Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Mar. 24th, 2006 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdMissouri House votes to remove contraception from low-income health plan; move is supported by local anti-abortion groups;
There's an unattributed quote going around saying that an unnamed Republican had said that contraception for unmarried women was supporting promiscuity; I've found a primary source with direct, attributed quote;
U. Minnesota study: atheists most distrusted minourity in America; more Americans would approve of their children marrying someone of the same sex than marrying an atheist;
Middle East Quarterly has an article raising several questions about religious Muslim enclaves and Constitutional law; I dislike the headline but feel the article raises important questions;
Focus on the Family upset at new Navy chaplain guidelines saying that prayers should be non-sectarian at command events; Pat Roberton's ACLJ is "working with the Navy Department to help refine the policy";
Florida anti-marriage amendment would ban gay and lesbian marriage and any "other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof," meaning civil unions, domestic partnerships, and so on;
Focus on the Family reports on failure of New Hampshire anti-marriage amendment, puts out an ACTION ITEM to support a Federal anti-marriage amendment;
FotF notes Virginia denies a Vermont woman's custody claim on the basis of not recognising her Vermont civil union as legal (via their anti-marriage amendment); at the same time, a Vermont court had already awarded her joint custody after their CU dissolved (the other woman converted to Christian fundamentalism); FotF calls again for a Federal anti-marriage amendment (that includes civil unions, from context) to prevent them from having ever been married (or CUed) in the first place;
Focus on the Family promotes the American Family Association's boycott of Ford Motor;
I hate it when I'm on their side; Focus on the Family puts out an ACTION ITEM on behalf of the Afghan man who converted to Christianity and now faces the death penalty for having left the Muslim faith;
FotF attacks Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which says it will be watching for electioneering by churches in 2006;
FotF ACTION ITEM to support KENTUCKY measure to ban nearly all abortions - it's very similar to South Dakota's bill; also, to oppose an HAWAII'I bill to loosen restrictions;
President Bush reaffirms support for anti-marriage amendment, FotF appends an ACTION ITEM to support the FMA;
Creationists in Arkansas realise that geology, too, is embarrassing to creationism, so: science teachers are pressured not to talk about the age of rocks;
Andrew Sullivan catches Richard Neuhaus quoting Cameron slander-studies to imply that most gay men rape children; it's good that Andrew is learning the ropes;
Iranian-trained Badr Corps militias stepping up executions of GBLT people in Iraq; American response is, quote, "indifference and derision";
Long article in The New Republic about the origins of theoconservatism in America;
More rhetoric from CWA about judicial nominees; what's interesting about this one is that Human Events Online also runs it as their own article;
CWA rails more against RU486, demanding it be pulled from the market;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM against Palm Beach County (Florida) zoning code;
FotF spins poll showing opposition to GBLT marriage rights has fallen; this is interesting in that they admit outright this is a time-based fight, that the younger people are, the more likely they are to support GBLT marriage rights;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to support the Federal Marriage Amendment via an anti-gay petition;
AFA: Ford "proves commitment to homosexual agenda" by buying ads on CBS drama Without a Trace which included brief lesbian smoochies; YAY lesbian smoochies!;
Concerned Women for America pushes AFA boycott;
Oklahoma State House passes bill moving all library books with GBLT characters or themes out of general circulation and into special "adults only" sections; also does the same with all books with "sexually explicit references"; attacks the American Library Association as "out to sexualize our children";
AFA attacks Wal-mart for plans to carry the Brokeback Mountain DVD;
Traditional Values Coalition pushes new anti-gay "report" attacking GBLT adoptions;
TVC attacks efforts by GBLT rights groups to get the UN to recognise GBLT rights as an issue;
TVC ACTION ITEM to support a "Student Speech and Association Rights" clause (section 103) in HR609, the Higher Education Act. Anybody know what this is about?;
Focus on the Family happy to report that many Canadians still see GBLT people as morally unacceptable, pushes anti-gay "reparative therapy";
Faith and Freedom Network posts some additional "talking points" against marriage rights.
------ 1 -----
Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006
Low-income women would be affected
House OKs birth control funding ban
By KIT WAGAR
The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/health/14109047.htm
JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri House voted Wednesday to ban state funding of contraceptives for low-income women and to prohibit state-funded programs from referring those women to other programs.
Critics jumped on the proposal, saying it would lead to more abortions and more unwanted children on welfare.
But the proposal’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Susan Phillips of Kansas City, said contraceptive services were an inappropriate use of tax dollars. “If doctors want to give contraception privately or personally, they can,” Phillips said. “But we don’t need to pay for contraception with taxpayer funds.”
[...]
But Phillips said she was comfortable with the change because the group Missouri Right to Life and the Missouri Catholic Conference supported it.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Contraception plan rejected
House nixes funding for birth control.
Columbia Daily Tribune
Published Thursday, March 16, 2006
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Mar/20060316News030.asp
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - An attempt to resume state spending on birth control was shot down yesterday by House members who argued it would have amounted to an endorsement of promiscuous lifestyles.
Missouri stopped providing money for family planning and certain women’s health services when Republicans gained control of both chambers of the General Assembly in 2003.
But a Democratic lawmaker, in a little-noticed committee amendment, had successfully inserted language into the proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 that would have allowed part of the $9.2 million intended for "core public health functions" to go to contraception provided through public health clinics.
The House voted 96-59 to delete the funding for contraception and infertility treatments after Rep. Susan Phillips told lawmakers that anti-abortion groups such as Missouri Right to Life were opposed to the spending.
"If you hand out contraception to single women, we’re saying promiscuity is OK as a state, and I am not in support of that," Phillips, R-Kansas City, said in an interview.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study
What: U of M study reveals America’s distrust of atheism
Who: Penny Edgell, associate professor of sociology
Contact: Nina Shepherd, sociology media relations, (612) 599-1148
Mark Cassutt University News Service, (612) 624-8038
http://www.ur.umn.edu/FMPro?-db=releases&-lay=web&-format=umnnewsreleases/releasesdetail.html&ID=2816&-Find
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (3/20/2006) -- American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology.
From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.
Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
The Islamist Challenge to the U.S. Constitution
by David Kennedy Houck
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2006
http://www.meforum.org/pf.php?id=920
First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law?
Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1] the trend is now crossing the Atlantic. Some Islamist community leaders in the United States are challenging the principles of assimilation and equality once central to the civil rights movement, seeking instead to live according to a separate but equal philosophy. The Gwynnoaks Muslim Residential Development group, for example, has established an informal enclave in Baltimore because, according to John Yahya Cason, director of the Islamic Education and Community Development Initiative, a Baltimore-based Muslim advocacy group, "there was no community in the U.S. that showed the totality of the essential components of Muslim social, economic, and political structure."[2]
Baltimore is not alone. In August 2004, a local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted The Islamic Center for Human Excellence authorization to build an internal Islamic enclave to include a mosque, a school, and twenty-two homes.[3] While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs,"[4] the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
NAVY SECRETARY IMPLEMENTS NEW PRAYER GUIDELINES
Pro-family legal experts raise warning flags over directive.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 23, 2006
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039930.cfm
A new policy imposed by U.S. Secretary of the Navy Donald
C. Winter tells chaplains to pray only "nonsectarian"
prayers when they are part of any function outside the
chapel doors.
Navy Lt. Gordon J. Klingenschmitt said the policy means
naval commanders can now dictate when a prayer is said and
what it can contain. He said that violates the First
Amendment rights of chaplains like himself.
[...]
Navy spokesman Lt. William Marks, however, said the Navy
is not saying a chaplain can't say "in Jesus' name" in a
prayer -- but he did say that prayers in public
ceremonies, such as retirements or promotions, should
reflect the Navy's "pluralistic" audience.
"A chaplain will not be censored during a religious
service," Marks explained to CitizenLink, defining
"religious service" as a worship service, Bible study,
prayer service or similar "divine services."
[...]
"But for nonreligious command-sponsored events," he said,
"the commander will consult with a chaplain, and based on
the event, the audience and the wishes of the person
involved will determine the extent of a chaplain's
participation."
Sekulow and Staver both said their groups are working with
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., to address the issue. The ACLJ
is also working with the Navy Department to help refine
the policy.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Florida High Court OKs Marriage-Amendment Language
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 23, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
The Florida Supreme Court ruled today that the wording of
a proposed constitutional amendment to preserve marriage
meets constitutional requirements. If a petition drive
gathers the required 611,009 signatures by July 12, the
measure will be placed on a statewide ballot in 2008.
The Florida Marriage Protection Amendment would add
language to the state constitution, "Inasmuch as marriage
is the legal union of only one man and one woman as
husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as
marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be
valid or recognized."
