Religion & Law

CA: Judicial election stirs worries over judges? role

Posted on October 27, 2010
Wall Street Journal: "Next week, San Francisco residents will vote in a judicial election that has the city's legal community fearing that a new level of partisan politics has risen in the judicial system . . . Mr. Nava has campaigned in television ads and in mailers to residents as an openly gay Democrat on a platform of how the Superior Court needs more diversity...

Christian family in Bangladesh attacked, charged with crime

Posted on October 27, 2010
Christian Post: "Muslim neighbors of a Christian family scheduled to be baptized last month beat them and filed a false charge of attempted murder against them and other Christians, the head of the family said."

?Hurley says gay marriage offends God, calls for laws curbing homosexual acts?

Posted on October 27, 2010
Iowa Independent: "Gay marriage is tearing society asunder, and the decision to allow it runs afoul of the Constitution, said Chuck Hurley, president of the highly influential Christian organization Iowa Family Policy Center, which is a local affiliate of the Family Research Council...

Court slams school district over student?s Christian flyers!

Posted on October 27, 2010
Evangelical Examiner: "Today another victory over discrimination against Christians has been announced. A federal court ruled Tuesday (10/26/10) that Holly Area School District (Michigan) officials can no longer prohibit an elementary school student and his mother from distributing invitations for other students to attend a Christian summer camp...

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Planned Parenthood sues Montana over teen contraceptive coverage

Posted on October 27, 2010
KRTV: "Planned Parenthood is suing the state of Montana over contraceptive coverage. Healthy Montana Kids, formerly called CHIP, provides health care services to uninsured children up through age 18, but it does not provide contraceptives if they are used to prevent pregnancy...

UK: Why would a straight couple want a civil partnership?

Posted on October 27, 2010
BBC News: "Katherine and Tom aren't most couples. They don't want to get married. But they still want to make a lifetime commitment to each other. And they'd like greater legal and financial security than that offered by simply cohabiting. So what's the solution? It's obvious, really: a civil partnership...

Real Christians say ?no? to bullying and homosexual behavior

Posted on October 27, 2010
ChristianNewsWire: "A coalition of pro-family leaders today urges Christian families to be faithful to biblical morality and discerning in the face of false and irresponsible accusations. Christianity and traditional values are not the cause of teen suicides, and attempts to link the two are deceptive and will ultimately harm children...

?Laura Bush lends support to bullied gay teens?

Posted on October 27, 2010
ABC News: "Former first lady Laura Bush, who came out in support of gay marriage and abortion after she vacated the White House, split again with some social conservatives to back anti-bullying measures intended to protect gay teens."

More not always better with in vitro fertilization

Posted on October 27, 2010
Breitbart: "New research found that about 1 in 3 women had a baby the first time they tried a test tube embryo, and that improved to nearly 1 in 2 with a second try."

Queensland, Australia doctors call for abortion law certainty

Posted on October 27, 2010
Brisbane Times: "Queensland's abortion laws are a barrier to a doctor's first duty - best patient care, the Australian Medical Association says. AMA Queensland today called for Queensland doctors to have certainty when it comes to performing abortions under the current legislation...

HRC seeks to oust Alaska school board member over ?anti-gay tirade?

Posted on October 27, 2010
Human Rights Campaign: "The Human Rights Campaign, the nation?s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today once again called upon Clint McCance ? a Midland School Board Member from Arkansas ? to resign following an anti-gay tirade he unleashed on Facebook in response to national Spirit Day last week...

Joe Miller would vote for ban on marriage redefinition

Posted on October 27, 2010
Politico: "Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller of Alaska said Tuesday he would vote for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. 'That's up to the people,' Miller ultimately said of a constitutional amendment in an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Tuesday night...

New Catholic Cardinal: Catholics can?t vote for pro-abortion candidates

Posted on October 27, 2010
LifeNews: "The Catholic leader who Pope Benedict named a new cardinal said in a new interview that faithful Catholics can?t in good conscience vote for pro-abortion candidates . . . 'You can never vote for someone who favors absolutely the right to choice of a woman to destroy a human life in her womb or the right to a procured abortion,' [Raymond Burke] added plainly...

Military wives supplement income as surrogates

Posted on October 27, 2010
"Cash-strapped and alone on the home front, some military wives are making a living by carrying babies for other couples. What?s behind this emotional choice? And why are they so hotly in demand? A Glamour investigation."

Amnesty International pressures Peru to legalize abortion

Posted on October 27, 2010
Catholic News Agency: "Amnesty International has announced it will give Peru's ministry of health a petition signed by 11,000 people calling for the legalization of abortion."

Fox News video: A crime to request Christian roommate?

