Today's Cultural Warfare Update
May. 25th, 2006 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbird"Nigeria is cracking down savagely on homosexuality - with the approval of the Anglican church";
Focus on the Family: "Pro-Family Groups Object to Global AIDS Fund Increase" - mostly because it's going to groups that don't push abstinence-only approaches;
The US's UN delegation "flip-flops" and drops opposition to gay groups being represented at the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); Focus on the Family's ACTION ITEM is to protest to President Bush against letting gay groups have any say anywhere at the UN;
Alabama House committee passes near-blanket abortion ban; exceptions are for the life of the mother and "failure of an organ or major bodily function," which is more broad, but not very much more broad, than only "life of the mother";
Focus on the Family attacks Centres for Disease Control conference on STD prevention, calling it "anti-conservative, anti-Christian"; asserts they support "sex at any age, at any time, with anyone";
Seattle Times article on Referendum 65's use of churches as their primary signature-gathering system; Referendum 65 would overturn hiring/firing/lending civil rights protections for GBLT people in Washington State;
Faith and Freedom Network claims Washington State's addition of GBLT people to the state's basic civil rights groups makes even thoughts critical of GBLT people a crime; this is, of course, unmitigated bullshit; urges people to download, print, and sign the Referendum 65 petition;
Faith and Freedom Network claims GBLT civil rights protections are "predatory" and an attack on children; urges people to download, print, and sign the Referendum 65 petition;
Focus on the Family rails against "Homosexual Indoctrination on Kids";
Holy crap, could this possibly be true? Focus on the Family says Gallup reports 53% of Democrats support GBLT marriage rights; meanwhile, support for an anti-marriage amendment is at 50%;
California has a parental-notification initiative on the ballot again this year; Focus on the Family's headline says that California "wants" this initiative, but 2005 had a similar one that was defeated outright at the polls;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to volunteer with Focus on the Family against marriage rights; claims 75% of Americans want to "protect marriage," but two stories up they admit that support for an anti-marriage amendment is a dead heat at 50%;
***** Oklahoma had a law refusing to recognise adoptions by same-sex couples legally conducted in other states; such children were parentless(!) in Oklahoma. A Federal judge overturned that on Constitutional full faith and credit grounds; Focus on the Family says this proves the need for an anti-marriage rights amendment. What's neat about this is that it highlights what I've been saying: the "marriage protection amendment" isn't just about marriage, it's about exempting queers from equal protection, by writing scribbling in an "except queers" into Constitutional law. Once it's there on one basis, it can and will be applied on other bases; oh, and, of course, because the ruling went against the fundamentalists, Focus on the Family has declared the judge an "activist";
US Supreme Court fails to intervene in a same-sex adoption case;
***** Robert Knight writing for Concerned Women for America want the anti-marriage "Marriage Protection Amendment" amended to specifically ban civil unions, domestic partnerships, and any similar legal agreements;
Agape Press on the attempt to charge Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, who is gay, with violations of church law for being gay; similar charges wanted for the bishops who consecrated him;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to support the anti-marriag-rights "Marriage Protection Amendment";
FRC amicus brief supporting the so-called "partial birth abortion" ban;
This isn't really cultural warfare, I'm just amazed the American Family Association still uses "The Dark Continent" to describe Africa;
AFA reports the Christian Medical & Dental Associations condemn screening embryos for cancer genes;
LifeNews.com reports a planned anti-abortion action on the Pine Ridge Sioux reservation; includes ACTION ITEM to "voice your opposition" to President Fire Thunder;
Pope criticises Canadian cultural secularism;
Ohio anti-gay activist proud of Ohio's dead-last ranking in protecting the rights of lesbian and gay people; "they feel like we're intolerant. So I guess we should wear that as a badge of honor";
Traditional Values Coalition condemns Global AIDS Funding proposal;
"TVC Chairman And Staffer Invited To White House Signing Ceremony"; frankly, to me, it looks like he's just in the audience;
The anti-GBLT "Risk Audit Project," an effort by Exodus Mandate and Mission America to investigate public schools for any sign of GBLT tolerance and take action against it - and if that fails, remove children from public schools, issues a press release claiming increased support; they add a list of regional chapters of various fundamentalist groups adding their individual endorsements;
REAL Women of Canada press release on religious coalition to overturn C-38 in Harper's promised marriage revote;
Canada Family Action Coalition reprints a WorldNetDaily anti-abortion article called "The Lunatic Fringe goes Mainstream."
----- 1 -----
Partners in prejudice
Nigeria is cracking down savagely on homosexuality - with the approval of the Anglican church.
May 19, 2006 02:35 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2006/05/anglicans_applaud_nigerian_hom.html
With the full blessing of the Anglican Church of Nigeria and its leader, Archbishop Peter Akinola, the Nigerian government has begun legislating one of the world's most repressive anti-gay laws.
[...]
The new legislation bans same-sex marriages and blessing ceremonies and criminalises anyone who attends or witnesses them. And it goes much further: it also proscribes any "public or private" affirmation of same-sex love and gay human rights.
This will criminalise gay organisations, gay churches, gay bars, gay blessings, gay safer sex education, gay newspapers, gay human rights advocacy and sympathetic advice and welfare support for vulnerable lesbians and gay men.
Newspaper, television, radio and internet discussions supportive of gay equality will become a criminal offence.
[More at URL]
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Pro-Family Groups Object to Global AIDS Fund Increase
In a letter to Congress, they call it 'unaccountable.'
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
March 24, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040614.cfm
Members of the foreign operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee have voted to double President Bush’s budget request for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The full committee will soon consider the budget measure with the increased funding for The Global Fund.
More than 25 pro-family groups, including Focus on the Family Action, sent a letter to Congress to protest the additional U.S. contribution, which comes at the expense of more effective, accountable plans like PEPFAR, which stands for the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief.
[...]
“A lot of kids who would have gotten an abstinence message will now not receive it," he told Family News in Focus, "and that’s the tragedy.”
In fact, abstinence is the cornerstone of the president's initiative. Specifically, it endorses the "ABC" model to fight AIDS created by Uganda President Yoweri Museveni more than 15 years ago.
[More at URL]
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U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Flip-Flops on Homosexuality
Votes to include two gay groups on a council.
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
Focus on the Family
May 24, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040616.cfm
A U.S. delegation to the United Nations voted last week in favor of allowing two homosexual advocacy groups to join the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Though the applications from Germany's Lesbian and Gay Federation and the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) were ultimately denied by ECOSOC on a 9-7 vote, the U.S. vote represents a shift — just five months ago, the delegation voted against admitting gay-rights groups.
[...]
Thomas Jacobson, representative to the U.N. for Focus on the Family Action, said the objective of homosexual-activist groups worldwide is to make sexual orientation a human right.
