American Decline: Obama's Gay Agenda vs Christians

As most church leaders model cowardice, and their flocks dutifully follow, ravenous wolves are poised to devour America's First Amendment religious liberty. Because millions of Christians refuse to risk the inevitable persecution of standing on the foundation built by the God-fearing framers of the Constitution, nine unelected jurists will soon outlaw the Great Commission.

UPDATE 9/29/15 - President Obama Speech: Gay Agenda Trumps Christianity

UPDATE 7/28/15: Gay Agenda Destroys Everything it Contacts

UPDATE 6/27/15: President Obama's Gay 'Untied' States of America

UPDATE 2/18/15: President Obama Ignores Hate Crimes Against U.S. Christians

UPDATE 2/11/15: President Obama = Liar in Chief RE 'Gay Marriage'

UPDATE 2/6/15: President Obama Compares Christians to Islamic Terrorists

UPDATE 2/1/15: Mrs. Obama Thanks Hollywood for Gay Indoctrination

UPDATE 12/25/14: President Obama's Christmas — Behold, a Message is Born

UPDATE 10/19/14: Idaho Pastors Face Fines, Jail for Refusing 'Gay Wedding'

UPDATE 7/15/14: President Obama Favors the One Percenters (Homosexuals)

UPDATE 7/5/14: Obama Provokes Second 'In God We Trust' Movement

UPDATE 4/24/15: Congressional Democrat leader Steny Hoyer Says Same-Sex Couples Are Endowed ‘By God’ With Right to Marry (video):

For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:

Senator Ted Cruz Says Gay Agenda Ends Christian Liberty

Homosexualists Admit Goal to End Religious Liberty: Arizona Bill

Republican Party Strategy: Dump Old Uneducated Christian Voters

Lawless Obama Administration: States Should Violate Oath for Gays

President Obama's Pentagon Says Following Jesus' Command is a Court Martial Offense

Supreme Court Repeatedly Enables Gay Agenda

Christians Snooze as Same-sex 'Marriage' Sweeps Nation

America Going to Hell; Christians Lose Convictions

UPDATE 8/15/14: Study Finds Pastors Conceal Culture Truth to be Successful

-- From "Who's behind 'religious freedom' push? The answer is hard to find" by Greg Botelho, CNN 2/27/14

Arizona's divisive SB1026 -- which supporters claim protected religious freedom, and critics say served as cover for businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians -- didn't come from nowhere. . . . But from where, or from whom, did the impetus come?

It took time to hash out among both state lawmakers and interest groups. In this case, advocates from the Arizona Center for Policy and Alliance Defending Freedom -- whose website says it "coordinates legal efforts (for) Christian legal and policy organizations" all across the United States and in 31 countries -- were among those who played a part in crafting the legislation.

But from where, or from whom, did the impetus come? And who paid for the Arizona push and similar ones in a host of other states?

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Georgia lawmakers pushing for religious liberty bills" by Jon Gillooly, Marietta Daily Journal 3/2/14

. . . state Rep. Sam Teasley (R-Marietta) and state Sen. Joshua McKoon (R-Columbus) [say] their religious liberty bills filed this session . . . have been ripped by critics for targeting gay people, a charge the lawmakers deny.

The Georgia Municipal Association and the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia have also opposed the bills. McKoon said cities and counties have been able to enact rules and policies hostile to religious liberty.

Major companies such as Delta Air Lines have wrongly denounced the bills, Teasley said he believes, because they haven’t bothered to take the time to understand them.

Mike Griffin, lobbyist for the Georgia Baptist Convention, said a conversation is underway among conservative groups about conducting an economic boycott of companies such as Delta and Home Depot for opposing the bills.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "31 states have heightened religious freedom protections" by Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post 3/1/14

. . . 18 of which passed state laws based on the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act [RFRA]. The protections in an additional 13 states came through court rulings.

"These state RFRAs were enacted in response to Supreme Court decisions that had nothing to do with gay rights or same-sex marriage," explained University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock in an e-mail. "And the state court decisions interpreting their state constitutions arose in all sorts of contexts, mostly far removed from  gay rights or same-sex marriage. There were cases about Amish buggies, hunting moose for native Alaskan funeral rituals, an attempt to take a church  building by eminent domain, landmark laws that prohibited churches from modifying their buildings – all sorts of diverse conflicts between religious practice and pervasive regulation."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Kansas Senate balks at religious liberty bill" by Brad Cooper, The Kansas City Star 2/13/14

Senate President Susan Wagle [R] took the unusual step Thursday night of issuing a statement saying the bill — which has drawn an avalanche of national criticism — didn’t have the support of a majority of Republicans in her chamber.

The Kansas House passed the bill Wednesday, spurring a national outcry that it was tantamount to state-sanctioned discrimination. The critics gained traction on social media, where a Facebook page set up opposing the measure received nearly 40,000 “likes” by late Thursday.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Kansas Senate Refuses to Consider 'Religious Liberty' Bill for Gay Marriage" by Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter 2/20/14

After House Bill 2453 passed the House, Senate Vice President Jeff King (R-Independence) announced that the Senate would not be considering the bill, saying briefly that the bill was "kaput." King went on to assure concerned Kansas residents that religious exemptions regarding same-sex marriage will be addressed next month during Senate hearings.

