Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Sep. 30th, 2006 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdThe anti-contraception movement rhetoric spreads a bit more; Focus on the Family protests censorship protests; lots of ACTION ITEMs to oppose bills protecting GBLT students from harassment; the theocons get the post-religious-harassment-lawsuit rules at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy thrown out so they can go back to their old abuses; and the nascent Canadian theoconservative movement imports lots more rhetoric, language, and bogus studies from their American counterparts. Canadian readers may particularly find this interesting, I don't know.
But now, today's news.
Focus on the Family condemns "Banned Books Week" and the American Library Association, accuses them of accusing "concerned parents"; the shtick here is that they're declaring that a book isn't banned unless it's banned nationally, and that therefore the whole thing is a fraud;
Focus on the Family runs another condemnation of Plan B, the morning-after/emergency birth-control pill; the most interesting thing about this to my mind is that their subtitle, "Plan B is not the answer" is an echo of the rising-profile anti-contraception-of-all-kinds fundamentalist movement's slogan, "Contraception is not the answer" - they also attack sex education, of course;
Focus on the Family condemns recent Supreme Court decisions as "muddled" for not allowing unlimited single-religion (10 Commandments) postings in courthouses; in particular, they attack Justice Breyer for ruling in favour of "maximum personal autonomy," including "the right to engage in sodomy without criminal prosecution," in case you were wondering whether they still want to make GBLT people illegal - they do;
FotF condemns anyone who doesn't buy into the whole "ex-gay" bullshit;
FotF's Citizen Magazine reviews The Party of Death favourably (of course);
Focus on the Family condemns former Speaker Dick Armey - one of their favourites when in the House - for calling them "nasty bullies;" it's an ACTION ITEM but no specific action outlined; interestingly, they say Senator Tom Coburn as believing Dick Armey "has no business making such comments";
FotF supports a "last ditch" effort to give the chief executive even more power by granting Mr. Bush a line-item veto via Constitutional amendment; the probability of this happening is pretty much zero, but look for it later again;
The theoconservative Alliance Defense Fund - noted for its anti-gay legal actions - and the Family Research Council have sent out a letter to fundamentalist political churches outlining the activities in which they can legally engage, encouraging more political activity;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM; there's a last-minute attempt to get an anti-abortion-rights bill through and into law before the end of the session;
Ohio law against RU-486, the chemical abortion pill, struck down;
Focus on the Family very cranky - time has run out again on a set of Mr. Bush's nominees to the appeals courts, and they're mad; this is another ACTION ITEM that has no action associated with it; I'm wondering what's going on with that;
FotF ACTION ITEM to thank California governor Schwarzenegger for vetoing two bills, one providing anti-harassment protections for GBLT students in California schools, the other setting up a pilot GBLT tolerance programme at schools; Focus on the Family considers it a religions mandate to harass GBLT people at all ages, and in particular, works to ensure that fundamentalist teachers can pressure GBLT students in class - see earlier CWUs for other examples;
Focus on the Family expects new Supreme Court justices to yield a different outcome in a coming second-take on the so-called "partial birth" abortion ban; they note Justice O'Connor voted with the majority against a state ban in 2000, but they now have Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts, who they expect to vote with them;
***** Theocon celebration: Congress passes Defense Authorisation Bill that overturns Air Force and Navy regulations passed in response to fundamentalist religious harassment at their respective academies; now they can presumably go back to harassing Jewish and other non-Christian academy members; Focus on the Family says it's a return to the 1999 rules which are what allowed the harassment to begin with;
***** Focus on the Family reports that a fiction writer posting material I personally find very disturbing on the internet has been indicted on six counts of distributing obscene material; notes that the fact that it's fiction is irrelevant; claims it is interstate commerce; I have no idea whether these were materials for sale; regardless, better watch out, they've gotten the Feds going on Internet censorship now;
***** Internet writer indicted on six counts of "distributing obscene material" for her fiction stories posted to the internet; Focus on the Family is jubilant;
Focus on the Family's Tennessee political rally changes location, features "James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family Action, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Gary Bauer, president of American Values; Dr. Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Wash., and Dr. Richard Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention";
Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight has an ACTION ITEM to protest NBC over "NBC's Anti-Christian Bent";
CWA condemns lack of Senate passage of anti-abortion legislation;
House of Representatives passes PERA, a bill designed to make it much harder to fight attempts to implement unequal religious treatment by governments by amending civil rights law to prevent losers from having to pay court costs;
CWA's Robert Knight starts ramping up the Happy Holidays is anti-Christian/it must be Merry Christmas bullshit again; gods, this is the dumbest-ass thing ever;
Canada Family Action Coalition: GBLT marriage rights will lead to pedophilic marriage, demands Constitutional amendment banning marriage rights for anyone but heterosexual couples;
Canada Family Action Coalition: "Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come to Your School?"; links to the American Traditional Values Coalition's rant against people with gender identity disorder;
Canada Family Action Coalition says there is no right to "sodomy," calls GBLT rights "absurd and dangerous";
Traditional Values Coalition Word document attacking the concept of GID;
Canada Family Action Coalition attacks use of "social justice" terminology;
Canada Family Action Coalition petition against sex education programmes that include GBLT experiences;
Institute for Canadian Values petition against sexual education including GBLT experiences - probably linked to the same petition;
Institute of Marriage and Family Canada - the Focus on the Family founded and funded Canadian "think tank" designed to churn out anti-gay/pro-fundamentalist "studies" attacks marriage rights as anti-children - apparently has an anti-marriage column printed in the National Post;
Institute of Marriage and Family Canada PDF against marriage rights in Canada;
Traditional Values Coalition - who has stated previously that they believe people with gender identity disorder should be involuntarily institutionalised - publishes a document condemning accepted gender identity disorder treatment (gender reassignment) as "crazy," states "God does not make mistakes";
TVC's Rev. Sheldon condemns democratic Christians as "pseudo-evangelicals" and asserts that "liberal thinking is the antithesis of true Christianity";
TVC celebrates 20 years of Justice Antonin Scalia's tenure on the Supreme Court; particularly celebrates his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, the decision which confirmed that GBLT people were citizens who could not be made illegal by fiat; he warned in that dissent that laws against things like masturbation, adultery, and fornication were now in danger; TVC claims Lawrence v. Texas will lead to the legalisation of pedophilia;
Traditional Values Coalition condemns non-conservative Christians again, in longer form;
Yet another TVC article condemning the "Red Letter" liberal Christian group;
American Family Association condemns Massachusetts court ruling that Massachusetts's law banning out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their home state's laws would forbid the marriage does not explicitly block a Rhode Island male couple from marrying;
AFA ACTION ITEM to write the new Ford CEO stop advertising in GBLT-targeted magazines, etc - the usual;
AFA ACTION ITEM to demand that Wal-Mart drop all support for Boise State University's Diversity Week event;
AFA supports California Governor Schwarzenegger's veto of school anti-harassment bill including GBLT students;
Focus on the Family article assaults things like sperm donation and GBLT marriage;
Family Research Council condemns Massachusetts court ruling about a Rhode Island couple mentioned above;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to demand four more vetos from Gov. Schwarzenegger - most of which appear to be, in their summaries, aimed at protecting the rights of GBLT students.
----- 1 -----
Critics Say ALA's Banned Books Week is 'a Fraud'
A little investigating suggests the observance is named more for effect than truth.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 25, 2006
This is the 25th annual Banned Books Week—and for a quarter of a century the American Library Association (ALA) has used the event to decry the hundreds of books challenged by concerned parents.
The message the organization sends is that books are being banned. A radio public-service announcement advertising this year's event summarizes how the ALA views Banned Books Week.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
UK Abortion Rate Rises Despite Wide Access to Morning-After Pill
Plan B is not the answer.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 25, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042078.cfm
Abortion advocates have long claimed that full access to the so-called morning-after pill would reduce the number of abortions. But a report from Britain finds that abortions there are up despite ready access to the controversial pill.
The morning-after pill became widely available in the United Kingdom several years ago, supposedly to reduce abortions. But Anthony Ozimic, a spokesman for Britain's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said abortions in England have risen steadily during that time—going from 186,000 in 2001 to 194,000 last year
"We believe that the numbers of abortions generally and the number of abortions for those under 16 are continuing to rise because of the government's promotion of value-free sex education and the increasing sexualizing of young people through the distribution and mass provision of birth control," Ozimic said.
[More at URL]
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Sandblast This
Moses the Lawgiver appears all over the U.S. Supreme Court building, but thanks to two muddled rulings on Ten Commandments displays, he's one vote away from being obliterated.
by Bruce Hausknecht
Citizen Magazine
Focus on the Family
http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/coverstory/a0037645.cfm
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of one Ten Commandments display and against another in June, it didn't do city councils and other local officials any favors.
The Supreme Court is supposed to clarify confusing areas of law for the rest of us, using the Constitution as its plumb line, so that legislators can confidently get on with the business of governing and lower courts can apply a consistent rule to the myriads of different cases brought before them.
The June decisions clarified nothing. Lawyers will be happy, because the muddled rulings will no doubt result in more court fights and $300-an-hour legal fees, paid for by the American taxpayer. But the local official who wanted guidance on whether to approve a public display that includes our nation's Christian heritage is likely to be even more anxious than before.
[...]
Justice Breyer has ruled in favor of maximum personal autonomy—including the freedom to kill a viable unborn child through the barbaric procedure known as partial-birth abortion, the right to expose schoolchildren to Internet porn, the right to have a religion-free experience at a high school football game and the right to engage in sodomy without fear of criminal prosecution.
[...]
