[Active-seattle-l] [Active-l] (NEWS) Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)
kahvi at murkworks.net
Sun May 7 22:42:56 PDT 2006
||| SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS MUST BE DELETED BEFORE FORWARDING, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY STATED OTHERWISE. Given that, all messages are forwardable unless otherwise stated. BUT THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS MUST BE REMOVED BEFORE SENDING. |||
---- actual message starts here ----
According to a long letter posted on LJ Seattle (
http://community.livejournal.com/seattle/3579972.html ), it appears
that the Grays Harbour student vote is a little more interesting than I
first thought - according to the poster's message, the vote is supposed
to be _only on the technical merits of the charter_, and _not_ a vote
over whether you like or dislike the club or its purpose. So the
senator in question - a fundamentalist now being supported by the Faith
and Freedom Network (
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/05/college-student-is-
ridiculed-because.html ) and, according to the post, the local
Republican party - voted _not_ on the charter merits, but because she
thinks GBLT people are evil and paedophiles and homosexuality is a sin.
Anyway, I don't have any action on this, nor do I think there really
needs to be any, but it is interesting that this is continuing to pop
around. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see it be tossed around by
the fundamentalist media next week, if it's a slow week otherwise.
Focus on the Family news article and ACTION ITEM to support
anti-marriage-rights amendments in seven states, also supports an
effort to overturn Massachusetts's same-sex marriages via initiative;
the article compares marriage rights to Soviet Communism under
Brezhnev; ACTION ITEM is also to write in to support the Federal
anti-marriage amendment;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to join the anti-marriage-rights
postcard campaign;
Focus on the Family pushes "ex-gay" group P-FOX, which is attempting to
get "ex-gay" materials into school systems as the "truth about
homosexuality";
FotF Newsbrief on Georgia judge still not ruling on a challenge to
Georgia anti-marriage initiative;
Kansas legislature considering anti-abortion materials be introduced in
schools as part of the curriculum;
I don't actually care much about this case and I think it's unfortunate
that the initiative to donate the land was overturned as
unconstitutional, but they're up in arms, so: Mt. Soledad Cross ordered
taken down by California judge as an unconstitutional endorsement of
religion by the state;
American Family Association condemns Eastern University's refusal to
let Repent America distribute anti-gay literature on campus while the
Soulforce Equity Ride group was visiting;
AFA/Agape Press's version of the Focus on the Family story about the
Navy chaplain who disobeyed orders; he claims the order was illegal;
they, at least, acknowledge the Navy's assertion that he disobeyed
orders and relate how.
----- 1 -----
State Marriage Amendment Efforts Underway
A battle in Massachusetts is the first of many to be waged this year.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040375.cfm
Pro-family attorneys were in Boston Thursday arguing that Massachusetts
residents have a right to vote on a referendum to define marriage as
between one man and one woman.
Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, defended
the proposed state constitutional amendment before the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) — a bit of irony that wasn't lost on the
constitutional attorney.
[...]
If approved by voters, the measure would trump the SJC's 2003 ruling
forcing gay marriage on the commonwealth. But getting to the ballot is
a major hurdle, according to Mona Passignano, state issues analyst for
Focus on the Family Action.
Massachusetts, she said, has a very long and complicated amendment
process. The very earliest voters could see this measure on the ballot
— if at all — is 2008.
[...]
Lorence, who said the arguments he made were largely technical, told
CitizenLink that those leading the battle to preserve marriage have to
face a bigger problem surrounding the marriage question — something he
called "the Brezhnev factor."
"Leonid Brezhnev, when he was head of the Soviet Union, had the idea
that communism was the most advanced form of government that a nation
could have," he explained, "so that once a nation became communist it
wasn't going to revert back to what he called 'lower' forms of
government.
"Of course, that has been proven immensely false with the liberation of
the Eastern bloc and the Soviet Union itself from communist rule."
Lorence said gay activists seem to approach same-sex marriage the same
way Brezhnev approached communism.
[...]
What’s more, state marriage amendments have already qualified for the
ballot this year in seven more states. Others are pending.
"Alabama will vote in June," Passignano said, "and the other six states
— South Carolina, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and
Wisconsin — will vote in November. Two other states are still working
on their petition drives for the November ballot: Colorado and
Arizona."
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
If you live in Alabama, South Carolina, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee,
Virginia or Wisconsin, please examine the proposed ballot questions
when they are published.
Nationwide, everyone's help is needed to make sure the federal Marriage
Protection Amendment passes Congress. To learn what's at stake — and
for help in contacting your lawmakers — please see the CitizenLink
Action Center.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Religious Leaders Call for Marriage Protection
Open letter asks Congress to constitutionally define marriage as one
man and one woman.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040378.cfm
The Senate is scheduled to begin debate on the federal Marriage
Protection Amendment (MPA) on June 6, and 43 religious leaders have
signed an open letter expressing their support.