Those supporting the bill argued in response that although the legislation was vilified as being discriminatory and ultimately killed, it is still necessary for legislators in the state to pursue protection of religious liberty as the possibility of same-sex marriage legalization looms in the future.

When the bill first passed the House Committee, Gov. Sam Brownback said he was a "strong proponent and supporter for religious liberty."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Indiana dips toe in national debate over religious liberty, discrimination" by Dan Carden, (Northwest Indiana) NWI Times 3/3/14

It started innocently enough, according to House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis.

Indiana Wesleyan University, a Christian college with a Merrillville location that hires employees on the basis of religion — as permitted by federal law — wanted to continue receiving state workforce training grants.

So state Rep. Eric Turner, R-Cicero, suggested adding a provision to Senate Bill 367 that would permit religious entities to receive state contracts even if they discriminate in hiring based on religion. The proposal was approved 6-5 Monday by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Faced with the prospect of Indiana being lumped with Arizona on the religious discrimination issue, Bosma sent Senate Bill 367 back to the Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. The panel deleted the provision allowing state contractors to discriminate in hiring based on religion.

"It's not a productive discussion right now given what's happening in some other states," Bosma said.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "The Citizens United of the Culture Wars" by Gabriel Arana, The American Prospect 2/28/14

The failure of these anti-gay discrimination bills amounts to a stern rebuke to the religious right, which sees defeat on the horizon in the gay-marriage fight. . . .

The ease of this win came as a surprise of some gay-rights supporters, accustomed to waging years-long guerrilla warfare in states across the country. . . . Marci A. Hamilton, a professor of law at Cordoza Law School who advises lawmakers on Church-State issues, says social conservatives fundamentally misread the public's appetite for such laws. "I don't expect these laws to make it and I don't expect there to be much more on this issue,” Hamilton says. "The window for getting laws to discriminate against gays and lesbians has essentially closed.”

. . . The challenge to the contraception mandate in Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby, scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court next month, shares the same rationale as the Arizona law: That for-profit companies and employees should be exempt from laws that conflict with their religious beliefs. "It's really important to connect what's going on in Arizona with the Hobby Lobby case," says Sally Steenland, director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. "It's giving religious liberty to for-profit corporations, which has never been done and has no precedent, and allowing them to pick and choose which laws they want to obey."

To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.

From "Our legal heritage favors religious freedom" by Dwight G. Duncan, University of Massachusetts Law school, posted at the Boston Globe 3/2/14

The argument has been made that since corporations don’t go to heaven or hell, family businesses should not be able to freely exercise religion. This argument is flawed in many ways. It also ignores our own legal history, which is replete with examples where corporate charters have indeed been legal vehicles for the practice of religion.

During the colonial period, those in dissent from the established Anglican Church were able to use existing civil and secular legal entities to create a space to practice their religion in accord with the dictates of their consciences.

In Massachusetts, the colonial Legislature in 1692 approved a law mandating that each town use general taxation to provide for an “able, learned orthodox minister” of the Congregational church. In 1728, the Legislature granted an exemption from taxes to support local Congregational ministers to Baptists and Quakers, but they had to get a special certificate denoting their status from their town clerks.

To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.

Also read Supreme Court Rules Bible as 'Hate Speech' in Canada as well as European Union High Court Rules Gay Agenda Trumps Christianity

In addition, read Corporation Opposes Gay Agenda, Causes Media Storm

For further background, read President Obama Raises Gay Agenda above Religious Liberty

And read how President Obama, et. al., have mounted a massive Gay Agenda assault on America's First Amendment religious liberty through the military, and the Dept. of Justice, and the court system nationwide.  For example, read about President Obama's hypocritical speech at his recent annual National Prayer Breakfast.

UPDATE 3/28/14: American decline is result of President Obama's Gay Agenda & equality utopianism (video:)

Click for FOX News video

Darwinists' Monkeys Replace Humans in Ads Study

Based on the belief that humans are the evolutionary offspring of monkeys, an Ivy League psychologist and a New York advertiser have teamed up to use monkeys as stand-ins for humans to evaluate the effectiveness of certain marketing messages.

-- From "Can 'marketing' sway a monkey's choices?" by UPI 8/1/11

Yale psychology Professor Laurie Santos says the experiment is an attempt to determine if [human] susceptibility [to advertisements] is embedded in our DNA inherited from long-ago ancestors of both people and monkeys or whether it is a strictly human behavior, The Boston Globe reported Monday.

The new study seeks to find if human behaviors, such as responding to marketing to make what might seem seem like irrational decisions about wants and desires, are also present in animals.

The plan is to create a kind of visual message to see if advertising can change a monkey's preferences between two things he might like equally well.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Targeting an audience of monkeys" by Carolyn Y. Johnson, Boston Globe Staff 8/1/11

For years, researchers have been testing whether elements of complex human cognitive abilities, from language to altruism, are shared by other animals, and in many instances they have found we are less distinct than once thought. Santos and others are interested in the evolutionary origins of a less admirable set of traits - the biases in our thinking that can lead us to make bad decisions about money, such as overestimating the value of objects, or poorly assessing risk.

