Religion & Law

Chuck Colson: A perfect (cultural) storm

Posted on May 14, 2009
Chuck Colson writing in The Christian Post: "In the midst of this storm, many of our neighbors are in despair. But Christians ought not to despair; we should redouble our efforts to winsomely engage this culture. Remember, culture is just religion incarnate, and politics is only an expression of culture...

S. Michael Craven: Generational drift and decay

Posted on May 14, 2009
S. Michael Craven writing at The Christian Post: "Over the last century the church in America has suffered serious generational drift and decay. In every subsequent generation over the last century, the faith has become more fragmented, watered-down, superficial, and irrelevant...

Senators: Obama Supreme Court pick expected soon

Posted on May 14, 2009
Associated Press: "President Barack Obama plans to announce his Supreme Court choice soon but didn't say who is being seriously considered, said senators who met with him Wednesday."

Competing strip club bills clash at the Texas Capitol

Posted on May 14, 2009
Elise Hu reports at KVUE News: "Two so-called 'pole' tax bills are creating a difficult dance for state lawmakers. The House is expected to approve a measure by state Rep. Ellen Cohen, D-Houston, to charge topless clubs $3 per patron to fund sexual assault services in Texas...

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Texas Senate votes to repeal strip club fee and substitute new tax

Posted on May 14, 2009
Associated Press: "The Texas Senate has voted to repeal a $5-per-person admission fee on strip clubs and replace it with a new tax on sexually oriented business."

Illinois group apparently ends bid to open strip club

Posted on May 14, 2009
John Reynolds reports in the State Journal-Register: "Michael Myers, an attorney representing the group that wanted to open the club, has written county officials asking that a request for a conditional permitted use for the club be withdrawn."

Seattle Mariners to strip club: Not near our house

Posted on May 14, 2009
Greg Johns reports at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports blog: "Baseball and strippers don't mix in the minds of Seattle Mariners management, thus the club's lawyers were in King County Superior Court on Monday for a hearing on the team's lawsuit against the City of Seattle seeking to prevent the opening of a Deja Vu club just down the street from Safeco Field...

Mats Tunehag: While in UK: Shut up!?

Posted on May 14, 2009
Mats Tunehag writing at Varlden idag: "This proposed law amendment is stupid and detrimental, going in the same wrong direction as the UN resolution banning criticism of Islam. One cannot have freedom of speech and at the same guarantee that no-one will ever raise a dissenting voice that others may dislike...

Street preachers challenged Norfolk, Va. and won

Posted on May 14, 2009
WVEC reports: "The Alliance Defense Fund objected and demanded an explanation. Last week, the city attorney responded, saying the preachers should have been left alone."

AZ gov., Planned Parenthood at odds over ?Health Week? expo

Posted on May 14, 2009
KTAR reports: "Bryan Howard, president of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said his group was scheduled to take part in the annual Women's Health Expo this week, but, 'We were stunned to find out that the governor had directed that Planned Parenthood be banned from exhibiting at two womens' health expos...

The new face of home schooling

Posted on May 14, 2009
WITN reports: "The Williams are not alone. Of the nearly 2 million children schooled at home, the number of black families has grown by 40,000 in the last few years to a whopping 140,000. That makes blacks the largest number of minorities joining the home schooling movement...

CA Teacher hits union with Federal Labor Board charges after firing over union dues

Posted on May 14, 2009
A news release from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation: "Because California does not have a Right to Work law making union membership and dues payment voluntary, workers are routinely forced to pay union dues or lose their jobs. However, federal labor statutes do not impose a forced dues requirement until workers have been employed in the same bargaining unit for at least 30 days...

Unions vs. Taxpayers: Organized labor has become by far the most powerful political force in government.

Posted on May 14, 2009
Steve Malanga writes at the Wall Street Journal: "But then there is the U.S. public sector, where the mood seems very European these days. In New Jersey, which faces a $3.3 billion budget deficit, angry state workers have demonstrated . . . Call it a tale of two economies...

Church reaches settlement in Georgia discrimination case

Posted on May 14, 2009
OneNewsNow reports: "'The irony here is that the city has been treating bars and taverns better than churches. Not only does that violate the law, but it certainly violates common sense,' he contends. 'I mean, churches always have been and still are extremely beneficial to the communities they exist in...

DHS report citing extremism is pulled

Posted on May 14, 2009
Audrey Hudson reports in the Washington Times: "A contentious 'Rightwing Extremism' report that warned of military veterans as possible recruits for terrorist attacks against the U.S. was not authorized, has been withdrawn and is being rewritten, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Capitol Hill lawmakers...

?When it comes to illegitimacy, we?re living in different worlds?

