –Joel 2:17-18
We know that God is holy. We know that He has called us to a lifestyle of obedience, and we know that He calls the Church to influence and change the culture. Yet the Church has largely stood on the sidelines, allowing the culture to influence the Church, rather than herself exerting a godly influence on the culture. The Church has stood back and watched abortion become legal, prayer taken out of schools, no-fault divorce become available, and rampant profanity pollute TV, movies and airwaves – not to mention the ongoing removal of all vestiges of Christian references and symbols in our nation. Now, here we are, looking down the barrel at the same-sex marriage issue.
Certainly there are efforts to organize. The word is going out. A stirring has begun and yet … if we are not careful, we will miss the real issue.
We must not set our guns a-blazing at the evil around us until we recognize the apostasy that lies within us. Our own hearts must be broken. We have no authority to address the evil of our day unless we repent and call upon the Lord for the Church. Let those who minister before the Lord weep. Let them cry out to the Lord for His Church. The Church is the problem; the Church holds the answer. Doing nothing is not an option. The promise that God gave Jeremiah echoes in our own circumstances today. "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.” (Jeremiah 18:7,8)
[Ed. Note: here's a link to their anti-gay pastor's video, referring to GBLT-folk as a "common enemy" for Christians: http://www.soundthealarm.com/download/Mayday_lrg.mov - talks a lot about how the battle has to start in the church itself, which is actually kind of neat and not things I have issue with, but then goes on to talk about how the November, 2004 elections were "a gracious answer to the prayers of God's people offered up all over our land" but warns against believing that "the battle has been won"; "darkness still covers the land." Sets the fight against civil marriage rights for gay and lesbian people up as a critical test for the body of Christ.]
----- 23 -----
NY St. Pat's chairman compares gays to neo-Nazis
Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:24 PM ET
By Claudia Parsons
Long URL elided
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The man in charge of Manhattan's St. Patrick's Day parade has fueled a controversy by saying allowing a gay group to join Friday's march would be like permitting neo-Nazis to participate in an Israeli parade.
In an interview with The Irish Times, parade committee chairman John Dunleavy defended the organizers' decision to bar the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization from participating in the biggest St. Patrick's Day party in the world.
"If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?" Dunleavy was quoted as saying.
"People have rights. If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?" he said.
[...]
The gay rights campaigners' cause has been taken up this year by newly elected City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the first openly gay woman to lead the council and an Irish American.
She boycotted the Manhattan march after failing to persuade organizers to lift their veto. Quoted in The Daily News, she condemned Dunleavy's comments, saying: "They are so outrageous, I don't even think they dignify a response."
[More at URL]
----- 24 -----
Iraqi cleric wants gays killed in "most severe way"
March 16, 2006
The Advocate
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid28049.asp
In the midst of sectarian violence that threatens to drag Iraq into civil war, the country's influential Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a violent death order against gays and lesbians on his Web site, according to London-based LGBT human rights groups OutRage.
Written in Arabic, the fatwa comes from a press conference with the powerful religious cleric, where he was asked about the judgment on sodomy and lesbianism. “Forbidden,” Sistani answered, according to OutRage, “Punished, in fact, killed. The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”
[...]
“Sistani's murderous homophobic incitement has given a green light to Shia Muslims to hunt and kill lesbians and gay men,” said Hili. “We hold Sistani personally responsible for the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Iraqis. He gives the killers theological sanction and encouragement.”
[More at URL]
----- 25 -----
LIBERAL ATTACK GROUP BACKS OFF DOBSON ALLEGATION
DefCon now acknowledges pro-family leader took no money from Abramoff.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 17, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039887.cfm
The liberal group Campaign to Defend the Constitution
(DefCon) is backing away from its claims that Focus on the
Family Chairman Dr. James Dobson took "casino cash" from
disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, 10 days after launching
an ad campaign designed to smear the pro-family leader.
In the March 25 issue of World magazine, DefCon's Jessica
Smith -- identified as the group's "interim director" --
says unambiguously: "We don't accuse James Dobson of
taking any money."
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Want to let members of DefCon's advisory
board know what you think of its lies against Dr. Dobson?
We've made it easy for you to send a single message to
several board members. Just visit the CitizenLink Action
Center.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/issues/alert/?alertid=8564286&type=CU
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Values Voters Summit Set
SUMMARY: Dr. James Dobson, national leaders to appear at Sept. 22-24 D.C. event.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 17, 2006
from staff reports
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039878.cfm
The 2004 election is often referred to as "the year of the
values voter," but a recent poll shows many of those
social conservatives are disgruntled with the results of
their hard work.
