Articles for Month: November 2009

By Hilary White LONDON, November 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Christian marriage counselor has joined the burgeoning ranks of those in the UK who have been sacked for their Christian religious beliefs. Gary McFarlane, a 48-year-old solicitor and part-time counselor with a relationship counseling charity, was sacked when he refused to endorse same-sex relationships as equivalent to those of heterosexual couples. McFarlane has lost his chance at appeal with the Employment Appeal Tribunal in which he claimed unfair dismissal and discrimination contrary to the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. McFarlane said that he believes the Bible teaches that […]

By Hilary White BELFAST, November 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life advocates in Northern Ireland are celebrating a major court victory today as the Belfast High Court has ordered the recall of health guidelines that they said would have undermined and effectively overturned the province's pro-life laws. Lord Justice Girvan found that the guidelines failed to deal properly with conscientious objection to abortion and counseling on abortion. The judge said the guidelines were open to misinterpretation, saying the language was “ambiguous” and left doctors and staff unclear as to what was expected of them. The judge said the guidelines needed to […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Obama's brief proclamation of Thanksgiving Day on November 26 was unique among all recorded Thanksgiving proclamations by his predecessors: it is the first one that fails to directly acknowledge the existence of God.   The beneficence shown by God to America is a theme that traditionally defines the Thanksgiving holiday, and this theme is strongly emphasized in the original Thanksgiving Day proclamations and consistently acknowledged even by modern presidents. Obama's unprecedented proclamation, however, only makes indirect mention of God by quoting George Washington, stating: “Today, we recall President George Washington, who proclaimed […]

By Hilary White PARIS, November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The French National Assembly has rejected an attempt to legalize euthanasia in a 326 to 202 vote. “Euthanasia is not a medical act. The right to die is not a medical act,” said Union for a Popular Movement party deputy Jean Leonetti, author of a 2005 law on dying that promotes the use of palliative care. The Alliance for Human Life welcomed the vote, saying that the bill “played on the ambiguity of the word 'dignity'” and “contributed to the confusion on a difficult topic.” Xavier Mirabel, president of the Alliance […]

By James Tillman MADRID, November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Today the Plenary Assembly of the Spanish Episcopal Conference issued a statement saying that politicians who vote for a proposed law liberalizing abortion in Spain place themselves in an “objective state of sin and, while the situation lasts, may not be admitted to Holy Communion.” The announcement from the Spanish bishops comes as the Spanish parliament is considering a law that would make it easier to get an abortion in Spain by allowing 16-year olds to get an abortion without parental consent, among other measures. In their statement, the bishops endorse the June 17th declaration […]

By John Jalsevac OTTAWA, November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite the fact that Canada has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world and that recent polls show that most Canadians would prefer to have some restrictions on abortion, the political pressure to keep the status quo on the issue is so firm that it is rare for a Canadian politician to even mention the issue, let alone critically. But one Conservative MP has bucked the trend of silence and recently issued a salvo against Canada's “abortion regime” that he argued is directly and seriously harmful to mothers, as well […]

By Patrick B. Craine TORONTO, Ontario, November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Federal Court ruling this week has said that the Governor General's highly controversial induction of Canada's “father of abortion,” Henry Morgentaler, into the Order of Canada last summer cannot be legally contested. In a decision released this week, Order-inductee Frank Chauvin's application for a federal court review of the award was rejected on the grounds that it is “plain and obvious that [it] cannot succeed.” The appointment of Morgentaler, Canada's leading abortionist, has been acknowledged as the most factious by far in the history of the Order, sparking […]

By John-Henry Westen KAMPALA, Uganda, November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While a proposed and much-criticized anti-homosexuality law in Uganda is definitely too harsh, the law comes as a direct response to the heavy-handed pressure from international gay-activist politicians on Uganda to accept homosexuality as normal, according to one Christian expert who was recently in the African country to testify against the current wording of the bill. In fact, as Dr. Scott Lively, the President of Defend the Family pointed out, the preamble to the bill, and the bill itself contain numerous references to stopping international pressure on Uganda to accept […]

Cites safety of women...not "ideology"

By Hilary White VANCOUVER, November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of parishioners in British Columbia who were seeking independence from the mainstream Anglican Church over its anti-Christian trends, have been told by the courts that their church buildings belong to the Anglican diocese of New Westminster. Mr. Justice Stephen Kelleher of the British Columbia Supreme Court issued a mixed decision saying that four parishes in the Vancouver area may not keep their buildings if they remove themselves from the jurisdiction of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC). Nevertheless, the court ruled, the bishop of New Westminster also does not […]