The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a photography studio violated the the New Mexico Human Rights Act (NMHRA) by refusing to photograph a same-sex wedding. Vanessa Willock was told that Elane Photography had a moral objection to her gay wedding and sued under the act, which “prohibits a public accommodation from refusing to offer its services to a person based on that person’s sexual orientation.” The case is the latest in a growing number of such conflicts between religious beliefs and anti-discrimination laws. Because this is an expressive activity, it raises some difficult questions under the first amendment rights of the owners of Elane Photography, Jonathan and Elaine Huguenin. As one justice noted in concurrence, this is “the price of citizenship.” However, there remains the question of the right of citizens not to be forced to express ideas or values with which they disagree. That concern rests on a distinction between an expressive activity like photography and a cab or a movie theater in public accommodation.
Category: Religion
Elders at Ridgedale Church of Christ appear not to have read John 8:7: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Instead, the elders gathered themselves and their stones this week to ban a mother because she would not renounce her own child. The Tennessee church banned two relatives for good measure after they supported Kat Cooper, a lesbian detective with the Collegedale Police Department. Her mother, Linda Cooper, was given the choice: denounce your daughter or leave the church. It was not much of a Sophie’s Choice: she left the church and with her was any evidence of God’s grace that this church may have had.
Hindu leader Asaram Bapu caused an outcry recently when he advised that rape victims like the medical student savagely beaten and gang raped in Delhi could have avoided the attack by simply addressing the men as “brothers” and asking for mercy. He also said that saying a prayer might have avoided the attack. Now the “godman” has been booked on charges of forcing a 16-year-old girl into “unnatural sex” at a Jodhpur ashram. It is not clear if she tried to call him “brother.”
We have previously discussed how some countries require approval of names or ban the use of some names. This includes a recent court order stripping a baby of the name “Messiah.” Now the city of Brussels has told an Israeli couple that they cannot name their child “Jerusalem” because it is not on the official list of permissible baby names.
Continue reading “Brussels Prevents Israeli Couple From Naming Baby “Jerusalem””
Parents in Tennessee came to court to deal with a dispute over the last name to be used for their 7-month-old son. However, Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered the first name to be changed because the parents had named the boy “Messiah.” Ballew admits that she has never ordered a first name change (particularly when both parents were in agreement with the name) but that messiah is a name earned by one person and “that one person is Jesus Christ.”
We have another story that reinforces the adage that you have to be careful what you wish, or pray, for. Hannah Gastonguay, 26, and her husband Sean, (and his father) took their two young children on a small boat to leave the United States to “see where God led us.” The family opposed what they viewed as the lack of religious freedom in the United States and set out to find a new home on the tiny island nation of Kiribati. Instead, they found themselves battered for weeks in powerful storms that left them adrift with little food or water. They were finally rescued, taken to Chile, and now plan to return to Arizona.
Scientology has been reeling from a growing number of defections where often high-ranking former members have accused the organization of everything from beating members to reducing members to virtual captive slaves. However, Scientology is most vulnerable to defection of celebrities. The organization caters to celebrities and has special programs for their care and treatment. That is why the recent departure of Leah Remini has been a big blow for the organization which touts such big name followers as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Catherine Bell, Nancy Cartwright, and Fox anchor Greta Van Susteren. Now Remini has gone on the offensive and filed a missing person’s report with the police department. The missing person? Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife, Shelly Miscavige, who has not been seen in public in six years. However, it is now being reported that Shelly has been found, like some Scientology Big Foot, and had a sit down with the LAPD (which has closed the investigation).
Continue reading “Missing Person Report For Wife of Scientology Head Declared “Unfounded” By LAPD”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
In late July in Frankfort, Kentucky, supporters and critics of the Next Generation Science Standards clashed during a hearing over proposed changes that could be made to the science curriculum of the state’s public schools. The new science standards were developed with input from officials in Kentucky and twenty-five other states with the hope of making science curricula “more uniform across the country.”
Those who spoke in support of the new education standards said they are “vital if Kentucky is to keep pace with other states and allow students to prepare for college and careers.” Supporters feel the new standards “will help beat back scientific ignorance.” Critics—on the other hand—claimed that the new standards were “fascistic” and “atheistic” and promoted thinking that could lead to “genocide” and “murder.”
