Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Nov. 6th, 2006 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdIn these final hours... there isn't really all that much going on, by recent comparison. Several last cries to go vote GOP, that the Supreme Court hangs in the Balance, and by the way, there's a Rumour that John Paul Stevens is Sick, This Could Be Our Chance. Oh, and Andrew Sullivan and other out lesbian and gay people are much worse than Rev. Ted Haggard, and it's their fault - and Charles Darwin's - that Rev. Haggard went out looking for a drug-dealing gay hooker.
But now, today's news.
Focus on the Family: fundamentalists have a particular duty to vote; Gary Bauer says, "We're just one Supreme Court vote away from overturning Roe and stopping the radical gay-rights movement's attempt to redefine marriage";
Focus on the Family picks up the Missouri case of a fundamentalist student refusing to write a letter in support of gay adoption as part of a class assignment;
Focus on the Family pushes several anti-gay initiatives, the attempt to overturn South Dakota's comprehensive abortion ban, and medical marijuana laws;
FotF: being gay is "not only breaking God's law, it's robbing God of his glory";
Dr. George Tiller - who performs abortion services in Kansas and has been a long-term target of Atty. General Phill Kline and the anti-abortion movement - wants an investigation of what he says are leaks to Fox News of medical data;
Human Events: John Paul Stevens is sick, for the love of god go vote GOP, the Supreme Court hangs in the balance;
American Family Association happy that Air Force Academy lawsuit thrown out, cranky about the Episcopal Church USA's new Presiding Bishop, who is GBLT-friendly;
LifeNews notes that the US Supreme Court "will again weigh health exception on partial-birth abortion," also condemns health exemptions in abortion bans;
American Family Association: Boise, Idaho referendum is "actually a referendum on God's Word";
AFA articles pushing anti-marriage amendments in several states, predicting victory in all of them;
AFA article pushing Wisconson's anti-marriage/anti civil unions initiative;
Looking ahead to the 2008 elections already, the Family Research Council pushes a Florida effort to get an anti-marriage amendment on the ballot that year;
FRC ACTION ITEM to vote Yes on California Proposition 85;
National Review runs an article on Ted Haggard, blaming out GBLT people in general and Andrew Sullivan in particular for Rev. Haggard's problems; also blames Charles Darwin and evolutionary theory. Also, we need to institute a "divine" image of marriage law to help heterosexuals "resist temptation."
----- 1 -----
The Duty to Vote
Values voters need to be heard on Election Day.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
6 November 2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000002905.cfm
[...]
Saying he is "concerned about my country," Focus on the Family Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is calling on all Americans — especially people of faith — to vote on Election Day.
"If people of faith — the so-called values voters — don't come out and let their voices be heard, there are going to be some major implications for this country," he said.
Dobson is joined by others, including Gary Bauer, the former presidential candidate who heads American Values, in urging Americans to exercise their constitutional rights.
[...]
"We're just one Supreme Court vote away from overturning Roe and stopping the radical gay-rights movement's attempt to redefine marriage," Bauer said. "If conservative Christians lose in the Senate tomorrow, it will be a disaster, and we may lose our last chance for the next 30 years to make progress."
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Christian Student Challenges Missouri State Over Free Speech
She says a professor coerced her to write a letter in support of gay adoption.
Focus on the Family
from staff reports
11-6-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000002894.cfm
Missouri State University is in court after punishing a Christian student who refused to write a letter to the state Legislature in support of gay adoption.
Emily Brooker says she refused the project because she opposes gay adoption, but her professor ignored her objections and wrote her up.
David French, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund who is representing Brooker, said her First Amendment rights were egregiously violated.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
States to Consider Pro-Family Initiatives
Voters weigh marriage, abortion and human cloning.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-03-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000002890.cfm
On Tuesday, eight states will vote on amendments that constitutionally define marriage as between one man and one woman, and two Midwest states will vote on an abortion ban and human cloning.
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Tennessee, Wisconsin, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia will decide whether to protect marriage from activist courts. Victoria Cobb with the Virginia Family Foundation said it goes beyond existing protections.
