After the huge anti-christian passage in the liberal-controlled House, Kennedy's Senate version of the hate crimes bill garnered the sponsorship of Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and formerly Republican Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced . . . The new Senate bill, called the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, is named after a gay college student who was murdered near Laramie, Wyo. [in a 1998 robbery, often erroneously reported as resulting from his "sexual orientation"].
President Obama issued a statement in support of the bill late Tuesday.
". . . I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on this important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance – legislation that will enhance civil rights protections, while also protecting our freedom of speech and association. I also urge the Senate to work with my Administration to finalize this bill and to take swift action," he said.
Hate crimes legislation would allow the Justice Department to assist in the prosecution of hate crimes committed against LGBT people that result in death or serious injury. The federal government could lend its assistance to local authorities or take the lead if local officials are unwilling or unable to prosecute cases.
The landslide passage of Hate Crimes legislation in the House has elated so-called christian leaders who espouse ridiculous interpretations of the Bible.
Influential Christian leaders who have not previously spoken publicly on this legislation are declaring their support for the hate crimes bill that Congress has taken up this week:
Dr. David P. Gushee, Distinguished University, Professor of Christian Ethics, Mercer University: This bill deserves Christian support because its aim is to protect the dignity and basic human rights of all Americans [albeit unequally], and especially those Americans whose perceived "differentness" makes them vulnerable to physical attacks motivated by bias, hatred and fear. . . . For me, the case for this bill is settled with these words from Jesus: "As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me" (Mt. 25:40).
Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins, Pastor, Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, Washington, DC: The Scriptures are replete with examples of God's concern and compassion for those seen as "other" by many. I welcome the opportunity to support this bill as an expression of my Christian witness, and my belief in our nation's highest aims for all its citizens.
Jim Wallis, President and CEO, Sojourners: Too often in our country when violence has been directed against gay and lesbian people, most Christians have been painfully silent.
Stephen Schneck, Director, Life Cycle Institute, The Catholic University of America: Gay and lesbian Americans need the protection this legislation offers.
The mainstream media has launched an assault against the Christian beauty queen who backs traditional marriage, as affection for her grows in the public.
Scroll down for the video of the church interview.
A spokesman for the Miss California pageant on Monday denied that contest officials told the reigning beauty queen to publicly apologize for her statement opposing same-sex marriage during the Miss USA pageant.
Carrie Prejean, 21, claimed during Sunday services at her San Diego church that producers of the state pageant told her to apologize to the gay community and to avoid mentioning religion when she appeared last week on the "Today" show and other national programs.
But San Diego public relations representative Roger Neal, who said he was one of the people advising her, called those claims lies. Contest officials urged Prejean only to reiterate that she didn't mean to offend anyone and to use the national spotlight "to heal some wounds," he said.
Keith Lewis, a Los Angeles talent agent and gay activist who runs the Miss California pageant, also issued a statement expressing dismay with Prejean and concern about her ability to carry out her duties during the remainder of her rein.
"Given the fact that Carrie Prejean's first act upon returning to California was to headline five services at a church that promotes homosexuality as both unnatural and abnormal, we stand by our concern for her individual image and look forward to a time in the near future when she can put down her personal agenda" and resume her responsibilities as Miss California, Jenkins wrote.
Miss California Carrie Prejean, who finished runner-up in the Miss USA pageant after affirming on air that "marriage should be between a man and a woman," claims that her state sponsors urged her afterwards to apologize for the statement and keep quiet about her Christian faith.
Prejean appeared yesterday at The Rock Church in San Diego, the Associated Press reports, and told the congregation what she remembers being told following the pageant.
"'You need to apologize to the gay community. You need to not talk about your faith," Prejean recalled being instructed. "This has everything to do with you representing California and saving the brand.'"
Prejean, however, defended her statement by alluding to California's Proposition 8 ballot initiative, in which the state's voters added language to the California Constitution defining marriage as only between one man and one woman.
"I was representing California," Prejean declared yesterday. "I was representing the majority of people in California."
Keith Lewis, executive director of Miss California USA/Teen USA, also wrote a letter condemning Prejean that echoed what she says she was told following the pageant.
"As co-executive director of Miss CA USA and one of the leaders of the Miss CA family, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss CA USA 2009 believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman," he wrote. "Although I believe all religions should be able to ordain what unions they see fit, I do not believe our government should be able to discriminate against anyone. Religious beliefs have no place in politics in the Miss CA family."
Prejean nonetheless refused to apologize for the answer she gave.
"I don't take back what I said," Prejean told the church, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune report. "No way I wasn't going to stand up for what I believe in."
At church yesterday, she added, "I learned that God has a bigger crown than any man can give you."
The below is an excerpt from a 50-minute interview/sermon of Prejean with The Rock Church Pastor Miles McPherson, God's will for both the pastor and Miss Prejean is praised! Click here to the church website for the full video along with sermon notes and more.
The [Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life] results are a "big indictment" of organized religion, said Michael Lindsay [of Rice University]. "There is a huge, wide-open back door at most churches. Churches around the country may be able to attract people, but they can't keep them."
The survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life is the first large-scale study of the reasons behind Americans switching their religious faith and found that more than half of people have done so at least once during their lifetime.
Pew Forum senior fellow John Green said that result surprised researchers, who had expected policy disputes or disillusionment over internal scandals -- such as the clergy sex abuse controversy in the Catholic Church -- to play more of a role in people's decision to leave a faith. Among former Catholics who became Protestants, one in five cited the sex abuse scandal as one of several reasons why they had left the faith. But only a small percentage -- 2 percent to 3 percent -- cited it as the lone reason.
"It suggests that what leads people to leave their faith is that, somehow for some reason, it isn't meeting their needs," Green said. "Religion becomes less plausible to the person."
