Today's Cultural Warfare Update
May. 7th, 2006 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdAccording to a long letter posted on LJ Seattle, it appears that the Grays Harbour student vote is a little more interesting than I first thought - according to the poster's message, the vote is supposed to be only on the technical merits of the charter, and not a vote over whether you like or dislike the club or its purpose. So the senator in question - a fundamentalist now being supported by the Faith and Freedom Network and, according to the post, the local Republican party - voted not on the charter merits, but because she thinks GBLT people are evil and paedophiles and homosexuality is a sin.
Anyway, I don't have any action on this, nor do I think there really needs to be any, but it is interesting that this is continuing to pop around. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see it be tossed around by the fundamentalist media next week, if it's a slow week otherwise.
Focus on the Family news article and ACTION ITEM to support anti-marriage-rights amendments in seven states, also supports an effort to overturn Massachusetts's same-sex marriages via initiative; the article compares marriage rights to Soviet Communism under Brezhnev; ACTION ITEM is also to write in to support the Federal anti-marriage amendment;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to join the anti-marriage-rights postcard campaign;
Focus on the Family pushes "ex-gay" group P-FOX, which is attempting to get "ex-gay" materials into school systems as the "truth about homosexuality";
FotF Newsbrief on Georgia judge still not ruling on a challenge to Georgia anti-marriage initiative;
Kansas legislature considering anti-abortion materials be introduced in schools as part of the curriculum;
I don't actually care much about this case and I think it's unfortunate that the initiative to donate the land was overturned as unconstitutional, but they're up in arms, so: Mt. Soledad Cross ordered taken down by California judge as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by the state;
American Family Association condemns Eastern University's refusal to let Repent America distribute anti-gay literature on campus while the Soulforce Equity Ride group was visiting;
AFA/Agape Press's version of the Focus on the Family story about the Navy chaplain who disobeyed orders; he claims the order was illegal; they, at least, acknowledge the Navy's assertion that he disobeyed orders and relate how.
----- 1 -----
State Marriage Amendment Efforts Underway
A battle in Massachusetts is the first of many to be waged this year.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040375.cfm
Pro-family attorneys were in Boston Thursday arguing that Massachusetts residents have a right to vote on a referendum to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, defended the proposed state constitutional amendment before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) — a bit of irony that wasn't lost on the constitutional attorney.
[...]
If approved by voters, the measure would trump the SJC's 2003 ruling forcing gay marriage on the commonwealth. But getting to the ballot is a major hurdle, according to Mona Passignano, state issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action.
Massachusetts, she said, has a very long and complicated amendment process. The very earliest voters could see this measure on the ballot — if at all — is 2008.
[...]
Lorence, who said the arguments he made were largely technical, told CitizenLink that those leading the battle to preserve marriage have to face a bigger problem surrounding the marriage question — something he called "the Brezhnev factor."
"Leonid Brezhnev, when he was head of the Soviet Union, had the idea that communism was the most advanced form of government that a nation could have," he explained, "so that once a nation became communist it wasn't going to revert back to what he called 'lower' forms of government.
"Of course, that has been proven immensely false with the liberation of the Eastern bloc and the Soviet Union itself from communist rule."
Lorence said gay activists seem to approach same-sex marriage the same way Brezhnev approached communism.
[...]
What’s more, state marriage amendments have already qualified for the ballot this year in seven more states. Others are pending.
"Alabama will vote in June," Passignano said, "and the other six states — South Carolina, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin — will vote in November. Two other states are still working on their petition drives for the November ballot: Colorado and Arizona."
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
If you live in Alabama, South Carolina, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia or Wisconsin, please examine the proposed ballot questions when they are published.
Nationwide, everyone's help is needed to make sure the federal Marriage Protection Amendment passes Congress. To learn what's at stake — and for help in contacting your lawmakers — please see the CitizenLink Action Center.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Religious Leaders Call for Marriage Protection
Open letter asks Congress to constitutionally define marriage as one man and one woman.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040378.cfm
The Senate is scheduled to begin debate on the federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) on June 6, and 43 religious leaders have signed an open letter expressing their support.