Posted on May 14, 2009
Charles Murray writing at the blog of the American Enterprise Institute: "It comes down to this: well-educated white women in moderately affluent circumstances almost never had babies without a husband, and women from middle class homes were almost as finicky about requiring a husband...

Erik Stanley on the Michael Medved Show: Reasons to oppose ?Hate Crimes? legislation

Posted on May 14, 2009
ADF attorney Erik Stanley appeared on the Michael Medved show to discuss hate crimes legislation pending before Congress. The mp3 runs just over 34 minutes.

Ohio: City seeks to shutter Akron strip club where teens danced

Posted on May 14, 2009
Akron Beacon Journal: "Attorneys with the city of Akron are seeking to close the men's club where police say two teenage girls worked as strippers. A nuisance abatement lawsuit filed by city attorneys on Tuesday seeks a court order to shutter the Playhouse nightclub on East Waterloo Road for at least one year...

Dallas Morning News: ?Topless clubs winning battle of Texas bills?

Posted on May 14, 2009
Dallas Morning News: "In the battle over strip club legislation, the adult entertainment industry now has a leg up. A bill to force strip clubs to pay a $3-per-patron fee ? backed by sexual-assault prevention groups, whose cause would have benefited from the money ? died in the House on Wednesday...

Rhode Island: Strip club closed for 10

Posted on May 14, 2009
MyFoxBoston: "Providence officials have ordered a 10-day shutdown of the strip club that was the site of a triple shooting nearly two months ago."

Ohio: School will not have prayer at graduation

Posted on May 14, 2009
Chillicothe Gazette: "Last week, the school received a letter from a staff attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, informing the district it was in violation of the law. Justice consulted the district's attorney, who affirmed the district could not order anyone to have prayer or ask a clergyperson to speak...

Catholics in Costa Rica collecting signatures against gay ?marriage?

Posted on May 14, 2009
CNA: The campaign, he said, seeks to convince Costa Ricans to vote against ?gay marriage, if lawmakers don?t realize that this is pernicious and perverse for society.? Hat tip: Catholic Edition

Islamism?s Campus Club: The Muslim Students? Association

Posted on May 14, 2009
Middle East Forum: "Today, over 150 MSA chapters exist on American college campuses (divided into five regional chapters), easily establishing this organization as the most extensive Muslim student organization in North America. A Washington, D.C.-based national office assists in the establishment of constituent chapters and oversees fundraising and conferences while steering a plethora of special committees and 'Political Action Task Forces...

Christian Solidarity Worldwide calls for release of Christian women in Iran

Posted on May 14, 2009
Christian Today: "Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is urgently calling for the discharge of two female Christian converts from Islam still being held there without charge."

Wisc. Supreme Court Accepts Marriage Amendment Case

Posted on May 14, 2009
Wisconsin Family Voice: "We just confirmed this morning that the State Supreme Court has announced its intention to take the Wisconsin Marriage Amendment case. So now it is up to the seven justices of the State Supreme Court to decide whether the Wisconsin Marriage Protection Amendment meets the state constitutional requirement of a single-issue amendment...

Man convicted in lucrative body parts scheme

Posted on May 14, 2009
AP: "A man was convicted Thursday of carving up cadavers donated to UCLA's medical school and selling the parts to unsuspecting medical research companies in a $1.5 million scheme."

?We need to see sex as spiritual in order to see it as transcendent?

Posted on May 14, 2009
Greta Christian, apparently an atheist and "queer spanking fetishist", writes at AlterNet: "I don?t think we need to see sex as spiritual in order to see it as transcendent. I don?t think we need to see sex as blessed by the Goddess, or a telepathic connection between souls, or a channeling of the chi energy, or as any form of worship or spiritual practice, in order to see it as valuable...

Fla. Court of Appeals Ruling Creates Bizarre Triangle with a Young Child Caught in the Middle

Posted on May 14, 2009
Liberty Counsel: "Yesterday, Florida?s Second District Court of Appeals issued a ruling that gives parental rights to Lara Embry, a lesbian who adopted a child in Washington with her former partner, Kimberly Ryan. Ryan, the biological mother of the nine-year-old child, has left the homosexual lifestyle and is engaged to be married to a man...

?IRS affirms right of pastors to engage in some political activities?

Posted on May 14, 2009
Church Executive: The Liberty Legal Institute, meanwhile, cautions that liberal groups are engaged in a national campaign filing IRS complaints against pastors. "They sound very confident and file many complaints yet none are found valid even by the IRS," said Shackelford...

NH gov will sign bill to redefine marriage if it is changed

Posted on May 14, 2009
"New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said Thursday he will sign a bill to make his state the sixth to legalize gay marriage, but only if it the already-approved legislation is revised to strengthen protections for churches and people who worked for them."

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