The latest Pew Research poll confirms, as has always been true in America, that most people do not believe that mankind evolved from lower life forms through natural processes as an accident over time. In fact, public opinion is evolving AWAY from such atheistic propaganda in the 21st century, except among liberals (who will believe anything??).
This Pew poll shows that only 32% of Americans believe that evolution is “due to natural processes such as natural selection.”
However a competing Gallup poll found that Only 15% of Americans Believe Darwinian Evolution
For background, read Few Believe Evolution Enough to Teach It and also read Teaching Evolution is Religious Indoctrination, Asserts Lawsuit as well as Religion Taught in New National Science Curriculum
-- From "Poll: Fewer Republicans, more Democrats say they believe in evolution" by UPI 12/30/13
Fewer U.S. Republicans believe in evolution now than five years ago, with a Pew Research poll finding an 11 percentage point drop.
Sixty-seven percent of Democratic respondents said they believe in evolution, a rise of 3 percent from 2009.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "One-third of Americans reject human evolution" by Jessica Durando, USA TODAY 12/30/13
The Pew Research Religion & Public Life Project report released Monday found that 33% think "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time." . . . [and another] 24% of adults say "a supreme being guided the evolution of living things."
Among white evangelical Protestants, 64% say that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. The survey found that half of black Protestants responded the same way. Whereas 78% of white mainline Protestants say that humans and other living things have evolved over time.
Seventy-six percent of the religiously unaffiliated, 68% of white non-Hispanic Catholics and 53% of Hispanic Catholics agreed with evolution.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Public’s Views on Human Evolution" posted at Pew Research Center, Religion & Public Life Project 12/30/13
Those saying that humans have evolved over time also were asked for their views on the processes responsible for evolution. Roughly a quarter of adults (24%) say that “a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today,” while about a third (32%) say that evolution is “due to natural processes such as natural selection.”
. . . while fully 78% of white mainline Protestants say that humans and other living things have evolved over time, the group is divided over whether evolution is due to natural processes or whether it was guided by a supreme being (36% each). White non-Hispanic Catholics also are divided equally on the question (33% each). The religiously unaffiliated predominantly hold the view that evolution stems from natural processes (57%), while 13% of this group says evolution was guided by a supreme being. Of the white evangelical Protestants and black Protestants who believe that humans have evolved over time, most believe that a supreme being guided evolution.
. . . Younger adults are more likely than older generations to believe that living things have evolved over time. And those with more years of formal schooling are more likely than those with less education to say that humans and animals have evolved over time.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Republicans' belief in evolution plummets, poll reveals" by Lindsey Boerma, CBS News 12/30/13
A poll out Monday shows that less than half – 43 percent – of those who identify with the Republican Party say they believe humans have evolved over time [either by accident or by God's hand], plunging from 54 percent four years ago. Forty-eight percent say they believe “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time,” up from 39 percent in 2009.
At 67 percent and 65 percent, respectively, the numbers of Democrats and independents who believe in evolution have remained more or less the same since 2009. . . .
The gaping partisan disparity remains, the analysis states, even when accounting for “differences in the racial and ethnic composition of Democrats and Republicans or differences in their levels of religious commitment.” But the dip from 2009 is a telling indicator of the growing influence in the GOP of the oft-yoked tea party-type ideologues and the “religious right.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Poll: Republican belief in evolution on the decline" by Danny Matteson, posted at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 12/31/13
[It's now] a 24-point gap between the parties — and an increase from the 10-point difference the poll found in 2009, and the 13-point difference found in 2005.
According to one of the pollsters, the results were a bit of a surprise. CNN quotes her saying: "I didn't expect to see that kind of shift. I think it basically fits with a pattern of growing polarization. And we see that on some other science issues."
The poll also found that of those who believed in evolution, about a quarter said they also believed it was caused by a creator. Meaning they believed a supreme being set the wheels of evolution in motion at some point in the past.
Interestingly, differences weren't just found when comparing political affiliations. Gender also played a role, with men 10 percent more likely to believe in evolution than women.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Atheists Want Christian to Stop Teaching Science as well as Parents Sue Kansas to Stop Teaching Secular Humanism as Science
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
Boycott Rose Parade's 'Gay Marriage' on New Year's
After the announcement that hairdressers Danny Leclair, 45, and Aubrey Loots, 42, would perform in a "gay wedding" on the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) float in Pasadena's annual Tournament of Roses Parade, Christians nationwide plan to boycott the event.
-- From "Plan for same-sex wedding on Rose Parade float draws fire" by UPI 12/28/13
[Karen] Grube told the Pasadena Star-News the Tournament of Roses should not get involved in a "political agenda." She called on the organization to remove the AHF float from the parade and urged corporate sponsors to pull their support for the parade if Leclair and Loots get married along the parade route.
AHF spokesman Ged Kenslea said the organization believes "sanctified relationships, like gay marriage, which is legal in California and 16 other states, will really go a long way to help reduce the spread of HIV and other STDs."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Anal Sex is Main Cause of Spread of HIV/AIDS as well as Homosexual Disease Paid by All Americans: ObamaCare
From "Gay couple to marry on Rose Parade float" by Soumya Karlamangla, Los Angeles Times 12/29/13
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s float, “Living the Dream: Love Is the Best Protection,” was created to celebrate victories in 2013 for gay marriage advocates, including Supreme Court decisions upholding the repeal of California’s Proposition 8 and striking down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act.
The Pasadena Tournament of Roses has received complaints from people opposing the wedding. Some took to the organization’s Facebook page to voice their anger.
[Many have] expressed concern about the event not being suited for families that may tune in to watch the annual New Year’s Day celebration. The popular float parade is watched by people around the world.
In a statement released to the Los Angeles Times, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses said it is “pleased” to have the [AHF] foundation participate in this year’s event.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Gay Agenda will be Complete when Christians are Muzzled, Say Homosexualists as well as Senator Ted Cruz Says the Gay Agenda Ends Christian Liberty
"Gay marriage is illegal in over 30 states, why would they promote something that is blatantly illegal? That's just stupid."For background, read Activist Judges Spread 'Gay Marriage' to More States and also read 'Gay Marriage' is NOT America's Choice, as Polling Shows
-- Karen Grube of San Diego
-- From "Plan for same-sex wedding on Rose Parade float draws fire" by UPI 12/28/13
[Karen] Grube told the Pasadena Star-News the Tournament of Roses should not get involved in a "political agenda." She called on the organization to remove the AHF float from the parade and urged corporate sponsors to pull their support for the parade if Leclair and Loots get married along the parade route.
AHF spokesman Ged Kenslea said the organization believes "sanctified relationships, like gay marriage, which is legal in California and 16 other states, will really go a long way to help reduce the spread of HIV and other STDs."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Anal Sex is Main Cause of Spread of HIV/AIDS as well as Homosexual Disease Paid by All Americans: ObamaCare
From "Gay couple to marry on Rose Parade float" by Soumya Karlamangla, Los Angeles Times 12/29/13
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s float, “Living the Dream: Love Is the Best Protection,” was created to celebrate victories in 2013 for gay marriage advocates, including Supreme Court decisions upholding the repeal of California’s Proposition 8 and striking down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act.
The Pasadena Tournament of Roses has received complaints from people opposing the wedding. Some took to the organization’s Facebook page to voice their anger.
[Many have] expressed concern about the event not being suited for families that may tune in to watch the annual New Year’s Day celebration. The popular float parade is watched by people around the world.
In a statement released to the Los Angeles Times, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses said it is “pleased” to have the [AHF] foundation participate in this year’s event.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Gay Agenda will be Complete when Christians are Muzzled, Say Homosexualists as well as Senator Ted Cruz Says the Gay Agenda Ends Christian Liberty
Labels:
AIDS,
CA,
Christian citizenship,
gay agenda,
gay health risks,
gay pride,
HIV,
media bias,
parade,
same-sex marriage
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Abortion Clinic Closings Set Record; Admit Defeat
Even liberal media sources would admit, although rarely report, that America is turning against abortion in favor of life at a record pace, as an all-time high of 87 abortion clinics closed in 2013.
In addition, read Abortionists Lament Ever-greater State Limits and also read Pro-lifers Prevail: More Abortion Restriction Laws
UPDATE 10/4/14: Most Texas Abortion Clinics Now Closed by Court
UPDATE 8/31/14: Abortionists Battle to Kill Without Clinics
UPDATE 7/2/14: Half of Ohio's Abortion Clinics Close
UPDATE 5/19/14: Abortionists Forced to Risk All in Supreme Court
UPDATE 3/20/14: Vast Majority of Texas Abortion Clinics will Close
UPDATE 2/17/14: Texas Yanks Abortionist's License for 268 Killed - also read about Kermit the Abortionist, in Prison for Infanticide
-- From "The Year Anti-Choicers Found Success by Arguing Abortion Is Too Dangerous to Allow Women Access" by Amanda Marcotte, Slate 12/23/13
In state after state, but most notably Texas, anti-abortion legislators passed a series of laws designed to make legal abortion care seem incredibly dangerous for women (it's actually very safe and much safer than continuing a pregnancy) and therefore requiring extensive regulations that just happen to be out of the reach of most clinics, forcing them to close down. One popular new regulation is requiring abortion clinics to meet ambulatory surgical standards that cost clinics millions of dollars to satisfy . . . Another is forcing doctors to have hospital admitting privileges to perform abortions. Problem is that many abortion doctors can't get them . . .
The faux concern for women's health, unfortunately, looks like an effective strategy so far. Since 2011, 73 abortion clinics have closed or stopped performing abortion, and roughly half of the closures are due to the new regulations. A big chunk of the clinics are in Texas, where a court battle to block the hospital admitting privileges regulation was lost, forcing at least a dozen clinics to stop performing abortion.
To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.
From "Pro-Life Victory: A Record 87 Abortion Clinics Closed in 2013" by Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue, 12/23/13
The total number of surgical abortion clinics left in the U.S. is now 582. This represents an impressive 12% net decrease in surgical abortion clinics in 2013 alone, and a 73% drop from a high in 1991 of 2,176.
Of 87 clinics that discontinued surgical abortions, 81 are permanently shuttered while 6 abortion businesses ceased surgical abortions, but continued to sell that abortion pill. The figures do not include the 11 abortion clinics that were closed temporarily in 2013, then reopened later in the year.
. . . In November, the Centers for Disease Control released its latest abortion figures that showed a 3% decrease in abortion numbers in 2010. This decrease is in keeping with a 20 year abortion trend.
While national abortion numbers are three years behind, some states have more recent abortion numbers that confirm that additional oversight and watchdog efforts by pro-life groups close abortion clinics and save lives.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "The Vanishing Abortion Clinic" by Esmé E. Deprez, Bloomberg Businessweek 11/27/13
At least a dozen clinics in Texas have closed their doors or stopped offering the procedure in the past month after a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court let the new statute take effect. The Texas law is emblematic of a shift in the tactics of abortion opponents: State-level laws targeting women and providers have become a more effective tool than the past noisy clinic blockades and violence against doctors. Since 2011, legislatures in 30 mostly Republican-controlled states have passed 203 abortion restrictions, about as many as in all of the prior decade. At least 73 clinics have closed or stopped performing abortions. New laws are responsible for roughly half of the closures, while declining demand, industry consolidation, and crackdowns on unfit providers have also contributed to the drop.
In 1992 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states could pass restrictions that don’t present an “undue burden” to women seeking abortions, made legal in all 50 states by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read President Obama Asks God to Bless Planned Parenthood as well as Planned Parenthood's Prayer Vigil for More Abortion
In addition read Democrats' Life Mission is to Kill the Unborn, Says Mississippi Governor, and so it's no surprise that a Mississippi Abortionist Says God Called Me to Kill Babies
“These numbers show that the pro-life movement is gaining ground and that the abortion industry is collapsing – mostly due to its own negligence and greed, which has been exposed by their unwillingness and inability to comply with even the most rudimentary safety standards.”For background, read Abortion Clinics Close in Most States Since 2010
-- Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.
In addition, read Abortionists Lament Ever-greater State Limits and also read Pro-lifers Prevail: More Abortion Restriction Laws
UPDATE 10/4/14: Most Texas Abortion Clinics Now Closed by Court
UPDATE 8/31/14: Abortionists Battle to Kill Without Clinics
UPDATE 7/2/14: Half of Ohio's Abortion Clinics Close
UPDATE 5/19/14: Abortionists Forced to Risk All in Supreme Court
UPDATE 3/20/14: Vast Majority of Texas Abortion Clinics will Close
UPDATE 2/17/14: Texas Yanks Abortionist's License for 268 Killed - also read about Kermit the Abortionist, in Prison for Infanticide
-- From "The Year Anti-Choicers Found Success by Arguing Abortion Is Too Dangerous to Allow Women Access" by Amanda Marcotte, Slate 12/23/13
In state after state, but most notably Texas, anti-abortion legislators passed a series of laws designed to make legal abortion care seem incredibly dangerous for women (it's actually very safe and much safer than continuing a pregnancy) and therefore requiring extensive regulations that just happen to be out of the reach of most clinics, forcing them to close down. One popular new regulation is requiring abortion clinics to meet ambulatory surgical standards that cost clinics millions of dollars to satisfy . . . Another is forcing doctors to have hospital admitting privileges to perform abortions. Problem is that many abortion doctors can't get them . . .
The faux concern for women's health, unfortunately, looks like an effective strategy so far. Since 2011, 73 abortion clinics have closed or stopped performing abortion, and roughly half of the closures are due to the new regulations. A big chunk of the clinics are in Texas, where a court battle to block the hospital admitting privileges regulation was lost, forcing at least a dozen clinics to stop performing abortion.
To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.
From "Pro-Life Victory: A Record 87 Abortion Clinics Closed in 2013" by Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue, 12/23/13
The total number of surgical abortion clinics left in the U.S. is now 582. This represents an impressive 12% net decrease in surgical abortion clinics in 2013 alone, and a 73% drop from a high in 1991 of 2,176.
Of 87 clinics that discontinued surgical abortions, 81 are permanently shuttered while 6 abortion businesses ceased surgical abortions, but continued to sell that abortion pill. The figures do not include the 11 abortion clinics that were closed temporarily in 2013, then reopened later in the year.
. . . In November, the Centers for Disease Control released its latest abortion figures that showed a 3% decrease in abortion numbers in 2010. This decrease is in keeping with a 20 year abortion trend.
While national abortion numbers are three years behind, some states have more recent abortion numbers that confirm that additional oversight and watchdog efforts by pro-life groups close abortion clinics and save lives.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "The Vanishing Abortion Clinic" by Esmé E. Deprez, Bloomberg Businessweek 11/27/13
At least a dozen clinics in Texas have closed their doors or stopped offering the procedure in the past month after a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court let the new statute take effect. The Texas law is emblematic of a shift in the tactics of abortion opponents: State-level laws targeting women and providers have become a more effective tool than the past noisy clinic blockades and violence against doctors. Since 2011, legislatures in 30 mostly Republican-controlled states have passed 203 abortion restrictions, about as many as in all of the prior decade. At least 73 clinics have closed or stopped performing abortions. New laws are responsible for roughly half of the closures, while declining demand, industry consolidation, and crackdowns on unfit providers have also contributed to the drop.
In 1992 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states could pass restrictions that don’t present an “undue burden” to women seeking abortions, made legal in all 50 states by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read President Obama Asks God to Bless Planned Parenthood as well as Planned Parenthood's Prayer Vigil for More Abortion
In addition read Democrats' Life Mission is to Kill the Unborn, Says Mississippi Governor, and so it's no surprise that a Mississippi Abortionist Says God Called Me to Kill Babies
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Minn. School Admits Pro-Muslim/Anti-Christian Bias
This week, the Bagley, Minnesota school district agreed that their action in October of forbidding an Egyptian-born, American Christian pastor from speaking in the school auditorium during non-school hours violated his right of free speech, and that of local taxpayers who organized the event. The school, bowing to pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) because the pastor planned to present evidence of Muslim violence against Christians, cancelled his speaking engagement.
Muslim Beheads Christians in New Jersey per Koran
Islam Favored over Christianity in Florida Textbook
Muslim Prayer in Wisconsin School
Tennessee School Visits Mosque, No Time for Church
Islam Indoctrination Dropped at Ohio Middle School
Public School Teaching Islam Closed by Minnesota
Teaching Islam in Georgia Schools Challenged
UPDATE 2/10/15: Florida School Teaches Islam Including Prayer Rugs
-- From "Bagley Schools deny anti-Islamist speaker" by Crystal Dey, Bemidji (Minnesota) Pioneer 10/30/13
Originally slated to speak at the Bagley High School Sunday through Tuesday, [Usama] Dakdok’s location was shifted to the church. The school had received calls from people who disagreed with Dakdok’s anti-Islamic message.
Dakdok spoke at the Calvary Evangelical Free Church on Sunday and Monday before a full house, according to a representative of the church, with approximately a dozen protesters outside [decrying the message of Dakdok]. Pastor Rick Moore could not be reached for comment.
Dakdok describes himself as an Egyptian born Christian who was taught Islam in a government school in Egypt. He came to the United States in 1992 and has since been preaching his ministry in effort to, "reach out to the Muslim people with the word of Jesus Christ."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Christian Speaker Draws Protesters for 'Anti-Muslim Message' at Minn. Church" by Morgan Lee, Christian Post Reporter 10/31/13
About a dozen individuals showed up on Sunday to protest Dakdok, the director of Straight Road Ministries, an organization seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity and "expose the lies of the enemy who is seeking to keep people away from the truth of salvation in Christ." Despite the presence of protesters, the audience was full for both Dakdok's Sunday and Monday sessions.
According to his website, Dakdok converted to Christianity as an 11-year-old and came to the United States in 1992. He holds a Master's Degree in Missiology from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and founded The Straight Way in 2001.
Last December, Dakdok earned the ire of the Council of American-Islamic Relations Minnesota (CAIR-MN) in a talk titled, "The Truth about Islam," where he claimed that an Islamic revival in the country would lead Muslims to "start beheading your children and your grandchildren."
Dakdok also claimed that Muslims in America would "kill your children for not eating what is liked. For not eating the lawful foods" and alleged that for Msulims "killing you is a small matter."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Public School Reverses Viewpoint Discrimination Decision" posted at Liberty Counsel 12/27/13
Usama Dakdok was subjected to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by the Bagley Independent School. Dakdok was invited by residents of the small, northern city to share his story of growing up in Egypt, attending government schools, and witnessing the persecution of other Coptic Christians by fundamentalist Muslims.
A local Bagley resident rented the auditorium for the dates of October 27-29, 2013. The school district revoked the use of the facility four days before the event after the local Council on American Islamic Relations (“CAIR”) affiliate created controversy.
After receiving Liberty Counsel’s letter, Bagley School District reversed the decision and confirmed that Mr. Dakdok may return to hold the event [sometime in the future].
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "School reverses CAIR-sought silencing of Christian" by Bob Unruh, World Net Daily 12/27/13
“Usama Dakdok is a Christian originally from Egypt, who grew up in that country attending government schools where he was educated about Islam as the state religion. In Egypt, as a member of the Coptic ethnic minority, Mr. Dakdok has also personally witnessed the persecution of other Coptic Christians by fundamentalist Muslims. As you may be aware in Egypt (as elsewhere), the Quran is explicitly cited as justification for the burning of churches, raping of women, murder of both sexes and all ages through beheading and other methods, forced ‘marriage’ of Christian women and girls to Muslim men and their forcible ‘conversion’ to Islam, payment of the ‘jizya’ tax for the privilege of remaining Christian,and other persecution that is inflicted upon members of the Coptic Christian ethnic and religious minority,” Liberty Counsel told the district.
So he is “uniquely qualified to give a Christian perspective about life under shariah (Islamic religious) law, and is a sought-after public speaker.”
Regarding his appearance in Minnesota, he had been invited by residents of the community to speak. A local resident, Tammy Godwin, made arrangements to use the school.