At the same time, the large and growing number of people who report having no religious affiliation are actually surprisingly open to religion, researchers said. Contrary to the popular perception that many have embraced secularism, a significant percentage appeared simply to have put their religiosity on pause. Having worshiped in at least one faith already, about three in 10 said they had just not yet found the right religion.
"We tend to think that when people leave [religion] they leave," said Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University. "But a lot of these unaffiliated are unaffiliated for now. . . . It's not a one way street. It's not like after you've left a religious affiliation, you can't get back in."
. . . a recent Trinity College survey found that mainline churches like the Methodists, Lutherans, and Episcopalians are losing numbers while evangelical and nondenominational churches are gaining. There are now 8 million nondenominational Christians, according to the Trinity report, up from 2.5 million in 2001.
The Pew report also provides a striking new portrait of those religiously unaffiliated Americans, the fastest-growing segment of the American religious landscape. The report finds that religiously unaffiliated, widely considered to represent a dramatic spike in avowed secularists, are actually quite open to religion and that only a minority feel that science disproves religion.
Catholics who leave the fold largely do so because they disagree with church teachings, while Protestants who leave their particular denominations tend to do so because of life changes, such as marriage or moving.
The survey found that American religious identity moves in all directions. No category of belief is fixed. Even among people raised unaffiliated with any religion, 54 percent now claim a specific religious identity and account for 4 percent of the U.S. population.
One of the few constants is the proportion of Americans who are atheists - roughly 2 percent of the general population for decades. Indeed, even as an increasing number of people do not identify with any specific religion [due to a] disenchantment with religious people and institutions.
"Long-term, what this means is that the face of the Catholic Church is going to change dramatically over time," Green said. "There is likely to be continued erosion by Catholics of European background, and the church is going to be increasingly populated by Hispanics and Asians who are immigrating to the US."
"A lot of the switching is intra-Protestant switching, and I think at this point that's not even switching -- hardly anyone knows the difference between a Lutheran and an Episcopalian, or even a Methodist and a Baptist," said Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University. "Lutherans hardly know anything about Luther, and Methodists hardly know anything about Wesley, and they don't care. We live in a postdenominational time."
[Kansas pro-lifers] backed the bill and were watching [Gov.] Sebelius' action closely as she awaits U.S. Senate confirmation as federal health and human services secretary.
The bill would have required physicians to report additional information to the state about the late-term abortions they perform, and would have allowed more county prosecutors to pursue criminal charges over potentially illegal late-term procedures.
Also, doctors could have faced lawsuits if their patients later believed a late-term abortion violated the law. A woman's husband or a girl's parent or guardian also could have filed a lawsuit.
In a veto message to legislators, Sebelius argued that doctors could have faced criminal prosecution even if they tried to comply with the law. She said that would "lead to the intimidation of health care providers and reduce access to comprehensive health care for women, even when it is necessary to preserve their lives and health."
Sebelius' veto came as anti-abortion and other conservative groups have stepped up their pressure on senators to reject her nomination.
Before the veto, Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, issued a statement saying "significant questions" remained about Sebelius' stance on late-term abortions.
"If necessary, we will explore legal actions to enforce and implement the court's ruling [of same-sex marriage], working with the Iowa Dept. of Public Health and county attorneys," he warned on his website.
An Arizona-based Christian nonprofit is offering free legal defense to any of Iowa’s 99 county recorders who refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) . . . sent an e-mail to each of Iowa’s county recorders asking them to tell their staff that they “shall not be required to issue or process a marriage license, or to perform, assist or participate in such procedures, against that individual’s religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
The e-mail, which was sent out in conjunction with the Iowa Family Policy Center, says Iowa law protects citizens from being forced to “violate his or her conscience.”
The ADF then offers to “provide free legal review and defense” for any county recorder that adopts a “conscious clause” and is challenged “on the basis of its content.”
The e-mail comes on the heals of a petition drive pushed by Republican state Sen. Merlin Bartz asking opponents of same-sex marriage to collect signatures and deliver them to county recorders demanding that they ignore court’s decision and deny marriage licenses to couples of the same gender. Bartz has since had an ethics complaint filed against him saying he is trying to pressure local elected officials to break the law.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is warning the county recorders' offices in his state that workers must process "marriage" licenses for same-sex duos or face possible charges in a court of law.
The statements from Miller relate to the state Supreme Court's decision that Iowa must provide same-sex couples access to the state's marriage processes.
Miller praised the decision as "clear and well-reasoned" and explained it is expected to take effect April 27, since court offices are closed tomorrow.
"The Supreme Court's decision … does change state law: the decision expressly strikes from Iowa Code chapter 595 the language which limits civil marriage to a man and a woman," he ordered.
[ADF] said the Iowa marriage law was settled and supported by Iowans, but then the court justices "stepped outside of [their] proper role of interpreting the law and has instead overruled the will of the people and created new law."
Miller, on his web page, affirmed that the justices were creating new law.
At least one Iowa judge has stopped performing marriages, in part a reaction to the state supreme court ruling this month giving same-sex couples the right to wed.
According to a report in the Des Moines Register, other judges may follow. Iowa law allows judges and other public officials to opt out of performing all marriages but forbids them from refraining only from same-sex nuptials.
Both the House and the Senate spent hours yesterday debating Senate Bill 899, which passed only after an amendment was added that provides an exemption to groups who object to same-sex marriage on religious grounds.
Opponents of same-sex marriage said the compromise amendment was necessary to protect religious liberties.
Today, Connecticut and three other states permit gays and lesbians to marry and several other states, including New Hampshire and New Jersey, permit civil unions.
Under the terms of Senate Bill 899, the civil union law will expire in October 2010 and all existing civil unions will be automatically converted to marriages.
As liberal political operatives realize that large numbers of Americans vote their Christian values, they form an ever-growing list of groups masquerading as bible-believing organizations.
