The Democrat-controlled Hawaii House voted Friday to legalize civil unions and extend essentially all of the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. The bill now returns to the Senate, which is also controlled by Democrats. The Senate approved a similar version of the measure last month.
In its 2003 Lawrence decision, the Supreme Court overturned Texas’s ban on sodomy. Critics, I among them, warned that this precedent would open the floodgates to gay marriage, polygamy, incest, and a whole host of horribles. Justice Antonin Scalia issued a blistering dissent, charging that Lawrence “effectively decrees the end of all morals legislation.� Defenders of the opinion scoffed at the warning and accused critics of hysteria and homophobia. Then Senator Rick Santorum, a critic of the ruling, was subjected to continuing and merciless vilification.
The U.S. House of Representatives has taken several steps recently toward the goal of ending taxpayer funding of groups that perform abortions. “The pro-life leadership of the House has been courageous in … acting on pro-life sentiments,� said Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life. “Pro-life and pro-choice Americans agree: No abortion tax should be levied on Americans. Politicians looking for bipartisan agreement, look no further.�
Nadia Guirguis left Egypt 15 years ago for the same reasons her countrymen are protesting today: She wanted a chance at better jobs, more freedoms and a better life. But as tumultuous demonstrations raged in her homeland, the Coptic Christian has become a reluctant supporter of the country’s widely disliked dictator, President Hosni Mubarak. While much of the world — from those taking to the streets Egypt to rallies in South Florida — roots for democracy and the immediate ouster of Mubarak, the Copts, a persecuted minority in Egypt that make up a majority of its immigrant population in the United States, are raising concerns that an even less friendly Islamist government could take his place.
FREE AND democratic societies take chances. They guarantee freedom of speech and of the press, despite the risk that harmful, foolish, or depraved ideas may be promoted. They require due process of law before an offender can be punished, even though some who are guilty may go free as a result. They give citizens the power to elect their rulers, notwithstanding the possibility that voters will choose officials who are corrupt or incompetent.
'Multiculturalism has failed," said British Prime Minister David Cameron last weekend in Munich. If anybody thought they had read those words before, it is because they have. Many times. Last October German Chancellor Angela Merkel (sitting onstage with Mr. Cameron when he gave his speech on Saturday) said the same. Finally, Europe's mainstream party leaders seem to be realizing what others have long noticed: Multiculturalism has been the most pernicious and divisive policy pursued by Western governments since World War II. Multiculturalism is a deeply misunderstood idea. That was one of the reasons for its political success. People were led to believe that "multiculturalism" meant multiracialism, or pluralism. It did not. Nevertheless, for years anybody who criticized multiculturalism was immediately decried as a "racist."
At least 65 Christians have been killed in attacks across the Muslim world in recent months, sparking sharp criticism from human rights groups that charge the U.S. government and media aren’t doing nearly enough to speak out against the violence. A shooting in Egypt last month that killed a Christian man and injured five Christian women was just the latest in the series of attacks, several of which occurred around the holiday season: A New Year’s bombing at a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt, killed 23 people and injured more than 100; Christmas Eve blasts in Nigeria killed at least 32 -- just part of a night of terror across the country that saw three other churches attacked and six worshipers killed; six perished in a Christmas Day Catholic Church bombing on the island of Jolo, in the Philippines; and a string of New Year’s Eve bombings in Iraq left two dead and at least 13 wounded.
For four years, family advocates have been successful in protecting the definition of marriage in Illinois. Today, however, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a bill that gives all of the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. The law takes effect June 1. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which wrote the bill, said the next step is same-sex marriage — something marriage advocates have been saying all along.
On countless occasions, David Cameron has declared that he is a tremendous fan of the institution of marriage. So big a fan, it now becomes clear, that he generously intends to bestow its status and privileges far beyond what most people consider marriage actually to be.
WASHINGTON—Providing the nation with a rare glimpse into his religious beliefs, President Barack Obama on Thursday said “these past two years, they have deepened my faith.� This deeper look into Obama’s private spiritual life, given at a speech during the annual National Prayer Breakfast, seemed designed to confront the controversy surrounding his religious beliefs. “In the wake of failures and disappointments, I’ve questioned what God had in store for me and been reminded that God’s plans for us may not always match our own short-sighted desires,� the president said at the Washington Hilton before an audience of more than 3,000.
