Politics
Monday February 16, 2004
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Print- Homosexual Rush to 'Marry' in San Francisco is a Political Ploy Warn Canadians
- CBC Continues to Bash Christianity with "Gag" Portraying Nun and Priest Necking
- Mel Gibson Film The Passion of the Christ Review by LifeSiteNews.com Editor
- U. S. Court Of Appeals Will Consider Whether To Reverse Roe V. Wade
- Spanish Central Government Objects to New Emrbyo Research Facility
- Anonymous Baby Drop-Hatches in Germany: Successful Alternative to Abandonment or Abortion
- Australian Clinic Uses IVF to Search out and Destroy Embryos With Cancer Gene
- Couple Highlight Selfish Motives for Sex Selection
- LifeSite NewsBytes
Homosexual Rush to 'Marry' in San Francisco is a Political Ploy Warn Canadians
TODAY'S HEADLINES
SAN FRANCISCO, February 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom opened the city's doors to homosexuals on Thursday, issuing an order that officials grant marriage licences to same-sex couples there. Thus far, a reputed 1700 couples have received the licence. Pro-family advocates are set to appear in court Tuesday to seek a restraining order to stop the weddings.
Newsom has not set any restrictions on the decree - partners have been lining up from around the country, including Curtis McAdams, of Austin, Texas, and David Miller, 34, who said they plan to file a lawsuit in Texas to be recognized as legally married there.
Recalling that the homosexual 'marriage' strategy in the United States has closely followed the pattern established in Canada, pro-family advocates in Canada were not surprised to see the mad rush of homosexual activists to the proverbial altar. In Canada homosexual activists freely admitted that they were getting 'married' in order to subvert efforts at a reversal of court decisions in their favour. "If scores of us get married, how do they put the horse back in the barn?" lesbian activist Alison Kemper told the Toronto Star after a spate of homosexual 'marriages' in Toronto.
In related news, approximately 200 homosexual-marriage activists picketed outside Francis Cardinal George's Chicago home on Saturday. The group chose the Cardinal's residence because he was a leading opponent of a "homosexual-rights" bill that was narrowly defeated in the legislature there last fall.
Read local coverage of the protest in Chicago at:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-protest15.html
Back to TopCBC Continues to Bash Christianity with "Gag" Portraying Nun and Priest Necking
OTTAWA, February 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Canada's national public broadcaster, the CBC, is apparently not satisfied with offending Christians with a live gay marriage aired on the day designated by Christian groups to celebrate the sanctity of marriage. A CBC comedy program called 'Just for Laughs Gags' which aired Friday night, had two actors dress up as a nun and a priest and go out on a busy street for a "make out" session in order to secretly film reactions of passers by.
The incident is not the first time the CBC comedy program has offended Catholics. LifeSiteNews.com spoke with the Catholic Civil Rights League about a similar program a few months ago. In October last year, the same program showed a 'gag' of an actress in a Catholic nun's costume dropping sexually explicit photographs of naked men. The photos appeared to be falling from a black book which seemed to be a Bible.
To express concerns to the CBC and CRTC email:
Mel Gibson Film The Passion of the Christ Review by LifeSiteNews.com Editor
TORONTO, February 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the February Interim newspaper, mailed out in January, LifeSite's John-Henry Westen reviewed Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Westen wrote that the film is "the most realistic and spectacular portrayal of Christ" as it focuses on Jesus' torturous final 12 hours.
Westen, editor of LifeSiteNews.com, says that The Passion's artistry is "superb," its power "beyond mere tears." He recounts that during the screening for pastors and ministry leaders that he attended on January 13, "a gentleman behind me began openly sobbing", adding, "the effort to resist joining him was real - it took measured breathing through clenched teeth and flexing of muscles."
The review of the film, which opens on February 25 (Ash Wednesday), praises the "spiritual dimension that begs the viewer on from contemplation of the horrific tortures Christ suffered for our sins, to the realization of the fact that those sufferings came after he divested himself of the glory of his divinity."
The review focuses on the film itself and mostly ignores the controversy surrounding allegations of anti-Semitism in The Passion. But it alludes to it by implicitly dismissing the idea that the Jews killed Christ. Westen says the film is "a gift of God through his son Mel Gibson, who is the first to admit that it was his sins - not those of the Jews - that crucified Christ." As a symbol of Gibson's role in the death of Jesus, the review notes that "Gibson did play a part in the film. It is his hands that drive the nails into Christ - thus serving as Gibson's admission of guilt for the death of Christ."