According to the Courier-Journal, nearly two dozen parents, teachers, scientists, and advocacy groups commented during the Kentucky Department of Education hearing on the Next Generation Science Standards—which are a broad set of guidelines that were developed in order to revise K-12 science content that would meet the requirements of a 2009 law, which called for educational improvement.
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
As you know part of my contribution as a guest blogger has been the fact that I write much from personal experience. This particular blog is one that I’ve thought about for awhile and have had some trepidation in writing because as you will see it touches on a very sensitive topic for most males. As a boy coming of age in the 1950’s one of the unvoiced, but omnipresent topics was male homosexuality. For a male growing up in that period, among the most upsetting epithets you could be called was queer. This was especially disturbing for those entering puberty, which in the 50’s context was coming into the macho essence of your own self worth. If you were queer you were deemed to be less of a male, a wimp, a fag and most essentially a loathsome pervert who did disgusting things with other males. People were bullied and beaten at school while being called degrading names. Even though I was always big for my age, I was a gentle and sensitive boy and while when attacked I would always fight back, I would be throwing punches through tears of frustration and rage at the injustice of it all. As I cried and fought, all those demeaning epithets would be hurled at me by the jeering bystanders. If I had the temerity to be winning, then other boys would attack me from behind. Finally, a teacher or Administrator would break it up, many times though my rescuer would sneer at the fact that my crying was “unmanly”. Continue reading “Call Me Queer”
We have been following the threats to arrest gay athletes in Russia under the new anti-homosexual laws of the Putin regime — a threat repeated recently by a minister despite assurances from the International Olympic Committee. One official however suggested it may be suspended for the games. Now there are reports The Putin governments alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church has expressed itself in the abusive prosecution of the band Pussy Riot as well as the crackdown on gays and lesbians. Now these reports detail videotapes of gay men being forced to drink urine and abused as a “cure” of their homosexuality.
Raif Badawi, who started the ‘Free Saudi Liberals’ website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, has been sentenced to a Saudi “court” to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for his engaging in free speech. It is the latest outrage from our closest Arab ally. Yet, we continue to treat Iran as part of the axis of evil while our allies deny basic rights and enforce draconian Medieval laws against dissidents and non-believers.
Continue reading “Saudi Court Sentences Blogger To Seven Years And 600 Lashes Under Sharia Law”
In the interview below, Fox News Lauren Green is interviewing the author of a new book on Jesus Christ. However, Green appears to be incapable of getting over that academic/author Reza Aslan is a Muslim. While Fox and the other networks routinely interview Christian and Jewish experts on Islam (including highly biased authors), it appears inconceivable that a Muslim would ever write a book on Christianity.
There is an interesting potential lawsuit brewing in Ohio over a Holocaust memorial that will feature a prominent Star of David on the Ohio Statehouse lawn. The memorial, designed by Daniel Libeskind, has been criticized as violation by the separation of church and state by civil libertarians. The case could present a perfect vehicle to explore the meaning of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Salazar v. Buono in 2010 where a sharply divided court allowed a cross to remain on public lands as a memorial for the dead of World War I.
For many years, there has been controversy over the funding of military chaplains and the preferences given certain faiths. The problem is that as much 23 percent of our military list no religious association or preference. While many simply have no religious association with a particular faith, some are agnostics, some are atheists, and some are generally humanists. It would seem logical to have some chaplains who can relate to those groups. However, members of Congress are irate and insist that chaplains must believe in a deity to be funded. They warm that humanist or secularist chaplains would be traumatizing dying soldiers about being “worm food” and dying without hope.
Continue reading “Congress Moves To Block Atheist Chaplains”
After a global outcry, Dubai has pardoned Norwegian Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, who was sentenced to 16 months in prison after she reported her alleged rape by a colleague. The police allegedly asked her if she was just complaining because she did not like it and she was eventually convicted of having unlawful sex, making a false statement and illegal consumption of alcohol. The case highlights the abusive Sharia laws applied to women and the continuing barriers to countries like Dubai as they try to attract greater tourism and investment.
Continue reading “Dubai Pardons Alleged Rape Victim Sentenced For Having Sex Out of Wedlock”