Then last summer, Santos met Keith Olwell and Elizabeth Kiehner of Proton Studio, the New York ad agency, at a conference where she was presenting her research. The ad executives were fascinated that the monkeys used money like people often do. Researchers wondered whether they would they act like consumers in other ways.

These types of experiments have critics. Alan Silberberg, a psychology professor at American University who published a critique of one of Santos’s studies, thinks researchers who test for human behaviors in animals are often too quick to draw broad conclusions from results.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Muslim Holiday Celebrated at Mass. Schools

Public schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts will be the first in the state to close every year in honor of Eid al-Fitr or Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice).

. . . the city’s Muslim population appears to be growing.

"As their kids come home and say, ‘Oh, look, we now have a holiday,’ the parents might begin to feel safer here."



UPDATE 11/7/11: Muslim holiday celebrated for second year in a row

-- From "Cambridge school district to observe Muslim holiday" by The Associated Press 10/10/10

Cambridge School Committee member Marc McGovern, who pushed for the policy, says people should avoid what he calls hysteria and the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists. He says Cambridge schools close for some Christian and Jewish holidays and Muslims should be treated the same.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "School system to get Muslim holiday" by Brock Parker, Boston Globe Correspondent 10/10/10

The school district’s decision, announced last month, was made as the national discussion about Islam continues, fueled by a Mosque proposal two blocks from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Florida preacher Terry Jones’s threat to burn a Koran. The discussion has also touched local schools, as Wellesley school officials drew criticism recently for a video that showed sixth-grade students kneeling during a prayer service at a Boston mosque during a field trip in May.

Cambridge School Superintendent Jeffrey Young said the district does not collect information about the religion of its students. But Young said that there is a significant Muslim population in the city, and that, at least anecdotally, the Muslim population in the schools appears to be growing.

A large Muslim population is one of the reasons why the school district in Dearborn, Mich., began closing schools for high Islamic holy days 10 years ago, said David Mustonen, communications coordinator for the school system.

In September, public schools in Burlington, Vt., also closed on Eid al-Fitr for the first time, said Dan Balon, director of the school district’s diversity and equity office.

Balon said there is an increasing Muslim population in the schools, and the district decided to close on the holiday rather than risk low attendance rates and force students to decide between school and staying home to celebrate the holiday.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Note: Muslims represent less than two percent of the U.S. population, and is growing.

Public School Trip to Mosque, Students Pray

Massachusetts middle school kids' "authentic experience" field trip to mosque included lecture on Prophet Muhammad

[Parents speaking out today] were united in their support for the school's program of religious education, which they say promotes tolerance and understanding.

"The mosque visit was innocent. Five minutes of prayer won't make any kids change their religion."

UPDATE 9/22/10: Mother's lawyer says school clearly violated students' civil rights

UPDATE 10/11/10: Muslim Holiday Celebrated at Massachusetts Schools



-- From "Wellesley superintendent apologizes for letting students on field trip pray at Islamic mosque" by Teddy Applebaum, Wellesley Townsman; and Scott O'Connell, MetroWest Daily News 9/16/10

Wellesley’s superintendent of schools apologized today after Wellesley Middle School students were allowed to pray at an Islamic mosque during a May field trip.

"It was not the intent for students to be able to participate in any of the religious practices,” Superintendent Bella Wong wrote in a letter being sent to parents later today. “I extend my sincere apologies for the error that occurred and regret the offense it may have caused.”

Wong said the field trip to the Roxbury-based Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center — which faced opposition during its construction — was part of a social studies course called “Enduring Beliefs and the World Today,” that includes introductions to a number of religions. During the course students visit a mosque, synagogue, attend a gospel performance, and meet with Hindus.

The trip gained wider attention after the Boston-based group Americans for Peace and Tolerance released a video on Sept. 16 showing five middle school students praying during the trip. A parent who chaperoned the field trip allegedly shot the footage of the trip included in the video.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Wellesley parents seem to support students' mosque trip" By Sarah Thomas, Town Correspondent posted at The Boston Globe 9/17/10

"I believe the program is valid," said parent Ute Smith. "My daughter went on the trip last year and she enjoyed being exposed to the different culture. I think it was valuable."

"I didn't have a problem with the school's decision," said parent Jenny Rademacher.

One parent, who asked not to be identified, called the controversy 'ridiculous.'

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "School Apologizes After Students Pray to Allah on Field Trip to Mosque" by Todd Starnes, FoxNews.com 9/17/10

Parents were told [in advance] their children would be learning about the architecture of a mosque and they would be allowed to observe a prayer service. But the students wound up being given a lecture on the Prophet Muhammad, and some boys participated in a midday prayer service.

The field trip was videotaped by a parent whose child was on the trip. At one point, the video shows a spokeswoman for the mosque telling students, “You have to believe in Allah, and Allah is the one God, the only one worthy of worship, all forgiving, all merciful."

The sixth graders were also reportedly told that jihad is a personal spiritual struggle that has nothing to do with holy war, and girls on the field trip were told that Islam is pro-women.

“Islam was actually very advanced in terms of recognizing women’s rights,” an unidentified mosque spokeswoman says in the video. “At the time of the Prophet Muhammad, women were allowed to express their opinions and vote. In this country, women didn’t gain that right until less than a hundred years ago.”

