Religion & Law

?Pentagon defends lifting ban on gays in military?

Posted on April 01, 2011
AP: Senior Pentagon leaders are defending repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the military to House Republicans who labeled it as political correctness and social engineering.

AZ bill aims to protect religious freedom of professionals

Posted on April 01, 2011
Deborah Sheasby writes at AZ Policy Foundations Blog: CAP-supported Senate Bill 1288, which says that professionals cannot lose their state-issued license or accreditation because of the free exercise of their religion, came under some fire during a floor session in the state House earlier last week.

Heritage Foundation: Stop Sending Jobs Overseas

Posted on April 01, 2011
Heritage Foundation Morning Bell: And yesterday, Gallup released a poll showing that the number one way Americans would like to see more United States jobs created is to stop sending new jobs overseas. That is a fabulous idea, and the simplest way to accomplish it would be to lower out nation?s corporate tax rate.

David Limbaugh: Equipping Children With Spiritual and Political Armor

Posted on April 01, 2011
David Limbaugh writes at Townhall: "Christian parents should not assume their kids are equipped to filter out the false claims they will likely encounter. Christianity is the opposite of how it is often portrayed in our culture and is none of those negative things indicated above...

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Wisconsin Unions Get Ugly

Posted on April 01, 2011
Wall Street Journal (via Google): "Having lost their fight in the legislature, Wisconsin unions are now getting out the steel pipes for those who don't step lively to their cause. A letter we've seen that was sent to businesses in southeastern Wisconsin shows that Big Labor's latest strategy is to threaten small businesses with boycotts if they don't publicly declare their support for government union monopoly power...

Job Announcement: FPCWV Seeks Director of Development

Posted on March 30, 2011
Family Policy Council of West Virginia: The Family Policy Council of West Virginia is pleased to announce that it is seeking applications for the position of Director of Development. Qualifications for this position are described as . . .

House passes D.C. school voucher bill

Posted on March 30, 2011
Politico: "The House voted 225-195 Wednesday afternoon to allocate $20 million to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarships Program, which stopped accepting new students in 2009. The bill will open the program to new applicants."

WA: Legislature passes bill to recognize domestic partnerships from other states

Posted on March 30, 2011
Seattle Times: The Senate voted 28-19 to pass HB 1649, which allows the state to recognize legal unions, including same-sex marriage, from other states as valid domestic partnerships in Washington. The bill now heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire to sign into law.

ADF attorney argues before 11th Circuit: Ga. counselor wrongly fired for following conscience

Posted on March 30, 2011
ADF attorney available to media after defending Christian counselor who referred client seeking advice on same-sex relationship to colleague

Corbin on The Ministerial Exception, Part I

Posted on March 30, 2011
Concurring Opinions:  Professor Caroline Mala Corbin has kindly agreed to shed light on the ministerial exception raised by an upcoming Supreme Court case.  She brings significant expertise to the issue: see her excellent Fordham Law Review article Above the Law? The Constitutionality of the Ministerial Exemption from Antidiscrimination Law ...

Vote on Conn. gender identity bill postponed

Posted on March 30, 2011
Hartford Courant: The General Assembly's Judiciary Committee ran out of time Wednesday to act on the legislation. A new date for a committee vote, one of the first steps in the legislative process, has not yet been scheduled.

Ohio House OKs collective bargaining limits

Posted on March 30, 2011
Breitbart.com: "The Republican-led Ohio House voted Wednesday to severely limit the collective bargaining rights of 350,000 public workers across the state, sending a bill that's sparked pro-labor protests for weeks back to the state Senate."

Study: Church Giving Begins to Rebound, but Charitable Deduction Issue Looms Large

Posted on March 30, 2011
Christian Newswire: "It's been a tough time financially for churches the past three years. But just as a glimmer of hope began to surface this past year, the federal government's desire to tinker with the charitable tax deduction has most church leaders concerned...

England and Wales: Marriage rate falls to record low

Posted on March 30, 2011
The Independent: Marriage rates in England and Wales are at their lowest since records began, new statistics show. Just 21.3 out of every 1,000 males aged 16 plus were married in 20 . . .

Debt and the Birth Dearth

Posted on March 30, 2011
Jordan Ballor at the Acton Institute: "While the intergenerational effects of these declines will continue to ripple forward through time, the dearth of births America has undergone in the last three decades is having profound consequences today."

