Religion & Law

South Africa?s Rape Crisis: 1 in 4 Men Say They?ve Done It

Posted on June 22, 2009
TIME: "South Africans received a horrifying measure of just how bad their country's rape crisis is with the release this week of a study in which more than a quarter of men admitted to having raped, and 46% of those said that they had raped more than once...

Spain?s Catholic Church fights Socialists? abortion law reforms

Posted on June 22, 2009
Graham Keeley reports at Times Online: "The Spanish Bishops? Conference (CEE) urged all Catholic MPs in the Lower House to vote against a Bill to allow abortion on demand. Bishop Juan Antonio Martínez Camino said: 'Strict church doctrine says no true Catholic believer can agree with or support this move...

UK: Senior judge calls for action to stop ?epidemic? of family breakdown

Posted on June 22, 2009
CCFON reports: "He suggested that such commission should establish marriage as the ?gold standard? for relationships and put an end to the constant games of ?musical relationships? or 'pass the partner' which can scar children for life."

NJ: Proposed porn shop legislation could help Fairfield

Posted on June 22, 2009
The Progress reports: "The bill which cleared the Assembly panel this week, requires that sexually oriented businesses provide adequate outdoor lighting and video security surveillance in the outside area surrounding the business."

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PA: Local Lutherans reject proposal on same-sex relationships

Posted on June 22, 2009
Ann Rodgers reports in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Lutherans in southwestern Pennsylvania are calling on the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America not to adopt a proposal to allow individual congregations to decide whether ministers in same-sex relationships can be ordained...

New Jersey: Marriage is now the ?key issue? for Corzine

Posted on June 22, 2009
Jonathan Tamari reports in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Gov. Corzine has made 'marriage equality' for gays and lesbians a prominent piece of his reelection campaign, taking another step in his conversion on the issue and encouraging gay-rights advocates who hope to see same-sex marriage approved in New Jersey this year...

Texas: ?Girl, 14, sued by club that hired her to strip?

Posted on June 22, 2009
MySanAntonio.com: "Police say Leslie Campbell, 48, kidnapped the teenager in San Antonio in March, took her to Corpus Christi, sexually assaulted her over the course of a week, gave her a false identification card and forced her to strip at the club. Police say the girl, who has not been identified, escaped from Campbell's home while he was in the shower and has been reunited with her parents in San Antonio...

Police raid Ohio bar, find 14-year-old topless performer

Posted on June 22, 2009
Associated Press: "Police say a 14-year-old girl was dancing topless at an Akron strip club when they raided the bar."

Michigan: Warren prayer booth under fire

Posted on June 22, 2009
Christine Ferretti reports in The Baptist Standard: "The Freedom from Religion Foundation said resident concerns over the booth -- located in the lobby of city offices and adorned with a banner that simply reads 'Prayer Station' -- prompted the nonprofit to file a request for copies of city policy, its rental agreement with the church and verification it is being charged to use the space...

Arizona: Safeway stores pushing homosexual agenda

Posted on June 22, 2009
KSAZ Fox 10 News reports: "A sign that went up at some Safeway stores across the Valley has some customers threatening to boycott. The sign celebrates June as Gay Pride Month, and has a picture of Harvey Milk, explaining what he's done for gay civil rights...

UK: Catholic charity drops adoptions over ?gay rights? law

Posted on June 22, 2009
Daily Mail: "The Catholic Children's Society, whose president is Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, announced that it will no longer assess individuals or couples as prospective adoptive or foster parents."

?Will Florida recognize same-sex adoptions from other states??

Posted on June 22, 2009
Sarah Lundy reports in the Orlando Sentinel: "The issue is whether Florida, the only state with a blanket ban on gay adoption, must recognize another state's adoption laws, even if those laws, such as Washington's, permit gay adoptions."

Connecticut governor will comply with redefinition of marriage

Posted on June 22, 2009
Associated Press: "A spokesman for Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she will sign the bill, which passed 28-7 in the Senate and 100-44 in the House of Representatives late Wednesday, into law. While Rell, a Republican, signed the state's 2005 civil unions law, she has said she believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman...

Oran P. Smith: Children fare best with a mother and father

Posted on June 22, 2009
Oran P. Smith, president of South Carolina's Palmetto Family Council , writes in the Herald-Journal: "South Carolinians know that kids do best with a mom and a dad. Children raised by a mother and a father are healthier, happier, do better in school and are less likely to get in trouble with the law...

Michigan: ?Road to civil unions starts with Prop 2?

Posted on June 22, 2009
Lansing State Journal: "The time has come to ask the voters. It's time to revisit Proposal 2 as part of a broader effort to offer the legal and tax benefits now automatically conferred on married couples to their same-sex neighbors."