Posted on October 27, 2010
FOX News Kelly's Court | Archive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bCTn2m3XqM

VA: Tea Party Candidate to Appeals Court: Let Me Circulate My Own Petitions

Posted on October 27, 2010
Virginia law requires congressional candidates to collect 1,000 signatures before they can appear on the ballot. Even though Lux collected over 1,200 signatures, he was refused a place on the ballot because he witnessed most of the signatures himself...

The ethics of Justice O?Connor?s robo-calls

Posted on October 27, 2010
The Blog of LegalTimes: "But [Jeffrey Shaman, a judicial ethics expert and professor at DePaul University College of Law], along with another top judicial ethics expert, New York University's Stephen Gillers, don't see anything ethically wrong with what O'Connor has done in the first place in relation to the Nevada initiative...

Egypt NHRC calls for indicating non-Abrahamic faiths on national ID cards

Posted on October 27, 2010
almasyalyoum/com: "Egypt's state-run National Human Rights Council (NHRC) this week presented recommended amendments to legislation governing personal status. One of the council's proposed amendments called for indicating citizens' religion on national identification cards...

?Friendly atheists? billboards set to go national

Posted on October 27, 2010
Christian Post: "The Freedom From Religion Foundation has unveiled 'friendly atheist[s]' as the new face of its ad campaign. While the billboards are aimed at welcoming national conference goers, the atheist group is planning to expand the campaign to the national level...

Jordan Lorence discusses Christian roommate case on Fox and Friends

Posted on October 27, 2010
ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on Fox and Friends to talk about this: Mich. woman accused of civil rights violation for seeking Christian roommate at church

Erik Stanley: Do 84% of Protestant pastors believe the Pulpit Initiative is wrong?

Posted on October 27, 2010
"Lifeway Research just issued the results of a survey it conducted by phone of 1,000 Protestant pastors . . . The survey found that 84% of the pastors survey did not agree with the statement. So does this mean that 84% of Protestant pastors disagree with ADF?s Pulpit Initiative?"

Pornography and socially responsible investing

Posted on October 27, 2010
Blake Robinson writing at Public Discourse: "Socially responsible investing, once associated with causes like combating South African apartheid, has the potential to become a serious way to combat the harms pornography causes in our society. The proliferation of Corporate Responsibility departments at corporations attests to the continued importance of socially responsible investing, a practice that has and continues to have a serious impact on America?s leading businesses...

Johnny has two mommies ? and four dads

Posted on October 27, 2010
"For a long, long time ? going back to when the English common law first started codifying such things ? the law has set the maximum number of parents a child can have as two . . . Now a few family-law scholars have begun to argue that there is nothing special about the number two ...

Pro-lifers take on Ohio Congressman over abortion billboard

Posted on October 27, 2010
Christian Post: "Pro-life network Susan B. Anthony List is preparing to contest false statement charges in a hearing Thursday over a billboard ad that accuses an Ohio congressman of voting in favor of federally-funded abortion. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) had filed a complaint with the Ohio Election Commission alleging that SBA List uses false statements in an Oct...

CTA and schools of Tibetan Buddhism reject China?s regulation on monastic management

Posted on October 27, 2010
TibetCustom: "The heads of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism and the Central Tibetan Administration's Department of Religion and Culture today strongly repudiated a regulation imposed by the Chinese government aimed at undermining Tibet's traditional Buddhist culture...

Omaha City Council rejects ordinance on ?gay? discrimination

Posted on October 27, 2010
Omaha World-Herald: "After nearly five hours of discussion, the ordinance failed on a 3-3 vote. Councilmen Ben Gray, Pete Festersen and Chris Jerram voted in favor; Jean Stothert, Garry Gernandt and Thomas Mulligan were opposed. Councilman Franklin Thompson, who has called for a public vote on the issue, abstained...

Judge enjoins new Mass. obscenity law

Posted on October 27, 2010
"The new law closed a loophole that led the state's highest court to overturn a man's conviction for sending sexually explicit instant messages to someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl."

South Korea: Controversy reignited over military antisodomy clause

Posted on October 27, 2010
The Korea Herald: "Controversy over an antisodomy clause in the military penal code has been reignited since a state human rights watchdog judged Monday that the clause may be unconstitutional. The National Human Rights Commission?s top decision-making committee of the whole has decided to present their opinions to the Constitutional Court that the clause infringes on homosexuals? rights to make their own sexual decisions and other fundamental rights...

Egypt severely curtails press freedom ahead of elections

Posted on October 27, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: "After a period of relative freedom, journalists in Egypt have become the targets of the harshest government crackdown in years, apparently aimed at silencing critical voices ahead of parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election next year...

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