"Virginia does already have laws on its books that protect marriage as between one man and one woman," she told Family News in Focus. "This is just the first effort to elevate those laws to a constitutional amendment."
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
'When the Church Hurts': Response to the Rev. Ted Haggard's Confession
Focus on the Family
11-6-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000002910.cfm
Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, devoted his broadcast today to discussing the admission of sexually immoral conduct by the Rev. Ted Haggard, former senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado, and former head of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Dr. Dobson is joined by the Rev. H.B. London, vice president of ministry outreach at Focus on the Family, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, president of Ravi Zacharias Ministries and Dr. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Together they analyze the symptoms and the serious consequences.
[...]
Dr. Mohler said the church needs to call sin what it is -- and deal with it honestly.
"In its very essence," he said, "it's not only breaking God's law, it's robbing God of His glory."
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Abortionist Demands Inquiry into Kansas AG Practices
Focus on the Family
11-6-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000002909.cfm
Kansas abortionist George Tiller is calling for an investigation of state Attorney General Phill Kline after the host of Fox's The O'Reilly Factor reported an "inside source" disclosed that Tiller performed late-term abortions when a patient only exhibited depression, The Associated Press reported.
For two years, Kline sought records from two clinics in order to determine if there was evidence of crimes, including rape, abuse of a minor and illegal late-term abortions. The records, which were turned over to him Oct. 24, did not disclose patient names.
On Friday's broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly accused Tiller of "executing babies," when he used depression as justification for a late-term abortion.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
The Rumor About John Paul Stevens
by Sean Rushton
Posted Nov 04, 2006
Human Events Online
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=17869
For weeks, commentators have speculated that significant numbers of conservatives, alienated by over-spending, the Iraq War, and other perceived GOP disappointments, will stay home on Election Day, giving one or both Houses of Congress to Democrats. But for those who care about reforming the Supreme Court, sitting this one out may soon look like a mistake of historic proportions.
For the past several weeks, there has been a rumor circulating among high-level officials in Washington, D.C., that a member of the U.S. Supreme Court has received grave medical news and will announce his or her retirement by year’s end. While such rumors are not unusual in the nation’s capital, this one comes from credible sources. Additionally, a less credible but still noteworthy post last week at the liberal Democratic Underground blog says, “Send your good vibes to Justice Stevens. I just got off the phone with a friend of his family and right now he is very ill and at 86 years old that is not good.”
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 6, 2006
Compiled by Jody Brown
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/62006h.asp
...Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori has been installed as leader of a church that's increasingly divided over the Bible and homosexuality. At weekend ceremonies in Washington, Jefferts-Schori accepted the blessings of a Muslim scholar and a Jewish rabbi and said "all faith traditions" call people to "unity with God and each other." But Rev. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, says his diocese and six others have asked to be placed under another Anglican leader. Harmon says Jefferts-Schori has denied that Jesus is the only way to God and has accepted homosexual clergy and relationships -- positions that are rejected by most of the other churches in the world Anglican Communion. [AP]
[...]
...A former commander of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy says he's pleased that a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against the school that claimed evangelical Christian values were illegally pushed on cadets there. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs failed to give specific examples of which cadets were harmed or when. He also said the Academy graduates who filed the suit could not claim their First Amendment rights were violated because they no longer attended the Academy. Retired Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson says when he served at the Academy, it went out of the way to accommodate non-Christian students. "From my experience there as a commander, I thought -- and I still believe wholeheartedly -- that we bent over backwards to allow all religious faiths to practice as they saw fit," says Patterson. "In fact, maybe the only Jewish synagogue in the Air Force is at the Air Force Academy. And I could honestly tell you, on many occasions we had requests from cadets who happen to have been other religions, Islam or even Wiccans." He adds that "speaking as a Christian commander there, we never tried to influence cadets to do anything other than what they felt comfortable with." Patterson believes it was "very disingenuous" for the former cadets to file the suit, and that it should have been thrown out of court a long time ago. [Chad Groening]
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
Supreme Court Will Again Weigh Health Exception on Partial-Birth Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 6, 2006
http://www.lifenews.com/nat2722.html
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The nation's high court will hold hearings on the federal partial-birth abortion on Wednesday. When it does, the Supreme Court will again consider whether or not such a ban needs a health exception, or if the gruesome abortion procedure is unnecessary to protect the mother's health.
