Category: Religion

Pakistani Government Warns Media Not To Cover Valentine’s Day As An Offense To Islam

240px-Antique_Valentine_1909_01Pakistan continues to show the world that it remains on the course of Islamic extremism and increasingly intolerant of free exercise and free speech.  Now the Pakistani government is warning media not to cover the increasingly popular Valentine’s Day celebrations.  Islamic clerics have declared the Western holiday to be an offense to Islam.  None of these clerics or government officials appear concerned that there is a far greater danger to Islam if it is threatened by people wanting to exchange Valentines or throwing parties.

 

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“We Don’t Have A Flu Season”: Televangelist and Trump Adviser Gloria Copeland Criticized For Calling For Faith Not Shots In Combating The Flu

Screen Shot 2018-02-06 at 7.56.32 PMGloria Copeland is the co-founder of the Kenneth Copeland Ministries (with her husband) in Texas and cited as a spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump. She and her husband serve on Trump’s evangelical advisory board.  This week Copeland is in the center of a firestorm after telling her followers that you may not need flu shots if you “inoculate yourself with the word of God.”

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Iranian Activist Challenges Western “Barbie” Feminism As Veil Protests Continue In Iran

 

download-5We have previously discussed the courage of women in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Muslim nations in fighting sexist rules that prevent them from engaging in basic acts or pursuing their own futures.  As I have said before, these women are the most inspiring civil libertarians of our generation — risking jail and beatings to fight for equality.  That struggle is evident in the dozens of arrests of women in Iran who are pulling off their headscarves in public in Iran to fight for the individual choice in wearing the religious cover.  One activist Masih Alinejab has gone further to denounce Western feminists and reporters who celebrate the selling of a Barbie doll with a veil while giving minimal attention to actual women fighting the mandatory wearing of such items.

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The Corpus Delicti: The Baby Jesus Becomes The Focus of Holiday Heists Around The Golde

 

Screen Shot 2017-12-26 at 9.16.02 AMA feminist activist from the extremist group Femen ran onto the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Monday and tried to steal the baby Jesus.  The woman screaming “God is woman” was tackled by Vatican gendarme.  The group identified the culprit as Alisa Vinogradova and proudly declared her to be a “sextremist”. This is not the only effort his season to “jack” Jesus.  These cases represent a convergence of the Corpus delicti and the Corpus Christi.

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RES IPSA HITS 33,000,000

Audience_Frontier_FiestaWe have hit another milestone today with over 33,000,000 views. We are also expected to reach 35,000 followers on Twitter.  That hardly makes us competition for the largest sites but it is still an impressive collection of people seeking a place for civil but passionate discourse on legal and policy issues  of our time (and perhaps a few wacky stories).  We often use these milestones to look at the current profile of the blog and its supporters around the world.

As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors: Mike Appleton, Larry Rafferty, Darren Smith, Kimberly Dienes, and Cara Gallagher (particularly Darren who continues help up with periodic technical problems etc).

I particularly want to thank our regular commentators and readers.  We try to keep this blog as an open forum with as little interference or monitoring of the comments as possible.  Given our free speech orientation, we try not to delete comments and, for that reason, we are deeply appreciative of how most people avoid personal or offensive comments in debating these issues.  We have had to delete a handful of comments with personal attacks or profanity but the number remains quite low for a blog of this size.  The success of this blog is due to the fact that we offer something more than the all-too-common troll-driven, angry, and insulting commentary of the Internet.  Thank you for voluntarily assuming restraint over the tenor and content of your comments. Continue reading “RES IPSA HITS 33,000,000”

Rev. Jim Bakker: Buy My Pancake Mix Or Make Flapjacks In Hell?

Screen Shot 2017-11-18 at 6.26.28 PM.pngJim Bakker was last seen by most people after his sex scandal and then sentencing for fraud.  Now he is back and he will totting pancake mix.  Bakker is shilling for people to call a 1-888 phone number to give him $60 (plus shipping) for a bucket of pancake mix.  The alternative appears to be starving your children and handing them over to the Biblical Beast.

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Fresno State University Professor Remains Defiant After Court Ordered Fine and First Amendment Training

download1We previously discussed the case of Fresno State University Public Health Professor Dr. Gregory Thatcher recruited students to destroy pro-life messages written on the sidewalks and wrongly told the pro-life students that they had no free speech rights in the matter.  As I stated earlier, I find it extraordinary that the university did not seriously discipline or terminate Thatcher, but he still remains on the faculty.  A district court has now ordered Thatcher to pay $17,000 and undergo First Amendment training.  However, Thatcher remains defiant and the university appears complicit in his actions by the lack of disciplinary action.

