Adventist Golfer put his faith ahead of on-course success (Tulsa World)

 EXCERPT:

A FIELD OF 312 golfers will tee off Monday in the U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills and Cedar Ridge. One of them — 24-year-old Louie Bishop of Murrieta, Calif. — knows he has zero chance of advancing to Sunday’s finals and, yes, he’s at peace with that.

Bishop is a Seventh-day Adventist. He doesn’t compete on Saturdays because of his sabbath — sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

That means Bishop would have a decision to make if he was fortunate enough to reach Saturday’s match play semifinals.

Pursue a very significant trophy?

Or stay true to his faith?

 

Full article: http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=224&articleid=20090824_232_B1_Despit143446&allcom=1

 

Religious-freedom groups mourn Kennedy, cite church-state views (ABP)

EXCERPT:

. . .

The late senator “was a great champion of church-state separation,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a preparedstatement. “It’s not just that he consistently voted to support that principle — he really got it. He deeply understood that only a high and firm wall of separation between church and state could protect our liberties. He knew the reasons why our Founders established church-state separation and why we need to preserve it. He got how church-state separation protects the rights of both religious and non-religious people.”

Lynn cited Kennedy’s fierce opposition to a famous attempt by his former colleague, the late Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), to push through the Senate a constitutional amendment enabling government-sanctioned school prayer. He also noted Kennedy’s crucial opposition to failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, who was opposed by many religious-freedom activists because of his support for government endorsements of religion.

. . .

“The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of religious faith,” he continued. “They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept. But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone’s freedom is at risk. Those who favor censorship should recall that one of the first books ever burned was the first English translation of the Bible…. Let us never forget: Today’s Moral Majority could become tomorrow’s persecuted minority.”

The vision Kennedy held out was of an “America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern Inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion or angry division.”

Read the full article at: http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4348&Itemid=53

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet (CNET)

 

EXCERPT: 

 

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

 

 

They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. 

The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

“I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,” said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. “It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”

 

Read the full article at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html

‘We have so many uncanonised martyrs’ – Christians in Pakistan are living in daily fear of violence from extremists (Catholic Herald)

Sister Janet Fearns, communications coordinator of Missio writes about the extent of religious persecution in Pakistan.  A link to the full article follows this excerpt:

‘I am sorry I could not speak to you then because we were just about to begin the funeral service for Irfan, an 11-year-old boy who was shot in the head passed away yesterday.”

That was the opening line of the email from Fr Mario Rodriguez, national director for the Pontifical Mission Societies in Pakistan. Several hours later, Fr Mario was able to give a few more details as he spoke over the phone from Karachi. He also sent me three photographs of his parishioners.

In one photo, Fr Mario and a householder stand in a fire-blackened house. In another, in the midst of a group of men, one wears a sling, a slight bloodstain showing where the bullet entered his arm.

The third photo portrays a man holding up his right arm, its blistered blackness horrific. At present, the man’s injury is possibly not very painful: the serious nature of his burn probably destroyed the sensitive nerve endings in his skin. As his injury heals and the nerves regenerate, it will be agony.

Yet the message from Fr Mario’s parishioners is one of defiance. “We are prepared to die for our faith!”

Read the full article at http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/f0000458.shtml

Charles Colson on media indifference to international religious freedom

Charles Colson recently wrote an interesting editorial on the media’s non-response to religious freedom issues in India.  Here is an excerpt followed by a link to the full article:

In 1998, Congress created the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Its mandate was to “monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad.”

Part of this monitoring involves visits to the countries where violations of religious freedom are alleged to have occurred.

That’s why the Commission planned to visit India in response to reports about the killing of Christians in the Indian state of Orissa. The killings were part of a larger campaign of violence and intimidation that has left 100 people dead and thousands of Christians homeless.

As the word “planned” suggests, the Commission never traveled to India. The Indian government never issued the required visas and hasn’t explained why. This gives India the dubious distinction of being the only democracy to have refused a visit by the Commission.

While there has been no official explanation, the reasons for the refusal are well known, at least in India. Hindu nationalists had demanded that the Commission not be allowed to visit India. One leader called the Commission an “intrusive mechanism … interfering with the internal affairs of India.”

Read more at http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/10529.article

Open Forum: What does religious freedom mean to you?

Here is how some members of our Facebook community responded to the question, “What does religious freedom mean to you?”

William Brooks:

I once heard a pastor speak on religious liberty and its meaning, and since then, I have claim this meaning for myself.”Religious liberty means, I am free worship as I please, or to go fishing.” To me, we have the freedom to do as we please and that is what makes this county great.

Patti Cottrell Grant:

In order for Freedom of Religion to survive in the 21st Century we must recognize its ongoing assault by religious extremists.It is no longer enough to practice their religion as they see fit, they aggressively claim the right to determine how other people live. Case in point: the $20 million injected into California’s Prop. 8 political process by out-of-state churches who simultaneously deny any conflict with their tax-exempt status.For the first time in American history a law has been passed that allows one group of people to take away the rights of another group of people with whom they disagree. While the present statute relates specifically to same-sex marriage, the legal precedent can transfer to other issues, including religious freedom. Look to our own history. Within a few years of coming to America the Puritans established a tax-supported State religion in which only church members in good standing could run for public office, and ministers were paid by the State (Library of Congress). Predictably, religious persecution ensued, including the infamous witch trials and fatal assaults on dissident ministers. Consequently, in the late 1780s all 13 States voted in favor of deleting any reference to God from the U. S. Constitution, although only nine States were required for Ratification. The First Amendment codifies this freedom in law.

