LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

"H.R. 235, a measure introduced by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), would allow clergy to endorse candidates from the pulpit and still retain a tax exemption of their house of worship."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

Pharmacist Refuses To Fill Prescriptions For Moral Reasons
Walgreens Allows Pharmacists To Not Dispense Drugs They Object To

MILWAUKEE -- A WISN 12 News investigation has discovered that a Milwaukee-area pharmacist has refused to fill prescriptions for women citing religious reasons.

A Milwaukee mother of six walked into a north side Walgreens with a prescription for the so-called morning after pill.

( Read more... )

"It was right after New Year's weekend. I got it as soon as I could," Doe said.

But the pharmacist refused to fill her prescription.

"She just told me that she will not fill it. That she's Catholic, and it's murder," Doe said.

Then, she said, before a crowded waiting area, the pharmacist berated her.

"'You're a murderer. I will not help you kill this baby. I will not have the blood on my hands,'" Doe said. "I tried to explain to her that it's emergency contraceptives, that it's not an abortion pill. She then snatched the form from me, that the prescription was attached to, telling me the paper was full of lies, and she won't be a part of it. I was crying, shaking, upset, so embarrassed. I wanted to run out of the store and hope nobody else could get a good look at me."

"So, did you ever get your emergency contraceptives?" 12 News Senior Investigative Reporter Colleen Henry asked.

"No, I never received that one," Doe said.

"And you became pregnant?" Henry asked.

"I did become pregnant, and I had to terminate the pregnancy. It was very hard. And I didn't want to be what she called me. But that's what I ended up being," Doe said.

The woman claimed she's emotionally distressed, that Walgreens breached her privacy and discriminated against her.

( Read more... )

Source

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY anarchys_savior)

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LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here's another look at the NYC conference from a conservative point of view. It's interesting how the different sides spin these things... I've taken the rare liberty of including my own remarks in [brackets] in the body of the article- being there and actually listening to what went on is definitely an advantage.

Conference shows deep divide of liberals, religious right

By RICHARD N. OSTLING, The Associated Press
Published: Saturday, May. 7, 2005

NEW YORK – A video screen showed President Bush boarding a plane for Washington. His purpose: to get to the White House and sign Congress’ bill asking federal courts to review the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.

Joan Bokaer of TheocracyWatch.org offered her take on the action. “There’s something strange about the folks running our country,” she quipped. The audience of 500 people responded with some appreciative chuckles.

Bokaer, from a social action center affiliated with Cornell University, was speaking at a conference last weekend that denounced conservative Republicans on matters like mercy-killing, abortion, gay marriage, research using human embryos, broadcast indecency, Israel, Iraq, faith-based charity funding, judicial nominations and church-state relations. The book table sold assorted Bush-bashing titles. [I saw one or two, but the majority of books were about the Religious Right, the 'culture wars' and other subjects.- ed]

But the gathering wasn’t a Democratic Party caucus.

It was an academic conference at the City University of New York on “the real agenda of the religious far right” – and it offered a fresh example of just how venomous America’s conservative-liberal religious split has become and how entangled faith is with politics.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I like Daily Kos. Yes, it's a steaming pile of Democratic and liberal opinion, mixed with heady wit and insightful writing, but I am there for the heady wit and insightful writing. So, here's a small taste of it to get you hooked.

By now everyone's heard of the events in Kansas:

The hearings in Topeka, scheduled to last several days, are focusing on two proposals. The first recommends that students continue to be taught the theory of evolution because it is key to understanding biology. The other proposes that Kansas alter the definition of science, not limiting it to theories based on natural explanations. [...]

"Part of our overall goal is to remove the bias against religion that is in our schools," said William Harris, a chemist who was the first witness to speak Thursday on behalf of changing the state's curriculum. "This is a scientific controversy that has powerful religious implications."( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This New Scientist article talks about a vaccine for the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), and how it causes cervical cancer. Seems that it is sexually transmitted, and the onus is to get women vaccinated for it before they become sexually active:

DEATHS from cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050, mainly in developing countries. This could be prevented by soon-to-be-approved vaccines against the virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer - but there are signs that opposition to the vaccines might lead to many preventable deaths.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This speech by Texas State Representative Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) demonstrates the values of a real person of faith. Read it, and be glad that there are people like this in office.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY deridetenebras)

I stayed on with this church for a nearly a year, growing ever more leery of what I was hearing. Finally, one Sunday, I attended an Assembly of God church service. The space was like an airplane hanger. It was decorated in stale browns with pink sashes and white flowers. There was a giant TV screen above the alter and a man screaming at us and people talking in `tongues' and crying and yelling out. The whole thing reminded me of the old videos of those huge Nuremberg Nazi rally's in the late 30s. At one point the man launched into an attack on the USSR, unions and Democrats; organizations and governments working against the will of God.

I distinctly remember feeling ill at that point and I remember a voice telling me to leave. To get out quick. I finally left. By the time I got to my car I had a fever. I pulled over several times to vomit before I got home. I was in bed for several days with an unbelievable fever and, right or wrong, I took that as a sign from God that I was to stay far a way from the Fundamentalist Christians.

But I forever found them fascinating. Later, I went back and talked to them. I was actually told in one conversation that Hitler was correct to kill the homosexuals and Catholics. A society must rid itself of those that threaten its moral standing. I was also told that the poor deserved their situation because they were clearly non-believers. Everyone, it seemed, was to be hated for one reason or another. When I warned my high school biology teacher that one day, these occultists would be in power in our nation and would disallow the evolution she was teaching and would want to put gays into gas chambers...she said no way. It could never happen. Never in America.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Christopher Hitchens talks about the Religious Right:

Why I'm Rooting Against the Religious Right
Save the Republic from shallow, demagogic sectarians.

BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Thursday, May 5, 2005 12:01 a.m.

I hope and believe that, by identifying itself with "faith" in general and the Ten Commandments in particular, a runaway element in the Republican leadership has made a career-ending mistake. In support of this, let me quote two authorities:

* The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100%. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. . . . Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some god-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I ran into a real treasure trove of links to articles, blogs and opinions on Christianity Today's weblog. It seems that there has been a lot of press- pro and con- about the push towards theocracy. A quote:

It's Will that offers perhaps one of the best prescriptions of the week:

Some Christians should practice the magnanimity of the strong rather than cultivate the grievances of the weak. But many Christians are joining today's scramble for the status of victims. There is much lamentation about various "assaults" on "people of faith." Christians are indeed experiencing some petty insults and indignities concerning things such as restrictions on school Christmas observances. But their persecution complex is unbecoming because it is unrealistic.

In his autobiography, Billy Graham notes just how much things have changed for the movement he sparked: "Evangelicals are no longer an ignored minority. In fact, our greatest danger may come from our public visibility and influence."

For the last 50 years, evangelicals have been complaining that they want "a seat at the table." They received not only a seat, but a seat of power. To continue claiming that Christianity is in immediate danger of being made illegal in this country (as says a new book from a respected Christian publishing house) is childish and wildly inaccurate, not to mention wrong-headed (would a persecuted church be less a church than a complacent church?).( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This NPR series is now complete, and available for listening.