Ten Commandments Decision Coming Next Week (June 23, 2005 Liberty Council)
Washington, D.C. - Following today’s decisions by the United States Supreme Court, it is almost certain that the Supreme Court will release the Ten Commandments decision next Monday, June 27. The Ten Commandments cases include McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky and Van Orden v. Perry. Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, argued McCreary County earlier this year before the High Court. Liberty Counsel also filed amicus briefs in the Van Orden case before the federal district and appellate courts.
The McCreary County case involves two Kentucky courthouses in McCreary and Pulaski Counties, where the Ten Commandments is part of a larger display on law. The Van Orden case involves a six-foot-tall, granite monument of the Ten Commandments donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, situated on the state capitol grounds.
Yesterday the Court released six decisions. There are six remaining decisions of the 2004-2005 Term which ends next week. Of the six cases, two of them include the Ten Commandments. Next Monday is the last scheduled day to release decisions. However, it is possible that the Court could add one more day next week for decisions. Since no other days are currently scheduled, the chances of the decision coming next Monday are high
Congressmen Introduce "Family Budget Protection Act" (H.R. 2290)
(Washington Weekly Review) Last month Congressman Jeb Hansarling, (R-TX), Congressman Paul Ryan, (R-WI), Congressman Chris Cox, (R-CA), and Congressman Chris Chocola, (R-IN), introduced the "Family Budget Protection Act", H.R. 2290, to reform Federal budget procedures, to impose spending safeguards, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse, to account for accurate Government agency costs, and for other purposes. The amount government spends annually per household has risen from $18,000 in 2000 to $20,500 in 2004, an increase of 13% and the largest 5-year expansion of the government since the Vietnam era. This marks only the 4th time in U.S. history that federal spending has exceeded $20,000 per household. Their bill now has 62 co-sponsors.
God Grants Another HUGE Win in Battle for Marriage…This Time in Southern California…
(Alan Sears, President-Alliance Defense Fund)
On the heels of last week’s blessings -- the win in Lewis v. Harris -- the legal challenge to marriage in New Jersey, God granted another HUGE win in the second legal challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
In Smelt et al., v. County of Orange (California), advocates of homosexual behavior and the judicial redefinition of marriage filed a lawsuit – in federal court -- claiming the federal DOMA and California’s marriage laws violate the U.S. Constitution (something that would surely amaze the men who wrote the document!) This included Proposition 22, the state’s DOMA law, which was passed by over sixty percent of the state’s voters in 2000. An adverse decision could have opened up a Pandora’s Box of lawsuits and challenges to traditional marriage across the nation.
ADF senior legal counsel Byron Babione, representing the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund, intervened to defend marriage in the Golden State. And last Thursday, the federal district court ruled that the federal DOMA law is constitutional! The court will not take up the challenge to Proposition 22 until after state appellate courts have reviewed it under state constitutional provisions.
Byron noted the judge picked up a key legal argument in the defense and protection of the state’s right to limit marriage as between one man and one woman when he wrote: "Because procreation is necessary to perpetuate humankind, encouraging the optimal union for procreation is a legitimate government interest. Encouraging the optimal union for rearing children by both biological parents is also a legitimate purpose of government."
This is one more in a string of God given, tremendous victories – ones you probably aren’t hearing much about in the secular media. SAME-SEX "MARRIAGE" IS NOT INEVITABLE. As Byron says: "The democratic process and the rule of law have once again been affirmed…This court defended the rights of voters to express what we know about marriage: that it is, was, and always will be a union between one man and one woman."
Parents' Right to Know Act Reintroduced (Pete Winn, Citizen Link)
Sen. Coburn, Rep. Akin champion the right of parents to be involved in the sexual-health decisions of their children.
A bill to preserve the rights of parents regarding the sexual-health decisions of their minor children was re-introduced in Congress today, a year after it died for lack of action in the House.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., are the chief sponsors of the Senate and House versions of the Parents' Right to Know Act. It would mandate that parents be notified five business days before clinics that receive federal funding under Title X of the Public Health Act may hand out contraceptives or prescription devices to minors.