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Alabama Auditor Defends Roy Moore: “Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”

Jim-Zeigler-228x300Murillo_immaculate_conceptionAlabama Senate candidate Roy Moore has long been controversial and I will readily admit to being one of his most vocal critics over his defiance of legal authority and extremist views.  However, he is now perfectly radioactive after allegations that he initiated sexual contact with a 14-year-old when he was in his 30s.  Perhaps the strangest defense came from Alabama state auditor Jim Ziegler (right) told the Washington Examiner that, if Moore did engage in pedophilia, it was “much ado about nothing.”: “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.” In the meantime, Moore has called his multiple accusers as people engaging in “intentional defamation.”  What is clear is someone is lying.  If Moore is telling the truth, the next step would presumably be a defamation lawsuit.  The same can be said for these four women who have now been called liars.  This is a time when a little litigation would go a long way.

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Saudi Crown Prince Denounces Extremist Clerics and Plots More Moderate Course For The Kingdom

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shakes hands with Deputy CI have often criticized Saudi Arabia for its application of a medieval Sharia system of law and its intolerance for both free speech and freedom of religion.  It is important however to recognize improvements in the Kingdom, such as the recent decision to allow women to drive and the expanding political rights of women.  This week brought another such positive development.  Saudi Arabia’s next king, Mohammed bin Salman, gave a surprising speech where he clearly set the Kingdom apart from the long domination of Saudi clerics. He declared  “We are returning to what we were before, a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world.”  If true, that would be a moment of true leadership by the Crown Prince and a real hope for the citizens of Saudi Arabia.

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Houston-Area Residents Told To Certify That They Do Not Support Boycotting Israel As Pre-Condition For Hurricane Relief

Texasisrael1We recently discussed the free speech and associational implications of a Kansas teacher barred from a job due to her church’s support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Now there is a story out of Dickinson, Texas where residents were told that they had to guarantee that they do not support boycotts of Israel as a pre-condition of hurricane relief.  Again, this is nothing to do with the merits of the BDS controversy or Israel.  The question is the constitutionality of the federal or state government demanding such commitments from citizens to secure employment or relief.

 

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“The Very Definition Of Tyranny”: Roy Moore Calls For Justices To Be Removed For Voting For Same-Sex Marriage

Supreme CourtIt appears that the Senate race in Alabama between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones is now a dead heat.   The tie in the normally reliable red state reflects controversial views of Moore who was twice removed from his job as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for defying federal court orders.  One of his most alarming recent statements concerns the Supreme Court.  Moore told followers that he would support the impeachment of any justice voting in favor of same-sex marriage, a position that would destroy the integrity and traditions of our legal system.

 

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Kansas Teacher Barred From Employment Due To Her Support For Boycott Movement

israel1download-1We have been discussing the increasing scrutiny being applied to teachers and professors over their political views and social media commentary.  A particularly problematic case has been taken up by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) involving Kansas teacher Esther Koontz.  The long-time math teacher (and something called a “curriculum coach”) at Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet School in Wichita, Kansas, Koontz was barred from renewing her contract as  teacher because she supports the boycott of Israel over the occupation of Palestinian territories.  This is not simply reflective of her political views but a religious based obligation as a member of the Mennonite Church USA.  The church in July voted to divest itself from American companies that profit off of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.  The Kansas law therefore collides head on with the rights of free speech, free exercise, and free association.

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Pakistani Senate Rejects Age Limit For Marrying Girl As Un-Islamic

Flag_of_PakistanPakistan’s Senate has struck down legislation last week that would have increased the minimum age girls to marry from age from 16 to 18.  We have previously discussed various cases of child brides being forced into marriage under the medieval Islamic traditions and laws governing much of Pakistan.  However, there was hope that the legislature would be more supportive of the basic rights of these girls.  That hope was dashed when the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee, Rehman Malik, explained that such an age limitation on marriage was deemed “Un-Islamic” by clerics who control much of the legislative agenda in Pakistan.

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Boise Professor Criticizes “Radical Feminism” As Undermining Family Values. . . Students Demand His Termination For “Hate Speech”

We have been discussing the increasing pressures on academics in what is an increasingly hostile atmosphere for academic freedom and free speech.  The latest example is out of Boise State University where students are calling for the termination of Professor Scott Yenor for “hate speech” because of his published criticism of radical feminism.  While there are obviously good-faith reasons to criticism Yenor’s views, his article explores how some feminists have in his view undermined parental rights in transgender cases. Instead of simply responding to his arguments, liberal students are seeking his firing by the university in an all-too-familiar pattern.

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Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks