[Active-l] (NEWS) Today's Cultural Warfare Update

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

In these final hours... there isn't really all that much going on, by  
recent comparison. Several last cries to go vote GOP, that the Supreme  
Court hangs in the Balance, and by the way, there's a Rumour that John  
Paul Stevens is Sick, This Could Be Our Chance. Oh, and Andrew Sullivan  
and out lesbian and gay people are much worse than Rev. Ted Haggard,  
and it's their fault - and Charles Darwin's - that Rev. Haggard went  
out looking for a drug-dealing gay hooker.

But now, today's news.

Focus on the Family: fundamentalists have a particular duty to vote;  
Gary Bauer says, "We're just one Supreme Court vote away from  
overturning Roe and stopping the radical gay-rights movement's attempt  
to redefine marriage";

Focus on the Family picks up the Missouri case of a fundamentalist  
student refusing to write a letter in support of gay adoption as part  
of a class assignment;

Focus on the Family pushes several anti-gay initiatives, the attempt to  
overturn South Dakota's comprehensive abortion ban, and medical  
marijuana laws;

FotF: being gay is "not only breaking God's law, it's robbing God of  
his glory";

Dr. George Tiller - who performs abortion services in Kansas and has  
been a long-term target of Atty. General Phill Kline and the  
anti-abortion movement - wants an investigation of what he says are  
leaks to Fox News of medical data;

Human Events: John Paul Stevens is sick, for the love of god go vote  
GOP, the Supreme Court hangs in the balance;

American Family Association happy that Air Force Academy lawsuit thrown  
out, cranky about the Episcopal Church USA's new Presiding Bishop, who  
is GBLT-friendly;

LifeNews notes that the US Supreme Court "will again weigh health  
exception on partial-birth abortion," also condemns health exemptions  
in abortion bans;

American Family Association: Boise, Idaho referendum is "actually a  
referendum on God's Word";

AFA articles pushing anti-marriage amendments in several states,  
predicting victory in all of them;

AFA article pushing Wisconson's anti-marriage/anti civil unions  
initiative;

Looking ahead to the _2008_ elections already, the Family Research  
Council pushes a Florida effort to get an anti-marriage amendment on  
the ballot that year;

FRC ACTION ITEM to vote Yes on California Proposition 85;

National Review runs an article on Ted Haggard, blaming out GBLT people  
in general and Andrew Sullivan in particular for Rev. Haggard's  
problems; also blames Charles Darwin and evolutionary theory.


----- 1 -----
The Duty to Vote
Values voters need to be heard on Election Day.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
6 November 2006

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000002905.cfm

[...]

Saying he is "concerned about my country," Focus on the Family Chairman  
James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is calling on all Americans — especially people  
of faith — to vote on Election Day.

"If people of faith — the so-called values voters — don't come out and  
let their voices be heard, there are going to be some major  
implications for this country," he said.

Dobson is joined by others, including Gary Bauer, the former  
presidential candidate who heads American Values, in urging Americans  
to exercise their constitutional rights.

[...]

"We're just one Supreme Court vote away from overturning Roe and  
stopping the radical gay-rights movement's attempt to redefine  
marriage," Bauer said. "If conservative Christians lose in the Senate  
tomorrow, it will be a disaster, and we may lose our last chance for  
the next 30 years to make progress."

[More at URL]


----- 2 -----
Christian Student Challenges Missouri State Over Free Speech
She says a professor coerced her to write a letter in support of gay  
adoption.
Focus on the Family
from staff reports
11-6-2006

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000002894.cfm

Missouri State University is in court after punishing a Christian  
student who refused to write a letter to the state Legislature in  
support of gay adoption.

Emily Brooker says she refused the project because she opposes gay  
adoption, but her professor ignored her objections and wrote her up.

David French, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund who is  
representing Brooker, said her First Amendment rights were egregiously  
violated.

[More at URL]


----- 3 -----
States to Consider Pro-Family Initiatives
Voters weigh marriage, abortion and human cloning.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-03-2006

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000002890.cfm

On Tuesday, eight states will vote on amendments that constitutionally  
define marriage as between one man and one woman, and two Midwest  
states will vote on an abortion ban and human cloning.

Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Tennessee, Wisconsin, South Carolina, South  
Dakota and Virginia will decide whether to protect marriage from  
activist courts. Victoria Cobb with the Virginia Family Foundation said  
it goes beyond existing protections.