"As a practicing family physician, and as a member of Congress, I have seen firsthand the painful consequences associated with our federal policy that allows children to make potentially life-changing reproduction decisions without their parents' knowledge," said Coburn, who has delivered 500 babies while serving in Congress.
"It is outrageous that, in the United States, children need a permission slip from their parents before the school nurse can give them an aspirin, while, at the same time, children can obtain contraceptives at public health clinics without even notifying their parents.
"This bill will correct this irrational policy that undermines the vital relationship between parents and their children."
ACLU Seeks To Jail Teachers Who Pray
(Tuesday, June 14, 2005 Sam Kastensmidt Center for Reclaiming America)
After federal courts imposed a ban on school prayer in the Tangipahoa Parish (La.) School District, the ACLU is asking a federal judge to arrest all teachers or administrators who violate the order.
The ACLU submitted papers asking the federal judge to issue arrest warrants for any district employees who encourage prayer. These documents state, "The consent judgment is repeatedly violated by these individuals because they do not believe anything will happen to them. Their refusal to comply with the consent decree should and must result in their removal from society."
Since the court’s ruling, the ACLU contends that an elementary school teacher has encouraged her students to pray and bring Bibles into the classroom. In addition, the ACLU told the federal court that the Amite High School has allowed a prayer to be broadcast over the school’s loudspeaker at an awards banquet.
Unfortunately, the federal courts have repeatedly sided with the rabidly secular ACLU — prohibiting prayer at football games and prior to school board meetings. The district has vowed to appeal the most recent decision, and Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian-oriented legal group, has joined as counsel.
Congressman John Hostettler's Amendment Supporting The 10 Commandments Wins (WWR)
On Wednesday, 15 the amendment regarding the display of the 10 Commandments introduced by Congressman John Hostettler, (R-IN), to the Science State Justice and Commerce Appropriations bill passed overwhelmingly by the margin of 242-182. 38 Democrats joined over 200 Republicans in voting for the Hostettler Amendment while 20 Republicans voted against the amendment.
The Hostettler Amendment prohibits funds from being used to enforce the judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in the case of Roseburg vs. Gibson County, decided January 31, 2005, concerning a display of a monument of the 10 Commandments.Please keep the above issues in prayer. Through prayer and action great and mighty things can be accomplished. Psalm 33:12 "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord…"
Pornographers Sue To Block Labeling Law (Pete Winn, CITIZENLINK)
The porn industry has spent nearly 20 years trying to avoid keeping information on the people it exploits.
Lawyers for the pornography industry filed suit Thursday against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in Denver's Federal court, seeking to further block a statute they have successfully blocked since it was passed during the Reagan administration.
Pro-family attorneys however, say the Supreme Court has already upheld the law -- and its past time for it to take effect.
The law requires all pornographic pictures or movies to be labeled with the location where complete records, including names, stage names and proof of age of all those appearing in the material is stored.
Pat Trueman of the Family Research Council, who served as the head of the Justice Department's anti-obscenity unit under President George H.W. Bush, helped defend the 1986 law throughout the late '80s and early '90s.
Trueman explained the law was blocked by porn-industry legal challenges until 1998. Since then it has been held up while the Justice Department developed rules for its enforcement.
"It is scheduled to take effect later this month," he said. "Now pornographers are trying again to stop it."
The latest attempt to block the law is being brought by the Free Speech Coalition -- a trade association financed by 600 of the nation's largest pornographers -- which is challenging Justice Department rules that say that any material on store shelves which is not labeled, or for which the store owner does not have information, would have to be removed.
Carl’s Jr. Expands Raunchy Ad Campaign (Parents TV Council)
Despite the more than 22,000 e-mail complaints from PTC members alone, CKE Restaurants,
(Parent company of the Carl's Jr./Hardees fast-food chains) is going through with plans to expand its soft-porn ad campaign featuring Paris Hilton throughout the Midwest and Southeast starting the week of June 27th.
