BevK August 31st, 2006
Here’s a smattering of what’s being posted or published about the furor over the passage of SB 1441 in California.
Calif. Governor Signs Pro-Homosexual Bill, Outrages Family Advocates
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/8/292006a.asp
The bill, SB 1441, adds sexual orientation to already existing provisions in the state’s law that prohibit discrimination on the basis of, among other things, race, national origin, ethnic group identification, religion, age, sex, color, or disability. The measure was promoted by a lesbian member of the California legislature and is now the law in that state, a fact that has filled many family advocates with outrage.
Considering Homeschooling: ‘Heck No, Our Kids Won’t Go!’
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/82337860.html
Considering Homeschooling a national homeschool recruitment group, is urging California Christian parents to NOT send their children back to school, as a protest against the homosexual bills passed by the California Legislature.
“‘Heck no, our kids won’t go!’ should be the rallying cry of Christian parents this week as school starts, instead of following the broad road of perversion and destruction that California schools are offering,” said Charles B. Lowers, Executive Director of Considering Homeschooling.
California’s forced conversions
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51733
The law requires all businesses and groups receiving any form of state funding – even if it’s a grant for one student – to condone homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality and God knows what else.
The only alternative left for Christians and Jews and people of other faiths in California is quite literally to drop out. That means homeschooling. It means creating new institutions that won’t touch any public funding – even when it is as tenuous as one student accepting a state grant. When you submit yourself or your institution to government regulation in California now, you tacitly accept the official state religion of paganism.
Those who’s immediate response is to make fun of the Christians who are upset by this ought to read some of the following. This is about losing one of the fundamental rights we have as Americans. Freedom of religion. In other words the government can take our money in the form of taxation, but determine we aren’t fit to receive any of it back because of our religious beliefs. And it’s not like those beliefs are particularly novel.
Admittedly the links below are dealing with same-sex marriage, but this is just one example of the conflict that’s already started.
Banned in Boston
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/191kgwgh.asp
The coming conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty.
I PUT THE QUESTION to Anthony Picarello, president and general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The Becket Fund is widely recognized as one of the best religious liberty law firms and the only one that defends the religious liberty of all faith groups, “from Anglicans to Zoroastrians,” as its founder Kevin J.
Hasson likes to say (referring to actual clients the Becket Fund has defended).
Just how serious are the coming conflicts over religious liberty stemming from gay marriage?
“The impact will be severe and pervasive,” Picarello says flatly. “This is going to affect every aspect of church-state relations.” Recent years, he predicts, will be looked back on as a time of relative peace between church and state, one where people had the luxury of litigating cases about things like the Ten Commandments in courthouses. In times of relative peace, says Picarello, people don’t even notice that “the church is surrounded on all sides by the state; that church and state butt up against each other. The boundaries are usually peaceful, so it’s easy sometimes to forget they are there. But because marriage affects just about every area of the law, gay marriage is going to create a point of conflict at every point around the perimeter.”
For scholars, these will be interesting times: Want to know exactly where the borders of church and state are located? “Wait a few years,” Picarello laughs. The flood of litigation surrounding each point of contact will map out the territory. For religious liberty lawyers, there are boom times ahead. As one Becket Fund donor told Picarello ruefully, “At least you know you’re not in the buggy whip business.”
Picarello is a Harvard-trained litigator experienced in religious liberty issues. But predicting the legal consequences of as big a change as gay marriage is a job for more than one mind. So last December, the Becket Fund brought together ten religious liberty scholars of right and left to look at the question of the impact of gay marriage on the freedom of religion. Picarello summarizes: “All the scholars we got together see a problem; they all see a conflict coming. They differ on how it should be resolved and who should win, but they all see a conflict coming.”
Universities Prove Maggie Right
http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2E5ZmRmN2Q1ZDcxMjllYzU2NGFlZTMwMGM3NDM0MGU=
Scholars’ Conference on Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty
http://www.becketfund.org/index.php/article/494.html
Topic I – Civil Liability for Religious Institutions That Refuse to Treat Legally Married Same-Sex Couples the Same as Legally Married Different-Sex Couples.
Topic II – Withdrawal of Government Benefits from Religious Institutions That Refuse to Treat Legally Married Same-Sex Couples the Same as Legally Married Different-Sex Couples.
Topic III – The Consequences of Employment Division v. Smith for Religious Liberty Disputes Generated by the Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage.
Topic IV – The Pressure on the Union of Civil and Religious Marriage Generated by the Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage.