Federal Judge Roger Vinson threw out President Obama’s health care law today, calling the mandate requiring everyone to buy health insurance unconstitutional, and declaring the entire law void. Vinson, who serves on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, agreed with the 26 governors and state attorneys general who had sued over the law. He did not however, halt the implementation of the law. David Rivkin, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, called the health care law “the most unconstitutional law in history,� citing the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. Rivkin said this is the first time Congress has ever tried to force citizens to enter interstate commerce.
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Violations of Christians’ religious freedom in Indonesia jumped from 12 incidents in 2009 to 75 last year, according to a report from the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace. Setara Institute researcher Ismail Hasani said at a press conference last week that 43 incidents involved attacks on churches and other security threats, sealing of worship venues and prohibition of activities, among other violations. Other incidents among the 75 violations included blocking churches from establishing places of worship and banning services and other religious activities. Those involved in the violations acted primarily as members of community organizations, Hasani said.
X-Jump, Pencil, Tuck, Pike, Double Hook, Herkie: Those are the names of some of the traditional jumps that cheerleaders perform. Television commentators, with rare exceptions like Charles Krauthammer, have been performing those stunts and more as they've used their media megaphones to become cheerleaders for Middle East revolution in recent weeks. Talking heads have been stumbling over Egyptian names but confidently projecting American history into a Muslim theater: Dictatorship will end if Egyptians can freely vote, and they'll live happily ever after. Few seem aware of last June's Pew opinion survey of Egyptians that showed 59 percent backing Islamists. (And 84 percent support executing Muslims who change their religion.)
Last year, representatives from several prominent mission agencies, both national and expatriate, met to compare notes about the progress of their respective ministries in one Muslim-majority country. (The country's name is withheld for security reasons.) The representatives rejoiced that more than 1,000 "fellowships," as they call them, have been established for people from Muslim backgrounds. In fact, many of the fellowships had already planted new fellowships, and those fellowships had planted still more. Many thousands of Muslims in this nation alone, then, had found faith in Jesus.
Atlanta From council rooms in small towns to the marble corridors of Capitol Hill, Americans are rightly focusing on ways to halt the tide of red ink. Facing huge budget shortfalls, states like California and New York are considering radical cuts to balance their books. President Obama acknowledged the seriousness of the problem in his State of the Union message, calling it a "mountain" that could bury us and urging a five-year partial budget freeze. The president is right to admonish us about the magnitude of the problem that he helped mightily to exacerbate. Political leaders who are serious about fiscal discipline deserve some credit for finally acting to correct course.
Alliance Defense Fund - Q&A with Dr. Wayne Grudem talking about his new book "Politics according to the Bible" Question #8
The New York Times, which ran articles praising Joseph Stalin in the 1930s and Fidel Castro in the 1950s, is snuggling up to the Muslim Brotherhood. Impressively, it’s doing so by—in the same article—equating the Brotherhood to the Roman Catholic Church and to the evangelical movement.
Here’s what you should know about civil union legislation: It is being introduced in several states as part of a strategy to redefine marriage. Although it is often denied, a news release by the Illinois ACLU about recently-passed civil union legislation admits this, and also equates “full equality� with same-sex marriage.
The Cape Town Commitment -- a document that flows out of the Third Lausanne Congress on Global Evangelization held in Cape Town, South Africa, this past October -- has generated a great deal of discussion since its release last week. Prior documents and declarations proceeding from the previous two Lausanne Congress gatherings (such as the 1974 Lausanne Covenant, and the 1989 Manila Manifesto) have been embraced as a sort of social encyclical and common rallying point for the evangelical church -- broadly defined -- around the world.
BREAKING: Central Jersey Planned Parenthood fires worker after release of undercover video. This is the full, unedited video is 22 min in length. It is separated into 2 parts because YouTube only allowed a maximum continuous video length of 15 minutes. Tonight, Central Jersey Planned Parenthood fired the manager, identified in the video as Amy Woodruff, and beefed up security around its clinics. “We were profoundly shocked when we viewed the videotape released this morning, which depicted an employee of one of our health centers behaving in a repugnant manner that is inconsistent with our standards of care and is completely unacceptable,� Phyllis Kinsler, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Central Jersey said in a statement released at 10:20 p.m.