The national CAIR organization was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial, and a review of the public record, including federal criminal court documents, past IRS 990 tax records and Federal Election Commission records detailing donor occupations, reveals that CAIR has been associated with a disturbing number of convicted terrorists or felons in terrorism probes, as well as suspected terrorists and active targets of terrorism investigations.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read President Obama Praises Islam for Making America What It Is
In addition, read Christians, Extinct in Middle East, as Islam Wins as well as U.N. and Muslims to Strip U.S. of Religious Liberty
"We asked to change the venue to the [Calvary Evangelical Free Church] because the speaker did not appear to coincide with school district policy."For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
-- Steve Cairns, Superintendent of Bagley Public Schools, said in October.
Muslim Beheads Christians in New Jersey per Koran
Islam Favored over Christianity in Florida Textbook
Muslim Prayer in Wisconsin School
Tennessee School Visits Mosque, No Time for Church
Islam Indoctrination Dropped at Ohio Middle School
Public School Teaching Islam Closed by Minnesota
Teaching Islam in Georgia Schools Challenged
UPDATE 2/10/15: Florida School Teaches Islam Including Prayer Rugs
-- From "Bagley Schools deny anti-Islamist speaker" by Crystal Dey, Bemidji (Minnesota) Pioneer 10/30/13
Originally slated to speak at the Bagley High School Sunday through Tuesday, [Usama] Dakdok’s location was shifted to the church. The school had received calls from people who disagreed with Dakdok’s anti-Islamic message.
Dakdok spoke at the Calvary Evangelical Free Church on Sunday and Monday before a full house, according to a representative of the church, with approximately a dozen protesters outside [decrying the message of Dakdok]. Pastor Rick Moore could not be reached for comment.
Dakdok describes himself as an Egyptian born Christian who was taught Islam in a government school in Egypt. He came to the United States in 1992 and has since been preaching his ministry in effort to, "reach out to the Muslim people with the word of Jesus Christ."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Christian Speaker Draws Protesters for 'Anti-Muslim Message' at Minn. Church" by Morgan Lee, Christian Post Reporter 10/31/13
About a dozen individuals showed up on Sunday to protest Dakdok, the director of Straight Road Ministries, an organization seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity and "expose the lies of the enemy who is seeking to keep people away from the truth of salvation in Christ." Despite the presence of protesters, the audience was full for both Dakdok's Sunday and Monday sessions.
According to his website, Dakdok converted to Christianity as an 11-year-old and came to the United States in 1992. He holds a Master's Degree in Missiology from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and founded The Straight Way in 2001.
Last December, Dakdok earned the ire of the Council of American-Islamic Relations Minnesota (CAIR-MN) in a talk titled, "The Truth about Islam," where he claimed that an Islamic revival in the country would lead Muslims to "start beheading your children and your grandchildren."
Dakdok also claimed that Muslims in America would "kill your children for not eating what is liked. For not eating the lawful foods" and alleged that for Msulims "killing you is a small matter."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Public School Reverses Viewpoint Discrimination Decision" posted at Liberty Counsel 12/27/13
Usama Dakdok was subjected to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by the Bagley Independent School. Dakdok was invited by residents of the small, northern city to share his story of growing up in Egypt, attending government schools, and witnessing the persecution of other Coptic Christians by fundamentalist Muslims.
A local Bagley resident rented the auditorium for the dates of October 27-29, 2013. The school district revoked the use of the facility four days before the event after the local Council on American Islamic Relations (“CAIR”) affiliate created controversy.
After receiving Liberty Counsel’s letter, Bagley School District reversed the decision and confirmed that Mr. Dakdok may return to hold the event [sometime in the future].
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "School reverses CAIR-sought silencing of Christian" by Bob Unruh, World Net Daily 12/27/13
“Usama Dakdok is a Christian originally from Egypt, who grew up in that country attending government schools where he was educated about Islam as the state religion. In Egypt, as a member of the Coptic ethnic minority, Mr. Dakdok has also personally witnessed the persecution of other Coptic Christians by fundamentalist Muslims. As you may be aware in Egypt (as elsewhere), the Quran is explicitly cited as justification for the burning of churches, raping of women, murder of both sexes and all ages through beheading and other methods, forced ‘marriage’ of Christian women and girls to Muslim men and their forcible ‘conversion’ to Islam, payment of the ‘jizya’ tax for the privilege of remaining Christian,and other persecution that is inflicted upon members of the Coptic Christian ethnic and religious minority,” Liberty Counsel told the district.
So he is “uniquely qualified to give a Christian perspective about life under shariah (Islamic religious) law, and is a sought-after public speaker.”
Regarding his appearance in Minnesota, he had been invited by residents of the community to speak. A local resident, Tammy Godwin, made arrangements to use the school.
The national CAIR organization was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial, and a review of the public record, including federal criminal court documents, past IRS 990 tax records and Federal Election Commission records detailing donor occupations, reveals that CAIR has been associated with a disturbing number of convicted terrorists or felons in terrorism probes, as well as suspected terrorists and active targets of terrorism investigations.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read President Obama Praises Islam for Making America What It Is
In addition, read Christians, Extinct in Middle East, as Islam Wins as well as U.N. and Muslims to Strip U.S. of Religious Liberty
Friday, December 27, 2013
Obama's VA Veterans Hospital Bans Christmas Carols
A Christian school was turned away at Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia from their annual Christmas caroling -- an anti-Christian trend in President Obama's Pentagon and Veterans Administration. The group was told that they couldn't sing anything alluding to Christianity, so they just left.
President Obama's VA Strips Jesus & Bible from Chaplains
President Obama's Pentagon Takes Orders from Atheists: Nativity Scenes
President Obama's Pentagon Says Following Jesus' Command is a Court Martial Offense
President Obama's Army Says Christians are Worst Terrorists
President Obama's NASA Ignores God's Creation: Apollo 8 1968
And also read the latest news of the secular rebellion against Christmas.
UPDATE 2/6/14: President Obama, Hypocrite in Chief, Holds Prayer Breakfast
-- From "VA Hospital Bans Some Christmas Carols" by The Associated Press News 12/24/13
The students from Augusta's Alleluia Community School were prevented from singing traditional holiday songs such as "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful."
Hospital spokesman Brian Rothwell said in a statement that military service members represent people of all faiths. He said that VA rules on "spiritual care" are in place out of respect for every faith.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Augusta VA won't let carolers sing religious songs" by Wesley Brown, Athens-Banner Herald (Morris News Service) 12/24/13
Alleluia Community School Principal Dan Funsch said he was sad to hear that the Veterans Affairs hospital’s “spiritual care” grants holiday exemption only to Frosty, Rudolph and the secular characters that make up the 12 Days of Christmas.
. . . Funsch said, when he and his students arrived at the hospital Friday, they were handed a list of 12 Christmas songs the hospital’s Pastoral Service had “deemed appropriate for celebration within the hearing range of all Veterans.”
[Hospital spokesman Brian] Rothwell could not provide the date the VA’s ban on religious Christmas songs took effect, but Funsch said that in 2011 and 2012 his students were welcomed without hesitation at the Augusta VA’s Uptown campus as part of a yearly caroling the school does on its last day of classes before the holiday break.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Policy hits a sour note" by Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff 12/26/13
We don’t know the precise religious makeup of the local VA’s patient population. But we would guess that the hospital’s complaint box isn’t stuffed with indignant comments from patients who don’t want to hear Christmas songs. The Alleluia group reported no problems when it caroled at the VA’s Uptown campus in 2011 and 2012.
. . . do veterans really have to be protected from certain holiday singing? Caroling scarcely qualifies as imposing religious persecution. For a sense of perspective, read recent news stories about the bloody, violent purge of Christianity in other parts of the world. On Christmas Day, 15 Christians died in a church bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, where Christianity has been practiced since the first century A.D.
It appears that the VA is trying to outlaw being offended. But after word of the Augusta caroling decision hit national news wires this week, the hospital inadvertently cast a wider net to offend many more people.
To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.
For further background, read President Obama Redefines 1st Amendment Freedom of Religion and yet President Obama Denies Leading War Against Christianity, and so Congress Responds to Obama's Military Attack on Christians
“From our point of view, the purpose of Christmas and its carols is to celebrate and honor the birth of Jesus, and if that goal is taken from us, it is an issue we do not want to be a part of. We do not think it is a good idea to systemically weed out religious Christmas songs from being sung in certain places.”For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
-- Dan Funsch, Principal, Alleluia Community School
President Obama's VA Strips Jesus & Bible from Chaplains
President Obama's Pentagon Takes Orders from Atheists: Nativity Scenes
President Obama's Pentagon Says Following Jesus' Command is a Court Martial Offense
President Obama's Army Says Christians are Worst Terrorists
President Obama's NASA Ignores God's Creation: Apollo 8 1968
And also read the latest news of the secular rebellion against Christmas.
UPDATE 2/6/14: President Obama, Hypocrite in Chief, Holds Prayer Breakfast
-- From "VA Hospital Bans Some Christmas Carols" by The Associated Press News 12/24/13
The students from Augusta's Alleluia Community School were prevented from singing traditional holiday songs such as "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful."
Hospital spokesman Brian Rothwell said in a statement that military service members represent people of all faiths. He said that VA rules on "spiritual care" are in place out of respect for every faith.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Augusta VA won't let carolers sing religious songs" by Wesley Brown, Athens-Banner Herald (Morris News Service) 12/24/13
Alleluia Community School Principal Dan Funsch said he was sad to hear that the Veterans Affairs hospital’s “spiritual care” grants holiday exemption only to Frosty, Rudolph and the secular characters that make up the 12 Days of Christmas.
. . . Funsch said, when he and his students arrived at the hospital Friday, they were handed a list of 12 Christmas songs the hospital’s Pastoral Service had “deemed appropriate for celebration within the hearing range of all Veterans.”