When Congress drafted the national partial-birth abortion ban, it did not include a health exception and a leading pro-life congressman discussed the implications of such an exemption.
"The problem with the health exception is we have a number of abortionists who have testified that any pregnancy is a risk to a woman's health," Rep. Steve Chabot, an Ohio Republican who shepherded the ban in the House, told National Public Radio.
"So if you have a health exception in there, in essence, you have a phony partial-birth abortion ban," explained.
[...]
Pro-life groups are hopeful the Supreme Court would take a new position on partial-birth abortion thanks to new Justice Samuel Alito, who replaces Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
O'Connor wrote the 5-4 majority opinion in the 2000 case saying that a Nebraska ban on partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional because it lacked a health exception.
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
'Referendum' on God's Word Slated for Tuesday in Boise
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
October 3, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/32006d.asp
(AgapePress) - The first vote on the public display of the Ten Commandments takes place in one Idaho city next week.
More than 40 years ago, a civic group donated a Ten Commandments monument to the city of Boise. That monument stood in a public park until it was removed in 2004 by city officials who refused to allow residents to vote on the issue. But on Tuesday (November 7), Boise voters will decide the fate of a referendum that, if approved, would return the monument to the park.
Brandi Swindell with the Keep the Commandments Coalition says the vote is actually a referendum on God's Word. "We believe this is about cherishing the values and the principles found in the Ten Commandments," she shares. "This is about embracing the universal truths found in the Ten Commandments."
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
Marriage Defenders Face Opposition as State Amendment Votes Approach
By Jeff Johnson
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 3, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/32006c.asp
(AgapePress) - Of the eight states considering marriage protection amendments on November 7, Arizona is among those in which the outcome of the election is considered uncertain by the majority of political analysts. There and elsewhere across the U.S., homosexual activists and their supporters are fighting hard -- and sometimes fighting dirty -- to push the state votes their way.
Cathi Herrod of Protect Marriage Arizona says pro-family advocates have faced stiff opposition in their efforts to pass that state's marriage protection amendment. "Our opponents have outspent us significantly," she says, "and they have distorted the truth about the amendment, so we're in a close battle here in Arizona."
[...]
Traditional Marriage Voters Urged to Turn Out in Tennessee
Pro-family activists in Tennessee are similarly aware of what is at stake. However, David Fowler with RealMarriage.org says supporters of so-called "gay marriage" have been busy spreading misinformation, and they have managed to create considerable voter confusion concerning the marriage protection amendment.
"They started trying to call it the 'gay marriage amendment,' hoping people would vote [against it, thinking they were voting] against gay marriage," Fowler notes. Also, he adds, "We've had some people just flat giving people the wrong information."
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Wisconsin's Marriage Amendment Outcome In the Balance
By Jeff Johnson
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 6, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/62006b.asp
(AgapePress) - Wisconsin is one of eight states considering constitutional amendments to protect traditional marriage -- but the outcome there is not as predictable as in some of the other states.
Along with two of the other states voting on marriage amendments -- Colorado and Arizona -- Wisconsin is showing no consensus among political observers regarding the fate of a marriage amendment appearing on tomorrow's (Tuesday's) state ballot. The other states where voters are voting on marriage amendments are Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia.
[...]
According to Brant, the amendment in Wisconsin is somewhat unique in that it does more than just protect marriage in name. "It's one sentence with two parts," she explains. "The first defines marriage as one man and one woman; the second part says that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state."
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Flordia4Marriage.org working to put marriage amendment on 2008 ballot
Family Research Council
This information is no longer relevant due to its time sensitive nature and is provided for historical purposes.
November 6, 2006 - Monday
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06K02&f=PG03I03
With the 2006 election tomorrow, it is important to remember a crucial effort still underway to collect all 611,009 petitions for the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment. When this goal is achieved, it will trigger the placement of the Marriage Amendment on the 2008 ballot. Your help is still needed to complete the gathering of these petitions. Only 40,000 still need to be collected.
