Tag Archives: Freedom of Religion

News

Taliban forces kill 10 unarmed members of Christian medical charity

4 Comments

Story here from the Boston Globe. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Last week, Little, 61, was one of 10 members of a Christian medical team — six Americans, two Afghans, one German, and a Briton — who were gunned down by the Taliban, which accused the volunteers of spying and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

[…]The victims — doctors, nurses, and logistics personnel — were found shot to death Friday near three vehicles in woods just off the main road that snakes through a narrow valley, provincial police chief General Agha Noor Kemtuz said.

Bridge Afghanistan, another relief organization, said on its website that the team included one of its members, Dr. Karen Woo, who gave up a job in a private clinic in London to work in Afghanistan.

[…]Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said they killed the foreigners because they were “spying for the Americans’’ and “preaching Christianity.’’ The Taliban also said the team was carrying Dari language Bibles and “spying gadgets.’’

[…]Frans said the International Assistance Mission, or IAM, one of the longest-serving nongovernmental organizations operating in Afghanistan, is registered as a nonprofit Christian organization but does not proselytize.

“This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people,’’ the charity said. “We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year.’’

[…]In August 2001, Little and employees from other Christian organizations were expelled by the Taliban government after eight Christian aid workers were arrested for allegedly trying to convert Afghans to Christianity.

He returned to Afghanistan after the Taliban government was toppled in November 2001 by US-backed forces. Known in Kabul as “Mr. Tom,’’ Little supervised a network of eye hospitals and clinics largely funded through private donations.

[…]“We are a humanitarian organization,’’ Frans said. “We had no security people. We had no armed guards. We had no weapons.’’

Some “Christians” who vote Democrat think that it is OK to oppose the war in Afghanistan because it is “too expensive”. But both of our wars didn’t cost HALF of Obama’s FIRST YEAR DEFICIT of 1.5 trillion dollars. Not only do wars deter terrorism and protect our democratic allies, but they also allow aid workers to re-enter Islamo-fascist states so they can provide medical care to some of the poorest people on Earth. Not to mention safeguarding freedom of religion.

News

Gay federal judge rules traditional marriage unconstitutional in California

7 Comments

Here’s the story from Life Site News.

Excerpt:

A federal judge has ruled that California’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman is unconstitutional, because it excludes same-sex unions.

Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, who presides over the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, declared Proposition 8 had no “rational basis” in a 138-page ruling on the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case released Wednesday afternoon.

[…]The judge dismissed the amendment, saying its restriction of marriage to heterosexual couples was “nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic life.” He also added that it seemed to him proponents of Prop. 8 were defending the amendment on the basis of “moral disapproval,” which he said was “an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians” and enacted in law, “a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples.”

[…]Walker, however, is himself an active homosexual, and some conservative critics of the Prop. 8 case contended that Walker would be too personally invested in the case to deliver an impartial outcome.

[…]Walker also ruled that domestic partnerships did not satisfy the duty on California to let same-sex couples marry each other.

Michelle Malkin reports that pro-marriage activists are appealing:

In court papers filed Tuesday night, lawyers for the Proposition 8 defense team asked Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker for a stay of his ruling if the outcome is to declare the law unconstitutional. The motion indicates that the Proposition 8 lawyers will immediately ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the ruling if Walker rules against them.

Comments to this post will be strictly filtered in accordance with Obama’s law restricting free speech on this topic.

Related posts

News

Christian student loses case with Eastern Michigan University

2 Comments

Story here from Life Site News.

Excerpt:

Attorneys will appeal a federal court decision issued Monday in a lawsuit filed on behalf of student Julea Ward against Eastern Michigan University (EMU) after it kicked out the Christian student for holding to her beliefs on homosexual conduct.

[…]EMU initiated its disciplinary process against Ward shortly after she enrolled in a counseling practicum course in January 2009, when she was assigned a potential client seeking assistance regarding a homosexual relationship.  Recognizing the potential conscience issue with the client, and knowing she could not affirm the client’s homosexual relationship without violating her religious beliefs, Ward asked her supervisor how to handle the matter.

Ward was advised to reassign the potential client to a different counselor.  EMU then informed Ward that she could only stay in the counseling program if she agreed to undergo a “remediation” program.  Its purpose was to help her “see the error of her ways” and change her “belief system” as it relates to counseling about homosexual relationships.

At a subsequent formal review meeting, lawyers say EMU faculty denigrated Ward’s Christian views and asked several inappropriate and intrusive questions about her religious beliefs.  A faculty committee then dismissed her from the counseling program.  Ward appealed, but the dean of EMU College of Education upheld the dismissal.

[…]The EMU speech codes enabling the university’s actions were challenged as part of the ADF lawsuit, Ward v. Wilbanks.  One policy prohibiting “discrimination based on … sexual orientation” adds that counselors cannot “condone” what the university defines as discrimination.  Another problematic policy states that EMU’s counseling department may discipline a student who shows a “failure to tolerate different points of view.”

Comments to this post will be strictly monitored in accordance with Obama’s laws limiting free speech.

You can read more about the appeal process on the ADF web site.

I recommend that young Christians concentrate their efforts on mathematics and pursue careers in engineering, physics, chemistry, geology and computer science. Do not homeschool unless you are sure that you can provide the background in mathematics needed to study these fields.