Ala. House committee approves abortion restriction

Posted on March 30, 2011
NewsTimes.com: "Proponents of a bill banning elective abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy said the Alabama Legislature's new Republican majority is responsible for the bill getting overwhelming support in a House committee Wednesday."

Senate Democrats question Missouri abortion bill

Posted on March 30, 2011
News-Leader: "Senate Democrats stalled legislation Tuesday that would add to Missouri's restrictions on late-term abortions by allowing them only when a woman's life is endangered or the pregnancy poses a serious risk of permanent physical injury."

UK: Children as young as four to be educated in atheism

Posted on March 30, 2011
Daily Mail: Education bosses in Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, have radically restructured the RE syllabus to accommodate non-religious beliefs. Youngsters will continue to learn about the six major faiths - Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism - but they will also be taught humanism, the belief that there is no God or Gods, and that moral values are founded on human nature and experience.

?Brazilian Lawmaker to Introduce Gay Marriage Resolution?

Posted on March 30, 2011
Care2.com: "Jean Wyllys, Brazil's first openly gay lawmaker, is expected to introduce legislation this week that would legalize same-sex marriage."

California: ?Bullying? run amok

Posted on March 30, 2011
Cal. Family Council: Decreasing incidents of ?bullying? is the purported motivation behind several new bills, and that message works with the uninformed ? good people care about kids? safety. But ?bullying? is now the vehicle to bring more pro-homosexual content into schools.

UK: Amendment to remove financial conflict from abortion counselling

Posted on March 30, 2011
Christian Concern for Our Nation: "The aim of the amendment is to ensure that every woman considering an abortion has a right to independent pregnancy counselling before being referred to an abortion provider."

Video: UK Peer speaks up for Christian freedoms

Posted on March 30, 2011
Christian Institute (includes video): ?Intolerance, injustice and unfairness? have been bred in the place of tolerance as society obsesses about rights and equality, a former Home Secretary has said. Lord Waddington made the comments in a Parliamentary debate while raising concerns about proposed new equality regulations which are part of the controversial new Public Sector Equality Duty.

Making Congress Vote on Rules Would End Shell Game

Posted on March 30, 2011
Heritage Foundation: Should Congress be held accountable for the regulatory policies of the federal government? U.S. Representative Geoff Davis and Senator Rand Paul, both Kentucky Republicans, think it should. They have proposed legislation to force all members of Congress to vote yes or no on major rules that affect business and the economy.

United Arab Emirates: Woman sues five-star hotel after she was raped? then JAILED for having sex outside of marriage

Posted on March 30, 2011
Daily Mail: "An Australian woman is suing a five-star UAE hotel after she was drugged and raped by co-workers - but ended up in jail for eight months for having sex outside marriage."

WI: Library sued after saying no to pro-life movie

Posted on March 30, 2011
One News Now: "A Wisconsin library is being challenged for saying no to a pro-life movie that exposes the abortion industry." | Related report and Thomas More Society letter to the library

South Carolina OKs Obamacare Abortion $ Opt-Out, Born Alive Bill

Posted on March 30, 2011
LifeNews: The South Carolina state House approved pro-life bills yesterday by wide margins, including legislation to keeps abortion out of government and private health insurance exchanges created under the new health care law.

51 assisted suicide deaths in Washington in 2010

Posted on March 30, 2011
LifeSiteNews: The Death with Dignity Act Report is the second released by the state after the legalization of assisted suicide by the voter-approved law that took effect in March 2009. Assisted suicide drugs were dispensed to 87 patients in 2010, 51 of whom reportedly died after ingesting the drugs...

California Abortion Biz Closes, Eighth Facility This Month

Posted on March 30, 2011
LifeNews: Family Planning Associates, one the largest abortion center chains in California, has closed the abortion business it runs in Newport Beach. That makes it the eighth abortion center across the country to have closed this month.

Boehner: GOP Wants Defunding Planned Parenthood in Budget Bill

Posted on March 30, 2011
LifeNews: House Speaker John Boehner appears to be holding fast and insisting that House Republicans will not back down on keeping a provision to revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the budget bill.

Iraq: Despite threat, Mosul believers fight for rights

Posted on March 30, 2011
One News Now: The Christians in the area of Nineveh are working to get their own province -- and of course, this is an area that has been dominated mostly by Muslims," says Craig McDonald of Christian Freedom International.

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