Florida4Marriage.org is organizing hundreds of volunteers to help collect petitions on Nov. 7th outside of polling locations around the state. Will you answer the call to help protect marriage in Florida?
Volunteers are needed for any amount of time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Nov. 7th. Florida4Marriage.org volunteers will have clipboards and petitions outside of polling locations. As people arrive and leave their precinct, they will have the opportunity to sign a petition. It's an easy way for you to help this enormous grassroots effort.
Florida4Marriage.org needs to know your relevant information and the hours you can help Nov. 7th. Contact Nathan Dunn with this information as soon as possible: NathanD@FLfamily.org or 407-716-7268.
If we don't act now, marriage may be redefined for our children and grandchildren. Almost all of the petitions are collected, but your help is needed now to finish the job.
----- 12 -----
Californians, vote yes on Proposition 85
California voters face important pro-life vote on November 7
This information is no longer relevant due to its time sensitive nature and is provided for historical purposes.
November 6, 2006 - Monday
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06K01&f=PG03I03
Young girls dealing with an unplanned pregnancy should not feel scared or alone. Unfortunately, California's legislators and school administrators have been deciding what is best for our children. A legal wall of separation between parents and children has made young girls vulnerable.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Saving the Conservative Soul
Don’t take the wrong lesson from Ted Haggard’s fall.
By David Klinghoffer
November 6, 2006 6:30 AM
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGZkYTBiZTI3MDkyMGE2ZjNjNTY4NjgyZmVkNDdmYjM=
The meaning of evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s downfall needs to be well understood by religious conservatives, lest the tragedy be compounded. The pain that has befallen the man — now resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals — along with his family and church is the consequence of his poor decisions.
[...]
If everyone were in control of his appetites, there would be no need for the government to be involved in endorsing some sexual relationships while withholding endorsement from others. The more society undermines ancient standards of moral conduct, the harder it becomes to withstand temptation. This is why gay marriage threatens heterosexual marriage. When the awe in which people once held matrimony is diluted, by treating it as a man-made and thus amendable institution rather than a divinely determined one, heterosexuals find sexual sins of all sorts harder to resist.
[...]
Liberals descended like vultures. “I’m praying for Haggard,” Time-magazine blogger Andrew Sullivan assured his readers, “as I hope he is praying for me and every sinner. But the lesson of this to the religious right surely is: go and sin no more. Stop the lies. Stop the bigotry. Deal with the reality of gay people, our souls, our wounded hearts, our humanity, our right to be treated equally by our own government. It’s what Jesus did. And it is your true calling now.”
The key point in this spinning of Haggard’s humiliation is that the story exposes the “lies” underlying the conservative religious view especially as it pertains to gay matrimony.
What lies? The conservative case against redefining marriage is based on the observation of human vulnerability to temptation. Haggard confirms what we’ve said all along. It is pervasive moral weakness that makes such things necessary.
[...]
Choosing between perfection and deficiency, good and evil, is the human condition in a nutshell. Admittedly, it doesn’t seem fair that some people appear to be given easier challenges than others are. But God’s thoughts are not our thoughts.
[...]
Gay advocates reason that because a man has a temptation to homosexuality, he has little moral choice other than to obey it. This view of morality goes back to Darwin, who reduced behavior to biologically determined instincts. In The Descent of Man he wrote, “At the moment of action, man will no doubt be apt to follow the stronger impulse; and though this may occasionally prompt him to the noblest deeds, it will far more commonly lead him to gratify his own desires at the expense of other men.” In his private notebooks, Darwin was more blunt, commenting that “the general delusion about free will [is] obvious.”
In the Ted Haggard affair, then, we are confronted with questions not only of right and wrong but, more fundamentally, of moral responsibility versus biological determinism. Conservatives, not only religious ones, need to be very clear where we come down on this.
For surely the greatest intellectual and spiritual corruption is not the failure to fight off your demons, but the decision to urge upon other people a view that tells them they are justified in giving up their own moral fight. In that sense, I hope Ted Haggard does pray for Andrew Sullivan, because it is Sullivan and those on his side of the culture war who do much greater damage to our lives.