"As leaders in our nation's religious communities," the letter reads,
"We . . . call for a constitutional amendment to establish . . .
marriage as the exclusive union of one man and one woman."
Those signing the letter included Dr. James Dobson, founder and
chairman of Focus on the Family Action and Chuck Colson of Prison
Fellowship.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
You can download and print out MPA postcards on the CitizenLink Action
Center.
----- 3 -----
Students Challenged to Share the Truth About Homosexuality
Campaign emphasizes that change is possible.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040377.cfm
As an effort to combat the onslaught of pro-gay message in the nation's
public schools, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (P-FOX) is launching a
campaign to get schools to share the message that change is possible.
Melissa Fryrear, a gender issues analyst at Focus on the Family,
recalls how she became involved in a lesbian relationship when she was
a sophomore in high school.
"(I) definitely was questioning my sexual and my gender identity," she
said.
But she never heard that there was another option, that she could leave
homosexuality behind.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Georgia: Judge Has Yet to Rule on Marriage Protection Suit
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040380.cfm
Fifteen months after hearing oral arguments, Judge Constance Russell
has not issued a decision in a lawsuit challenging the
constitutionality of a 2004 voter-approved amendment defining marriage
as one man and one woman, The Southern Voice reported.
Georgia voters overwhelmingly passed the amendment — with 76 percent
voting in favor — but gay activists issued a challenge claiming the
amendment was invalid because it violated the single-subject rule. That
rule says any proposition presented to voters can only ask one
question.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Kansas: Legislation Would Educate Kids About Abortion
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 5, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040379.cfm
High-school students in Kansas will have to learn details about
abortion if language added to an education bill makes it through the
Legislature, LifeNews reported.
Under the measure, which is currently stalled in the House, students
would hear about fetal development, see pictures of preborn babies and
learn about the medical risks associated with an abortion procedure.
Students would also learn about the pain a baby feels during an
abortion.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Latest Ruling Could Spell End of Long Legal Battle Over Mt. Soledad
Cross
Calif. Activist Calling on President Bush to Intervene to Save It
By Allie Martin and Jody Brown
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006a.asp
(AgapePress) - A Christian activist in Southern California says it's
time for the Chief Executive to get involved in a years-long legal
scuffle involving a mountaintop cross in a San Diego park.
U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson has ordered the city of San Diego
to remove the Mt. Soledad cross within 90 days or face a fine of $5,000
a day. The 29-foot cross has stood on Mt. Soledad as the centerpiece of
a war memorial on city-owned land since 1954. But in 1989 atheist Paul
Paulson sued the city, claiming the cross violated the so-called
"separation of church and state" principle.
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
Repent America Questions Eastern University's Welcome of Homosexual
Activists
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006b.asp
(AgapePress) - The leader of a Philadelphia-based Christian group says
a private Christian university in Pennsylvania seems to be embracing
homosexuality, and he believes the school is on the verge of abandoning
the very biblical principles on which it was founded.
Recently the group Soulforce brought its "Equality Ride" bus tour to
the campus of Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. The
intention of the homosexual group's tour was to "confront" colleges
that bar homosexual students from enrollment.
While the young homosexual activists were on the Eastern campus,
members of the group Repent America (RA) attempted to pass out
literature to students regarding what the Bible says about
homosexuality. University officials, however, ordered the Christian
group to leave the premises.
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
U.S. Navy and Chaplain Differ Over Basis for Charges
By Chad Groening
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 5, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/52006c.asp
(AgapePress) - An evangelical Navy chaplain says he is facing a
possible court-martial for disobeying what he believes was an unlawful
order. The Navy, however, is challenging Lieutenant Gordon
Klingenshmitt's account of why he's facing the possibility of such a
serious charge.
Chaplain Klingenshmitt says the U.S. Navy is trying to punish him for
what he did on Lafayette Square near the White House on March 30. He
says he faces disciplinary action for praying in the name of Jesus
while in uniform outside a chapel setting.
"The new SECNAV instruction authorizes commanding officers to punish
chaplains for disobeying orders if they pray in Jesus' name outside of
a chapel," Klingenshmitt shares. "So that's what I'm being charged with
-- willful disobedience of what they say is a lawful order. I say it's
an unlawful order."
[More at URL]
--
Please do not add this email address to any mailing
lists, or give it to any company or web site. Thanks!
_______________________________________________
||| REMOVE THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE FORWARDING!!!
||| DO NOT POST THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS TO ANY PUBLIC FORUM!!!
Given those two things, all action items of all types are forwardable unless stated otherwise.
||| REMOVE THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE FORWARDING!!!
||| DO NOT POST THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS TO ANY PUBLIC FORUM!!!
Active-l mailing list
Active-l at murkworks.net
http://murkworks.net/mailman/listinfo/active-l
More information about the Active-seattle-l
mailing list