Tag Archives: Human Rights Commission

Videos

Sen. Jim Demint denounces the Democrats’ new Hate Crimes amendment

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UPDATE: NEW MUST-SEE Jim Demint video has been posted here on the the failed stimulus bills and Obamacare!

UPDATE: Welcome, visitors from the Corner (National Review)! Thanks for the link from Mark Steyn!

UPDATE: Welcome Canadian readers from Blazing Cat Fur! Guess what? The Democrats are trying to pass laws that will make us just like you!

Canadian readers, pay close attention, the second half of the video is all about you.

Here’s the video of my favorite Senator Jim Demint: (11:44)

You can read about how Christians are persecuted in Canada here:

But what about the right to free speech here, in the USA?

Why did some Christians vote (indirectly) for anti-Christian policies?

There are 3 themes on the Wintery Knight blog.

  1. Christians must appeal to public knowledge when defending their faith
  2. Social conservatives need to become fiscal conservatives
  3. Fiscal conservatives need to become social conservatives

Regarding point #2. It has come to my attention that some well-meaning Christians, who are apparently socially and theologically conservative, nevertheless voted for Obama, because they are opposed to fiscal conservatism and small government.

Specifically, they don’t believe in things like:

  • lowering taxes
  • decreasing government or union regulations
  • shrinking the size of government
  • preserving the rule of law
  • protecting private property
  • protecting the free market and free trade
  • protecting liberty and personal responsibility

Here is a breakdown of which Christian denominations voted for Obama:

2008 voting broken by religious groups
2008 voting broken by religious groups

(Click for full-sized image, courtesy of Pew Research)

For the record, I am an ethnic evangelical Protestant. You can read all about how I became a Christian and the list of arguments for and against Christian theism.

On this blog, I examine policies like cap-and-trade, socialized medicine and tariffs. I argue that these policies are bad for the poor. All it takes to understand the economics is a little bit of study. Christians need to study these issues so that they are not deceived by their emotions when it comes time to vote. Otherwise, we will not only hurt the poor, but we will also lose the freedoms we need to live our lives as Christians.

We should not be so envious of our neighbor’s prosperity that we are willing to sell our religious liberty and free speech rights in order to punish their success. We should not be coveting our neighbor’s goods. We should not be stealing from our neighbor, either. Instead, we should try to improve the nation’s prosperity without involving the government. And we can start by working harder, saving more and spending less.

Further study

You might be interested in Jim Demint’s book “Why We Whisper“, which I bought but have not yet finished.

If you’d like to hear more from Jim Demint, he did a 51-minute Town Hall for the Heritage Foundation on the Sotomayor nomination.

For more about free speech in Canada, see these previous posts:

For two technical articles discussing property rights and the poor, take a look at these two articles from New Zealand philosopher Matt Flanagan.

And here is an audio lecture by Jay Richards on the “Myths Christians Believe about Wealth and Poverty“. His new book is called “Money, Greed and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem“. To understand what capitalism is, you can watch this lecture about the book. Here is a series of 4 sermons by Wayne Grudem on the relationship between Christianity and economics?.(a PDF outline is here)

News

In Iran, two jailed Christian women face execution

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Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, and Maryam Rustampoor, 27 are in an Iranian prison for converting to Christianity
Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, and Maryam Rustampoor, 27 are in an Iranian prison for converting to Christianity

BosNewsLife reports. (H/T Gateway Pundit)

Excerpt:

Two detained Christian women are “in danger of being forgotten” amid concerns they may face execution, Iranian Christians said Tuesday, July 7.

Marzieh Amirizadeh, 30, and Maryam Rustampoor, 27, have been held for over four months in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison apparently for converting to Christianity from Islam.

Iranian Christians and rights investigators said the two young women, who were arrested March 5, suffered sleep deprivation as part of police interrogations and were held in solitary confinement for three weeks in May and early June.

…There was still no clarity regarding the case of the two Christian women, Tuesday, July 7, with one judge reportedly telling them they were both to be executed as ‘apostates’. “Maryam and Marzieh have responded with courage, however, telling the judge to ‘expedite his sentence’,” said Pray for Iran, an Internet initiative of Iranian churches.

I find this story to be the most depressing thing in the world. I look at the pictures of the two women and I just want to cry. Here I am in the USA, surrounded by postmodern-relativist “Christian” feminists who vote for abortion, big government and higher taxes. Meanwhile, the real Christian women that I should be protecting and providing for are on the other side of the world in a filthy jail cell.

Female Iranian pro-democracy protester was a Christian
Female Iranian pro-democracy protester was a Christian

Neda Soltani was a Christian

One other thing. That woman who was murdered by the Iranian dictatorship while peacefully protesting the rigged Iranian election was also a Christian. You can read more about her here on Robert Spenser’s Jihad Watch. (H/T Nice Deb, Atlas Shrugs)

He writes:

This is the poor young woman who was shot dead by Iranian security forces, and whose bleeding face became an image of the brutality and humanity of the mullahs. Now it turns out the Neda Soltani was a Christian — a telling indication that the analysts who dismissed the protesters as simply wanting more Sharia, or better Sharia, or Sharia with a different face, were wrong: it just wasn’t that simple.

Christians don’t want any Sharia. We want the freedom to convert and to live publicly and authentically as Christians.

Video of her assassination: (WARNING: GRAPHIC!)

Where are all the feminists? Oh yes – they are running the Human Rights Commissions that suppress the free speech of Christians whenever Muslim agitators complain about being offended. And Obama didn’t do anything to help the voters in Iran or Honduras, either.

News

Round-up of stories from around the world

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United Kingdom

Here’s an article from the BBC News from reader Steven about the suppression of the rights of medical personnel by secular humanists. This time, we get some good news.