That's why President Bush's selections to the U.S. Supreme Court are so vitally important. At press time, President Bush had nominated U.S. Circuit Judge John G. Roberts to fill the void left by retiring Justice O'Connor. Preliminary research gave early indication that Roberts is likely to respect the U.S. Constitution, according to Focus on the Family Action founder and chairman, James C. Dobson, Ph.D.
[More at URL]
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Liberal target: ex-gays
The Left hates the truth that same-sex desires can be overcome by spiritual redemption.
by the Citizen staff
Citizen Magazine
Focus on the Family
http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/features/a0041680.cfm
Go to “gay pride” day at school and you’ll hear words like “tolerance” and “understanding.” But listen to these same voices behind closed doors and you may hear a very different message.
Citizen heard some intolerant talk in April at a conference sponsored by one of the nation’s largest homosexual advocacy groups—the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The event, hosted by GLSEN’s Boston chapter, featured an entire training session devoted to combating “the effects of programs like Love Won Out.”
Love Won Out (LWO) is a conference produced by Focus on the Family. The one-day event offers hope that same-sex desires can be overcome through spiritual redemption and addressing root causes. Men and women who have responded to that message often refer to themselves as “ex-gay”—a term that angers homosexuals.
[More at URL]
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The Party’s Over
An author exposes “the party of death” in American politics, and says its reign is coming to an end.
by Matt Kaufman
Citizen Magazine
Focus on the Family
http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/departments/a0041669.cfm
Lots of people are turned off by today’s political rhetoric simply because so much of it gets so shrill. And at first glance, a book about abortion and other life issues that calls the Democrats “the party of death”—in the title—would seem to be more of the same. Its outrage may be justifiable, but is it helpful?
Probably not. But that’s not what National Review Senior Editor Ramesh Ponnuru delivers in The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life (Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2006, 303 pages). Not even close.
[More at URL]
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Armey Lashes Out Against Dobson, Values Voters
Conservative Christians take it on the chin from an unexpected source.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
September 28, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042141.cfm
Former Texas Congressman Dick Armey, once a stalwart ally in the culture wars, appears to be turning his back on Christian conservatives and their leaders.
The former majority leader of the House of Representatives reportedly told Ryan Sager, author of a new book on the Republican Party, that values voters and their leaders — especially Focus on the Family Action Chairman Dr. James Dobson — are "nasty bullies."
[...]
"To a large extent, because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies," Armey said. "I pray devoutly every day, but being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid. There's a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn't work unless it's dumb . . . These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic."
[...]
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who also served under Armey when he was a member of the House, said the former Texas congressman and fiscal conservative has no business making such comments.
"I don't know why he's mad now, but his characterization is totally inappropriate," Coburn said. "I'm sorry Dick Armey feels that way.
[More at URL]
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Senate Makes Last-Ditch Effort to Pass Line-Item Veto
Legislation would allow the president to strike parts of a bill.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 28, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042128.cfm
In the last week of deliberations before breaking for the election, some in the Senate are calling on Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to push legislation that would give the president a line-item veto.
[More at URL]
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Encourage Your Senators to Pass the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist filed a procedural motion Wednesday evening that could lead to an important pro-life bill becoming law.
Focus on the Family
September 28, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042132.cfm
The Republican from Tennessee called for a motion to concur with the House-passed version of S. 403, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA). The House passed the bill on Tuesday, 264-153. The Senate passed a different version of the bill (then titled the Child Custody Protection Act) in July, 65-34. Democratic leaders in the Senate have blocked the bill from reaching President Bush and being signed into law.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
Because of the short time left before the vote, phone calls are the preferred method for contacting your senators. There are 14 Democrats who especially need to hear from their constituents. They voted for the earlier version of the bill in July, and it's vital that they vote for it again. They are:
Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
Thomas Carper, D-Del.
Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii
Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
Mary Landrieu, D-La.
Ben Nelson, D-Neb.
Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
Tim Johnson, D-S.D.
Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.
Herbert Kohl, D-Wisc.
If you are a CitizenLink Daily Update subscriber, click on the blue "Take Action" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in to our Action Center. Otherwise, click on this link.
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
Judge Rejects Ohio Law Limiting Abortion Pill
Focus on the Family
September 28, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042130.cfm
A federal judge Wednesday ruled unconstitutional an Ohio law restricting the use of the abortion-inducing drug RU-486, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
[...]
The law -- which was supposed to go into effect in 2004, but couldn't because of pending litigation -- made it illegal for a physician to prescribe the drug after the seventh week of pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the same recommendation six years ago.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Once Again No Action Taken on President's Appellate Nominees
Time runs out and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee fail to show up — in more ways than one.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042155.cfm
The Senate's top courts panel met today for the last time before Congress recesses to prepare for the November elections. No action was taken on the president's long-waiting appeals-court nominees.
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, matter-of-factly analyzed what the Senate Judiciary Committee did not do.
"Not all the Republicans showed up," he said. "And the Democrats only agreed to cooperate in sending several district-court judges out of the committee on a voice vote, while failing to advance even a single court-of-appeals judge."
But Hausknecht, like many pro-family conservatives, is angry at the "wasted opportunity."
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Schwarzenegger Vetoes Two Anti-Family School Bills
Bills requiring homosexual antidiscrimination policies and redefining "tolerance" struck down.
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042149.cfm
Two bills aimed at advancing the homosexual agenda were vetoed Thursday by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
AB 606 would have required school districts to adopt anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies based on perceived sexual orientation -- and to update publications, provide information, training and other resources. Failure to do so would have resulted in the loss of state funding.
AB 1056 would have established a $250,000 tolerance pilot program in 10 schools. It also would have redefined "tolerance" to mean active acceptance of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Supreme Court to Take on Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
New justices may lead to a different outcome.
from staff reports
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042144.cfm
When the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court start back to work Monday, they’ll face a docket full of contentious social issues, including the partial-birth abortion ban. With the addition of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, many have hopes the court may reverse some of its previous decisions.
Although pro-lifers' hopes were dashed in 2000 when the court ruled 5-4 against Nebraska's ban on partial-birth abortion, Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, said it’s a new day and a new court.
[...]
Ruse pointed out that there is no constitutional right to abortion and added that if it wasn’t such a serious matter, it would be laughable to suggest it. But if the ban is upheld, it would be a landmark decision.
“This will be the first federal restriction on abortion," she said, "that has been permitted since Roe v. Wade.”
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Victory for Chaplains' Prayers
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042150.cfm
U.S. lawmakers today agreed to strike current restrictive regulations in the Air Force and Navy that prevent chaplains from praying according to their faith and conscience in public venues.
Amanda Banks, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the Defense Authorization Act of 2007 includes language to rescind previous provisions forbidding chaplains to pray according to their conscience.
[...]
Banks called the measure a step in the right direction.
"We'd really like to see more done," she said. "Specifically -- language adopted that would say explicitly that military chaplains can pray according to dictates of their faith and conscience."
[More at URL]
----- 14 -----
Tennessee: Stand for the Family Rally Changes Venue
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042146.cfm
The Stand for the Family rally in Nashville, Tenn., will still take place Oct 16 at 6:30 p.m., but will be held at Two Rivers Baptist Church, 2800 McGavock Pike, across from the Opryland Hotel. It's also now a free event. People who bought tickets can have their money refunded by Ticketmaster and will receive special seating at the rally.
Speakers include Dr. James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family Action, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Gary Bauer, president of American Values; Dr. Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Wash., and Dr. Richard Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Madonna vs. Veggies: NBC's Anti-Christian Bent
Concerned Women for America
9/29/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11578/CWA/misc/index.htm
The NBC television network has made several decisions this season that are being viewed as anti-Christian. The network has cut references to "God" and the "Bible" out of the Veggie Tales cartoons it began airing this fall. Meanwhile, the network is going ahead with plans for a Madonna concert special to air November 12 that features her mocking the crucifixion of Christ by descending to the stage on a cross wearing a crown of thorns. Bob Knight, Director of CWA's Culture & Family Institute has more on these outrages, as well as the new NBC show "Studio 60" which also mocks Christians. Click here to listen.
To locate your local NBC affiliate to complain visit: http://www.nbc.com/nbc/header/Local_Stations/
[Robert Knight: "I think they might want to lie on a couch somewhere and get analysed... they're doing something that's anti-Christian in both instances." They're saying that the Madonna special with her on a crucifix is back on? "The worst kind of vulgarity, so this is a direct insult to Christians everywhere, it's like I can do this to your most devout symbol, and you're not going to do anything." Knight says the special is still on, unedited. The AFA has an action item out against NBC (we'll see that later). Complains about "chopping the vegetables"; taking the bible-quotes out but leaving the morality in. "They don't seem to care either way about how Christians feel." Says they "walk all over" Christians. Bill Donahue of the Catholic League: "If NBC does air the mock crucifiction it will send a message to the 85% of the American population that is Christian, that their sensibilities count less than Muslims." Jerry Falwell condemns NBC too, they quote him. Says NBC is "Notoriously Bashing Christians." Complains that "Studio 60" bashes the 700 Club, implies watchers "are Klu Klux Klan members." ACTION ITEM to contact NBC and complain about "Christianity consistently under attack" either "by omission" or "comission." Also to contact sponsours and complain, particularly about the Madonna concert video. "Merchants should advertise] on programmes that blaspheme Christ at their own peril."]
----- 16 -----
CWA Laments Loss for Child Safety and Parental Rights
Concerned Women for America
9/29/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11589/MEDIA/life/index.htm
Washington, D.C. − Concerned Women for America (CWA) laments an enormous loss for children’s safety and parental rights after the Senate’s failure to once again pass Sen. John Ensign’s (R-Nevada) Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA), S. 403. This long-overdue legislation would have protected minors from being transported across state lines to get an abortion.