Mat Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty
Counsel, drafted the language of the amendment.
"I have no doubt that this marriage amendment will pass by
an overwhelming majority," he said. "Marriage should be
decided by the people, not the courts."
FOR MORE INFORMATION: You can view the court decision by
clicking on this link.
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2006/sc05-1563.pdf
----- 7 -----
New Hampshire Marriage Amendment Fails
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 23, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
New Hampshire lawmakers have struck down a proposed state
constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage
as the union of one man and one woman, Boston.com
reported.
After a year of review, a panel assigned the task of
studying the legal ramifications of allowing same-sex
unions recommended an amendment to preserve marriage.
Republican Rep. Michael Balboni, a sponsor of the bill,
urged his colleagues to support it.
"No government body should redefine what has been
mankind's definition of the marital union for thousands of
years," he said.
TAKE ACTION: Battles at the state level underscore the
need for a federal constitutional amendment to preserve
traditional marriage. Visit the Marriage Protection
Amendment Action Center for information on how you can
take action.
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0031537.cfm
----- 8 -----
Lesbian Denied Visitation Rights
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 23, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
A Virginia court ruled Wednesday that a Vermont visitation
order issued to a lesbian seeking parenting time with her
ex-partner's child will not be recognized, Agape Press
reported.
In 2000 Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins traveled from
Virginia to Vermont to obtain a civil union. Miller later
gave birth to a child after artificial insemination but
the child was never adopted by Jenkins.
The partnership between the two ended in 2003 when Miller
became a Christian and left the relationship. Based on the
rights of those in a civil union in Vermont, Jenkins
sought visitation with the child in Virginia.
A Vermont court awarded Jenkins parent-child visitation
while a Virginia court barred any recognition of civil
unions and declared Miller to be the sole parent. Both
cases are now on appeal at the Supreme Court level in each
state.
Mat Staver, president and general counsel at Liberty
Counsel, said the confusion created when marriage laws
differ from state to state demonstrates the need for
federal legislation governing marriage issues.
"Whenever a state crosses the line and adopts a same-sex
union, whether it's civil union as in Vermont or same-sex
marriage as in Massachusetts, " he said, "the other states
are directly affected and children are caught in the
middle."
Staver said the solution is a federal constitutional
amendment to protect traditional marriage.
----- 9 -----
Pro-Family Group Renews Ford Boycott
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 23, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
The American Family Association (AFA) reinstated a boycott
of Ford Motor Co. this week after the auto giant failed to
keep an agreement with AFA to stop advertising in gay
media and financially supporting gay-advocacy groups.
Eighteen other pro-family groups joined AFA in the
boycott, including Citizens for Community Values, Liberty
Counsel and Faith2Action.
Donald Wildmon, chairman of AFA, said the initial boycott
of Ford products in May 2005 was called off when the
company agreed to work to resolve the issue. When Ford
bowed to pressure from homosexual activists, AFA called
for a one-year boycott of the company.
"Ford has the right to financially support homosexual
groups promoting homosexual marriage," Wildmon said, "but
at the same time consumers have a right not to purchase
automobiles made by Ford."
FOR MORE INFORMATION: For more detail on the Ford boycott,
visit this Web site.
http://www.boycottford.com/
----- 10 -----
AFGHANI CHRISTIAN FACES DEATH PENALTY FOR CONVERSION
Freedom of religion is at stake.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 22, 2006
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039915.cfm
SUMMARY: America led a coalition to free Afghanistan from
the repressive Taliban. Now the concept of freedom of
religion is at stake.
Four years after the U.S. led a coalition to liberate
Afghanistan from the Islamic-fundamentalist dictatorship
of the Taliban, an Afghani Christian finds himself on
trial for his faith in the nation's capital of Kabul.
If convicted, he could face a death sentence for his
"crime."
The Afghani, 41-year-old Abdul Rahman, was arrested last
month after his family denounced him for rejecting Islam
and becoming a Christian. His trial started Thursday,
according to The Associated Press, which interviewed the
judge in the case, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: 1. Please take time to pray for Abdul Rahman
-- that he will stand firm in his faith and be protected.
Pray also for the Church in Afghanistan.
2. Please contact President Bush and your members of
Congress, and remind them that American soldiers -- many
of them Christians -- paid the ultimate price to liberate
Afghanistan, and they did not do that so that Christians
could be killed. For contact information, visit the
CitizenLink Action Center and type your ZIP code into the
space provided.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/officials/
3. Please write and e-mail polite letters to the Embassy
of Afghanistan asking it to look into the matter. Express
your concerns to President Karzai's government. Be
respectful.
"It's best to communicate a positive message," Nettleton
suggested. "Tell them something like: 'We love your
country. We want the best for your country -- but we are
concerned about our Christian brother. Putting Christians
to death is not in your best interest. We urge you to
release this man and give legal protection to converts in
Afghanistan.'
"Don't try to tell them how to run their country, but do
express the fact that you are concerned about a Christian
brother who is on trial. Ask the Afghanis why he is on
trial, and remind them that their new constitution says
people have freedom to practice their religion, yet this
man is on trial for doing just that."
Embassy of Afghanistan
2341 Wyoming Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Telephone: 202-483-6410
E-mail: Info@embassyofafghanistan.org
----- 11 -----
Americans United Looks to Intimidate Churches
SUMMARY: Liberal group wants to keep moral policy issues from being discussed from the pulpit.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 22, 2006
from staff reports
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039910.cfm
The November elections are just a few months away, and one
of the first salvos in the battle is from the far-left
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
(AU).
The group recently provided a secret recording of a
pastors' political strategy meeting in Pennsylvania to The
New York Times, hoping to intimidate conservative churches
into thinking they must steer clear of anything political
-- or lose their tax-exempt status.
"We're definitely going to be involved this year," AU
spokesman Rob Boston said. "Already we're seeing the signs
here -- and it's spring -- that there will be a big push
in some states to draw churches and pastors into political
machines. Yes, we're going to be addressing that."
[...]
But that doesn't mean churches have to be silent.
Voter-registration drives, nonpartisan voters guides and
advocating for issues like marriage and life -- even from
the pulpit -- are still a Christian's First Amendment
right, Schowengerdt said.
[...]
Focus on the Family Action will be encouraging civic
participation from faith communities, according to Peter
Brandt, the group's senior director of Government and
Public Policy.
[...]
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt
believes that if Christians don't actively involve
themselves in the democratic process, our country will
soon abandon completely the godly values upon which it was
founded. In the Focus on the Family broadcast CD "Voting:
Let Your Voice Be Heard," he discusses why it's critical
for the future of our nation that Christians make their
voices heard.
http://www.family.org/resources/itempg.cfm?itemid=4900&refcd=CE06CCZL&tvar=no
----- 12 -----
States Consider Abortion Bills
Kentucky, Hawaii consider bills with opposite goals.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
by Mona Passignano, state issues analyst
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/statenews/a0039917.cfm
SUMMARY: Kentucky ponders strengthening while Hawaii
considers loosening laws regulating abortions.
Both the Hawaii and Kentucky Legislatures are considering
abortion bills that would greatly impact the number of
abortions.
In Kentucky, HB 489 would outlaw most abortions. This bill
is similar to one in South Dakota that was signed into law
March 6.
If passed, the Kentucky bill would not prohibit an
abortion to save the life of the mother, but for any other
circumstance it would make performing an abortion a
felony. HB 489 imposes no penalties for the woman.
The bill recognizes the humanity of the preborn child and
asserts that the state has the responsibility to protect
all life -- even in the womb.
On the other hand, in Hawaii, HB1242 HD1 has passed out of
the Senate Health Committee and is now in the Senate
Judiciary Committee. This bill would allow all abortions,
regardless of the trimester they are performed in, to be
done in an office or clinic.
According to Hawaii Family Forum, the bill "goes further
than current constitutional case law requires, allowing
late second and third trimester abortions in clinics, not
hospitals. Allowing such later term abortions in an
outpatient setting endangers women's health."
This bill has already passed the state House and it's
likely that the largely pro-abortion Senate will pass this
bill as well.
TAKE ACTION: Time is short, so if you are a Kentucky
resident, please contact your representative and urge him
or her to pass HB 489 which would prohibit most abortions
in the state.
And if you are a resident of Hawaii, please contact your
senator ask him or her to oppose HB1242 HD1. Allowing
later term abortions to be performed in clinics and
private offices endangers the health of women in the Aloha
State.
For contact information for your legislator, visit the
CitizenLink Action Center.
http://www.family.org/cforum/action_center.cfm
----- 13 -----
Bush Affirms Support for Traditional Marriage
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 22, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
President Bush told reporters gathered for a news
conference this week that he believes the definition of
marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
"Are you still confident," asked a reporter, "that
society's interest and the interest of those children in
gay families are being met by government saying their
parents can't marry?"