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Media Refers to Dead Fetus as "Baby"

In the bizarre world of politically-correct mainstream media, journalists' terminology is perplexing when the unborn are killed outside the abortion clinic. In this article, the Boston Globe refers to the unborn fetus as being "6 months old," and refers to the fetus as having a "life."

-- From "Woman expected to be charged with death of fetus" by Alex Katz, Boston Globe Correspondent 7/12/10

A Wellesley woman is expected to be charged with manslaughter today in the death of a pregnant woman’s fetus after allegedly beating the woman in a Dorchester nail salon in April, according to a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

On Friday, a grand jury returned indictments charging Ayanna Woodhouse, 25, with manslaughter and aggravated assault and battery in the April 10 incident at Tulip Nail salon. Woodhouse is expected to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court, said a statement from Jake Wark, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

The woman was later taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where doctors delivered a girl in an emergency caesarean section. The baby did not survive.

The case raises the long-debated question of when a fetus becomes viable.

According to the district attorney’s office, a homicide charge may be brought in the death of a fetus if it was medically viable at the time of the trauma that ended its life.

Medical experts who testified to the grand jury determined that at 6 months old, the fetus was medically viable.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Boston Admits Unconstitutional Ban on Bible Study

A children’s Bible study group can return to class in the Roxbury community center that banned religious study, reversing a decision that Christian rights lawyers called unconstitutional and Boston officials acknowledged was an error in enforcement.

-- From "City lifts ban on Bible program" by Sydney Lupkin, Boston Globe Correspondent 4/16/10

"Calvary Kidz" Bible study, which serves children ages 5 to 12, had been meeting in the Thomas L. Johnson Community Center for two years when an official told them they had to cut out the religious content of their program to comply with city policy, said Greg Brace, who oversees the program and is an assistant pastor at Calvary in the City.

In a four-page letter dated April 28, officials from the Alliance Defense Fund warned city officials that the ban was discriminatory and violated the First Amendment, said Joel Oster, an attorney for the national Christian rights group. After the letter went unanswered for more than a month, the alliance threatened to sue, he said.

According to the complaint that the alliance threatened to file, one of the center’s managers told Calvary Kidz officials about the policy and said her orders came from an agency supervisor.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Archdiocese of Boston Prints Apology to Homosexuals

The Catholic newspaper, The Pilot, issued regrets concerning it's statement about children of homosexual 'parents' in Catholic Schools: "The tone of the piece was strong, and we apologize if anyone felt offended by it."

-- From "Firestorm over column on gays in Catholic paper" by Lisa Wangsness, Boston Globe Staff 6/10/10

In the [original] column, published last week, the writer argued that one reason the children of gay parents should not be admitted to Catholic schools is the "real danger" that they would bring pornography to school.

The controversy began June 4, when The Pilot published a column by Michael Pakaluk, a former philosophy professor at Clark University in Worcester and former visiting scholar at Harvard who now teaches in Virginia. Pakaluk was reflecting on another controversy, regarding the decision by a Hingham priest to rescind the acceptance of a child of a lesbian couple to a local parochial school.

In the column, Pakaluk wrote that pornographic items "go along with the same-sex lifestyle, which — as not being related to procreation — is inherently eroticized and pornographic."

In the column, Pakaluk also expressed concern that by welcoming gay families, Catholic schools could give children the impression that the practice of homosexuality is acceptable, as well as potentially provide an opportunity for a gay parent to "advocate for his lifestyle." He added that gay parents should not be called "parents" unless they are biologically related to their children.

The editor of The Pilot, Antonio M. Enrique, said in a statement to the Globe yesterday that the column did not necessarily reflect the views of the archdiocese or the paper, which he said tries to promote conversation and understanding of the different positions on issues of interest to Catholics.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Inequality and 'iniquity' -- Catholic schools discriminating against the children of gay parents" by Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune 6/10/10

. . . The idea of a school refusing to admit a child not because of anything the child has done or believes but because of who his or her parents are is grotesque though, arguably, Biblical if you believe homosexuality is iniquitous behavior.

. . . Yet I also recognize that there is a certain right to grotesquery inherent in the Constitution, and that if a private group wants to have a private school on private grounds to advance and practice this sort of bigotry and, when it comes to the children, rank unfairness, so be it.

Just don't ask me to support such un-American practices with my tax dollars through, say, school voucher programs.

To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.

Human Egg Market Hot for Smart Babes

Fertility customers run ads offering tens of thousands of dollars for young women egg donors with the right genes, looks, talent and SAT scores

UPDATE 5/11/10: ABC News report


-- From "Yes, top students reap rich rewards, even as egg donors" by Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe Staff 3/26/10

The Harvard Crimson was one of three college newspapers that ran an identical classified ad seeking a woman who fit a narrow profile: younger than 29 with a GPA over 3.5 and an SAT score over 1,400. The lucky candidate stood to collect $35,000 if she donated her eggs for harvesting.

The ad was one of 105 college newspaper ads examined by a Georgia Institute of Technology researcher who issued a report yesterday that appeared to confirm the long-held suspicion that couples who are unable to have children of their own are willing to pay more for reproductive help from someone smart. The analysis showed that higher payments offered to egg donors correlated with higher SAT scores.

