Religion & Law

Republican seeks to block U.S. Internet rules

Posted on December 20, 2010
Reuters: "The top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee filed an amendment on Thursday to halt U.S. regulators' plans to act on contentious Internet traffic rules next week."

Wilberforce Academy 2010

Posted on December 20, 2010
Wilberforce Academy 20th - 25th March 2011 Deadline for applications: 21st January 2011 [2010 video includes comments from Jeffery J. Ventrella and Jordan Lorence.] In association with: Christian Concern Christian Legal Centre Blackstone Legal Fellowship, An Alliance Defense Fund Ministry

Sudan leader vows to bolster Islamic law in north

Posted on December 20, 2010
Associated Press: "Sudan's president has vowed to more deeply entrench strict Islamic Sharia law in the northern half of his country if the predominantly animist and Christian south votes to secede in a Jan. 9 referendum."

SCOTUSblog: Virginia pondering own appeal on health

Posted on December 20, 2010
SCOTUSblog: "Virginia officials, disappointed that the Justice Department is not moving for prompt Supreme Court review of the health care mandate?s constitutionality, are considering their own attempt. Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, in an op-ed column in Friday?s Washington Post, made a new plea for bypassing a federal appeals court, saying that 'simply too much is at stake...

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Gov?t ?creating vast domestic snooping machine?

Posted on December 20, 2010
Breitbart: "The government is creating a vast domestic spying network to collect information about Americans in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and subsequent terror plots, The Washington Post reported Monday."

Heritage Foundation: The START Treaty ? The ghost of broken promises past

Posted on December 20, 2010
Heritage Foundation: "The White House is still confident that, despite losing Graham and possibly McCain, they can still muster the nine Republican votes needed for ratification. Yesterday, President Barack Obama issued a letter pledging to fully develop missile defense in Europe...

The Supreme Court and Obama?s health care law

Posted on December 20, 2010
John Schwartz writing in the New York Times: "Professor Freedman of Hofstra noted that even if the justices were reluctant to accept the government?s primary argument that inactivity can be controlled under the Commerce Clause, there are other grounds for finding the health care law constitutional...

Australia: Catholics told to lobby their MPs to vote against redefinition of marriage

Posted on December 20, 2010
News.com.au: "The Catholic Church is instructing parishioners to lobby federal MPs against voting for gay marriage, suggesting they base arguments on the natural order and the importance of a biological relationship with children rather than on marriage being a religious institution...

All internet porn will be blocked to protect children, under UK government plan

Posted on December 20, 2010
"The UK Government is to combat the early sexualization of children by blocking internet pornography unless parents request it, it was revealed today."

Video: The coming collapse in the state budgets

Posted on December 20, 2010
"[T]he Great Recession didn't cause this budget insanity, it merely exposed it. The overspending has been going on for decades."

Kevin Theriot: Court affirms churches? right to select pastor without gov?t interference

Posted on December 20, 2010
ADF Attorney Kevin Theriot writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: "This [9th Circuit's] en banc opinion [in Rosas v. The Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle, No. 09-3500], which has more precedential value than opinions from 3 judge panels, first confirmed the vitality of the ministerial exception to prohibitions on employment discrimination...

Local governments threatened over Christmas expression

Posted on December 20, 2010
Charisma Mag: "'It?s ridiculous that people have to think twice about whether it?s OK to publicly celebrate Christmas. An overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate Christmas and are opposed to any kind of censorship of it,' says ADF Senior Counsel [David Cortman]...

David French: Christmas skirmishes and the war for American history

Posted on December 20, 2010
ADF Attorney David French writing at The Washington Post / On Faith: "For decades, the secular left has argued that religious offensiveness is a very big deal . . . Let's try to sort this out. So it is a big deal when a nativity scene is put on public land but no big deal at all if it's removed? You can be upset when memorial crosses are put up, but not when they're taken down? ...

You want a kosher roommate? You?re under arrest

Posted on December 20, 2010
The Jewish Week: "Sometimes the highest liberal values against discrimination are used to hound and proscute religious Jews or religious Christians . . . A 31-year-old nursing student in Michigan names Tricia, a religious Christian woman, placed a notice within her local church for a Christian roommate ...

Warnings issued over rushing through DADT repeal

Posted on December 20, 2010
OneNewsNow: "[T]he conservative legal group, Alliance Defense Fund, issued a statement after the vote saying 'The Senate's cave-in to pressure from activists to impose homosexual behavior on our military will place our troops' religious liberties in unprecedented jeopardy...

DADT repeal raises concerns for chaplains

Posted on December 20, 2010
USA Today / Faith and Reason blog: "Sunday morning brings the conservative evangelical voices with dire predictions for its impact on military chaplains . . . The Alliance Defense Fund's [Daniel Blomberg] argues that by bowing to activists, the Senate is placing the religious liberty of troops and chaplains in 'unprecedented jeopardy...

