Noteworthy News Notes

May 2, 2008

 

Salt Lake City Changes Name of Registry

Salt Lake City is dumping “domestic partners” for “mutual commitment.”

Restrictions imposed by the Utah State Legislature have led to name change for the city’s domestic partnership registry, a mechanism by which employers can voluntarily extend health care and other benefits to their employees’ domestic partners—including gay couples, siblings, long-term roommates and parents—if they reside in Salt Lake City.

Some legislators argued that the term “domestic partnership,” at least in spirit, violated Utah’s constitutional Amendment Number Three, which bans same-sex marriage and substantially similar civil unions.

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker said…he will recommend to the city council that the name be changed to the mutual commitment registry.

The city council likely will consider the recommendation.…If approved, the registry could be up and running…soon.…

“This name change does not impact the essence of the registry,” Becker said.

—telladf.org

 

What’s Happening to Sin?

The good news is that nearly all Americans—87 percent—still believe in the concept of sin, but the bad news is that we’re deeply confused about how to define it. According to a 2007 study by Ellison research, an overwhelming 81 percent think adultery is sinful, and almost as many—74 percent—say that “racism” is a sin. But when it comes to getting an abortion, only 56 percent think it’s a sin. More Americans consider it sinful to “use hard drugs” or even to “not say something if a cashier gives you too much change.” The public considers “swearing” or “watching pornography” similarly sinful.

—michaelmedved.townhall.com

EDITOR’S COMMENTS: It was Dr. Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, a man not a Christian, who first raised the question on the national scene, “Whatever became of sin?” (1973).

All of us who occupy a pulpit come Sunday better know where it is and what it is. After all, you can’t get folks saved until you “get them lost.” If they don’t understand the sin issue, they’ll see no need of a Saviour.

 

Librarian Fired for Reporting Child Pornography Viewer

Brenda Biesterfeld [a Lindsay, California librarian]…blew the whistle on a man at her local library who was viewing child porn on the public library computers. The police caught him in the act and arrested him. The authorities then searched his home and found more child pornography.

Two days after she reported the man, Brenda was fired! In fact, within hours of when she reported the man to the police, she was reprimanded by her boss for invading his “privacy.” And then, without warning, she was fired.…

Liberty Counsel has taken up Brenda’s case, and we have already sent a Demand Letter to Lindsay library officials.

—libertyaction.org

 

Oregon Sets Record for Assisted Suicides

Oregon recorded more deaths by physician-assisted suicide in 2007 than in any other year in the decade since the practice was legalized.

The Oregon Department of Human Services recently reported 49 people committed suicide last year using lethal doses of drugs prescribed by doctors. The previous yearly high was 46 in 2006.

Oregon, the only state to legalize assisted suicide, has recorded 341 such deaths since its Death With Dignity Act took effect in late 1997.

“The report shows that the situation in Oregon is not only creepy but creeping,” bioethicist C. Ben Mitchell told Baptist Press. “Compassion means providing alternatives to assisted suicide, not contributing to the death toll.

“I’m sure that physicians who assist in the death of their patients think they’re providing a needed service, but so did the Nazi doctors under Hitler. Instead, they are turning medicine into murder,” said Mitchell, director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity in suburban Chicago.

—Tom Strode for BAPTIST PRESS

 

Planned Parenthood Politically Aggressive

For Planned Parenthood, weighed down by new criminal charges and legal suits, the best defense seems to be a good offense. The organization is sinking $10 million into its PAC, hoping to load the Congress with abortion allies who would help protect—if not increase—its multimillion dollar federal funding stream. The amount allocated for political races is triple what the organization has spent in past elections. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is even wading into local politics, a scene it had previously ignored.

—Tony Perkins’ Washington Update

 

MacArthur and Ford Foundations Promote International Abortion

A two-year-old report has come to light that encourages foundations to fund religious organizations who agree to push the abortion agenda around the world. The report, which was funded by the wealthy MacArthur and Ford foundations, catalogues hundreds of religiously affiliated non-government organizations that are likely to include “sexual and reproductive health and rights” as part of their work. “Religion and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: An Inventory of Organization, Scholars and Foundations,” issued by the Center for Health and Social Policy, argues that the world’s religions play an undeniable role in shaping attitudes toward “reproduction and sexuality” and can “be an important ally in the effort to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (or, conversely, a key obstacle).” The report encourages foundations who are “striving to improve women’s health and rights (including sexual and reproductive health and rights) to incorporate religion in their grant-making,” as religions “have the power to influence government policy” both through the political process and through the religious belief of the policymakers.

—LifeNews.com

EDITOR’S COMMENTS: The liberals find ways to help one another. We must not fail to raise our voice loudly and clearly in opposition to their insane agenda. One of the ways we raise our voice is by supporting a ministry (like the Sword of the Lord) that relentlessly and strongly uses its international platform to make the case for Christ and the Bible.

 

Ted Turner Calls for Population Control

Ted Turner, the eccentric pro-abortion billionaire and founder of CNN, wants more global population control. He believes the world’s population is getting out of hand and that it will result in environmental problems, and his solution is to ask people voluntarily to limit themselves to two children. His comments came during an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose that aired [April 1]. “We’re too many people; that’s why we have global warming,” he said. “Too many people are using too much stuff.” Turner suggested that “on a voluntary basis, everybody in the world’s got to pledge to themselves that one or two children is it.” Should the world not cave in to his demands, he worries global catastrophe will ensue. “Most of the people will have died, and the rest of us will be cannibals,” said Turner.

—LifeNews.com

EDITOR’S COMMENTS: When Ted Turner speaks, I usually try to find out whatever the opposite position is and go there.