While CKE Restaurants continues to stand by its irresponsible ad campaign, we have clearly already made an impact. In an e-mail response to member complaints, CKE Restaurants President and CEO, Andrew Pudzer, declared that they are now running the ad after 9:00 p.m.
When the commercial debuted, members reported seeing the ad during all times of day, including during programs popular with young viewers. By moving the ads to after 9:00, CKE Restaurants is acknowledging, whether they admit it or not, that the ad has no business airing where children will see it.
California Acknowledges Rise In Gambling Related Troubles (Citizen Link)
California has set aside $1.4 million to study the effects of gambling. The research will examine mental health and addiction as well as the relationship gambling has with physical and mental health, social problems and interpersonal problems, Inside Bay Area reported.
The National Opinion Research Center and the University of Chicago will conduct the study, which will examine and map the demographics of gamblers. Researchers hope to find out how people finance their gambling, where they gamble, what debt is attributed to the pastime, if alcohol or drug behavior is affected as well as employment status.
"It's likely the largest problem-gambling study ever undertaken in the country," said Kathryn P. Jett, director of the state's Alcohol and Drug Programs Department. Results will be available in June of 2006. http://www.moralmajority.us
Kraft’s Gay Day Debacle (Jerry Falwell June 17, 2005)
Kraft Foods, the maker of "the world’s favorite foods," has found itself in the middle of a public relations nightmare after its corporate leadership decided to sponsor the Gay Games VII, which will take place in Chicago in July. The Gay Games is an Olympic-style series of events where homosexuals from around the world compete. But the Gay Games are not just about athletic competition.
Kraft Foods, owners of Maxwell House coffee, Kool-Aid and Capri Sun drinks, Oscar Mayer meats, Jell-O snacks, Oreo cookies, Nabisco Foods, and many other well-known products, has placed its reputation on the line by choosing to sponsor the Gay Games.
In an interview with PlanetOut, Kevin G. Boyer, a spokesman for Gay Games VII, said that, despite the growing protest, Kraft is "behind us 100 percent."
That might change if enough people voice their concern and opposition to Kraft’s decision to sponsor the Gay Games.
A nationwide protest is presently erupting with scores of Americans calling and e-mailing Kraft, urging the company to withdraw its sponsorship of the Gay Games. Many individuals on my staff have already joined in the protest by sending e-mails to Kraft. They are waiting to see if the company will reply.
Storm Clouds In The Wild Blue Yonder (Washington Update by Tony Perkins
)Within the Air Force hymn, Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder, is the phrase honoring pilots "how they lived God only knew." If Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (Americans United) and Members of Congress have their way, speech about God will be deeply chilled at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.
Earlier this year Americans United sent a 14-page complaint about "religious coercion and endorsement of religion at the United States Air Force Academy" to the Secretary of Defense, threatening a lawsuit if action was not taken. Most of the "complaints" are unsubstantiated, exaggerated or misconstrued.
The Air Force is taking steps to ensure that there is a clear policy set guaranteeing religious liberty, yet this is not enough to satisfy the House of Representatives.
Rep. David Obey (D-WI) successfully amended in the Department of Defense appropriation bill to heavily criticize the Air Force Academy (based on the flimsy charges brought forth by Americans United) and order the Secretary of the Air Force to describe what steps will take to effectively silence religious _expression at the Academy.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) plans to remove the Obey amendment from the bill and replace it with a more balanced approach that would allow religious freedom without giving special favor to anyone. Please contact your representatives to support Congressman Hunter's amendment blunting this attack on our military.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Is Losing Control (FrontPageMagazine.com | June 21, 2005)
The Palestinian Authority is quietly bracing for the prospect of collapse amid the unprecedented violence by members of the ruling Fatah movement. PA leaders have acknowledged that they cannot quell the chaos in the Palestinian areas or count on the loyalty of the police and security forces, in many cases bolstered by Western aid and training. Indeed, the PA reports that many of the gun battles that rage through Palestinian cities have included security officers who have joined Fatah operatives in extortion and other criminal activities.
