Yesterday, a federal judge overturned California’s ban on gay marriage—a measure that was added to the state’s constitution through a 2008 ballot effort called Proposition 8. Federal district judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that Proposition 8 was a violation of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment (p. 109). The judge immediately stayed his own decision pending appeals, so gay marriages will not be performed until the issue is resolved in the higher courts. Read the decision here. The next stop for this case is the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—a court well-known for leaning left on social issues and which will almost certainly rubber-stamp…
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Federal Judge Strikes Down Prop 8
This is a terrible decision, and I will have more to say about it later. For now, here’s a snippet and a link from the story in The New York Times: “Saying that it unfairly targets gay men and women, a federal judge in San Francisco struck down California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, handing supporters of such unions a temporary victory in a legal battle that seems all but certain to be settled by the Supreme Court. . . “‘Proposition 8 cannot survive any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause,’ wrote Mr. Walker. ‘Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a…
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Satirizing Moral Confusion
Sometimes satire can be a most effective polemical tool. That is why Joe Carter’s satirical conversation between two women talking about having a fetus is a must-read. Here’s a snippet: Jan: “Marsha! How are you girl? I haven’t seen you in ages.”Marsha: “Hey Jan, you’re looking great. How’ve you been?”Jan: “Just peachy. Hey, guess what? I’m going to have a fetus!”Marsha (excited): “That’s wonderful! Oh, I’m so happy for you. Isn’t it a blessing having parasites growing in us?”Jan: “Yes, but I have to confess—I’m jealous. I wanted to have twins too.”Marsha: “Oh, I only have one now. Greg didn’t get his promotion so we decided to selectively reduce one…
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“I’m a person not a condition”
Joni Eareckson Tada on the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. ‘As I sat on the White House lawn 20 years ago and watched President George H.W. Bush sign the Americans with Disabilities Act into law, I knew it was a grand day for disabled people. However, I also knew that we still had a long way to go.
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Intolerant of Christian Morality?
A graduate student has accused Augusta State University in federal court of violating her constitutional rights by demanding that she work to change her views opposing homosexuality. The Chronicle of Higher Education has the story: ‘In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Augusta, Ga., the student, Jennifer Keeton, argues that faculty members and administrators at the university have violated her First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion by threatening her with expulsion if she does not fufill requirements contained in a remediation plan intended to get her to change her beliefs.
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More Lying from Planned Parenthood
Here’s another hidden video taken a Planned Parenthood consultation in Indiana. Not only is the young girl told that her child is not a “person” but a “fetus,” she’s also told that an abortion is safer than carrying the baby to full term. (HT: Tim Challies)
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Sex-Ed in Montana
A proposed sex-ed curriculum for public schools in Helena, Montana has caused a huge stir. The story is pretty unbelievable, but it is true. Michael Foust has the report, and I’m just going to let you read a snippet for yourself. ‘Among the more controversial elements, the proposal says kindergarteners would learn the “basic reproductive body parts (penis, vagina, breast, nipples, testicles, scrotum, uterus)” and first-graders would learn “human beings can love people of the same gender & people of another gender.” Fifth-graders would learn that “sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration” and seventh-graders would learn about Supreme Court opinions on abortion and…
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Culture War at the Movies
Christopher Benson notes at the First Things blog that the culture wars have entered the American cinema. Below are four trailers of new movies covering the topics of same-sex “marriage,” Darwinism, and evangelical scandal. Besides being expressions of the current culture war, there is something else that these movies have in common. It appears that all of them come down on the side of the secular left on each of these issues. This is not surprising for Hollywood, but it is nevertheless a sign of the times (1 Chronicles 12:32).
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Declaration of Independence
Here is the scene from the mini-series “John Adams” when the Congress approves the Declaration of Independence. The high points of the Declaration are read aloud. The entire Declaration from the National Archives is printed below.
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Schoolhouse Rocks the 4th of July
I used to watch “Schoolhouse Rock” every Saturday morning. Through this program, a whole generation learned about manifest destiny (“Elbow Room”), English grammar (“Conjunction Junction”), how a bill becomes a law (“I’m just a bill”), and much more. So here is my annual 4th of July tribute to Schoolhouse Rock’s videos on the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.