[More at URL]
But now, today's news.
Focus on the Family: fundamentalists have a particular duty to vote; Gary Bauer says, "We're just one Supreme Court vote away from overturning Roe and stopping the radical gay-rights movement's attempt to redefine marriage";
Focus on the Family picks up the Missouri case of a fundamentalist student refusing to write a letter in support of gay adoption as part of a class assignment;
Focus on the Family pushes several anti-gay initiatives, the attempt to overturn South Dakota's comprehensive abortion ban, and medical marijuana laws;
FotF: being gay is "not only breaking God's law, it's robbing God of his glory";
Dr. George Tiller - who performs abortion services in Kansas and has been a long-term target of Atty. General Phill Kline and the anti-abortion movement - wants an investigation of what he says are leaks to Fox News of medical data;
Human Events: John Paul Stevens is sick, for the love of god go vote GOP, the Supreme Court hangs in the balance;
American Family Association happy that Air Force Academy lawsuit thrown out, cranky about the Episcopal Church USA's new Presiding Bishop, who is GBLT-friendly;
LifeNews notes that the US Supreme Court "will again weigh health exception on partial-birth abortion," also condemns health exemptions in abortion bans;
American Family Association: Boise, Idaho referendum is "actually a referendum on God's Word";
AFA articles pushing anti-marriage amendments in several states, predicting victory in all of them;
AFA article pushing Wisconson's anti-marriage/anti civil unions initiative;
Looking ahead to the 2008 elections already, the Family Research Council pushes a Florida effort to get an anti-marriage amendment on the ballot that year;
FRC ACTION ITEM to vote Yes on California Proposition 85;
National Review runs an article on Ted Haggard, blaming out GBLT people in general and Andrew Sullivan in particular for Rev. Haggard's problems; also blames Charles Darwin and evolutionary theory. Also, we need to institute a "divine" image of marriage law to help heterosexuals "resist temptation."
----- 1 -----
The Duty to Vote
Values voters need to be heard on Election Day.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
6 November 2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000002905.cfm
[...]
Saying he is "concerned about my country," Focus on the Family Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is calling on all Americans — especially people of faith — to vote on Election Day.
"If people of faith — the so-called values voters — don't come out and let their voices be heard, there are going to be some major implications for this country," he said.
Dobson is joined by others, including Gary Bauer, the former presidential candidate who heads American Values, in urging Americans to exercise their constitutional rights.
[...]
"We're just one Supreme Court vote away from overturning Roe and stopping the radical gay-rights movement's attempt to redefine marriage," Bauer said. "If conservative Christians lose in the Senate tomorrow, it will be a disaster, and we may lose our last chance for the next 30 years to make progress."
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Christian Student Challenges Missouri State Over Free Speech
She says a professor coerced her to write a letter in support of gay adoption.
Focus on the Family
from staff reports
11-6-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000002894.cfm
Missouri State University is in court after punishing a Christian student who refused to write a letter to the state Legislature in support of gay adoption.
Emily Brooker says she refused the project because she opposes gay adoption, but her professor ignored her objections and wrote her up.
David French, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund who is representing Brooker, said her First Amendment rights were egregiously violated.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
States to Consider Pro-Family Initiatives
Voters weigh marriage, abortion and human cloning.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-03-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000002890.cfm
On Tuesday, eight states will vote on amendments that constitutionally define marriage as between one man and one woman, and two Midwest states will vote on an abortion ban and human cloning.
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Tennessee, Wisconsin, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia will decide whether to protect marriage from activist courts. Victoria Cobb with the Virginia Family Foundation said it goes beyond existing protections.
"Virginia does already have laws on its books that protect marriage as between one man and one woman," she told Family News in Focus. "This is just the first effort to elevate those laws to a constitutional amendment."
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
'When the Church Hurts': Response to the Rev. Ted Haggard's Confession
Focus on the Family
11-6-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000002910.cfm
Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, devoted his broadcast today to discussing the admission of sexually immoral conduct by the Rev. Ted Haggard, former senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado, and former head of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Dr. Dobson is joined by the Rev. H.B. London, vice president of ministry outreach at Focus on the Family, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, president of Ravi Zacharias Ministries and Dr. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Together they analyze the symptoms and the serious consequences.