Burns Strider, one of the Democratic Party's most influential faith operatives—he was faith outreach director for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign—is playing a lead role in launching a progressive faith group called the American Values Network.
A section [of the group's website] entitled "Wealth, Materialism, and the Bible's View on an 'Ownership Society' " includes this commentary:
One would think that those [evangelicals] who supposedly [sic] care so much for the moral and spiritual well-being of their fellow Americans would not be so eager to pass legislation with the sole purpose of enabling their friends to store up treasures in earthly places, where moth and rust destroy (Matthew 6:19). After all, was it not Christ who suggested that we give all we have to the poor so that we can have treasures in heavenly places where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20).
The American Values Network grew out of a desire among left-leaning faith activists to "build a national organization committed to grass-roots building, networking, communicating, and activating a mainstream and authentic voice that would organize and speak out for progressive policy and issues from a faith and values perspective," Strider says. "We wanted something that would amplify and work in harmony with groups such as [progressive faith groups] Sojourners, Faith and Public Life, and Catholics in Alliance."
“It is just the beginning of a sustained collaborative and focused effort to involve our greatest resource, our citizens in the work of remaking this nation,” the president said.
President Barack Obama signed legislation Tuesday to triple the size of the national service program, calling the expansion a new opportunity to connect “deeds to needs.”
“I’ve always believed that the answer to our challenges cannot come from government alone,” he said. “We need Americans willing to mentor our eager young children, or care for the sick or ease the strains of deployment on our military families.”
The bill, passed by Congress last month with bipartisan support, will create four new service corps: a Clean Energy Corps, a Healthy Futures Corps, a Veterans Service Corps and an Education Corps. It will also create a Summer of Service that will allow middle and high school students to earn $500 education awards.
Calling such programs “force multipliers,” Obama said they will leverage small numbers of people into thousands of volunteers. “We will focus their service towards solving today’s most pressing challenges,” he said.
Community service has been priority for Obama, who often talks about his stint as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago as a turning point in his life. And Michelle Obama, who founded an AmeriCorps program in Chicago, is focusing on community service as first lady.
President Obama today signed into law the "GIVE Act," H.R. 1388 ['Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education], which massively expands the National Service Corporation and allocates to it billions of dollars, and one executive for the program now says it will allow for the "managing" of up to 8 or 9 million people.
The bill includes a "National Service Reserve Corps" whose members have completed a "term of national service," "training" and "not less than 10 hours of volunteering each year."
Congress also is considering a "public service academy, a four-year institution that offers a federally funded undergraduate education with a focus on training future public sector leaders."
WND reported when the bill began its quick trip through Congress, and its original language called for a study of how best to implement a mandatory national service program for citizens of the United States.
Later the language was dropped from that bill, only to appear at the same time in another legislative proposal. That plan, H.R. 1444, now is in committee.
The plan also raises First Amendment issues over its limitations on what various corps participants are allowed to do.
For example, it states those in an "approved national service position" may not try to influence legislation, engage in protests or petitions, take positions on union organizing, engage in partisan political activities, or, among other issues, be "engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of proselytization."
Judi McLeod of Canada Free Press wrote that the bill simply would turn everyone into a community organizer.
"There's no room for God in Obama's long promised Youth Brigade, no room to protest, petition, to boycott or to support a strike, and loopholes to give its mandatory membership a pass," she wrote. "Obama's plan requires anyone receiving school loans, among others to serve at least three months as part of the brigade."
Gary Wood at Examiner.com said it's part of Obama's plan to set up national service. He noted the explanation offered by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel: "It's time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service."
Duane Lester, writing at All American Blogger, put into words the worst fears of opponents.
"Hitler knew that if you control the youth, you control the future. I wrote about him in 'The Threats to Homeschooling: From Hitler to the NEA.' As I noted in that article, Hitler said: 'The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of innoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled,'" he wrote.
"All children deal with LGBTQ issues, possibly at home and/or at school. Children watch TV and movies that discuss, satirize, and ridicule LGBTQ people. Our obligation as educators is to confront stereotypes and address inappropriate language . . ."
San Francisco school officials have created a new Web site with resources to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. It's apparently the only site of its kind in the country.
. . . It also includes this note (perhaps just in case Rush Limbaugh or is listening):
"A discussion about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning people does not constitute a discussion about human sexuality or family life education and does NOT require parent notification according to the California Education Code."
"April is Gay Pride Celebration!" touts the website's home page. "Check out some of the event options in our 'Host an Activity' section."
In addition to the "Host an Activity" section, loaded with suggestions on how teachers can celebrate Gay Pride Month in their classrooms, the website includes dozens of resources, including district policies on sexual expression and discrimination issues, curriculum for teaching on LGBTQ issues, a list of district-approved speakers and presentations, studies, and testimonials from school officials on how they're making their schools more friendly to LGBTQ students.
The site includes links to other organizations supportive of LGBTQ students and families, a glossary defining various vocabulary terms on sexual diversity, and detailed policies on handling LGBTQ issues – including an anti-slur policy, parental notification policies, and policies on dealing with transgender issues, such as how to address transgender students and which bathrooms and locker rooms they are allowed to use.
The American Civil Liberties Union has redefined the meaning of sex telling public school officials in Tennessee to stop blocking students' access to websites that present homosexuality as normal, non-sexual (sic) behavior.
The American Civil Liberties Union has asked public school officials in Tennessee to stop blocking students' access to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender web sites on school computers -- or face a possible lawsuit.
The ACLU's letter asks Tennessee schools that use . . . filtering service to stop blocking sites designated as "LGBT," or the organization will file a lawsuit. According to the letter, the software's default setting blocks all sites . . . categorized as "LGBT."
Federal and state law only requires schools to use filtering software to restrict information that is obscene or harmful to minors.