Rather than order an offensive, PA leaders have sought to appease Fatah factions and offer them jobs and housing while promising security commanders that they would delay or revise plans to reform the security services. At the same time, senior PA officials have used the official media to blame Israel for the violence and recycle canards used before the Palestinian war in 2000.
Outwardly, the Palestinian leadership has been engaged in preparations for Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank and the acquisition of hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid. But the leading topic in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which is reflected in PA-controlled newspapers, has been the loss of control by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the defection of security commanders and their forces to militias established by the ruling Fatah movement. These days, militants from Abbas’s own party threaten the chairman, his aides and virtually anybody who fails to cooperate. In muted but clear tones, the PA newspapers report daily the attacks by Fatah, often bolstered by security officers, against PA officials, their families and security installations.
PA officials have been fleeing or plan to leave the West Bank for Jordan and other Arab states. The most popular Palestinian daily, Al Quds [1], has been jammed with ads by travel agencies, a remarkable development considering the poverty of most Palestinians, their lack of passports and other restrictions. The ads are for the Palestinian elite, who are looking to escape the dangers of living in Palestinian cities. Indeed, the assessment by many is that the PA could collapse by late 2005 as the split within the ruling Fatah movement widens. PA security services have been unable to stem the increasing violence in the streets of Palestinian cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Fatah factions have been engaged in gun battles in Ramallah, the center of Palestinian government, while police have largely stood by or even joined in.
Help Stop '.xxx' Domain For Porn Sites (Citizen Link)
Pro-family groups are appealing to the nonprofit corporation that oversees Internet domain names worldwide to reject an effort to establish a ".xxx" top-level domain.
The triple-x extension has already been approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international oversight body for the Internet. The hope is public outcry can convince the group to change its position.
A change is necessary because -- even though the corralling of all pornographic sites sounds positive, at first -- there is nothing to compel porn providers to give up their current ".com" addresses in favor of the lesser-known ".xxx" extensions.
"They can join this domain and stay in any other domain where they are registered. It doubles their exposure and legitimizes the industry," explained Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America. "It misleads the public by parents thinking that this will make filters more effective, which is not true."
Please take a moment to register your opposition to ICANN's decision by e-mailing the group's ombudsman, Frank Fowlie, and telling him his organization should not support efforts to give porn sites and even higher profile. You can e-mail him through the CitizenLink Action Center:
http://www.family.org/cforum/action_center.cfm?capwizurl=http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/mail/
West Virginia Court Redefines Parenthood (Citizen Link)
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has redefined what a parent is by declaring the lesbian partner of a deceased woman the "psychological parent" of her lover's young child.
Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the American Family Association's Center for Law and Policy, said the court removed custody of the child from his maternal grandparents and gave it to the lesbian partner, identified in court documents as "Tina B." -- Crampton filed legal briefs in the case on behalf of two West Virginia lawmakers.
"This court has once again demonstrated the lethal effects of judicial activism on the nuclear family, which is the cornerstone of our civilization," Crampton said. "West Virginia's creation of a new 'right' for a same-sex partner to obtain custody of her deceased lover's child without any written agreement, a will, or any attempt at adoption is but a stepping stone to recognition of same-sex marriage."
The child's mother, "Christina S," was killed in a head-on collision crash which reportedly occurred after Tina B. fell asleep at the wheel. The pair was driving home from an all-night party at a gay bar in Charleston, W. Va.
Legislative Wrap Up From Last Week (Washington Update by Tony Perkins)
The successful vote on UN reform was not the only victory last week for families.. Thanks to the work of a number of conservative champions in the House of Representatives, families can breathe a little easier. Representative John Hostettler's (R-IN) amendment blocking federal funds from being used to enforce a poor Ten Commandments court decision in his district won a clear victory, sending a message to judges who would ban expressions of religion.