"As leaders in our nation's religious communities," the letter reads, "We . . . call for a constitutional amendment to establish . . . marriage as the exclusive union of one man and one woman."
Those signing the letter included Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family Action and Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
You can download and print out MPA postcards on the CitizenLink Action Center.
----- 3 -----
Students Challenged to Share the Truth About Homosexuality
Campaign emphasizes that change is possible.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040377.cfm
As an effort to combat the onslaught of pro-gay message in the nation's public schools, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (P-FOX) is launching a campaign to get schools to share the message that change is possible.
Melissa Fryrear, a gender issues analyst at Focus on the Family, recalls how she became involved in a lesbian relationship when she was a sophomore in high school.
"(I) definitely was questioning my sexual and my gender identity," she said.
But she never heard that there was another option, that she could leave homosexuality behind.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Georgia: Judge Has Yet to Rule on Marriage Protection Suit
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040380.cfm
Fifteen months after hearing oral arguments, Judge Constance Russell has not issued a decision in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2004 voter-approved amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman, The Southern Voice reported.
Georgia voters overwhelmingly passed the amendment — with 76 percent voting in favor — but gay activists issued a challenge claiming the amendment was invalid because it violated the single-subject rule. That rule says any proposition presented to voters can only ask one question.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Kansas: Legislation Would Educate Kids About Abortion
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040379.cfm
High-school students in Kansas will have to learn details about abortion if language added to an education bill makes it through the Legislature, LifeNews reported.
Under the measure, which is currently stalled in the House, students would hear about fetal development, see pictures of preborn babies and learn about the medical risks associated with an abortion procedure. Students would also learn about the pain a baby feels during an abortion.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Latest Ruling Could Spell End of Long Legal Battle Over Mt. Soledad Cross
Calif. Activist Calling on President Bush to Intervene to Save It
By Allie Martin and Jody Brown
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006a.asp
(AgapePress) - A Christian activist in Southern California says it's time for the Chief Executive to get involved in a years-long legal scuffle involving a mountaintop cross in a San Diego park.
U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson has ordered the city of San Diego to remove the Mt. Soledad cross within 90 days or face a fine of $5,000 a day. The 29-foot cross has stood on Mt. Soledad as the centerpiece of a war memorial on city-owned land since 1954. But in 1989 atheist Paul Paulson sued the city, claiming the cross violated the so-called "separation of church and state" principle.
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
Repent America Questions Eastern University's Welcome of Homosexual Activists
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006b.asp
(AgapePress) - The leader of a Philadelphia-based Christian group says a private Christian university in Pennsylvania seems to be embracing homosexuality, and he believes the school is on the verge of abandoning the very biblical principles on which it was founded.
Recently the group Soulforce brought its "Equality Ride" bus tour to the campus of Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. The intention of the homosexual group's tour was to "confront" colleges that bar homosexual students from enrollment.
While the young homosexual activists were on the Eastern campus, members of the group Repent America (RA) attempted to pass out literature to students regarding what the Bible says about homosexuality. University officials, however, ordered the Christian group to leave the premises.
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
U.S. Navy and Chaplain Differ Over Basis for Charges
By Chad Groening
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006c.asp
(AgapePress) - An evangelical Navy chaplain says he is facing a possible court-martial for disobeying what he believes was an unlawful order. The Navy, however, is challenging Lieutenant Gordon Klingenshmitt's account of why he's facing the possibility of such a serious charge.
Chaplain Klingenshmitt says the U.S. Navy is trying to punish him for what he did on Lafayette Square near the White House on March 30. He says he faces disciplinary action for praying in the name of Jesus while in uniform outside a chapel setting.