"Students … are being denied access to content that is protected speech under the First Amendment, as well as the Tennessee state constitution," said Tricia Herzfeld, staff attorney with the ACLU of Tennessee.
“The problem in general with hate crimes legislation is that it invites the government to probe way beyond motive. And in instances like this, it trespasses on free speech and religious liberty. This is a road no defender of liberty should ever want to go down.”
-- Press Release "Is Quoting Scripture a Hate Crime?" from Susan A. Fani, Director of Communications, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights 4/20/09
. . . the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark-up a hate crimes bill sponsored by Rep. John Conyers. Serious questions have been raised by religious leaders about this legislation, especially as it pertains to religious pronouncements against homosexuality.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue addressed this issue today: “. . . if a deranged person hears a priest, minister or rabbi quote Leviticus 18:22, ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination,’ and he then proceeds to assault a homosexual at a gay event—telling the arresting officer he was just following through on what he heard in his house of worship—the clergyman could arguably be charged with a hate crime. The very prospect of something like this happening should be enough to make any reasonable person wonder what is going on.
H.R. 1913, named the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Act of 2009, is expected to be passed by the committee . . . and come to the House floor for a vote in the spring, announced Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the original co-sponsor of the bill and an openly gay member of Congress, on his website.
An identical legislation (H.R. 1592) was passed by the U.S. House in 2007 [and was vetoed by President Bush].
President Obama has expressed support for the hate crime legislation in the past and is expected to sign the bill if passed.
The hate crimes measure seeks to add violence against individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability to the list of federal hate crimes. Current federal law covers crimes committed on the basis of race, religion, color or national origin. If passed, the federal government would be more involved and have greater power to investigate alleged hate crimes. Christian leaders have pointed to hate crime laws in England, Sweden and Canada, where Christians have been prosecuted for breaking these laws.
In the United States, 11 Christians in Pennsylvania were prosecuted under the state’s hate crimes law shortly after “sexual orientation” was added as a victim category several years ago. According to reports, the ten adults and one teenager were singing hymns and carrying signs at a homosexual celebration in Philadelphia when they were arrested.
“Well, I am somebody who believes in the separation of church and state and that the government, frankly, ought to be out of the business of marriage entirely.”
Wimpy conservatives are likely to acceptthis compromise as the same-sex marriage tidal wave grows.
The government should have no say about marriage, and the plank in the Republican Party platform that calls for preserving marriage between a man and a woman should be scrapped, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R) told CNSNews.com.
Furthermore, the U.S. military should not differentiate between homosexuals and heterosexuals, said Whitman. The former governor spoke Friday at the Log Cabin Republicans’ (LCR) 2009 convention and symposium in Washington, D.C.
The Log Cabin Republicans are a group that seeks to promote homosexual and lesbian concerns within the GOP. In her speech, Whitman spoke about how inclusion can help the GOP become stronger, and she called on the Republican Party to veer in a moderate direction.
“It ought to be everybody – heterosexual, homosexual. When you go down and register to get married, that’s when the legal transfer of everything occurs and that’s a legal recognition of a relationship – and if you want to get married in a church, a temple, whatever, and you find one, great!” she said.
“Civil marriage, everybody,” said Whitman. “I am not against marriage for gay couples. I just think it would make the issue easier if it was civil marriage for everybody. And I am not against – I mean, it’s [same-sex marriage] not going to threaten my marriage. I mean my 35th anniversary is on Monday. It’s not going to threaten my marriage to have a gay couple married.”
Concerning the platform’s opposition to homosexual marriage, Whitman said, “I would like them to take it out. I just don't think it’s an issue that ought to be in a party platform. It’s a personal issue, not a political one.”
“We can't succeed nationally as a party that only has 31 percent of the American people behind it,” she said. “It’s not going to work. We need everybody. We need to ingratiate them. We need to bring them in. We are not going to agree on every issue – but that’s okay.”
If looking at the sea of faces gathered on the National Mall for the inauguration of President Obama did not send a clear message that the political winds have changed dramatically, then I wonder if anything will.
Unfortunately, the issues that seem to be the focus . . . suggest the Republican Party is still firmly focused on the past. . . . more concerned about a candidate’s firmness in their opposition to abortion.
If Republicans continue to look solely for purity on a host of social issues, we are destined to be the minority for the foreseeable future.
A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention said he is "deeply concerned" about comments by Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren that a recent court decision allowing gay marriage is not part of his agenda.
Frank Page, pastor of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., told the American Family News Network he believes it should be on every pastor's agenda to defend biblical marriage and lead homosexuals to Christ.
Warren, pastor of the Southern Baptist-affiliated Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., said April 7 on "Larry King Live" that he is "totally oblivious" to a recent Iowa Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. "That's not even on my agenda," he said.
In a Q&A interview with Christianity Today, Warren sought to clarify what he meant when he told King he "never once" issued a statement or gave an endorsement during two years of debate over Proposition 8.
". . . Proposition 8 was a two-year campaign in the state, and during those two years, I never said a word about it until the eight days before the election, and then I did make a video for my own people when they asked, 'How should we vote on this?' It was a pastor talking to his own people. I've never said anything about it since. I don't know how you take one video newsletter to your own church and turn that into, all of a sudden I'm the poster boy for anti-gay marriage."
Warren also discussed an hour-long Beliefnet interview, during which he answered one question in a way that "made it sound like I was equating homosexuality with pedophilia and incest."
"Even if others do, I will never deny you," declared the Apostle Peter some 2,000 years ago just hours before he did exactly that, three times, when the heat was on. Ten others boasted the same, but when the risk was more than theoretical, all deserted Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Only one was seen at the cross.
