NewsTrust - Church and State - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

Feds move to seize 4 mosques, skyscraper

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Adam Goldman - Nov. 13 (News) - Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

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Tears, tempers fly in Nancy Pelosi's campaign

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Politico - By Patrick O'Connor, John Bresnahan - Nov. 08 (News) - By Thursday, Ellsworth, who was working closely with Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) realized the church wouldn’t accept anything less than a version of Hyde, so he and his staff started working on a version the bishops could accept, aides said.

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Who Is a Jew? Court Ruling in Britain Raises Question

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Sarah Lyall - Nov. 08 (Special Report) - A case involving the admissions policy of a Jewish high school in London has potential repercussions for thousands of other parochial schools across Britain.

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Justice Scalia spars in debate over Mojave cross

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By David G. Savage - Oct. 08 (News Report) - A Supreme Court argument Wednesday over a cross within the Mojave National Preserve in California sparked a sharp dispute over whether the Latin cross stands as a symbol of all fallen soldiers, including Jews and Muslims.

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Prayer Effort Seeks 'Right Thinking' From Liberals

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - By Barbara Bradley Hagerty - Oct. 04 (Special Report) - A Christian conservative group, fearing a liberal drift in the country's leadership, has put 11 prominent politicians and activists on an "Adopt a Liberal" roster. They're asking God to help their targets change their stances on a variety of social issues.

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Groups Push to End Hiring Bias Legalized for Religious Charities

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Carrie Johnson - Sep. 17 (News Report) - Nearly 60 groups concerned with civil rights, labor, health and education urged Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Thursday to renounce a Bush-era memo allowing religious charities that receive federal grant money to discriminate in hiring.

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More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Laurie Goodstein - Apr. 28 (News Report) - Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years. Nationally, the “nones” in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990. In South Carolina, they more than tripled, to 10 percent from 3 percent. Not all the “nones” are necessarily committed atheists or agnostics, but they make up a pool of potential supporters. Local and national atheist organizations have flourished in recent years, fed by outrage over the Bush administration’s embrace of the religious right. A spate of best-selling books on atheism also popularized the notion that nonbelief is not just an argument but a cause, like environmentalism or muscular dystrophy.

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Illinois moment of silence ruled unconstitutional

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

AP - By Mike Robinson - Jan. 22 (News Report) - A federal judge has ruled that a state law requiring a moment of silence in public schools across Illinois is unconstitutional, saying it crosses the line separating church and state.

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Florida ban on gay adoptions ruled unconstitutional

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Miami Herald - By Carol Marbin Miller - Nov. 26 (News Report) - A Miami child welfare judge Tuesday declared Florida's 31-year-old ban on adoption by gay people unconstitutional, rejecting the state's claim that the law promotes public morality and the best interests of foster children who may be harmed by same-sex parents. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman approved the adoption of two half-brothers, identified only as John and James Doe, by Frank Gill, a gay North Miami man who has raised the two foster children since they were brought to him in December 2004 by a state child abuse investigator. The boys now are 8 and 4 years old.

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Judge in Miami Rules Florida Ban on Gay Adoption Unconstitutional

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

U.S. News & World Report - By Amanda Ruggeri - Nov. 25 (News Report) - A 1977 Florida state law that bans gay individuals from adopting has received its biggest challenge thus far: Foster father Frank Martin Gill won his suit to adopt two brothers he has been fostering since 2004. In her decision this morning, Miami Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled that there was no "rational basis" to prevent the children from being adopted. The case, which marks the first time that a gay adoption case has been taken before a trial court in Florida, seems likely to go before the Florida Supreme Court, which could overturn the ban.

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Experts clash on gays' bids to adopt children

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Miami Herald - By Carol Marbin Miller - Nov. 17 (News Report) - The judge's ruling will determine whether a 4-year-old boy and his 8-year-old brother can be adopted by Frank Gill, the North Miami foster parent who has raised the boys for four years, and his partner. Lederman said she will decide on the adoption later this month. Florida is the only state that bans all gay people from adopting. This fall, a Circuit Court judge in Key West declared Florida's ban unconstitutional, although the decision is unlikely to hold much sway because it was not appealed to a higher court. Since the state is fighting Gill's attempt to adopt the two boys, a decision by Lederman to declare the law unconstitutional would be of far greater consequence. Most likely, the case will ultimately be decided by the Third District Court of Appeal or the Florida Supreme Court.

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Mormon Church feels the heat over Proposition 8

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Nicholas Riccardi - Nov. 17 (News Report) - In June, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made a fateful decision. They called on California Mormons to donate their time and money to the campaign for Proposition 8, which would overturn a state Supreme Court ruling that permitted gay marriage. That push helped the initiative win narrow passage on election day. And it has made the Mormon Church, which for years has striven to be seen as part of the American mainstream, a political target.