"Virginia does already have laws on its books that protect marriage as  
between one man and one woman," she told Family News in Focus. "This is  
just the first effort to elevate those laws to a constitutional  
amendment."

[More at URL]


----- 4 -----
'When the Church Hurts': Response to the Rev. Ted Haggard's Confession
Focus on the Family
11-6-2006

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000002910.cfm

Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, devoted  
his broadcast today to discussing the admission of sexually immoral  
conduct by the Rev. Ted Haggard, former senior pastor of New Life  
Church in Colorado, and former head of the National Association of  
Evangelicals.

Dr. Dobson is joined by the Rev. H.B. London, vice president of  
ministry outreach at Focus on the Family, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, president  
of Ravi Zacharias Ministries and Dr. Al Mohler, president of the  
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Together they analyze the symptoms and the serious consequences.

[...]

Dr. Mohler said the church needs to call sin what it is -- and deal  
with it honestly.

"In its very essence," he said, "it's not only breaking God's law, it's  
robbing God of His glory."

[More at URL]


----- 5 -----
Abortionist Demands Inquiry into Kansas AG Practices
Focus on the Family
11-6-2006

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000002909.cfm

Kansas abortionist George Tiller is calling for an investigation of  
state Attorney General Phill Kline after the host of Fox's The O'Reilly  
Factor reported an "inside source" disclosed that Tiller performed  
late-term abortions when a patient only exhibited depression, The  
Associated Press reported.

For two years, Kline sought records from two clinics in order to  
determine if there was evidence of crimes, including rape, abuse of a  
minor and illegal late-term abortions. The records, which were turned  
over to him Oct. 24, did not disclose patient names.

On Friday's broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly  
accused Tiller of "executing babies," when he used depression as  
justification for a late-term abortion.

[More at URL]


----- 6 -----
The Rumor About John Paul Stevens
by Sean Rushton
Posted Nov 04, 2006
Human Events Online

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=17869

For weeks, commentators have speculated that significant numbers of  
conservatives, alienated by over-spending, the Iraq War, and other  
perceived GOP disappointments, will stay home on Election Day, giving  
one or both Houses of Congress to Democrats. But for those who care  
about reforming the Supreme Court, sitting this one out may soon look  
like a mistake of historic proportions.

For the past several weeks, there has been a rumor circulating among  
high-level officials in Washington, D.C., that a member of the U.S.  
Supreme Court has received grave medical news and will announce his or  
her retirement by year’s end. While such rumors are not unusual in the  
nation’s capital, this one comes from credible sources. Additionally, a  
less credible but still noteworthy post last week at the liberal  
Democratic Underground blog says, “Send your good vibes to Justice  
Stevens. I just got off the phone with a friend of his family and right  
now he is very ill and at 86 years old that is not good.”

[More at URL]


----- 6 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 6, 2006
Compiled by Jody Brown

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/62006h.asp

...Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori has been  
installed as leader of a church that's increasingly divided over the  
Bible and homosexuality. At weekend ceremonies in Washington,  
Jefferts-Schori accepted the blessings of a Muslim scholar and a Jewish  
rabbi and said "all faith traditions" call people to "unity with God  
and each other." But Rev. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the  
Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, says his diocese and six others  
have asked to be placed under another Anglican leader. Harmon says  
Jefferts-Schori has denied that Jesus is the only way to God and has  
accepted homosexual clergy and relationships -- positions that are  
rejected by most of the other churches in the world Anglican Communion.  
[AP]

[...]

...A former commander of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy says he's  
pleased that a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against the  
school that claimed evangelical Christian values were illegally pushed  
on cadets there. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs failed to give  
specific examples of which cadets were harmed or when. He also said the  
Academy graduates who filed the suit could not claim their First  
Amendment rights were violated because they no longer attended the  
Academy. Retired Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson says when he served at the  
Academy, it went out of the way to accommodate non-Christian students.  
"From my experience there as a commander, I thought -- and I still  
believe wholeheartedly -- that we bent over backwards to allow all  
religious faiths to practice as they saw fit," says Patterson. "In  
fact, maybe the only Jewish synagogue in the Air Force is at the Air  
Force Academy. And I could honestly tell you, on many occasions we had  
requests from cadets who happen to have been other religions, Islam or  
even Wiccans." He adds that "speaking as a Christian commander there,  
we never tried to influence cadets to do anything other than what they  
felt comfortable with." Patterson believes it was "very disingenuous"  
for the former cadets to file the suit, and that it should have been  
thrown out of court a long time ago. [Chad Groening]

[More at URL]


----- 7 -----
Supreme Court Will Again Weigh Health Exception on Partial-Birth  
Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 6, 2006

http://www.lifenews.com/nat2722.html

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The nation's high court will hold  
hearings on the federal partial-birth abortion on Wednesday. When it  
does, the Supreme Court will again consider whether or not such a ban  
needs a health exception, or if the gruesome abortion procedure is  
unnecessary to protect the mother's health.