"The new SECNAV instruction authorizes commanding officers to punish chaplains for disobeying orders if they pray in Jesus' name outside of a chapel," Klingenshmitt shares. "So that's what I'm being charged with -- willful disobedience of what they say is a lawful order. I say it's an unlawful order."
[More at URL]
Anyway, I don't have any action on this, nor do I think there really needs to be any, but it is interesting that this is continuing to pop around. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see it be tossed around by the fundamentalist media next week, if it's a slow week otherwise.
Focus on the Family news article and ACTION ITEM to support anti-marriage-rights amendments in seven states, also supports an effort to overturn Massachusetts's same-sex marriages via initiative; the article compares marriage rights to Soviet Communism under Brezhnev; ACTION ITEM is also to write in to support the Federal anti-marriage amendment;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to join the anti-marriage-rights postcard campaign;
Focus on the Family pushes "ex-gay" group P-FOX, which is attempting to get "ex-gay" materials into school systems as the "truth about homosexuality";
FotF Newsbrief on Georgia judge still not ruling on a challenge to Georgia anti-marriage initiative;
Kansas legislature considering anti-abortion materials be introduced in schools as part of the curriculum;
I don't actually care much about this case and I think it's unfortunate that the initiative to donate the land was overturned as unconstitutional, but they're up in arms, so: Mt. Soledad Cross ordered taken down by California judge as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by the state;
American Family Association condemns Eastern University's refusal to let Repent America distribute anti-gay literature on campus while the Soulforce Equity Ride group was visiting;
AFA/Agape Press's version of the Focus on the Family story about the Navy chaplain who disobeyed orders; he claims the order was illegal; they, at least, acknowledge the Navy's assertion that he disobeyed orders and relate how.
----- 1 -----
State Marriage Amendment Efforts Underway
A battle in Massachusetts is the first of many to be waged this year.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040375.cfm
Pro-family attorneys were in Boston Thursday arguing that Massachusetts residents have a right to vote on a referendum to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, defended the proposed state constitutional amendment before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) — a bit of irony that wasn't lost on the constitutional attorney.
[...]
If approved by voters, the measure would trump the SJC's 2003 ruling forcing gay marriage on the commonwealth. But getting to the ballot is a major hurdle, according to Mona Passignano, state issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action.
Massachusetts, she said, has a very long and complicated amendment process. The very earliest voters could see this measure on the ballot — if at all — is 2008.
[...]
Lorence, who said the arguments he made were largely technical, told CitizenLink that those leading the battle to preserve marriage have to face a bigger problem surrounding the marriage question — something he called "the Brezhnev factor."
"Leonid Brezhnev, when he was head of the Soviet Union, had the idea that communism was the most advanced form of government that a nation could have," he explained, "so that once a nation became communist it wasn't going to revert back to what he called 'lower' forms of government.
"Of course, that has been proven immensely false with the liberation of the Eastern bloc and the Soviet Union itself from communist rule."
Lorence said gay activists seem to approach same-sex marriage the same way Brezhnev approached communism.
[...]
What’s more, state marriage amendments have already qualified for the ballot this year in seven more states. Others are pending.
"Alabama will vote in June," Passignano said, "and the other six states — South Carolina, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin — will vote in November. Two other states are still working on their petition drives for the November ballot: Colorado and Arizona."
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
If you live in Alabama, South Carolina, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia or Wisconsin, please examine the proposed ballot questions when they are published.
Nationwide, everyone's help is needed to make sure the federal Marriage Protection Amendment passes Congress. To learn what's at stake — and for help in contacting your lawmakers — please see the CitizenLink Action Center.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Religious Leaders Call for Marriage Protection
Open letter asks Congress to constitutionally define marriage as one man and one woman.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040378.cfm
The Senate is scheduled to begin debate on the federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) on June 6, and 43 religious leaders have signed an open letter expressing their support.