 

Distributing Bibles Ruled “Unconstitutional”

A federal judge ruled that distributing Bibles in a rural school district in Annapolis, Missouri is “unconstitutional.”

It was announced…that an appeal against the injunction banning Bible distribution will be filed on behalf of South Iron School District in southeastern Missouri.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit for four sets of parents two years ago, and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision last August to keep Bibles from being handed out.

The school district had changed its policy, permitting Gideons and others to give away Bibles before or after school or during lunch—not in classrooms. But U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry delivered the decision…that both practices were in violation of the law.

She then granted a permanent injunction against any Bible distributors.

Perry held that both practices constitute “the promotion of Christianity by distributing Bibles to elementary school students.”

She wrote, “The policy has the principle or primary effect of advancing religion by conveying a message of endorsement to elementary schoolchildren.”…

The ACLU has filed numerous lawsuits in recent years to stop Gideons International from reaching children in public schools.

—telladf.org

 

Settlement Allows Religious Expression for Oklahoma City Government Employees

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund have secured a settlement with Oklahoma City officials that will allow city employees to exercise their constitutional right to religious expression at their work.…

“Christians shouldn’t be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs. Sadly, some city officials fall prey to the misunderstanding that all things religious must be banished from government workplaces. In this case, Oklahoma City has done the right thing. We are pleased that the city’s employees will be able to display symbols central to their faith in the workplace,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Byron Babione.…

On November 15, 2007, Oklahoma City department and division heads received a departmental memo regarding holiday decorations. The memo stated that city employees were forbidden to display items such as “nativity scenes, troparia, cherubs, angels, crosses and any other symbols of clear religious significance.” The memo added that “appropriate” displays included “evergreen trees, snowflakes, reindeer, snowmen and Santa Claus.”

The memo resulted in the exclusion of a number of religious items from the workplace, including the removal of an employee’s Bible from a break room where the city had allowed non-religious literature. A later memo clarified that the prohibition was not meant to include the private work areas of employees. Also, the Bible had now been returned to the break room.

—Alliance Defense Fund

 

“Best Predictor of Breast Cancer” Report Ignored by Media

The mainstream media have again almost totally ignored a new study published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that found that abortion is the “best predictor of breast cancer” in eight European nations.…

Karen Malec of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer said: “The media’s behavior is very problematic. When the history books are written on the abortion-breast cancer link, women are going to be appalled by the major media’s behavior on this matter, and the media will suffer further loss of credibility.”

“The mainstream media have aggressively promoted abortion, and the abortion-breast cancer link would mean that more of their readers are getting breast cancer because they believed what the media were telling them.”

The usual argument used by critics of abortion-breast cancer link studies is “recall bias,” which claims flawed research due to its being based on interviews with women who have breast cancer and admit to having had one or more abortions.

This study by Patrick Carroll, a statistician and actuary, is not affected by “recall bias” because it is based on data from several countries that have complete and accurate abortion records and not on patient interviews.

After the study was published, critics attacked the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, saying the research was politically motivated.

“It was a shoot-the-messenger approach,” explained Karen Malec, “because science really is not on their side, so they argued ideology.”

—LifeSiteNews.com

 

Disabled Javona Peters, New York’s Terri Schiavo, Passes Away

Javona Peters was considered by some to be New York’s Terri Schiavo—a disabled, comatose girl whose family was divided over her medical fate. Peters, who fell into a coma in October while she had a routine medical procedure at Montefiore Medical Center, recently passed away.

Doctors had pegged her as being in a persistent vegetative state, a medical diagnosis pro-life advocates dispute because so many patients have partially or fully recovered.

[In January], Peters’ mother was named her guardian, but only for the purpose of pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit.

The fight to save Javona Peters reminded some of the struggle of the Schindler family in Florida to save the life of Terri Schiavo.…

Peters’ parents, Janet Joseph and Leonard Peters, disagreed on whether or not to remove her feeding tube and take her life.

—telladf.org

 

Atheists Sue to Tear Down Roadside Police Memorials

Atheists want to tear down roadside cross memorials in Utah—possibly putting similar memorials across the country in jeopardy. Throughout Utah, thirteen crosses dot the sides of highways where highway patrol officers have been killed. Atheists want them stripped from public view, saying they are unconstitutional.

“The atheists’ attempt to remove the crosses shows that there is an attempt underway to completely eradicate Christianity from American public life,” says Dinesh D’Souza, author of the New York Times bestseller What’s So Great About Christianity. “Atheists want the public square entirely to themselves, while excluding all religious people—even the troopers who gave their lives protecting the public.”

—Christian Newswire

 

Pro-Life Ob/Gyns Oppose Attempt to Shut Down Their Conscience Convictions

In November 2007, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s (ACOG) Ethics Committee issued a formal opinion titled “The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine.” This opinion warns ob/gyn doctors that their practice pattern can be considered “unethical” by ACOG standards if they do not either do abortions or refer patients desiring an abortion to an abortion provider. The opinion goes so far as to suggest that pro-life doctors should locate their office in proximity to an abortion provider for the convenience of such patients. The American Board of Ob/Gyn in January 2008 published revised standards for doctors seeking recertification (which maintains their professional reputation in good standing). The revised standards are tied to ACOG ethics compliance. This is a raw power play to cripple and ultimately eliminate from practice those doctors who hold a conscience conviction on the sanctity of human life and refuse to have a part in doing, or referring for, the elective, deliberate taking of an unborn human life.

—Christian Newswire

EDITOR’S COMMENTS: Let it be noted and may it never go unchallenged, When liberals talk about free speech, liberty of conscience, etc., they believe in all of that for themselves, and they expect the rest of us to tag along!

 

More Noteworthy News items can be found in every issue of THE SWORD OF THE LORD. 

 

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