Bush responded: "I believe society's interests are met by
defining marriage as between a man and a woman. That's
what I believe."
Nineteen states have passed legislation to amend their
constitutions to protect traditional marriage. At least
seven states will vote on similar legislation in the
November election.
The federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) -- an
effort that would define marriage as solely the union of
one man and one woman -- is up for consideration in
Congress.
TAKE ACTION: Visit the Marriage Protection Amendment
Action Center to learn how you can help urge federal
lawmakers to pass the MPA.
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0031537.cfm
----- 14 -----
The missing link
Scientist discovers that evolution is missing from Arkansas classrooms.
Jason R. Wiles
Arkansas Times
Updated: 3/23/2006
http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=e7a0f0e1-ecfd-4fc8-bca4-b9997c912a91
In the fall of 2004, I received an e-mail from an old friend back in Arkansas, where I was raised. She was concerned about a problem her father was having at work. “Bob” is a geologist and a teacher at a science education institution that serves several Arkansas public school districts. My friend did not know the details of Bob’s problem, only that it had to do with geology education. This was enough to arouse my interest, so I invited Bob to tell me about what was going on.
He responded with an e-mail. Teachers at his facility are forbidden to use the “e-word” (evolution) with the kids. They are permitted to use the word “adaptation” but only to refer to a current characteristic of an organism, not as a product of evolutionary change via natural selection. They cannot even use the term “natural selection.” Bob feared that not being able to use evolutionary terms and ideas to answer his students’ questions would lead to reinforcement of their misconceptions.
But Bob’s personal issue was more specific, and the prohibition more insidious. In his words, “I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old.”
As a person with a geology background, Bob found this restriction hard to justify, especially since the new Arkansas educational benchmarks for 5th grade include introduction of the concept of the 4.5-billion-year age of the earth. Bob’s facility is supposed to be meeting or exceeding those benchmarks.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Neuhaus on Gay Adoption
Andrew Sullivan
24 Mar 2006 12:29 pm
http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/03/neuhaus_on_gay_.html
Theocon-in-chief, Richard John Neuhaus, just wrote the following paragraph about gay adoption - with reference to Catholic Charities in Boston - on his blog:
"The Church says it has 'rules' that preclude the gay placements. What has not appeared anywhere is a reasoned case that such placements are bad for the children, and it is the interest of the children that must come first. (For a critical survey of the studies and arguments relative to placing children with homosexual couples, see cosmos-liturgy-sex.) The claim that 50 or 60 percent of children reared by male homosexuals turn out to be homosexual or bisexual doesn't cut any ice in some quarters. So what's wrong with being homosexual or bisexual? And, if the incidence of sexual abuse of children in such settings is many times the norm, well, isn't it time we reconsider the legitimacy of intergenerational love?"
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
EXECUTING GAYS IN IRAQ
The New Republic Online
03.23.06
http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=11633
We've known for quite some time that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hardline regime has been harassing, jailing, and executing gay men in Iran. Now there is evidence that these practices have been exported to Iraq through the Badr Corps death squads. Journalist Doug Ireland has spoken to gay men both in and outside of Iraq who believe "the Badr Corps is receiving advice from Iran on how to target gay people." Ali Hili, a gay Iraqi exile living in London, said that "murders of gays have become an almost daily occurrence" in Iraq.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
THE CHRISTIANIZING OF AMERICA.
Without a Doubt
by Damon Linker 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Post date 03.24.06 | Issue date 04.03.06
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20060403&s=linker040306
Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth
By Richard John Neuhaus
(Basic Books, 272 pp., $25)
Click here to purchase the book.
I.
Liberal modernity exasperates traditional religion. It fosters a pluralism that denies any one faith the power to organize the whole of social life. It teaches that public authorities must submit to the consent of those over whom they aspire to rule, thereby undermining the legitimacy of all forms of absolutism. It employs the systematic skepticism of the scientific method to settle important questions of public policy. It encourages the growth of the capitalist marketplace, which unleashes human appetites and gives individuals the freedom to choose among an ever-expanding range of ways to satisfy them.
None of this means that modernity necessarily produces "secularization": the persistence of piety in America is a massive stumbling block to anyone wishing to maintain that the modern age is just a long march toward atheism. But if modernity does not lead inexorably to godlessness, the social, political, scientific, and economic dynamism of modern life nonetheless requires that traditionalist believers make a choice. They can adapt to modernity by embracing at least some degree of liberalization--or they can set out to combat the modern dispensation in the name of theological purity. A tension between these alternatives--between liberal religion and anti-liberal religion--runs through the history of nearly every modern nation, including the United States.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
Time to Bench More Judicial Nominees
Concerned Women for America
also Human Events Online
3/24/2006
By Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel
The Senate needs to bring on the judges before November brings on unhappy voters.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10384/LEGAL/misc/index.htm
-- also --
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=13438
Elections have consequences, so say pundits and politicians. When George W. Bush promised that if elected President he would appoint “strict-constructionist judges who don’t legislate from the bench,” Americans took him at his word and he has delivered.
Americans know that when judges exceed their authority, especially those on America’s highest court, constitutional rights of life, liberty and property are diminished. Our right to rule as “We the People” is meaningless.
Two of the best consequences of the last presidential and Senate elections were the confirmations of John G. Roberts as Chief Justice and Samuel A. Alito as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Americans supported Roberts and Alito because they are superbly qualified and aren’t closet legislators in black-drag.
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
Two More Women Die After Taking RU-486
Concerned Women for America
Cara Cook
March 24, 2006
http://www.cwalac.org/article_316.shtml
Two more American women have died after taking RU-486, “the abortion pill,” which brings the total deaths in the United States to seven.
Concerned Women for America (CWA), along with other organizations that have been outraged by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) endorsement of the drug, has demanded that the FDA revoke its approval of RU-486 (also known as “mifepristone” and “Mifeprex”).
Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs of the Planned Parenthood (PP) Federation of America, claimed in a Washington Post article that because “only” seven women have died out of the supposedly 560,000 chemical abortions that have taken place in the United States, there is no reason to suspend RU-486.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
FLORIDA COUNTY WANTS TO FORCE CHURCHES TO STAY SMALL
Commissioners seek to amend laws to ensure new churches have limited pews.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 24, 2006
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039952.cfm
Pastors and concerned citizens in Palm Beach County, Fla.,
are protesting as both unrealistic and unconstitutional a
proposed amendment to zoning laws that would limit the
size of future church-building projects.
County officials maintain residents in some communities
have complained about the noise and traffic associated
with church expansion. The only way to solve the problem,
they maintain, is to keep churches small.
Palm Beach County commissioners have requested that the
Planning and Zoning Department draft an amendment to the
land development code that would severely limit the size
of any future church to a scale based on the density of
the neighborhood population.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: If you are a resident of Palm Beach County,
please write the county commissioners and urge them not to
amend zoning laws to restrict church size. For contact
information, visit the CitizenLink Action Center.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/officials/locality/?entity_id=704&state=FL
----- 21 -----
New Marriage Poll Doesn't Tell Whole Story
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 24, 2006
from staff reports
SUMMARY: Media failing to note that 60 percent of
Americans still oppose allowing homosexuals to marry.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039941.cfm
A national poll by the Pew Forum seems to indicate that
Americans are weakening in their resolve to defend
traditional marriage.
The poll reports that in February 2004, the month
Massachusetts legalized same- sex marriage, 63 percent of
Americans opposed such arrangements. Today, that number is
51 percent.
The Massachusetts decision and gay marriages allowed
during the same month in defiance of California state law
by the rogue mayor of San Francisco certainly bolstered
opposition. But the same Pew poll also finds only four in
10 support gay marriage, a fact conveniently omitted in
most media accounts.
Matt Daniels, director of the Alliance for Marriage, said
the poll results aren't really an accurate reflection of
Americans' attitudes.
"We've seen routinely with these polls that what people
will say is at least 10 percentage points different from
what they do when they go to the voting booth," he told
Family News in Focus.
[...]
"As younger kids come of age and start to participate in
the political process," he explained, "they're much more
liberal in their views on the issue of homosexuality."
[...]
Several upcoming events could fuel opposition to same-sex
marriage, though. The state Supreme Court of Washington
is expected to rule on gay marriage and the same battle is
just starting in Connecticut courts.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: To learn more about how you can
support the federal Marriage Protection Amendment, to
ensure that traditional marriage in not redefined by
radical courts, visit the CitizenLink Web site.
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0031537.cfm
----- 22 -----
Help Build Marriage Amendment Momentum!