Anecdotal reports have long depicted eager prospective parents willing to pay outrageous sums for carefully screened donors of sperm or eggs, and stories of parents offering tens of thousands of dollars for eggs from geniuses or extraordinarly talented musicians pop up regularly.

The stories have alarmed some medical professionals and raised ethical questions. Concerned about eggs being treated as commodities, and worried that big financial rewards could entice women to ignore the risks of the rigorous procedures required for harvesting, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine discourages compensation based on donors’ personal characteristics. The society also discourages any payments over $10,000.

Fertility clinics are required by federal law to report their pregnancy success rate but not what donors are paid. Agencies involved in donations say they are not purchasing eggs but compensating donors for their time and the ordeal they must undergo.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Boston Globe Explores Obama as Fake Christian

"You can’t be using the church just to get elected and then push the church to the side," said the Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus, a prominent Chicago pastor who had campaigned for Obama among Hispanic evangelicals. . . . "If the president says he’s Christian, then in his narrative, and in his speeches and in his life, that should be displayed."

His Kenyan father had been raised Muslim but was an atheist by the time Obama was born. His mother, whose ancestors were Methodist and Baptist, was nonpracticing.

-- From "Obama’s spiritual life takes more private turn" by Ariel Sabar, Boston Globe Correspondent 2/22/10

He named a best-selling book after [his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s] sermon and was outspoken as a candidate about the value of faith in public life. He infused stump speeches with phrases like "I am my brother’s keeper," and made his journey to Christianity a central theme of the life story he shared with voters.

Obama’s courtship of religious groups in the 2008 race - the most extensive ever by a Democratic candidate for president - paid off on Election Day with strong support among liberal and moderate religious voters. He won 54 percent of the Catholic vote, a stark reversal from four years earlier, when Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, himself Catholic, lost the same group to Bush.

But since President Obama took office a year ago, his faith has largely receded from public view. He has attended church in the capital only four times, and worshiped half a dozen times at a secluded Camp David chapel. He prays privately, reads a "daily devotional" that aides send to his BlackBerry, and talks to pastors by phone, but seldom frames policies in spiritual terms.

But the shift has drawn notice from some religious leaders and political analysts, who say it opens Obama to questions of sincerity and threatens his support among the religious voters his campaign helped peel away from the Republican Party.

A poll last August by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life indicated that the proportion of Americans who saw the Democratic Party as friendly to religion had dropped to Bush-era levels, at 29 percent, after peaking at 38 percent at the height of the Obama campaign a year earlier.

Analysts say that another reason for Obama’s reticence [to appear Christian] may be the sheer number of crises in his first year in office and that a sharper public focus on faith risks becoming a divisive distraction.

"We have a recession, we have the health care agenda - Obama has taken on so much, why add one more thing, especially one that you can’t legislate on?" said Professor Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.

"It’s only by being part of a church community that he’s going to get his own faith grounded," said Bruce Wall, pastor of Global Ministries Christian Church, in Dorchester. "George Bush did not hide his faith. He was a man of prayer, whether you supported him or not."

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

N.H. Grassroots Move to Undo New Same-sex 'Marriage'

[Gay marriage] opponents began a grass-roots effort to challenge the law indirectly by suggesting that New Hampshire’s 400 House members and 24 senators are not representative of the people’s wishes.

UPDATE 2/9/10: Democrats in legislature buck grassroots

-- From "Opponents of gay marriage hope for repeal in N.H." by Norma Love, Associated Press (posted at Boston Globe) 1/20/10

Opponents know their chances of success are slim at this point, but they are looking to the November election, hoping that Republicans will regain control of the State House and succeed in repealing the law.

Right now, Democrats are firmly in charge and appear eager to dispose of gay marriage and other controversial measures early in the session to avoid lingering debate in an election year.

[Traditional marriage supporters] plan to raise the issue at town meetings this spring in hope of passing nonbinding resolutions that will pressure lawmakers to present them with an amendment that defines marriage. They also hope their effort will help in November to elect candidates opposed to same-sex marriage.

State Representative David Bates, a Republican from Windham, is organizing the petition effort to put gay marriage before town voters. He said yesterday that petitions have been certified in 108 towns. He expects petitions to be completed by a Feb. 2 deadline in about 150 of New Hampshire’s more than 200 towns that hold meetings each spring.

New Hampshire’s law legalizing gay marriage took effect Jan. 1. New Hampshire joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Vermont in allowing the unions.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Mass. Senate Race Now an Abortion Battle

The special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat of the late pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy has gotten intense and their battle over abortion is equally fierce.

UPDATE 1/15/10: Martha Coakley: Devout Catholics 'Probably shouldn't work in the emergency room'

-- From "Abortion takes stage in Senate race" by Matt Viser, Boston Globe Staff 1/13/10

With the special US Senate election less than a week away, abortion reemerged as a major flashpoint yesterday as Martha Coakley’s campaign sent out several activists to champion the Democrat as a defender of women’s rights and Republican Scott Brown called on his two daughters to respond.

Coakley supporters, appearing at a Boston press conference, bitterly railed against Brown, saying that his political positions were dangerous to women and that he was using "smoke and mirrors" to obscure his true beliefs and previous record. The primary focus of their attack was his sponsorship of a measure that would have allowed hospital personnel, on religious grounds, to deny rape victims emergency contraception.