"Homosexuality is not a legitimate foundation for human rights — sexual orientation is not comparable with ethnic origin or race," he said. "The U.N. has lost much of its credibility in the area of human rights and should be focusing on the protection of true human rights, not pseudo 'rights.' "
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
Ask President Bush to direct the nation's U.N. delegations not to support gay-activist groups. You may contact him through the CitizenLink Action Center. If you are a CitizenLink Daily Update subscriber, you may click on the blue "Take Action" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in. Otherwise, be sure to either log in or enter your ZIP code first to make your elected officials' contact information shows up.
[More at URL]
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Louisiana One Step Closer to Banning Abortion
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 24, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040621.cfm
The Louisiana House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice approved a bill that would ban almost all abortions. The bill, already approved by the Senate, now moves to the full House for a vote, LifeNews.com reported.
The committee made a minor adjustment to the language used for the health exception.
The Senate bill is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Ben Nevers, who opposed adding a health exception for victims of rape, concerned that it would weaken the ban.
[...]
"This vote reflects the growing understanding that abortion is violence against women," she said, "and that a rape exception would allow the rapist to victimize the woman twice, in addition to ending an innocent life."
[More at URL]
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Public-Health Conference Scorns Abstinence Education
An eyewitness account of a government-sponsored anti-conservative, anti-Christian conference.
by Linda Klepacki, analyst for sexual health
Focus on the Family
May 24, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0040610.cfm
I was among a handful of conservatives who dared sign up for the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference held earlier this month that was presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was blindingly clear that the majority of attendees wished Christian conservatives would go away and let them tell our young people how to have sex at any age, at any time, with anyone.
[More at URL]
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Effort to repeal state gay-rights law gathers momentum from pulpit
By Andrew Garber
Seattle Times staff reporter
May 24, 2006
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003014817_gayrights24m.html
OLYMPIA — A referendum campaign aimed at repealing Washington's gay-rights law has no paid signature gatherers, no advertising budget and not much money in the bank. Yet supporters say signatures are rolling in by the thousands.
The reason? The Faith and Freedom Network and Sound the Alarm, two conservative religious groups that existed before the measure was filed, say they are leading an extensive grass-roots campaign, urging congregations throughout Washington to sign petitions and volunteer.
During services at Northshore Baptist Church in Bothell on Sunday, the pastor urged congregants to sign Referendum 65 petitions that filled a table in the lobby.
The Faith and Freedom Network and Sound the Alarm are encouraging similar signature-gathering efforts across the state.
[...]
"This is about intolerance of the Christian world view. It's about codifying into law the acceptance of a behavior so that we cannot say it is wrong. That is what we're objecting to," he said.
[More at URL]
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WA Dept of Health Celebrates Gay Lifestyle
Faith and Freedom Network
May 24, 2006
An email sent on May 18, 2006 from Laurie Jinkins at the Washington Department of Health with subject, “looking for some good pictures,” announced that (quote), “June is ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Month.’”
[...]
One has to ask, “Should the Washington Department of Health be promoting and celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning month?”
But then, if HB2661 is left to become law, I would be discriminating to ask the question. In fact, I could be, under HB2661, held to be discriminating to even “think” the question. [Ed. Note: This is, of course, unmitigated bullshit.]
[More at URL]
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Rep Ed Murray Sets the Record Straight
Faith and Freedom Network
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/05/rep-ed-murray-sets-record-straight.html
Representative Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat who is one of a handful of openly gay legislators, told the Seattle P.I. this past weekend that he was not surprised Tim Eyman was working with the religious right on Referendum 65.
He said, “My assumption all along is that Tim Eyman, who has tried to portray himself as this anti-taxtarian, is actually part of the religious right and is showing his right-wing religious connections to try to repeal the civil rights bill [HB 2661].”
It seems that anyone who gets in the way of the gay agenda is attacked and labeled. Sometimes they are even called, “religious right.”
The duplicity and divisiveness of these folks is almost unbelievable.
[...]
This bill, HB 2661, is predatory. Those who are advancing it are presenting themselves as reasonable, common sense, live-and-let-live people while doing everything in their power to redefine marriage, the family, and censor Biblical teaching on homosexuality. Left to their devises, they will re-educate your children and redefine our social order as we have know it.
[More at URL]
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Q&A: Dr. Bill Maier on the Effects of Homosexual Indoctrination on Kids
California legislation mandating textbooks take a flattering view of homosexuality could have devastating effects on kids.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
May 23, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040597.cfm
California lawmakers are a step away from giving their approval to S.B. 1437, a bill which would mandate that all public school materials include a "positive portrayal" of homosexuality -- as well as bisexuality and cross-dressing.
Dr. Bill Maier, vice president and psychologist in residence at Focus on the Family, said the impact on children would be devastating.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Majority of Americans Oppose Gay Marriage
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 23, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040595.cfm
A new Gallup poll found 58 percent of the nation does not believe marriage includes same-sex partners and 50 percent support a constitutional amendment that preserves marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
[...]
While 53 percent of Democrats support gay marriage, 55 percent oppose an amendment preserving traditional marriage.
[More at URL]
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Golden State Wants Parental Notification
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 23, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040594.cfm
Californians have gathered more than a million signatures in order to place an initiative on November's ballot that will let voters decide whether parents should be told when a teen is considering an abortion, LifeNews.com reported.
[...]
Albin Rhomberg, a retired physician and spokesman for the drive, said the parental-notification initiative is similar to one defeated last year, but the 2005 special election saw every measure defeated. He's more hopeful about this year's outcome.
[More at URL]
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Volunteers Needed to Protect Marriage
A grassroots effort is under way to tell U.S. senators that America wants marriage constitutionally protected.
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
Focus on the Family
May 22, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040581.cfm
A coalition of pro-family groups is looking for volunteers to tell senators that America overwhelmingly supports an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week on a 10-to-8 party-line vote. It's expected to be brought to the floor by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., on Monday, June 5. That's when senators must know what Americans expect.
Catherine Snow, who is helping to coordinate the grassroots effort, said, on average, 75 percent of voters indicate they would vote in favor of protecting marriage.
"We really want to share with senators that mainstream America really does support a constitutional amendment," she said, "because marriage is not safe in the states anymore."
[...]
For those who cannot travel to D.C., there is plenty to be done from home.
"We can plug them in to whatever activities are going on in their state," Snow said. "If they say, 'I have a couple of hours for lunch that I can go do something,' I can help plug them in to an organization near them."
One thing that everyone can do: contact their senators.
[...]
