EXCERPT: Over the past six years, more than 3,000 people were lynched in Tanzania by frightened neighbors who thought they were witches, according to a new report from the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC). Between 2005 and 2011, Tanzanians lynched an average of 500 people per year on suspicion of witchcraft, with most killings…
Month: May 2012
Give Bigotry No Sanction: George Washington Letter To Synagogue to Be Displayed
U.S. President George Washington traveled to Newport, Rhode Island where he met with the congregation at the Touro Synagogue. While there, the leader of the congregation, Moses Seixas, handed Washington a letter that noted past persecution and expressed hope that liberty of conscience would prevail in the new nation.
U.S. House Committee Votes to Strengthen Military Chaplains’ Liberty of Conscience
The U.S. House Armed Services Committee has adopted Congressman Todd Akin’s (R-Missouri) amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which creates a statutory conscience protection clause for members of the military in general and military chaplains in particular.
2nd Circuit Rules Town Should Encourage Diverse Groups to Pray at Town Meetings
n May 17, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Galloway v. Town of Greece, 0-3635-cv) ruled that the town of Greece, New York violated the U.S. Constitution by opening meetings with prayers that favored Christianity over other religions. Linda Galloway and Linda Stephens filed suit in 2008 claiming that the town’s…
Inspiration: Dr. Ben Carson’s Speech at Emory
Ben Carson: “Many people came to this nation and they were trying to escape from societies that tried to tell them what they could say and what they could think and here we come reintroducing it through the back door. And we need to remember that it is not important that we all think the same thing and the emphasis should not be on us all saying the same thing. The emphasis should be on learning how to be respectful of individuals who have a different opinion.”
Ninth Circuit to Determine Whether “Spiritualist” Charter Schools Get Tax Dollars
CASE NOTE: 10-17720 Plans Inc. v. Sacramento City Unified School District SAN FRANCISCO, CA – MAY 17, 2012 – he Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing a case this morning on the issue of whether the Sacramento Unified School District is violating constitutional principles of separation of church and state in awarding Waldorf-method charter…
We Separate Church and State for a Reason – Romney’s Perspective on Religion and the Presidency
On December 6, 2007, candidate Mitt Romney gave this speech at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas in order to reach evangelicals who were concerned about how Romney’s Mormon religion might affect his presidency. Michael Luo of The New York Times gives some background on the speech. The transcript…
Burden of Proof: Why Most American Evangelicals Reject Long-Earth Evolution
Within the larger context of American Protestant Christianity the debate continues without resolution. Among Christians, creationists are often asked to consider various forms of evidence of a long-history of the earth, but those advocating for a long-earth have largely ignored discussion of the genealogies of the New Testament and the concepts of original sin and salvation. Christian evolutionists have failed to provide a verse-by-verse rebuttal to the Biblical Creation narrative or to acknowledge the extent to which acceptance of creation would impact theology.
Instead theistic evolutionists operate on the supposition that Creationists will eventually bifurcate their religious beliefs from scientific understanding, because incompatibilities must be resolved in favor of science. This places faith directly in conflict with science and any resultant battle on these issues will take centuries if true academic freedom is to be granted, but can resolve faster if the voices of religious dissent are silenced and those who have openly criticized evolution are denied a seat at the academic table.
The attempt to “purify” academia by silencing the voices of critics such as Dr. Carson would be the first step toward a secular Dark Ages. So far, it appears that
Letter from Pastor Youcef Thanks Supporters and Urges Prayer | Iran, American Center for Law and Justice ACLJ
http://ACLJ.org/iran/letter-pastor-youcef-thanks-supporters-urges-prayer