Congressman Chris Chocola (R-IN) saw his amendment that bans funding for a NASA "artist in residence" pass by voice vote. While much of modern art, in my opinion, looks as if it was done by space aliens, there is certainly no need for the U.S. space agency to have its own artist. One amendment offered by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), that would have allowed U.S. taxpayers funds to go to foreign entities to commit abortions, was defeated. Thanks to all the Members of the House who stopped U.S. tax dollars from being wasted on issues opposed by most Americans.
McCain On Roe Vs. Wade (American Values by Gary Bauer Monday, June 20, 2005)
Senator John McCain was on Meet the Press this weekend. He is still being hit hard by conservatives for his leadership role with "the gang of fourteen" senators that blocked for now GOP efforts to end the Democrats' filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees. That deal has outraged conservative grassroots activists more than anything else in recent memory.
Tim Russert pressed Senator McCain hard on his role, and then this intriguing exchange took place:
Russert: "Justice Scalia as you know, believes that Roe versus Wade, which made abortion legal in this country, was incorrectly decided. Do you agree with him?"
Senator McCain: "Yeah, I certainly do to some degree. It was based on medical technology and knowledge at the time that indicated that babies are -- children are not viable in the earliest stage as they are today. So there findings certainly wasn't based on sound, up to date medical technology. We save babies every day that are premature at a very early stage. Thank God."
Roe was wrongly decided, as virtually any honest constitutional scholar will affirm. Some day, hopefully soon, sanity will return to our courts, and all of our children will be welcomed into the world and protected by the law.
Appeals Court Reverses Radical Judge's Gender Ruling
(Allie Martin & Jenni Parker-AgapePress)
A precedent-setting case in Florida has ended with a court order annulling the marriage between a transsexual who was born female and a biological mother of two children. One pro-family legal expert believes the court's action will have major repercussions.
The Florida case involved transsexual Michael Kantaras (born Margo Kantaras), who had married a woman (Linda Kantaras) with two biological children of her own. Linda Kantaras later became a Christian and sought to annul the marriage. However, a child custody dispute between the estranged couple had to be resolved in court.
In February 2003, Pasco County Judge Gerard O'Brien presided over the child custody dispute, at the heart of which was the question of whether or not a transsexual marriage may be recognized as legal in the state of Florida. The state legislature had banned same-sex marriages back in 1997 when lawmakers passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined a marriage as being between "one man and one woman" in the state of Florida.
However, Judge O'Brien ruled that the Kantarases' transsexual marriage was legal, and he granted custody of the 11-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son to Michael (Margo) Kantaras. But that decision was overturned last year by a Florida appellate court, and last week, a court-approved settlement returned the two children to the primary care of their biological mother.
Liberty Counsel President Mat Staver believes the resolution of this legal matter will have a far reaching impact, just as many believed O'Brien's original ruling would have.
Staver notes, "This case, when it was originally decided at the trial court, was touted worldwide as this major breakthrough in the notion of abolition of gender -- that gender is just a product of your mind and not any physical or objective criteria."
Now that Judge O'Brien's decision has been reversed, however, Staver says the new court ruling that, in effect, says transsexual marriage is not lawful in Florida "cuts against that former precedent and instead gives us another precedent." And this new court precedent, the attorney adds, is "one now that is in support of the traditional family, supporting that there is a difference between male and female, that it does make a significant impact on children, and that marriage is only the union of one man and one woman."
Stop Left-wing Environmentalists From Destroying Our Economy
(RightMarch.com Mon, 20 Jun 2005) Top of Form
It's like a yearly ritual -- when summer approaches and the temperatures start to rise, left-wing environmentalists start pushing their "global warming" junk science in order to promote socialistic legislation that would destroy the American economy.
First there was the "Kyoto treaty," which the leftists like to pretend is about saving the environment, but which even its supporters have admitted is really about a socialistic plan to "level the playing field for big businesses worldwide" (according to the European Union's commissioner on the environment); French President Jacques Chirac even let it slip that Kyoto is "the first component of an authentic global governance."
In fact, Wharton Econometrics Forecasting Associates estimates that the costs of implementing Kyoto would cost an American family of four: $2,700 annually; JunkScience.com estimates that the Kyoto Protocol has cost about $49 billion since its inception in February 2005 while possibly averting about 0.0005 degrees Celsius of warming by the year 2050. But while the European Union's industries have been devastated by Kyoto's restrictions, the U.S. has prospered because it has refused to sign on to this economically destructive treaty.
But leftists tried again by pushing the McCain-Lieberman "Climate Stewardship Act," a piece of Kyoto-in-disguise legislation that only far-left groups like MoveOn.org loved (remember when their people stood outside of movie theaters showing "The Day After Tomorrow," handing out flyers for this bill?). The McCain-Lieberman bill, estimated by the energy industry to cost more than 600,000 jobs and ruin U.S. coal production, was defeated in 2003 thanks in large part to our members' actions against it.
However, thanks to possible defections by several Republican senators, including possibly Sen. Pete Domenici, manager of the energy bill, a NEW mandatory climate change amendment by Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman might pass. And this one, like the others, could RUIN the American economy that's just getting back on track.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute's Marlo Lewis estimates that the Bingman amendment would cost $331 billion -- that's BILLION -- in lost productivity between 2010 and 2025, while PERHAPS avoiding an insignificant 0.008 degrees Celsius of POTENTIAL global warming by 2050.
Despite the lack of a scientific consensus to warrant such measures, far-left environmentalists and climate change alarmists are using Bingaman's amendment to promote "mandatory caps" on carbon dioxide emissions in the USA. It's what Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) calls "a classic case of 'ready, fire, aim.'"
So Sen. Inhofe has introduced a new bill (S. 1205) which exposes the junk science claims, AND works to protect the American economy. Right now, we need to take action to OPPOSE Sen. Bingaman's amendment and the revived McCain-Liberman bill, and SUPPORT S. 1205 Sen. Inhofe's bill.
The Road To Riches Is Called K Street (June 22, 2005 Jeffrey H. Birnbaum Washington Post)
Lobbying Firms Hire More, Pay More, Charge More to Influence Government
To the great growth industries of America such as health care and home building add one more: influence peddling.
The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent. Only a few other businesses have enjoyed greater prosperity in an otherwise fitful economy.
The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits.
"There's unlimited business out there for us," said Robert L. Livingston, a Republican former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and now president of a thriving six-year-old lobbying firm. "Companies need lobbying help."
Lobbying firms can't hire people fast enough. Starting salaries have risen to about $300,000 a year for the best-connected aides.
Once considered a distasteful post-government vocation, big-bucks lobbying is luring nearly half of all lawmakers who return to the private sector when they leave Congress, according to a forthcoming study by Public Citizen's Congress Watch.
QUOTEWORTHY:
"The government is us; we are the government, you and I." ------- President Theodore Roosevelt
Common Virus kills Cancer, Study Finds (Tue Jun 21, Reuters)
A common virus that is harmless to people can destroy cancerous cells in the body and might be developed into a new cancer therapy, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
The virus, called adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2, infects an estimated 80 percent of the population.
"Our results suggest that adeno-associated virus type 2, which infects the majority of the population but has no known ill effects, kills multiple types of cancer cells yet has no effect on healthy cells," said Craig Meyers, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Penn State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania.
"We believe that AAV-2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV-2 has great potential to be developed as an anti-cancer agent," Meyers said in a statement.
Religious Discrimination Cases On The Rise (Tue, 21 Jun 2005
Kim Trobee, Citizen Link)A religious-discrimination lawsuit filed by two former editorial writers at the Indianapolis Star may be generating plenty of headlines, but the nature of the charges leveled against the paper's management is hardly unusual.
In fact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received almost 2,500 charges of religious discrimination last year, an 80 percent jump, according to John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute.
"It's so much more common," he explained, "that even the corporate executives when they get together now are having people like me come in and discuss the issue." The plaintiffs in the Indiana case claim their civil rights have been violated. Whitehead agreed.
"Title VII of our Civil Rights Act says that employers have to accommodate the religious beliefs of their employees," he said, "unless they can show what's called an undue hardship."
