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solarbirdI'm sorry I've been so lame about these lately. Classes are really still taking everything I have. I should, honestly, be working on Biology homework right now, and will be after I post this Part I and another post with a flower picture. Then I'll get to work on Part II.
But now, today's news:
Art teacher fired after museum field trip;
This isn't the fundamentalist side of the report, but is instead the side from the family assaulted; a Jewish family flees a Delaware school district's aggressive evangelisation of Christianity; lawsuits against this sort of thing would be almost entirely stopped by PERA, the fundamentalists' top priourity in this Congressional session and which passed the house; report and URL courtesy![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elfs;
Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol implies strongly basically that all gay men are pedophiles waiting to act, and that a Democratic congress would pass a resolution pushing the Boy Scouts tolet the perverts molest the kids stop discriminating against GBLT people;
James Dobson spends his Friday programme defending Hastert, the Republican leadership, and, in particular, trying to get fundamentalists not to step away from the Republican party this midterm election; promises that a large theoconservative turnout will "turn the direction of this country... maybe forever";
California marriage-equality lawsuit changes course again; claimants to appeal; as always, Focus on the Family repeats the Federal amendment drumbeat;
"Liberty Sunday," a theocon rally scheduled for October 15th, to be on various media outlets; this one's headliners are just Dobson and FRC's Tony Perkins; primary focus is how anti-discrimination law protecting GBLT civil rights violates freedom of religion;
Focus on the Family promotes a middle school/high school "be silent" anti-abortion-rights student protest; what I find interesting about this is that it is the exact same action they condemn when it's the GBLT-student driven "Day of Silence" to protest anti-gay law and attitudes. When it's against abortion rights, they're for it; when it's in support of GBLT people, it's disruptive and should be shit down;
Focus on the Family thinks Justice Alito being on the court will have the court turn against abortion rights in general;
Focus on the Family continues to follow the court case against the "InnerChange Freedom Initiative," which has been ordered shut down as unconstitutional; it was a prisoner rehabilitation programme that worked to convert prisoners to fundamentalist Christianity, and yes, that was an explicit part of its purpose, and yes, it was getting state funding;
Standard FotF "huge success" report for one of their anti-marriage get-out-the-vote political rallies, this one in Minneapolis;
FotF ACTION ITEM to protest Ms. magazine for not printing anti-abortion activist material in an abortion-rights story;
Another "Liberty Sunday" theocon political confab plug, talking about how GBLT people having civil rights is anti-Christian and destroys religious liberty; keep in mind that Focus on the Family (and several other theocon groups) want to overturn Lawrence v. Texas (2003) so that GBLT people can be made illegal by state legislatures again;
From someone not on Livejournal, a bit of reaction against some of this; the First Freedom First organisation getting petition signatures supporting separation of church and state and acting against theocon efforts to govern via religion;
FotF condemns Ms. magazine cover-story supporting abortion rights that let women who had had abortions talk about why reproductive rights are so important;
FotF links to "TrueU," a fundamentalist evangelical site aimed at college students which is, iirc, actually run by Focus on the Family, promoting "intelligent design" creationism. Their idea of a "debate" on the subject is to come up with two ideas of ID/creationism and pit them against each other;
FotF story on local protests against Philadelphia schools and Gay and Lesbian History Month; no events are planned, but the local groups are saying "It is an outrage; it's against God, and God is not pleased" for the school district acknowledging that some of their children come from same-gender parent households - one particular reading flashcard has them pissed off;
I don't even need to write a summary for this one, Focus on the Family does a perfectly good job at doing it themselves: "Bill O'Reilly wants to be your leader. The host of Fox News Channel's popular program The O'Reilly Factor, he wants to be the leader of the culture wars —and says so in his new book, Culture Warrior, published by Broadway Books";
CANADIANS LISTEN UP: Okay, know how I've talked a lot about how the American fundamentalists create this whole circular set of references and report each others' PR as news stories, and looping back upon themselves to make each other look like authorities? It's often called the Echo Chamber, or can be called "creating the story" - specifically, a story built up that is immune to factual challenges, because people have decided it's already true. Here's a good example of the Canadian branch of Focus on the Family doing exactly that. A couple of CWUs ago, I pointed to a "Institute of Marriage and Family Canada" release condemning GBLT marriage rights as anti-child, and so on. This group was founded by Focus on the Family Canada. Now here, a week or so later, we have Focus on the Family Canada presenting the IMFC as an external trusted source - and repeating the story. Unlike the American version, they do footnote the relationship at the bottom of the page - that's unusual;
Focus on the Family Canada condemns Manitoba sex-ed resource book, which they've done several times before. Note again the cross-quoting of each other as external validating sources. Note also that this is the original version of the story, or at least as much as I got in email; the web site version has been changed due to unspecified inaccuracies. I'd love to get a copy of this book - it looks very much like a book of essays written by high-school-age lesbians about their own experiences and opinions, once I make my way through the FundaFilter, but I can't be sure without actually seeing it.
----- 1 -----
Art teacher fired after museum field trip
08:45 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Associated Press
http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou060926_ac_teacherfired.1ac1af36.html
[Editor's Note: there will be an ad you have to click around first.]
FRISCO, Texas -- School board members have voted to not renew the contract of a veteran art teacher who was reprimanded after one of her fifth-grade students saw a nude sculpture during a school trip to a museum.