A fascinating story...the "old story," as the secularists like to call it. Barack Obama alluded to this in his speech in France. We need a new story...a discovery of "new ways" of thinking. We must throw off the old, and embrace a much more enlightened, intelligent point of view, he said. By doing so, our president argued, we remove inconvenient barriers, cumbersome moral values and achieve self-determination with our new understanding of the world guiding the way. Surely we cannot be bound in this advanced new age by the old moral codes or put plainly, by what Jesus taught -- certainly not if we are to curry favor with the world in which we live.
During Holy Week, Peter's portion of the "old story" was revisited in a very contemporary way. The last instruction Jesus gave as He left earth was that His followers should tell His story of forgiveness and redemption not only in their communities, but to the "ends of the earth." And as His followers told the "old story," they should not leave out all the other things He had carefully taught them. He wanted future generations to go beyond mere intellectual understanding and move to actually living out the principles.
One of those principles was marriage. "For this reason shall a man leave his parents and join with his wife and the two shall become one flesh," Jesus instructed. One man...one woman...for a lifetime; no sex outside of that union. His clear moral teaching applied to homosexuality and never entertained a discussion of same-sex "marriage," because it would have been unthinkable. "I have come to fulfill the law, not to destroy it," Jesus said in regard to Old Testament moral standards.
Fast forwarding to November 2008, California voters of various religious persuasions -- in a ballot measure called Proposition 8 -- held to the Judeo-Christian teaching that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Pastor Rick Warren -- author of the multi-million selling book The Purpose Driven Life; pastor of Saddleback, one of the largest churches in the country; deeply influential -- rightly told his congregation just weeks before the election: "...if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear."
Until last week...Holy Week.
"Though others may turn away, I will never deny you," promised Peter. But then in the chill of night in a courtyard just outside the place of Jesus' trial, as others around the fire began to probe his relationship to Jesus, he denied even knowing him. No one was threatening his life, but the derision increased, until Peter's denial escalated to a curse to more emphatically deny he had ever known Jesus.
Peter was worried about his reputation. He didn't want to be the odd man out in the courtyard over the fire...it wasn't a Roman soldier with a sword who challenged him, it was a servant girl.
"On moral issues I come out very clear," declared Warren when speaking in the safety of his church last October. But when confronted by homosexual friends and by CNN's Larry King, he folded like Peter. He told a national television audience that he had "apologized" to his homosexual friends for making comments in support of Proposition 8. He "never once gave an endorsement" of the marriage amendment, he declared in that much larger, electronic courtyard. "I never once issued a statement." But that was not true. He had given an impassioned plea on camera for support of Proposition 8...a plea worthy of a Christian leader...a plea to follow Jesus' teaching on marriage. Then in one CNN moment, he not only backed away from the hard teaching, but lied in the process. On camera...both times...for all to see.
Seduced by the pressure of fame? Driven by the desire to please his friends? Afraid to be seen as bigoted to a national television audience? Whatever the motivation, the denial is no less significant.
After Peter finished his denial, he went out and wept bitterly. Jesus later forgave him in a personal exchange, and Peter became one of the greatest examples of Christ following of all time...crucified upside down for his faith...fearless to the end.
But he repented. If Rick Warren does not, he has lost his moral authority as a Christian leader.
Without repentance, he joins the apostate ranks of others who declare Jesus' teaching when it is expedient and deny it when it interferes with choice or reputation.
Another Easter denial -- but we pray Warren will not let his story end there.
The federal government yesterday released its draft rules for funding embryonic stem cell research - expanding opportunities but stopping short of allowing government-sponsored scientific projects to use human embryos created solely for experimental purposes.
The National Institutes of Health proposed limiting federally funded research to use of embryos that would otherwise be discarded from fertility clinics. That is expected to significantly expand the number of stem cell lines available to researchers who seek to do basic research and develop treatments for a variety of intractable diseases.
But the Obama administration made clear it does not intend to finance research that uses embryos created solely for research purposes or cloned by scientists - more controversial procedures with less public and congressional support.
Within minutes of yesterday's announcement, researchers in the Boston area publicly praised the proposed rules for making new research possible. Privately, some expressed concern that the rules might exclude certain lines of stem cells currently in use because there is no paper trail showing the original donors consented to their use. Some scientists elsewhere in the country are also concerned that the guidelines exclude cloned embryos that could be used to develop genetically tailored organs more effective for transplant.
Some researchers believe cloned embryos are important in developing genetically matched organs for transplant. But projects that use these more controversial human embryos are expected to continue, said Dr. Leonard Zon, director of the stem cell research program at Children's Hospital Boston, as long as they retain the support of private philanthropists.
Some conservative members of the Texas House said Tuesday that a controversy over Planned Parenthood clinics in San Antonio should be investigated more and may lead them to seek a cut in state funding for the low-income health care provider.
The conservative coalition and the Texas Alliance for Life said Planned Parenthood endangered the lives of women by performing illegal, unregulated abortions.
State law prevents the state from giving any money to abortion providers. The roughly $10 million Planned Parenthood gets from the state each year can only be used by clinics that do not provide any abortion services.
Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Rockwall, on Tuesday said Planned Parenthood should be held more accountable and be further investigated.
"By receiving this money, Planned Parenthood makes itself accountable to the taxpayers and must answer to the taxpayers when it breaks their trust," she said.
"Changing the U.S. military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy for gay troops . . . Defense Secretary Robert Gates . . . noted it took five years for the U.S. military to racially integrate during the Truman administration."
Speaking at the Army War College, Gates said he and President Barack Obama were discussing the policy and whether to change it. Gates said he was not yet taking a position about whether gay troops should be open about their sexuality, which could lead to their discharge under the current rules.
"If we do it, it's imperative that we do it right and very carefully," Gates told reporters later on a military jet to Newport, R.I., where he was to speak Friday at the Navy's war college.
