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Friday August 1, 2008

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LifeSiteNews Returns on Tuesday

LifeSiteNews staff will be taking a summer long weekend off and return on Tuesday. A respite from the culture wars and more time with family and friends is a good and necessary thing.  

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Radio Hall of Fame will not Bow to Homosexual Pressure to Dump Dobson

By Hilary White

CHICAGO, August 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The National Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago has drawn the wrath of homosexual activists who object to the induction of Dr. James Dobson, a major figure in the US Christian pro-life and family movement. Wayne Besen, a homosexual activist, organized a campaign against the Hall of Fame that resulted in several hundred emails demanding that Dr. Dobson be removed from the list of nominees. 

Dr. Dobson is the founder and head of Focus on the Family, one of the most prominent US Protestant evangelical organizations. According to homosexual activist Wayne Besen, Dr. Dobson is "an extremist who has built his empire on the backs of gays and lesbians" and "a bigot who distorts scientific research." Focus on the Family is one of Besen's favorite targets and he has set up a website meant to refute the medical and psychological research put forward by Focus on the nature and treatment of homosexuality as a disorder.

"It is an affront for the Radio Hall of Fame to honor James Dobson, a right wing demagogue," said Besen.

Since the late 1970s Focus has been a leading advocate of traditional Christian social values, those most derided and demonized by the homosexualist and feminist movements. Dobson broadcast his first Focus radio broadcast in 1977 and currently reaches about 220 million people in 164 countries. In the 1980s, Focus became a key player in the efforts to bring together a coalition of Christian denominations to fight the "Culture Wars" over abortion, the defence of natural marriage and the rights of Christians in the public square.

Gary Schneeberger, vice president for media and public relations (PR) at Focus on the Family, said that Besen's complaint is noisy and has generated a lot of media attention, but is lacking substance.

"The Focus on the Family broadcast was created as, and remains, a means of helping families thrive," Schneeberger said. "If you were to analyze the content of our 32 years of broadcasts, only a minuscule number deal with public-policy issues, and an infinitesimal number deal with homosexuality."

In a public statement, the chairman of the National Radio Hall of Fame (NRHF) showed no hint that it intends to bow to pressure to politicize its nomination. The nominations, he said, are based solely on the honoree's contributions to radio.

Bruce DuMont, NRHF chairman, said the selection is not based on the politics or religious beliefs of the candidates but solely on "tenures and accomplishments in the radio industry."

Once the nominations are made, voting includes members of the public and the selection of Dr. Dobson has been a popular one. "The very nature of radio," DuMont said, "often creates large numbers of fans devoted to their favorite personalities, and the number of votes cast in 2008 increased significantly."

The voting ended July 15 with more than 70,000 votes cast and with Focus on the Family having won the nationally syndicated broadcasters category, beating out Dr. Laura Schlessinger and "shock jock" Howard Stern.

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Uganda First Lady Decries Increase in Risky Sexual Behavior while West Threatens to Pull Funding over Ugandan "Homophobia"

By John Jalsevac

KAMPALA, Uganda, August 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the premiere of the soon-to-be-released documentary "Miss HIV" in Kampala, the wife of Uganda's president, Janet Museveni, lamented the rise in dangerous sexual behaviour in the country and the resultant rise in HIV-AIDS rates.

According to New Vision, Musevini said that Ugandans are abandoning behavior-based solutions to HIV-AIDS in favour of methods, imported from the West, that only serve to perpetuate the disease.

"It is not too late to reverse the trend," she said. "We can adopt our own indigenous solutions, which are less expensive and are 100% sure of preventing the spread of this deadly disease. I find it very baffling how we could throw away what worked, and embrace ideas from elsewhere. Then we watched as rates of infection soared again to claim lives."

Musevini's words echoed those of anti-AIDS crusader Sam Ruteikara, who wrote in the Washington Post several weeks ago that Western methods of combating AIDS, which strive to protect casual sex at all costs, are being imported into Uganda and are resulting in a rise in risky sexual behavior and the overall HIV-AIDS rate.

Ruteikara lamented that the West's encouragement of dangerous behaviours leads to an increase in the need for expensive anti-retroviral drugs. Foreign aid money, he said, could be better spent on successful AIDS-prevention strategies. "For every African who gains access to HIV treatment, six become newly infected," he said. "To treat one AIDS patient with life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs costs more than $1,000 a year. Our successful ABC campaign cost just 29 cents per person each year."