[...]
Dr. Mohler said the church needs to call sin what it is -- and deal with it honestly.
"In its very essence," he said, "it's not only breaking God's law, it's robbing God of His glory."
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Abortionist Demands Inquiry into Kansas AG Practices
Focus on the Family
11-6-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000002909.cfm
Kansas abortionist George Tiller is calling for an investigation of state Attorney General Phill Kline after the host of Fox's The O'Reilly Factor reported an "inside source" disclosed that Tiller performed late-term abortions when a patient only exhibited depression, The Associated Press reported.
For two years, Kline sought records from two clinics in order to determine if there was evidence of crimes, including rape, abuse of a minor and illegal late-term abortions. The records, which were turned over to him Oct. 24, did not disclose patient names.
On Friday's broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly accused Tiller of "executing babies," when he used depression as justification for a late-term abortion.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
The Rumor About John Paul Stevens
by Sean Rushton
Posted Nov 04, 2006
Human Events Online
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=17869
For weeks, commentators have speculated that significant numbers of conservatives, alienated by over-spending, the Iraq War, and other perceived GOP disappointments, will stay home on Election Day, giving one or both Houses of Congress to Democrats. But for those who care about reforming the Supreme Court, sitting this one out may soon look like a mistake of historic proportions.
For the past several weeks, there has been a rumor circulating among high-level officials in Washington, D.C., that a member of the U.S. Supreme Court has received grave medical news and will announce his or her retirement by year’s end. While such rumors are not unusual in the nation’s capital, this one comes from credible sources. Additionally, a less credible but still noteworthy post last week at the liberal Democratic Underground blog says, “Send your good vibes to Justice Stevens. I just got off the phone with a friend of his family and right now he is very ill and at 86 years old that is not good.”
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 6, 2006
Compiled by Jody Brown
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/62006h.asp
...Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori has been installed as leader of a church that's increasingly divided over the Bible and homosexuality. At weekend ceremonies in Washington, Jefferts-Schori accepted the blessings of a Muslim scholar and a Jewish rabbi and said "all faith traditions" call people to "unity with God and each other." But Rev. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, says his diocese and six others have asked to be placed under another Anglican leader. Harmon says Jefferts-Schori has denied that Jesus is the only way to God and has accepted homosexual clergy and relationships -- positions that are rejected by most of the other churches in the world Anglican Communion. [AP]
[...]
...A former commander of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy says he's pleased that a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against the school that claimed evangelical Christian values were illegally pushed on cadets there. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs failed to give specific examples of which cadets were harmed or when. He also said the Academy graduates who filed the suit could not claim their First Amendment rights were violated because they no longer attended the Academy. Retired Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson says when he served at the Academy, it went out of the way to accommodate non-Christian students. "From my experience there as a commander, I thought -- and I still believe wholeheartedly -- that we bent over backwards to allow all religious faiths to practice as they saw fit," says Patterson. "In fact, maybe the only Jewish synagogue in the Air Force is at the Air Force Academy. And I could honestly tell you, on many occasions we had requests from cadets who happen to have been other religions, Islam or even Wiccans." He adds that "speaking as a Christian commander there, we never tried to influence cadets to do anything other than what they felt comfortable with." Patterson believes it was "very disingenuous" for the former cadets to file the suit, and that it should have been thrown out of court a long time ago. [Chad Groening]
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
Supreme Court Will Again Weigh Health Exception on Partial-Birth Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 6, 2006
http://www.lifenews.com/nat2722.html
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The nation's high court will hold hearings on the federal partial-birth abortion on Wednesday. When it does, the Supreme Court will again consider whether or not such a ban needs a health exception, or if the gruesome abortion procedure is unnecessary to protect the mother's health.
When Congress drafted the national partial-birth abortion ban, it did not include a health exception and a leading pro-life congressman discussed the implications of such an exemption.
"The problem with the health exception is we have a number of abortionists who have testified that any pregnancy is a risk to a woman's health," Rep. Steve Chabot, an Ohio Republican who shepherded the ban in the House, told National Public Radio.