Obama committed during the 2008 presidential campaign to moving to end the Clinton administration-era policy that was enacted as a compromise between openly gay people serving in the armed forces and those opposed to gays in uniform.
In bright yellow capital letters, the sign on the karaoke bar in downtown Peoria was clear: "WE ARE NOT A GAY BAR!!"
The local gay community got the message. And it apparently was just the rallying cry it needed. In a flurry of forwarded Facebook, MySpace and text messages, a coalition quickly mobilized and dozens of gay rights supporters lined up last weekend outside The Elbo Room to express their outrage. The sign, they said, might as well have read, "Gays are not welcome here."
For decades, the bar on Main Street had been called the Quench Room and was known as a gay bar, longtime residents said. In the 1990s, ownership changed hands and it became a karaoke bar, said Peoria Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken, whose district includes the bar.
Van Auken warned [the owner] . . . the city has already notified him the sign violated state law.
"You can't give notice to the effect that certain protected groups are not welcome," she said.
Over 20 Christian-based conservative groups have called for the massive walkout from middle and high schools participating the April 17 event, arguing that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)'s sponsored event politicizes the classroom to support the belief that homosexuality is moral.
The groups have encouraged parents and teens who are not willing to risk teacher retribution or missing school to send a letter to schools officials expressing their objections to Day of Silence.
The coalition has also called attention to a resolution sitting before Congress that would urge the federal government and public schools to officially recognize and celebrate Day of Silence. The legislation also requests that "the President issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe the National Day of Silence with appropriate ceremonies, programs, and activities."
The band of pro-family groups, meanwhile, says that by opposing the event they are in no way endorsing the bullying and harassment of [homosexuals or anyone else]
Meanwhile, several other Christian-based conservative groups are promoting the Day of Truth on April 20, the following Monday, as a direct response to Day of Silence. According to Day of Truth's Web site, it was established to "counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective."
For the President's speech at Georgetown University Tuesday, the permanent lettering 'IHS' symbolizing Jesus, was blacked out from the ornate millwork that formed the backdrop to the podium. Photo courtesy CNSNews.com
The gold-lettered monogram [IHS] appeared near a painting of three female figures -- symbolizing morality, faith and patriotism -- and decorative edging along the wall that spelled out the Jesuit motto "Ad majorem Dei gloriam"—"To the greater glory of God." Georgetown was founded by the Jesuits.
Julie Bataille from the university's press office [said] . . . that the White House had asked that all university signage and symbols behind the stage in Gaston Hall be covered.
"The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they've done for other policy speeches," she wrote. "Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn't high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context."
. . . the Free Republic blog had photos comparing "before" and "after" depictions of the unfortunate monogram, which the university covered with what looks like a black cloth.
An atheist has won the right to have his baptism removed from Church of England records after claiming he was too young to give his consent to the ceremony.
John Hunt, a newly qualified nurse, was baptised at the age of five months at the parish church of St Jude with St Aidin in Thornton Heath, south London.
As a schoolboy he decided he did not believe in God and stopped going to Sunday school aged 11.
He was told that his baptism cannot be deleted because it is a matter of historical record.
He then secured a "de-baptism" certificate produced by the National Secular Society (NSS), rejecting "superstitions" or the idea of original sin.
This week the church backed down and said the entry would be "corrected".
Advocates for the gay and lesbian community in Illinois are rallying behind a civil unions bill . . . which would grant same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples . . .
. . . the complex and unpredictable path that lies ahead for same-sex Illinois couples . . . is similar to that taken by activists in Vermont, where gay marriage was legalized last week by the state Legislature, years after Vermont had embraced civil unions. In essence, advocates' thinking goes like this: If a gay marriage law seems unlikely, a civil union bill can help to secure state rights for gays and lesbians while allowing the public and politicians to get more comfortable with the idea of same-sex couples.
"In Illinois, we're charting what we think is the right path now for our state," said Jim Madigan, executive director of the gay rights group Equality Illinois. "[Civil unions have] the advantage of really abating a lot of the harms suffered by couples who aren't married. And for those people for whom marriage remains a sticking point, it allows them to find a middle ground."
Because of the nature of the Illinois Constitution and the makeup of the state's Supreme Court, Equality Illinois has asked its members not to seek any kind of court action regarding same-sex marriage. Iowa followed a judicial path to gay marriage, but it's a state with a strong equal protection clause in its constitution and a Supreme Court known for being progressive with regard to civil rights issues.
Many gay rights advocates in the state believe [the] civil unions bill—which passed through committee and is awaiting a final vote before the full House—will pass.
Thus, advocates hope a civil unions bill here will lay the groundwork for a gay marriage bill.
New York Gov. David Paterson plans to introduce legislation this week to legalize same-sex marriage, reviving a bill that died in 2007 and still faces strong opposition despite a new Democratic majority in the state Senate.
In radio interviews last week Paterson said he believes it will eventually become law. But polls show legalizing gay marriage remains controversial in New York. And some gay marriage advocates are worried that bringing the issue up in New York before there's clear support to pass it could set back efforts to legalize it there, as well as in other states.
Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, a Manhattan Democrat, said he will attend Thursday's announcement and sponsor the governor's bill, which will be identical to the one backed by then Gov. Eliot Spitzer as a civil-rights measure when it passed the Assembly 85-61 two years ago. "I'm hoping to do better than that this time," O'Donnell said Tuesday.
Sexting refers to the exchange of explicit photos and videos via mobile phone. Under current laws, participants can be charged with child pornography, but lawmakers are considering a bill to legalize the consensual exchange of graphic images between two people 13 to 18 years old. Passing along such images to others would remain a crime.
Supporters told The Burlington Free Press they don't want to condone the behavior but they don't think teenagers should be prosecuted as sex offenders for consensual conduct.
The bill passed the state Senate earlier this month. The House Judiciary Committee will hear testimony on it this week.