"As leaders in our nation's religious communities," the letter reads, "We . . . call for a constitutional amendment to establish . . . marriage as the exclusive union of one man and one woman."
Those signing the letter included Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family Action and Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
You can download and print out MPA postcards on the CitizenLink Action Center.
----- 3 -----
Students Challenged to Share the Truth About Homosexuality
Campaign emphasizes that change is possible.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040377.cfm
As an effort to combat the onslaught of pro-gay message in the nation's public schools, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (P-FOX) is launching a campaign to get schools to share the message that change is possible.
Melissa Fryrear, a gender issues analyst at Focus on the Family, recalls how she became involved in a lesbian relationship when she was a sophomore in high school.
"(I) definitely was questioning my sexual and my gender identity," she said.
But she never heard that there was another option, that she could leave homosexuality behind.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Georgia: Judge Has Yet to Rule on Marriage Protection Suit
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040380.cfm
Fifteen months after hearing oral arguments, Judge Constance Russell has not issued a decision in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2004 voter-approved amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman, The Southern Voice reported.
Georgia voters overwhelmingly passed the amendment — with 76 percent voting in favor — but gay activists issued a challenge claiming the amendment was invalid because it violated the single-subject rule. That rule says any proposition presented to voters can only ask one question.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Kansas: Legislation Would Educate Kids About Abortion
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040379.cfm
High-school students in Kansas will have to learn details about abortion if language added to an education bill makes it through the Legislature, LifeNews reported.
Under the measure, which is currently stalled in the House, students would hear about fetal development, see pictures of preborn babies and learn about the medical risks associated with an abortion procedure. Students would also learn about the pain a baby feels during an abortion.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Latest Ruling Could Spell End of Long Legal Battle Over Mt. Soledad Cross
Calif. Activist Calling on President Bush to Intervene to Save It
By Allie Martin and Jody Brown
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006a.asp
(AgapePress) - A Christian activist in Southern California says it's time for the Chief Executive to get involved in a years-long legal scuffle involving a mountaintop cross in a San Diego park.
U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson has ordered the city of San Diego to remove the Mt. Soledad cross within 90 days or face a fine of $5,000 a day. The 29-foot cross has stood on Mt. Soledad as the centerpiece of a war memorial on city-owned land since 1954. But in 1989 atheist Paul Paulson sued the city, claiming the cross violated the so-called "separation of church and state" principle.
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
Repent America Questions Eastern University's Welcome of Homosexual Activists
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006b.asp
(AgapePress) - The leader of a Philadelphia-based Christian group says a private Christian university in Pennsylvania seems to be embracing homosexuality, and he believes the school is on the verge of abandoning the very biblical principles on which it was founded.
Recently the group Soulforce brought its "Equality Ride" bus tour to the campus of Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. The intention of the homosexual group's tour was to "confront" colleges that bar homosexual students from enrollment.
While the young homosexual activists were on the Eastern campus, members of the group Repent America (RA) attempted to pass out literature to students regarding what the Bible says about homosexuality. University officials, however, ordered the Christian group to leave the premises.
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
U.S. Navy and Chaplain Differ Over Basis for Charges
By Chad Groening
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006c.asp
(AgapePress) - An evangelical Navy chaplain says he is facing a possible court-martial for disobeying what he believes was an unlawful order. The Navy, however, is challenging Lieutenant Gordon Klingenshmitt's account of why he's facing the possibility of such a serious charge.
Chaplain Klingenshmitt says the U.S. Navy is trying to punish him for what he did on Lafayette Square near the White House on March 30. He says he faces disciplinary action for praying in the name of Jesus while in uniform outside a chapel setting.
"The new SECNAV instruction authorizes commanding officers to punish chaplains for disobeying orders if they pray in Jesus' name outside of a chapel," Klingenshmitt shares. "So that's what I'm being charged with -- willful disobedience of what they say is a lawful order. I say it's an unlawful order."
[More at URL]
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-08 06:25 pm (UTC)