Religion & Law

Ohio: Church group drawing up slots suit

Posted on July 15, 2009
BizJournals.com: "Smith said the churches plan to ask the Ohio Supreme Court to declare that the slots plan is unconstitutional because the machines are a different classification of gambling that the Ohio Lottery doesn?t have the authority to authorize...

?Senate takes up hate crimes bill covering gays?

Posted on July 15, 2009
Boston Globe (AP): "Legislation to extend federal hate crimes protections to gays and the disabled reached the Senate floor Wednesday with the best prospects in years to become law."

Massachusetts: ?Business owners expose feelings on Industrial Park strip club?

Posted on July 15, 2009
The Herald News: "About a dozen business owners and officials told the City Council Tuesday that an adult entertainment district in the Industrial Park could keep businesses from moving in, costing jobs and investment in the city."

CNBC Special should be titled: ?Porn: Sordid Business of Exploitation, Misery and Crime?

Posted on July 15, 2009
Morality in Media on the Christian Newswire: "This evening, at 8 pm Central Time, CNBC will air a special entitled, 'Porn: Business of Pleasure' . . . orality in Media President Robert Peters commented: 'Even in an industry where there are virtually no 'taboos' (standards) left, I don't anticipate anytime soon seeing a news program on cable TV entitled: 'Child Porn: Business of Pleasure...

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Senator McCain attacks ?hate crimes? sleight of hand

Posted on July 15, 2009
Halimah Abdullah reports in the Miami Herald: "'I've watched the defense authorization bill move its way through Congress and occasionally, including at other times, I've seen amendments put on the bills which are non-germane,' McCain said on the Senate floor...

Human trafficking and the Child Protection Compact Act of 2009

Posted on July 15, 2009
Louis Klaveras and Christine Buckley, writing at FindLaw: "Sex Trafficking: Usually, this involves the exploitation of females for purposes of prostitution or pornography ? although lately, the number of reports of males being sexually exploited seems to be on the rise...

New Ariz. law affirms students? religious liberties

Posted on July 15, 2009
Associated Press: "The Students? Religious Liberties Act (H.B. 2357) prohibits schools from discriminating against students or parents on the basis of religious viewpoint or expression. It requires that schools not 'penalize or reward' students for including religious content or views in a classroom assignment...

Peter Singer: ?Why we must ration health care?

Posted on July 15, 2009
"A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000. Is a few more months worth that much?"

NH gov signs law prohibiting human smuggling

Posted on July 15, 2009
WCAX.com: "Traffickers face up to 30 years in prison if the victim is under 18. The law also outlines procedures for the state to take property used in the illegal activity. It takes effect Jan. 1"

UK: NHS pamphlet says ?children have a right to sex for pleasure?

Posted on July 14, 2009
The Yorkshire Star reports: "Schoolchildren in Sheffield have a 'right' to an enjoyable sex life according to a controversial new leaflet produced by the city's NHS Trust. The NHS Sheffield pamphlet, entitled 'Pleasure' and aimed at youngsters aged 14 and over, claims experts concentrate too much on the need for safe sex and loving relationships, and not enough on the pleasure sex can bring...

?Abortion issue could derail health care overhaul?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Julie Rovner reports at NPR: "Already in the House, 19 Democrats have written House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowing not to vote for any health bill that includes abortion funding."

Health care overhaul threatens states

Posted on July 14, 2009
Philip Klein writing at The American Spectator: "Even as California struggles with a catastrophic fiscal crisis and other states scramble to avoid the same fate, Democrats in Washington are proposing health care measures that would add hundreds of billions of dollars of spending to state budgets...

?Oregon pregnancy center hit by pro-abortion vandals?

Posted on July 14, 2009
LifeNews reports: "A crisis pregnancy center in Eugene, Oregon was hit by vandals last week who left pro-abortion messages on its building. The incident comes weeks after an abortion advocate attacked the national headquarters of the pro-life group Operation Rescue...

Survey: Poles don?t want same-sex ?marriage,? adoption

Posted on July 14, 2009
LifeSiteNews reports: "A new survey published this weekend in the pages of the Rzeczpospolita daily newspaper states that fully three quarters of Poles are against same-sex 'marriage' and that 87 percent are against homosexual couples adopting children...

12,000 abortions in Singapore each year

Posted on July 14, 2009
Pearl Forss reports at Channel NewsAsia: "Of the 12,000 births terminated every year, about half are done by married women."

