Religion & Law

Survey Shows How the Faith of America?s Hispanics Has Change

Posted on July 06, 2009
Barna Group: "A few years ago the Hispanic population passed the African-American population as the largest ethnic group in the U.S. A new survey by The Barna Group indicates that Hispanics are assimilating the faith of the Caucasian population faster than anyone would have predicted, essentially mirroring the faith of the nation?s white population...

Losing Confidence in Marriage

Posted on July 06, 2009
Kay S. Hymowtiz writes at the Wall Street Journal: "In any crisis, people tend to panic and forget basic facts. This meltdown is no exception. First and foremost, marital breakdown is not rampant across the land. It is concentrated among low-income and black couples...

Palin Quits as Alaska Governor

Posted on July 06, 2009
Fox News: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shocked the political word Friday afternoon by announcing that she will step down at the end of the month and transfer power to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell -- a move that throws into doubt her political future and a potential run for president in 2012...

World?s oldest Christian Bible digitized

Posted on July 06, 2009
AP: "The surviving pages of the world's oldest Christian Bible have been reunited - digitally. The early work known as the Codex Sinaiticus has been housed in four separate locations across the world for more than 150 years. "

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Senate Bill Fines Families Refusing Health Ins.

Posted on July 06, 2009
CBN: "Americans who refuse to buy medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's health care plan."

Same-sex unions a challenge for Census

Posted on July 06, 2009
USA Today: "The Census Bureau faces logistical challenges next year in classifying legally married same-sex couples as married. The agency has said that the 2010 Census will report the number of married same-sex couples for the first time, a decision that thrills gay-rights advocates...

Canada: ?Gov?t seeks court ruling on same-sex union law?

Posted on July 06, 2009
James Wood reports in The Star Phoenix: "The Saskatchewan Party government's plan to introduce legislation allowing provincial marriage commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex marriages for religious reasons was both praised as a defence of religious freedoms and condemned as the institutionalizing of discrimination against gays and lesbians...

UK: ?Foreign Office to back gay communities around the world?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Patrick Wintour reports in The Guardian: "The Foreign Office is to risk the wrath of homophobic regimes worldwide by encouraging British ambassadors to do more to support gay communities. . . . [They have] also decided to ask British high commissioners in the Commonwealth to promote the rights of gay people, even though this will run contrary to the teachings of some local churches and governments...

UK: LGBT groups worried ?Gay Pride? not political enough

Posted on July 06, 2009
Karen McVeigh reports in The Guardian: "When the gay clientele of a New York bar staged a revolt against police harassment in June 1969 it sparked the awakening of the homosexual liberation movement. But 40 years on from the Stonewall rebellion, Britain's gay community is riven by a dispute over which should come first: politics or partying...

UK: ?Gay row may cause Church split?

Posted on July 06, 2009
The BBC reports: "A traditionalist Anglican group has warned the issue of homosexuality could split the Church of England the way the Episcopal Church has done in the US. The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans will be launched in the UK on Monday."

Robert P. George on the struggle over marriage

Posted on July 06, 2009
The editor of Public Discourse interviews Robert P. George: "Legal recognition of same-sex partnerships was necessary, they said, so that partners could visit each other in hospitals, extend employer-provided health insurance and other benefits to each other, and so forth...

SC GOP official sues city over abortion protest

Posted on July 06, 2009
The State (AP): "A state Republican Party official has sued the city of Orangeburg for a second time, saying a police officer prevented him from participating in an abortion protest."

Marriage Equality? First, Justify Marriage (If You Can)

Posted on July 06, 2009
SSRN: "What public health and policy goals are we trying to further with laws recognizing and subsidizing marriage? How do the signals sent by privileging marriage advance or compromise those goals? Is there a continued justification for marriage, and, if so, ought we consider changing its prerogatives in ways that will further the public good? What might those ways be, and how will (or could) we know whether we have succeeded? This brief Article raises and explores these questions, and asks whether and to what extent the current privileging of marriage is (or is not) justified...

The Case for Pluralism in Postnational Law

Posted on July 06, 2009
SSRN: "I argue that a defence of a pluralist postnational law has to find its starting point . . . in the public autonomy of citizens in the definition of their legal and political framework. Such an approach shifts the focus to social attitudes and identities, to the multiplicity of loyalties and allegiances characteristic of the global polity...

UK: ?Change and repent, bishop tells gays?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Telegraph: "A senior Church of England bishop has called on homosexuals to repent and 'be changed' in comments that have infuriated equality campaigners."