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
If you'd like to volunteer to help get the federal Marriage Protection Amendment passed by Congress, visit this Web site ( http://www.formarriage.org/ ) and click on the button that says "We Need Your Help — Volunteer Form." Whether you can pray, call, e-mail or go visit your senators' offices in person, your help is vital.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Judge Strikes Down Oklahoma Gay-Adoption Ban
Activist decision fuels the case for the federal Marriage Protection Amendment.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
May 22, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040583.cfm
A federal district judge Friday struck down Oklahoma's law that prohibits adoption by two people of the same sex. Pro-family experts say the decision could possibly set the stage for the imposition of gay marriage upon states.
In a 31-page decision, U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron held that Oklahoma's law violated due process and equal-protection rights established by the U.S. Constitution.
"The very fact that the adoptions have occurred," Cauthron wrote, "is evidence that a court of law has found the adoptions to be in the best interests of the children. . . . To now attempt to strip a child of one of his or her parents seems far removed from the statute’s purpose and therefore from Defendants’ (the state's) asserted important government objective."
The Lambda Legal Foundation challenged the Oklahoma law on behalf of three gay couples, who argued that since they had been given parental rights in other states, the Sooner State should also be forced to recognize their parenthood.
But Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said last Friday's decision could eventually have dire consequences for traditional marriage because the judge also cited a doctrine called the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
[...]
David Dunn, research and policy director of the Oklahoma Family Policy Council, said the state Legislature had enacted the adoption-invalidation law, because the state was becoming known as a gay-adoption factory.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
Please contact your senators today and let them know that marriage protection is a priority -- that once it is redefined, marriage as an institution will be destroyed. Ask them to support the Marriage Protection Amendment.
If you are a CitizenLink subscriber, please click on the blue "Marriage Protection Amendment" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in to our Action Center and taken to the page where you may contact your senators.
Otherwise, click here to visit our Action Center ( http://vocusgr.vocus.com/GRSPACE2/dotnet/WebPublish/Controller.aspx?SiteName=FOTF&Definition=ContactLegislators&IssueID=2203 ).
----- 14 -----
U.S. Supreme Opts Out of Gay-Adoption Dispute
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 22, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040588.cfm
The U.S. Supreme Court, for the second time, declined to hear a child-custody case brought by two lesbians, The Associated Press reported.
The birth mother, identified only as Sharon S., signed an adoption petition in August of 1999 to allow her then-partner, identified as Annette F., to adopt a child that the two were raising together. The women separated, and Sharon S. tried to request dismissal of the petition.
[More at URL]
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Why a Federal Marriage Amendment Is Needed 5/22/2006
By Robert Knight
Rogue judges and legislators are creating counterfeits.
Opponents of a federal constitutional marriage amendment often contend that it’s too early, that there is no need for such a measure. Wait until something really big happens, they say.
But events over the past two years clearly illustrate that a federal amendment is overdue. The law is in turmoil. Lots of “big things” have happened.
[...]
Connecticut – October, 2005: Connecticut becomes the sixth state (after California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont) to offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex couples.
[...]
CWA does not support the Marriage Protection Amendment as currently worded because the second sentence is open to differing interpretations, and its drafters acknowledged that it was specifically crafted that way so state legislators could create civil unions, domestic partnerships and other forms of counterfeit marriage.
CWA believes that legislators should not create incentives in the law that encourage people to remain trapped in homosexuality, and that such laws inevitably result in the degradation of the natural family and the oppression of people who hold traditional views of marriage.
CWA prefers the Institution of Marriage Amendment authored by Home School Legal Defense Association President Michael Farris. That amendment, which has not been introduced by any member of Congress, protects marriage in all aspects:
Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither the United States nor any State shall recognize or grant to any unmarried person the legal rights or status of a spouse.
[More at URL]
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Commentary & News Briefs
Agape Press
May 19, 2006
Compiled by Jenni Parker
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/192006h.asp
[...]
...Tensions are building as Episcopalians prepare for their church's General Convention, which begins June 13 in Columbus, Ohio. Episcopal delegates must respond to outrage among fellow Anglicans worldwide over the 2003 consecration of the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Anglican leaders have called for a moratorium on electing partnered homosexual Episcopal bishops and on creating blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. If Anglican leaders conclude that the General Convention has not moved far enough toward discouraging those practices, it could break apart the 77-million-member Communion. A conservative group called Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion is pressing for a church trial of Robinson and the dozens of bishops who consecrated him. [AP]
[More at URL]
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Voice Your Values for Marriage Before the Senate Votes!
Family Research Council
May 24, 2006 - Wednesday
Forward to a Friend!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06E09&f=PG03I03
Less than two weeks from today the U.S. Senate will vote on S. J. Res. 1, the Marriage Protection Amendment to the Constitution. Marriage is an indispensable institution, and this is a vote of surpassing importance. In the decades to come, our children and our grandchildren will turn to us and ask, "When the issue of marriage was decided, were you involved? Where did you stand?"
I've written lengthy emails on this issue before, but this one will be short. We need at least 13,000 more signers of our online petition to reach our goal. These petitions will be presented to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Monday, June 5. I would like to count your name, and those of your family and friends, among the signers. Please take a few seconds to add your name to this petition in support of the Marriage Protection Amendment.
Let's all take the actions needed to answer the question the rising generations will ask us: "Where did you stand?"
----- 18 -----
Amicus Brief: Gonzales v. Carhart
Family Research Council
May 25, 2006
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=CB06E01&f=FR03G04
Family Research Council has filed a "friend of the court" brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart. The Supreme Court last February agreed to take up this case, which challenges the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act which was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2003. The act never went into effect since Planned Parenthood immediately went into federal court and obtained an injunction to stop enforcement of the act. For the last three years partial birth abortions have continued to be practiced in America, in spite of widespread public opinion against this terrible procedure. We hope the Supreme Court will side with the angels on this one, and save our future generations from an untimely almost born death.
[Ed. Note: there's a link to the PDF on the page]
----- 19 -----
Ministry Profile: Ministry nurtures Christian leadership on dark continent
By Rebecca Grace | AFA Journal Staff Writer
May 2006
http://www.afajournal.org/2006/may/506Africans.asp
Val Vickery, a resident of Jackson, Mississippi, and former missionary to Africa, had no idea how many lives would be changed as a result of her visit to a radio station on a college campus in Malawi, Africa, nearly 10 years ago.
She and her husband Barry had just moved from the United States to Africa where they would spend the next year and a half sharing the Gospel while teaching. They arrived during the summer months, so the school with which they would be working was not in session.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
British Okay Scrapping Embryos Based on Potential for Adult Illness
By Mary Rettig
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 24, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/242006c.asp
(AgapePress) - The executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) says Great Britain has taken a dangerous and unethical step in embryo screening.