"So if you have a health exception in there, in essence, you have a phony partial-birth abortion ban," explained.
[...]
Pro-life groups are hopeful the Supreme Court would take a new position on partial-birth abortion thanks to new Justice Samuel Alito, who replaces Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
O'Connor wrote the 5-4 majority opinion in the 2000 case saying that a Nebraska ban on partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional because it lacked a health exception.
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
'Referendum' on God's Word Slated for Tuesday in Boise
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
October 3, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/32006d.asp
(AgapePress) - The first vote on the public display of the Ten Commandments takes place in one Idaho city next week.
More than 40 years ago, a civic group donated a Ten Commandments monument to the city of Boise. That monument stood in a public park until it was removed in 2004 by city officials who refused to allow residents to vote on the issue. But on Tuesday (November 7), Boise voters will decide the fate of a referendum that, if approved, would return the monument to the park.
Brandi Swindell with the Keep the Commandments Coalition says the vote is actually a referendum on God's Word. "We believe this is about cherishing the values and the principles found in the Ten Commandments," she shares. "This is about embracing the universal truths found in the Ten Commandments."
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
Marriage Defenders Face Opposition as State Amendment Votes Approach
By Jeff Johnson
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 3, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/32006c.asp
(AgapePress) - Of the eight states considering marriage protection amendments on November 7, Arizona is among those in which the outcome of the election is considered uncertain by the majority of political analysts. There and elsewhere across the U.S., homosexual activists and their supporters are fighting hard -- and sometimes fighting dirty -- to push the state votes their way.
Cathi Herrod of Protect Marriage Arizona says pro-family advocates have faced stiff opposition in their efforts to pass that state's marriage protection amendment. "Our opponents have outspent us significantly," she says, "and they have distorted the truth about the amendment, so we're in a close battle here in Arizona."
[...]
Traditional Marriage Voters Urged to Turn Out in Tennessee
Pro-family activists in Tennessee are similarly aware of what is at stake. However, David Fowler with RealMarriage.org says supporters of so-called "gay marriage" have been busy spreading misinformation, and they have managed to create considerable voter confusion concerning the marriage protection amendment.
"They started trying to call it the 'gay marriage amendment,' hoping people would vote [against it, thinking they were voting] against gay marriage," Fowler notes. Also, he adds, "We've had some people just flat giving people the wrong information."
[More at URL]
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Wisconsin's Marriage Amendment Outcome In the Balance
By Jeff Johnson
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 6, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/62006b.asp
(AgapePress) - Wisconsin is one of eight states considering constitutional amendments to protect traditional marriage -- but the outcome there is not as predictable as in some of the other states.
Along with two of the other states voting on marriage amendments -- Colorado and Arizona -- Wisconsin is showing no consensus among political observers regarding the fate of a marriage amendment appearing on tomorrow's (Tuesday's) state ballot. The other states where voters are voting on marriage amendments are Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia.
[...]
According to Brant, the amendment in Wisconsin is somewhat unique in that it does more than just protect marriage in name. "It's one sentence with two parts," she explains. "The first defines marriage as one man and one woman; the second part says that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state."
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Flordia4Marriage.org working to put marriage amendment on 2008 ballot
Family Research Council
This information is no longer relevant due to its time sensitive nature and is provided for historical purposes.
November 6, 2006 - Monday
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06K02&f=PG03I03
With the 2006 election tomorrow, it is important to remember a crucial effort still underway to collect all 611,009 petitions for the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment. When this goal is achieved, it will trigger the placement of the Marriage Amendment on the 2008 ballot. Your help is still needed to complete the gathering of these petitions. Only 40,000 still need to be collected.
Florida4Marriage.org is organizing hundreds of volunteers to help collect petitions on Nov. 7th outside of polling locations around the state. Will you answer the call to help protect marriage in Florida?
Volunteers are needed for any amount of time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Nov. 7th. Florida4Marriage.org volunteers will have clipboards and petitions outside of polling locations. As people arrive and leave their precinct, they will have the opportunity to sign a petition. It's an easy way for you to help this enormous grassroots effort.