Brown rebutted such charges with gusto, pointing to a household full of women as evidence that he supports women’s rights. His two daughters headlined a press conference yesterday afternoon to call on Coakley to take down a recent ad that highlighted the emergency contraception amendment he filed in 2005.

The 2005 amendment that Brown sponsored in the state Senate would have allowed a physician, nurse, or any other employee to deny rape victims an emergency contraceptive if it “conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief.’’ The facility would have had to have someone else who could administer the contraceptive or refer the victim to another facility at no additional cost to the patient.

The amendment, which did not pass, was attached to a bill that he ultimately voted for, which required emergency rooms to provide the contraceptives to rape victims.

Coakley, who is trying to become the first female US senator from Massachusetts, has made women’s issues a strong component of her campaign. Yesterday morning, she had five surrogates hold a press conference at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus. Coakley, however, was not at the event.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Scott Brown's Daughters Defend Him From Martha Coakley's Abortion Attacks" by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor 1/12/10

During the final debate between the two candidates, Brown defended his record, saying the proposal would have allowed hospitals with “religious preferences” to not be forced to do something against their beliefs.

Coakley has not responded to Brown's daughters but staged her own press conference together with pro-abortion groups today.

They claim Brown is extreme because he has been endorsed by Massachusetts Citizens for Life, which hails him as a potential 41st vote against the health care bill in Congress that could force taxpayers to fund hundreds of thousands of abortions.

In a recent email to its members, outgoing Emily's List president Ellen Malcolm was hoping to raise $500,000 for pro-abortion Massachusetts special Senate election candidate Martha Coakley.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Student Reportedly Suspended for Associating Christmas with Jesus

The Massachusetts school sent home the second-grade boy, who drew Jesus Christ for the assignment to draw a Christmas picture, and mandated a psychiatric exam as a precondition for readmittance. The Boston liberal media has now scurried to the defense of the school.

Video from FOX TV Boston


-- From "Mayor requests schools superintendent apologize for Jesus-drawing incident" by Dino F. Ciliberti, GateHouse News Service, Taunton Massachusetts Daily Gazette 12/15/09

Taunton Mayor Charles Crowley has asked School Superintendent Dr. Julie Hackett to apologize to the family and to issue a public apology and to develop a school-wide policy to prevent this from happening again.

He has also ordered the schools to pay for the psychiatric exam the child had to undergo as a condition of returning to school.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Editorial: Student didn’t deserve punishment for Jesus drawing" GateHouse News Service, Taunton Massachusetts Daily Gazette 12/15/09

The picture was supposed to be something that reminded children of Christmas, according to the assignment given by the teacher.

So this 8-year-old second-grader at the Maxham Elementary School in Taunton, Mass., did what he was supposed to do.

He drew a picture, a picture that wound up getting him into trouble for no reason at all.

The student and his family recently had visited the Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, a Christian retreat center.

So the student drew a picture of Jesus on a cross.

. . . school officials took offense, dragged the student into the principal’s office, had him undergo a psychiatric evaluation and then suspended him.

Now the poor child is traumatized and doesn’t want to return to school.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Taunton officials dispute reports on Jesus sketch" by David Abel, Boston Globe Staff 12/15/09

City officials sharply disputed yesterday widely distributed reports that a local elementary school suspended a second-grader and required the boy to undergo a psychological evaluation for drawing a picture of Jesus on the cross.

The story, initially reported by the local newspaper, raised questions of religious bias days before Christmas and was broadcast by local television stations and other news media.

But school officials say that the account in yesterday’s Taunton Daily Gazette was rife with errors and that the father’s description of what happened is untrue.

[Julie Hackett, superintendent of the Taunton public schools] said the student, age 9, was never suspended and that neither he nor other students at the Maxham Elementary School were asked by the teacher to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas or any religious holiday, as the Gazette and other media reported and the father suggested, although his story changed as he explained it.

She said it was unclear whether the boy, who put his name above a stick figure portrait of Christ on the cross, had drawn the picture in school, which his teacher discovered Dec. 2.

She said the drawing was seen as a potential cry for help when the student identified himself, rather than Jesus, on the cross, which prompted the teacher to alert the school’s principal and staff psychologist. As a result, the boy underwent a psychological evaluation.

She declined to comment on the results of the evaluation or whether the teacher had reason to believe that the student was crying out for help. The boy’s father showed reporters a report indicating his son was not a threat to himself or others and could return to school.

"In this case, as in any other case involving the well-being of a student, the administration acted in accordance with the School Department’s well-established protocol," she said in a statement. "This protocol is centered upon the student’s care, well-being, and educational success. The protocol includes a review of the student’s records."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Bishop Says Kennedy Ignorant on Health Care Legislation

In strong rhetoric, US Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Providence Diocese have exchanged nasty comments over abortion and proposals for a health care overhaul . . .

This follows the White House calling Catholic bishops ignorant on abortion funding legislation.

-- From "Kennedy spars with church on abortion" by Milton J. Valencia, Boston Globe Staff 10/24/09

In a statement released yesterday, Tobin lashed out at Kennedy, a son of one of the nation’s most prominent Catholic families, for incendiary remarks the congressman made in an interview about abortion.

