Religion & Law

SC: Court Refuses To Dismiss Challenge To Graded Released Time Religious Course

Posted on December 21, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "In Moss v. Spartanburg County School District No. 7, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117744 (D SC, Dec. 17, 2009),a South Carolina federal district court refused to dismiss an Establishment Clause challenge to the released time program for religious instruction that was set up by the Spartanburg County (SC) School District...

India?s Parliament Gets Report Urging Delinking Scheduled Caste Status From Religion

Posted on December 21, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "Currently Scheduled Caste status is available only to Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs. The report also calls for continuing Scheduled Caste status for Dalits who convert from Hinudism to other religions."

Ohio: Child Support Fight Over Home Schooling and Catholic Beliefs Back In Appeals Court

Posted on December 21, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "In McFarlane v. McFarlane, (OH Ct. App., Dec. 17, 2009), an Ohio appellate court was faced with two questions involving the relationship of parents' religious views to the award of child support. The parties' original divorce action also found its way to the state court of appeals three years ago ...

GiveBentheBoot.com: Neb.?s Nelson sees backlash on health reform plan

Posted on December 21, 2009
"The chairman of Nebraska's Republican Party declared Nelson's decision to be the end of his political career in Nebraska . . . "

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FRC Asks: ?Is There No Democratic Senator Who Cares About Life??

Posted on December 21, 2009
". . . some Democrats in the House of Representatives put the sanctity of human life first and foremost, not one Senator from the Democratic Party could be bothered to stand up for mothers and their unborn children."

Egyptian Christian women forced to marry, convert to Islam, reports say

Posted on December 21, 2009
Baptist Press: "Coptic Christian women in Egypt are being forced to marry and convert to Islam and that oppression is part of a larger pattern of persecution against Christians facilitated by the Egyptian government, according to two recent reports."

UK Prime Minister Pledges to Force ?Gay? Civil Union Recognition in Eastern Europe

Posted on December 21, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to attempt to force Eastern European countries to accept as legally valid homosexual civil partnerships contracted in Britain. Brown told Attitude, one of the UK's leading homosexualist magazines, 'I'm fighting to get all the countries in Europe to recognise civil partnerships carried out in Britain...

Analysis: How Nelson-Reid Compromise Allows Abortion Funding in Health Care

Posted on December 21, 2009
LifeNews: "Pro-life groups have spent most of Saturday morning furiously analyzing the Nelson-Reid compromise language on abortion funding in the Senate health care bill. Their conclusion is that the language undermines the amendments they wanted to ban abortion funding...

Seedy Chicago Politics Passed Health Care Bill: Graham

Posted on December 21, 2009
NBCChicago: [Sen. Lindsey Graham] ?You know, change you can believe in, after this health care bill debacle is now becoming an empty slogan. And it's really been replaced by seedy Chicago politics, when you think about it, backroom deals that amount to bribes...

Nelson-Reid Abortion Compromise Doesn?t Ban Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill

Posted on December 21, 2009
LifeNews: "Senator Ben Nelson announced today that he will become the crucial 60th vote that Democrats need to pass a government-run health care bill."

Sen. Reid?s Government-Run Health Plan STILL Requires a Monthly Abortion Fee

Posted on December 21, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid?s (D-NV) latest health care ?manager?s amendment? would STILL levy a new ?abortion premium? fee on Americans under the Democrats? health care plan."

Sen. Nelson Caves, Supports Health Bill With Abortion Funding

Posted on December 21, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "The final clear obstacle for President Obama's health care overhaul suddenly toppled Saturday morning as news broke that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) had agreed on a series of compromises on abortion and other issues that would allow him to support the bill...

Study finds half of women on ?birth control shot? suffer bone problems

Posted on December 21, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "Nearly half of women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), commonly known as the birth control shot, will experience high bone mineral density (BMD) loss in the hip or lower spine within two years of beginning the contraceptive, according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston...

Ireland: Vatican will be asked to remove four bishops if they don?t quit

Posted on December 21, 2009
Belfast Telegraph: "The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, will ask the Vatican to remove four Irish bishops from office if they refuse to step down over the Murphy report into clerical child sex abuse cases in the Dublin archdiocese."