[...]
“The Senate chose to disregard the American public’s wish to see this bill implemented. Apparently they are more dedicated to divisive partisanship than to the American public for whom this issue is overwhelmingly popular.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
CWA Praises House for Passing Public Expression of Religion Act
Concerned Women for America
9/26/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11564/MEDIA/misc/index.htm
Washington, D.C. − Concerned Women for America (CWA) applauds the House today for passing the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), H.R. 2679, introduced by Rep. Hostettler (R-Indiana). The passage of this legislation brings us one step closer to preventing legal groups, like the ACLU, from collecting attorney’s fees from the defendants they sue in establishment clause cases. Eliminating these monetary awards will free citizens to stand up for their constitutional freedoms and not face crippling judgments for attorney’s fees.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
The Holiday vs. Christmas Season is Starting
Concerned Women for America
9/27/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11579/CWA/misc/index.htm
Seasonal catalogs and sales flyers are starting to trickle into mailboxes across the country. While there have been some major victories in the effort to convince merchants to acknowledge and articulate “Merry Christmas,” early indications show that the battle is far from over. Martha Kleder speaks with Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute. Click here to listen.
www.savemerrychristmas.org
[Robert Knight: "It doesn't make me very jolly... catalogues are coming into peoples' mailboxes, and more often than not they say 'Holiday...'" Complains about getting catalogues that say "Holiday" instead of "Christmas." Robert Knight personally called up a company to tell them that he doesn't buy from anyone who says "Holiday," calls it religious bigotry, encourages people to call companies which use "Holiday" instead of "Christmas" and boycott them. They're in fact talking about how they're scanning catalogues. Says that "Macy's" will feature the words "Christmas" and "Merry Christmas" this year in response to pressure, lists a few others; claims companies are trying to "ban Christmas." Talks about Bill O'Reilly, thanks him and Fox News for publicising this whole stupid thing and getting it moving. Notes that 56% of "born-again evangelical Christians" are offended by Happy Holidays. ACTION ITEM to boycott and toss out catalogues that don't highlight "Merry Christmas."]
----- 19 -----
It's Time for a Royal Commission on Marriage
COMMUNIQUÉ of the CHRISTIAN HERITAGE PARTY of CANADA
Volume 13 No. 39 - Sept.19'06
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/family/marriage/royal-commission.htm
This fall Parliament is to re-open the debate on the definition of marriage. Sort of.
The Conservatives - who promised during the last election campaign to re-visit this contentious issue - will ask Parliament whether it wants to re-examine the definition of marriage (which was changed by Bill C-38 to include any two people). That definition, as it now stands, is dangerous.
"Any two people" opens the door to things like incest and pedophilia. Of course, anti-moralists say that couldn't happen, "because incest and pedophilia are against the law." But remember: sodomy was also against the law.
And therein lies the problem: laws can easily be changed. That's why we must demand that Parliament enshrine the traditional definition of marriage-a definition that predates the institution of government itself-in the Constitution.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
Back to School Report "Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come to Your School?"
CFAC says: This is occuring in Canada also folks. Protect your children NOW.
Canada Family Action Coalition
September 27, 2006
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/education/cross-dressing-school.htm
Traditional Values Coalition has just published an important BACK TO SCHOOL report on cross-dressing and transgender activism that you’ll want to read and distribute.
The report, “Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come To Your School?” (MS Word doc) describes the latest agenda among transgender and homosexual activists to normalize sex change operations and cross-dressing for kindergarten age children and older! This effort is being promoted by pro-transgender/homosexual educators and a network of radical pediatricians who work within some of the largest children’s hospitals in the United States.
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Court Challenges Program
Anti-Human Rights
Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/politics-law/courts/court-challenges.htm
The howlers are out before Halloween this year. The abusive use of tax dollars by the thieves of the Court Challenge Program do not want to work for a living like other Canadians. They expect that their groups and the lawyers they employ should be paid by YOU, the taxpayer.
If one studies the cases that YOU have funded we would see that most cases were NOT human rights based cases at all. They were political activist and leftist ideological cases that YOU paid for. This MUST be stopped. And it must not be reinstated.
Case after case in the last 4 years was a case against human rights. Is a case about somebody's sexual habits a human rights case? Really - now get real- making sodomy a human right is absurd and dangerous. The crying and whining will go on but let the facts instead of idiot ideology govern this nation.
----- 22 -----
Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come To Your School?
By TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty
Traditional Values Coalition
Reprinted/Hosted by the Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/worddoc/092606BackToSchoolOaklandReport.doc
Part I
As our children have returned to public schools this fall, they face a new threat to their sense of morality and sexuality: Transgender activists are targeting children for seduction into gender confusion.
Not only will children be facing pro-homosexual recruitment efforts in their elementary, junior high and high schools, but now they are likely to face cross-dressers and transsexual propagandists who will teach them that “gender” is a myth and that they can seriously consider having “sex change” operations to correct nature’s alleged mistake.
Transgender activists claim that they are “trapped in the wrong body” and that the only way to be free is to undergo a so-called “sex change” operation.
[More at URL]
----- 23 -----
SOCIAL JUSTICE ??
CFAC Alert
Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/article-pgs/social-justice.htm
Beware of the new buzz phrase “social justice”. The phrase was used recently by a few anti-marriage socialist ND MPs in an interview with MacLean’s. The phrase is also invading public education curriculum. From the perspective of those MPs and homosexual activists social justice is now a defense for sodomy, same-sex marriage and who knows what next?
So beware of this newly re-minted phrase “social justice”. It is showing up in politics, in activism and now even in public education. Many public educators have already bought into this misguided hollow term. BC now has a “social justice“ course. But it only talks of justice from one side of its ugly mouth. It is discriminatory in what it promotes social justice to be and it excludes other views, arguments, beliefs and positions. SO IT IS NOT JUST at all. It is a tool now being used by activists to indoctrinate children with certain beliefs, some of them harmful or even deadly, if applied.
[More at URL]
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PETITION
Stop Sexual Indoctrination of Children – September 2006
Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/education/black-book-PETTION.htm
To the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament Assembled
We the undersigned citizens of Canada draw the attention of the House of Commons to the following:
WHEREAS Industry Canada has provided funding for the production of a booklet (Little Black Book) that contains pornographically explicit material; and
WHEREAS said booklet indoctrinates and solicits children to same-sex relationships and may contain incomplete and inaccurate information.
[More at URL]
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No "Little Black Book" in Schools
Created by Institute for Canadian Values on Sep 15, 2006
Category: Education
Region: Canada
Target: Government Officials and School Administrators
Web-site: http://www.canadianvalues.ca
1022 Signatures
http://www.gopetition.com/online/9619.html
Description/History:
"The Little Black Book" is being promoted across Canada as a guide to healthy sexuality for teenage girls. In reality, it is a dangerous, unscientific and offensive piece ideological propaganda.
Among the books more egregious assertions:
[More at URL]
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Losing the Right to a Mommy and Daddy
Wednesday September 27, 2006
Page: A19
Section: Issues & Ideas
Byline: Barbara Kay
Column: Barbara Kay
Source: National Post
Institute of Marriage and Family Canada
http://www.imfcanada.org/publications/losing.rights.html
"I believe children have the right to a mother and a father, and preferably their biological parents." These words -- I agree with them, and so do the UN Conventions of the Child -- were once the equivalent of saying you believed in peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.
But in postmodern societies obsessed with gender equity, as ours has been for the past quarter-century, "mother and father" and "biological parents" have become politically incorrect locutions when joined to "children's rights." Just ask the author of my opening statement, the McGill University bioethicist Margaret Somerville, whose honorary doctorate at Ryerson College last June was jeopardized on its account.
[More at URL]
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September 25, 2006
The Revolution in Parenthood:
The Emerging Global Clash Between Adult Rights and Children's Needs.
September 25th, 2006
http://www.imfcanada.org/publications/parenthood.pdf
The Revolution in Parenthood
The Emerging Global Clash Between Adult Rights and Children’s Needs
Executive Summary
Around the world, the two-person, mother-father model of parenthood is being fundamentally challenged. In Canada, with virtually no debate, the controversial law that brought about samesex marriage quietly included the provision to erase the term “natural parent” across the board in federal law, replacing it with the term “legal parent.” With that law, the locus of power in defining who a child’s parents are shifts precipitously from civil society to the state, with the consequences as yet unknown. In Spain, after the recent legalization of same-sex marriage the legislature changed the birth certificates for all children in that nation to read “Progenitor A” and “Progenitor B” instead of “mother” and “father.” With that change, the words “mother” and “father” were struck from the first document issued to every newborn by the state. Similar proposals have been made in other jurisdictions that have legalized same-sex marriage.
[More at URL]
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TVC Publishes Back To School Report On Transgender Activism
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2876
September 28, 2006 -- “Transgender activists are aggressively targeting our public school children this fall,” says TVC Executive Director, Andrea Lafferty. “These sexually confused individuals have made it their goal to deceive our kids into thinking they’re the opposite sex. This insanity must stop. Our new report, “Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come To Your School?” exposes this dangerous effort to confuse our children.”
TVC’s Back to School Report details the growing movement of transgender activists, including teachers, counselors and pediatricians who are teaching children that being male or female is “fluid” and changeable. “This is absolutely crazy, but pediatricians from some of the nation’s most prestigious children’s hospitals are involved in this gender confusion movement,” said Lafferty.
“Children who suffer from a Gender Identity Disorder (GID) are being redefined by these radical pediatricians as ‘gender variant’ children who should be affirmed in their sexual confusions. These children need serious therapy, not affirmation for their gender confusion. A boy who thinks he’s a girl, needs help—not a sex change when he becomes a teenager. These kids need compassionate attention to overcome self-hatred and to live normal lives as males and females—not to be told that they’re actually girls trapped in boys’ bodies. This is a physical and mental impossibility,” said Lafferty.