In a 2004 case in New York City, public schools were allowed to display Jewish and Muslim symbols, but the nativity was barred. Rory O'Connor, president of Global Vision, said attitudes toward religion may have changed, but the Constitution has not.
"Of course any religious beliefs have the same protection under the U.S. Constitution whether they would be Christian or Muslim or Jewish," O'Connor said. "They're all treated the same."
Just this week a young Jewish man won his discrimination suit against Blockbuster Video for $50,000. The company had prohibited him from wearing traditional headwear because it was against its dress code.
Speak Out About Efforts To Silence Christians At The Air Force Academy
(June 21, 2005 Citizen Link)
U.S. Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., stirred up a hornet's nest in the House on Monday, when he remarked to fellow lawmakers that Democrats are, by nature, anti-Christian.
"Like a moth to a flame," Hostettler said, "Democrats can't help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians."
Hostettler was addressing colleagues during a debate over a Democrat amendment to instruct the secretary of the Air Force to ensure the Air Force Academy "maintains a climate free from coercive religious intimidation and inappropriate proselytizing by Air Force officials."
Hostettler disputed the assertion that such events have ever taken place at the Academy and added later that it's not fair to tell Christians they can't tell others about their faith because "then they can't exercise their Christian religion."
"The long war on Christianity in America continues today on the floor of the House of Representatives," he said, "(and) continues unabated with aid and comfort to those who would eradicate any vestige of our Christian heritage being supplied by the usual suspects -- the Democrats."
Please thank Rep. Hostettler for his remarks in defense of Christianity. For contact information, including office phone numbers and an easy-to-use e-mail form, visit the Citizen Link Action Center. http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=244&lvl=C&chamber=H
Then, take a moment to contact your own congressman and urge him or her to oppose any effort in Congress to tell Christians they can't speak about their faith -- even at the U.S. Air Force Academy. For contact information, visit the Citizen Link Action Center and type your ZIP code into the space provided. http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/officials/
A Major Victory in the Battle for Academic Freedom
(Press release -- Thursday June 23, 2005 Front Page Magazine)
Academic Bill of Rights author, David Horowitz, praises new initiative on intellectual diversity and academic freedom issued by the American Council on Education and signed by 22 college and university associations, including the American Association of University professors.
In a statement released this morning, David Horowitz, the author of the Academic Bill of Rights which is the model for pending legislation in more than a dozen states, including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, hailed the new initiative as a "major concession" by university authorities in his ongoing campaign for academic freedom:
"This is an important official step in recognizing that serious problems of political exclusion and political harassment exist on our college campuses, and an even more important step in moving towards a non-partisan solution that will protect the university as an institution.
Specifically he welcomed:
Horowitz commented: "The statement by the American Council on Education and 22 university and academic associations is, we hope, the beginning of a concerted effort by university administrators and faculties to put their houses in order. We applaud these endorsements of intellectual pluralism and fairness, especially because they come from the university community. It was never our intention in launching the Academic Bill of Rights to impose legislative solutions on universities and university faculties. It was always our desire that legislative attention would prompt the university community to do the right thing and to honor the principles of academic freedom to which their institutions are already committed.
China Incorporated (June 23 American Values by Gary Bauer)
The Chinese state-run oil firm CNOOC Ltd. made an $18.5 billion bid last night to buy U.S. oil company Unocal. The bid is $2 billion higher than another offer made by Chevron. There is no doubt the offer is good for Unocal's stockholders. And certainly, many will argue the takeover is simply the free market place at work. But is it really? How can Chevron win a bidding war against a government-controlled Chinese company?
More importantly, what are the national security implications of entities owned by the communist Chinese government in turn controlling U.S. energy assets? China is in the middle of a massive arms build-up funded in part by the U.S. consumer, who is addicted to cheap Chinese products. Its human rights policies remain dismal. It continues to threaten our ally Taiwan. And it is building strong relations with the Chavez government in Venezuela, another major U.S. oil source. I hope the Bush Administration says "no" to the deal.
Howard Wilson hwilson@moralaction.org