[Hospital spokesman Brian] Rothwell could not provide the date the VA’s ban on religious Christmas songs took effect, but Funsch said that in 2011 and 2012 his students were welcomed without hesitation at the Augusta VA’s Uptown campus as part of a yearly caroling the school does on its last day of classes before the holiday break.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Policy hits a sour note" by Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff 12/26/13
We don’t know the precise religious makeup of the local VA’s patient population. But we would guess that the hospital’s complaint box isn’t stuffed with indignant comments from patients who don’t want to hear Christmas songs. The Alleluia group reported no problems when it caroled at the VA’s Uptown campus in 2011 and 2012.
. . . do veterans really have to be protected from certain holiday singing? Caroling scarcely qualifies as imposing religious persecution. For a sense of perspective, read recent news stories about the bloody, violent purge of Christianity in other parts of the world. On Christmas Day, 15 Christians died in a church bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, where Christianity has been practiced since the first century A.D.
It appears that the VA is trying to outlaw being offended. But after word of the Augusta caroling decision hit national news wires this week, the hospital inadvertently cast a wider net to offend many more people.
To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.
For further background, read President Obama Redefines 1st Amendment Freedom of Religion and yet President Obama Denies Leading War Against Christianity, and so Congress Responds to Obama's Military Attack on Christians
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Homosexual Disease Paid by All Americans: ObamaCare
Because data from the government Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that homosexual men are the least healthy demographic in America (because anal sex is the main cause of the spread of HIV/AIDS), President Obama is focusing advertising campaigns to recruit homosexuals to sign up for ObamaCare in order to redistribute gay health care expenses to healthy Americans.
UPDATE 2/8/15: President Obama Floods Gay Agenda with Taxpayers' Money
For background, read CDC Reports HIV Infections Rampant Among Homosexuals and also read Most HIV Homosexual Men Have Unprotected Sex, Says CDC Report as well as President Obama Commits $15 Million to Show that Gay Men Aren't the Cause of HIV/AIDS
Also read ObamaCare Covers Abortion & Pays Abortionists
In addition, read Everyone Pays for 'Gay Fertility' Treatments in California
UPDATE 8/26/14: ObamaCare Pays for Sexual Mutilation — Gay Agenda
-- From "Obamacare outreach hits the [gay] clubs" by Natalie Villacorta, Politico 12/22/13
Washington’s new health insurance exchange dispatched a sign-up envoy to one of the city’s gay clubs one recent night to get out the word about Obamacare. It envisioned men mingling on the dance floor, a cocktail in one hand and enrollment information in the other.
Add an appearance by Santa wearing a “Naughty” hat as he posed for pictures on stage, and DC Health Link assister John Esposito had a near-impossible task that night. Positioned behind the stage and bar area, he stood by a small table offering not just information about insurance enrollment but packages of condoms and tubes of lubricant. The latter items were courtesy of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which also had its HIV testing van parked outside.
[Esposito] by day is stationed at Whitman-Walker as part of the DC exchange’s ongoing work with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Tailoring outreach to targeted populations makes sense, of course, and nightclubs are a logical location for Washington’s LGBT community. Gays and lesbians represent a significant percentage of the 42,000 people who are uninsured in the District. Most are African-American and live in four wards where the uninsurance rate averages about 18 percent, far higher than the rest of the city.
The White House has stressed that gays and lesbians are more likely than other groups to be uninsured nationwide. The administration has been working with LGBT groups and on Tuesday released an infographic on ways the Affordable Care Act benefits them, including coverage for same-sex spouses and coverage of preexisting conditions including HIV/AIDS.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "How Obamacare Helps the LGBT Community" by Gautam Raghavan and Matthew Heinz, The White House Blog 12/17/13
Since taking office, President Obama and his Administration have taken significant steps to advance equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. You’ve probably heard of many of these accomplishments: repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination in hospitals and in housing, promoting international LGBT human rights, standing up against DOMA and then implementing the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor.
. . . The Affordable Care Act has the potential to transform the lives of countless LGBT people and improve the health and well-being of our community – for generations to come.
. . . That’s why we have been working closely with organizations like Out2Enroll [see video below], CenterLink, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, PFLAG, the Equality Federation, and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute over the last few months to raise awareness of the Affordable Care Act. And we’ve also been working with LGBT community centers, Pride organizations, philanthropic foundations, LGBT health centers, and HIV/AIDS service providers to empower local LGBT communities with the information and resources they need to get access to quality, affordable health care.
. . . Here’s how you can help: Share [these] “Top 5 Affordable Care Act Benefits for the LGBT Community:”
From "Log Cabin Republicans blast ObamaCare enrollment video" by Kyle Balluck, The Hill 12/22/13
Log Cabin Republicans, which represents gay conservatives and allies, is targeting an ad posted on YouTube last week by Out2Enroll, a coalition of organizations working to make sure access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance reaches LBGT communities.
[Log Cabin Executive Director Gregory T.] Angelo said the ad is an example of the left “promoting harmful stereotypes that gay men are nothing more than sex-crazed lechers.”
“If anyone on the right made such a comparison, liberals would be apoplectic,” Angelo added.
“At a time when left-wing propagandists are decrying Duck Dynasty‘s Phil Robertson for equating homosexuality with promiscuity and deviance, Out2Enroll and others should take a look in the mirror and ask if the truth is that they are the ones responsible for promoting such harmful stereotypes,” he said.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
In addition, read Fictional 'Safe Sex' - Government Losing War on STDs and also read New Aggressive HIV Strain Spreading AIDS Worldwide
UPDATE 2/8/15: President Obama Floods Gay Agenda with Taxpayers' Money
For background, read CDC Reports HIV Infections Rampant Among Homosexuals and also read Most HIV Homosexual Men Have Unprotected Sex, Says CDC Report as well as President Obama Commits $15 Million to Show that Gay Men Aren't the Cause of HIV/AIDS
Also read ObamaCare Covers Abortion & Pays Abortionists
In addition, read Everyone Pays for 'Gay Fertility' Treatments in California
UPDATE 8/26/14: ObamaCare Pays for Sexual Mutilation — Gay Agenda
-- From "Obamacare outreach hits the [gay] clubs" by Natalie Villacorta, Politico 12/22/13
Washington’s new health insurance exchange dispatched a sign-up envoy to one of the city’s gay clubs one recent night to get out the word about Obamacare. It envisioned men mingling on the dance floor, a cocktail in one hand and enrollment information in the other.
Add an appearance by Santa wearing a “Naughty” hat as he posed for pictures on stage, and DC Health Link assister John Esposito had a near-impossible task that night. Positioned behind the stage and bar area, he stood by a small table offering not just information about insurance enrollment but packages of condoms and tubes of lubricant. The latter items were courtesy of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which also had its HIV testing van parked outside.
[Esposito] by day is stationed at Whitman-Walker as part of the DC exchange’s ongoing work with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Tailoring outreach to targeted populations makes sense, of course, and nightclubs are a logical location for Washington’s LGBT community. Gays and lesbians represent a significant percentage of the 42,000 people who are uninsured in the District. Most are African-American and live in four wards where the uninsurance rate averages about 18 percent, far higher than the rest of the city.
The White House has stressed that gays and lesbians are more likely than other groups to be uninsured nationwide. The administration has been working with LGBT groups and on Tuesday released an infographic on ways the Affordable Care Act benefits them, including coverage for same-sex spouses and coverage of preexisting conditions including HIV/AIDS.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "How Obamacare Helps the LGBT Community" by Gautam Raghavan and Matthew Heinz, The White House Blog 12/17/13
Since taking office, President Obama and his Administration have taken significant steps to advance equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. You’ve probably heard of many of these accomplishments: repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination in hospitals and in housing, promoting international LGBT human rights, standing up against DOMA and then implementing the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor.
. . . The Affordable Care Act has the potential to transform the lives of countless LGBT people and improve the health and well-being of our community – for generations to come.
. . . That’s why we have been working closely with organizations like Out2Enroll [see video below], CenterLink, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, PFLAG, the Equality Federation, and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute over the last few months to raise awareness of the Affordable Care Act. And we’ve also been working with LGBT community centers, Pride organizations, philanthropic foundations, LGBT health centers, and HIV/AIDS service providers to empower local LGBT communities with the information and resources they need to get access to quality, affordable health care.
. . . Here’s how you can help: Share [these] “Top 5 Affordable Care Act Benefits for the LGBT Community:”
Plans purchased through the Marketplace can’t discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity;To read the article above from the Obama White House, CLICK HERE.
You can’t be charged a higher premium just because you’re lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender;
No denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions like HIV/AIDS, cancer, or mental health diagnoses;
Legally married same-sex couples are treated equally for same-sex couples are treated equally for financial assistance when purchasing coverage in the Health Insurance Marketplace, regardless of where they live;
No more lifetime limits on coverage for people with chronic diseases like HIV/AIDS.
From "Log Cabin Republicans blast ObamaCare enrollment video" by Kyle Balluck, The Hill 12/22/13
Log Cabin Republicans, which represents gay conservatives and allies, is targeting an ad posted on YouTube last week by Out2Enroll, a coalition of organizations working to make sure access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance reaches LBGT communities.
[Log Cabin Executive Director Gregory T.] Angelo said the ad is an example of the left “promoting harmful stereotypes that gay men are nothing more than sex-crazed lechers.”
“If anyone on the right made such a comparison, liberals would be apoplectic,” Angelo added.
“At a time when left-wing propagandists are decrying Duck Dynasty‘s Phil Robertson for equating homosexuality with promiscuity and deviance, Out2Enroll and others should take a look in the mirror and ask if the truth is that they are the ones responsible for promoting such harmful stereotypes,” he said.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
In addition, read Fictional 'Safe Sex' - Government Losing War on STDs and also read New Aggressive HIV Strain Spreading AIDS Worldwide
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Activist Judges Say Scalia Right on 'Gay Marriage'
Gay Agenda judges across America are rapidly falling in line to forbid American voters the right to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a devout Roman Catholic, has warned for more than a decade that judicial activism in the high court decisions were pointing toward an eventual stripping of moral values from the fabric that created America.