Canada: ?Gay altar server? asks HRC to intervene in firing

Posted on July 14, 2009
Charles Lewis reports in the National Post: "A gay man has filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal against a Catholic bishop after he was removed from his volunteer job as an altar server because of his sexual orientation."

?Miami judge who struck gay adoption ban demoted?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Associated Press: "A Miami-Dade circuit court judge who ruled Florida's gay adoption ban is unconstitutional has been demoted."

?Lithuania OKs law to keep gay info away from kids?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Associated Press: "Lithuania's Parliament on Tuesday approved a censorship bill that aims to keep information about homosexuality away from children, angering gay rights activists who called the measure homophobic."

Australia: Home schooling hits new heights

Posted on July 14, 2009
Emily Power reports in the Herald Sun: "In the past year an extra 715 students have started do-it-yourself education over public and private schools. State Government records show 2279 students from 1257 families were registered as home schooled in June this year, up on the 1564 students from 859 families in June last year...

FedEx delivers the goods for transgendered

Posted on July 14, 2009
OneNewsNow reports: "Memphis-based FedEx has agreed to implement a shareholder resolution proposed by Huffington Post blogger Sara Whitman that would add 'gender identity' to the company's non-discrimination policy. Whitman is a self-proclaimed 'married lesbian mother of three boys' in Massachusetts...

?Four reasons for hope on LGBT rights and the Obama Administration?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Carlos A. Bell writes at the Huffington Post: "1. The Administration has decided not to appeal a successful discrimination lawsuit brought by a transgendered person who was denied a position with the library of congress . . . 2. The Administration has decided that the 2010 census will count same-sex couples who are married ...

Hate crimes bill to be introduced as amendment to DOD authorization

Posted on July 14, 2009
From the Office of Senator Leahy: "Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Monday announced his intent to introduce the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill this week...

MA: ?Transgender activists promote hate-crimes law expansion on eve of hearing?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Sarah Birnbaum reports at Wicked Local: "The activists held a press conference on Beacon Hill to show their support for a transgender rights bill, a day before its first hearing. The bill (H 1728) would add 'gender identity and expression' to the state?s existing non-discrimination and hate crime laws...

?Gay-rights coalition urges measured pace on same-sex marriage amendment?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Jessica Garrison reports in the Los Angeles Times: "Despite insisting just a few months ago that they wanted to go back to the ballot in 2010 to try to amend the state Constitution to allow same-sex marriage, many of the state's gay-rights groups now say that is too soon...

Poland?s Buzek wins EU top job

Posted on July 14, 2009
Financial Times: "Jerzy Buzek, the former Polish prime minister, claimed the presidency of the European Parliament on Tuesday in a symbolic triumph for the formerly communist countries from central and eastern Europe that joined the European Union in 2004...

?CNBC special promotes pornography?

Posted on July 14, 2009
Sarah Knoploh reports at the Culture and Media Institute: "Looking for wholesome familiy television oh, say, about 9 pm on July 15? Then make sure not to tune into CNBC. The network will air 'Porn: Business of Pleasure,' hosted by Melissa Lee. The special, as touted by the network, will give viewers a look at the pornography industry...

The ubiquity of pornography

Posted on July 14, 2009
Rod Dreher writing at Crunchy Cons: "Porn is so ubiquitous and normalized among the (well-off) kids in his school that it's considered the usual thing to partake of it. My friend went on to say that the situation was the same at the well-known (and relatively conservative) Christian university he'd attended...

New bill would ban use of cloning for human-animal hybrids

Posted on July 14, 2009
LifeNews reports: "Two members of the U.S. Senate who have been behind unsuccessful efforts to ban all forms of human cloning have introduced new legislation with a new approach. They want to ban the use of human cloning to make human-animal hybrids, the kind of research taking place currently in England...

Pope Benedict: ?Dark scenarios? loom in biotechnology

Posted on July 14, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "Pope Benedict warned on Sunday that the increasing power of artificial procreation and biotechnologies will presage 'dark scenarios' for the future of all the human race. These technologies, he said in his weekly Angelus address, are the 'fruit of a 'materialistic and mechanistic understanding of human life' that reduces love without truth to 'an empty shell, filled in an arbitrary way...

Pharmaceutical company sued over safety of popular birth control pills

Posted on July 14, 2009
Tresa Baldas reports at Law.com: "Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals has been hit with four individual federal lawsuits -- three in Ohio, one in Wisconsin -- involving the safety of its popular birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin. And plaintiffs lawyers vow that plenty more are in the pipeline...

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