When Congress drafted the national partial-birth abortion ban, it did  
not include a health exception and a leading pro-life congressman  
discussed the implications of such an exemption.

"The problem with the health exception is we have a number of  
abortionists who have testified that any pregnancy is a risk to a  
woman's health," Rep. Steve Chabot, an Ohio Republican who shepherded  
the ban in the House, told National Public Radio.

"So if you have a health exception in there, in essence, you have a  
phony partial-birth abortion ban," explained.

[...]

Pro-life groups are hopeful the Supreme Court would take a new position  
on partial-birth abortion thanks to new Justice Samuel Alito, who  
replaces Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

O'Connor wrote the 5-4 majority opinion in the 2000 case saying that a  
Nebraska ban on partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional because it  
lacked a health exception.

[More at URL]


----- 8 -----
'Referendum' on God's Word Slated for Tuesday in Boise
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
October 3, 2006

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/32006d.asp

(AgapePress) - The first vote on the public display of the Ten  
Commandments takes place in one Idaho city next week.

More than 40 years ago, a civic group donated a Ten Commandments  
monument to the city of Boise. That monument stood in a public park  
until it was removed in 2004 by city officials who refused to allow  
residents to vote on the issue. But on Tuesday (November 7), Boise  
voters will decide the fate of a referendum that, if approved, would  
return the monument to the park.

Brandi Swindell with the Keep the Commandments Coalition says the vote  
is actually a referendum on God's Word. "We believe this is about  
cherishing the values and the principles found in the Ten  
Commandments," she shares. "This is about embracing the universal  
truths found in the Ten Commandments."

[More at URL]


----- 9 -----
Marriage Defenders Face Opposition as State Amendment Votes Approach
By Jeff Johnson
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 3, 2006

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/32006c.asp

(AgapePress) - Of the eight states considering marriage protection  
amendments on November 7, Arizona is among those in which the outcome  
of the election is considered uncertain by the majority of political  
analysts. There and elsewhere across the U.S., homosexual activists and  
their supporters are fighting hard -- and sometimes fighting dirty --  
to push the state votes their way.

Cathi Herrod of Protect Marriage Arizona says pro-family advocates have  
faced stiff opposition in their efforts to pass that state's marriage  
protection amendment. "Our opponents have outspent us significantly,"  
she says, "and they have distorted the truth about the amendment, so  
we're in a close battle here in Arizona."

[...]

Traditional Marriage Voters Urged to Turn Out in Tennessee
Pro-family activists in Tennessee are similarly aware of what is at  
stake. However, David Fowler with RealMarriage.org says supporters of  
so-called "gay marriage" have been busy spreading misinformation, and  
they have managed to create considerable voter confusion concerning the  
marriage protection amendment.

"They started trying to call it the 'gay marriage amendment,' hoping  
people would vote [against it, thinking they were voting] against gay  
marriage," Fowler notes. Also, he adds, "We've had some people just  
flat giving people the wrong information."

[More at URL]


----- 10 -----
Wisconsin's Marriage Amendment Outcome In the Balance
By Jeff Johnson
American Family Association/Agape Press
November 6, 2006

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/62006b.asp

(AgapePress) - Wisconsin is one of eight states considering  
constitutional amendments to protect traditional marriage -- but the  
outcome there is not as predictable as in some of the other states.

Along with two of the other states voting on marriage amendments --  
Colorado and Arizona -- Wisconsin is showing no consensus among  
political observers regarding the fate of a marriage amendment  
appearing on tomorrow's (Tuesday's) state ballot. The other states  
where voters are voting on marriage amendments are Idaho, South  
Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia.

[...]

According to Brant, the amendment in Wisconsin is somewhat unique in  
that it does more than just protect marriage in name. "It's one  
sentence with two parts," she explains. "The first defines marriage as  
one man and one woman; the second part says that a legal status  
identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried  
individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state."