Christians appeal to Egyptian President for protection

Posted on July 06, 2009
Christian Telegraph: "Violence against Christian Copts erupted again at dawn on Friday, July 3, 2009, in the village of Guirgis Bey, Akfahssi, El-Fashn. Coptic priests accused the Egyptian State Security apparatus of 'masterminding' the incident, reports Dan Wooding, founder of ASSIST Ministries...

Bill to legalize medicinal marijuana nears NH gov

Posted on July 06, 2009
Boston Globe (AP): "Time is running out for New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch to decide if he'll sign a bill to legalize marijuana use by severely ill people."

At meeting, NEA declines to remain neutral on abortion and marriage

Posted on July 06, 2009
Baptist Press: "The National Education Association, the nation's largest labor union, voted July 5 to reject a proposal officially to remain neutral on the issues of abortion and family planning. Also during its annual meeting in San Diego July 1-6, the NEA went on record as supporting laws legalizing civil unions and 'gay marriage'" ...

EU commissioner warns roots of West cannot be invented

Posted on July 06, 2009
Catholic News Agency reports: "The Italian senator and former EU commissioner Rocco Buttiglione said last week that the roots of the West cannot be invented and that Western culture has its roots in Christianity."

Liberty and Brigham Young Universities demote Republican clubs

Posted on July 06, 2009
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos reports at FOX News: "Liberty's chancellor, Jerry Falwell Jr., told FOXNews.com in an interview that he did not de-list the school's Republican club in response to pressure he received from booting the Democrats from campus. Rather, he said, he was applying standards equally...

Abortion facility director pleads for late-term abortion in Canada

Posted on July 06, 2009
LifeSiteNews reports: "A leader in the B.C. abortion industry has called for better access in Canada to late-term abortions. At a Tribute Rally honoring the recently-killed late-term abortionist George Tiller in Vancouver on June 18th, Jill Doctoroff, Director of the Elizabeth Bagshaw Women's Clinic in Vancouver, delivered a speech on the need for later abortions...

Situational tolerance

Posted on July 06, 2009
Washington State Rep. Matt Shea writing in The Spokesman-Review: "WhoSigned.org is promising to publish, on the Internet, personal information of those signing Referendum 71 to 'prevent voter fraud' and 'foster discussion' . . . Alliance Defense Fund is involved in a major lawsuit to stop such a flagrant misuse of public information...

?Birth control access gets boost in Wisconsin?s budget?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Shawn Doherty reports in the Capital Times: "Not many people seem to have noticed yet, but buried among the new measures signed into law last week as part of Gov. Jim Doyle's budget is a trio of family planning initiatives that are expected to expand access to birth control and contraceptive education in Wisconsin...

?Pro-abortion violence on rise after media build-up?

Posted on July 06, 2009
American Life League Press Release: "Pro-abortion violence is on the rise in recent weeks, according to a new video report from American Life League. On June 24, 40-year-old Matthew Haver tried to run over a pro-life protester with his SUV. On July 1, a man pulled a gun on a pro-life woman in Arizona...

Illinois: ?Activist runs to be first openly gay state senator?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Chicago's CBS-2 reports:"Attorney and gay rights activist Jim Madigan hopes to become the first openly gay Illinois State Senator next year, in a district that was just the subject of a heated contest barely a year ago."

Private lawyers to defend California constitution

Posted on July 06, 2009
WorldNetDaily: "'In America, we respect the results of fair elections. This latest lawsuit is yet another attempt by those who want to redefine marriage to achieve what they have not been able to obtain,' said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Brian Raum. 'We look forward to vigorously defending the definition of marriage that has existed since the founding of this state, that has been affirmed by the people, and that has been upheld by the courts...

ACLU: ?Alabama School District Agrees To End Illegal Sex Segregation?

Posted on July 06, 2009
ACLU: "The Lawrence County School District in Alabama has agreed to end single-sex classes in public schools after being notified by the American Civil Liberties Union that sex segregated programs are illegal and discriminatory."

Obama Administration Calls for Universal Access to Abortion at UN Meeting

Posted on July 06, 2009
LifeSiteNews: "At the United Nations (UN) headquarters last week, the Obama administration continued its push for increased access to legal abortion around the world. The Obama team has introduced language that has thrown a high level negotiation into a roil...

NIH Releases Obama?s Rules for Tax-Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Posted on July 06, 2009
"The National Institutes of Health today released the guidelines to implement President Barack Obama's decision to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research."

Is America Becoming Less Entrepreneurial?

Posted on July 06, 2009
Jonathan Adler writes at the Volokh Conspiracy: "Professor Scott Shane of CWRU's Weatherhead School of Management cites evidence that entrepreneurial activity is declining in the United States."

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