The British Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority recently ruled that fertility clinics can screen out embryos that contain genes that raise the risk of cancer in adulthood. The doctors will do this by using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, which removes a couple of cells from an eight-cell embryo.
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Members of South Dakota Indian Tribe to Protest Abortion Facility Proposal
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 24, 2006
http://www.lifenews.com/state1674.html
Pine Ridge, SD (LifeNews.com) -- Members of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are meeting today to organize a protest against Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder's proposal to build an abortion facility on the reservation. Indian elders, youth and community members are slated to take part in organizing the protest.
[...]
[President Fire Thunder] originally planned to build the abortion business only if the attempt to defeat the ban failed. She told Indian Country Today that it will move ahead regardless.
She already has a name, too -- the Sacred Choices Clinic.
Planning for the abortion facility is already underway and she has put together volunteers to coordinate strategy, attorneys are drafting papers and looking at potential legal obstacles, Thunder explained.
Thunder has already raised $5,000 from pro-abortion activists across the country wanted to see the Indian abortion center succeed. She indicated she's received hundreds of emails in support.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Voice your opposition to: Oglala Sioux Tribe, ATTN: President Fire Thunder, P. O. Box H, Pine Ridge, SD 57770. You can also call 605-867-6074 or fax a letter to 605-867-6076.
[More at URL]
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Pope: "Canada is Today Suffering from the Pervasive Effects of Secularism"
By John-Henry Westen
LifeSite.com
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06052302.html
VATICAN, May 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Addressing Catholic bishops from Atlantic Canada Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI warned that "Canada is today suffering from the pervasive effects of secularism." The Pope explained that "the attempt to promote a vision of humanity apart from God's transcendent order and indifferent to Christ's beckoning light, removes from the reach of ordinary men and women the experience of genuine hope."
[More at URL]
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Pro-Family Leader Pleased to Find Ohio at Bottom of Homosexuals' List
By Chad Groening
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 23, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/232006d.asp
(AgapePress) - An Ohio pro-family activist says the state should consider it a point of pride that a radical homosexual rights group has ranked Ohio last in the United States in terms of providing special rights to homosexuals and similar groups.
A pro-homosexual group calling itself Equality of Ohio recently published a nationwide study about so-called discrimination against "gays," lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals. The study rated the state of Ohio dead last in protecting the "equality" of those groups.
[More at URL]
----- 24 -----
TVC Opposes Increase In Global AIDS Funding Proposal
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2732
May 23, 2006 - Washington, DC – Traditional Values Coalition is calling on Congress to reject a multi-million dollar increase in funding for the Global AIDS Fund, an organization that is unaccountable to U.S. taxpayers and openly opposes President Bush’s AIDS policies.
“Congress must not provide increased taxpayer funding to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria,” said Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. “This organization’s leader has openly admitted that this fund is pursuing policies diametrically opposed to those of the Bush Administration. It encourages needle giveaway programs and the legalization of prostitution. Taxpayers should not be asked to fund such activities under the guise of fighting AIDS and diseases.
[More at URL]
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TVC Chairman And Staffer Invited To White House Signing Ceremony
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2730
May 19, 2006 – TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon and Chief of Staff April Waugh were invited by President Bush to attend his signing of an historic tax-cutting bill passed by Congress.
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Risk Audit Project Gains Momentum
Traditional Values Coalition, Stephen Bennett Ministries, Parents, Friends Of Ex-Gays and Gays, and Numerous Additional Grassroots Pro-Family Organizations Endorse Public School Homosexuality Risk Audit
To: National Desk, Education Reporter, Feature Reporter
Contact: Linda Harvey, president, Mission America,614-442-7998, lharvey@missionamerica.com; E. Ray Moore, Jr., Exodus Mandate, 803-714-1744
http://www.earnedmedia.org/em0518.htm
COLUMBIA, SC, May 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Risk Audit Project, launched in April with strong endorsements from a coalition of pro-family groups including American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, many state chapters of Eagle Forum, and AFA of Pennsylvania, continues to receive endorsements from additional major pro-family groups.
Developed by Mission America’s president, Linda Harvey, the purpose of the Risk Audit Project is to help pro-family organizations, parents, churches, and community activists determine whether their local school districts are betraying their community’s trust by collaborating with homosexual activists or attempting to indoctrinate schoolchildren with the view that homosexual behavior is safe or morally acceptable.
The Risk Audit Project is being implemented through a survey instrument that can be used by pro-family organizations, churches, parents, and citizens to assess the level and types of pro-homosexual material, activities and curricula utilized in any given school district.
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
Revisiting the Same-sex Marriage Issue
For Immediate Release
REAL Women of Canada
Toronto, Ontario May 4, 2006
http://www.realwomenca.com/press.htm#05_04_06
Twelve pro-family organizations from across Canada have joined together in an association called Defend Marriage Coalition to work toward a winning vote in Parliament in support of traditional marriage. This vote, according to Prime Minister Harper, will take place “sooner rather than later.”
As its first initiative, the Defend Marriage Coalition has written to the leaders of all the individual faiths in Canada requesting that they become actively involved in this vote.
This is important not only for the fact that marriage between a man and a woman protects children, and their families, but it is also important in order to properly protect religious freedoms in Canada.
Contrary to the former Liberal government's assertions, religious groups will be subject to legal challenges if the legal definition of marriage continues to include same-sex partners.
This is based on the fact that the Supreme Court of Canada in the same-sex marriage reference handed down on December 9, 2004, concluded that although the provisions on the Civil Marriage Act passed last year purports to preserve religious rights, this provision, in fact, has no effect, and is superfluous, because the provision deals with provincial rights and is therefore outside the federal government's jurisdiction. The Supreme Court did acknowledge that religious groups would be protected from actually performing same-sex marriages, but the court also stated that in situations where there is a “collision of rights” the courts would be obligated to balance and delineate these colliding rights. This is not reassuring because in most cases in which the courts have adjudicated religious freedoms versus homosexual rights, the latter's rights have trumped religious rights.
Already, in less than a year since the same-sex marriage law was passed, cases have arisen which determinably affects religious rights in Canada:
[More at URL]
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The Lunatic Fringe goes Mainstream
By Jill Stanek, May 24, 2006
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Hosted by Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/life/lunatic-fringe.htm
Most agree abortion is at the very least unpleasant. Even two of its most ardent political supporters, Bill and Hillary Clinton, concur abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare." There's no reason to say that unless abortion is bad for some reason.
But latter-day feminist abortion advocates disagree. They think abortion is not just fine; it's holy.
I'm sure fringe feminist writings equate abortion as sacred. What surprises me are the mainstream pro-abortion feminist leaders making such statements today, like Debi Jackson, owner of Cincinnati Women's Services abortion mill, and Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Sioux Native American tribe.