[More at URL]
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Rev. Sheldon Takes On ‘Red Letter Christians’
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2875
September 28, 2006 – TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon takes on Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, two pseudo-evangelicals who have formed the “Red Letter Christian” organization to help elect Democrats to office this November.
[More at URL]
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Justice Antonin Scalia Reaches 20 Years On Supreme Court
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2873
September 28, 2006 – On September 17, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia celebrated 20 years on the Court. Justice Scalia was confirmed by a 98-0 vote in the Senate on September 17, 1986.
[...]
“Justice Scalia is to be commended for his faithfulness to judicial restraint and to the Constitution,” said TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. “He has been a voice of reason and sound constitutionalism on the Court when many of his colleagues have gone crazy in reinterpreting the Constitution to fit their liberal ideologies.”
[...]
In his dissent, Scalia said: “State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity” are at risk because of the Lawrence decision. Polygamists are already arguing for legalization based upon Lawrence! It is likely that pedophiles and bestiality advocates will also sue for legalization under Lawrence.
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‘Red Letter’ Liberal Christians: A New Front Group For Democrats
By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2867
September 26, 2006 - Democrats have an anti-religion problem. In fact, they have such a serious anti-religion problem that in 2004 they had to bring a leftist pastor named Jim Wallis to try to teach Democrat congressmen how to use “God talk” in their campaign speeches. This pathetic effort failed as will a new disinformation campaign called “Red Letter Christians.”
Wallis, founder of the left-wing Sojourners group, and self-described “progressive evangelical” Tony Campolo, have just founded a liberal front organization called the “Red Letter Christians.” Wallis, Campolo, Father Richard Rohr, “Emergent Church” pioneer Brian McLaren, Dr. Cheryl J. Sanders, Rev. Noel Castellanos, and others met recently to form this new pseudo-evangelical group.
[More at URL]
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‘RED LETTER’ PSEUDO-EVANGELICALS TRY TO MISLEAD AMERICA
WWJD? Not Promote Abortions and Ban Nativity Scenes
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2866
Washington, DC -- The Chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition said today the founding of a liberal “Red Letter” Christian group is just another attempt by “pseudo-evangelicals” to distort what is truly evangelical. They are not Bible-based in their theology.
The term ‘‘Red Letter’’ comes from highlighting in red the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
“They’ve tried to train liberals to speak like Evangelical Christians, and they’ve even stated the obvious argument with great passion and bluster that you don’t have to be a Republican to be a Christian,” said Rev. Louis P. Sheldon. “The only thing they have left to do is to actually start acting on their faith as Christians, not just talking about it.
[More at URL]
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Commentary & News Briefs
September 29, 2006
Compiled by Jody Brown
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/292006h.asp
...It's the latest example of judicial activism, says a pro-family attorney in reference to today's ruling that a Rhode Island homosexual couple has the right to marry in Massachusetts. The legal decision is the first that would exclude a state law forbidding out-of-state residents to marry in Massachusetts, if their own states would not permit it. Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly wrote that the decision applies because there was no evidence presented of any Rhode Island laws, court decisions, or constitutional amendments that prohibited Wendy Brucker and Mary Norton from being married in their home state. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy, says he marvels that a lower court judge in Massachusetts is dictating the law of another state. [Editor's note: that's the very nature of the Massachusetts law - to determine whether another state's law would block the marriage.]
[...]
...Pro-family groups are concerned that family-friendly corporations have recently contributed large sums of money to the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. According to reports, entities such as Fox News, Wal-Mart, and Sam's Club were among the corporate sponsors of the NLGJA's national convention -- and that fact bothers many pro-family organizations. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth says the homosexual journalists' group is one of the most biased groups one can find. LaBarbera notes comments made by Eric Hegedus, national NLGJA president and an employee of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "He said that interviewing conservatives on stories about homosexuality is like going to white supremacists on stories about race," says the Americans for Truth spokesman. "So, basically, he's comparing pro-family conservatives to the KKK." LaBarbera says the family-friendly corporations are bowing to pressure from homosexual activists -- and that is not a good sign, he adds. [Bill Fancher]
[More at URL]
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Ford supports homosexual marriage groups as a matter of principle, not economics
Email Ford's new CEO Alan Mulally asking him to stop supporting homosexual marriage
American Family Association
ACTION ALERT
http://www.afa.net/Petitions/IssueDetail.asp?id=213
Ford Motor Company has hired a new CEO. Alan Mulally will replace Bill Ford as CEO, while Ford will remain as chairman. Whether Ford will continue funding groups promoting homosexual marriage is not known.
What is clear at this point is that Ford has made financial support for groups promoting homosexual marriage a matter of principle, not economics. Ford supported The Advocate, which bills itself as "The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine," with two full-page ads in the September 12 issue. One ad, featuring all the different brands of Ford made autos, states: "Standing strong with America's families and communities." What an insult to traditional marriage and families!
[More at URL]
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Wal-Mart Sponsors Diversity Week, Includes How To Defeat A Constitutional Ban On Homosexual Marriage
American Family Assocation
ACTION ALERT
http://www.afa.net/Petitions/IssueDetail.asp?id=217
Wal-Mart has given its full endorsement to the homosexual agenda and homosexual marriage. Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, will observe LGBT Diversity Week October 9–13. One of the sponsors for the Diversity Week is Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart has given its full endorsement to the homosexual agenda and homosexual marriage. Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, will observe LGBT Diversity Week October 9–13. One of the sponsors for the Diversity Week is Wal-Mart.
[More at URL]
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Pro-Family Groups Hail Veto of California's Sexual Indoctrination Bills
-- Traditional Values Crowd Applauds Gov. Schwarzenegger's Termination of 'Triple Threat' Legislation
By Fred Jackson and Chad Groening
American Family Association/Agape Press
September 29, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/292006a.asp
(AgapePress) - Pro-family groups in California and across the United States are celebrating Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Thursday veto of two pro-homosexual bills. The bills were two of three pieces of legislation regarded by pro-family leaders as "sexual indoctrination bills," which would have, among other things, mandated pro-homosexual policy and curriculum changes in the state's schools.
Late yesterday, Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 606, a measure that would have required schools to enact policies promoting transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality under threat of having their state funding yanked; and AB 1056, which would have spent $250,000 to establish ten so-called "tolerance" schools promoting various kinds of sexual lifestyles. And earlier this month, the governor vetoed SB 1437, which would have changed school textbooks to require that they include positive presentations of transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality.
In statements on his action, Schwarzenegger said he rejected AB 606 because it was "irresponsible" to create a new state mandate on schools in light of existing laws regarding "discrimination and harassment" in school settings.
[More at URL]
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What’s next after Redefining Marriage? Perhaps Parenthood
Around the world, we’re seeing dramatic developments that challenge the two-person, mother-father tradition, according to a new study.
by Jessica Stollings
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0042139.cfm
Katrina Clark is a freshman in college. She knows her major and now knows her biological father.
“The picture looked a lot like me. And I just started crying because I realized that’s my face; this has to be my father.”
Clark was conceived by the use of donor sperm, and fortunate enough to find out her medical history and ethnicity from her biological dad.
[More at URL]
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FRC Denounces Massachusetts Ruling Exporting Same-Sex 'Marriage'
Family Research Council
September 29, 2006 - Friday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 29, 2006 CONTACT: J.P. Duffy, (866) FRC-NEWS
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR06I06&f=PG03I03
Washington, D.C. - Today, a lower Massachusetts court ruled in favor of a Rhode Island same-sex couple seeking to "marry" in Massachusetts. Since 1913, Massachusetts law has prevented out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if they would be prohibited from doing so in their home state. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement:
"Today, the Massachusetts Superior Court issued a ruling which if upheld on appeal would export same-sex 'marriage' to Rhode Island. We urge the high court to apply the plain meaning of the law in this case which clearly prohibits out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if such a marriage would be 'void' in their home state. This is clearly a frivolous lawsuit since Rhode Island law refers to marriage between a bride and groom.
"This only underscores the importance of states moving swiftly to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Voters in twenty states have overwhelmingly approved state marriage amendments with eight more states voting on amendments this fall. The need for a Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will be greater than ever before if same-sex 'marriage' is successfully imposed on the people of Rhode Island."
-30-
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Governor Schwarzenegger needs to veto four bills
September 27, 2006 - Wednesday
Family Research Council
Forward to a Friend!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06I13&f=PG03I03
Time is quickly running out for Governor Schwarzenegger to take action on various pieces of legislation - by signing, vetoing, or leaving them untouched. California's legislative system states that bills neither signed nor vetoed become law. It is a common practice for governors to ignore politically divisive bills until the signing deadline has passed. Bills then become law without a governor's stated support. Please don't let this happen with these bills on the governor's desk.
Contacting the Governor helped when he vetoed SB 1437 earlier this month. That bill would have required all public-school curricula to refrain from adversely portraying homosexuality. The governor's office received an impressive 58,000 contacts asking for his veto. Your action made the difference and we ask you to act again now.
[More at URL]
But now, today's news.