The first family has no church home to celebrate the resurrection of the (real) Messiah, so Obama sought out like-minded homosexual families for the traditional Easter Egg Roll at the White House.
A Minneapolis family is about to become a part of history. On Monday, Tim Meyer, Mark Funk and their three sons -- Rudy, Andres and Pablo -- will attend the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, the first year that gay families have been officially included.
The Obama administration called on the [Family Equality Council, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) family advocacy] group to encourage its supporters to apply for tickets to the event. The council estimates that at least 100 LGBT families will participate.
"President Obama specifically sought us out," Meyer said. "We got a call two Sundays ago that said they extended the tickets to 50 more people. We got five of the tickets.
"This is the first time the White House has specifically reached out to gay families. It's a big deal."
The Meyer-Funk family belongs to Mayflower Church in south Minneapolis.
Speaking during the Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said that "religious sentiments" were increasingly ranked among the "unwelcome leftovers of antiquity" and held up to scorn and ridicule.
He used this year's Good Friday meditations at the Stations of the Cross to compare attempts to purge religion from public life to the mockery Jesus Christ faced from the mob as he was led out to be crucified.
Speaking at the seventh Station of the Cross, where Jesus is made an "object of fun", he said: "We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink. Jesus is humiliated in new ways even today. When things that are most holy and profound in the faith are being trivialised, the sense of the sacred is allowed to erode.
"Everything in public life risks being desacralised: persons, places, pledges, prayers, practices, words, sacred writings, religious formulae, symbols, ceremonies.
"Our life together is being increasingly secularised. Religious life grows diffident. Thus we see the most momentous matters placed among trifles, and trivialities glorified.
"Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard. Jesus continues to be ridiculed!"
Elected student leaders at American River College in Sacramento, Calif., have adopted a resolution that seeks to protect classmates from the "anti-religious and political indoctrination" of professors and others on campus.
"The purpose of the resolution is to go on record asking the administration to adopt the Student Bill of Rights as official campus policy," the 22-year-old councilman [George Popko] said.
The resolution models activist David Horowitz's "Student Bill of Rights," a bill which was introduced to the California senate as SB 5 in 2005.
Popko says he plans to present a Student Bill of Rights Resolution containing those provisions on May 3 before the General Assembly of the Student Senate of California Community Colleges, an organization representing 2.7 million college students.
The elected leaders since then have "been embattled with the leftist faculty, student organizations and administration on our campus," they have reported.
When the conservative student leaders faced an unsuccessful recall because of their views, the Associated Press described them as "politicized Christian fundamentalists."
Leading Roman Catholic adoption agencies have severed their links with the Church so that they can comply with the law and provide a service to gay couples.
The Times has learnt that five big agencies, including the largest in the country, felt that they had no choice because the Church opposes gay adoptions. Some agencies are changing their constitutions, funding structures and even their names.
New laws in 2007 banned providers of goods and services from discriminating on the ground of sexuality, and adoption agencies were told that they would have to consider applications from gay couples. In response Catholic bishops warned that the agencies would have to close if an exemption was not granted.
The Government rejected appeals for an exemption but ministers gave the agencies a 20-month transition period, which has now ended.
Maxine Smeaton, head of fundraising at Cabrini, said that it had to be pragmatic. “It was important not to get sentimental and too caught up in the name. We are here to provide services for children,” she said. “If we stopped the adoption service no one else would be providing it in the South of England. We are here for the children and that is our primary concern.”
Faith organizations and individuals who view homosexuality as sinful and refuse to provide services to gay people are losing a growing number of legal battles that they say are costing them their religious freedom.
The lawsuits have resulted from states and communities that have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. Those laws have created a clash between the right to be free from discrimination and the right to freedom of religion, religious groups said, with faith losing. They point to what they say are ominous recent examples . . . [Read the entire article for the impending loss of freedom in America.]
But gay groups and liberal legal scholars say they are prevailing because an individual's religious views about homosexuality cannot be used to violate gays' right to equal treatment under the law.
Twelve states now offer some form of same-sex marriage or same-sex partner recognition. Twenty states -- including Maryland -- and more than 180 cities and counties, including the District, ban discrimination against gays, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group. Virginia bans it against state employees.
Battles are increasingly including private businesses.
A group with a federal lawsuit in Kansas alleging widespread religious discrimination within the military called April 8 for the Army to court-martial its chief of chaplains.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation sought Maj. Gen. Douglas Carver’s ouster on the day Carver designated for prayer and fasting for chaplains. It also was the start of Passover, observed with a ritual meal, or Seder, by Jews.
Foundation President Mikey Weinstein said his Albuquerque, N.M.-based group has received numerous complaints about Carver’s proclamation in March calling for fasting and prayer on April 8.
The proclamation called for chaplains to act “in keeping with your religious traditions.” Carver later issued an addendum saying participation was voluntary and that he consulted with two senior Jewish chaplains.
“It’s a fundamentalist Christian-Constitution fight,” Weinstein said in an interview. “This represents a perfect, quintessential example of the fact that our United States military has become infused, essentially, with the Christian mirror image of the type of Islam that is pushed by al-Qaida and the Taliban.”
“This is absolutely about proselytizing in Iraq and everywhere else,” Weinstein said. “We’re not at war with Islam? It sure looks like we are.”
Maj. Gen. Douglas Carver, a Southern Baptist, issued a proclamation March 2 urging Army chaplains to pray and fast April 8 during a 120-day "stand down" period beginning Feb. 15 to focus on suicide-prevention awareness among soldiers.
"As spiritual leaders we are called to be a people of prayer," Carver explained in an Internet newsletter article. "One initiative that was proposed is that we employ the power of collective prayer more consistently in our efforts to combat suicide. I have issued a call to all members of our Corps to join with me on 8 April in leading the Army Family in a special day of prayer and fasting for the preservation, protection and peace of our Army.. I have directed our Center for Spiritual Leadership at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School to provide resources to support you in your prayer effort."