[More at URL]
Focus on the Family: "Pro-Family Groups Object to Global AIDS Fund Increase" - mostly because it's going to groups that don't push abstinence-only approaches;
The US's UN delegation "flip-flops" and drops opposition to gay groups being represented at the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); Focus on the Family's ACTION ITEM is to protest to President Bush against letting gay groups have any say anywhere at the UN;
Alabama House committee passes near-blanket abortion ban; exceptions are for the life of the mother and "failure of an organ or major bodily function," which is more broad, but not very much more broad, than only "life of the mother";
Focus on the Family attacks Centres for Disease Control conference on STD prevention, calling it "anti-conservative, anti-Christian"; asserts they support "sex at any age, at any time, with anyone";
Seattle Times article on Referendum 65's use of churches as their primary signature-gathering system; Referendum 65 would overturn hiring/firing/lending civil rights protections for GBLT people in Washington State;
Faith and Freedom Network claims Washington State's addition of GBLT people to the state's basic civil rights groups makes even thoughts critical of GBLT people a crime; this is, of course, unmitigated bullshit; urges people to download, print, and sign the Referendum 65 petition;
Faith and Freedom Network claims GBLT civil rights protections are "predatory" and an attack on children; urges people to download, print, and sign the Referendum 65 petition;
Focus on the Family rails against "Homosexual Indoctrination on Kids";
Holy crap, could this possibly be true? Focus on the Family says Gallup reports 53% of Democrats support GBLT marriage rights; meanwhile, support for an anti-marriage amendment is at 50%;
California has a parental-notification initiative on the ballot again this year; Focus on the Family's headline says that California "wants" this initiative, but 2005 had a similar one that was defeated outright at the polls;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to volunteer with Focus on the Family against marriage rights; claims 75% of Americans want to "protect marriage," but two stories up they admit that support for an anti-marriage amendment is a dead heat at 50%;
***** Oklahoma had a law refusing to recognise adoptions by same-sex couples legally conducted in other states; such children were parentless(!) in Oklahoma. A Federal judge overturned that on Constitutional full faith and credit grounds; Focus on the Family says this proves the need for an anti-marriage rights amendment. What's neat about this is that it highlights what I've been saying: the "marriage protection amendment" isn't just about marriage, it's about exempting queers from equal protection, by writing scribbling in an "except queers" into Constitutional law. Once it's there on one basis, it can and will be applied on other bases; oh, and, of course, because the ruling went against the fundamentalists, Focus on the Family has declared the judge an "activist";
US Supreme Court fails to intervene in a same-sex adoption case;
***** Robert Knight writing for Concerned Women for America want the anti-marriage "Marriage Protection Amendment" amended to specifically ban civil unions, domestic partnerships, and any similar legal agreements;
Agape Press on the attempt to charge Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, who is gay, with violations of church law for being gay; similar charges wanted for the bishops who consecrated him;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to support the anti-marriag-rights "Marriage Protection Amendment";
FRC amicus brief supporting the so-called "partial birth abortion" ban;
This isn't really cultural warfare, I'm just amazed the American Family Association still uses "The Dark Continent" to describe Africa;
AFA reports the Christian Medical & Dental Associations condemn screening embryos for cancer genes;
LifeNews.com reports a planned anti-abortion action on the Pine Ridge Sioux reservation; includes ACTION ITEM to "voice your opposition" to President Fire Thunder;
Pope criticises Canadian cultural secularism;
Ohio anti-gay activist proud of Ohio's dead-last ranking in protecting the rights of lesbian and gay people; "they feel like we're intolerant. So I guess we should wear that as a badge of honor";
Traditional Values Coalition condemns Global AIDS Funding proposal;
"TVC Chairman And Staffer Invited To White House Signing Ceremony"; frankly, to me, it looks like he's just in the audience;
The anti-GBLT "Risk Audit Project," an effort by Exodus Mandate and Mission America to investigate public schools for any sign of GBLT tolerance and take action against it - and if that fails, remove children from public schools, issues a press release claiming increased support; they add a list of regional chapters of various fundamentalist groups adding their individual endorsements;
REAL Women of Canada press release on religious coalition to overturn C-38 in Harper's promised marriage revote;
Canada Family Action Coalition reprints a WorldNetDaily anti-abortion article called "The Lunatic Fringe goes Mainstream."
----- 1 -----
Partners in prejudice
Nigeria is cracking down savagely on homosexuality - with the approval of the Anglican church.
May 19, 2006 02:35 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2006/05/anglicans_applaud_nigerian_hom.html
With the full blessing of the Anglican Church of Nigeria and its leader, Archbishop Peter Akinola, the Nigerian government has begun legislating one of the world's most repressive anti-gay laws.
[...]
The new legislation bans same-sex marriages and blessing ceremonies and criminalises anyone who attends or witnesses them. And it goes much further: it also proscribes any "public or private" affirmation of same-sex love and gay human rights.
This will criminalise gay organisations, gay churches, gay bars, gay blessings, gay safer sex education, gay newspapers, gay human rights advocacy and sympathetic advice and welfare support for vulnerable lesbians and gay men.
Newspaper, television, radio and internet discussions supportive of gay equality will become a criminal offence.
[More at URL]
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Pro-Family Groups Object to Global AIDS Fund Increase
In a letter to Congress, they call it 'unaccountable.'
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
March 24, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040614.cfm
Members of the foreign operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee have voted to double President Bush’s budget request for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The full committee will soon consider the budget measure with the increased funding for The Global Fund.
More than 25 pro-family groups, including Focus on the Family Action, sent a letter to Congress to protest the additional U.S. contribution, which comes at the expense of more effective, accountable plans like PEPFAR, which stands for the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief.
[...]
“A lot of kids who would have gotten an abstinence message will now not receive it," he told Family News in Focus, "and that’s the tragedy.”
In fact, abstinence is the cornerstone of the president's initiative. Specifically, it endorses the "ABC" model to fight AIDS created by Uganda President Yoweri Museveni more than 15 years ago.
[More at URL]
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U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Flip-Flops on Homosexuality
Votes to include two gay groups on a council.
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
Focus on the Family
May 24, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040616.cfm
A U.S. delegation to the United Nations voted last week in favor of allowing two homosexual advocacy groups to join the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Though the applications from Germany's Lesbian and Gay Federation and the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) were ultimately denied by ECOSOC on a 9-7 vote, the U.S. vote represents a shift — just five months ago, the delegation voted against admitting gay-rights groups.
[...]
Thomas Jacobson, representative to the U.N. for Focus on the Family Action, said the objective of homosexual-activist groups worldwide is to make sexual orientation a human right.