Focus on the Family condemns "Banned Books Week" and the American Library Association, accuses them of accusing "concerned parents"; the shtick here is that they're declaring that a book isn't banned unless it's banned nationally, and that therefore the whole thing is a fraud;
Focus on the Family runs another condemnation of Plan B, the morning-after/emergency birth-control pill; the most interesting thing about this to my mind is that their subtitle, "Plan B is not the answer" is an echo of the rising-profile anti-contraception-of-all-kinds fundamentalist movement's slogan, "Contraception is not the answer" - they also attack sex education, of course;
Focus on the Family condemns recent Supreme Court decisions as "muddled" for not allowing unlimited single-religion (10 Commandments) postings in courthouses; in particular, they attack Justice Breyer for ruling in favour of "maximum personal autonomy," including "the right to engage in sodomy without criminal prosecution," in case you were wondering whether they still want to make GBLT people illegal - they do;
FotF condemns anyone who doesn't buy into the whole "ex-gay" bullshit;
FotF's Citizen Magazine reviews The Party of Death favourably (of course);
Focus on the Family condemns former Speaker Dick Armey - one of their favourites when in the House - for calling them "nasty bullies;" it's an ACTION ITEM but no specific action outlined; interestingly, they say Senator Tom Coburn as believing Dick Armey "has no business making such comments";
FotF supports a "last ditch" effort to give the chief executive even more power by granting Mr. Bush a line-item veto via Constitutional amendment; the probability of this happening is pretty much zero, but look for it later again;
The theoconservative Alliance Defense Fund - noted for its anti-gay legal actions - and the Family Research Council have sent out a letter to fundamentalist political churches outlining the activities in which they can legally engage, encouraging more political activity;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM; there's a last-minute attempt to get an anti-abortion-rights bill through and into law before the end of the session;
Ohio law against RU-486, the chemical abortion pill, struck down;
Focus on the Family very cranky - time has run out again on a set of Mr. Bush's nominees to the appeals courts, and they're mad; this is another ACTION ITEM that has no action associated with it; I'm wondering what's going on with that;
FotF ACTION ITEM to thank California governor Schwarzenegger for vetoing two bills, one providing anti-harassment protections for GBLT students in California schools, the other setting up a pilot GBLT tolerance programme at schools; Focus on the Family considers it a religions mandate to harass GBLT people at all ages, and in particular, works to ensure that fundamentalist teachers can pressure GBLT students in class - see earlier CWUs for other examples;
Focus on the Family expects new Supreme Court justices to yield a different outcome in a coming second-take on the so-called "partial birth" abortion ban; they note Justice O'Connor voted with the majority against a state ban in 2000, but they now have Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts, who they expect to vote with them;
***** Theocon celebration: Congress passes Defense Authorisation Bill that overturns Air Force and Navy regulations passed in response to fundamentalist religious harassment at their respective academies; now they can presumably go back to harassing Jewish and other non-Christian academy members; Focus on the Family says it's a return to the 1999 rules which are what allowed the harassment to begin with;
***** Focus on the Family reports that a fiction writer posting material I personally find very disturbing on the internet has been indicted on six counts of distributing obscene material; notes that the fact that it's fiction is irrelevant; claims it is interstate commerce; I have no idea whether these were materials for sale; regardless, better watch out, they've gotten the Feds going on Internet censorship now;
***** Internet writer indicted on six counts of "distributing obscene material" for her fiction stories posted to the internet; Focus on the Family is jubilant;
Focus on the Family's Tennessee political rally changes location, features "James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family Action, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Gary Bauer, president of American Values; Dr. Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Wash., and Dr. Richard Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention";
Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight has an ACTION ITEM to protest NBC over "NBC's Anti-Christian Bent";
CWA condemns lack of Senate passage of anti-abortion legislation;
House of Representatives passes PERA, a bill designed to make it much harder to fight attempts to implement unequal religious treatment by governments by amending civil rights law to prevent losers from having to pay court costs;
CWA's Robert Knight starts ramping up the Happy Holidays is anti-Christian/it must be Merry Christmas bullshit again; gods, this is the dumbest-ass thing ever;
Canada Family Action Coalition: GBLT marriage rights will lead to pedophilic marriage, demands Constitutional amendment banning marriage rights for anyone but heterosexual couples;
Canada Family Action Coalition: "Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come to Your School?"; links to the American Traditional Values Coalition's rant against people with gender identity disorder;
Canada Family Action Coalition says there is no right to "sodomy," calls GBLT rights "absurd and dangerous";
Traditional Values Coalition Word document attacking the concept of GID;
Canada Family Action Coalition attacks use of "social justice" terminology;
Canada Family Action Coalition petition against sex education programmes that include GBLT experiences;
Institute for Canadian Values petition against sexual education including GBLT experiences - probably linked to the same petition;
Institute of Marriage and Family Canada - the Focus on the Family founded and funded Canadian "think tank" designed to churn out anti-gay/pro-fundamentalist "studies" attacks marriage rights as anti-children - apparently has an anti-marriage column printed in the National Post;
Institute of Marriage and Family Canada PDF against marriage rights in Canada;
Traditional Values Coalition - who has stated previously that they believe people with gender identity disorder should be involuntarily institutionalised - publishes a document condemning accepted gender identity disorder treatment (gender reassignment) as "crazy," states "God does not make mistakes";
TVC's Rev. Sheldon condemns democratic Christians as "pseudo-evangelicals" and asserts that "liberal thinking is the antithesis of true Christianity";
TVC celebrates 20 years of Justice Antonin Scalia's tenure on the Supreme Court; particularly celebrates his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, the decision which confirmed that GBLT people were citizens who could not be made illegal by fiat; he warned in that dissent that laws against things like masturbation, adultery, and fornication were now in danger; TVC claims Lawrence v. Texas will lead to the legalisation of pedophilia;
Traditional Values Coalition condemns non-conservative Christians again, in longer form;
Yet another TVC article condemning the "Red Letter" liberal Christian group;
American Family Association condemns Massachusetts court ruling that Massachusetts's law banning out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their home state's laws would forbid the marriage does not explicitly block a Rhode Island male couple from marrying;
AFA ACTION ITEM to write the new Ford CEO stop advertising in GBLT-targeted magazines, etc - the usual;
AFA ACTION ITEM to demand that Wal-Mart drop all support for Boise State University's Diversity Week event;
AFA supports California Governor Schwarzenegger's veto of school anti-harassment bill including GBLT students;
Focus on the Family article assaults things like sperm donation and GBLT marriage;
Family Research Council condemns Massachusetts court ruling about a Rhode Island couple mentioned above;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to demand four more vetos from Gov. Schwarzenegger - most of which appear to be, in their summaries, aimed at protecting the rights of GBLT students.
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Critics Say ALA's Banned Books Week is 'a Fraud'
A little investigating suggests the observance is named more for effect than truth.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 25, 2006
This is the 25th annual Banned Books Week—and for a quarter of a century the American Library Association (ALA) has used the event to decry the hundreds of books challenged by concerned parents.
The message the organization sends is that books are being banned. A radio public-service announcement advertising this year's event summarizes how the ALA views Banned Books Week.
[More at URL]
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UK Abortion Rate Rises Despite Wide Access to Morning-After Pill
Plan B is not the answer.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 25, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042078.cfm
Abortion advocates have long claimed that full access to the so-called morning-after pill would reduce the number of abortions. But a report from Britain finds that abortions there are up despite ready access to the controversial pill.
The morning-after pill became widely available in the United Kingdom several years ago, supposedly to reduce abortions. But Anthony Ozimic, a spokesman for Britain's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said abortions in England have risen steadily during that time—going from 186,000 in 2001 to 194,000 last year
"We believe that the numbers of abortions generally and the number of abortions for those under 16 are continuing to rise because of the government's promotion of value-free sex education and the increasing sexualizing of young people through the distribution and mass provision of birth control," Ozimic said.
[More at URL]
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Sandblast This
Moses the Lawgiver appears all over the U.S. Supreme Court building, but thanks to two muddled rulings on Ten Commandments displays, he's one vote away from being obliterated.
by Bruce Hausknecht
Citizen Magazine
Focus on the Family
http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/coverstory/a0037645.cfm
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of one Ten Commandments display and against another in June, it didn't do city councils and other local officials any favors.
The Supreme Court is supposed to clarify confusing areas of law for the rest of us, using the Constitution as its plumb line, so that legislators can confidently get on with the business of governing and lower courts can apply a consistent rule to the myriads of different cases brought before them.
The June decisions clarified nothing. Lawyers will be happy, because the muddled rulings will no doubt result in more court fights and $300-an-hour legal fees, paid for by the American taxpayer. But the local official who wanted guidance on whether to approve a public display that includes our nation's Christian heritage is likely to be even more anxious than before.
[...]
Justice Breyer has ruled in favor of maximum personal autonomy—including the freedom to kill a viable unborn child through the barbaric procedure known as partial-birth abortion, the right to expose schoolchildren to Internet porn, the right to have a religion-free experience at a high school football game and the right to engage in sodomy without fear of criminal prosecution.
[...]
That's why President Bush's selections to the U.S. Supreme Court are so vitally important. At press time, President Bush had nominated U.S. Circuit Judge John G. Roberts to fill the void left by retiring Justice O'Connor. Preliminary research gave early indication that Roberts is likely to respect the U.S. Constitution, according to Focus on the Family Action founder and chairman, James C. Dobson, Ph.D.
[More at URL]
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Liberal target: ex-gays
The Left hates the truth that same-sex desires can be overcome by spiritual redemption.
by the Citizen staff
Citizen Magazine
Focus on the Family
http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/features/a0041680.cfm
Go to “gay pride” day at school and you’ll hear words like “tolerance” and “understanding.” But listen to these same voices behind closed doors and you may hear a very different message.
Citizen heard some intolerant talk in April at a conference sponsored by one of the nation’s largest homosexual advocacy groups—the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The event, hosted by GLSEN’s Boston chapter, featured an entire training session devoted to combating “the effects of programs like Love Won Out.”