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation said the directive, which includes a resolution-style "whereas" statement saying spiritual leaders "model faith and belief in the Hand of God to intervene in the course of history and individual lives," is "not an appropriately pluralistic description of the theological and spiritual diversity present within military chaplaincy."
The group, founded by Air Force Academy graduate Mikey Weinstein to advocate the separation of church and state in the military, also said the Army chief of chaplains is a bureaucratic job with no constitutional authority to dictate a specific religious practice like fasting or prayer.
New study in the British Journal of Medicine shows sex-selective abortions has left China with 32 million more males, an imbalance that is expected to continue to rise.
The study provided ammunition for those experts who predicted that China’s obsession with a male heir would sow bitter fruit, as men facing a life of bachelorhood would eventually have to fight for a bride. “Although some imaginative and extreme solutions have been suggested, nothing can be done now to prevent this imminent generation of excess men,” says the paper. In most countries, males slightly outnumber females, with an average of 103 to 107 male births for every 100 female births.
But in China and other Asian countries, the gender ratio has widened sharply as the traditional preference for boys was reinforced by the availability of cheap ultrasound diagnostics and abortion. This has enabled Chinese couples to use abortions to prevent a female birth, a practice that was officially condemned as well as being made illegal.
Amongst the Chinese aged below 20, the greatest gender imbalances existed amongst one-to-four-year-olds, where there were 124 male to 100 female births, with 126 to 100 in rural areas, they found.
When it came to second births, the sex ratio was even higher, with 143 male births to 100 female births. It peaked at a massive 192 boys to 100 girls in the Jiangsu province.
If there were a recipe for creating a new conservative culture-wars issue, it might look something like this: Start with the United Nations, fold in the prospect of an expanded role for government in children’s lives, add some unfortunate court decisions, then toss in Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton.
[Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.)] last week introduced a bill in the House to amend the U.S. Constitution to permanently “enshrine” in American society an inviolable set of parents’ rights. The bill had 70 co-sponsors, all Republicans, including Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Minority Leader John A. Boehner.
The bill, said Hoekstra, is intended to stem the “slow erosion” of parents’ rights and to circumvent the effects of a United Nations treaty he believes “clearly undermines parental rights in the United States.”
While a treaty that seeks to protect children may sound innocuous, its opponents, such as Michael Farris, the Christian conservative founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, see in it a dystopian future in which “Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children”; “A child’s ‘right to be heard’ would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed”; and “Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion,” as he puts it on his website parentalrights.org.
By its nature, the treaty combines two “third-rail” issues for conservatives — the implications of international treaties for U.S. sovereignty, and the role of the United Nations in U.S. affairs. “Opposing the U.N has been a rallying cry of the right for decades,” notes Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.
Conservatives, he notes, are “looking for issues. And if this looks like this is an issue they can hook onto . . .”
“If anyone should understand the ugliness of discrimination, it is our first African American president. . . My prayer is that he will wake up to what is really going on . . .”
The Bush administration rule, enacted the day before President Barack Obama took office, expanded the existing "right of conscience" law, under which doctors and other healthcare workers who didn't want to perform abortions could legally refuse to do so.
Under the new federal rule, any worker in a healthcare setting is free to refuse to provide services or information on topics ranging from contraception to vaccine counseling if they are morally opposed to the procedures, CNN reported Wednesday.
Health care professionals on Wednesay urged President Barack Obama not to rescind the "conscience clause" -- the Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation that bars federally funded groups from discriminating against medical workers who, for moral reasons, refuse to perform medical procedures such as abortion and prescribing the "morning-after" pill.
Doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals wearing white coats and green scrubs spoke at the National Press Club on Wednesday [including Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association].
The event came one day before the end of the 30-day public comment period on the HHS regulation.
What is happening, Stevens and other health care professionals said, is an ongoing campaign to discriminate against doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical workers who oppose performing procedures or filling prescriptions for religious reasons. They said some conscientious objectors are not being admitted to medical schools and are being passed over for promotions.
The results of a nationwide poll by The Polling Company/Woman Trend of 800 adults, 18 or older, and 2,865 members of faith-based health care professional organizations also was unveiled at the press conference.
The poll found that 87 percent of the adults said they think health care professionals should not be forced to participate in procedures and practices that they morally oppose – a number that represents people across the political spectrum.
The survey of health care professionals showed nearly three quarters, or 74 percent, believed that elimination of the conscience regulation would result in fewer doctors practicing medicine, and 66 percent said it would decrease access to medical treatment to patients in low-income areas. The survey also found that 58 percent of those surveyed predicted a reduction in hospitals providing services.
If a woman meets the agency's criteria, she earns $10,000 every time she donates. (Technically, the women are compensated for their time and inconvenience; it is illegal to sell one's eggs.)
Couples, and some single women, pay $20,000 to $30,000 for an egg donation, in vitro fertilization, and transfer to the recipient. Donors generally must be healthy nonsmokers between ages 21 and 32 with a good family health history, "reasonably educated and reasonably attractive. . ." Screening involves physical, psychological, and genetic testing. If accepted, the woman undergoes hormone injections, then a surgical procedure to remove her eggs. Fees paid to the donor generally range from $5,000 to $10,000. Recipients choose prescreened donors.
Sperm donations are also on the increase, although they pay much less - an average of $85 to $100 per donation. Such "banks" generally require that the donor be at least 5-foot-8, a college student or graduate between the ages of 18 and 38, and in good health.
California Cryobank, which has offices in Cambridge, recruits largely on college campuses and asks each donor for a year's commitment, with the average donor contributing 2-3 times a week.
