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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
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