Florida4Marriage.org needs to know your relevant information and the hours you can help Nov. 7th. Contact Nathan Dunn with this information as soon as possible: NathanD@FLfamily.org or 407-716-7268.
If we don't act now, marriage may be redefined for our children and grandchildren. Almost all of the petitions are collected, but your help is needed now to finish the job.
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Californians, vote yes on Proposition 85
California voters face important pro-life vote on November 7
This information is no longer relevant due to its time sensitive nature and is provided for historical purposes.
November 6, 2006 - Monday
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06K01&f=PG03I03
Young girls dealing with an unplanned pregnancy should not feel scared or alone. Unfortunately, California's legislators and school administrators have been deciding what is best for our children. A legal wall of separation between parents and children has made young girls vulnerable.
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Saving the Conservative Soul
Don’t take the wrong lesson from Ted Haggard’s fall.
By David Klinghoffer
November 6, 2006 6:30 AM
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGZkYTBiZTI3MDkyMGE2ZjNjNTY4NjgyZmVkNDdmYjM=
The meaning of evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s downfall needs to be well understood by religious conservatives, lest the tragedy be compounded. The pain that has befallen the man — now resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals — along with his family and church is the consequence of his poor decisions.
[...]
If everyone were in control of his appetites, there would be no need for the government to be involved in endorsing some sexual relationships while withholding endorsement from others. The more society undermines ancient standards of moral conduct, the harder it becomes to withstand temptation. This is why gay marriage threatens heterosexual marriage. When the awe in which people once held matrimony is diluted, by treating it as a man-made and thus amendable institution rather than a divinely determined one, heterosexuals find sexual sins of all sorts harder to resist.
[...]
Liberals descended like vultures. “I’m praying for Haggard,” Time-magazine blogger Andrew Sullivan assured his readers, “as I hope he is praying for me and every sinner. But the lesson of this to the religious right surely is: go and sin no more. Stop the lies. Stop the bigotry. Deal with the reality of gay people, our souls, our wounded hearts, our humanity, our right to be treated equally by our own government. It’s what Jesus did. And it is your true calling now.”
The key point in this spinning of Haggard’s humiliation is that the story exposes the “lies” underlying the conservative religious view especially as it pertains to gay matrimony.
What lies? The conservative case against redefining marriage is based on the observation of human vulnerability to temptation. Haggard confirms what we’ve said all along. It is pervasive moral weakness that makes such things necessary.
[...]
Choosing between perfection and deficiency, good and evil, is the human condition in a nutshell. Admittedly, it doesn’t seem fair that some people appear to be given easier challenges than others are. But God’s thoughts are not our thoughts.
[...]
Gay advocates reason that because a man has a temptation to homosexuality, he has little moral choice other than to obey it. This view of morality goes back to Darwin, who reduced behavior to biologically determined instincts. In The Descent of Man he wrote, “At the moment of action, man will no doubt be apt to follow the stronger impulse; and though this may occasionally prompt him to the noblest deeds, it will far more commonly lead him to gratify his own desires at the expense of other men.” In his private notebooks, Darwin was more blunt, commenting that “the general delusion about free will [is] obvious.”
In the Ted Haggard affair, then, we are confronted with questions not only of right and wrong but, more fundamentally, of moral responsibility versus biological determinism. Conservatives, not only religious ones, need to be very clear where we come down on this.
For surely the greatest intellectual and spiritual corruption is not the failure to fight off your demons, but the decision to urge upon other people a view that tells them they are justified in giving up their own moral fight. In that sense, I hope Ted Haggard does pray for Andrew Sullivan, because it is Sullivan and those on his side of the culture war who do much greater damage to our lives.
[More at URL]
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-07 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-07 03:28 pm (UTC)Also, I originally quoted this additional paragraph from the article, but then then yanked it:I'll put it back in. When someone says these people are theocrats but they say they aren't, just go to paragraphs like this one, the one where they need to institute "divine" law as civil law for "to withstand temptation."
no subject
Date: 2006-11-07 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-08 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-08 11:24 pm (UTC)fucking pickles
no subject
Date: 2006-11-08 11:51 pm (UTC)