[...]
McGee has said her troubles started after taking 89 students on a school field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art in April.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Jewish family flees Delaware school district's aggressive Christianity
by JewsOnFirst.org
June 28, 2006
http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06b/indianriver.html
Note: On July 11th, we posted two follow-up reports, which you can find here. And on August 23rd, we posted another update here. [Ed. Note: go to the story to follow through to the other story links.]
Links to articles and documents cited in our report appear immediately below it
A large Delaware school district promoted Christianity so aggressively that a Jewish family felt it necessary to move to Wilmington, two hours away, because they feared retaliation for filing a lawsuit. The religion (if any) of a second family in the lawsuit is not known, because they're suing as Jane and John Doe; they also fear retaliation. Both families are asking relief from "state-sponsored religion."
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume
Special Report Roundtable - October 5
October 05, 2006
Long URL elided
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), HOUSE SPEAKER: Any time that a person has to - - as a leader, be on the hot seat and be as a detriment to the party, you know, there ought to be a change. I became speaker in a situation like that. I don't think that's the case, I said that I haven't done anything wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUME: And so Dennis Hastert says that not only will he stay, but he's got a bunch of measures that he'll be undertaking to make sure that nothing like this happens again and the pates -- the capitol pages will be protected.
[...]
KRISTOL: Well, Democrats care about the children, Brit, and so I think they should pressure states to raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 so that it's clearly illegal for people like Mark Foley to hit on 17-year- old pages. They pressured states to raise the age of drinking, right? -- from 18 to 21 by threatening to cut off funds. They could do the same thing for age of consent laws in terms of the sexual predators. They could certainly pass a resolution supporting the Boy Scouts in their effort to keep people like Mark Foley from becoming scout masters, I think the Democrats could really do a lot of good for our children.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Dr. Dobson Responds to Liberal Attacks over Foley Situation
What does the reprehensible behavior of a now-disgraced gay Republican congressman have to do with Christian conservatives? Nothing, says the founder of Focus on the Family Action.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
October 6, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042242.cfm
Focus on the Family Action Chairman Dr. James Dobson took on liberal news media and politicians today and accused them of using the behavior of former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., to try to make political hay and tarnish the reputation of conservative candidates and all Christians - including him - in the process.
[...]
"I'd like to remind everybody that Mark Foley was not an evangelical Christian, he was not a pastor, he was not an evangelist — he wasn't even really part of the pro-family movement, he was a closet homosexual."
Dobson encouraged his listeners not to be duped by liberal members of the media into staying home on election day, especially since there may be another Supreme Court opening or two in the next two years and the results of this election will determine who gets to confirm the president's nominees.
"If the values voters come out again," he said, "it will turn the direction of this country, and maybe forever."
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Gay Activists Will Appeal California Marriage Ruling
Focus on the Family
October 6, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042243.cfm
Thursday's ruling by the California Court of Appeals -- reversing a 2005 lower-court decision that redefined marriage to include same-sex couples -- is being appealed by disappointed gay activists.
In March 2005, Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer declared marriage laws unconstitutional, finding "no rational purpose" to limit marriage to the union of one man and one woman.
But the appeals court said the lower court had exceeded its authority.
[...]
"We call on the California Legislature to respect the will of the voters as expressed in 2000 when they approved Prop 22 to protect one-man, one-woman marriage," he said. "Despite these encouraging marriage decisions, marriage cannot remain vulnerable to the whim of judges who could impose their own will on society -- marriage must be protected in our state and federal constitutions."
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Find a Liberty Sunday Outlet in Your Area
Focus on the Family
October 6, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042239.cfm
The Oct. 15 simulcast of "Liberty Sunday: Defending Our First Freedom" will be broadcast by TV, radio and Web cast. It will focus on how freedom of religion is on a collision course with state and local anti-discrimination laws designed to protect homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
[...]
Christian TV outlets that will carry Liberty Sunday include SkyAngel, Christian Television Network, Cornerstone Television, Daystar Television Network, FaithTV, FamilyNet, iLifeTV, NRB Network (on DirecTV) and Trinity Broadcasting Network. [Ed. Note: also American Family Radio and the Bott Radio Network, and webcast.]
----- 7 -----
Students Stand Silent Against Abortion
Focus on the Family
October 6, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042238.cfm
Students from more than a thousand junior-high and high schools will participate in the third annual Students Day of Silent Solidarity on Oct. 24 to express contempt for the killing of the preborn. Their combined silence represents the victims of abortion who cannot speak for themselves.
[...]
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
To learn more about the Students Day of Silent Solidarity Against Abortion and to register, visit the Silent Day Web site.
[More at URL]
[Editor's note: what I find interesting about this is that it is the exact same action they condemn when it's the GBLT-student driven "Day of Silence" to protest anti-gay law and attitudes. When it's against abortion rights, they're for it; when it's in support of GBLT people, it's disruptive and should be shit down.]
----- 8 -----
High Court Fall Term Finds Spotlight on Alito
Decision on partial-birth abortion could signal a new direction.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
October 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042224.cfm
The fall term of the U.S. Supreme Court is under way, and all eyes are on the Court's newest member — and the impact he could make as a conservative vote on the nearly evenly split body.
Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., did something rare for any justice recently — spoke out publicly about the judiciary. He had words of warning about Senate confirmation hearings.
