At UN headquarters [last] week, governments dismissed a high level UN bureaucrat’s claim that abortion is a human right and went so far as to scold him for overstepping his mandate. The Special Rapporteur for Health, Anand Grover, presented his report to delegates of the UN Third Committee linking unrestricted abortion with the right to the […]
The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners – and clear evidence of a wrongful conviction problem. No one can watch the Oscar-winning 1993 film, The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, without rooting for Dr. Richard Kimball. We empathize with this skilled surgeon […]
A DC-area legal activist has filed a federal human rights complaint against the Catholic University of America (CUA) for acting “probably with malice” against Muslim students for having Catholic imagery in all of its rooms that would hinder Muslim prayer – though the school says it has never heard a complaint from the students themselves. […]
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, the EU’s supreme judiciary instance) [last Wednesday] issued a judgment (C=34/10, Brüstle vs. Greenpeace) clarifying that (1) no patents can be issued for inventions involving “the use for human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes” as this would be “contrary to order public or morality”, and (2) that this prohibition also […]
“What the Catholic Church in the United States really needs to stiffen its backbone is a good persecution.” How often, I wonder, have I heard somebody say something like that? How often have I said something like it myself? Be careful what you ask for—you may get it. The persecution of religion in America has […]
Finding and connecting similar patterns of behavior throughout Islamic history is one of the most objective ways of determining whether something is or is not part of Muslim civilization. Consider the issue of forced conversion in Islam, a phenomenon that has a long history with ample precedents. Indeed, from its inception, most of those who […]
Today, U.S. Supreme Court Justices criticized the federal government’s argument that the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment do not apply to church decisions about hiring and firing ministers, calling the aggressive position “extraordinary” and “amazing.” The sentiment bridged the Court’s traditional ideological divisions, with Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Kagan, Breyer, Scalia, and Alito […]
In a controversy sure to fuel the accommodation debate, 15 people were arrested on August 30 at Rye Playland, an amusement park in Westchester County, New York, following a melee that involved Muslims objecting to the prohibition of head coverings on certain rides. One young woman’s refusal to remove her headscarf apparently led to altercations […]
Here’s an issue that has direct impact on the lives of women (and men!). I know so many people who are nurses, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, and physicians; you probably do too. Let’s stand with them in securing the conscience protections needed for Christian medical personnel to continue their good work in health care without […]
U.S. law enforcement agencies have generally responded to 9/11 with a pretend counterterrorism policy. They insist that naming the enemy as Islamism causes terrorism, that Islamist violence is just one of many co-equal problems (along with neo-Nazis, racial supremacists, et al.), and that counterterrorism primarily involves feel-good steps such as improving civil rights, passing anti-discrimination […]
To effectively combat wholesale abortion in the United States, we must tear away the sham veil of legality from Roe v. Wade — because the entire edifice of abortion stands upon that foundation. The Supreme Court claimed to have discovered in the Constitution a “right of privacy,” which allowed abortions. With terrible irony, the Court rested […]
If you think “I Spy” is just a game for children, think again. Our federal government and the public school system have begun to play – but for real and they’re playing with our lives and the lives of our children. Team Obama has launched “Attack Watch,” (www.AttackWatch.com) an interactive website and subcategory of www.mybarackobama.com […]
Last week’s hearing in the California Supreme Court on whether the proponents of Prop 8 have standing to defend the measure in court seemed to go well for the defenders of natural marriage. But another issue lies beneath the surface of the court arguments. The issue is what kind of people are the marriage redefiners: […]
In mid-September the Governor of North Carolina convened a special legislative session to consider a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. Amending the state constitution in North Carolina requires two-thirds of both houses of the legislature and a majority of the public to support it on the […]
We’ve all heard lots about it, but what exactly is in that highly-publicized Dodd-Frank Act? Lots of things. For starters, the name of the Act is a lot longer: It’s the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.” Its aim is to promote financial stability through a host of new regulations and regulatory agencies, […]
In recent weeks, we have been put on notice repeatedly: Absent a fundamental course correction, America will go the way of Europe and others before it, succumbing to an insidious totalitarian doctrine known as shariah whose purpose, in the words of its prime practitioners — the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) — is to “destroy Western civilization from within.” […]
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the key feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known by many as “Obamacare,” is unconstitutional. The “individual mandate” portion of the legislation — a provision which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or suffer a monetary […]
If you are a citizen of North Korea and a Christian, you are a criminal and will be imprisoned, and probably tortured as well. If you are Christian in Saudi Arabia you will be arrested for a public display of your faith. In China and Vietnam you will be imprisoned and persecuted by the state if […]
We Christians – all of us, Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox – need an effective rebuttal to the harmful anti-church insistence that Thomas Jefferson, writing in his capacity of President, held that the Constitution forbade any religious expression in any public place. We have often argued correctly that when Jefferson said “church” he meant either a […]
Opponents of the burqa and niqab had reason to celebrate on July 23 as Belgium became the second Western country to enforce a nationwide prohibition on face-covering attire in public. The Chamber of Deputies, Belgium’s lower house, overwhelmingly backed the legislation on April 28, with the Senate offering no objections during its subsequent review period. […]
[CL Editor’s note: This article analyzes in detail an action that took place in North Dakota in April. Though very lengthy and extremely detailed, it deserves careful attention from all pro-lifers who are involved with state legislation. It illustrates how vital is the grasp of every nuance of how legistlatures work, and that very careful debriefing and dissection of […]
Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit was the first appellate court to reach a decision on whether the Commerce Clause authorizes Congress to force private citizens to purchase healthcare insurance under penalty of federal law. In a divided opinion, the Sixth Circuit held that it did. The case, Thomas More […]
Catholic League president Bill Donohue addresses the dilemma that the Obama administration has created for religious employers: [On Monday], the Obama administration mandated that all health insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization for women, though it made an exception for religious employers. But did it? Not really. To wit: a religious employer is defined, in […]
The last thing in the world same-sex “marriage” advocates want to talk about is polygamy. If you ever tell them marriage recognition for same-sex relationships requires recognition of polygamy as well, the usual response is, “we’re not talking about polygamy.” Nor will they, even if you want them to. Polygamy exposes the weakness of the […]
