Excerpt: “What the judge did was wrong in that he held the mosque to a much higher standard than any other institution applying for a land-use permit in Rutherford County,” said Eric Rassbach, a lawyer with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm that helped file the lawsuit on behalf of the…
Category: In the News
Publisher Pulls David Barton’s Controversial Thomas Jefferson Book, Citing Loss Of Confidence. (NPR)
Citing a loss of confidence in the book’s details, Christian publisher Thomas Nelson is ending the publication and distribution of the bestseller, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson. The controversial book was written by Texas evangelical David Barton, who NPR’s Barbara Bradley Hagerty profiled on All Things Considered Wednesday….
Hawaii Judge Upholds Same-Sex Marriage Ban (Honolulu Civil Beat)
Excerpt: A U.S. District Court judge in Honolulu has rejected arguments from two lesbians who said that Hawaii’s 1998 ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. According to court documents released Wednesday, Judge Alan Kay dismissed the lawsuit, Jackson v. Abercrombie, saying that a decision like this should be left to the Legislature – not the…
Senate to Take Up Condemned Iranian Pastor Youcef Resolution Next Week (American Center for Law and Justice)
The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has scheduled to take up the resolution supporting Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani next week. The committee is scheduled to consider the resolution,a companion to the resolution that unanimously passed the House earlier this year,next Tuesday,June 19,2012. It is the next step toward bringing S. Res. 385 before the…
Death of Snake Handling Preacher Shines Light on Lethal Appalachian Tradition (CNN)
EXCERPT: When Mack Wolford, one of the most famous Pentecostal serpent handlers in Appalachia, is laid to rest Saturday at his West Virginia church, a week after succumbing to a snake bite, his friends may very well show up with boxes of copperheads, rattlesnakes and cottonmouths. That’s the Holiness Pentecostal way in tiny mountain towns…
California Senate Approves Controversial Counseling Ban (Pacific Justice Institute)
The California Senate today voted in favor of a groundbreaking bill designed to prohibit counselors and therapists from telling young people it is possible to change same-sex attractions.
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.
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
Why Do Gingrich and Obama Agree on the Supreme Court?
Last week, after three days of tough argument before the Supreme Court, the President created a stir when he said that it would be “unprecedented” for the Supreme Court to overturn his national healthcare plan. Obama further questioned the legitimacy of “unelected” and “activist” judges. Conservatives went crazy! How could the President criticize the authority…