We need your help to build Marriage Amendment momentum!
March 24, 2006 - Friday
Family Research Council
Please forward to a Friend!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06C07
Eight same-sex couples suing the state of Connecticut for the right to marry said Tuesday as the case opened that they are "cautiously optimistic" . . . The Washington state Supreme Court heard arguments on a case challenging Washington's ban on gay marriage last year, and a ruling could come as soon as this week . . . The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments this February in a case seeking marriage "equality" . . . New York State's highest court - the Court of Appeal - will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of banning same-sex marriage this May. Finally, a case involving gay marriage is in a mid-level court in California and is expected to reach that state's high court next year.
Yet amazingly, a number of U.S. Senators do not believe there's a need for a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to preserve the institution of marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
Without the amendment, the debate now underway may well be short-circuited by the courts. Homosexual activist groups like the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, Human Rights Campaign, and the ACLU are perfectly happy to "shop" for liberal activist judges in targeted states until "gay marriage" and the entire homosexual agenda are accepted throughout the entire United States.
The vote in the U.S. Senate is currently scheduled for the week of June 5, 2006. Please take this simple step to help: sign this petition ( https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PT06C01&f=AL06C07&track=0 ) in support of passage of the Marriage Protection Amendment. We will deliver these petitions to your Senator prior to the vote. Let your voice be known.
----- 23 -----
Ford 'Proves' Commitment To Homosexual Agenda
American Family Association ACTION ALERT
March 23, 2006
http://www.afa.net/ford0323.asp
Ford Motor Company has proven its commitment to the homosexual agenda by sponsoring a TV program featuring a passionate kiss between two lesbians.
Last fall, in a meeting with AFA, Ford agreed to stop funding the homosexual agenda. However, after a group of angry homosexual leaders met with Ford, the company reneged on its agreement and announced that they would continue their commitment to support the effort to legalize homosexual marriage.
Ford even gave the homosexual groups a letter stating Ford's strong commitment to their cause.
On a recent episode of CBS's Without A Trace, Ford proved to the homosexual leaders the company's commitment to their agenda. The Ford-sponsored program included a scene of two lesbians passionately kissing each other.
[More at URL]
----- 24 -----
Ford Boycott Called Over Promotion of Homosexual Agenda
Concerned Women for America
3/24/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10389/CWA/misc/index.htm
The American Family Association has called a boycott of Ford Motor Company products because of the company’s unapologetic promotion of the homosexual agenda. CWA does not participate in boycotts, however we do report on them so that our members can follow their own consciences. Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute, has more on this story. Click here to listen.
----- 25 -----
Oklahoma House Approves Limiting Children's Access to Explicit Library Materials
By Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 23, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/232006b.asp
(AgapePress) - Oklahoma lawmakers have approved legislation that would place books containing sexually explicit content in an adult-only section of public libraries across the state. House Bill 2158 would withhold public library funding if books containing graphic sexual references are not placed out of the reach of minors.
[...]
But the bill's author, Representative Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City), argued that children deserve a time of "protected innocence" and sheltered from early exposure to the sort of sexually explicit and inappropriate material with which their culture is inundated. Associated Press quotes Kern as observing that contemporary advertisers apparently "can't sell toothpaste without sex," and that even the American Library Association is "out to sexualize our children."
[...]
AP reports that prior to the House vote, Kern distributed to her fellow legislators several excerpts from books she said were found in local libraries. The excerpts were from books that contained homosexual or sexually explicit references, and the state representative remarked, "The average citizen does not have a clue what is in the library."
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Pro-Family Group Rips Wal-Mart for Promoting Brokeback
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 24, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/242006e.asp
(AgapePress) - An official with a pro-family advocacy group is encouraging concerned Christians to contact Wal-Mart regarding the upcoming home video and DVD release of the movie Brokeback Mountain. He claims the retailer's plan to distribute the pro-homosexual film is evidence Wal-Mart has strayed from its family-friendly roots.
Wal-Mart stores nationwide will carry the controversial movie when it is released on DVD. In-store posters and billboards are already advertising the upcoming release, scheduled for April 4. The movie, which opened in a limited number of theaters in early December, tells the story of two cowboys who carry on a homosexual relationship while maintaining traditional marriages. By Hollywood standards it was not a huge box office success (less than $90 million in the U.S. as of March 12), drawing much of its viewing audience in cities known to have large homosexual populations.
Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the Mississippi-based American Family Association, says the movie -- despite winning three Academy Awards earlier this month -- is not "family-friendly." And it does not belong on the shelves of a store that has marketed itself to middle America, he adds.
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
New Report: ‘No Homosexual Adoption’ Now Online
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2656
March 22, 2006 – Catholic Charities in Massachusetts has announced it is shutting down its adoption agency to avoid being forced by the state to send children to homosexual households. The same threat is looming over Catholic Charities in San Francisco, which may also have to close its doors to avoid complying with pro-homosexual, anti-discrimination policies.
In fact, on March 22 , the National Center for Lesbian Rights said it would consider filing a lawsuit against the Catholic Archdiocese in San Francisco if the Church moves ahead with its plan to ban all homosexual adoptions through its agency.
As it turns out, the director of programs and services of San Francisco’s Catholic Charities is a homosexual male who has a daughter he adopted four years ago with his homosexual partner. Glenn Motola was recently promoted at the charity as second in command of the Catholic agency. The current head of the charities is Brian Cahill, who has a homosexual son and has previously admitted placing children in “loving” homosexual homes.
Ignatius Insight has more details on this added controversy involving the charity in San Francisco.
Advocates of homosexual adoption claim that children reared in homosexual homes are no different than children brought up in heterosexual homes. This is untrue, and there is sufficient scientific research to show that children who are brought up in homosexual homes are far more likely to express stresses and potential physical harm.
(Link to their anti-gay agit-prop here: http://www.traditionalvalues.org/pdf_files/gay_adoption.pdf )
[More at URL]
----- 28 -----
Homosexuals Push U.N. For ‘Human Rights’ Protections
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2654
March 22, 2006 – The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) is pressuring the United Nations once again to include homosexual behavior as a human right under the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission (to be renamed the Human Rights Council).
[More at URL]
----- 29 -----
Congress Must Pass Academic Bill Of Rights!
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2652
March 22, 2006 – House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is urging his colleagues to pass the Academic Bill of Rights as part of an education bill to be considered in Congress this session. The bill, Higher Education Act (H.R. 609), is aimed at expanding opportunities for lower and middle-income students. Section 103 of H.R. 609 contains the Student Speech and Association Rights. It says, in part: “Students should not be intimidated, harassed, discouraged from speaking out, discriminated against, or subject to official sanction because of their personal, political, ideological, or religious beliefs...”
Section 103 is designed to prohibit colleges receiving federal funds from denying students benefits or discriminating against them because of their political or religious beliefs.
The Academic Bill of Rights is supported by David Horowitz, an ex-Communist who is spearheading a nationwide effort to protect the free speech rights of students who express politically incorrect ideas on campus. Conservative Christians are typically targeted for discriminatory treatment on college campuses.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Urge your Representative to support passage of H.R. 609 to include the Academic Bill of Rights! Use CapWiz to write your letter.
[More at URL]
----- 30 -----
Struggling with homosexuality
Focus on the Family (Canada)
Today's Family News
March 24, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/sexuality/stories/032406.html
Many Canadians continue to view homosexuality as immoral, according to a new poll conducted for CanWest by Ipsos Reid.
As the Regina Leader-Post reported, 54 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that “homosexuality is morally acceptable.” That degree of acceptance ranged from a high of 69 per cent in Quebec to a low of 47 per cent in Saskatchewan.
Regina resident Duncan Campbell, a homosexual, thinks that these findings indicate that homosexuals still face a lot of intolerance and oppression.
“It really gives us an opportunity to look at ourselves and decide, as a province and as a larger community, what we think is important – and as a larger community, if what we think is important is intolerance and oppression, then we’re in trouble,” he told the Leader-Post.
[...]
Melissa Fryrear, a gender issues analyst at Focus on the Family USA, spoke from experience when she described the need for hope for people struggling with homosexuality.
“Having personally lived homosexually for a decade, one of the most disheartening things looking back is that I never heard a message of hope . . . from the gay community or the Christian community,” Fryrear told Today’s Family News.” “In other words, I never heard the truth that homosexuality could be overcome.”
[More at URL]
----- 31 -----
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Talking Points: The Case For Marriage II
Faith and Freedom Network
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/03/talking-points-case-for-marriage-ii.html
Marriage provides a safety net of protections and benefits that same-sex couples are currently denied.
* Many of the benefits same-sex couples demand are available through private arrangements. Issues of hospital visitation, inheritance rights, health care proxies, and powers of attorney are all available by contract.