[...]
"O'Connor voted to strike down the partial-birth abortion statute in 2000," he said. "This time around, we believe we have a much more conservative jurist, who would defer to the Congress on this one. We're hopeful that the 5-4 loss on the partial-birth ban in 2000 could turn into a 5-4 win."
Staver said he believes the decision in the partial-birth abortion case could signal a new direction.
"I think we will see the court moving gradually, perhaps cautiously," he said, "into the pro-life, sanctity-of-life arena."
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
Attorneys General Come to Defense of Faith-Based Prison Program
Federal judge ordered InnerChange Freedom Initiative in Iowa shut down.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
October 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042218.cfm
In June a federal judge ruled unconstitutional the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI). Attorneys General from nine states have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the faith-based prison program's appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Minnesota Stand for the Family Rally Draws Thousands
Focus at the Family
October 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042229.cfm
A rally held at Minneapolis/St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center Tuesday educated and motivated pro-family conservative Christians.
Speakers included Focus on the Family Action Founder and Chairman Dr. James Dobson; 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.
[...]
"I'm confident the voters who attended the rally understand the important issues at stake this November," she said, "and will be doing everything in their power to cast an informed vote and make sure their family, friends and neighbors do so as well."
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Magazine Refuses to Recognize the Regret of Abortion
Focus on the Family
October 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042228.cfm
Ms. Magazine is publishing the names of more than a thousand women who admit to having an abortion, but declined to publish the names of women who regret that decision, LifeNews reported.
The "We Had Abortions" campaign is the cover story for the Oct. 10 issue.
[...]
"How is it that you can profess to care about all women and refuse them the information to truly be educated and informed about the 'choice' they could make?" she returned. "That doesn't seem caring at all to me. It seems that you are driven by your agenda and not by your concern for women."
TAKE ACTION:
E-mail Ms. Senior Editor Michelle Kort at mkort@msmagazine.com and ask her to show true concern for the lives of women and to allow readers to learn about the devastating side of abortion.
----- 12 -----
'Liberty Sunday' Simulcast Set for Oct. 15
Learn what happens when the gay agenda and freedom of speech tackle each other — and what you can do
by Pete Winn, associate editor
October 4, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042209.cfm
Your First Amendment protection of freedom of religion is on a collision course with state and local anti-discrimination laws designed to protect homosexuality and same-sex marriage. That's the message that the Family Research Council (FRC) is bringing to Boston on Sunday, Oct. 15.
[...]
Charmaine Yoest, FRC vice president of communications, said the event will be the seventh simulcast the pro-family group has sponsored.
"This time we're really trying to emphasize the connection between the homosexual agenda and the threats to our religious liberty," she said.
[...]
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said there is
a fundamental conflict between sexual-orientation or nondiscrimination laws protecting homosexuality and the religious beliefs of millions of Americans.
[...]
There will be nearly a dozen speakers at the Liberty Sunday event, including FRC President Tony Perkins, and — by video link — Focus on the Family Action Chairman Dr. James Dobson.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
First Freedom First
Online as of 7 October 2006
http://www.firstfreedomfirst.org/
The founders of our nation believed that all Americans should have the right to worship according to their own beliefs, or not to worship at all. So strong was their commitment to religious freedom that they enshrined it in the first sentence of the Bill of Rights.
[...]
Religion is a deeply personal matter. Americans must be free to practice their religion without coercion. Government exists to provide for the general well-being of all people, and its workings must be independent of specific religious doctrines. Simply put, there must be a separation of church and state.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Magazine Celebrates Abortions in Cover Story
Focus on the Family
October 4, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042210.cfm
The feminist Ms. Magazine is making a show of killing preborn babies with an Oct. 10 cover story titled, "We Had Abortions."
Last summer the magazine published a petition on its Web site seeking women who would sign their names as having had an abortion -- what Ms. called "a very common, necessary and important procedure for millions of women."
The petition asked women to place a check mark next to this statement: "I have had an abortion. I publicly join the millions of women in the United States who have had an abortion in demanding a repeal of laws that restrict women's reproductive freedom."
[More at URL]
----- 14 -----
Is Complexity Plus Efficiency Evidence for Intelligent Design?
by David J. Hill
True U. Lecture Hall
http://www.trueu.org/Academics/LectureHall/A000000589.cfm
One Molecule at a Time
If you have ever taken a biology class or are a science program addict, you've probably heard of cellular respiration as part of the subject of metabolism.1 Cellular respiration is the process in which nutrients acquired by the cell are broken down into the energy needed for survival. It's incredibly complex, yet efficient in its function and elegant in its delivery.
How does the cell do it? One molecule at a time.
[...]
If you think about evolutionary processes for a minute, you can get a sense of the incredible amount of inefficiency that would be present in having only the fittest of any population survive. Isn't that a process that wastes the "unfit"? Isn't that highly inefficient in itself?
[...]
In the final analysis, the inefficiency of Darwinian evolution seems to be a poor explanation for the efficiency of many of the processes found in the cell. There may be cases in which efficiency can emerge from inefficiency, but not to the degree of complexity present in cellular respiration.