Love Won Out (LWO) is a conference produced by Focus on the Family. The one-day event offers hope that same-sex desires can be overcome through spiritual redemption and addressing root causes. Men and women who have responded to that message often refer to themselves as “ex-gay”—a term that angers homosexuals.
[More at URL]
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The Party’s Over
An author exposes “the party of death” in American politics, and says its reign is coming to an end.
by Matt Kaufman
Citizen Magazine
Focus on the Family
http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/departments/a0041669.cfm
Lots of people are turned off by today’s political rhetoric simply because so much of it gets so shrill. And at first glance, a book about abortion and other life issues that calls the Democrats “the party of death”—in the title—would seem to be more of the same. Its outrage may be justifiable, but is it helpful?
Probably not. But that’s not what National Review Senior Editor Ramesh Ponnuru delivers in The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life (Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2006, 303 pages). Not even close.
[More at URL]
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Armey Lashes Out Against Dobson, Values Voters
Conservative Christians take it on the chin from an unexpected source.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
September 28, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042141.cfm
Former Texas Congressman Dick Armey, once a stalwart ally in the culture wars, appears to be turning his back on Christian conservatives and their leaders.
The former majority leader of the House of Representatives reportedly told Ryan Sager, author of a new book on the Republican Party, that values voters and their leaders — especially Focus on the Family Action Chairman Dr. James Dobson — are "nasty bullies."
[...]
"To a large extent, because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies," Armey said. "I pray devoutly every day, but being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid. There's a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn't work unless it's dumb . . . These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic."
[...]
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who also served under Armey when he was a member of the House, said the former Texas congressman and fiscal conservative has no business making such comments.
"I don't know why he's mad now, but his characterization is totally inappropriate," Coburn said. "I'm sorry Dick Armey feels that way.
[More at URL]
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Senate Makes Last-Ditch Effort to Pass Line-Item Veto
Legislation would allow the president to strike parts of a bill.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 28, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042128.cfm
In the last week of deliberations before breaking for the election, some in the Senate are calling on Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to push legislation that would give the president a line-item veto.
[More at URL]
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Encourage Your Senators to Pass the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist filed a procedural motion Wednesday evening that could lead to an important pro-life bill becoming law.
Focus on the Family
September 28, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042132.cfm
The Republican from Tennessee called for a motion to concur with the House-passed version of S. 403, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA). The House passed the bill on Tuesday, 264-153. The Senate passed a different version of the bill (then titled the Child Custody Protection Act) in July, 65-34. Democratic leaders in the Senate have blocked the bill from reaching President Bush and being signed into law.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
Because of the short time left before the vote, phone calls are the preferred method for contacting your senators. There are 14 Democrats who especially need to hear from their constituents. They voted for the earlier version of the bill in July, and it's vital that they vote for it again. They are:
Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
Thomas Carper, D-Del.
Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii
Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
Mary Landrieu, D-La.
Ben Nelson, D-Neb.
Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
Tim Johnson, D-S.D.
Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.
Herbert Kohl, D-Wisc.
If you are a CitizenLink Daily Update subscriber, click on the blue "Take Action" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in to our Action Center. Otherwise, click on this link.
[More at URL]
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Judge Rejects Ohio Law Limiting Abortion Pill
Focus on the Family
September 28, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042130.cfm
A federal judge Wednesday ruled unconstitutional an Ohio law restricting the use of the abortion-inducing drug RU-486, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
[...]
The law -- which was supposed to go into effect in 2004, but couldn't because of pending litigation -- made it illegal for a physician to prescribe the drug after the seventh week of pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the same recommendation six years ago.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Once Again No Action Taken on President's Appellate Nominees
Time runs out and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee fail to show up — in more ways than one.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042155.cfm
The Senate's top courts panel met today for the last time before Congress recesses to prepare for the November elections. No action was taken on the president's long-waiting appeals-court nominees.
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, matter-of-factly analyzed what the Senate Judiciary Committee did not do.
"Not all the Republicans showed up," he said. "And the Democrats only agreed to cooperate in sending several district-court judges out of the committee on a voice vote, while failing to advance even a single court-of-appeals judge."
But Hausknecht, like many pro-family conservatives, is angry at the "wasted opportunity."
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Schwarzenegger Vetoes Two Anti-Family School Bills
Bills requiring homosexual antidiscrimination policies and redefining "tolerance" struck down.
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042149.cfm
Two bills aimed at advancing the homosexual agenda were vetoed Thursday by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
AB 606 would have required school districts to adopt anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies based on perceived sexual orientation -- and to update publications, provide information, training and other resources. Failure to do so would have resulted in the loss of state funding.
AB 1056 would have established a $250,000 tolerance pilot program in 10 schools. It also would have redefined "tolerance" to mean active acceptance of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Supreme Court to Take on Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
New justices may lead to a different outcome.
from staff reports
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042144.cfm
When the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court start back to work Monday, they’ll face a docket full of contentious social issues, including the partial-birth abortion ban. With the addition of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, many have hopes the court may reverse some of its previous decisions.
Although pro-lifers' hopes were dashed in 2000 when the court ruled 5-4 against Nebraska's ban on partial-birth abortion, Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, said it’s a new day and a new court.
[...]
Ruse pointed out that there is no constitutional right to abortion and added that if it wasn’t such a serious matter, it would be laughable to suggest it. But if the ban is upheld, it would be a landmark decision.
“This will be the first federal restriction on abortion," she said, "that has been permitted since Roe v. Wade.”
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Victory for Chaplains' Prayers
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042150.cfm
U.S. lawmakers today agreed to strike current restrictive regulations in the Air Force and Navy that prevent chaplains from praying according to their faith and conscience in public venues.
Amanda Banks, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the Defense Authorization Act of 2007 includes language to rescind previous provisions forbidding chaplains to pray according to their conscience.
[...]
Banks called the measure a step in the right direction.
"We'd really like to see more done," she said. "Specifically -- language adopted that would say explicitly that military chaplains can pray according to dictates of their faith and conscience."
[More at URL]
----- 14 -----
Tennessee: Stand for the Family Rally Changes Venue
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042146.cfm
The Stand for the Family rally in Nashville, Tenn., will still take place Oct 16 at 6:30 p.m., but will be held at Two Rivers Baptist Church, 2800 McGavock Pike, across from the Opryland Hotel. It's also now a free event. People who bought tickets can have their money refunded by Ticketmaster and will receive special seating at the rally.
Speakers include Dr. James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family Action, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Gary Bauer, president of American Values; Dr. Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Wash., and Dr. Richard Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Madonna vs. Veggies: NBC's Anti-Christian Bent
Concerned Women for America
9/29/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11578/CWA/misc/index.htm
The NBC television network has made several decisions this season that are being viewed as anti-Christian. The network has cut references to "God" and the "Bible" out of the Veggie Tales cartoons it began airing this fall. Meanwhile, the network is going ahead with plans for a Madonna concert special to air November 12 that features her mocking the crucifixion of Christ by descending to the stage on a cross wearing a crown of thorns. Bob Knight, Director of CWA's Culture & Family Institute has more on these outrages, as well as the new NBC show "Studio 60" which also mocks Christians. Click here to listen.
To locate your local NBC affiliate to complain visit: http://www.nbc.com/nbc/header/Local_Stations/
[Robert Knight: "I think they might want to lie on a couch somewhere and get analysed... they're doing something that's anti-Christian in both instances." They're saying that the Madonna special with her on a crucifix is back on? "The worst kind of vulgarity, so this is a direct insult to Christians everywhere, it's like I can do this to your most devout symbol, and you're not going to do anything." Knight says the special is still on, unedited. The AFA has an action item out against NBC (we'll see that later). Complains about "chopping the vegetables"; taking the bible-quotes out but leaving the morality in. "They don't seem to care either way about how Christians feel." Says they "walk all over" Christians. Bill Donahue of the Catholic League: "If NBC does air the mock crucifiction it will send a message to the 85% of the American population that is Christian, that their sensibilities count less than Muslims." Jerry Falwell condemns NBC too, they quote him. Says NBC is "Notoriously Bashing Christians." Complains that "Studio 60" bashes the 700 Club, implies watchers "are Klu Klux Klan members." ACTION ITEM to contact NBC and complain about "Christianity consistently under attack" either "by omission" or "comission." Also to contact sponsours and complain, particularly about the Madonna concert video. "Merchants should advertise] on programmes that blaspheme Christ at their own peril."]
----- 16 -----
CWA Laments Loss for Child Safety and Parental Rights
Concerned Women for America
9/29/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11589/MEDIA/life/index.htm
Washington, D.C. − Concerned Women for America (CWA) laments an enormous loss for children’s safety and parental rights after the Senate’s failure to once again pass Sen. John Ensign’s (R-Nevada) Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA), S. 403. This long-overdue legislation would have protected minors from being transported across state lines to get an abortion.
[...]