[More at URL]
There's an unattributed quote going around saying that an unnamed Republican had said that contraception for unmarried women was supporting promiscuity; I've found a primary source with direct, attributed quote;
U. Minnesota study: atheists most distrusted minourity in America; more Americans would approve of their children marrying someone of the same sex than marrying an atheist;
Middle East Quarterly has an article raising several questions about religious Muslim enclaves and Constitutional law; I dislike the headline but feel the article raises important questions;
Focus on the Family upset at new Navy chaplain guidelines saying that prayers should be non-sectarian at command events; Pat Roberton's ACLJ is "working with the Navy Department to help refine the policy";
Florida anti-marriage amendment would ban gay and lesbian marriage and any "other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof," meaning civil unions, domestic partnerships, and so on;
Focus on the Family reports on failure of New Hampshire anti-marriage amendment, puts out an ACTION ITEM to support a Federal anti-marriage amendment;
FotF notes Virginia denies a Vermont woman's custody claim on the basis of not recognising her Vermont civil union as legal (via their anti-marriage amendment); at the same time, a Vermont court had already awarded her joint custody after their CU dissolved (the other woman converted to Christian fundamentalism); FotF calls again for a Federal anti-marriage amendment (that includes civil unions, from context) to prevent them from having ever been married (or CUed) in the first place;
Focus on the Family promotes the American Family Association's boycott of Ford Motor;
I hate it when I'm on their side; Focus on the Family puts out an ACTION ITEM on behalf of the Afghan man who converted to Christianity and now faces the death penalty for having left the Muslim faith;
FotF attacks Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which says it will be watching for electioneering by churches in 2006;
FotF ACTION ITEM to support KENTUCKY measure to ban nearly all abortions - it's very similar to South Dakota's bill; also, to oppose an HAWAII'I bill to loosen restrictions;
President Bush reaffirms support for anti-marriage amendment, FotF appends an ACTION ITEM to support the FMA;
Creationists in Arkansas realise that geology, too, is embarrassing to creationism, so: science teachers are pressured not to talk about the age of rocks;
Andrew Sullivan catches Richard Neuhaus quoting Cameron slander-studies to imply that most gay men rape children; it's good that Andrew is learning the ropes;
Iranian-trained Badr Corps militias stepping up executions of GBLT people in Iraq; American response is, quote, "indifference and derision";
Long article in The New Republic about the origins of theoconservatism in America;
More rhetoric from CWA about judicial nominees; what's interesting about this one is that Human Events Online also runs it as their own article;
CWA rails more against RU486, demanding it be pulled from the market;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM against Palm Beach County (Florida) zoning code;
FotF spins poll showing opposition to GBLT marriage rights has fallen; this is interesting in that they admit outright this is a time-based fight, that the younger people are, the more likely they are to support GBLT marriage rights;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to support the Federal Marriage Amendment via an anti-gay petition;
AFA: Ford "proves commitment to homosexual agenda" by buying ads on CBS drama Without a Trace which included brief lesbian smoochies; YAY lesbian smoochies!;
Concerned Women for America pushes AFA boycott;
Oklahoma State House passes bill moving all library books with GBLT characters or themes out of general circulation and into special "adults only" sections; also does the same with all books with "sexually explicit references"; attacks the American Library Association as "out to sexualize our children";
AFA attacks Wal-mart for plans to carry the Brokeback Mountain DVD;
Traditional Values Coalition pushes new anti-gay "report" attacking GBLT adoptions;
TVC attacks efforts by GBLT rights groups to get the UN to recognise GBLT rights as an issue;
TVC ACTION ITEM to support a "Student Speech and Association Rights" clause (section 103) in HR609, the Higher Education Act. Anybody know what this is about?;
Focus on the Family happy to report that many Canadians still see GBLT people as morally unacceptable, pushes anti-gay "reparative therapy";
Faith and Freedom Network posts some additional "talking points" against marriage rights.
------ 1 -----
Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006
Low-income women would be affected
House OKs birth control funding ban
By KIT WAGAR
The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/health/14109047.htm
JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri House voted Wednesday to ban state funding of contraceptives for low-income women and to prohibit state-funded programs from referring those women to other programs.
Critics jumped on the proposal, saying it would lead to more abortions and more unwanted children on welfare.
But the proposal’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Susan Phillips of Kansas City, said contraceptive services were an inappropriate use of tax dollars. “If doctors want to give contraception privately or personally, they can,” Phillips said. “But we don’t need to pay for contraception with taxpayer funds.”
[...]
But Phillips said she was comfortable with the change because the group Missouri Right to Life and the Missouri Catholic Conference supported it.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Contraception plan rejected
House nixes funding for birth control.
Columbia Daily Tribune
Published Thursday, March 16, 2006
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Mar/20060316News030.asp
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - An attempt to resume state spending on birth control was shot down yesterday by House members who argued it would have amounted to an endorsement of promiscuous lifestyles.
Missouri stopped providing money for family planning and certain women’s health services when Republicans gained control of both chambers of the General Assembly in 2003.
But a Democratic lawmaker, in a little-noticed committee amendment, had successfully inserted language into the proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 that would have allowed part of the $9.2 million intended for "core public health functions" to go to contraception provided through public health clinics.
The House voted 96-59 to delete the funding for contraception and infertility treatments after Rep. Susan Phillips told lawmakers that anti-abortion groups such as Missouri Right to Life were opposed to the spending.
"If you hand out contraception to single women, we’re saying promiscuity is OK as a state, and I am not in support of that," Phillips, R-Kansas City, said in an interview.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study
What: U of M study reveals America’s distrust of atheism
Who: Penny Edgell, associate professor of sociology
Contact: Nina Shepherd, sociology media relations, (612) 599-1148
Mark Cassutt University News Service, (612) 624-8038
http://www.ur.umn.edu/FMPro?-db=releases&-lay=web&-format=umnnewsreleases/releasesdetail.html&ID=2816&-Find
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (3/20/2006) -- American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology.
From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.
Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
The Islamist Challenge to the U.S. Constitution
by David Kennedy Houck
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2006
http://www.meforum.org/pf.php?id=920
First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law?
Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1] the trend is now crossing the Atlantic. Some Islamist community leaders in the United States are challenging the principles of assimilation and equality once central to the civil rights movement, seeking instead to live according to a separate but equal philosophy. The Gwynnoaks Muslim Residential Development group, for example, has established an informal enclave in Baltimore because, according to John Yahya Cason, director of the Islamic Education and Community Development Initiative, a Baltimore-based Muslim advocacy group, "there was no community in the U.S. that showed the totality of the essential components of Muslim social, economic, and political structure."[2]
Baltimore is not alone. In August 2004, a local planning commission in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted The Islamic Center for Human Excellence authorization to build an internal Islamic enclave to include a mosque, a school, and twenty-two homes.[3] While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs,"[4] the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
NAVY SECRETARY IMPLEMENTS NEW PRAYER GUIDELINES
Pro-family legal experts raise warning flags over directive.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 23, 2006
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039930.cfm
A new policy imposed by U.S. Secretary of the Navy Donald
C. Winter tells chaplains to pray only "nonsectarian"
prayers when they are part of any function outside the
chapel doors.
Navy Lt. Gordon J. Klingenschmitt said the policy means
naval commanders can now dictate when a prayer is said and
what it can contain. He said that violates the First
Amendment rights of chaplains like himself.
[...]
Navy spokesman Lt. William Marks, however, said the Navy
is not saying a chaplain can't say "in Jesus' name" in a
prayer -- but he did say that prayers in public
ceremonies, such as retirements or promotions, should
reflect the Navy's "pluralistic" audience.
"A chaplain will not be censored during a religious
service," Marks explained to CitizenLink, defining
"religious service" as a worship service, Bible study,
prayer service or similar "divine services."
[...]
"But for nonreligious command-sponsored events," he said,
"the commander will consult with a chaplain, and based on
the event, the audience and the wishes of the person
involved will determine the extent of a chaplain's
participation."
Sekulow and Staver both said their groups are working with
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., to address the issue. The ACLJ
is also working with the Navy Department to help refine
the policy.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Florida High Court OKs Marriage-Amendment Language
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 23, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
The Florida Supreme Court ruled today that the wording of
a proposed constitutional amendment to preserve marriage
meets constitutional requirements. If a petition drive
gathers the required 611,009 signatures by July 12, the
measure will be placed on a statewide ballot in 2008.
The Florida Marriage Protection Amendment would add
language to the state constitution, "Inasmuch as marriage
is the legal union of only one man and one woman as
husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as
marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be
valid or recognized."
Mat Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty
Counsel, drafted the language of the amendment.
