Recently, I have been seeing more commercials for Christian dating. We have previously discussed new dating companies offering racially correct matches and the implications of such trends. However, ChristianMingle.com raises an interesting legal question in telling subscribers that they can “find God’s Match for You.” When does such an appeal to consumers become deceptive advertising as opposed to hyperbole?
Category: Religion
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity is having trouble meeting their fund-raising goals as a result of their controversial decision to defund Planned Parenthood. Resignations at the local and national level continue to plague the organization.
Continue reading “From The “What Did You Expect Would Happen?” Department”
We have been discussing the story that ran on various sites about the consideration of an Egyptian law that would allow husbands to have sex with their wives up to six hours after death. Our last blog noted that some were still reporting the story while others have questioned the truth of the story. Now a story below appears to have debunked the story, at least in part. While not addressing the alleged consideration of lowering the age for marriage of girls to 14, the story says that the “farewell intercourse” law claim was made by Amr Abdul Samea, a supporter of the deposed Hosni Mubarak. An Islamic cleric did in fact say that Muslim men (and women) could have sex with their dead spouses up to six hours after death, but there is no indication that this view was put into a proposed law.
Continue reading “Dead Letter? Egyptian Necrophilia Law Called Hoax By Mubarak Supporter”
Emily Herx, a teacher at the St. Vincent de Paul school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has sued the school and the Catholic Diocese, for allegedly firing her for using in vitro fertilization (IVF) to try to get pregnant. Herx (shown here with her husband) says that the local pastor told her that she was a “grave, immoral sinner” for using the process. It is another example of the growing tension between discrimination laws and religious freedom, the subject of a past column. The case could prove quite important in defining the outer reaches of the “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws.
Continue reading “Teacher At Catholic School Allegedly Fired For Using IVF As “Grave, Immoral” Act”
Women’s groups are justifiably worried about the domination of Islamic parties in Egypt and the move to rollback on the hard-won rights of women in that country. Now, according to the Daily Mail and various other news sites, legislators are pushing not only to lower the age for marriage for girls but to protect “farewell intercourse” where a husband can have sex with his dead wife up to six hours after she died. If true, both pedophilia and necrophilia would be divinely ordained, according to Islamic clerics in the country. It is not clear if this is a hoax with some people in Egypt reportedly denying the report while others continue to report the story. [Update: A new article is contesting the truth of the necrophilia part of the story]
There is an interesting story out of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn District Attorney routinely releases the names of charged individuals — as do all prosecutors. However, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has decided not to release the names of Orthodox Jews charged with child sex abuse in deference to their “tight-knit and insular” community. That seems like preferential treatment given a particular religious group — a group with considerable political power in New York.
I have previously discussed the collision between anti-discrimination laws and free exercise of religion. Now, Vanderbilt University has stripped a Christian student organization of official recognition (and presumably funding) because it requires its members to have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The current Archbishop of Chicago, Francis George (left), recognizes the “difficulty of public discussion … is that the political is the highest level of public discourse.” In explaining the Catholic Church’s concern with the HHS mandate regarding contraception. His Eminence said the first question to ask is: “Is it true or false?”
The product of reason is truth. British philosopher, John Stuart Mill, defined logic “as the science which treats of the operations of the human understanding in the pursuit of truth.”
What happened to those homilies about the prodigal son and rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s? Parishioners were surprised with this Sunday’s homily by Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky comparing President Barack Obama’s health care policies to policies of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.
Continue reading “Catholic Bishop: Obama Acting Like Hitler and Stalin”
The release of a tape taken of Mel Gibson in Costa Rica by the son of screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has prompted a threat of a defamation lawsuit by the actor. Not only did Eszterhas release the tape secretly made by his son during an argument with Gibson, he accused Gibson of not wanting to proceed with the film “The Maccabees” because he hates Jews.
Continue reading “Mel Gibson Threatens Defamation Lawsuit Against Joe Eszterhas”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
As one who was taught by Benedictine nuns in a Catholic elementary school, I grew up with some strange and possibly severe restrictions on what the nuns called “mixing” the boys and girls. More recently, when my adult children were in school, the Diocese of Rockford forbade Altar boys being on the altar at the same time as Altar girls! With that background, I thought I had seen it all. However, the State of Tennessee has just beaten that sorry record of over restrictive rules for school children. It seems that Tennessee state senators, in their infinite wisdom have updated their already suspect abstinence based sex education law by suggesting that holding hands is a gateway to sex. Continue reading “The Dangers of Holding Hands”
We previously discussed how God appears to be playing a divine joke on Republican candidates who publicly claimed that he caused them to run — only to go down in flames in the primary. Now Santorum has become the fourth candidate who has withdrawn despite divine instructions to run. It appears that we now know the name that God gave Robertson as the next president of the United States — at least one of two names.
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Today from Sandy Bay, Maine to San Diego, California, Americans will don their Sunday Best, attend a religious service, and enjoy the Spring air while their kids search for candy and eggs. A joyous celebration on both the Christian and secular calendar, it wasn’t always that way — or maybe it was.
Easter was looked on with some skepticism by the ultra-religious Puritan sect when they showed up at Plymouth Bay. According to author Steve Englehart, these earlier settlers had bona fide religious reasons to eschew the holiday. “They knew that pagans had celebrated the return of spring long before Christians celebrated Easter…for the first two hundred years of European life in North America, only a few states, mostly in the South, paid much attention to Easter.”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
On this Easter weekend, I was dismayed when I learned that the Roman Catholic Church recently decided that helping the poor in Colorado obtain health care is fine, as long as the organizations assisting these needy folks were not gay or “hanging out” with the Gays. Continue reading “The Roman Catholic Church and the Gays”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Pictured is Patriarch Kirill I, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Something is different between the two images. Can you spot the difference? Continue reading “Find The Difference Contest”