Just as Scalia predicted, when he Slammed the Supreme Court Majority in June 2013:
UPDATE 5/20/14: 'Gay Marriage' Not Favored in Polls, Only in Court
! ! ! ! UPDATE 11/7/14: 'Gay Marriage' Loses in Federal Appeals Court; on to Supreme Court
-- From "Judge Completely Trolls Justice Scalia In Striking Down Utah's Gay Marriage Ban" by Brett LoGiurato, Business Insider 12/20/13
[Justice Antonin Scalia's] prediction came true on Friday, when U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled that Utah's 2004 ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional. And Shelby even made note of Scalia's dissent at points in his ruling, citing it as part of his reasoning in striking down the Utah law.
Scalia warned that the Supreme Court's reasoning that struck down [one portion of] the Defense of Marriage Act — which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples — could be used to strike down state laws banning same-sex marriage. Scalia, who's notoriously anti-gay marriage, was saying this was a bad thing. In an interesting twist, Utah's Judge Shelby quoted Scalia's negative prophecy in his pro-gay marriage opinion [and] then wrote that he "agreed" with that part of Scalia's opinion, and offered his response. Though Scalia meant it as some kind of dire warning, Shelby cited the Supreme Court's decision as a reason to overturn Utah's law:
From "Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling ripples through lower courts" by Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times 12/23/13
The scenarios must have sounded all too familiar to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In June, when the court issued a landmark decision ordering the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where they were legal, Scalia warned of what could come next.
"How easy it is, indeed how inevitable, to reach the same conclusion with regard to state laws denying same-sex couples marital status," Scalia wrote in a scathing dissent in United States vs. Windsor, which struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act but left state laws intact. "No one should be fooled; it is just a matter of listening and waiting for the other shoe" to drop.
Now, for opponents of same-sex marriage, the other shoe is dropping.
"Now it is just as Justice Scalia predicted," [U.S. District Judge Timothy S.] Black wrote in his Ohio ruling. "The lower courts are applying the Supreme Court's decision, as they must, and the question is presented whether a state can do what the federal government cannot — i.e., discriminate against same-sex couples. ... Under the Constitution of the United States, the answer is no."
[Numerous] judges have overridden legislators and voters who had approved the bans before national popular opinion began to tilt in favor of same-sex marriage.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Same-Sex-Marriage Supporters Applaud Ohio and Utah Rulings" by Jack Healy And Trip Gabriel, New York Times 12/23/13
The same-sex weddings began in a joyful chaos on Friday afternoon after Judge Shelby declared that the ban that Utah voters approved in 2004 violated the United States Constitution. While many gay-rights advocates expected a favorable ruling from Judge Shelby, an appointee of President Obama, the timing caught many gay couples off-guard. . . .
Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, said the flurry of new marriages and unresolved legal questions — lawyers on both sides said the case was likely to reach the United States Supreme Court — had created “a lot of chaos” in Utah. He condemned the ruling as an activist judge’s attack on a definition of traditional marriage that was supported by a wide majority of Utah residents.
. . . A spokeswoman for Ohio’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, said he would appeal the [Ohio] ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
The Ohio decision did not go as far as the ruling in Utah, but experts said both were among federal cases around the country likely to return the issue of same-sex marriage to the Supreme Court.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Same-Sex Marriage, The Legal Deluge" by Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker 12/24/13
. . . The Mormon Church, once a leader of the anti-marriage-equality fight and a major force in Utah, was practically apologetic in its disagreement with the decision. “The Church has been consistent in its support of traditional marriage while teaching that all people should be treated with respect,” the Church statement said. “This ruling by a district court will work its way through the judicial process.” A few dead-enders in Utah have fought back, and there is no guarantee that the decision will survive on appeal, but the muted response suggests that everyone, on all sides of the issue, sees where the country is headed.
Dominoes are falling all over. The day before Utah became the eighteenth state (in addition to the District of Columbia) to allow same-sex marriage, New Mexico became No. 17. The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled unanimously that its state constitution required marriage equality.
. . . The Ohio [Judge Black] decision is crucial because people in the United States tend to move from state to state. . . . It would be a disorderly mess to have separate spheres of law [from state to state] for gay married couples and straight married couples . . .
What [Utah's Judge] Shelby and all these judges are seeing is that it is impossible to offer gay people some rights and not others. . . .
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Federal Judge: Right to Same-Sex Marriage Is 'Deeply Rooted in Nation’s History and Implicit in The Concept of Ordered Liberty'" by Terence P. Jeffrey, CNSNews.com 12/21/13
“The alleged right to same-sex marriage that the State claims the Plaintiffs are seeking is simply the same right that is currently enjoyed by heterosexual individuals: the right to make a public commitment to form an exclusive relationship and create a family with a partner with whom the person shares an intimate and sustaining emotional bond,” wrote [Judge Shelby].
“This right is deeply rooted in the nation’s history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty because it protects an individual’s ability to make deeply personal choices about love and family free from government interference,” he declared. “And, as discussed above, this right is enjoyed by all individuals. If the right to same-sex marriage were a new right, then it should make new protections and benefits available to all citizens. But heterosexual individuals are as likely to exercise their purported right to same-sex marriage as gay men and lesbians are to exercise their purported right to opposite-sex marriage. Both same-sex and opposite-sex marriage are therefore simply manifestations of one right—the right to marry—applied to people with different sexual identities.”
“The Plaintiffs are seeking access to an existing right, not the declaration of a new right,” said the judge.
The judge argued that the Fifth Amendment, ratified in 1791, and the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, are the two provisions of the Constitution that have guaranteed the “existing right” of a man to marry another man or a woman to marry another woman.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Ohio gay marriage ruling may just be beginning" by Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press 12/24/13
In a broadly written ruling Monday, Judge Timothy Black said Ohio's ["Gay Marriage"] ban is unconstitutional and that states cannot discriminate against same-sex couples simply because some voters don't like homosexuality.
Bridget Coontz, the attorney who argued on behalf of the state, said Wednesday in Black's Cincinnati courtroom that in the Supreme Court's historic June decision, the justices also found that states have the right to decide for themselves whether to recognize gay marriage, and Ohio voters decided not to in 2004.
"Ohio doesn't want Delaware or Maryland to define who is married under Ohio law," she said. "To allow that to happen would allow one state to set the marriage policy for all others."
Black said constitutional rights trump Ohio's gay marriage ban, questioning whether it was passed for a legitimate state interest "other than simply maintaining a 'traditional' definition of marriage."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
UPDATE 12/29/13: "Scalia finds his predictions on same-sex-marriage ruling being borne out" by Robert Barnes, Washington Post
. . . as Scalia pointed out, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s DOMA decision practically provided a blueprint for how such challenges might be successful.
It is not surprising that judges might want to quote a conservative justice when striking down what voters have put in place. Ohio and Utah voters amended their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriages in 2004, along with other states. Black and Shelby were nominated by President Obama.
Shelby, 43, does not have the reputation as a firebrand. He had been on the bench only six months when he was assigned the same-sex marriage case Kitchen v. Herbert. He was previously a Salt Lake City lawyer and was honored for his service in Operation Desert Storm while in the Utah National Guard.
The state of Utah has said it will ask the Supreme Court to stay Shelby’s ruling and stop same-sex marriages while an appeals court considers the merits of the decision. . . .
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
And although 'Gay Marriage' is NOT America's Choice, as Polling Shows, nonetheless More High-profile Republicans are Going Gay Agenda, and the Republican Party is Funding Homosexualist Candidates, thus demonstrating that The GOP Has Failed the Nationwide Marriage Amendment Test
Also read Gay Agenda will be Complete when Christians are Muzzled, Say Homosexualists as well as Senator Ted Cruz Says the Gay Agenda Ends Christian Liberty
UPDATE 10/19/14: Idaho Pastors Face Fines, Jail for Refusing 'Gay Wedding'
Just as Scalia predicted, when he Slammed the Supreme Court Majority in June 2013:
Federal Judge OKs Polygamy in UtahIn contrast, 'Gay Marriage' Flops in Expanding European Union and also Africans Reject Obama's Gay Agenda, to his Face
Federal Judge Orders Utah 'Gay Marriages' to Proceed — UPDATE 7/19/14: Supreme Court Blocks "Gay Marriages" OKd by Obama's DOJ
Federal Judge Negates Ohio Voters, Recognizes 'Gay Marriage'
Pennsylvania Officials Defy Voters, Issue 'Gay Marriage' Licenses — UPDATE 5/20/14: Federal Judge Rules Voters Cannot Define Natural Marriage
North Carolina Officials Defy Voters re: 'Gay Marriage' Licenses
Hawaii Government Oppose Citizens re: 'Gay Marriage'
Illinois Government Oppose Black & Catholic Churches re: 'Gay Marriage'
New Jersey Supreme Court Mandates 'Gay Marriage'
New Mexico Supreme Court Legalizes 'Gay Marriage'
President Obama Edicts 'Gay Marriage' to ALL States
UPDATE 2/10/14: New Mexico Voters' Defense of Marriage Now Said to be Indefensible
UPDATE 2/10/14: Lawless Nevada GOP Governor Yields 'Gay Marriage' Victory at 9th Circuit
UPDATE 2/14/14: Judges Negate Marriage Votes in Kentucky, Virginia
UPDATE 3/4/14: GOP Coalition Pushes 'Gay Marriage' in 10th Circuit Appeals Court
UPDATE 3/22/14: Suddenly, Judge Proclaims 'Gay Marriages' Must Commence in Michigan
UPDATE 5/10/14: Judges Negate Voters in Arkansas & Indiana: Gay Agenda
UPDATE 5/20/14: Idaho ruling against natural marriage put on hold by 9th Circuit Appeals Court
UPDATE 5/20/14: Oregon Judge Enacts 'Gay Marriage,' Citizens Want Re-vote to Overrule Judge
UPDATE 6/10/14: 'Gay Marriage' Chaos in Wisconsin after Judicial Ruling
UPDATE 7/18/14: 10th Circuit Rules for Same-sex "Marriage" in Utah & Oklahoma
UPDATE 7/30/14: 4th Circuit Judge Says Polygamy Will Follow Ruling for 'Gay Marriage'
UPDATE 9/6/14: 7th Circuit Court Goes Gay for Indiana & Wisconsin
UPDATE 10/7/14: List of status of all 50 states - same-sex "marriage" (Associated Press)
UPDATE 1/6/15: Florida Goes Gay, as a Few Judges Overrule 5 Million Voters
UPDATE 5/20/14: 'Gay Marriage' Not Favored in Polls, Only in Court
! ! ! ! UPDATE 11/7/14: 'Gay Marriage' Loses in Federal Appeals Court; on to Supreme Court
-- From "Judge Completely Trolls Justice Scalia In Striking Down Utah's Gay Marriage Ban" by Brett LoGiurato, Business Insider 12/20/13
[Justice Antonin Scalia's] prediction came true on Friday, when U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled that Utah's 2004 ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional. And Shelby even made note of Scalia's dissent at points in his ruling, citing it as part of his reasoning in striking down the Utah law.