"I have no doubt that this marriage amendment will pass by
an overwhelming majority," he said. "Marriage should be
decided by the people, not the courts."
FOR MORE INFORMATION: You can view the court decision by
clicking on this link.
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2006/sc05-1563.pdf
----- 7 -----
New Hampshire Marriage Amendment Fails
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 23, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
New Hampshire lawmakers have struck down a proposed state
constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage
as the union of one man and one woman, Boston.com
reported.
After a year of review, a panel assigned the task of
studying the legal ramifications of allowing same-sex
unions recommended an amendment to preserve marriage.
Republican Rep. Michael Balboni, a sponsor of the bill,
urged his colleagues to support it.
"No government body should redefine what has been
mankind's definition of the marital union for thousands of
years," he said.
TAKE ACTION: Battles at the state level underscore the
need for a federal constitutional amendment to preserve
traditional marriage. Visit the Marriage Protection
Amendment Action Center for information on how you can
take action.
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0031537.cfm
----- 8 -----
Lesbian Denied Visitation Rights
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 23, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
A Virginia court ruled Wednesday that a Vermont visitation
order issued to a lesbian seeking parenting time with her
ex-partner's child will not be recognized, Agape Press
reported.
In 2000 Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins traveled from
Virginia to Vermont to obtain a civil union. Miller later
gave birth to a child after artificial insemination but
the child was never adopted by Jenkins.
The partnership between the two ended in 2003 when Miller
became a Christian and left the relationship. Based on the
rights of those in a civil union in Vermont, Jenkins
sought visitation with the child in Virginia.
A Vermont court awarded Jenkins parent-child visitation
while a Virginia court barred any recognition of civil
unions and declared Miller to be the sole parent. Both
cases are now on appeal at the Supreme Court level in each
state.
Mat Staver, president and general counsel at Liberty
Counsel, said the confusion created when marriage laws
differ from state to state demonstrates the need for
federal legislation governing marriage issues.
"Whenever a state crosses the line and adopts a same-sex
union, whether it's civil union as in Vermont or same-sex
marriage as in Massachusetts, " he said, "the other states
are directly affected and children are caught in the
middle."
Staver said the solution is a federal constitutional
amendment to protect traditional marriage.
----- 9 -----
Pro-Family Group Renews Ford Boycott
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 23, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
The American Family Association (AFA) reinstated a boycott
of Ford Motor Co. this week after the auto giant failed to
keep an agreement with AFA to stop advertising in gay
media and financially supporting gay-advocacy groups.
Eighteen other pro-family groups joined AFA in the
boycott, including Citizens for Community Values, Liberty
Counsel and Faith2Action.
Donald Wildmon, chairman of AFA, said the initial boycott
of Ford products in May 2005 was called off when the
company agreed to work to resolve the issue. When Ford
bowed to pressure from homosexual activists, AFA called
for a one-year boycott of the company.
"Ford has the right to financially support homosexual
groups promoting homosexual marriage," Wildmon said, "but
at the same time consumers have a right not to purchase
automobiles made by Ford."
FOR MORE INFORMATION: For more detail on the Ford boycott,
visit this Web site.
http://www.boycottford.com/
----- 10 -----
AFGHANI CHRISTIAN FACES DEATH PENALTY FOR CONVERSION
Freedom of religion is at stake.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 22, 2006
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039915.cfm
SUMMARY: America led a coalition to free Afghanistan from
the repressive Taliban. Now the concept of freedom of
religion is at stake.
Four years after the U.S. led a coalition to liberate
Afghanistan from the Islamic-fundamentalist dictatorship
of the Taliban, an Afghani Christian finds himself on
trial for his faith in the nation's capital of Kabul.
If convicted, he could face a death sentence for his
"crime."
The Afghani, 41-year-old Abdul Rahman, was arrested last
month after his family denounced him for rejecting Islam
and becoming a Christian. His trial started Thursday,
according to The Associated Press, which interviewed the
judge in the case, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: 1. Please take time to pray for Abdul Rahman
-- that he will stand firm in his faith and be protected.
Pray also for the Church in Afghanistan.
2. Please contact President Bush and your members of
Congress, and remind them that American soldiers -- many
of them Christians -- paid the ultimate price to liberate
Afghanistan, and they did not do that so that Christians
could be killed. For contact information, visit the
CitizenLink Action Center and type your ZIP code into the
space provided.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/officials/
3. Please write and e-mail polite letters to the Embassy
of Afghanistan asking it to look into the matter. Express
your concerns to President Karzai's government. Be
respectful.
"It's best to communicate a positive message," Nettleton
suggested. "Tell them something like: 'We love your
country. We want the best for your country -- but we are
concerned about our Christian brother. Putting Christians
to death is not in your best interest. We urge you to
release this man and give legal protection to converts in
Afghanistan.'
"Don't try to tell them how to run their country, but do
express the fact that you are concerned about a Christian
brother who is on trial. Ask the Afghanis why he is on
trial, and remind them that their new constitution says
people have freedom to practice their religion, yet this
man is on trial for doing just that."
Embassy of Afghanistan
2341 Wyoming Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Telephone: 202-483-6410
E-mail: Info@embassyofafghanistan.org
----- 11 -----
Americans United Looks to Intimidate Churches
SUMMARY: Liberal group wants to keep moral policy issues from being discussed from the pulpit.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 22, 2006
from staff reports
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039910.cfm
The November elections are just a few months away, and one
of the first salvos in the battle is from the far-left
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
(AU).
The group recently provided a secret recording of a
pastors' political strategy meeting in Pennsylvania to The
New York Times, hoping to intimidate conservative churches
into thinking they must steer clear of anything political
-- or lose their tax-exempt status.
"We're definitely going to be involved this year," AU
spokesman Rob Boston said. "Already we're seeing the signs
here -- and it's spring -- that there will be a big push
in some states to draw churches and pastors into political
machines. Yes, we're going to be addressing that."
[...]
But that doesn't mean churches have to be silent.
Voter-registration drives, nonpartisan voters guides and
advocating for issues like marriage and life -- even from
the pulpit -- are still a Christian's First Amendment
right, Schowengerdt said.
[...]
Focus on the Family Action will be encouraging civic
participation from faith communities, according to Peter
Brandt, the group's senior director of Government and
Public Policy.
[...]
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt
believes that if Christians don't actively involve
themselves in the democratic process, our country will
soon abandon completely the godly values upon which it was
founded. In the Focus on the Family broadcast CD "Voting:
Let Your Voice Be Heard," he discusses why it's critical
for the future of our nation that Christians make their
voices heard.
http://www.family.org/resources/itempg.cfm?itemid=4900&refcd=CE06CCZL&tvar=no
----- 12 -----
States Consider Abortion Bills
Kentucky, Hawaii consider bills with opposite goals.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
by Mona Passignano, state issues analyst
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/statenews/a0039917.cfm
SUMMARY: Kentucky ponders strengthening while Hawaii
considers loosening laws regulating abortions.
Both the Hawaii and Kentucky Legislatures are considering
abortion bills that would greatly impact the number of
abortions.
In Kentucky, HB 489 would outlaw most abortions. This bill
is similar to one in South Dakota that was signed into law
March 6.
If passed, the Kentucky bill would not prohibit an
abortion to save the life of the mother, but for any other
circumstance it would make performing an abortion a
felony. HB 489 imposes no penalties for the woman.
The bill recognizes the humanity of the preborn child and
asserts that the state has the responsibility to protect
all life -- even in the womb.
On the other hand, in Hawaii, HB1242 HD1 has passed out of
the Senate Health Committee and is now in the Senate
Judiciary Committee. This bill would allow all abortions,
regardless of the trimester they are performed in, to be
done in an office or clinic.
According to Hawaii Family Forum, the bill "goes further
than current constitutional case law requires, allowing
late second and third trimester abortions in clinics, not
hospitals. Allowing such later term abortions in an
outpatient setting endangers women's health."
This bill has already passed the state House and it's
likely that the largely pro-abortion Senate will pass this
bill as well.
TAKE ACTION: Time is short, so if you are a Kentucky
resident, please contact your representative and urge him
or her to pass HB 489 which would prohibit most abortions
in the state.
And if you are a resident of Hawaii, please contact your
senator ask him or her to oppose HB1242 HD1. Allowing
later term abortions to be performed in clinics and
private offices endangers the health of women in the Aloha
State.
For contact information for your legislator, visit the
CitizenLink Action Center.
http://www.family.org/cforum/action_center.cfm
----- 13 -----
Bush Affirms Support for Traditional Marriage
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 22, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
President Bush told reporters gathered for a news
conference this week that he believes the definition of
marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
"Are you still confident," asked a reporter, "that
society's interest and the interest of those children in
gay families are being met by government saying their
parents can't marry?"