Canada: New policies to begin for students

Posted on December 21, 2009
The Observer: "When a new equity policy kicks in next year, students of other religions will get areas to pray in local Catholic schools, but homosexual students hoping for a gay/straight alliance at their high school may have to wait . . . Esposito said the board has not examined whether the new policy will mean gay student groups at H-SCDSB schools, as is presented as an example in provincial guidelines for the policy...

Ugandan Church faces totalitarian liberal activism

Posted on December 21, 2009
Virtue Online: "The pressure on the Church of Uganda to respond to legislation that will be placed before the Ugandan Parliament on homosexual behaviour is not restricted to Uganda. This issue is affecting other democratic nations in Africa and Asia ...

Turkey?s lack of religious liberty

Posted on December 21, 2009
Assyrian International News Agency: "It's been another difficult year for Christians in Turkey and it is finishing just as it began, with problems. Early in December, three Muslims entered the Meryem Ana Church, a Syriac Orthodox church in Diyarbakir, and confronted the Reverend Yusuf Akbulut, according to a Dec...

Serbia to apply for EU membership

Posted on December 21, 2009
European Voice: "Boris Tadi?, the president of Serbia, is to submit his country's application for EU membership tomorrow (22 December)."

EU visa roadmap prompts Albania?s war on traffickers

Posted on December 21, 2009
Balkan Insight: "Speaking at a meeting of the National Committee Against Human Trafficking, Basha said the government was engaged in a campaign to improve its ranking in the US State Department human trafficking report while the EU also considers a bid to include the country in the so-called White Schengen list in 2010...

Croatia, Turkey one step closer to EU membership

Posted on December 21, 2009
European Voice: "Croatia and Turkey today took steps towards eventual EU membership. Croatia wrapped up accession talks in two policy areas - right of establishment and freedom to provide services, and social policy and employment - while Turkey opened talks on the environment chapter...

European human rights court rules in favor of Turkish church

Posted on December 21, 2009
EuropeNews: "In a decision many hope will lead to greater religious freedom in Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that a Turkish court ruling barring a church from starting a foundation violated the congregation?s right to freedom of association...

EU Muslims launch rights council

Posted on December 21, 2009
Islam Online: "Muslims activists from 26 European countries have come together to launch the first rights council to enlighten European Muslims about their rights, monitor rising Islamophobia and defend Muslim rights in European courts of law."

Patriarch Kirill: Europe?s future unthinkable without Christianity

Posted on December 21, 2009
Rianovosti: "'People who attached great significance to European cultural and religious identity as an important element of pan-European wellbeing were among the EU originators,' Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said in a message to the European Union's first President Herman Van Rompuy, who will take office from January...

D.C. mayor signs ?gay marriage? bill

Posted on December 21, 2009
Church Executive: "The only hope of stopping the legalization of 'gay marriage' in the district appears to be through the courts. The Alliance Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit on behalf of eight D.C. citizens calling for approval of an attempt to place an initiative on the ballot to prohibit the unions...

D.C. Pushes to Dismiss Suit Over ?Gay Marriage? Initiative

Posted on December 21, 2009
Blog of the Legal Times: "The 46-page document, filed the same day Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a bill to allow same-sex marriage in the District, argues that that D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics was right when it rejected the initiative, finding that it would violate the D...

NY Times: When Does Death Start?

Posted on December 21, 2009
"The paradox of needing a dead donor with a live body was first addressed in 1968 . . . Moving past a binary concept of life and death is, for most of us, an uncomfortable process . . ."

?Uganda Pastors Chide Rick Warren; Defend Anti-Gay Bill?

Posted on December 21, 2009
Christian Post: "Pastors in Uganda recently chided evangelical pastor Rick Warren after he urged them to speak out against the country's Anti-Homosexuality bill."

Mexico City votes to redefine marriage

Posted on December 21, 2009
The AP is reporting that lawmakers in Mexico City have voted to redefine marriage.

Doug Napier on the Hugh Hewitt Show: Federal funding of abortions

Posted on December 21, 2009
ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss the battle over federal funding of abortion. The MP3 runs just over 8 minutes.

Alabama to consider charter school law

Posted on December 21, 2009
TuscaloosaNews.com: "Gov. Bob Riley will ask the Legislature to pass a charter school law to boost Alabama?s chances at getting some of the $175 million in federal stimulus money that will be competitively available beginning next month.The conservative Alabama Policy Institute backs the idea of charter schools...

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