"Homosexuality is not a legitimate foundation for human rights — sexual orientation is not comparable with ethnic origin or race," he said. "The U.N. has lost much of its credibility in the area of human rights and should be focusing on the protection of true human rights, not pseudo 'rights.' "
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
Ask President Bush to direct the nation's U.N. delegations not to support gay-activist groups. You may contact him through the CitizenLink Action Center. If you are a CitizenLink Daily Update subscriber, you may click on the blue "Take Action" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in. Otherwise, be sure to either log in or enter your ZIP code first to make your elected officials' contact information shows up.
[More at URL]
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Louisiana One Step Closer to Banning Abortion
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 24, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040621.cfm
The Louisiana House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice approved a bill that would ban almost all abortions. The bill, already approved by the Senate, now moves to the full House for a vote, LifeNews.com reported.
The committee made a minor adjustment to the language used for the health exception.
The Senate bill is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Ben Nevers, who opposed adding a health exception for victims of rape, concerned that it would weaken the ban.
[...]
"This vote reflects the growing understanding that abortion is violence against women," she said, "and that a rape exception would allow the rapist to victimize the woman twice, in addition to ending an innocent life."
[More at URL]
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Public-Health Conference Scorns Abstinence Education
An eyewitness account of a government-sponsored anti-conservative, anti-Christian conference.
by Linda Klepacki, analyst for sexual health
Focus on the Family
May 24, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0040610.cfm
I was among a handful of conservatives who dared sign up for the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference held earlier this month that was presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was blindingly clear that the majority of attendees wished Christian conservatives would go away and let them tell our young people how to have sex at any age, at any time, with anyone.
[More at URL]
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Effort to repeal state gay-rights law gathers momentum from pulpit
By Andrew Garber
Seattle Times staff reporter
May 24, 2006
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003014817_gayrights24m.html
OLYMPIA — A referendum campaign aimed at repealing Washington's gay-rights law has no paid signature gatherers, no advertising budget and not much money in the bank. Yet supporters say signatures are rolling in by the thousands.
The reason? The Faith and Freedom Network and Sound the Alarm, two conservative religious groups that existed before the measure was filed, say they are leading an extensive grass-roots campaign, urging congregations throughout Washington to sign petitions and volunteer.
During services at Northshore Baptist Church in Bothell on Sunday, the pastor urged congregants to sign Referendum 65 petitions that filled a table in the lobby.
The Faith and Freedom Network and Sound the Alarm are encouraging similar signature-gathering efforts across the state.
[...]
"This is about intolerance of the Christian world view. It's about codifying into law the acceptance of a behavior so that we cannot say it is wrong. That is what we're objecting to," he said.
[More at URL]
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WA Dept of Health Celebrates Gay Lifestyle
Faith and Freedom Network
May 24, 2006
An email sent on May 18, 2006 from Laurie Jinkins at the Washington Department of Health with subject, “looking for some good pictures,” announced that (quote), “June is ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Month.’”
[...]
One has to ask, “Should the Washington Department of Health be promoting and celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning month?”
But then, if HB2661 is left to become law, I would be discriminating to ask the question. In fact, I could be, under HB2661, held to be discriminating to even “think” the question. [Ed. Note: This is, of course, unmitigated bullshit.]
[More at URL]
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Rep Ed Murray Sets the Record Straight
Faith and Freedom Network
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/05/rep-ed-murray-sets-record-straight.html
Representative Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat who is one of a handful of openly gay legislators, told the Seattle P.I. this past weekend that he was not surprised Tim Eyman was working with the religious right on Referendum 65.
He said, “My assumption all along is that Tim Eyman, who has tried to portray himself as this anti-taxtarian, is actually part of the religious right and is showing his right-wing religious connections to try to repeal the civil rights bill [HB 2661].”
It seems that anyone who gets in the way of the gay agenda is attacked and labeled. Sometimes they are even called, “religious right.”
The duplicity and divisiveness of these folks is almost unbelievable.
[...]
This bill, HB 2661, is predatory. Those who are advancing it are presenting themselves as reasonable, common sense, live-and-let-live people while doing everything in their power to redefine marriage, the family, and censor Biblical teaching on homosexuality. Left to their devises, they will re-educate your children and redefine our social order as we have know it.
[More at URL]
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Q&A: Dr. Bill Maier on the Effects of Homosexual Indoctrination on Kids
California legislation mandating textbooks take a flattering view of homosexuality could have devastating effects on kids.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
May 23, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040597.cfm
California lawmakers are a step away from giving their approval to S.B. 1437, a bill which would mandate that all public school materials include a "positive portrayal" of homosexuality -- as well as bisexuality and cross-dressing.
Dr. Bill Maier, vice president and psychologist in residence at Focus on the Family, said the impact on children would be devastating.
[More at URL]
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Majority of Americans Oppose Gay Marriage
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 23, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040595.cfm
A new Gallup poll found 58 percent of the nation does not believe marriage includes same-sex partners and 50 percent support a constitutional amendment that preserves marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
[...]
While 53 percent of Democrats support gay marriage, 55 percent oppose an amendment preserving traditional marriage.
[More at URL]
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Golden State Wants Parental Notification
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 23, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040594.cfm
Californians have gathered more than a million signatures in order to place an initiative on November's ballot that will let voters decide whether parents should be told when a teen is considering an abortion, LifeNews.com reported.
[...]
Albin Rhomberg, a retired physician and spokesman for the drive, said the parental-notification initiative is similar to one defeated last year, but the 2005 special election saw every measure defeated. He's more hopeful about this year's outcome.
[More at URL]
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Volunteers Needed to Protect Marriage
A grassroots effort is under way to tell U.S. senators that America wants marriage constitutionally protected.
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
Focus on the Family
May 22, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040581.cfm
A coalition of pro-family groups is looking for volunteers to tell senators that America overwhelmingly supports an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week on a 10-to-8 party-line vote. It's expected to be brought to the floor by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., on Monday, June 5. That's when senators must know what Americans expect.
Catherine Snow, who is helping to coordinate the grassroots effort, said, on average, 75 percent of voters indicate they would vote in favor of protecting marriage.
"We really want to share with senators that mainstream America really does support a constitutional amendment," she said, "because marriage is not safe in the states anymore."
[...]
For those who cannot travel to D.C., there is plenty to be done from home.
"We can plug them in to whatever activities are going on in their state," Snow said. "If they say, 'I have a couple of hours for lunch that I can go do something,' I can help plug them in to an organization near them."
One thing that everyone can do: contact their senators.
[...]
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
If you'd like to volunteer to help get the federal Marriage Protection Amendment passed by Congress, visit this Web site ( http://www.formarriage.org/ ) and click on the button that says "We Need Your Help — Volunteer Form." Whether you can pray, call, e-mail or go visit your senators' offices in person, your help is vital.