Bush responded: "I believe society's interests are met by
defining marriage as between a man and a woman. That's
what I believe."
Nineteen states have passed legislation to amend their
constitutions to protect traditional marriage. At least
seven states will vote on similar legislation in the
November election.
The federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) -- an
effort that would define marriage as solely the union of
one man and one woman -- is up for consideration in
Congress.
TAKE ACTION: Visit the Marriage Protection Amendment
Action Center to learn how you can help urge federal
lawmakers to pass the MPA.
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0031537.cfm
----- 14 -----
The missing link
Scientist discovers that evolution is missing from Arkansas classrooms.
Jason R. Wiles
Arkansas Times
Updated: 3/23/2006
http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=e7a0f0e1-ecfd-4fc8-bca4-b9997c912a91
In the fall of 2004, I received an e-mail from an old friend back in Arkansas, where I was raised. She was concerned about a problem her father was having at work. “Bob” is a geologist and a teacher at a science education institution that serves several Arkansas public school districts. My friend did not know the details of Bob’s problem, only that it had to do with geology education. This was enough to arouse my interest, so I invited Bob to tell me about what was going on.
He responded with an e-mail. Teachers at his facility are forbidden to use the “e-word” (evolution) with the kids. They are permitted to use the word “adaptation” but only to refer to a current characteristic of an organism, not as a product of evolutionary change via natural selection. They cannot even use the term “natural selection.” Bob feared that not being able to use evolutionary terms and ideas to answer his students’ questions would lead to reinforcement of their misconceptions.
But Bob’s personal issue was more specific, and the prohibition more insidious. In his words, “I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old.”
As a person with a geology background, Bob found this restriction hard to justify, especially since the new Arkansas educational benchmarks for 5th grade include introduction of the concept of the 4.5-billion-year age of the earth. Bob’s facility is supposed to be meeting or exceeding those benchmarks.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Neuhaus on Gay Adoption
Andrew Sullivan
24 Mar 2006 12:29 pm
http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/03/neuhaus_on_gay_.html
Theocon-in-chief, Richard John Neuhaus, just wrote the following paragraph about gay adoption - with reference to Catholic Charities in Boston - on his blog:
"The Church says it has 'rules' that preclude the gay placements. What has not appeared anywhere is a reasoned case that such placements are bad for the children, and it is the interest of the children that must come first. (For a critical survey of the studies and arguments relative to placing children with homosexual couples, see cosmos-liturgy-sex.) The claim that 50 or 60 percent of children reared by male homosexuals turn out to be homosexual or bisexual doesn't cut any ice in some quarters. So what's wrong with being homosexual or bisexual? And, if the incidence of sexual abuse of children in such settings is many times the norm, well, isn't it time we reconsider the legitimacy of intergenerational love?"
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
EXECUTING GAYS IN IRAQ
The New Republic Online
03.23.06
http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=11633
We've known for quite some time that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hardline regime has been harassing, jailing, and executing gay men in Iran. Now there is evidence that these practices have been exported to Iraq through the Badr Corps death squads. Journalist Doug Ireland has spoken to gay men both in and outside of Iraq who believe "the Badr Corps is receiving advice from Iran on how to target gay people." Ali Hili, a gay Iraqi exile living in London, said that "murders of gays have become an almost daily occurrence" in Iraq.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
THE CHRISTIANIZING OF AMERICA.
Without a Doubt
by Damon Linker 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Post date 03.24.06 | Issue date 04.03.06
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20060403&s=linker040306
Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth
By Richard John Neuhaus
(Basic Books, 272 pp., $25)
Click here to purchase the book.
I.
Liberal modernity exasperates traditional religion. It fosters a pluralism that denies any one faith the power to organize the whole of social life. It teaches that public authorities must submit to the consent of those over whom they aspire to rule, thereby undermining the legitimacy of all forms of absolutism. It employs the systematic skepticism of the scientific method to settle important questions of public policy. It encourages the growth of the capitalist marketplace, which unleashes human appetites and gives individuals the freedom to choose among an ever-expanding range of ways to satisfy them.
None of this means that modernity necessarily produces "secularization": the persistence of piety in America is a massive stumbling block to anyone wishing to maintain that the modern age is just a long march toward atheism. But if modernity does not lead inexorably to godlessness, the social, political, scientific, and economic dynamism of modern life nonetheless requires that traditionalist believers make a choice. They can adapt to modernity by embracing at least some degree of liberalization--or they can set out to combat the modern dispensation in the name of theological purity. A tension between these alternatives--between liberal religion and anti-liberal religion--runs through the history of nearly every modern nation, including the United States.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
Time to Bench More Judicial Nominees
Concerned Women for America
also Human Events Online
3/24/2006
By Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel
The Senate needs to bring on the judges before November brings on unhappy voters.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10384/LEGAL/misc/index.htm
-- also --
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=13438
Elections have consequences, so say pundits and politicians. When George W. Bush promised that if elected President he would appoint “strict-constructionist judges who don’t legislate from the bench,” Americans took him at his word and he has delivered.
Americans know that when judges exceed their authority, especially those on America’s highest court, constitutional rights of life, liberty and property are diminished. Our right to rule as “We the People” is meaningless.
Two of the best consequences of the last presidential and Senate elections were the confirmations of John G. Roberts as Chief Justice and Samuel A. Alito as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Americans supported Roberts and Alito because they are superbly qualified and aren’t closet legislators in black-drag.
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
Two More Women Die After Taking RU-486
Concerned Women for America
Cara Cook
March 24, 2006
http://www.cwalac.org/article_316.shtml
Two more American women have died after taking RU-486, “the abortion pill,” which brings the total deaths in the United States to seven.
Concerned Women for America (CWA), along with other organizations that have been outraged by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) endorsement of the drug, has demanded that the FDA revoke its approval of RU-486 (also known as “mifepristone” and “Mifeprex”).
Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs of the Planned Parenthood (PP) Federation of America, claimed in a Washington Post article that because “only” seven women have died out of the supposedly 560,000 chemical abortions that have taken place in the United States, there is no reason to suspend RU-486.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
FLORIDA COUNTY WANTS TO FORCE CHURCHES TO STAY SMALL
Commissioners seek to amend laws to ensure new churches have limited pews.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 24, 2006
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039952.cfm
Pastors and concerned citizens in Palm Beach County, Fla.,
are protesting as both unrealistic and unconstitutional a
proposed amendment to zoning laws that would limit the
size of future church-building projects.
County officials maintain residents in some communities
have complained about the noise and traffic associated
with church expansion. The only way to solve the problem,
they maintain, is to keep churches small.
Palm Beach County commissioners have requested that the
Planning and Zoning Department draft an amendment to the
land development code that would severely limit the size
of any future church to a scale based on the density of
the neighborhood population.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: If you are a resident of Palm Beach County,
please write the county commissioners and urge them not to
amend zoning laws to restrict church size. For contact
information, visit the CitizenLink Action Center.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/officials/locality/?entity_id=704&state=FL
----- 21 -----
New Marriage Poll Doesn't Tell Whole Story
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 24, 2006
from staff reports
SUMMARY: Media failing to note that 60 percent of
Americans still oppose allowing homosexuals to marry.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039941.cfm
A national poll by the Pew Forum seems to indicate that
Americans are weakening in their resolve to defend
traditional marriage.
The poll reports that in February 2004, the month
Massachusetts legalized same- sex marriage, 63 percent of
Americans opposed such arrangements. Today, that number is
51 percent.
The Massachusetts decision and gay marriages allowed
during the same month in defiance of California state law
by the rogue mayor of San Francisco certainly bolstered
opposition. But the same Pew poll also finds only four in
10 support gay marriage, a fact conveniently omitted in
most media accounts.
Matt Daniels, director of the Alliance for Marriage, said
the poll results aren't really an accurate reflection of
Americans' attitudes.
"We've seen routinely with these polls that what people
will say is at least 10 percentage points different from
what they do when they go to the voting booth," he told
Family News in Focus.
[...]
"As younger kids come of age and start to participate in
the political process," he explained, "they're much more
liberal in their views on the issue of homosexuality."
[...]
Several upcoming events could fuel opposition to same-sex
marriage, though. The state Supreme Court of Washington
is expected to rule on gay marriage and the same battle is
just starting in Connecticut courts.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: To learn more about how you can
support the federal Marriage Protection Amendment, to
ensure that traditional marriage in not redefined by
radical courts, visit the CitizenLink Web site.
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0031537.cfm
----- 22 -----
Help Build Marriage Amendment Momentum!
We need your help to build Marriage Amendment momentum!
