Religion & Law

Firing over creationism e-mail leads to appeal

Posted on April 26, 2010
AP: "The former director of the science program for Texas' public schools asked a federal appeals court Monday to revive a lawsuit over her firing for forwarding an e-mail about a forum opposed to teaching creationism . . . "

?Bloomberg calls for pro-choice court nominee?

Posted on April 26, 2010
Metropolis (WSJ Blog): "In remarks at a NARAL luncheon Monday at Columbus Circle, Mayor Mike Bloomberg called on President Obama to select a pro-choice justice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens."

Minnesota Democrats back pro-abortion Margaret Anderson Kelliher for Governor

Posted on April 26, 2010
LifeNews: "Minnesota Democrats used their state party convention to select House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher as their gubernatorial candidate. But the head of the state's prominent pro-life organization says Kelliher has a long pro-abortion record and pro-life voters should look elsewhere...

Abortion becomes key issue in Ky.?s US Senate race

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Oklahoman (AP): "Evangelical leader James Dobson became the latest abortion foe to endorse one of Kentucky's U.S. Senate hopefuls Monday, saying he would back Republican Trey Grayson even though GOP front-runner Rand Paul also has said he opposes abortion...

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Family Institute of Connecticut Persuades Enfield Board of Education to Defy ACLU

Posted on April 26, 2010
Christian Newswire: "The Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC), the state's largest and best known pro-life, pro-marriage and family organization, persuaded the Enfield Board of Education this week to defy a legal threat from the ACLU and send graduation ceremonies back to First Cathedral...

OK House overrides vetoes on two pro-life bills

Posted on April 26, 2010
"The House of Representatives today easily overrode the governor's vetoes of two anti-abortion measures, including one requiring women to hear a description of an ultrasound examination before an abortion could be performed . . . "

New Jersey school shouldn?t have barred student from pro-life event court says

Posted on April 26, 2010
LifeNews: "A court ruled last Thursday that a New Jersey student should not have been prevented from participating in a national pro-life event along with hundreds of thousands of her peers . . . 'Pro-life students shouldn't be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs,' ADF Senior Legal Counsel [David Cortman] told LifeNews...

Church of Scotland in new move over ?gay? ministers

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Press and Journal: "A Church of Scotland commission has raised the possibility of banning anyone who has sex outside marriage from joining the clergy. The policy has been put forward after concerns that a ban on practising homosexuals only could breach discrimination law...

UT: Order bars dad from discussing polygamy

Posted on April 26, 2010
Salt Lake Tribune: "A Utah father is fighting an order that bars him from sharing his Fundamentalist Mormon views with his children -- or even taking them to this small town he now calls home, where most residents hold a religious belief in polygamy that a judge deemed 'harmful...

KY Supreme Court strikes down grant to religious college

Posted on April 26, 2010
ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at speakupmovement.org: "The better solution would simply be not to have constitutional provisions that specially discriminate against religious schools in the funding context. It makes constitutional sense to deprive the government of the power to preferentially fund a particular religious school simply because it is religious, but it does not serve genuine religious freedom to categorically exclude religious schools from funding designed to serve legitimate governmental objectives ? such as increasing the number of pharmacists in southeastern Kentucky (the purpose of the Kentucky General Assembly?s grant to the University of the Cumberlands)...

Limiting religious symbols to private sphere is unconstitutional, says Spanish bishop

Posted on April 26, 2010
Catholic News Agency: "Referencing an incident in which a Madrid high school banned a student from classes because she would not remove her Islamic veil, spokesman for the Spanish Bishops' Conference, Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino affirmed that it is 'unconstitutional to prohibit or limit religious freedom' within the country...

Coptic Christian twins: ?We refuse to be Muslims by force?

Posted on April 26, 2010
Assyrian International News Agency: "On March 30 an administrative judicial court in Egypt dismissed a lawsuit filed by Mrs. Camilia Lutfi, mother of the Coptic Christian twins boys Mario and Andrew, against the Interior Minister, and the director of the Civil Status Department for refusing to re-instate the Christian religion on their birth certificates, and invalidate those which were forcefully changed to 'Islam' in 2005 by their father Medhat Ramsis Labib, who had converted to Islam...

Group Asks Mayors to Back Out of National Day of Prayer

Posted on April 26, 2010
WBAY.com: "Because a federal judge recently ruled the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, Freedom From Religion is sending more than a thousand letters to mayors and governors across the country discouraging them from participating in the event...

Botswana: Banned church takes Kgafela to court

Posted on April 26, 2010
Sunday Standard: "Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana and its affiliate, Family of God, have dragged Bakgatla Paramount Chief Kgafela Kgafela II and his younger brother, Mmusi Kgafela, to court demanding that the church be reinstated in Kgatleng urgently...