[More at URL]
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Judge Strikes Down Oklahoma Gay-Adoption Ban
Activist decision fuels the case for the federal Marriage Protection Amendment.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
May 22, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040583.cfm
A federal district judge Friday struck down Oklahoma's law that prohibits adoption by two people of the same sex. Pro-family experts say the decision could possibly set the stage for the imposition of gay marriage upon states.
In a 31-page decision, U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron held that Oklahoma's law violated due process and equal-protection rights established by the U.S. Constitution.
"The very fact that the adoptions have occurred," Cauthron wrote, "is evidence that a court of law has found the adoptions to be in the best interests of the children. . . . To now attempt to strip a child of one of his or her parents seems far removed from the statute’s purpose and therefore from Defendants’ (the state's) asserted important government objective."
The Lambda Legal Foundation challenged the Oklahoma law on behalf of three gay couples, who argued that since they had been given parental rights in other states, the Sooner State should also be forced to recognize their parenthood.
But Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said last Friday's decision could eventually have dire consequences for traditional marriage because the judge also cited a doctrine called the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
[...]
David Dunn, research and policy director of the Oklahoma Family Policy Council, said the state Legislature had enacted the adoption-invalidation law, because the state was becoming known as a gay-adoption factory.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
Please contact your senators today and let them know that marriage protection is a priority -- that once it is redefined, marriage as an institution will be destroyed. Ask them to support the Marriage Protection Amendment.
If you are a CitizenLink subscriber, please click on the blue "Marriage Protection Amendment" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in to our Action Center and taken to the page where you may contact your senators.
Otherwise, click here to visit our Action Center ( http://vocusgr.vocus.com/GRSPACE2/dotnet/WebPublish/Controller.aspx?SiteName=FOTF&Definition=ContactLegislators&IssueID=2203 ).
----- 14 -----
U.S. Supreme Opts Out of Gay-Adoption Dispute
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 22, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040588.cfm
The U.S. Supreme Court, for the second time, declined to hear a child-custody case brought by two lesbians, The Associated Press reported.
The birth mother, identified only as Sharon S., signed an adoption petition in August of 1999 to allow her then-partner, identified as Annette F., to adopt a child that the two were raising together. The women separated, and Sharon S. tried to request dismissal of the petition.
[More at URL]
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Why a Federal Marriage Amendment Is Needed 5/22/2006
By Robert Knight
Rogue judges and legislators are creating counterfeits.
Opponents of a federal constitutional marriage amendment often contend that it’s too early, that there is no need for such a measure. Wait until something really big happens, they say.
But events over the past two years clearly illustrate that a federal amendment is overdue. The law is in turmoil. Lots of “big things” have happened.
[...]
Connecticut – October, 2005: Connecticut becomes the sixth state (after California, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont) to offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex couples.
[...]
CWA does not support the Marriage Protection Amendment as currently worded because the second sentence is open to differing interpretations, and its drafters acknowledged that it was specifically crafted that way so state legislators could create civil unions, domestic partnerships and other forms of counterfeit marriage.
CWA believes that legislators should not create incentives in the law that encourage people to remain trapped in homosexuality, and that such laws inevitably result in the degradation of the natural family and the oppression of people who hold traditional views of marriage.
CWA prefers the Institution of Marriage Amendment authored by Home School Legal Defense Association President Michael Farris. That amendment, which has not been introduced by any member of Congress, protects marriage in all aspects:
Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither the United States nor any State shall recognize or grant to any unmarried person the legal rights or status of a spouse.
[More at URL]
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Commentary & News Briefs
Agape Press
May 19, 2006
Compiled by Jenni Parker
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/192006h.asp
[...]
...Tensions are building as Episcopalians prepare for their church's General Convention, which begins June 13 in Columbus, Ohio. Episcopal delegates must respond to outrage among fellow Anglicans worldwide over the 2003 consecration of the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Anglican leaders have called for a moratorium on electing partnered homosexual Episcopal bishops and on creating blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. If Anglican leaders conclude that the General Convention has not moved far enough toward discouraging those practices, it could break apart the 77-million-member Communion. A conservative group called Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion is pressing for a church trial of Robinson and the dozens of bishops who consecrated him. [AP]
[More at URL]
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Voice Your Values for Marriage Before the Senate Votes!
Family Research Council
May 24, 2006 - Wednesday
Forward to a Friend!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06E09&f=PG03I03
Less than two weeks from today the U.S. Senate will vote on S. J. Res. 1, the Marriage Protection Amendment to the Constitution. Marriage is an indispensable institution, and this is a vote of surpassing importance. In the decades to come, our children and our grandchildren will turn to us and ask, "When the issue of marriage was decided, were you involved? Where did you stand?"
I've written lengthy emails on this issue before, but this one will be short. We need at least 13,000 more signers of our online petition to reach our goal. These petitions will be presented to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Monday, June 5. I would like to count your name, and those of your family and friends, among the signers. Please take a few seconds to add your name to this petition in support of the Marriage Protection Amendment.
Let's all take the actions needed to answer the question the rising generations will ask us: "Where did you stand?"
----- 18 -----
Amicus Brief: Gonzales v. Carhart
Family Research Council
May 25, 2006
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=CB06E01&f=FR03G04
Family Research Council has filed a "friend of the court" brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart. The Supreme Court last February agreed to take up this case, which challenges the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act which was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2003. The act never went into effect since Planned Parenthood immediately went into federal court and obtained an injunction to stop enforcement of the act. For the last three years partial birth abortions have continued to be practiced in America, in spite of widespread public opinion against this terrible procedure. We hope the Supreme Court will side with the angels on this one, and save our future generations from an untimely almost born death.
[Ed. Note: there's a link to the PDF on the page]
----- 19 -----
Ministry Profile: Ministry nurtures Christian leadership on dark continent
By Rebecca Grace | AFA Journal Staff Writer
May 2006
http://www.afajournal.org/2006/may/506Africans.asp
Val Vickery, a resident of Jackson, Mississippi, and former missionary to Africa, had no idea how many lives would be changed as a result of her visit to a radio station on a college campus in Malawi, Africa, nearly 10 years ago.
She and her husband Barry had just moved from the United States to Africa where they would spend the next year and a half sharing the Gospel while teaching. They arrived during the summer months, so the school with which they would be working was not in session.
[More at URL]
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British Okay Scrapping Embryos Based on Potential for Adult Illness
By Mary Rettig
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 24, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/242006c.asp
(AgapePress) - The executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) says Great Britain has taken a dangerous and unethical step in embryo screening.
