EXCERPT: The site of a planned outdoor Easter service at one of China’s largest independent “house” churches was eerily silent Sunday as police blocked more than 500 worshippers from leaving their homes and detained more than 36 for attempting to attend religious services in Beijing, church officials said. The gathering place for worshippers was empty…
Category: Politics
San Francisco Mulls Circumcision Ban (CBS News)
EXCERPT: Has the time come to cut out circumcision? Pro-foreskin forces say so, and some in San Francisco say they’ve collected enough signatures to put a proposal to ban circumcision before voters. The proposal would make it a misdemeanor to perform circumcision on a male under the age of 18 within the city. Anyone who…
Virginia Board Votes Against Proposed Same-Sex Adoption Rules (Washington Post)
EXCERPT: The Virgina State Board of Social Services has voted overwhelmingly against new adoption rules that some say would allow same-sex couples to adopt in the state for the first time. In a 7-2 vote Wednesday afternoon, the board opted against the new rules, first proposed by former governor Tim Kaine. In Virginia, only married…
Obama’s Olive Branch Doctrine (PART II) Interfaith Tolerance & the Reshaping of U.S. Foreign Policy
President Obama’s middle-ground approach to the credible and well-established “Clash of Civilizations” theme – when formulating international religious freedom policy – is best understood when placed on a scale between tolerance and international consensus (an interfaith, “soft-power” approach), and America’s constitutional ideal of religious freedom and human rights (an Evangelical and “exacting” approach). Yet both policy methods delimit religious freedom, threatening it altogether.
The Oath Dilemma — Special Contribution to RLTV
“Oh Dave, don’t forget, your oath is today at 9:15.” The words snap my groggy mind to attention. Oath? My boss continues. “Yeah, it will be on the fourth floor, in the administrative offices. It shouldn’t be a problem.” It shouldn’t be a problem. Is that a threat? It shouldn’t be a problem if you…
Obama’s Olive Branch Doctrine: Religion & the Path of Democratic Reform in the Arab-Muslim World (PART I)
By Gregory W. Hamilton, President Northwest Religious Liberty Association (NRLA) March 15, 2011 President Barack Obama came to Cairo in 2009 with the purpose of announcing to the Arab-Muslim world that he was not following his predecessor’s “Democracy Project” as a matter of U.S. Middle East policy. One could call this Obama’s “Olive Branch Doctrine”:…
The End of the Community Action Program?
By Monte Sahlin – One of the items on the hit list of the new majority in the House of Representatives to “balance the budget” is the Community Action Program (CAP) or what is currently labeled Community Service Block Grants. This is a program begun in the 1960s in the Lyndon Johnson administration. It is…
Russia’s Medvedev calls for Egypt to respect religious rights (ChannelNewsAsia)
EXCERPT: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday urged Egypt to hold legitimate elections and respect religious rights following the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “Russia hopes democratic procedures in Egypt will be fully restored and all legitimate electoral procedures will be used for this,” Medvedev said in a statement published on the Kremlin website….
Human Rights Watch to Pakistan: Drop Blasphemy Charges Against Teenager (HWR)
EXCERPT: The Pakistani government should immediately drop blasphemy charges against a 17-year-old student and ensure his safe release from detention, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities arrested Muhammad Samiullah on January 28, 2011, and charged him under Pakistan’s “blasphemy law,” article 295-C of the criminal code, for allegedly including derogatory remarks about the Prophet…
The Health-Religion Connection by Joshua Crouch
The struggle between faith-healing and public health services may not be a mainstream topic, yet it continues to rage throughout our nation. Oregon has recently had a string of adolescent deaths tied to extreme Christian conservatism. The Christian Science Church has pushed law makers to allow parents to exempt their children from all medical treatment,…