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U. psychologist says group distorting her same-sex research

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Salt Lake Tribune - By Brian Maffly - Nov. 16 (News Report) - Lisa Diamond, a University of Utah psychologist whose sexual-identity studies suggest a degree of "fluidity" in the sexual preferences of women, said in an interview Tuesday that the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, or NARTH, misrepresents her findings. Position papers, some penned by NARTH President A. Dean Byrd, an adjunct professor in the U.'s Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, point to Diamond's research evidence that gays' sexual orientation can be straightened out through treatment - much to Diamond's dismay. NARTH is based in Nicolosi's California office but maintains an office in the same downtown Salt Lake City building as Evergreen International, a Mormon faith-based group that encourages gays to abandon same-sex attraction. While the two groups do not advertise their association, NARTH's sole paid staffer last year was Evergreen's executive director, David Pruden, according to tax documents.

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Bush staff says hiring by faith no bar to aid

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Charlie Savage - Oct. 20 (News Report) - In a newly disclosed legal memorandum, the Bush administration says it can bypass laws that forbid giving taxpayer money to religious groups that hire only staff members who share their faith. The administration, which has sought to lower barriers between church and state through its religion-based initiative offices, made the claim in a 2007 Justice Department memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel. It was quietly posted on the department's Web site this week.

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Palin treads carefully between fundamentalist beliefs and public policy

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Stephen Braun - Sep. 28 (News Report) - Her faith views are strong and sometimes controversial. Her aides say she seeks to share but not impose her faith; her critics say she has 'a fine-tuned sense of how far to push.'

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Kenyan pastor offered blessing to shield Palin from 'witchcraft'

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Garance Burke - Sep. 25 (News Report) - A grainy YouTube video surfaced Wednesday showing Sarah Palin being blessed in her hometown church three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for protection from "witchcraft" as she prepared to seek higher office. The video shows Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from "every form of witchcraft."

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500,000 women die in pregnancy, childbirth: UNICEF

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Stephanie Nebehay - Sep. 20 (News Report) - "But maternal mortality and child mortality do not yet receive the attention that the scale of the problem deserves," he said. An additional $10 billion would be needed each year to combat both child and maternal mortality, according to Salama. UNICEF said last week that more than 9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2007, down slightly from a year before, but a huge gap remains between rich and poor countries.

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Abortion Proposal Sets Condition on Aid

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Robert Pear - Jul. 15 (News Report) - The proposal defines abortion as follows: "any of the various procedures -- including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action -- that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."

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Obama moves center to court religion

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Jennifer Loven - Jul. 01 (News Report) - Taking a page from President Bush, Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he wants to expand White House efforts to steer social service dollars to religious groups, risking protests in his own party with his latest aggressive reach for voters who usually vote Republican.

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Outcry after French court rules on virginity

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Elaine Ganley - Jun. 05 (News Report) - The bride said she was a virgin. When her new husband discovered that was a lie, he went to court to annul the marriage--and a French judge agreed.

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State high court refuses to put same-sex ruling on hold

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Bob Egelko - Jun. 04 (News Report) - The California Supreme Court denied a request today to put its ruling allowing same-sex marriages on hold until after the November election, clearing the way for gay and lesbian weddings to begin June 17.

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Fighting For God AND Country

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CBS News - By Susan Spencer - Apr. 27 (Special Report) - When it comes to the role of religion in the military, a famous saying from World War II seems to sum things up: "There are no atheists in foxholes." Immortalized in the 1942 film "Wake Island," the line reinforces the idea that there' s just nothing quite like bombs and bullets to convert a non-believer. Whoever decided that owes Jeremy Hall an apology. Army Specialist Hall was a turret gunner who has been deployed to Iraq twice. His Humvee came under fire - a bullet nearly killed him - but he didn't find God, and he wasn't looking... "I'm an atheist," Hall told Spencer. "I just don't have any belief in supernatural, any forces - deities, luck, fate, destiny - that's about it really. It's very simple." And he says atheism has cost him. After he refused to join in a prayer, he says he was ostracized and passed over for promotion. He sued the Army for discrimination. Then he was threatened when word got out that he had filed a lawsuit.

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Dalai Lama ready for serious talks with China

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Apr. 26 (News Report) - The Dalai Lama said Saturday he welcomed China's offer to meet his envoy and said the two sides needed to talk seriously about how to resolve the problems that triggered riots in the Tibetan capital last month.

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The Papal Week That Was

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

First Things - By Richard John Neuhaus - Apr. 21 (News Analysis) - The theme that Benedict chose for the visit was "Christ Our Hope." That determinedly Christocentric focus was sustained through these days. Permit me a brief word on the several events. The first was not on the official program. It was the news conference on the plane coming over. The first question, not surprisingly, was about the sex abuse crisis. Benedict's response might be described in other contexts as a preemptive strike. By addressing the question so directly and candidly, and then doing that again in following days, he decisively put to rest all the speculation about how he would handle the matter, or whether he would touch it at all.

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Lhasa monks accuse China of lying over unrest

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By John Ruwitch - Mar. 28 (News Report) - Tibetan monks stormed a news briefing at a temple in Lhasa on Thursday, accusing officials of lying about unrest and embarrassing Chinese authorities during a stage-managed tour by foreign reporters.

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