Scalia warned that the Supreme Court's reasoning that struck down [one portion of] the Defense of Marriage Act — which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples — could be used to strike down state laws banning same-sex marriage. Scalia, who's notoriously anti-gay marriage, was saying this was a bad thing. In an interesting twist, Utah's Judge Shelby quoted Scalia's negative prophecy in his pro-gay marriage opinion [and] then wrote that he "agreed" with that part of Scalia's opinion, and offered his response. Though Scalia meant it as some kind of dire warning, Shelby cited the Supreme Court's decision as a reason to overturn Utah's law:
The court agrees with Justice Scalia’s interpretation of Windsor and finds that the important federalism concerns at issue here are nevertheless insufficient to save a state-law prohibition that denies the Plaintiffs their rights to due process and equal protection under the law.To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling ripples through lower courts" by Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times 12/23/13
The scenarios must have sounded all too familiar to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In June, when the court issued a landmark decision ordering the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where they were legal, Scalia warned of what could come next.
"How easy it is, indeed how inevitable, to reach the same conclusion with regard to state laws denying same-sex couples marital status," Scalia wrote in a scathing dissent in United States vs. Windsor, which struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act but left state laws intact. "No one should be fooled; it is just a matter of listening and waiting for the other shoe" to drop.
Now, for opponents of same-sex marriage, the other shoe is dropping.
"Now it is just as Justice Scalia predicted," [U.S. District Judge Timothy S.] Black wrote in his Ohio ruling. "The lower courts are applying the Supreme Court's decision, as they must, and the question is presented whether a state can do what the federal government cannot — i.e., discriminate against same-sex couples. ... Under the Constitution of the United States, the answer is no."
[Numerous] judges have overridden legislators and voters who had approved the bans before national popular opinion began to tilt in favor of same-sex marriage.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Same-Sex-Marriage Supporters Applaud Ohio and Utah Rulings" by Jack Healy And Trip Gabriel, New York Times 12/23/13
The same-sex weddings began in a joyful chaos on Friday afternoon after Judge Shelby declared that the ban that Utah voters approved in 2004 violated the United States Constitution. While many gay-rights advocates expected a favorable ruling from Judge Shelby, an appointee of President Obama, the timing caught many gay couples off-guard. . . .
Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, said the flurry of new marriages and unresolved legal questions — lawyers on both sides said the case was likely to reach the United States Supreme Court — had created “a lot of chaos” in Utah. He condemned the ruling as an activist judge’s attack on a definition of traditional marriage that was supported by a wide majority of Utah residents.
. . . A spokeswoman for Ohio’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, said he would appeal the [Ohio] ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
The Ohio decision did not go as far as the ruling in Utah, but experts said both were among federal cases around the country likely to return the issue of same-sex marriage to the Supreme Court.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Same-Sex Marriage, The Legal Deluge" by Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker 12/24/13
. . . The Mormon Church, once a leader of the anti-marriage-equality fight and a major force in Utah, was practically apologetic in its disagreement with the decision. “The Church has been consistent in its support of traditional marriage while teaching that all people should be treated with respect,” the Church statement said. “This ruling by a district court will work its way through the judicial process.” A few dead-enders in Utah have fought back, and there is no guarantee that the decision will survive on appeal, but the muted response suggests that everyone, on all sides of the issue, sees where the country is headed.
Dominoes are falling all over. The day before Utah became the eighteenth state (in addition to the District of Columbia) to allow same-sex marriage, New Mexico became No. 17. The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled unanimously that its state constitution required marriage equality.
. . . The Ohio [Judge Black] decision is crucial because people in the United States tend to move from state to state. . . . It would be a disorderly mess to have separate spheres of law [from state to state] for gay married couples and straight married couples . . .
What [Utah's Judge] Shelby and all these judges are seeing is that it is impossible to offer gay people some rights and not others. . . .
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Federal Judge: Right to Same-Sex Marriage Is 'Deeply Rooted in Nation’s History and Implicit in The Concept of Ordered Liberty'" by Terence P. Jeffrey, CNSNews.com 12/21/13
“The alleged right to same-sex marriage that the State claims the Plaintiffs are seeking is simply the same right that is currently enjoyed by heterosexual individuals: the right to make a public commitment to form an exclusive relationship and create a family with a partner with whom the person shares an intimate and sustaining emotional bond,” wrote [Judge Shelby].
“This right is deeply rooted in the nation’s history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty because it protects an individual’s ability to make deeply personal choices about love and family free from government interference,” he declared. “And, as discussed above, this right is enjoyed by all individuals. If the right to same-sex marriage were a new right, then it should make new protections and benefits available to all citizens. But heterosexual individuals are as likely to exercise their purported right to same-sex marriage as gay men and lesbians are to exercise their purported right to opposite-sex marriage. Both same-sex and opposite-sex marriage are therefore simply manifestations of one right—the right to marry—applied to people with different sexual identities.”
“The Plaintiffs are seeking access to an existing right, not the declaration of a new right,” said the judge.
The judge argued that the Fifth Amendment, ratified in 1791, and the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, are the two provisions of the Constitution that have guaranteed the “existing right” of a man to marry another man or a woman to marry another woman.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Ohio gay marriage ruling may just be beginning" by Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press 12/24/13
In a broadly written ruling Monday, Judge Timothy Black said Ohio's ["Gay Marriage"] ban is unconstitutional and that states cannot discriminate against same-sex couples simply because some voters don't like homosexuality.
Bridget Coontz, the attorney who argued on behalf of the state, said Wednesday in Black's Cincinnati courtroom that in the Supreme Court's historic June decision, the justices also found that states have the right to decide for themselves whether to recognize gay marriage, and Ohio voters decided not to in 2004.
"Ohio doesn't want Delaware or Maryland to define who is married under Ohio law," she said. "To allow that to happen would allow one state to set the marriage policy for all others."
Black said constitutional rights trump Ohio's gay marriage ban, questioning whether it was passed for a legitimate state interest "other than simply maintaining a 'traditional' definition of marriage."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
UPDATE 12/29/13: "Scalia finds his predictions on same-sex-marriage ruling being borne out" by Robert Barnes, Washington Post
. . . as Scalia pointed out, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s DOMA decision practically provided a blueprint for how such challenges might be successful.
It is not surprising that judges might want to quote a conservative justice when striking down what voters have put in place. Ohio and Utah voters amended their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriages in 2004, along with other states. Black and Shelby were nominated by President Obama.
Shelby, 43, does not have the reputation as a firebrand. He had been on the bench only six months when he was assigned the same-sex marriage case Kitchen v. Herbert. He was previously a Salt Lake City lawyer and was honored for his service in Operation Desert Storm while in the Utah National Guard.
The state of Utah has said it will ask the Supreme Court to stay Shelby’s ruling and stop same-sex marriages while an appeals court considers the merits of the decision. . . .
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
And although 'Gay Marriage' is NOT America's Choice, as Polling Shows, nonetheless More High-profile Republicans are Going Gay Agenda, and the Republican Party is Funding Homosexualist Candidates, thus demonstrating that The GOP Has Failed the Nationwide Marriage Amendment Test
Also read Gay Agenda will be Complete when Christians are Muzzled, Say Homosexualists as well as Senator Ted Cruz Says the Gay Agenda Ends Christian Liberty
UPDATE 10/19/14: Idaho Pastors Face Fines, Jail for Refusing 'Gay Wedding'
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Monday, December 23, 2013
Obama's NASA Ignores God's Creation: Apollo 8 1968
On Christmas Eve in 1968, all three astronauts aboard America's Apollo 8 spacecraft broadcast to the world the biblical account of God's creation of the earth by reading from Genesis. Just hours earlier, God provided these men a glimpse of the earth never before witnessed by mankind. This week, NASA released a brief documentary video of "Earthrise" on this 45th anniversary of the event -- absent God and the Bible.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. [Romans 1:19-20a ESV]
For background, read Atheist, NASA Conceal First Communion on Moon and also read Christians Can Forget Having Any Career at NASA
In addition, read Astronomer Says No Intelligent Life Beyond Earth
-- From "Apollo 8 astronaut to mark 1968 broadcast to earth" by The Associated Press 12/23/13
An Apollo 8 astronaut who was among the first to orbit the moon is set to help re-enact the 1968 Christmastime broadcast from space.
Millions tuned in on Dec. 24, 1968, when Commander Frank Borman, Bill Anders and James Lovell took turns reading from the Book of Genesis as the Apollo 8 orbited the moon.
Lovell is expected to attend Monday’s event at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, where the original Apollo 8 Command Module is.
Lovell took part in several missions, including as pilot in the Gemini 7 flight in 1965, a command module pilot on Apollo 8 and a commander of Apollo 13.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Space history: Men orbit moon for first time in history" by Michael Shinabery, New Mexico Museum of Space History 12/22/13
In addition to being the first humans to orbit the moon, the website nasa.gov cited the primary mission was capturing "high-resolution photographs of proposed Apollo landing areas." The first manned lunar landing, Apollo 11, would take place just seven months later.
Among the mission's firsts, according to nasa.gov, are the "first pictures taken by humans of the Earth from deep space, and first live TV coverage of the lunar surface." According to [author of "Genesis," Robert] Zimmerman, Anders also captured a color image of an event never before seen firsthand by man. As the crew flew 70 miles above the moon, Anders grabbed the camera and took the photograph known as "Earthrise."