“The Senate chose to disregard the American public’s wish to see this bill implemented. Apparently they are more dedicated to divisive partisanship than to the American public for whom this issue is overwhelmingly popular.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
CWA Praises House for Passing Public Expression of Religion Act
Concerned Women for America
9/26/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11564/MEDIA/misc/index.htm
Washington, D.C. − Concerned Women for America (CWA) applauds the House today for passing the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), H.R. 2679, introduced by Rep. Hostettler (R-Indiana). The passage of this legislation brings us one step closer to preventing legal groups, like the ACLU, from collecting attorney’s fees from the defendants they sue in establishment clause cases. Eliminating these monetary awards will free citizens to stand up for their constitutional freedoms and not face crippling judgments for attorney’s fees.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
The Holiday vs. Christmas Season is Starting
Concerned Women for America
9/27/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11579/CWA/misc/index.htm
Seasonal catalogs and sales flyers are starting to trickle into mailboxes across the country. While there have been some major victories in the effort to convince merchants to acknowledge and articulate “Merry Christmas,” early indications show that the battle is far from over. Martha Kleder speaks with Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute. Click here to listen.
www.savemerrychristmas.org
[Robert Knight: "It doesn't make me very jolly... catalogues are coming into peoples' mailboxes, and more often than not they say 'Holiday...'" Complains about getting catalogues that say "Holiday" instead of "Christmas." Robert Knight personally called up a company to tell them that he doesn't buy from anyone who says "Holiday," calls it religious bigotry, encourages people to call companies which use "Holiday" instead of "Christmas" and boycott them. They're in fact talking about how they're scanning catalogues. Says that "Macy's" will feature the words "Christmas" and "Merry Christmas" this year in response to pressure, lists a few others; claims companies are trying to "ban Christmas." Talks about Bill O'Reilly, thanks him and Fox News for publicising this whole stupid thing and getting it moving. Notes that 56% of "born-again evangelical Christians" are offended by Happy Holidays. ACTION ITEM to boycott and toss out catalogues that don't highlight "Merry Christmas."]
----- 19 -----
It's Time for a Royal Commission on Marriage
COMMUNIQUÉ of the CHRISTIAN HERITAGE PARTY of CANADA
Volume 13 No. 39 - Sept.19'06
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/family/marriage/royal-commission.htm
This fall Parliament is to re-open the debate on the definition of marriage. Sort of.
The Conservatives - who promised during the last election campaign to re-visit this contentious issue - will ask Parliament whether it wants to re-examine the definition of marriage (which was changed by Bill C-38 to include any two people). That definition, as it now stands, is dangerous.
"Any two people" opens the door to things like incest and pedophilia. Of course, anti-moralists say that couldn't happen, "because incest and pedophilia are against the law." But remember: sodomy was also against the law.
And therein lies the problem: laws can easily be changed. That's why we must demand that Parliament enshrine the traditional definition of marriage-a definition that predates the institution of government itself-in the Constitution.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
Back to School Report "Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come to Your School?"
CFAC says: This is occuring in Canada also folks. Protect your children NOW.
Canada Family Action Coalition
September 27, 2006
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/education/cross-dressing-school.htm
Traditional Values Coalition has just published an important BACK TO SCHOOL report on cross-dressing and transgender activism that you’ll want to read and distribute.
The report, “Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come To Your School?” (MS Word doc) describes the latest agenda among transgender and homosexual activists to normalize sex change operations and cross-dressing for kindergarten age children and older! This effort is being promoted by pro-transgender/homosexual educators and a network of radical pediatricians who work within some of the largest children’s hospitals in the United States.
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Court Challenges Program
Anti-Human Rights
Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/politics-law/courts/court-challenges.htm
The howlers are out before Halloween this year. The abusive use of tax dollars by the thieves of the Court Challenge Program do not want to work for a living like other Canadians. They expect that their groups and the lawyers they employ should be paid by YOU, the taxpayer.
If one studies the cases that YOU have funded we would see that most cases were NOT human rights based cases at all. They were political activist and leftist ideological cases that YOU paid for. This MUST be stopped. And it must not be reinstated.
Case after case in the last 4 years was a case against human rights. Is a case about somebody's sexual habits a human rights case? Really - now get real- making sodomy a human right is absurd and dangerous. The crying and whining will go on but let the facts instead of idiot ideology govern this nation.
----- 22 -----
Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come To Your School?
By TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty
Traditional Values Coalition
Reprinted/Hosted by the Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/worddoc/092606BackToSchoolOaklandReport.doc
Part I
As our children have returned to public schools this fall, they face a new threat to their sense of morality and sexuality: Transgender activists are targeting children for seduction into gender confusion.
Not only will children be facing pro-homosexual recruitment efforts in their elementary, junior high and high schools, but now they are likely to face cross-dressers and transsexual propagandists who will teach them that “gender” is a myth and that they can seriously consider having “sex change” operations to correct nature’s alleged mistake.
Transgender activists claim that they are “trapped in the wrong body” and that the only way to be free is to undergo a so-called “sex change” operation.
[More at URL]
----- 23 -----
SOCIAL JUSTICE ??
CFAC Alert
Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/article-pgs/social-justice.htm
Beware of the new buzz phrase “social justice”. The phrase was used recently by a few anti-marriage socialist ND MPs in an interview with MacLean’s. The phrase is also invading public education curriculum. From the perspective of those MPs and homosexual activists social justice is now a defense for sodomy, same-sex marriage and who knows what next?
So beware of this newly re-minted phrase “social justice”. It is showing up in politics, in activism and now even in public education. Many public educators have already bought into this misguided hollow term. BC now has a “social justice“ course. But it only talks of justice from one side of its ugly mouth. It is discriminatory in what it promotes social justice to be and it excludes other views, arguments, beliefs and positions. SO IT IS NOT JUST at all. It is a tool now being used by activists to indoctrinate children with certain beliefs, some of them harmful or even deadly, if applied.
[More at URL]
----- 24 -----
PETITION
Stop Sexual Indoctrination of Children – September 2006
Canada Family Action Coalition
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/education/black-book-PETTION.htm
To the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament Assembled
We the undersigned citizens of Canada draw the attention of the House of Commons to the following:
WHEREAS Industry Canada has provided funding for the production of a booklet (Little Black Book) that contains pornographically explicit material; and
WHEREAS said booklet indoctrinates and solicits children to same-sex relationships and may contain incomplete and inaccurate information.
[More at URL]
----- 25 -----
No "Little Black Book" in Schools
Created by Institute for Canadian Values on Sep 15, 2006
Category: Education
Region: Canada
Target: Government Officials and School Administrators
Web-site: http://www.canadianvalues.ca
1022 Signatures
http://www.gopetition.com/online/9619.html
Description/History:
"The Little Black Book" is being promoted across Canada as a guide to healthy sexuality for teenage girls. In reality, it is a dangerous, unscientific and offensive piece ideological propaganda.
Among the books more egregious assertions:
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Losing the Right to a Mommy and Daddy
Wednesday September 27, 2006
Page: A19
Section: Issues & Ideas
Byline: Barbara Kay
Column: Barbara Kay
Source: National Post
Institute of Marriage and Family Canada
http://www.imfcanada.org/publications/losing.rights.html
"I believe children have the right to a mother and a father, and preferably their biological parents." These words -- I agree with them, and so do the UN Conventions of the Child -- were once the equivalent of saying you believed in peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.
But in postmodern societies obsessed with gender equity, as ours has been for the past quarter-century, "mother and father" and "biological parents" have become politically incorrect locutions when joined to "children's rights." Just ask the author of my opening statement, the McGill University bioethicist Margaret Somerville, whose honorary doctorate at Ryerson College last June was jeopardized on its account.
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
September 25, 2006
The Revolution in Parenthood:
The Emerging Global Clash Between Adult Rights and Children's Needs.
September 25th, 2006
http://www.imfcanada.org/publications/parenthood.pdf
The Revolution in Parenthood
The Emerging Global Clash Between Adult Rights and Children’s Needs
Executive Summary
Around the world, the two-person, mother-father model of parenthood is being fundamentally challenged. In Canada, with virtually no debate, the controversial law that brought about samesex marriage quietly included the provision to erase the term “natural parent” across the board in federal law, replacing it with the term “legal parent.” With that law, the locus of power in defining who a child’s parents are shifts precipitously from civil society to the state, with the consequences as yet unknown. In Spain, after the recent legalization of same-sex marriage the legislature changed the birth certificates for all children in that nation to read “Progenitor A” and “Progenitor B” instead of “mother” and “father.” With that change, the words “mother” and “father” were struck from the first document issued to every newborn by the state. Similar proposals have been made in other jurisdictions that have legalized same-sex marriage.
[More at URL]
----- 28 -----
TVC Publishes Back To School Report On Transgender Activism
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2876
September 28, 2006 -- “Transgender activists are aggressively targeting our public school children this fall,” says TVC Executive Director, Andrea Lafferty. “These sexually confused individuals have made it their goal to deceive our kids into thinking they’re the opposite sex. This insanity must stop. Our new report, “Will Cross-Dressing Activists Come To Your School?” exposes this dangerous effort to confuse our children.”
TVC’s Back to School Report details the growing movement of transgender activists, including teachers, counselors and pediatricians who are teaching children that being male or female is “fluid” and changeable. “This is absolutely crazy, but pediatricians from some of the nation’s most prestigious children’s hospitals are involved in this gender confusion movement,” said Lafferty.
“Children who suffer from a Gender Identity Disorder (GID) are being redefined by these radical pediatricians as ‘gender variant’ children who should be affirmed in their sexual confusions. These children need serious therapy, not affirmation for their gender confusion. A boy who thinks he’s a girl, needs help—not a sex change when he becomes a teenager. These kids need compassionate attention to overcome self-hatred and to live normal lives as males and females—not to be told that they’re actually girls trapped in boys’ bodies. This is a physical and mental impossibility,” said Lafferty.
[More at URL]
----- 29 -----
Rev. Sheldon Takes On ‘Red Letter Christians’
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2875
September 28, 2006 – TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon takes on Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, two pseudo-evangelicals who have formed the “Red Letter Christian” organization to help elect Democrats to office this November.
[More at URL]
----- 30 -----
Justice Antonin Scalia Reaches 20 Years On Supreme Court
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2873
September 28, 2006 – On September 17, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia celebrated 20 years on the Court. Justice Scalia was confirmed by a 98-0 vote in the Senate on September 17, 1986.
[...]