Kennedy, speaking in support of a public option for a proposed universal health care plan, told Catholic News Service in an article posted Thursday that he found it perplexing that the church would oppose the health insurance plan.

Tobin had outlined his concerns in a Sept. 21 letter he sent to the Rhode Island congressional delegation, saying he could not support any legislation "that diminishes human dignity or threatens the right to life."

Yesterday, he was more direct, saying that Kennedy’s comments were "irresponsible and ignorant of the facts."

The bishop explained the church’s stance, saying that while the church supports health care overhaul, "we are adamantly opposed to health care legislation that threatens the life of unborn children, requires taxpayers to pay for abortion, rations health care, or compromises the conscience of individuals.

"Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of the state of Rhode Island," the bishop said. "I believe the congressman owes us an apology for his irresponsible comments. It is my fervent hope and prayer that he will find a way to provide morally responsible leadership for our state."

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Harvard to Train Indoctrination Commandants

The Harvard Graduate School of Education launches a new doctoral degree in education leadership as "a 'catalyst to drive change' . . . to alter education policy debates . . ."

-- From "Harvard to offer a doctorate in education leadership" by Tracy Jan, Boston Globe Staff 9/15/09

School officials liken the Doctor of Education Leadership Program to the education equivalent of a law or medical degree. It will be taught by faculty from the education school, Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

The program aims to train graduates for senior leadership roles in school systems, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector, school officials said.

It is designed to give students a deep understanding of teaching and learning, as well as the management and leadership skills required to help transform the American education sector.

Students in the third year of the program will participate in a yearlong residency with partner organizations such as urban public school systems in New York City, Atlanta, and Denver, as well as national organizations focused on changing K-12 education, including Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, and the National Center of Education and the Economy.

The new program is supported in part by The Wallace Foundation, which has given Harvard a $10 million grant.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

'Higher Education' Minus the Learning

As America laments high school graduates who can't read their diploma, thus necessitating extended studies at junior college and other so-called 'institutes of learning,' even elite colleges and universities entice students into debt to study Batman, pimps, and sin.

These institutions fear that a course catalog presenting hard studies "might scare students off."

Draining the economy? It would seem that the current purpose of America's education system is to create perpetual students -- consuming tax dollars and imprisoning potential human resources.

-- From "Colleges find juicy titles swell enrollment" by Peter Schworm, Boston Globe Staff 9/8/09

As schools compete for students and faculty come under pressure to boost enrollment in their classes, colleges from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to Wellesley are jazzing up course catalogs to entice a generation of students drawn to the dramatic. This year’s offerings include crowd-pleasing topics like massacres, superheroes, and sin.

Jessica Holmes, a 38-year-old economics professor at Middlebury, is part of the younger wave. This fall, she will teach Economics of Sin, a titillating title that has sparked sharp interest, with even faculty, staff, and community members looking to audit the class.

“In what other economics class will they have the opportunity to explore pornography, prostitution, crime and punishment, drugs and drug legalization, the sale of human organs, and gambling?” Holmes asked.

The trend toward more inventive, provocative course names reflects a broader movement of professors using more creative teaching methods to capture students’ interest, Holmes and other academics say.

In that way, the catchy titles go beyond savvy marketing, a shorthand way to show students raised on text messaging and Facebook that the course has a contemporary edge. They also signal a shift away from stuffy lectures and abstruse textbooks to discussion-based, multimedia classes, and winkingly suggest the class might be entertaining.

When it came time to name his philosophy seminar last year, Jeffrey Bernstein, an associate professor of philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross, went the highbrow route with Iconoclasm and Theogony: A Tale of Two Transgressions.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Boston Fights STD Epidemic by Encouraging Sex Among Youth

With infection rates of sexually transmitted diseases in Boston as much as double the national average, city agencies use new Internet social networking tools to teach sex to younger children.

-- From "Cautions for and from teens" by Stephen Smith, Boston Globe Staff 8/4/09

Alarmed by the rampant spread of sexually transmitted germs among Boston teenagers, city disease trackers will unveil a safer-sex campaign today that aims to talk to adolescents via their preferred modes of communication: Facebook, YouTube, and cable channels.

Rising rates of chlamydia, an often silent disease that can cause infertility in women, illustrate the scope of the challenge. In 2007, 1,383 Boston youths between 15 and 19 years old were diagnosed with chlamydia, a 70 percent increase since 1999. The overall rate of the infection in Boston is more than double the national average.

It is evidence, specialists speculated, of teenagers’ casual attitudes about sex, parents’ shifting attention to other children’s health concerns, and improved screening by physicians. Doctors said they regularly encounter patients who are barely old enough to drive and yet suffer the consequences of unprotected sexual activity.

. . . Chlamydia and gonorrhea, another disease transmitted through sexual activity, are more common among Boston adolescents than any other age group.

While those diseases can be treated effectively, swiftly, and cheaply with standard antibiotics, physicians fear that their spread could be a harbinger of another sexually spread disease that is vastly more expensive to treat and has the potential to kill.

"These chlamydia cases and gonorrhea cases, they’re our future HIV cases unless we intervene," said Dr. Anita Barry, top disease specialist at the Boston Public Health Commission.