[Editor's Note: this is a variation on one of the standard Creationist arguments, and is a basic misunderstanding of the idea of entropy. Savvy music fans will, of course, already be familiar with MC Hawking's highly compact but effective takedown of that argument, but to recap: they assert that due to the second law of thermodynamics, it is impossible for complexity to increase on Earth, and therefore, evolution is impossible. However, this ignores that the second law is about closed systems, and the Earth is not a closed system; it has an external power source constantly adding energy, called the sun. This variation attempts to provide a little cover for the obvious takedown, but is still basically the same argument as always on this topic.]
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Philadelphia Schools Declare Gay History Month
Some offended parents have discussed pulling their children from classes until November.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
October 3, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042190.cfm
The School District of Philadelphia has declared October "Gay and Lesbian History Month," and the designation has prompted some parents to consider keeping their children home from school until November.
The special recognition was granted at the request of a group of gay students and parents, whom school officials apparently meet with on a regular basis.
[...]
"They're teaching three syllable words —the word 'fam-i-ly,' " she said. "And on those phonics cards they have a mom and a dad, an elderly grandparent and grandfather raising children, and then they have two men and two women.
"They are teaching our young children that this is acceptable and that they should tolerate it. It is an outrage; it's against God, and God is not pleased."
[...]
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, warned that the organizations pushing the normalization of homosexuality in schools have a "give an inch, take a mile" mentality.
"The homosexual agenda always advances incrementally, and so they start out by putting it on the calendar," he explained. "And then there'll be pressure to say, 'Hey, we have to teach gay history just like we teach African-American history.' "
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
'Q&A: 'Ya Gotta Step Up'
Fox talk show host Bill O'Reilly's new book takes aim at the culture war —as he defines it.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
October 3, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042191.cfm
Bill O'Reilly wants to be your leader. The host of Fox News Channel's popular program The O'Reilly Factor, he wants to be the leader of the culture wars —and says so in his new book, Culture Warrior, published by Broadway Books.
O'Reilly lays out the culture war, as he sees it —not the conventional liberal/conservative split, but a battle between traditionalism and secularism —and issues a clarion call to Americans to wake up and take a stand.
[...]
Interesting. Now the religious conservative community tends to look at these issues —at the culture war itself —as being moral in nature. That's not necessarily the perspective you're coming from, is it?
No, it's not. I think every American has the right to decide what's moral and immoral within the bounds of the law.
But conservative Christians are targets of the SP community because their opposition to things like abortion, gay marriage, legalized narcotics, euthanasia prevent these from becoming law in America.
[More at URL]
[Ed. Note: Bold is as in source, not added by me.]
----- 17 -----
Institute of Marriage and Family Canada Policy Conference Summary
Today's Family News
Focus on the Family Canada
October 4, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/family/stories/100406_02.html
“A good society protects the interests of its most vulnerable citizens, especially children,” reported Elizabeth Marquardt, keynote speaker at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) inaugural policy conference in Ottawa on September 28. In her address, Marquardt presented research from a major report in which she served as principle investigator. The Revolution in Parenthood: The Emerging Global Clash Between Adult Rights and Children’s Needs was released just days before.
Delegates at the conference included senior policy officials from Justice Canada, Human Resources and Social Development, Service Canada, many non-government organizations (NGOs), as well as several Members of Parliament.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
MANITOBA SEX-ED BOOK CONDEMNED
Focus on the Family Canada
Today’s Family News
October 4, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/education/stories/100406.html
Family advocates in Manitoba are outraged over a new explicit resource guide for teenaged girls that they contend is “irresponsible and gratuitously obscene” and nothing more than taxpayer-funded “smut.”
Called The Little Black Book (Warning: contains graphic language and content unsuitable for children and offensive to some adult viewers), it will be up to school divisions in Manitoba whether or not to hand out the materials, Global News reported.
According to WorldNetDaily.com, (WND) the book – subtitled A Book on Healthy Sexuality Written by Grrrls for Grrrls [sic] – was developed by a group that includes St. Stephen’s Community House, a government-funded service organization in Toronto.
Joseph Ben-Ami, executive director of the Ottawa-based Institute for Canadian Values said in a news release, “This is one of the most irresponsible and obscene school documents that we have ever seen.”
“In reality, it is a thinly-veiled propaganda piece that undermines healthy parent-child relationships, substitutes voodoo myths for actual science, and provides advice that, if followed, will certainly result in real and serious harm to those who follow it.”
Ben-Ami and Janet Epp Buckingham, director of law and public policy for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, both denounce what The Little Black Book presents as “facts.” Besides tips on “fun alternatives to intercourse,” these “facts” include:
* the unsubstantiated claim that “only 10 per cent of the population is heterosexual – the rest being ‘mixed’ or bi-sexual;”
* the advice for girls not to listen to their parents’ opinions regarding lesbian sex because “a lot of parents are homophobic, and so are their children until they get minds of their own;” and
* the assertion that abortion is simply about removing “tissues that may potentially grow into a baby.”
“Let’s get this straight—this is not appropriate,” said Buckingham. “. . . Kids do not need sex guides in schools. They do not need indoctrination into sexual behaviour. They do not need smut.”
Ben-Ami told WND that it is his understanding that “the Manitoba Ministry of Education is currently assessing whether the book is appropriate.” Yet Global News reported that the book is due to be released next month.
St. Stephen’s has also produced Unzipped: The Little Black Book for Boys: A Guide to Healthy Sexuality for male youth aged 14-19.