In an editorial, The Interim explores the significance of Jesus' cross and His death. The editorial notes that the job of Christian pro-lifers "is not merely to save the unborn but to save ourselves, to save our country. We can only do this with God and through Jesus Christ. We must never forget the most basic fact, that the source of all life is God. There is no greater affirmation of the value, importance and dignity of human life than the fact that God made Himself Man. It is something to ponder during the 40 days of Lent."
You can read the full review of The Passion of the Christ and The Interim editorial "The Cross" at
http://www.theinterim.com/2004/feb/index.html
To order a hardcopy of the February issue of The Interim or to subscribe, call 1-800-730-5358 or email or visit http://www.theinterim.com/subscribe.html
U. S. Court Of Appeals Will Consider Whether To Reverse Roe V. Wade
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans will consider whether to reverse Roe v. Wade on March 2. Allan E. Parker, Jr., CEO and founder of The Justice Foundation, the organization representing Norma McCorvey in her pursuit to reverse her role in Roe v. Wade, has called for the pro-life community to join in days of prayer and fasting until that date.
The Justice Foundation has received official notice from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the Court will hear oral argument and make a preliminary decision some time between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, on Tuesday, March 2, 2004, on Norma McCorvey's Rule 60 Motion to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The news is significant since only some ten percent of cases filed receive oral argument. Further, McCorvey's attorneys will be the only attorney arguing in the case. Neither the State of Texas or the District Attorney have chosen to file a brief.
The Justice Foundation notes there are several issues before the Court: Whether Roe v. Wade should be overturned; whether to grant the Motion based on the evidence that was submitted with the motion; or to send the case back to a trial court for a trial; and, whether a single judge or a three-judge panel should have heard the case at the trial court level. Copies of the press release, pleadings and evidence from the case known now as McCorvey v. Hill, No. 03-10711 are available at http://www.operationoutcry.org
Spanish Central Government Objects to New Emrbyo Research Facility
MADRID, February 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The creation of 30 human clones by South Korean researchers has re-ignited the stem cell/cloning debate all over the world. In Spain, Government authorities have objected to the creation of an embryonic stem cell bank in socialist-controlled Andalusia. The bank opened in late January in Granada with the Andalusian government promising over $ 5 million for research grants. The ruling party of Andalusia is accusing the conservative central government of pandering to Catholic groups opposed to human cloning.
Early this month, Health Minister Ana María Pastor announced a plan to set up a stem cell research centre in Madrid that would regulate and coordinate research and train scientists. She said that the government did not intend to obstruct such research but that, under revisions in a law on assisted reproduction, the research must be supervised by the national government. The law, as it exists now allows for research to be done, with parental consent, on embryos that have been frozen for five years or more. It is widely, though erroneously, believed that embryos cease to be "viable" after five years.
However, on Friday, after the announcement of the Korean cloning breakthrough, the Spanish government filed a lawsuit against the Andalusian centre, contending that it has the right to control research with stem cells. Deputy Prime Minister Javier Arenas said the government opposed the cloning of human embryos for medical research.
International Herald Tribune coverage:
http://www.iht.com/articles/129722.html
Anonymous Baby Drop-Hatches in Germany: Successful Alternative to Abandonment or Abortion
BERLIN, February 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An alternative to abandonment or abortion is now available in several German cities - a "drop-hatch" designed to allow mothers to deliver an unwanted child anonymously through a small door in a hospital wall. Within one minute, health-care workers hear an alarm and retrieve the child.
The hatch is an invention of a private organization called Sternipark, who opened the first hatches in April of 2000 in Hamburg in response to the discovery of a fifth child who had been abandoned in a garbage bin that year. Germany reports approximately 50 abandoned babies per year.
While abortion is technically illegal in Germany, it is allowed to mothers up to 12 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape or a threat to the mothers health; first trimester abortions are legal if a woman has a certificate showing that she sought professional help.
The drop-hatch contains a letter addressed to the woman in several languages, as well as means for identifying the child should the woman wish to learn news of, or reclaim the baby. If the mother does not contact the hospital, the baby is given up for adoption after eight weeks.
Sternipark spokeswoman, Franziska Klotz, said that German hospitals are increasingly allowing the option of nameless child-bearing, an integral part of encouraging young women to carry their children to term rather than abort them. Many abandoned children have signs that they were delivered at home, without assistance. "When women call us to give birth anonymously, we can help them, advise them, encourage them before, during and after the birth. There is thus a much greater chance that these women finally decide to keep their babies," she said.
Read the full story at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1508&ncid=751&e=7&u=/afp/2004021...