Texas governor vetoes bill increasing CPS power

Posted on June 22, 2009
Free Market Foundation: "We have just received word that Gov. Perry has vetoed SB 1440, which would have allowed Child Protective Services expansive new power to search and seize children and their medical records without consent or notice to parents, without a court hearing, and without ?good cause?, in direct violation of a recent federal court of appeals decision...

Florida: Schools? legal fees top $450,000 in prayer suit

Posted on June 22, 2009
Kris Wernowsky reports in the Pensacola News Journal: "The Santa Rosa County School District has incurred nearly $200,000 in legal fees so far to defend a prayer-in-schools lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, and the district also could be required to pay more than $250,000 to cover the ACLU's legal fees...

?Prayer Station? Inside City Hall Is Questioned

Posted on June 22, 2009
Religion Clause Blog: "In Warren, Michigan, The Tabernacle, a Church of God congregation, has set up a 'Prayer Station' inside city hall. The city makes space inside the building available to any non-profit free-of-charge . . . the Freedom from Religion Foundation is nevertheless concerned ...

National Catholic Register: Home-School Reasons

Posted on June 22, 2009
A National Catholic Register editorial: "At a recent home-schooling convention in Massachusetts, Thomas More College?s new president, William Fahey, gave a talk that one blogger compared to a grenade. Home schooling puts an almost unmanageable strain on mothers, he said...

Christians cannot pass out leaflets at ?Arab festival?

Posted on June 22, 2009
Aaron J. Leichmann reports in The Christian Post: "A Christian group in Missouri will be allowed to freely distribute religious literature at ?gay pride? event this weekend after a federal judge ruled in their favor. Another Christian group in Michigan, however, was not so fortunate in its quest for free distribution at a recent Arab festival but is still hopeful for a favorable conclusion...

Religion is irreplaceable

Posted on June 22, 2009
HE Baber writing in The Guardian: "What once was religion has already been parcelled out to a variety of different institutions and agents ? metaphysics and ethics to philosophers, wisdom literature to self-help gurus, pastoral counselling to therapists, and charity to secular non-profits and the welfare state...

NY teen chooses religion over graduation

Posted on June 22, 2009
Associated Press: "Li Morse won't be at the Mott Hall High School commencement in Harlem. It's being held on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath."

Blackboard Pulpit - Encouraging the spread of charter schools

Posted on June 22, 2009
EducationNews.org: "AN ESTIMATED 365,000 students are on waiting lists to get into charter schools. More than half of all charter schools across the country report having to disappoint parents who want their children in better schools. Yet many states, for reasons that have nothing to do with sound educational policy, discourage or even forbid the growth of charters...

Religion heats debate for new Florida turnpike interchange

Posted on June 22, 2009
Associated Press: "Turnpike officials say Palmetto Park Road is the best location for a $119 million interchange to relieve congestion in the area. But residents who live near the road say an interchange there would impact the community?s large population of Orthodox Jews, who walk on the Sabbath and other Jewish holidays...

Study: ?Two thirds of teenagers don?t believe in God?

Posted on June 22, 2009
The Telegraph reports: "Teenagers say family, friends, money, music and even reality television are more important than religion. It also emerged six out of ten 10 children (59 per cent) believe that religion "has a negative influence on the world". The survey also shows that half of teenagers have never prayed and 16 per cent have never been to church...

Childless on Father?s Day: Abortion clinics scapegoat dads

Posted on June 22, 2009
A Washington Times editorial: "Most men in the survey reported that ending a pregnancy was a mutual decision, and only 5 percent didn't support the abortion. However, nearly half of single and divorced men said they had suggested getting married and having the baby...

Can science and religion co-exist in harmony?

Posted on June 22, 2009
Pew Forum: "I think we need only go back before Darwin and see what theologians thought about Genesis to have a better conversation about this. Go back all the way to Augustine in 400 A.D. Augustine is writing here specifically about Genesis: 'In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received...

Is government health care constitutional?

Posted on June 22, 2009
"If the government cannot proscribe -- or even 'unduly burden,' to use another of the Supreme Court's analytical frameworks -- access to abortion, how can it proscribe access to other medical procedures . . . "

Pro-lifers gear up for battle under pro-abortion regime

Posted on June 22, 2009
OneNewsNow reports: "With the ascension of Barack Obama, who is a staunch abortion advocate, and a pro-abortion majority in Congress, National Right to Life Committee president Wanda Franz believes pro-lifers face an uphill battle in the coming years...

Sotomayor worse than Souter on abortion ?rights?

Posted on June 22, 2009
Charmaine Yoest reports in the Washington Times: "Those efforts included no less than six briefs in five abortion-related cases before the Supreme Court -- pushing aggressively for an interpretation of abortion rights that would eliminate most or all state and federal abortion regulations while requiring state and federal funding of abortion...

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