In the new campaign, teenagers will do much of the talking. They are the stars, and the inspiration, for a video that provides the ABCs of what teens and doctors call STIs, sexually transmitted infections. . . . The video does not discuss abstaining from sex.

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Obama Legalizes Same-sex 'Marriage' via Passports

The Obama administration has agreed to let same-sex couples use their spouse’s surname when they apply for passports from the US State Department . . .

UPDATE 2/23/11: Obama declares that Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional

-- From "Same-sex couples allowed to use spouses' surnames on passports" by John R. Ellement, Boston Globe Staff 6/18/09

A gay married couple [sic], Al and Keith Toney, joined the group Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders [GLAD] in challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which was passed during the Clinton administration, in federal court in Boston.

One issue the couple and GLAD raised was the State Department’s refusal to allow Keith Toney - his name before marriage was Keith Fitzpatrick - to seek a new passport under his spouse’s surname.

In a letter dated June 15, the US Justice Department notified GLAD and the Toneys that the prohibition has been stricken from federal rules. Keith Toney was invited to apply for a new passport and was also told the normal fees will be waived. He will file the paperwork June 22, GLAD said.

Mary L. Bonauto, lead counsel for GLAD, welcomed the shift by the current administration, but urged a more sweeping rejection of the federal [Defense of Marriage Act -- DOMA].

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Harvard Comes Out of the Closet

. . . Harvard's gay community says it has finally cemented its academic legitimacy at the nation's oldest university.

"When Harvard does something like this, it causes a ripple effect around the world."

-- From "Harvard endows chair on gay studies" by Tracy Jan, Boston Globe Staff 6/4/09

College officials [said] that they will establish an endowed chair in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies, in what is believed to be the first professorship of its kind in the country.

Harvard president Drew G. Faust described the academic post as "an important milestone" in an ongoing effort by faculty, students, and alumni to raise the profile of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies at the university.

The university has received a $1.5 million gift from the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus to endow the F.O. Matthiessen Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality.

The caucus - a 4,900-member group composed of alumni, faculty, staff, and students - was founded in 1984 to advocate for Harvard's gay community.

More colleges, including Yale, Brown, Cornell, and New York University, offer academic programs related to sex, sexuality and sexual orientation, though lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies are a relatively new discipline. The City University of New York began the first gay- and lesbian-studies program in 1986, according to Harvard. While Harvard has offered a sprinkling of courses related to gay and lesbian studies in the past, it did not allow students to major in the field until the 2004-2005 academic year.

To read the entire story of how Harvard was brought into the fold, CLICK HERE.

Obama's Formal Proclamation for 'Gay Pride Month'

President Obama isn't doing enough, quickly enough to suit many gay Americans, but yesterday he did issue a proclamation for "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month."

-- From "Obama ushers in Gay Pride Month" by Boston Globe Staff 6/2/09

In the proclamation, Obama mentions the legislative priorities, including overturning the Defense of Marriage Act [not actually included in the proclamation posted by the White House], which defines marriage as between one man and one woman and allows states not to recognize gay marriages performed in other states, and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which bars gays from serving openly in the military.

"As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected," he adds, calling on Congress and the American people to "work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "It's out: White House resolution honors 40th anniversary of Stonewall for Gay Pride month" posted by Carla Marinucci, at San Francisco Chronicle 6/1/09

President Obama today marked an historic first when he issued a White House resolution for Gay Pride month that honors the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots -- marking the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.

"I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration," he wrote. "The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Sex-selection Abortion Outlawed in Oklahoma

Newly required extensive reporting by abortionists will be used to verify that unborn are not aborted based on their sex

-- From "Oklahoma passes bill to ban abortions based on sex selection" posted at Catholic News Agency 5/22/09

According to The Oklahoman, the bill requires the abortionist to report to the state Health Department the age, marital status and education level of the mother; the number of her prior pregnancies; the reason and method for the abortion; and the nature of the mother’s relationship with the baby’s father.

The bill also requires the reporting of the method of payment, the type of medical health insurance coverage, the cost of the abortion, and whether an ultrasound was given.

H.B. 1595 passed the Senate on Friday by a vote of 35 to 9. The bill had passed the House by 88 to 6.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "New law bans picking baby's sex by abortion" by Drew Zahn © 2009 WorldNetDaily 5/23/09

In several Asian nations, sons are preferred so highly over daughters that couples abort their babies when an ultrasound reveals their unborn child is a girl, but in Oklahoma, a bill signed into law yesterday will ban the practice of choosing a baby's sex by selective abortion.

[There] is the growing concern that selective abortion of baby girls isn't only happening in Asia but in the U.S. as well.

According to the Boston Globe, a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that examined the ratio of boys to girls born to Asian-American families in the U.S. demonstrated couples that welcome an oldest daughter become increasingly likely to abort future daughters to get the son they seek.

After two oldest daughters, the study found, the likelihood of the third child being a son leaped 50 percent higher than the norm, evidence, the authors wrote, "of sex selection, most likely at the prenatal stage."

And while the Globe also cited a Zogby Poll that showed 86 percent of Americans believe sex-selective abortions should be illegal, the paper pointed out that they're not.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.