The U.S. Postal Service would issue the photograph on a six-cent stamp with the words, "In the beginning " The phrase paid homage to the Christmas Eve TV broadcast of the crew reading from the biblical Genesis. Zimmerman wrote that a reporter put the idea of a "Christmas-type gesture from space" into Borman's head.
. . . Frustrated over the lack of a poetic idea to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, Borman turned to a friend who called a spokesman for the Bureau of the Budget, Joe Laitin. Zimmerman said Laitin, a reporter who covered the Nuremberg Trials, "got a Gideon Bible that he had once swiped from a hotel." Laitin's wife told him: "If you want poetry you should look in the Old Testament." When Laitin responded he wouldn't know where to begin, Christine Laitin said, "Why don't you begin at the beginning?"
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From the transcript of the Apollo 8 astronauts (click to hear audio recording)
William Anders:
From "'We close with good night, good luck': Apollo 8 astronaut marks 1968 broadcast to Earth" by Sophia Tareen, The Associated Press 12/23/13
Millions tuned in on Dec. 24, 1968, when Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Lovell circled the moon. A television camera on board took footage of the crater-filled surface as the astronauts read Bible verses describing the creation of Earth. They circled 10 times and began reading from the Book of Genesis on the last orbit.
"It's a foundation of Christianity, Judaism and Islam," Lovell said of choosing Genesis. "It is the foundation of most of the world's religions. ... They all had that basis of the Old Testament."
After the Christmastime broadcast, atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair filed a lawsuit against NASA, alleging First Amendment violations. But the case was dismissed, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read how President Obama Has Deleted God the Creator on Numerous Occasions, including in Thanksgiving Proclamations, and at Easter and most recently when quoting Abraham Lincoln re: Gettysburg.
"Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There's the Earth comin' up. Wow, is that pretty!"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. [Psalm 19:1 ESV]
-- Astronaut William Anders
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. [Romans 1:19-20a ESV]
For background, read Atheist, NASA Conceal First Communion on Moon and also read Christians Can Forget Having Any Career at NASA
In addition, read Astronomer Says No Intelligent Life Beyond Earth
-- From "Apollo 8 astronaut to mark 1968 broadcast to earth" by The Associated Press 12/23/13
An Apollo 8 astronaut who was among the first to orbit the moon is set to help re-enact the 1968 Christmastime broadcast from space.
Millions tuned in on Dec. 24, 1968, when Commander Frank Borman, Bill Anders and James Lovell took turns reading from the Book of Genesis as the Apollo 8 orbited the moon.
Lovell is expected to attend Monday’s event at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, where the original Apollo 8 Command Module is.
Lovell took part in several missions, including as pilot in the Gemini 7 flight in 1965, a command module pilot on Apollo 8 and a commander of Apollo 13.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Space history: Men orbit moon for first time in history" by Michael Shinabery, New Mexico Museum of Space History 12/22/13
In addition to being the first humans to orbit the moon, the website nasa.gov cited the primary mission was capturing "high-resolution photographs of proposed Apollo landing areas." The first manned lunar landing, Apollo 11, would take place just seven months later.
Among the mission's firsts, according to nasa.gov, are the "first pictures taken by humans of the Earth from deep space, and first live TV coverage of the lunar surface." According to [author of "Genesis," Robert] Zimmerman, Anders also captured a color image of an event never before seen firsthand by man. As the crew flew 70 miles above the moon, Anders grabbed the camera and took the photograph known as "Earthrise."
The U.S. Postal Service would issue the photograph on a six-cent stamp with the words, "In the beginning " The phrase paid homage to the Christmas Eve TV broadcast of the crew reading from the biblical Genesis. Zimmerman wrote that a reporter put the idea of a "Christmas-type gesture from space" into Borman's head.
. . . Frustrated over the lack of a poetic idea to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, Borman turned to a friend who called a spokesman for the Bureau of the Budget, Joe Laitin. Zimmerman said Laitin, a reporter who covered the Nuremberg Trials, "got a Gideon Bible that he had once swiped from a hotel." Laitin's wife told him: "If you want poetry you should look in the Old Testament." When Laitin responded he wouldn't know where to begin, Christine Laitin said, "Why don't you begin at the beginning?"
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From the transcript of the Apollo 8 astronauts (click to hear audio recording)
William Anders:
"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".Jim Lovell:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.Frank Borman:
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."
"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."
From "'We close with good night, good luck': Apollo 8 astronaut marks 1968 broadcast to Earth" by Sophia Tareen, The Associated Press 12/23/13
Millions tuned in on Dec. 24, 1968, when Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Lovell circled the moon. A television camera on board took footage of the crater-filled surface as the astronauts read Bible verses describing the creation of Earth. They circled 10 times and began reading from the Book of Genesis on the last orbit.
"It's a foundation of Christianity, Judaism and Islam," Lovell said of choosing Genesis. "It is the foundation of most of the world's religions. ... They all had that basis of the Old Testament."
After the Christmastime broadcast, atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair filed a lawsuit against NASA, alleging First Amendment violations. But the case was dismissed, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read how President Obama Has Deleted God the Creator on Numerous Occasions, including in Thanksgiving Proclamations, and at Easter and most recently when quoting Abraham Lincoln re: Gettysburg.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Fed. Judge Blocks ObamaCare Assault on Christians
Judge Timothy DeGiusti, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, issued an injunction against the Obama Administration by ruling protection for nearly 200 evangelical ministries from federal mandates requiring them to provide abortifacients and contraceptives, as well as sterilizations, to their workers.
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Catholics Defeat ObamaCare in Appeals Court Ruling
Christians Defeating ObamaCare, DOJ Surrenders
Christians Oppose ObamaCare, Support Hobby Lobby
Evangelical Wheaton College Sues ObamaCare
-- From "Court deals new blow to birth control mandate" by Ben Goad, The Hill 12/20/13
Under the ruling, 187 non-exempt religious groups that offer insurance through GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention are now exempt from the mandate while their [legal] case proceeds.
The mandate would have otherwise kicked in for the ministries on Jan. 1, forcing them to either to begin offering contraceptive coverage or face penalties.
To date, there are currently 89 lawsuits challenging the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department's mandate, according to plaintiffs in the case.
Ultimately, the matter is widely expected to be decided by the Supreme Court, which agreed last month to hear a challenge to the mandate.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Oklahoma Birth Control Lawsuit Injunction Granted By Federal Judge" by Tim Talley, Associated Press 12/20/13
In his 16-page decision, DeGiusti said the ministries have the right to challenge the health care law's contraceptive mandate and that an injunction is needed to prevent the federal government from enforcing it on them.
DeGiusti . . . said the ministries who refuse to provide the contraceptives also "face substantial financial penalties, and their refusal will cause a substantial financial loss to GuideStone if it excludes nonexempt, noncompliant organizations from the GuideStone plan."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Federal judge deals another blow to ObamaCare contraceptive mandate" posted at FoxNews.com 12/21/13
“This is an overwhelming victory for GuideStone and the nearly 200 plaintiffs in this class-action lawsuit,” said Adele Keim, a lawyer for GuideStone and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty -- a non-profit, public-interest law firm that helped represent the ministries in the case.
“Today’s ruling will allow hundreds of Baptist ministries to continue preaching the Gospel and serving the poor … without laboring under the threat of massive fines,” she said.
The injunction will prevent the government from enforcing the mandate as the suit makes its way through the legal system. However, the groups still must comply with all of the other ObamaCare regulations.
In the lawsuit, the ministries object to providing four out of 20 Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including the morning-after pill and the week-after pill, which they allege may cause early abortions.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
The battle: Report Says Not Enough Abortions - ObamaCare the Answer and so ObamaCare Covers Abortion & Pays Abortionists
In addition, read Morning-After Abortifacient is Becoming the 'Contraceptive' Choice
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Catholics Defeat ObamaCare in Appeals Court Ruling
Christians Defeating ObamaCare, DOJ Surrenders
Christians Oppose ObamaCare, Support Hobby Lobby
Evangelical Wheaton College Sues ObamaCare
-- From "Court deals new blow to birth control mandate" by Ben Goad, The Hill 12/20/13
Under the ruling, 187 non-exempt religious groups that offer insurance through GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention are now exempt from the mandate while their [legal] case proceeds.
The mandate would have otherwise kicked in for the ministries on Jan. 1, forcing them to either to begin offering contraceptive coverage or face penalties.
To date, there are currently 89 lawsuits challenging the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department's mandate, according to plaintiffs in the case.
Ultimately, the matter is widely expected to be decided by the Supreme Court, which agreed last month to hear a challenge to the mandate.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Oklahoma Birth Control Lawsuit Injunction Granted By Federal Judge" by Tim Talley, Associated Press 12/20/13
In his 16-page decision, DeGiusti said the ministries have the right to challenge the health care law's contraceptive mandate and that an injunction is needed to prevent the federal government from enforcing it on them.
DeGiusti . . . said the ministries who refuse to provide the contraceptives also "face substantial financial penalties, and their refusal will cause a substantial financial loss to GuideStone if it excludes nonexempt, noncompliant organizations from the GuideStone plan."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Federal judge deals another blow to ObamaCare contraceptive mandate" posted at FoxNews.com 12/21/13
“This is an overwhelming victory for GuideStone and the nearly 200 plaintiffs in this class-action lawsuit,” said Adele Keim, a lawyer for GuideStone and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty -- a non-profit, public-interest law firm that helped represent the ministries in the case.
“Today’s ruling will allow hundreds of Baptist ministries to continue preaching the Gospel and serving the poor … without laboring under the threat of massive fines,” she said.
The injunction will prevent the government from enforcing the mandate as the suit makes its way through the legal system. However, the groups still must comply with all of the other ObamaCare regulations.
In the lawsuit, the ministries object to providing four out of 20 Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including the morning-after pill and the week-after pill, which they allege may cause early abortions.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
The battle: Report Says Not Enough Abortions - ObamaCare the Answer and so ObamaCare Covers Abortion & Pays Abortionists
In addition, read Morning-After Abortifacient is Becoming the 'Contraceptive' Choice
Saturday, December 21, 2013
MT Schools, FL Reject Atheist Anti-Christmas Demands
After allowing several "holiday displays" in the Florida Capitol, including a Festivus pole and a chair of spaghetti with eyeballs next to the Christmas Nativity scene, officials said "no" to an homage to Satan.
In Montana's Flathead Valley, three high schools defied threats from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) by holding their "holiday concert" at a Mormon church.
For background, read how the Obama Administration is Using the Military to Attack Christmas
And also read the latest news of the secular rebellion against Christmas.
-- From "Florida rejects request to install Satanic display" by The Associated Press 12/19/13
The Department of Management Services emailed The Satanic Temple on Wednesday, telling the group its proposed display of an angel falling from heaven into an open fire was "grossly offensive."
Co-founder Lucien Greaves says the group asked what was offensive, acknowledging they might be willing to alter the display, but they didn't get a response Thursday.
Several groups have been allowed to put up displays in the Statehouse rotunda because the area is considered to be a public forum.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Florida Rejects Satanic Temple Holiday Display Application" by Jessica Palombo, WFSU (Florida Public Radio) 12/19/13
The rejected Satanic Temple display is a 3-D depiction of Satan falling from heaven into hell accompanied by a Bible verse recounting the fall. It also said “Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple.”
Freedom from Religion Foundation lawyer Andrew Seidel says the state has shown an unconstitutional preference for Christianity.
Seidel’s group has a Winter Solstice banner on display at the Capitol. That’s alongside a Flying Spaghetti Monster, a Festivus pole and the nativity scene that started the debate.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Satanic Temple considers fight over display" by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida 12/20/13
Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the New York-based temple, said in an email on Thursday that he was "genuinely surprised" the Department of Management Services "would place itself in such a seemingly awkward position" by refusing to allow the temple's display.
However, before filing any legal challenge, Greaves said his group is giving the department a short time to clarify the offensive nature of the display and to see if some compromise could be worked out.
The state agency had recently approved two Christian nativity scenes, a pole made of empty beer cans, banners from atheists and a shredded pile of paper that is supposed resemble the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The ACLU said it has yet to hear from the temple, but it would like to hear from any group "wrongfully denied" from being able to put up a display in the rotunda.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "ACLU opposes Montana high school choir performances" by Dax VanFossen, KAJ-TV18 (Kalispell, MT) 12/5/13
While these performances are taking place at a religious venue, Assistant Superintendent of Kalispell Public Schools Dan Zorn said the school choirs perform at many venues all across the Flathead Valley.
Zorn said the student choirs from both Glacier and Flathead High Schools do numerous performances throughout the year, and at no time are they being partial to one group or another, nor are they teaching the students religion.
"We're not promoting religion, we're not supporting any religious belief here," Zorn said. "We're taking advantage of an opportunity for our kids to perform, regardless of the religiousity or I guess the religious underpinnings that might or might not be in place."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "School Choir Holds Christmas Concert at Church Despite Atheist Complaints" by Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter 12/6/13
Dozens of student members of the Flathead, Glacier and Whitefish high school choirs performed their annual "Peace on Earth Community Christmas Celebration" at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kalispell Thursday. They will be performing a second time Friday evening. School officials decided to go through with the performance despite recent complaints from the ACLU and FFRF which argued the concert was an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state due to public school involvement with church activity.
. . . Kalispell Superintendent Darlene Schottle wrote in a formal response to the ACLU that not allowing students to voluntarily participate in the concert could also be seen as a constitutional violation of the right to freely express one's religion. "One could interpret that by denying district students the opportunity to participate because of the Christian theme of the overall event might be in violation of the second half of the establishment clause, 'prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Students may 'opt out' of assignments and/or activities that might conflict with their belief system to assure that the district is not placing them in a situation they might find uncomfortable."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Atheists Sue to Bring 'Goofy' Jesus Down in Montana
In Montana's Flathead Valley, three high schools defied threats from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) by holding their "holiday concert" at a Mormon church.
For background, read how the Obama Administration is Using the Military to Attack Christmas
And also read the latest news of the secular rebellion against Christmas.
-- From "Florida rejects request to install Satanic display" by The Associated Press 12/19/13
The Department of Management Services emailed The Satanic Temple on Wednesday, telling the group its proposed display of an angel falling from heaven into an open fire was "grossly offensive."
Co-founder Lucien Greaves says the group asked what was offensive, acknowledging they might be willing to alter the display, but they didn't get a response Thursday.
Several groups have been allowed to put up displays in the Statehouse rotunda because the area is considered to be a public forum.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Florida Rejects Satanic Temple Holiday Display Application" by Jessica Palombo, WFSU (Florida Public Radio) 12/19/13
The rejected Satanic Temple display is a 3-D depiction of Satan falling from heaven into hell accompanied by a Bible verse recounting the fall. It also said “Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple.”
Freedom from Religion Foundation lawyer Andrew Seidel says the state has shown an unconstitutional preference for Christianity.
Seidel’s group has a Winter Solstice banner on display at the Capitol. That’s alongside a Flying Spaghetti Monster, a Festivus pole and the nativity scene that started the debate.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Satanic Temple considers fight over display" by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida 12/20/13
Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the New York-based temple, said in an email on Thursday that he was "genuinely surprised" the Department of Management Services "would place itself in such a seemingly awkward position" by refusing to allow the temple's display.
However, before filing any legal challenge, Greaves said his group is giving the department a short time to clarify the offensive nature of the display and to see if some compromise could be worked out.
The state agency had recently approved two Christian nativity scenes, a pole made of empty beer cans, banners from atheists and a shredded pile of paper that is supposed resemble the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The ACLU said it has yet to hear from the temple, but it would like to hear from any group "wrongfully denied" from being able to put up a display in the rotunda.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "ACLU opposes Montana high school choir performances" by Dax VanFossen, KAJ-TV18 (Kalispell, MT) 12/5/13
While these performances are taking place at a religious venue, Assistant Superintendent of Kalispell Public Schools Dan Zorn said the school choirs perform at many venues all across the Flathead Valley.
Zorn said the student choirs from both Glacier and Flathead High Schools do numerous performances throughout the year, and at no time are they being partial to one group or another, nor are they teaching the students religion.
"We're not promoting religion, we're not supporting any religious belief here," Zorn said. "We're taking advantage of an opportunity for our kids to perform, regardless of the religiousity or I guess the religious underpinnings that might or might not be in place."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "School Choir Holds Christmas Concert at Church Despite Atheist Complaints" by Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter 12/6/13
Dozens of student members of the Flathead, Glacier and Whitefish high school choirs performed their annual "Peace on Earth Community Christmas Celebration" at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kalispell Thursday. They will be performing a second time Friday evening. School officials decided to go through with the performance despite recent complaints from the ACLU and FFRF which argued the concert was an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state due to public school involvement with church activity.
. . . Kalispell Superintendent Darlene Schottle wrote in a formal response to the ACLU that not allowing students to voluntarily participate in the concert could also be seen as a constitutional violation of the right to freely express one's religion. "One could interpret that by denying district students the opportunity to participate because of the Christian theme of the overall event might be in violation of the second half of the establishment clause, 'prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Students may 'opt out' of assignments and/or activities that might conflict with their belief system to assure that the district is not placing them in a situation they might find uncomfortable."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Atheists Sue to Bring 'Goofy' Jesus Down in Montana
Friday, December 20, 2013
NY School Rewrites 'Silent Night' to Delete Christ
Fifth-graders at Ralph J. Osgood Intermediate School on Long Island were instructed to present holiday music including the music teacher's own unique rendition of Silent Night that omitted any reference to Jesus, Christmas, or anything relevant to the actual event being celebrated.
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Christmas Music Banned in New Jersey School
Christmas Music at School is a 'Form of Bullying'
Nativity Banned at Florida School by Obama Dept. of Education
School Bans Christmas, Breaking New Texas Law
And also read more news of the secular rebellion against Christmas.
UPDATE 1/15/14: California Teacher Says Jesus Not Allowed in Christmas
UPDATE 12/21/13: Montana Schools and Florida Gov't Reject Atheist Anti-Christmas Demands
UPDATE 1/4/14: Read the long list of states enacting laws to restore religious liberty to schools.
-- From "NY school removes religious references from Silent Night" posted at CBS News, New York 12/20/13
“Any reference to what the song was about — the birth of Christ, ’round young virgin mother and child’ — all of those things were omitted from the version that the children sang beautifully,” said Jackie McDonald, a mother who walked out of the performance.
“To choose to sing ‘Silent Night’ and eviscerate the meaning of the song was not appropriate,” McDonald told CBS 2's Carolyn Gusoff.
“It’s offensive,” one father told Gusoff. “If you’re going to remove words to not offend other religions, what about the religion that that song belongs to, which is Christianity?”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Jesus' Virgin Birth NOT Worth Celebrating, Americans Tell Pollster
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Christmas Music Banned in New Jersey School
Christmas Music at School is a 'Form of Bullying'
Nativity Banned at Florida School by Obama Dept. of Education
School Bans Christmas, Breaking New Texas Law
And also read more news of the secular rebellion against Christmas.
UPDATE 1/15/14: California Teacher Says Jesus Not Allowed in Christmas
UPDATE 12/21/13: Montana Schools and Florida Gov't Reject Atheist Anti-Christmas Demands
UPDATE 1/4/14: Read the long list of states enacting laws to restore religious liberty to schools.
-- From "NY school removes religious references from Silent Night" posted at CBS News, New York 12/20/13
“Any reference to what the song was about — the birth of Christ, ’round young virgin mother and child’ — all of those things were omitted from the version that the children sang beautifully,” said Jackie McDonald, a mother who walked out of the performance.
“To choose to sing ‘Silent Night’ and eviscerate the meaning of the song was not appropriate,” McDonald told CBS 2's Carolyn Gusoff.
“It’s offensive,” one father told Gusoff. “If you’re going to remove words to not offend other religions, what about the religion that that song belongs to, which is Christianity?”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Jesus' Virgin Birth NOT Worth Celebrating, Americans Tell Pollster
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