Scott Ritsema :

Religious Freedom: “Belief and practice completely according to one’s own conscience and preference that is limited by the force of government only to the extent that one’s religious practice represents an act of actual aggression against another individual’s person or property.”In other words, freedom is best defined as the absence of government except in defense of property rights. Persuasion, contracting, and every other form of human thought, speech, and practice is left alone. Since government itself is violent force, it is only justly employed in defense against acts of aggression.    (Read more from Scott at CivicsNews.com)

Join our Facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19633772247

Tennesee governor signs Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law

 
On July 1, 2009, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law.  Introduced in February, House Bill 1598 requires Tennessee courts to apply the “compelling state interest” test to cases in which a law substantially burdens one’s right of free exercise of religion. The state now has the burden of proving that the law furthers a “compelling state interest” and is the “least restrictve means” of furthering that interest.

To those unfamiliar with first amendment litigation, this may seem like a confusing set of terms, but the new law takes a very important step forward. Before this law was in place, the Tennessee legislature could pass a law that applied equally to everybody but could inadvertently disrupt somebody’s free exercise of religion.  For instance, the state could pass a law that all high school examinations were to be held on Sunday.  If a student who had a religious objection refused to take the test on Sunday and requested accommodation such as another day, the state could deny the accommodation on the grounds that the law applied equally to all students and that this student had not been discriminated against because of his religion.   It would be a “facially neutral” law that did not “discriminate” against anybody.

This new law would require the state to prove that the Sunday test was essential to further a “compelling governmental interest” and that it was the “least restrictive means” of furthering that interest. In other words, the state would have to demonstrate that it had a very good reason for scheduling the testing for Sunday and a very good reason for denying a student an opportunity to schedule around it. If the state still refuses and the student has to sue in order to graduate from high school and the student wins, the court may award attorney’s fees and court costs as reimbursement for the expenses of litigation.

This new law is a local state response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997) which ruled that a similar Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed by the U.S. Congress was unconstitutional.  Tennessee joins 15 other states that have now enacted religious freedom acts.

(Please note that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) which addresses any type of government action in  Tennessee is not to be confused with the recently passed Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA) which requires Oregon employers to make reasonable attempts to accommodate religious observances of holy days and religions dress of their employers.)

Arthur Caplan – The Bioethics of Engineering Children

First religious liberty festival in Jerusalem draws hundreds (ANN)

Source: Adventist News Network

 

Hundreds of religious liberty proponents from Israel and the Palestinian Territories gathered in Jerusalem Sunday for the symbolic city’s first festival of religious freedom.

The event generated a “climate of good understanding” among attendees that organizers hope will spur increased tolerance in the region, said John Graz, secretary-general for the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA), which sponsors festivals worldwide to encourage freedoms of religion.

Hosting the event in a city holy to three major world faiths — Judaism, Islam and Christianity — was particularly significant, said Graz, who also directs the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL).

While Christians enjoy broad freedoms and are allowed to conduct outreach on a limited basis in largely Orthodox Jewish Israel, treatment of Muslims is a subject of international controversy, according to the Religious Freedom World Report, a PARL publication.

Conservative Jews, who embrace a non-fundamentalist interpretation of the Jewish faith, also face hurdles to religious freedom, said Rabbi Yaacov Lebeau, who spoke at the event. Because of the dominance of Orthodox Judaism, weddings and other ceremonies conducted in Conservative synagogues are not fully recognized, he said.

“It could be very easy to be influenced by extremist groups and fall into exclusivism,” regional Adventist President Richard Elofer said. Given the “multi-cultural and multi-region” makeup of Israel, defending inclusive freedoms is a priority to ensure that doesn’t happen, he added.

Some 300 religious liberty advocates from Jewish and Christian communities attended the event.

Baptists Mark 400th Anniversary, Celebrate Religious Freedom (BeliefNet)

EXCERPT:

 UTRECHT, Netherlands — (RNS/ENI) Four hundred years after the first Baptist congregation was established, followers have been challenged to continue championing religious liberty.

“We as Baptists must continue to defend religious freedom for all peoples and all religions,” said Denton Lotz, the former general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, at a special service held last Thursday (July 30) in Amsterdam to mark the 400th anniversary of the Baptist movement.

The service was held in a Mennonite church in central Amsterdam, a short distance from the site of what is honored as the first Baptist congregation, founded in 1609 by exiles from Britain who had fled religious persecution in England.

“If we fail to take seriously the 21st century and merely continue to defend religious freedom as though we were living under King James I, then we will have become irrelevant and our defense of freedom irrelevant,” said Lotz, who served as the BWA’s top executive for 19 years until his retirement in 2007.

Read the full article at http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2009/08/baptists-mark-400th-anniversar.php