The ABC program heavily emphasizes abstinence and fidelity as a sure means to AIDS-prevention, and promotes condoms only as a distant last resort. Under the ABC program Uganda successfully reduced its HIV-AIDS rate from 21% to 6%.

However, at the same time as Uganda's first lady has drawn attention to the recent increase in HIV-AIDS due to dangerous sexual practices, a prominent Western activist has demanded that foreign aid should be withdrawn from the country on account of its "homophobia."

On Friday July 18, Peter Tatchell, the well-known founder of the pro-homosexual organization Outrage!, called for an end to US aid for, "viciously homophobic countries like Jamaica, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Iraq and Nigeria."

"Tyrannies should not be rewarded: No US aid for anti-gay regimes," he said.

Earlier this month Tatchell, along with Ugandan homosexualist activist, Kizza Musinguzi, protested a meeting of traditional Anglicans in London, over their stance in favour of traditional Christian sexual morality. The two activists singled out the Ugandan church for its efforts to curb homosexual activity.

The Anglican Church in Uganda, including such well-known anti-AIDS figures as Pastor Martin Ssempa and Rev. Sam Ruteikara, strongly oppose homosexuality. As part of its AIDS-prevention activism the Church has long worked to discourage dangerous homosexual sex.   

Statistics show that the HIV-AIDS infection rate is by far the highest amongst homosexual men. The most recent UNAIDS report reveals that in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, a incredible 43% of men who only have sex with men were infected with HIV. The numbers were similarly high in Zambia, where 1 in 3 men who only have sex with men were found to have HIV. A 2006 report from the Public Health Agency of Canada revealed that this trend is not only isolated to developing nations, with 51% of Canadians infected with HIV found to be homosexual men.

According to New Vision, earlier this month Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, expressed his disagreement with homosexual behaviour. Marriage, Museveni said at a betrothal ceremony, is meant for the continuation of the human race.

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Austrians Hold "1000 Crosses Funeral March" in Memory of the Unborn

By Jenna Murphy

SALZBURG, Austria, August 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week hundreds of Austrian pro-lifers held the first annual "1000 Crosses Funeral March" for the unborn.

March participants met at the Cathedral Square in Salzburg where they were given a large white cross before setting out to begin their peaceful procession through the city. When march participants reached the city's State Bridge, dozens of roses were thrown into the river in memory of lives lost to abortion in Austria. At the end of the march, participants joined together to celebrate a special 'Mass of Atonement' for those who promote the scourge of abortion.

This pro-life march follows several accounts of aggressive intimidation tactics earlier this year in Vienna by hired 'escorts' who are employed by abortion mills to keep pro-lifers from influencing their clientele - by whatever means necessary.

On numerous occasions, video cameras outside of Vienna abortion mills have captured instances of verbal, sexual and psychological abuse on the part of these hired antagonists, without any legal repercussions or police interference. Moreover, the Austrian Parliament is considering legislation to ban all pro-life activists from the public property outside abortion clinics, even if they are only praying silently.

See video from Austria's 1,000 Cross March here:
http://www.gloria.tv/?video=vfvv3fywoihdbiqpvmpl

Related LifeSite Coverage:

Abortionist Inflicts Demonic Psycho-terror on Pro-life Protestors in Vienna
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jan/08012515.html

CAUGHT ON VIDEO: Abortion Clinic Escorts Sexually Abuse Praying Pro-Life Activists "I am horrified that this is possible in Austria" says local Bishop after viewing video
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/nov/07113002.html

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Chaos at Canterbury: Rowan Williams Said to Have "Betrayed" Church

By Hilary White

CANTERBURY, August 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Things are not going well at the Lambeth Conference for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Rowan Williams is increasingly being described as a weak and vacillating character seeking to appease both sides of an irreconcilable divide. Many have observed that he is doing so in an attempt to keep a unity that has already been broken by the consecration of an active, unrepentant homosexual bishop in the US.

In the meantime the divide between Anglicans adhering to traditional Christian morality, and those who have abandoned such morality in the name of "progress," is to all appearances rapidly widening.

This week, two Anglican Archbishops from the Global South group have lashed out at what they call the hypocrisy of the Lambeth Conference. Ugandan Primate, the Most Rev. Henry Orombi, who refused to attend the Conference, accused the Archbishop of Canterbury of "betrayal." In a letter released yesterday from his headquarters in Kampala, the Ugandan Archbishop said flatly, "Those who violate biblical teaching must show repentance and regret before we can share communion with them."

He said that since the broken promise of American presiding prelate Frank Griswold not to consecrate openly homosexual bishops, there have been so many betrayals that the American branch of the Church can no longer be trusted.