Many are beginning to lose heart, so pro-family groups are
looking for a way to get them engaged again.
Representatives of Focus on the Family Action, FRC Action
and the American Family Association were just a few of the
pro-family leaders who on Thursday announced a "Values
Voters Summit" to be held Sept. 22-24 in Washington, D.C.
Spokesman Buddy Smith said the event's purpose -- which
will feature appearances by Focus on the Family Action's
Dr. James Dobson and possibly President Bush -- is to make
a difference in elections this November and in 2008.
[...]
Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action
League of North Carolina, is frustrated that values voters
are not seeing the issues they care about being addressed
more aggressively by Congress -- issues like prayer in
schools, abortion, the proper role of judges, the media's
impact on politics and the defense of marriage.
"I can't think of another issue more important, or that
Congress would be more able to pass, perhaps, then a
federal marriage amendment," Creech said. "They need to
get cracking."
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR ILLINOIS MARRIAGE REFERENDUM
Petition drive would place the issue on the ballot.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 17, 2006
by Jenny Tyree, associate analyst, marriage
http://www.family.org/cforum/statenews/a0039877.cfm
One month remains for Illinois residents to complete the
process for placing a marriage referendum on the November
ballot. Protect Marriage Illinois (PMI) and nearly 20,000
volunteers are attempting to gather at least 283,111
signatures by the April 20 deadline.
The state's primary is March 21 and is a focal point for
signature gatherers. PMI hopes to have more than 2,000
volunteers at polling places.
"We're confident that if we can get a good volunteer
turnout on the 21st we can reach the actual number of
needed signatures that day," said Peter LaBarbera,
executive director of the Illinois Family Institute.
"Hopefully we can reach 500,000 signatures by April 20."
The additional signatures would be insurance against
flawed petitions and attempts by opponents to disqualify
signatures.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: If you'd like to help gather signatures, you
may contact PMI through its Web site.
http://www.protectmarriageillinois.org
There is a button at the top right of the page to download
and print the petition. You'll need the free Adobe reader
to view the document.
http://www.adobe.com
Or you may call, toll free, (877) 787-8011.
[More at URL]
----- 28 -----
Kansas Requires Parental OK for Sex-Ed Classes
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Parents in Kansas will now be required to give written
permission before students can participate in
sex-education classes, The Associated Press reported.
In the past, most Kansas school districts had the opposite
policy. All children participated unless parents signed a
form to keep their kids out.
Steve Abrams, chairman of the school board, said some
parents have expressed concern that they were unaware
their children were taking sex-education courses until
they'd already started. The new policy will make that
impossible.
"It's about empowering parents," he said. "That's the
bottom line."
Other states, including Arizona, Nevada and Utah, require
parents to opt in their students for sex-education
courses.
----- 29 -----
Utah Teens Must Get Parental Permission for Abortion
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Gov. Jon Huntsman signed into a law a bill that requires
any minor seeking an abortion in Utah to get written
permission from parents, NewsMax reported.
Previously, the state required parents to be notified, but
did not mandate they give permission.
Girls can seek an exception in juvenile court for cases of
abuse, incest or if the minor is estranged from her
parents.
The state Health Department reported that Utah has one of
the lowest abortion rates in the country.
----- 30 -----
Bill Would Require Those Seeking Abortions to Show ID
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Family advocates in Kansas are asking state legislators to
support a bill that would tighten parental-notification
laws, LifeNews.com reported.
Any adult who accompanies a minor to an abortion clinic
would have to show identification and explain their
relationship to the girl. Both would be asked to disclose
the name of the father, if known.
Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director of Kansans for Life,
told lawmakers the law is needed in order to protect teens
from being forced to have an abortion by sexual predators
trying to cover sexual abuse. It is also to make sure
teens aren't accompanied by an adult who is helping them
get a secret abortion.
"The state has an interest in promoting the health and
safety of young girls experiencing an unplanned
pregnancy," she said.
Last month the Kansas Supreme Court told Attorney General
Phill Kline he could seek the records of some minors who
had obtained an abortion to determine if there was
evidence of statutory rape. The name of the girl will not
be disclosed unless it is determined a crime has been
committed.