March 24, 2006 - Friday
Family Research Council
Please forward to a Friend!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06C07
Eight same-sex couples suing the state of Connecticut for the right to marry said Tuesday as the case opened that they are "cautiously optimistic" . . . The Washington state Supreme Court heard arguments on a case challenging Washington's ban on gay marriage last year, and a ruling could come as soon as this week . . . The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments this February in a case seeking marriage "equality" . . . New York State's highest court - the Court of Appeal - will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of banning same-sex marriage this May. Finally, a case involving gay marriage is in a mid-level court in California and is expected to reach that state's high court next year.
Yet amazingly, a number of U.S. Senators do not believe there's a need for a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to preserve the institution of marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
Without the amendment, the debate now underway may well be short-circuited by the courts. Homosexual activist groups like the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, Human Rights Campaign, and the ACLU are perfectly happy to "shop" for liberal activist judges in targeted states until "gay marriage" and the entire homosexual agenda are accepted throughout the entire United States.
The vote in the U.S. Senate is currently scheduled for the week of June 5, 2006. Please take this simple step to help: sign this petition ( https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PT06C01&f=AL06C07&track=0 ) in support of passage of the Marriage Protection Amendment. We will deliver these petitions to your Senator prior to the vote. Let your voice be known.
----- 23 -----
Ford 'Proves' Commitment To Homosexual Agenda
American Family Association ACTION ALERT
March 23, 2006
http://www.afa.net/ford0323.asp
Ford Motor Company has proven its commitment to the homosexual agenda by sponsoring a TV program featuring a passionate kiss between two lesbians.
Last fall, in a meeting with AFA, Ford agreed to stop funding the homosexual agenda. However, after a group of angry homosexual leaders met with Ford, the company reneged on its agreement and announced that they would continue their commitment to support the effort to legalize homosexual marriage.
Ford even gave the homosexual groups a letter stating Ford's strong commitment to their cause.
On a recent episode of CBS's Without A Trace, Ford proved to the homosexual leaders the company's commitment to their agenda. The Ford-sponsored program included a scene of two lesbians passionately kissing each other.
[More at URL]
----- 24 -----
Ford Boycott Called Over Promotion of Homosexual Agenda
Concerned Women for America
3/24/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10389/CWA/misc/index.htm
The American Family Association has called a boycott of Ford Motor Company products because of the company’s unapologetic promotion of the homosexual agenda. CWA does not participate in boycotts, however we do report on them so that our members can follow their own consciences. Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute, has more on this story. Click here to listen.
----- 25 -----
Oklahoma House Approves Limiting Children's Access to Explicit Library Materials
By Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 23, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/232006b.asp
(AgapePress) - Oklahoma lawmakers have approved legislation that would place books containing sexually explicit content in an adult-only section of public libraries across the state. House Bill 2158 would withhold public library funding if books containing graphic sexual references are not placed out of the reach of minors.
[...]
But the bill's author, Representative Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City), argued that children deserve a time of "protected innocence" and sheltered from early exposure to the sort of sexually explicit and inappropriate material with which their culture is inundated. Associated Press quotes Kern as observing that contemporary advertisers apparently "can't sell toothpaste without sex," and that even the American Library Association is "out to sexualize our children."
[...]
AP reports that prior to the House vote, Kern distributed to her fellow legislators several excerpts from books she said were found in local libraries. The excerpts were from books that contained homosexual or sexually explicit references, and the state representative remarked, "The average citizen does not have a clue what is in the library."
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Pro-Family Group Rips Wal-Mart for Promoting Brokeback
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 24, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/242006e.asp
(AgapePress) - An official with a pro-family advocacy group is encouraging concerned Christians to contact Wal-Mart regarding the upcoming home video and DVD release of the movie Brokeback Mountain. He claims the retailer's plan to distribute the pro-homosexual film is evidence Wal-Mart has strayed from its family-friendly roots.
Wal-Mart stores nationwide will carry the controversial movie when it is released on DVD. In-store posters and billboards are already advertising the upcoming release, scheduled for April 4. The movie, which opened in a limited number of theaters in early December, tells the story of two cowboys who carry on a homosexual relationship while maintaining traditional marriages. By Hollywood standards it was not a huge box office success (less than $90 million in the U.S. as of March 12), drawing much of its viewing audience in cities known to have large homosexual populations.
Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the Mississippi-based American Family Association, says the movie -- despite winning three Academy Awards earlier this month -- is not "family-friendly." And it does not belong on the shelves of a store that has marketed itself to middle America, he adds.
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
New Report: ‘No Homosexual Adoption’ Now Online
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2656
March 22, 2006 – Catholic Charities in Massachusetts has announced it is shutting down its adoption agency to avoid being forced by the state to send children to homosexual households. The same threat is looming over Catholic Charities in San Francisco, which may also have to close its doors to avoid complying with pro-homosexual, anti-discrimination policies.
In fact, on March 22 , the National Center for Lesbian Rights said it would consider filing a lawsuit against the Catholic Archdiocese in San Francisco if the Church moves ahead with its plan to ban all homosexual adoptions through its agency.
As it turns out, the director of programs and services of San Francisco’s Catholic Charities is a homosexual male who has a daughter he adopted four years ago with his homosexual partner. Glenn Motola was recently promoted at the charity as second in command of the Catholic agency. The current head of the charities is Brian Cahill, who has a homosexual son and has previously admitted placing children in “loving” homosexual homes.
Ignatius Insight has more details on this added controversy involving the charity in San Francisco.
Advocates of homosexual adoption claim that children reared in homosexual homes are no different than children brought up in heterosexual homes. This is untrue, and there is sufficient scientific research to show that children who are brought up in homosexual homes are far more likely to express stresses and potential physical harm.
(Link to their anti-gay agit-prop here: http://www.traditionalvalues.org/pdf_files/gay_adoption.pdf )
[More at URL]
----- 28 -----
Homosexuals Push U.N. For ‘Human Rights’ Protections
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2654
March 22, 2006 – The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) is pressuring the United Nations once again to include homosexual behavior as a human right under the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission (to be renamed the Human Rights Council).
[More at URL]
----- 29 -----
Congress Must Pass Academic Bill Of Rights!
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2652
March 22, 2006 – House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is urging his colleagues to pass the Academic Bill of Rights as part of an education bill to be considered in Congress this session. The bill, Higher Education Act (H.R. 609), is aimed at expanding opportunities for lower and middle-income students. Section 103 of H.R. 609 contains the Student Speech and Association Rights. It says, in part: “Students should not be intimidated, harassed, discouraged from speaking out, discriminated against, or subject to official sanction because of their personal, political, ideological, or religious beliefs...”
Section 103 is designed to prohibit colleges receiving federal funds from denying students benefits or discriminating against them because of their political or religious beliefs.
The Academic Bill of Rights is supported by David Horowitz, an ex-Communist who is spearheading a nationwide effort to protect the free speech rights of students who express politically incorrect ideas on campus. Conservative Christians are typically targeted for discriminatory treatment on college campuses.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Urge your Representative to support passage of H.R. 609 to include the Academic Bill of Rights! Use CapWiz to write your letter.
[More at URL]
----- 30 -----
Struggling with homosexuality
Focus on the Family (Canada)
Today's Family News
March 24, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/sexuality/stories/032406.html
Many Canadians continue to view homosexuality as immoral, according to a new poll conducted for CanWest by Ipsos Reid.
As the Regina Leader-Post reported, 54 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that “homosexuality is morally acceptable.” That degree of acceptance ranged from a high of 69 per cent in Quebec to a low of 47 per cent in Saskatchewan.
Regina resident Duncan Campbell, a homosexual, thinks that these findings indicate that homosexuals still face a lot of intolerance and oppression.
“It really gives us an opportunity to look at ourselves and decide, as a province and as a larger community, what we think is important – and as a larger community, if what we think is important is intolerance and oppression, then we’re in trouble,” he told the Leader-Post.
[...]
Melissa Fryrear, a gender issues analyst at Focus on the Family USA, spoke from experience when she described the need for hope for people struggling with homosexuality.
“Having personally lived homosexually for a decade, one of the most disheartening things looking back is that I never heard a message of hope . . . from the gay community or the Christian community,” Fryrear told Today’s Family News.” “In other words, I never heard the truth that homosexuality could be overcome.”
[More at URL]
----- 31 -----
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Talking Points: The Case For Marriage II
Faith and Freedom Network
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/03/talking-points-case-for-marriage-ii.html
Marriage provides a safety net of protections and benefits that same-sex couples are currently denied.
* Many of the benefits same-sex couples demand are available through private arrangements. Issues of hospital visitation, inheritance rights, health care proxies, and powers of attorney are all available by contract.
[More at URL]