[Updated version at URL; this version is as was sent in email]
But now, today's news:
Art teacher fired after museum field trip;
This isn't the fundamentalist side of the report, but is instead the side from the family assaulted; a Jewish family flees a Delaware school district's aggressive evangelisation of Christianity; lawsuits against this sort of thing would be almost entirely stopped by PERA, the fundamentalists' top priourity in this Congressional session and which passed the house; report and URL courtesy
elfs;Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol implies strongly basically that all gay men are pedophiles waiting to act, and that a Democratic congress would pass a resolution pushing the Boy Scouts to
James Dobson spends his Friday programme defending Hastert, the Republican leadership, and, in particular, trying to get fundamentalists not to step away from the Republican party this midterm election; promises that a large theoconservative turnout will "turn the direction of this country... maybe forever";
California marriage-equality lawsuit changes course again; claimants to appeal; as always, Focus on the Family repeats the Federal amendment drumbeat;
"Liberty Sunday," a theocon rally scheduled for October 15th, to be on various media outlets; this one's headliners are just Dobson and FRC's Tony Perkins; primary focus is how anti-discrimination law protecting GBLT civil rights violates freedom of religion;
Focus on the Family promotes a middle school/high school "be silent" anti-abortion-rights student protest; what I find interesting about this is that it is the exact same action they condemn when it's the GBLT-student driven "Day of Silence" to protest anti-gay law and attitudes. When it's against abortion rights, they're for it; when it's in support of GBLT people, it's disruptive and should be shit down;
Focus on the Family thinks Justice Alito being on the court will have the court turn against abortion rights in general;
Focus on the Family continues to follow the court case against the "InnerChange Freedom Initiative," which has been ordered shut down as unconstitutional; it was a prisoner rehabilitation programme that worked to convert prisoners to fundamentalist Christianity, and yes, that was an explicit part of its purpose, and yes, it was getting state funding;
Standard FotF "huge success" report for one of their anti-marriage get-out-the-vote political rallies, this one in Minneapolis;
FotF ACTION ITEM to protest Ms. magazine for not printing anti-abortion activist material in an abortion-rights story;
Another "Liberty Sunday" theocon political confab plug, talking about how GBLT people having civil rights is anti-Christian and destroys religious liberty; keep in mind that Focus on the Family (and several other theocon groups) want to overturn Lawrence v. Texas (2003) so that GBLT people can be made illegal by state legislatures again;
From someone not on Livejournal, a bit of reaction against some of this; the First Freedom First organisation getting petition signatures supporting separation of church and state and acting against theocon efforts to govern via religion;
FotF condemns Ms. magazine cover-story supporting abortion rights that let women who had had abortions talk about why reproductive rights are so important;
FotF links to "TrueU," a fundamentalist evangelical site aimed at college students which is, iirc, actually run by Focus on the Family, promoting "intelligent design" creationism. Their idea of a "debate" on the subject is to come up with two ideas of ID/creationism and pit them against each other;
FotF story on local protests against Philadelphia schools and Gay and Lesbian History Month; no events are planned, but the local groups are saying "It is an outrage; it's against God, and God is not pleased" for the school district acknowledging that some of their children come from same-gender parent households - one particular reading flashcard has them pissed off;
I don't even need to write a summary for this one, Focus on the Family does a perfectly good job at doing it themselves: "Bill O'Reilly wants to be your leader. The host of Fox News Channel's popular program The O'Reilly Factor, he wants to be the leader of the culture wars —and says so in his new book, Culture Warrior, published by Broadway Books";
CANADIANS LISTEN UP: Okay, know how I've talked a lot about how the American fundamentalists create this whole circular set of references and report each others' PR as news stories, and looping back upon themselves to make each other look like authorities? It's often called the Echo Chamber, or can be called "creating the story" - specifically, a story built up that is immune to factual challenges, because people have decided it's already true. Here's a good example of the Canadian branch of Focus on the Family doing exactly that. A couple of CWUs ago, I pointed to a "Institute of Marriage and Family Canada" release condemning GBLT marriage rights as anti-child, and so on. This group was founded by Focus on the Family Canada. Now here, a week or so later, we have Focus on the Family Canada presenting the IMFC as an external trusted source - and repeating the story. Unlike the American version, they do footnote the relationship at the bottom of the page - that's unusual;
Focus on the Family Canada condemns Manitoba sex-ed resource book, which they've done several times before. Note again the cross-quoting of each other as external validating sources. Note also that this is the original version of the story, or at least as much as I got in email; the web site version has been changed due to unspecified inaccuracies. I'd love to get a copy of this book - it looks very much like a book of essays written by high-school-age lesbians about their own experiences and opinions, once I make my way through the FundaFilter, but I can't be sure without actually seeing it.
----- 1 -----
Art teacher fired after museum field trip
08:45 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Associated Press
http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou060926_ac_teacherfired.1ac1af36.html
[Editor's Note: there will be an ad you have to click around first.]
FRISCO, Texas -- School board members have voted to not renew the contract of a veteran art teacher who was reprimanded after one of her fifth-grade students saw a nude sculpture during a school trip to a museum.
[...]