“Justice Scalia is to be commended for his faithfulness to judicial restraint and to the Constitution,” said TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. “He has been a voice of reason and sound constitutionalism on the Court when many of his colleagues have gone crazy in reinterpreting the Constitution to fit their liberal ideologies.”
[...]
In his dissent, Scalia said: “State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity” are at risk because of the Lawrence decision. Polygamists are already arguing for legalization based upon Lawrence! It is likely that pedophiles and bestiality advocates will also sue for legalization under Lawrence.
----- 31 -----
‘Red Letter’ Liberal Christians: A New Front Group For Democrats
By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2867
September 26, 2006 - Democrats have an anti-religion problem. In fact, they have such a serious anti-religion problem that in 2004 they had to bring a leftist pastor named Jim Wallis to try to teach Democrat congressmen how to use “God talk” in their campaign speeches. This pathetic effort failed as will a new disinformation campaign called “Red Letter Christians.”
Wallis, founder of the left-wing Sojourners group, and self-described “progressive evangelical” Tony Campolo, have just founded a liberal front organization called the “Red Letter Christians.” Wallis, Campolo, Father Richard Rohr, “Emergent Church” pioneer Brian McLaren, Dr. Cheryl J. Sanders, Rev. Noel Castellanos, and others met recently to form this new pseudo-evangelical group.
[More at URL]
----- 32 -----
‘RED LETTER’ PSEUDO-EVANGELICALS TRY TO MISLEAD AMERICA
WWJD? Not Promote Abortions and Ban Nativity Scenes
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2866
Washington, DC -- The Chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition said today the founding of a liberal “Red Letter” Christian group is just another attempt by “pseudo-evangelicals” to distort what is truly evangelical. They are not Bible-based in their theology.
The term ‘‘Red Letter’’ comes from highlighting in red the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
“They’ve tried to train liberals to speak like Evangelical Christians, and they’ve even stated the obvious argument with great passion and bluster that you don’t have to be a Republican to be a Christian,” said Rev. Louis P. Sheldon. “The only thing they have left to do is to actually start acting on their faith as Christians, not just talking about it.
[More at URL]
----- 33 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
September 29, 2006
Compiled by Jody Brown
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/292006h.asp
...It's the latest example of judicial activism, says a pro-family attorney in reference to today's ruling that a Rhode Island homosexual couple has the right to marry in Massachusetts. The legal decision is the first that would exclude a state law forbidding out-of-state residents to marry in Massachusetts, if their own states would not permit it. Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly wrote that the decision applies because there was no evidence presented of any Rhode Island laws, court decisions, or constitutional amendments that prohibited Wendy Brucker and Mary Norton from being married in their home state. Steve Crampton, chief counsel with the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy, says he marvels that a lower court judge in Massachusetts is dictating the law of another state. [Editor's note: that's the very nature of the Massachusetts law - to determine whether another state's law would block the marriage.]
[...]
...Pro-family groups are concerned that family-friendly corporations have recently contributed large sums of money to the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. According to reports, entities such as Fox News, Wal-Mart, and Sam's Club were among the corporate sponsors of the NLGJA's national convention -- and that fact bothers many pro-family organizations. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth says the homosexual journalists' group is one of the most biased groups one can find. LaBarbera notes comments made by Eric Hegedus, national NLGJA president and an employee of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "He said that interviewing conservatives on stories about homosexuality is like going to white supremacists on stories about race," says the Americans for Truth spokesman. "So, basically, he's comparing pro-family conservatives to the KKK." LaBarbera says the family-friendly corporations are bowing to pressure from homosexual activists -- and that is not a good sign, he adds. [Bill Fancher]
[More at URL]
----- 34 -----
Ford supports homosexual marriage groups as a matter of principle, not economics
Email Ford's new CEO Alan Mulally asking him to stop supporting homosexual marriage
American Family Association
ACTION ALERT
http://www.afa.net/Petitions/IssueDetail.asp?id=213
Ford Motor Company has hired a new CEO. Alan Mulally will replace Bill Ford as CEO, while Ford will remain as chairman. Whether Ford will continue funding groups promoting homosexual marriage is not known.
What is clear at this point is that Ford has made financial support for groups promoting homosexual marriage a matter of principle, not economics. Ford supported The Advocate, which bills itself as "The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine," with two full-page ads in the September 12 issue. One ad, featuring all the different brands of Ford made autos, states: "Standing strong with America's families and communities." What an insult to traditional marriage and families!
[More at URL]
----- 35 -----
Wal-Mart Sponsors Diversity Week, Includes How To Defeat A Constitutional Ban On Homosexual Marriage
American Family Assocation
ACTION ALERT
http://www.afa.net/Petitions/IssueDetail.asp?id=217
Wal-Mart has given its full endorsement to the homosexual agenda and homosexual marriage. Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, will observe LGBT Diversity Week October 9–13. One of the sponsors for the Diversity Week is Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart has given its full endorsement to the homosexual agenda and homosexual marriage. Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, will observe LGBT Diversity Week October 9–13. One of the sponsors for the Diversity Week is Wal-Mart.
[More at URL]
----- 36 -----
Pro-Family Groups Hail Veto of California's Sexual Indoctrination Bills
-- Traditional Values Crowd Applauds Gov. Schwarzenegger's Termination of 'Triple Threat' Legislation
By Fred Jackson and Chad Groening
American Family Association/Agape Press
September 29, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/292006a.asp
(AgapePress) - Pro-family groups in California and across the United States are celebrating Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Thursday veto of two pro-homosexual bills. The bills were two of three pieces of legislation regarded by pro-family leaders as "sexual indoctrination bills," which would have, among other things, mandated pro-homosexual policy and curriculum changes in the state's schools.
Late yesterday, Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 606, a measure that would have required schools to enact policies promoting transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality under threat of having their state funding yanked; and AB 1056, which would have spent $250,000 to establish ten so-called "tolerance" schools promoting various kinds of sexual lifestyles. And earlier this month, the governor vetoed SB 1437, which would have changed school textbooks to require that they include positive presentations of transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality.
In statements on his action, Schwarzenegger said he rejected AB 606 because it was "irresponsible" to create a new state mandate on schools in light of existing laws regarding "discrimination and harassment" in school settings.
[More at URL]
----- 37 -----
What’s next after Redefining Marriage? Perhaps Parenthood
Around the world, we’re seeing dramatic developments that challenge the two-person, mother-father tradition, according to a new study.
by Jessica Stollings
Focus on the Family
September 29, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0042139.cfm
Katrina Clark is a freshman in college. She knows her major and now knows her biological father.
“The picture looked a lot like me. And I just started crying because I realized that’s my face; this has to be my father.”
Clark was conceived by the use of donor sperm, and fortunate enough to find out her medical history and ethnicity from her biological dad.
[More at URL]
----- 38 -----
FRC Denounces Massachusetts Ruling Exporting Same-Sex 'Marriage'
Family Research Council
September 29, 2006 - Friday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 29, 2006 CONTACT: J.P. Duffy, (866) FRC-NEWS
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR06I06&f=PG03I03
Washington, D.C. - Today, a lower Massachusetts court ruled in favor of a Rhode Island same-sex couple seeking to "marry" in Massachusetts. Since 1913, Massachusetts law has prevented out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if they would be prohibited from doing so in their home state. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement:
"Today, the Massachusetts Superior Court issued a ruling which if upheld on appeal would export same-sex 'marriage' to Rhode Island. We urge the high court to apply the plain meaning of the law in this case which clearly prohibits out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if such a marriage would be 'void' in their home state. This is clearly a frivolous lawsuit since Rhode Island law refers to marriage between a bride and groom.
"This only underscores the importance of states moving swiftly to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Voters in twenty states have overwhelmingly approved state marriage amendments with eight more states voting on amendments this fall. The need for a Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S. Constitution will be greater than ever before if same-sex 'marriage' is successfully imposed on the people of Rhode Island."
-30-
----- 39 -----
Governor Schwarzenegger needs to veto four bills
September 27, 2006 - Wednesday
Family Research Council
Forward to a Friend!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06I13&f=PG03I03
Time is quickly running out for Governor Schwarzenegger to take action on various pieces of legislation - by signing, vetoing, or leaving them untouched. California's legislative system states that bills neither signed nor vetoed become law. It is a common practice for governors to ignore politically divisive bills until the signing deadline has passed. Bills then become law without a governor's stated support. Please don't let this happen with these bills on the governor's desk.
Contacting the Governor helped when he vetoed SB 1437 earlier this month. That bill would have required all public-school curricula to refrain from adversely portraying homosexuality. The governor's office received an impressive 58,000 contacts asking for his veto. Your action made the difference and we ask you to act again now.
[More at URL]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 05:36 pm (UTC)Argh. Got a FothF e-mail (looks like one of their standard alert mailings) just a few minutes ago. How did they get my e-mail? Wondering if they're targeting people who reply to your posts.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 08:10 pm (UTC)Mind you, if the President simply suspends elections "for the duration of the present emergency" and imprisons anyone who complains as "potential terrorists," all bets are off, but I'm trying to be optimistic.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 09:17 pm (UTC)If the executive can strike out the word "not" from critical clauses then this is a huge gain in power and all bets are off.
If the executive is only free to strike out entire clauses, then the legislature can get around things by loading up individual clauses with pork, so the line-item veto doesn't actually accomplish as much as you'd think.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-30 09:31 pm (UTC)Meh. I'm not der furher.
as much as I despise the current President
My opposition to the line-item veto has nothing to do with this particular president. I opposed it when it was floated under President Clinton as well. I want no additional power going to the executive branch at this point. Let me stress that: none. I don't care who it is.
When the office is a Presidency again, instead of... whatever it has become... then maybe we can talk about an extremely limited line-item veto. Not before.