By Nicholas P. Miller – It is time to examine a position that provides a principled freedom, both religious and civil, the possibility of a public morality, and a common language with which to discuss and debate the issues. [dc]T[/dc]he recent presidential campaign has broken out into a disorienting game of religious liberty musical chairs; Catholic…
Category: Human Life
Santorum’s Martyr Complex (SLATE)
EXCERPT: Is Rick Santorum suffering for his faith? One of his advisers suggested to the Washington Examiner‘s Byron York that he is, and that Mitt Romney is getting absolution. “Why is Mormonism off limits?” York quotes the adviser as asking. “We’re having to spend days answering questions about Rick’s faith, which he has been open about….
Modern Torture Techniques Emerged from Inquisition reports “The Atlantic”
In the January/February 2012 issue of The Atlantic, Cullen Murphy writes about the history of torture and relates it to current events. Excerpt: “The new science of interrogation is not, in fact, so new at all: “extraordinary rendition” and “enhanced interrogation” and “waterboarding” all spring from the practices of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. The…
Germany, EU demand Iran to free pastor Nadarkhani | MF Monitor
EXCERPT: Germany, one of the few countries with diplomatic ties with Iran, has asked Iran to stay the execution of a pastor who refused to re-convert to Islam. http://www.microfinancemonitor.com/2011/09/30/germany-eu-demand-iran-to-free-pastor-nadarkhani/
Iran Upholds Christian Pastor’s Apostasy Conviction: Execution as Early as Wednesday | American Center for Law and Justice ACLJ
EXCERPT: Just days after Iran released two Americans accused of spying in Iran, an Iranian court has upheld the apostasy conviction and execution sentence of Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. The 11th branch of Iran’s Gilan Provincial Court has determined that Pastor Nadarkhani has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith in Jesus Christ. Iran’s…
Refuge Camp in Africa “The Most Desperate Place on Earth” (CNN)
EXCERPT: “It makes me want to scream, but instead I nearly cry.” CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports – Dadaab, Kenya (CNN) — Right now, this may be the most desperate place on Earth. “A drought, not seen in 60 years, compounded with near complete lawlessness and utter disregard for human life has made it so. “It is…
Religious Groups Object to Covering Birth Control (Fox News)
EXCERPT: They defied the bishops to support President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Now Catholic hospitals are dismayed the law may force them to cover birth control free of charge to their employees. A provision in the law expanded preventive health-care benefits for women, and the administration said last week that must include birth control…
A Madman and His Manifesto (NYT)
EXCERPT: It passed with only scant notice, as with so many of the rude extremes of American life in a kinetic media age. The bodies of those Norwegian children slaughtered by a terrorist had yet to be fully recovered, let alone buried, when Glenn Beck compared the victims to Nazis. The summer camp where children…
Circumcision Ban: Violating Religious Freedom? (Odyssey Networks)
A coalition including Jewish and Muslim groups have launched a lawsuit challenging a proposed ban on circumcision that is due to go before San Francisco voters in the Fall. The coalition asserts that a ban on circumcision, a ritual practice in both religious traditions, represents a violation of the right to religious expression, and that,…
Buying Power: Human Trafficking and the Local Marketplace
I’m not willing to pick cocoa beans or cotton for a dollar a day, so who is? Trafficked boys on the Ivory Coast and factory children in Asia whose fingers are small enough to work intricate and dangerous machines fill this gap. – One of the biggest reminders and strongest points I repeat daily is that I have done nothing to secure the position I have in life of being in a free country, just like these modern day slaves have done nothing to have their entire lives indebted to us because of the harsh demands we put on them with our high consumerist behavior. These socially conscious products contain more than just a new age aura or a better selling point; they represent a desire for the priority of humanity instead of selfish search for profit.