"They say that they are not authorising blessings of same-sex unions, yet we read newspaper reports of them. Two American bishops have even presided at such services of blessings. Bishops have written diocesan policies on the blessings of same-sex unions. It is simply untrue to say they have not been authorised."

"That such blessings continue and seem to be increasing hardly demonstrates 'regret', let alone repentance, on the part of the American Church. So, when the Archbishop of Canterbury invited these American bishops to participate in the Lambeth Conference, against the recommendations of the Windsor Report and the Primates' Meeting, and in the face of the unrelenting commitment of the American Church to bless sinful behaviour, we were stunned. Further betrayal."

For the Rt. Rev. Yohana Mkava, Bishop of Kondoa of Tanzania, Gene Robinson's fundamental rejection of Christian doctrine means he cannot be validly ordained as an Anglican bishop. "He's not in our conference. He's out," said Bishop Mkava. "I don't recognize him as a bishop, me personally. The whole thing was done out of order, so we don't recognize that. According to the basis of Scripture, supreme authority belongs to the church. So we're not travelling together."

The bishops' complaints were underscored by American bishops at Lambeth who pointed the finger at "conservatives" for daring to oppose the secularist agenda in the Church. This week, two representatives of the US Episcopalian Church excoriated the "conservatives" for opposing the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson, whose elevation to the office of bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 precipitated the Communion's current crisis.

One Episcopal bishop, who refused to identify himself, reacted to Bishop Orombi's comments, saying that they were "not respectful." The Rt. Rev. John Flack confirmed the opinion of many on both sides of the argument that the rift is irreconcilable when he said, "I think he's coming from such a different starting place than most people here, but I'm not where he is. I can't just access Scripture in a blank-page way without the influences that surround it."

The opinions of the Global South bishops are more blunt. Bishop Mkava told David Virtue, an Anglican journalist covering the conference, that most Anglicans in the world are troubled by homosexual ordination. "They are divided. Other people think it is a problem, but for a majority, we see it as a problem."

The decennial Lambeth Conferences were established in the 19th century to express "the mind of the communion on pressing issues of the day" and have no legislative authority on the various branches of the Anglican Church who send delegates. Many pundits are predicting that this will be the last Lambeth Conference of a unified Worldwide Anglican Communion.

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D.C. State Board of Education Approves New Restrictive Homeschool Regulations

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The State Board of Education in the District of Columbia has approved the State Superintendent of Education's final draft of home education regulations that significantly increase restrictions on homeschooling families.

The proposed regulations have been a controversial topic since January, when the State Superintendent's Office created a first draft of new rules that sought to heighten restrictions and regulations on parents who choose to homeschool their children. The first draft included regulating the subjects parents must teach their children and a requirement that parents must permit home visits by D.C. school officials.

The Home School Legal Defense Association, spearheaded by HSLDA Staff Attorney Mike Donnelly and Senior Counsel Chris Klicka, launched a nation-wide campaign requesting homeschoolers across the country contact the D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE) and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE).

According to an HSLDA communiqué, thousands of families responded with calls and emails to the mayor, SBOE, and OSSE.

After three public sessions held to discuss the regulations, which resulted in some of the stricter proposals being removed by the OSSE, the Board passed the new regulations.

Among other things, the new regulations require annual notification of a parent's intent to homeschool on a form to be developed by the OSSE, maintenance of a portfolio of schoolwork, and up to two annual portfolio reviews by the OSSE to determine whether a homeschool program, in OSSE's opinion, is providing "regular, thorough instruction" in the required subjects.

“The participation of the homeschooling community was a very significant component of this process. The voice of the community helped to ensure that we approved regulations which are sound and balanced. We must make sure that our work with the community continues on this issue,” said DC State Board of Education President Robert Bobb. 

However, some homeschooling groups who were heavily involved in the process of developing the regulations, including HSLDA, say they are far from satisfactory.

According to an HSLDA report, no guidelines are provided by the Board on the regulations, giving the OSSE arbitrary discretion to implement these new provisions.

Chris Klicka of HSLDA, testified before the board against the document, stressing the fact that homeschooling has a proven track record of success and therefore does not require further government interference.

"Homeschoolers throughout D.C. and the 50 states in scores of studies and surveys have scored 20 to 30 points above the national average, on the average, on national standardized achievement tests. Also, the publishers of the SAT and ACT College Entrance Exams have tracked homeschoolers for the last 10 years and found that on average they score above the national average. Furthermore, homeschool graduates who enroll in universities also do above average as the various studies and surveys in universities of their student body have shown," Mr. Klicka said in his statement.