Scotland: Anger as teenagers give school kids sex ed lessons

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Christian Institute: "Scottish children as young as eleven are receiving sex education from 14-year-olds in a bid to cut teenage pregnancies, but critics have described the scheme as 'flawed'. The Health Buddies pilot project, which is taking place in Dundee, involves pupils as young as 14 teaching younger children about issues such as contraception and puberty...

UK: Muslims given opt-out of NHS superbug guidance

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Christian Institute: "Muslim doctors and nurses have been allowed to opt-out of NHS hygiene rules in a move that has been blasted by critics as double standards. Critics compared the opt-out given to Muslims to cases of Christians being marginalised by the NHS...

ABA calls on military to normalize homosexual behavior

Posted on April 26, 2010
ABA: "The Congressional letters, signed by American Bar Association President Carolyn Lamm, say ?we opposed enactment of this policy in 1993 as establishing a form of discrimination that was not based on the character of the servicemember?s contribution to the national defense...

UK: Church bell ringing since 16th century threatened after neighbours complain

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Christian Institute: "A church which has rung out its bells since the 16th century is facing a fine after neighbours complained about the noise. St Mary the Virgin church in Leigh, Greater Manchester, has already been subjected to a noise abatement order...

UK: Labour plans to quash bishops? say in Lords

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Christian Institute: "Church of England bishops will have a voice but no vote in a reformed House of Lords, under leaked Government plans. In the plans the Government also sets out that it will cut the number of bishops sitting in the Lords by more than half...

UK: Sexual lyrics lead young girls astray

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Christian Institute: "Warning about the dangers of explicit lyrics, Dr McCartney said: 'I think it is making children think this social behaviour is the norm and the danger is when you have girls listening to girls singing about it.'"

Governor Brewer makes AZ first to drop abortion funding in health care

Posted on April 26, 2010
LifeNews: "State legislators in Tennessee may have beat their colleagues in Arizona in passing a law to allow the state to opt out of some of the abortion funding in the government-run health care bill President Barack Obama signed. But Governor Jan Brewer made Arizona officially the first to have the bill become law...

CA Assembly modifies law seeking ?gay cure?

Posted on April 26, 2010
CBS 5 (AP): "California lawmakers have voted to modify a decades-old law designed to find the causes and cures of homosexuality."

Washington Blade to resume publishing

Posted on April 26, 2010
Washington Post: "The District's long-running gay weekly will resume publishing under its original name, the Washington Blade, at the end of this week, after the acquisition of the Blade's assets in bankruptcy court in Atlanta."

Abolition of adultery: A slippery slope to . . .

Posted on April 26, 2010
Can a society that allows unbridled adultery rationally prohibit polygamy?

What?s happened to the UK?s population?

Posted on April 23, 2010
Guardian: "By 2050 Britain for the first time in history will become the most populous nation in western Europe . . . Marriage is not for life, but on average a decade in Britain. More births are out of wedlock. Abortion, legalised in 1967, has risen slowly - although this in part reflects the increase in fertility ...

Philadelphia: Center City race has candidate ?outed? as straight

Posted on April 23, 2010
The Philadelphia Inquirer: "It's happened so often that it's now a cultural cliche: the gay politician pretending to be straight. In most parts of the nation, homosexuality or bisexuality is a clear electoral liability. Not in Center City's 182d state House district...

FL: Controversy over Muslim?s nomination to Jacksonville Human Rights Commission

Posted on April 23, 2010
News4Jax: "The controversy over the nomination of a Muslim to the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission continued Friday. Some groups question whether University of North Florida professor Parvez Ahmed has radical Muslim views, and they made their concerns known at a news conference...

Democrats Aim to Tap Populist Anger in High-Court Fight

Posted on April 23, 2010
Wall Street Journal full access via Google: "The touchstone of the Democratic strategy is the court's January ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which struck down restrictions on corporate spending on election campaigns. Democrats cite polls showing broad public disapproval of the ruling as evidence of growing anxiety about the court's direction ...

Vatican UN rep discusses ?defamation of religion? resolution

Posted on April 23, 2010
National Catholic Register: "The Holy See has welcomed the dwindling support for a recent U.N. resolution on religious freedom which opponents warn could be used to oppress religious minorities in some Muslim-majority states . . . Archbishop Tomasi warned that the implications of the resolution would give 'a kind of justification' to governments to discriminate against religious minorities...

Labour call to sack Tory Julian Lewis over ?gay? remarks

Posted on April 23, 2010
BBC: "Labour has called for New Forest East's Conservative candidate to be sacked after he compared HIV risks for gay men to the danger front-line soldiers face. Julian Lewis is a member of the Conservative frontbench team and opposed the reduction of the gay age of consent from 18 to 16...

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