The British Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority recently ruled that fertility clinics can screen out embryos that contain genes that raise the risk of cancer in adulthood. The doctors will do this by using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, which removes a couple of cells from an eight-cell embryo.
[More at URL]
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Members of South Dakota Indian Tribe to Protest Abortion Facility Proposal
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 24, 2006
http://www.lifenews.com/state1674.html
Pine Ridge, SD (LifeNews.com) -- Members of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are meeting today to organize a protest against Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder's proposal to build an abortion facility on the reservation. Indian elders, youth and community members are slated to take part in organizing the protest.
[...]
[President Fire Thunder] originally planned to build the abortion business only if the attempt to defeat the ban failed. She told Indian Country Today that it will move ahead regardless.
She already has a name, too -- the Sacred Choices Clinic.
Planning for the abortion facility is already underway and she has put together volunteers to coordinate strategy, attorneys are drafting papers and looking at potential legal obstacles, Thunder explained.
Thunder has already raised $5,000 from pro-abortion activists across the country wanted to see the Indian abortion center succeed. She indicated she's received hundreds of emails in support.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Voice your opposition to: Oglala Sioux Tribe, ATTN: President Fire Thunder, P. O. Box H, Pine Ridge, SD 57770. You can also call 605-867-6074 or fax a letter to 605-867-6076.
[More at URL]
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Pope: "Canada is Today Suffering from the Pervasive Effects of Secularism"
By John-Henry Westen
LifeSite.com
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06052302.html
VATICAN, May 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Addressing Catholic bishops from Atlantic Canada Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI warned that "Canada is today suffering from the pervasive effects of secularism." The Pope explained that "the attempt to promote a vision of humanity apart from God's transcendent order and indifferent to Christ's beckoning light, removes from the reach of ordinary men and women the experience of genuine hope."
[More at URL]
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Pro-Family Leader Pleased to Find Ohio at Bottom of Homosexuals' List
By Chad Groening
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 23, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/232006d.asp
(AgapePress) - An Ohio pro-family activist says the state should consider it a point of pride that a radical homosexual rights group has ranked Ohio last in the United States in terms of providing special rights to homosexuals and similar groups.
A pro-homosexual group calling itself Equality of Ohio recently published a nationwide study about so-called discrimination against "gays," lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals. The study rated the state of Ohio dead last in protecting the "equality" of those groups.
[More at URL]
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TVC Opposes Increase In Global AIDS Funding Proposal
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2732
May 23, 2006 - Washington, DC – Traditional Values Coalition is calling on Congress to reject a multi-million dollar increase in funding for the Global AIDS Fund, an organization that is unaccountable to U.S. taxpayers and openly opposes President Bush’s AIDS policies.
“Congress must not provide increased taxpayer funding to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria,” said Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. “This organization’s leader has openly admitted that this fund is pursuing policies diametrically opposed to those of the Bush Administration. It encourages needle giveaway programs and the legalization of prostitution. Taxpayers should not be asked to fund such activities under the guise of fighting AIDS and diseases.
[More at URL]
----- 25 -----
TVC Chairman And Staffer Invited To White House Signing Ceremony
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2730
May 19, 2006 – TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon and Chief of Staff April Waugh were invited by President Bush to attend his signing of an historic tax-cutting bill passed by Congress.
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Risk Audit Project Gains Momentum
Traditional Values Coalition, Stephen Bennett Ministries, Parents, Friends Of Ex-Gays and Gays, and Numerous Additional Grassroots Pro-Family Organizations Endorse Public School Homosexuality Risk Audit
To: National Desk, Education Reporter, Feature Reporter
Contact: Linda Harvey, president, Mission America,614-442-7998, lharvey@missionamerica.com; E. Ray Moore, Jr., Exodus Mandate, 803-714-1744
http://www.earnedmedia.org/em0518.htm
COLUMBIA, SC, May 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Risk Audit Project, launched in April with strong endorsements from a coalition of pro-family groups including American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, many state chapters of Eagle Forum, and AFA of Pennsylvania, continues to receive endorsements from additional major pro-family groups.
Developed by Mission America’s president, Linda Harvey, the purpose of the Risk Audit Project is to help pro-family organizations, parents, churches, and community activists determine whether their local school districts are betraying their community’s trust by collaborating with homosexual activists or attempting to indoctrinate schoolchildren with the view that homosexual behavior is safe or morally acceptable.
The Risk Audit Project is being implemented through a survey instrument that can be used by pro-family organizations, churches, parents, and citizens to assess the level and types of pro-homosexual material, activities and curricula utilized in any given school district.
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
Revisiting the Same-sex Marriage Issue
For Immediate Release
REAL Women of Canada
Toronto, Ontario May 4, 2006
http://www.realwomenca.com/press.htm#05_04_06
Twelve pro-family organizations from across Canada have joined together in an association called Defend Marriage Coalition to work toward a winning vote in Parliament in support of traditional marriage. This vote, according to Prime Minister Harper, will take place “sooner rather than later.”
As its first initiative, the Defend Marriage Coalition has written to the leaders of all the individual faiths in Canada requesting that they become actively involved in this vote.
This is important not only for the fact that marriage between a man and a woman protects children, and their families, but it is also important in order to properly protect religious freedoms in Canada.
Contrary to the former Liberal government's assertions, religious groups will be subject to legal challenges if the legal definition of marriage continues to include same-sex partners.
This is based on the fact that the Supreme Court of Canada in the same-sex marriage reference handed down on December 9, 2004, concluded that although the provisions on the Civil Marriage Act passed last year purports to preserve religious rights, this provision, in fact, has no effect, and is superfluous, because the provision deals with provincial rights and is therefore outside the federal government's jurisdiction. The Supreme Court did acknowledge that religious groups would be protected from actually performing same-sex marriages, but the court also stated that in situations where there is a “collision of rights” the courts would be obligated to balance and delineate these colliding rights. This is not reassuring because in most cases in which the courts have adjudicated religious freedoms versus homosexual rights, the latter's rights have trumped religious rights.
Already, in less than a year since the same-sex marriage law was passed, cases have arisen which determinably affects religious rights in Canada:
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The Lunatic Fringe goes Mainstream
By Jill Stanek, May 24, 2006
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Hosted by Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/life/lunatic-fringe.htm
Most agree abortion is at the very least unpleasant. Even two of its most ardent political supporters, Bill and Hillary Clinton, concur abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare." There's no reason to say that unless abortion is bad for some reason.
But latter-day feminist abortion advocates disagree. They think abortion is not just fine; it's holy.
I'm sure fringe feminist writings equate abortion as sacred. What surprises me are the mainstream pro-abortion feminist leaders making such statements today, like Debi Jackson, owner of Cincinnati Women's Services abortion mill, and Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Sioux Native American tribe.
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