He also emphasized that parents should not be further burdened with arbitrary, overly intrusive, vague or restrictive rules.

Mike Donnelly, a staff attorney at HSLDA, added, "These regulations create situations where educational bureaucrats are violating the fundamental constitutional rights of parents, and are unnecessarily broad and difficult to manage. They have breached the trust between the District's government and its citizens."

To read Christopher Klicka's written testimony go to: http://www.hslda.org/Legislation/State/dc/2008/NewRegs/Klick...

To read the new regulations go to: http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx?agency=seo&section=2&am...

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Court Orders University of Florida to Accept Christian Fraternity

GAINESVILLE, FL, August 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ordered University of Florida officials Wednesday to stop discriminating against a Christian fraternity, Beta Upsilon Chi (BYX), while a lawsuit filed by Christian Legal Society and Alliance Defense Fund attorneys against school officials is on appeal.

"The 11th Circuit seems to understand that Christian student groups cannot be singled out for discrimination. The right to associate with people of like mind and interest applies to all student groups on a public university campus," said Litigation Counsel Timothy J. Tracey with CLS's Center for Law & Religious Freedom. "We are confident that the court will not allow the University of Florida to continue to deprive BYX of this right by forcing the group to abandon its identity as a Christian men's organization."

University officials had refused to recognize BYX as a registered student group because the group limits its membership to Christian men. The school does not apply a similar standard to other student organizations, permitting various groups to limit their membership to those who share the organization's views.

Without official recognition, BYX cannot receive critical benefits given to other student groups, such as access to meeting space and the ability to advertise and recruit members on campus. Wednesday's injunction from the 11th Circuit means that the university must officially recognize BYX while the case moves forward.

A motion for summary judgment is still pending in federal district court, but BYX appealed the case to the 11th Circuit when the district court denied a preliminary injunction to BYX. The fraternity had gone the entire 2007-2008 school year without official recognition.

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Reality Says Cohabitation a Disaster for Marriage but Poll Shows Public Believes Otherwise

By Peter J. Smith

UNITED STATES, August 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Despite increasingly high divorce rates, nearly half of the US public now clings to the belief that pre-marital cohabitation will make divorce less likely according to a recent national poll.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 1,007 adults released for the weekend shows 49 percent believe living together reduces the chances of divorce. 13 percent said cohabitation makes no difference at all on marriage's success. Only 31 percent held the view that shacking up before marriage increases the risk of future divorce. 7 percent had no opinion.

"If you're living with someone, you actually get to know somebody more than you would not living with them," Christopher Sekulich, 37, of Melvindale, Michigan told USA Today.

Living together before marriage has skyrocketed since the 1960s, when Western cultures began to cast off traditional sexual mores; but the same period has seen a correlating upsurge of divorce.

The evidence has prompted a number of studies that have indicated that by trying to avoid divorce by cohabitation, unwed couples seriously compromise their marital success. A 2006 report published in the journal Demography indicated one-half of all cohabiting unions collapse within a year and 90 percent within five years.

"The common view of cohabitation as a steppingstone to marriage needs to be seriously questioned," commented Daniel Lichter a professor of policy analysis at Cornell University and the study's lead researcher.
 
"Instead, serial cohabitation may be an emerging norm as cohabiting unions form and break up," he said. "If marriage promotion programs hope to target poor cohabiting women, our results seemingly suggest that the likelihood of success is not assured."
 
Most respondents also said they had little concern about the effect upon children of living in an unmarried cohabiting household. 47 percent insisted it makes no difference, and 12 percent believed there would be positive benefits.

However, the sentiments match up little with the reality that children suffer the brunt of collapsing marriages, and unmarried cohabitation creates an insecure situation for their development.
 
A study by the Vanier Institute of Family entitled "Cohabitation and Marriage: How Are They Related?" compiled results from hundreds of research papers that examined the social, emotional and financial effects of cohabitation and marriage on women, men, children and society.

Anne-Marie Ambert, the study's author, concluded that cohabitation is inherently unstable and carries a high cost on children's physical and psychological development.

Ambert noted, "Commitment and stability are at the core of children's needs; yet, in a great proportion of cohabitations, these two requirements are absent."

See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:

Cohabitation Ends in Separation 90% of the Time
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06072106.html

Living Together Before Marriage Has Disastrous Results Study Finds
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05100305.html

Cohabitation is bad for men, worse for women, and horrible for children
Ten Facts reveal it is a deadly toxin to marriage, family, and culture
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07100902.html

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