Excerpt:

Doctors are demanding that NHS staff be given a right to discuss spiritual issues with patients as well as being allowed to offer to pray for them.

Medics will tell the British Medical Association conference this week that staff should not be disciplined as long as they handle the issue sensitively.

The doctors said recent cases where health workers had got into trouble were making people fearful.

But atheists said it was wrong to mix religion and health care.

I also noticed this related article on LifeSiteNews linked by Binks in his latest round-up. Another Christian nurse gets flak from the atheistic fascists for daring to not behave as an atheist in public.

Excerpt:

Nurse Slatter was told by her employer, the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, that the 1-inch gold necklace could “harbour and spread infections” or be used as weapon. She refused the hospital’s suggestion that she carry the necklace in her pocket and has resigned, saying she would not choose between her job and her religion.

…Many of these clashes have been the result of action by homosexual activists and the help of the Labour government’s “anti-discrimination” laws. Most recently, the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) has issued draft “guidance” for schools that say teachers must hide their religion from students and colleagues. They must “promote equality and value diversity” by keeping their religious beliefs to themselves it said.

You can listen to a debate here that shows how naturally atheism leads to fascism in places like the UK. Or you can read my exchange with a British fascist here. (Fascism is the system of government in which individual rights, such as the right to free speech, are curtailed by the state)

India

You might remember that I blogged about the persecution of Christians in the eastern state of Orissa when I covered the recent Indian election.

Orissa is one of the states where Christians are really in the minority and there are Hindu schools teaching the Hindu-nationalist doctrine of Hindutva, which is extremely hostile to Christianity.

Well, Shalini sent me some good news about the situation in Orissa:

Excerpt:

Home Minister P Chidambaram, who is on a two-day visit to Orissa, visited one of the relief camps in riot-hit Kandhmal district on Friday.

While speaking to the victims, he apologised for the conditions they had to face in the wake of a series of communal clashes following the killing of 85-year-old VHP leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati in August 2008.

…Condemning the incident, Chidambaram asked them to start life afresh, build the churches and practice their religion.

“Whatever happened was wrong. Build your churches and practice your dharma,” he said.

When some refugees spoke of fear of RSS and Bajrang Dal, the Home Minister assured then that the guilty will be “prosecuted and punished.”

I hope that this is a sign of better things to come for Indian Christians. I must admit that I spoke to a few Indian Hindus here in the USA, and they were not supportive of the rights of Christians to evangelize or to exercise freedom of religious expression in India.

Australia

Looks like Australia is considering implementing Human Rights Commissions, exactly like the ones that Canada has. Story from Life Site News. (H/T Free Canuckistan)

Excerpt:

Australian life and family advocates are deeply concerned with plans by a government agency to institute new “human rights” legislation modelled on that of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Endeavour Forum, a national pro-life and pro-family advocacy group, has submitted a brief to a consultative committee, warning that since the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has “consistently failed” to protect the Christian values of the majority of Australians, “its probable recommendations will diminish, not enhance, our freedom.”

The AHRC is conducting national consultations on a proposed Human Rights Charter that is supported by the Attorney General, Robert McClelland, who has argued that since other countries, such as Canada, have such documents, Australia should follow suit.

And to think there was a time when I wanted to move to Queensland! Ha!

Canada

A Quebec court will hear from a Catholic school that is resisting the anti-Christian curriculum that is being pushed by the province. The article is from LifeSiteNews courtesy of Binks.

Excerpt:

Loyola Catholic High School has finished presenting its case in court against Quebec’s mandatory Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) program. The case was launched after the Department of Education refused to allow the school to continue teaching its own Catholic-centered religion course.

The private Catholic boys’ school objects to the province’s mandatory course on the grounds that it conflicts with the school’s Catholic character and presents a relativistic world-view of religion.

…Quebec Education Minister Michelle Courchesne has denied all applications for exemption from the ERC and has made it clear that any religious education program that promotes one religion over any other is not acceptable.

Quebec is the most secular, left-wing province in Canada.

Pakistan

I spotted this story over at The Lambeth Walk blog. It recounts the details of some anti-Christian crimes in Muslim-dominated Pakistan.

Excerpt:

Recently two very disturbing cases have emerged from Pakistan which give some insight into the risks which non-Muslims face in Muslim countries, particularly if they fail to pay the jizya.

The first concerns a Christian man who was sexually abused, raped and murdered for refusing to convert to Islam…

The second case involves the police torturing a Christian man and then denying him medical treatment…

Here’s another one from Weasel Zippers, also via Binks.

Excerpt from the linked BosNewsLife article:

Two Pakistani Christians remained detained Thursday, June 25, on false charges of “blasphemy” and “robbery”, advocacy groups said.

Asia Bibi, 37, was reportedly detained by police on allegations of blasphemy in the village of Ittanwali in Punjab province on June 19, following heated discussions about Islam with Muslim women who work with her on a farm.

“Bibi told them that Christ died on the cross for their sins and asked them what Mohammed had done for them,”said Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC), which monitored the case. “Our Christ is the true prophet of God and yours is not true,” Bibi reportedly said.

Something to pray about, and there’s no time like the present for prayer.

Mauritania

Al-Qaeda kills an American missionary in Mauritania. Story from Jihad Watch, via Binks.

Excerpt from the linked AFP story:

The man was shot several times in the head from close range after he resisted an apparent kidnap attempt, a witness told AFP, after the shooting outside a private language and computer school run by the American.

“A foreigner has been shot dead, apparently by youths who fled. We are investigating the case,” police said, while the interior ministry identified the man as Christopher Logest and said he also worked for a charity, Noura.

Mauritania is in northwest Africa.