McGee has said her troubles started after taking 89 students on a school field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art in April.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Jewish family flees Delaware school district's aggressive Christianity
by JewsOnFirst.org
June 28, 2006
http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06b/indianriver.html
Note: On July 11th, we posted two follow-up reports, which you can find here. And on August 23rd, we posted another update here. [Ed. Note: go to the story to follow through to the other story links.]
Links to articles and documents cited in our report appear immediately below it
A large Delaware school district promoted Christianity so aggressively that a Jewish family felt it necessary to move to Wilmington, two hours away, because they feared retaliation for filing a lawsuit. The religion (if any) of a second family in the lawsuit is not known, because they're suing as Jane and John Doe; they also fear retaliation. Both families are asking relief from "state-sponsored religion."
[More at URL]
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FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume
Special Report Roundtable - October 5
October 05, 2006
Long URL elided
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), HOUSE SPEAKER: Any time that a person has to - - as a leader, be on the hot seat and be as a detriment to the party, you know, there ought to be a change. I became speaker in a situation like that. I don't think that's the case, I said that I haven't done anything wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUME: And so Dennis Hastert says that not only will he stay, but he's got a bunch of measures that he'll be undertaking to make sure that nothing like this happens again and the pates -- the capitol pages will be protected.
[...]
KRISTOL: Well, Democrats care about the children, Brit, and so I think they should pressure states to raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 so that it's clearly illegal for people like Mark Foley to hit on 17-year- old pages. They pressured states to raise the age of drinking, right? -- from 18 to 21 by threatening to cut off funds. They could do the same thing for age of consent laws in terms of the sexual predators. They could certainly pass a resolution supporting the Boy Scouts in their effort to keep people like Mark Foley from becoming scout masters, I think the Democrats could really do a lot of good for our children.
[More at URL]
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Dr. Dobson Responds to Liberal Attacks over Foley Situation
What does the reprehensible behavior of a now-disgraced gay Republican congressman have to do with Christian conservatives? Nothing, says the founder of Focus on the Family Action.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
October 6, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042242.cfm
Focus on the Family Action Chairman Dr. James Dobson took on liberal news media and politicians today and accused them of using the behavior of former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., to try to make political hay and tarnish the reputation of conservative candidates and all Christians - including him - in the process.
[...]
"I'd like to remind everybody that Mark Foley was not an evangelical Christian, he was not a pastor, he was not an evangelist — he wasn't even really part of the pro-family movement, he was a closet homosexual."
Dobson encouraged his listeners not to be duped by liberal members of the media into staying home on election day, especially since there may be another Supreme Court opening or two in the next two years and the results of this election will determine who gets to confirm the president's nominees.
"If the values voters come out again," he said, "it will turn the direction of this country, and maybe forever."
[More at URL]
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Gay Activists Will Appeal California Marriage Ruling
Focus on the Family
October 6, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042243.cfm
Thursday's ruling by the California Court of Appeals -- reversing a 2005 lower-court decision that redefined marriage to include same-sex couples -- is being appealed by disappointed gay activists.
In March 2005, Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer declared marriage laws unconstitutional, finding "no rational purpose" to limit marriage to the union of one man and one woman.
But the appeals court said the lower court had exceeded its authority.
[...]
"We call on the California Legislature to respect the will of the voters as expressed in 2000 when they approved Prop 22 to protect one-man, one-woman marriage," he said. "Despite these encouraging marriage decisions, marriage cannot remain vulnerable to the whim of judges who could impose their own will on society -- marriage must be protected in our state and federal constitutions."
[More at URL]
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Find a Liberty Sunday Outlet in Your Area
Focus on the Family
October 6, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042239.cfm
The Oct. 15 simulcast of "Liberty Sunday: Defending Our First Freedom" will be broadcast by TV, radio and Web cast. It will focus on how freedom of religion is on a collision course with state and local anti-discrimination laws designed to protect homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
[...]
Christian TV outlets that will carry Liberty Sunday include SkyAngel, Christian Television Network, Cornerstone Television, Daystar Television Network, FaithTV, FamilyNet, iLifeTV, NRB Network (on DirecTV) and Trinity Broadcasting Network. [Ed. Note: also American Family Radio and the Bott Radio Network, and webcast.]
----- 7 -----
Students Stand Silent Against Abortion
Focus on the Family
October 6, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042238.cfm
Students from more than a thousand junior-high and high schools will participate in the third annual Students Day of Silent Solidarity on Oct. 24 to express contempt for the killing of the preborn. Their combined silence represents the victims of abortion who cannot speak for themselves.
[...]
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
To learn more about the Students Day of Silent Solidarity Against Abortion and to register, visit the Silent Day Web site.
[More at URL]
[Editor's note: what I find interesting about this is that it is the exact same action they condemn when it's the GBLT-student driven "Day of Silence" to protest anti-gay law and attitudes. When it's against abortion rights, they're for it; when it's in support of GBLT people, it's disruptive and should be shit down.]
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High Court Fall Term Finds Spotlight on Alito
Decision on partial-birth abortion could signal a new direction.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
October 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042224.cfm
The fall term of the U.S. Supreme Court is under way, and all eyes are on the Court's newest member — and the impact he could make as a conservative vote on the nearly evenly split body.
Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., did something rare for any justice recently — spoke out publicly about the judiciary. He had words of warning about Senate confirmation hearings.
[...]
