A U.S. advisory panel on May 2, 2008 asked the State Department to expand the list of governments the U.S. considers the world’s worst violators of religious freedom. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom lists eleven “countries of particular concern.” The congressionally mandated panel also wants the U.S. to keep an eye on religious…
Category: Current Events
NEWS BRIEFS: Global Privacy, Free Speech Issues
Study secretly tracks cell phone users outside US (AP) Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home. The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods,…
NEWS / OPINION: Law Professor Denied Communion Because He Supports Obama
No Religious Tests for Public Office? What about Political Tests to Receive Sacraments? Pepperdine University School of Law Professor, and former Constitutional law advisor for President Ronald Reagan, Douglas Kmiec was denied communion recently at a mass connected with a gathering of Catholic business people. The priest denounced Kmiec’s endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama, then…
VIDEO: Could Gay Marriage Erode Non-Profit Tax-Exempt Status?
On March 26, 2007, Brian Brown, Executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, testified before the judiciary committee of the state legislature in regard to raised House Bill 7395: An Act Concerning Marriage Equality. In this video, Brown argues that even if churches are not required to perform the ceremonies, legalizing same-sex marriage might…
Significant Differences Emerging Between McCain and Obama in Prospective Judicial Nominees (NY Times)
It is looking more and more likely that either Barack Obama or John McCain will be the next President of the United States. They will leave a lasting legacy in the form of their judicial appointments. The New York Times today posted a good analysis of how they may decide who interprets the law. Thanks…
Belarus: ‘We are reclaiming our history as a land of religious freedom’ (ChristianToday.com)
Read the full version, which includes a fascinating review of the history of religious liberty in Belarus, online at http://www.christiantoday.com/articledir/print.htm?id=19015 by By Antoni Bokun, Pastor of John the Baptist Pentecostal Church in Minsk Posted: Saturday, May 24, 2008, 10:54 (BST) Belarus has been renowned [for its] freedom of conscience for centuries. This is why religious…
Does Constitution apply to enemy combatant on U.S. soil? (AP)
In the War Against Terror, it may be difficult to determine who the enemy is. Does the Constitution apply to a U.S. resident held on U.S. soil? WASHINGTON (AP) — If his cell were at Guantanamo Bay, the prisoner would be just one of hundreds of suspected terrorists detained offshore, where the U.S. says the…
McCain to make religious freedom a key foreign policy issue (AFP)
Religion continues to be a hot issue in the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Thanks for this link goes to Greg Hamilton at the Northwest Religious Liberty Association. Read more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080507/pl_afp/usvoterepublicanmccain&printer=1;_ylt=AhjJFbLNU1DYDT4tT6gbFpGtOrgF by Carlos Hamann Wed May 7, 3:52 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain vowed in a speech on Wednesday to…
Armageddon is not an Exit Strategy (Israel e News)
Attorney MIkey (Michael) Weinstein discusses proselytism in the military. Read the full article at http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=1886 On the heels of a scathing report issued by the Defense Department’s inspector general that took high-level Pentagon officials to task for allowing an evangelical Christian organization unfettered access to the Department of Defense (DOD) to promote its fundamentalist agenda,…
Atheist Claims Harassment in the Military (AP)
Does the military encourage harassment of atheists? What is there are atheists in foxholes? This story is a poignant reminder that the rights of all to believe, or not to believe, must be protected. http://news.aol.com/story/_a/atheist-claims-harassment-in-military/20080428092709990001 AP Posted: 2008-04-28 14:32:47 Filed Under: Iraq News, Nation News JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (April 26) — Like hundreds of young…