Australian Clinic Uses IVF to Search out and Destroy Embryos With Cancer Gene
MELBOURNE, February 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The eugenic practice of genetic testing to screen out the "unfit" has moved a step forward in Australia. Nathan Charles Runciman, a child born January 20, was conceived in a lab by in vitro fertilization. Using a process called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis he had two of his cells removed to test for the gene for bowel cancer. When the cells were found to be free of the cancer gene, he was implanted in his mother's uterus and allowed to live.
The Age reports that on her first cycle at Monash IVF clinic, the reproductive medicine clinic of Monash University, Victoria, Australia, Mrs. Runciman produced eight embryos and five had the gene for cancer, including those regarded as the "strongest", which would normally have been implanted. Of the three remaining embryos, one was "unsuitable for transfer". This is the only epitaph that will be written for these tiny human beings who were then discarded as useless.
Monash IVF chief executive Donna Howlett said in the Age that "Monash IVF screening had produced 15 babies tested for single gene disorders."
Victoria's Monash University's most famous son is notorious bioethicist, Peter Singer, a proponent of infanticide for disabled children and involuntary euthanasia for the elderly. His work to sell eugenics to the world scientific community has been immensely successful. Peter Singer was rewarded for his pioneering in bioethics with the prestigious Chair of Bioethics at Princeton University.
Mrs. Runciman told The Age that, "if I was going to have a child, it was going to have a test." She said she was "so happy he won't get the disease".
See coverage in The Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/16/1076779910078.html
Couple Highlight Selfish Motives for Sex Selection
PLEASANT GARDEN, February 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A North Carolina couple have made local news for being able to choose the sex of their child as part of the process of creating a child at an IVF clinic. Tommy and Dana Paschal contacted the genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Va. to request the sex selection procedure known as MicroSort. After two attempts at the sperm selection procedure, Dana became pregnant with Heather who turned two years old October 12.
Christian ethicists object to creating a child to specifications on the grounds that it objectifies and demeans the child and reduces the procreative act to one of utilitarian manufacturing. Christian medical ethics is based on the assumption that the child is her own person, and cannot be created to fulfill someone else's needs. This objection seems to be lost on Dana Paschal who said, "I love my boys, don't get me wrong, but they're closer to their dad than they are with me. It's more things they can do together, but I want somebody to do things with me, so that's why we really wanted a girl."
Said Paschal, "I told the boys, we can go to the Bahamas, or we can have a girl, what do we want to do? So everybody discussed it, we're going for the girl, so that's what we did, so we didn't go the Bahamas, but we're going this year though, everybody," said Dana.
Heather's brother Michael said, "I wanted to go the Bahamas but I was really looking forward to going, but I'm glad that we didn't go because I really love her a lot and stuff."
"I want her to realize she was wanted, she was not an accident, by no means," said Dana. In an accompanying photograph one of the Heather's older brothers is prominently wearing a cross.
See local coverage:
http://www.wxii12.com/family/2843442/detail.html
LifeSite NewsBytes
San Francisco Hospital refusing to turn over partial birth abortion info
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/14/BAG0O517Q61.DTL
Seven women and their doctor to receive sentencing in illegal abortion case in Portugal next week: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/15/1076779840025.html
Pro-Aborts trying to raise $25 Million to Defeat Bush
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040215-123404-6151r.htm
Parents Boycotting Girl Scouts over Relationship with Planned Parenthood
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/zeiger_20040214.html
Growing Al-Qaida forces south of U.S. border
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37133
If we want to clean up television, then the best thing we can do is throw our televisions out the door.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37118
U.S. Court of Appeals to hear 'Roe's' challenge to '73 ruling
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37112
Gay Marriage Makes Strange Bedfellows
http://www.gcc.edu/news/faculty/editorials/throck_log_2_12_04.htm
Liberals plunge in polls
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040213.wlibe14/BNStory/Front/
Scandal drives Liberal popularity down: spring election might be casualty
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1076732020475_24///?hub=TopS...
Dr James Dobson blasts San Francisco mayor for acting against large majority vote against same-sex marriage in state
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=E6694B4C-8B63-44BA-AD9DD9B19541481D
Gay, lesbian couples flood San Francisco City Hall
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/02/15/samesex.marriage/index.html
Homosexuality and Hate Speech: Defending Moral Principles Is Getting Riskier
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=49050
Bill O'Reilly still doesn't get it on Homosexuality
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37120
In Vitro Follies: Life Increasingly Looks Like a Commodity
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=49049
More on Arlington Bishop's Replacement of "Good Touch Bad Touch" Program
http://thewandererpress.com/a2-19-2004.htm
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