[More at URL]


----- 11 -----
Flordia4Marriage.org working to put marriage amendment on 2008 ballot
Family Research Council
This information is no longer relevant due to its time sensitive nature  
and is provided for historical purposes.
November 6, 2006 - Monday

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06K02&f=PG03I03

With the 2006 election tomorrow, it is important to remember a crucial  
effort still underway to collect all 611,009 petitions for the Florida  
Marriage Protection Amendment. When this goal is achieved, it will  
trigger the placement of the Marriage Amendment on the 2008 ballot.  
Your help is still needed to complete the gathering of these petitions.  
Only 40,000 still need to be collected.

Florida4Marriage.org is organizing hundreds of volunteers to help  
collect petitions on Nov. 7th outside of polling locations around the  
state. Will you answer the call to help protect marriage in Florida?

Volunteers are needed for any amount of time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.  
on Nov. 7th. Florida4Marriage.org volunteers will have clipboards and  
petitions outside of polling locations. As people arrive and leave  
their precinct, they will have the opportunity to sign a petition. It's  
an easy way for you to help this enormous grassroots effort.

Florida4Marriage.org needs to know your relevant information and the  
hours you can help Nov. 7th. Contact Nathan Dunn with this information  
as soon as possible: NathanD at FLfamily.org or 407-716-7268.

If we don't act now, marriage may be redefined for our children and  
grandchildren. Almost all of the petitions are collected, but your help  
is needed now to finish the job.


----- 12 -----
Californians, vote yes on Proposition 85
California voters face important pro-life vote on November 7
This information is no longer relevant due to its time sensitive nature  
and is provided for historical purposes.
November 6, 2006 - Monday

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06K01&f=PG03I03

Young girls dealing with an unplanned pregnancy should not feel scared  
or alone. Unfortunately, California's legislators and school  
administrators have been deciding what is best for our children. A  
legal wall of separation between parents and children has made young  
girls vulnerable.

[More at URL]


----- 13 -----
Saving the Conservative Soul
Don’t take the wrong lesson from Ted Haggard’s fall.
By David Klinghoffer
November 6, 2006 6:30 AM

http://article.nationalreview.com/? 
q=OGZkYTBiZTI3MDkyMGE2ZjNjNTY4NjgyZmVkNDdmYjM=

The meaning of evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s downfall needs to be  
well understood by religious conservatives, lest the tragedy be  
compounded. The pain that has befallen the man — now resigned as  
president of the National Association of Evangelicals — along with his  
family and church is the consequence of his poor decisions.

[...]

Liberals descended like vultures. “I’m praying for Haggard,”  
Time-magazine blogger Andrew Sullivan assured his readers, “as I hope  
he is praying for me and every sinner. But the lesson of this to the  
religious right surely is: go and sin no more. Stop the lies. Stop the  
bigotry. Deal with the reality of gay people, our souls, our wounded  
hearts, our humanity, our right to be treated equally by our own  
government. It’s what Jesus did. And it is your true calling now.”

The key point in this spinning of Haggard’s humiliation is that the  
story exposes the “lies” underlying the conservative religious view  
especially as it pertains to gay matrimony.

What lies? The conservative case against redefining marriage is based  
on the observation of human vulnerability to temptation. Haggard  
confirms what we’ve said all along. It is pervasive moral weakness that  
makes such things necessary.

[...]

Choosing between perfection and deficiency, good and evil, is the human  
condition in a nutshell. Admittedly, it doesn’t seem fair that some  
people appear to be given easier challenges than others are. But God’s  
thoughts are not our thoughts.

[...]

Gay advocates reason that because a man has a temptation to  
homosexuality, he has little moral choice other than to obey it. This  
view of morality goes back to Darwin, who reduced behavior to  
biologically determined instincts. In The Descent of Man he wrote, “At  
the moment of action, man will no doubt be apt to follow the stronger  
impulse; and though this may occasionally prompt him to the noblest  
deeds, it will far more commonly lead him to gratify his own desires at  
the expense of other men.” In his private notebooks, Darwin was more  
blunt, commenting that “the general delusion about free will [is]  
obvious.”

In the Ted Haggard affair, then, we are confronted with questions not  
only of right and wrong but, more fundamentally, of moral  
responsibility versus biological determinism. Conservatives, not only  
religious ones, need to be very clear where we come down on this.

For surely the greatest intellectual and spiritual corruption is not  
the failure to fight off your demons, but the decision to urge upon  
other people a view that tells them they are justified in giving up  
their own moral fight. In that sense, I hope Ted Haggard does pray for  
Andrew Sullivan, because it is Sullivan and those on his side of the  
culture war who do much greater damage to our lives.

[More at URL]

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