"O'Connor voted to strike down the partial-birth abortion statute in 2000," he said. "This time around, we believe we have a much more conservative jurist, who would defer to the Congress on this one. We're hopeful that the 5-4 loss on the partial-birth ban in 2000 could turn into a 5-4 win."
Staver said he believes the decision in the partial-birth abortion case could signal a new direction.
"I think we will see the court moving gradually, perhaps cautiously," he said, "into the pro-life, sanctity-of-life arena."
[More at URL]
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Attorneys General Come to Defense of Faith-Based Prison Program
Federal judge ordered InnerChange Freedom Initiative in Iowa shut down.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
October 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042218.cfm
In June a federal judge ruled unconstitutional the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI). Attorneys General from nine states have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the faith-based prison program's appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
[More at URL]
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Minnesota Stand for the Family Rally Draws Thousands
Focus at the Family
October 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042229.cfm
A rally held at Minneapolis/St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center Tuesday educated and motivated pro-family conservative Christians.
Speakers included Focus on the Family Action Founder and Chairman Dr. James Dobson; 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.
[...]
"I'm confident the voters who attended the rally understand the important issues at stake this November," she said, "and will be doing everything in their power to cast an informed vote and make sure their family, friends and neighbors do so as well."
[More at URL]
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Magazine Refuses to Recognize the Regret of Abortion
Focus on the Family
October 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042228.cfm
Ms. Magazine is publishing the names of more than a thousand women who admit to having an abortion, but declined to publish the names of women who regret that decision, LifeNews reported.
The "We Had Abortions" campaign is the cover story for the Oct. 10 issue.
[...]
"How is it that you can profess to care about all women and refuse them the information to truly be educated and informed about the 'choice' they could make?" she returned. "That doesn't seem caring at all to me. It seems that you are driven by your agenda and not by your concern for women."
TAKE ACTION:
E-mail Ms. Senior Editor Michelle Kort at mkort@msmagazine.com and ask her to show true concern for the lives of women and to allow readers to learn about the devastating side of abortion.
----- 12 -----
'Liberty Sunday' Simulcast Set for Oct. 15
Learn what happens when the gay agenda and freedom of speech tackle each other — and what you can do
by Pete Winn, associate editor
October 4, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042209.cfm
Your First Amendment protection of freedom of religion is on a collision course with state and local anti-discrimination laws designed to protect homosexuality and same-sex marriage. That's the message that the Family Research Council (FRC) is bringing to Boston on Sunday, Oct. 15.
[...]
Charmaine Yoest, FRC vice president of communications, said the event will be the seventh simulcast the pro-family group has sponsored.
"This time we're really trying to emphasize the connection between the homosexual agenda and the threats to our religious liberty," she said.
[...]
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said there is
a fundamental conflict between sexual-orientation or nondiscrimination laws protecting homosexuality and the religious beliefs of millions of Americans.
[...]
There will be nearly a dozen speakers at the Liberty Sunday event, including FRC President Tony Perkins, and — by video link — Focus on the Family Action Chairman Dr. James Dobson.
[More at URL]
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First Freedom First
Online as of 7 October 2006
http://www.firstfreedomfirst.org/
The founders of our nation believed that all Americans should have the right to worship according to their own beliefs, or not to worship at all. So strong was their commitment to religious freedom that they enshrined it in the first sentence of the Bill of Rights.
[...]
Religion is a deeply personal matter. Americans must be free to practice their religion without coercion. Government exists to provide for the general well-being of all people, and its workings must be independent of specific religious doctrines. Simply put, there must be a separation of church and state.
[More at URL]
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Magazine Celebrates Abortions in Cover Story
Focus on the Family
October 4, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0042210.cfm
The feminist Ms. Magazine is making a show of killing preborn babies with an Oct. 10 cover story titled, "We Had Abortions."
Last summer the magazine published a petition on its Web site seeking women who would sign their names as having had an abortion -- what Ms. called "a very common, necessary and important procedure for millions of women."
The petition asked women to place a check mark next to this statement: "I have had an abortion. I publicly join the millions of women in the United States who have had an abortion in demanding a repeal of laws that restrict women's reproductive freedom."
[More at URL]
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Is Complexity Plus Efficiency Evidence for Intelligent Design?
by David J. Hill
True U. Lecture Hall
http://www.trueu.org/Academics/LectureHall/A000000589.cfm
One Molecule at a Time
If you have ever taken a biology class or are a science program addict, you've probably heard of cellular respiration as part of the subject of metabolism.1 Cellular respiration is the process in which nutrients acquired by the cell are broken down into the energy needed for survival. It's incredibly complex, yet efficient in its function and elegant in its delivery.
How does the cell do it? One molecule at a time.
[...]
If you think about evolutionary processes for a minute, you can get a sense of the incredible amount of inefficiency that would be present in having only the fittest of any population survive. Isn't that a process that wastes the "unfit"? Isn't that highly inefficient in itself?
[...]
In the final analysis, the inefficiency of Darwinian evolution seems to be a poor explanation for the efficiency of many of the processes found in the cell. There may be cases in which efficiency can emerge from inefficiency, but not to the degree of complexity present in cellular respiration.