Piero A. Tozzi: ?The New Global Morality: DADT Repeal and Secretary Clinton?s embrace of ?Universal Standards??

Posted on December 20, 2010
This is a historic step forward for all Americans, a step toward a more perfect union and a more perfect reflection of our core values. As the President and I have repeatedly said, we are committed to universal standards abroad and here at home. Our progress on equality here strengthens our advocacy for human dignity everywhere.

Israel: Legal ruling will allow ?gay? men to adopt partner?s child

Posted on December 20, 2010
Jerusalem Post: "A breakthrough legal ruling in the Jerusalem Family Court on Thursday will pave the way for homosexuals to officially adopt their partner?s or spouse?s child, the Tel Aviv-based New Family organization told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday...

Chaplains encouraged to serve boldly despite DADT repeal

Posted on December 20, 2010
Christian Post: "In the aftermath of the 65-31 Senate vote that did away with the 1993 ban on open homosexuality in the armed forces, religious legal defense group Alliance Defense Fund predicts that military chaplains will be the first to feel the effects of the repeal...

Iceland accepts surrogate baby born in India

Posted on December 20, 2010
Hindustan Times: "The Icelandic Parliament, after much persuasion from the couple and heated debates back home, decided to give the baby a social security number. This means Joel could be the first surrogate baby to be granted citizenship of Iceland."

FRC: The message from DADT repeal: Embrace homosexuality or else . . .

Posted on December 20, 2010
"One Army sergeant struck at the heart of this whole debate. 'They were kicking people out for being homosexual,' he said, 'and now they will be kicking people out for picking on homosexuals.' It's a foreboding message for our troops--one that homosexual activists hope will echo through every policy debate to come: embrace homosexuality or else ...

Costa Rica under pressure to lift ban on in vitro fertilization

Posted on December 20, 2010
Catholic News Service: "Costa Rica is under pressure to overturn its ban on in vitro fertilization -- and as a result abandon long-held Catholic teaching -- or risk sanctions for violating international accords on human rights."

Report shows Catholic Healthcare West promotes abortions

Posted on December 20, 2010
LifeNews: "San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West is already facing a rebuke from a Catholic bishop over an abortion one of its hospitals did that he says violated Catholic teachings. Now, a national pro-life organization has released the results of a new research study showing CHW has a longer history of promoting abortions...

Matthew J. Franck: On same-sex ?marriage,? stop playing the hate card

Posted on December 20, 2010
"Clearly a determined effort is afoot, in cultural bastions controlled by the left, to anathematize traditional views of sexual morality, particularly opposition to same-sex marriage, as the expression of 'hate' that cannot be tolerated in a decent civil society...

Our fumblo-rulers: The real issue at stake with DADT repeal

Posted on December 20, 2010
Douglas Wilson writing at Blog and Mablog: "The issue is this. Homosexual behavior in the ranks is now being considered as a protected and honorable lifestyle choice. This means that if an evangelical Christian witnesses to his crewmates, and he says that Jesus died to liberate them from their sins, and somebody says, 'Like what, fer instance,' he can still say 'drunkenness, cocaine use, gambling away your family's paycheck, sleeping with hookers in Naples, laziness, stealing, and adultery...

Battle looms over bid to repeal same-sex ?marriage? in NH

Posted on December 20, 2010
"The magic numbers are 266 and 16 ? two-thirds of the House and Senate, respectively ? the number of votes needed to override what is expected to be Gov. John Lynch's veto of any repeal bill."

UK: The soaring rate of ?no-father? families: Lesbian couples and single women rush for IVF

Posted on December 20, 2010
Daily Mail: "The number of lesbian couples and single women seeking to start a family through IVF has rocketed since the law governing a child?s need for a father was relaxed."

Quiet deal on Obama?s judge nominees in the Senate

Posted on December 20, 2010
"After a monthslong blockade, Senate Republicans have agreed to let at least 19 of President Barack Obama's non-controversial judicial nominees win confirmation in the waning days of the congressional session in exchange for a commitment by Democrats not to seek votes on four others...

Charter school appeal filed with SJ County Board of Education

Posted on December 20, 2010
The Manteca Bulletin: "Two weeks after their application for a new charter school was denied unanimously by the Manteca Unified Board of Education, Great Valley Academy officials in Modesto filed an appeal with the San Joaquin County Office of Education...

Top Marine pledges to ?personally lead? homosexualization of the Corps.

Posted on December 20, 2010
Stars and Stripes: "One week after warning the distraction of repealing 'don't ask, don't tell' could risk Marines? lives, Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, pledged to lead the effort to integrate openly gay Marines."

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