[Editor's Note: this is a variation on one of the standard Creationist arguments, and is a basic misunderstanding of the idea of entropy. Savvy music fans will, of course, already be familiar with MC Hawking's highly compact but effective takedown of that argument, but to recap: they assert that due to the second law of thermodynamics, it is impossible for complexity to increase on Earth, and therefore, evolution is impossible. However, this ignores that the second law is about closed systems, and the Earth is not a closed system; it has an external power source constantly adding energy, called the sun. This variation attempts to provide a little cover for the obvious takedown, but is still basically the same argument as always on this topic.]
[More at URL]
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Philadelphia Schools Declare Gay History Month
Some offended parents have discussed pulling their children from classes until November.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
October 3, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0042190.cfm
The School District of Philadelphia has declared October "Gay and Lesbian History Month," and the designation has prompted some parents to consider keeping their children home from school until November.
The special recognition was granted at the request of a group of gay students and parents, whom school officials apparently meet with on a regular basis.
[...]
"They're teaching three syllable words —the word 'fam-i-ly,' " she said. "And on those phonics cards they have a mom and a dad, an elderly grandparent and grandfather raising children, and then they have two men and two women.
"They are teaching our young children that this is acceptable and that they should tolerate it. It is an outrage; it's against God, and God is not pleased."
[...]
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, warned that the organizations pushing the normalization of homosexuality in schools have a "give an inch, take a mile" mentality.
"The homosexual agenda always advances incrementally, and so they start out by putting it on the calendar," he explained. "And then there'll be pressure to say, 'Hey, we have to teach gay history just like we teach African-American history.' "
[More at URL]
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'Q&A: 'Ya Gotta Step Up'
Fox talk show host Bill O'Reilly's new book takes aim at the culture war —as he defines it.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
October 3, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0042191.cfm
Bill O'Reilly wants to be your leader. The host of Fox News Channel's popular program The O'Reilly Factor, he wants to be the leader of the culture wars —and says so in his new book, Culture Warrior, published by Broadway Books.
O'Reilly lays out the culture war, as he sees it —not the conventional liberal/conservative split, but a battle between traditionalism and secularism —and issues a clarion call to Americans to wake up and take a stand.
[...]
Interesting. Now the religious conservative community tends to look at these issues —at the culture war itself —as being moral in nature. That's not necessarily the perspective you're coming from, is it?
No, it's not. I think every American has the right to decide what's moral and immoral within the bounds of the law.
But conservative Christians are targets of the SP community because their opposition to things like abortion, gay marriage, legalized narcotics, euthanasia prevent these from becoming law in America.
[More at URL]
[Ed. Note: Bold is as in source, not added by me.]
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Institute of Marriage and Family Canada Policy Conference Summary
Today's Family News
Focus on the Family Canada
October 4, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/family/stories/100406_02.html
“A good society protects the interests of its most vulnerable citizens, especially children,” reported Elizabeth Marquardt, keynote speaker at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) inaugural policy conference in Ottawa on September 28. In her address, Marquardt presented research from a major report in which she served as principle investigator. The Revolution in Parenthood: The Emerging Global Clash Between Adult Rights and Children’s Needs was released just days before.
Delegates at the conference included senior policy officials from Justice Canada, Human Resources and Social Development, Service Canada, many non-government organizations (NGOs), as well as several Members of Parliament.
[More at URL]
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MANITOBA SEX-ED BOOK CONDEMNED
Focus on the Family Canada
Today’s Family News
October 4, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/education/stories/100406.html
Family advocates in Manitoba are outraged over a new explicit resource guide for teenaged girls that they contend is “irresponsible and gratuitously obscene” and nothing more than taxpayer-funded “smut.”
Called The Little Black Book (Warning: contains graphic language and content unsuitable for children and offensive to some adult viewers), it will be up to school divisions in Manitoba whether or not to hand out the materials, Global News reported.
According to WorldNetDaily.com, (WND) the book – subtitled A Book on Healthy Sexuality Written by Grrrls for Grrrls [sic] – was developed by a group that includes St. Stephen’s Community House, a government-funded service organization in Toronto.
Joseph Ben-Ami, executive director of the Ottawa-based Institute for Canadian Values said in a news release, “This is one of the most irresponsible and obscene school documents that we have ever seen.”
“In reality, it is a thinly-veiled propaganda piece that undermines healthy parent-child relationships, substitutes voodoo myths for actual science, and provides advice that, if followed, will certainly result in real and serious harm to those who follow it.”
Ben-Ami and Janet Epp Buckingham, director of law and public policy for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, both denounce what The Little Black Book presents as “facts.” Besides tips on “fun alternatives to intercourse,” these “facts” include:
* the unsubstantiated claim that “only 10 per cent of the population is heterosexual – the rest being ‘mixed’ or bi-sexual;”
* the advice for girls not to listen to their parents’ opinions regarding lesbian sex because “a lot of parents are homophobic, and so are their children until they get minds of their own;” and
* the assertion that abortion is simply about removing “tissues that may potentially grow into a baby.”
“Let’s get this straight—this is not appropriate,” said Buckingham. “. . . Kids do not need sex guides in schools. They do not need indoctrination into sexual behaviour. They do not need smut.”
Ben-Ami told WND that it is his understanding that “the Manitoba Ministry of Education is currently assessing whether the book is appropriate.” Yet Global News reported that the book is due to be released next month.
St. Stephen’s has also produced Unzipped: The Little Black Book for Boys: A Guide to Healthy Sexuality for male youth aged 14-19.
[Updated version at URL; this version is as was sent in email]
