Category: News

Warning against anti-Shari laws

Robert K. Vischer of St. Thomas University in Minneapolis warns against The Dangers of Anti-Sharia Laws in First Things.  Such legislation, he says, “. . . proposes an unconstitutional double standard.”  The attacks on the application of Sharia by American courts, which also apply denominational and private prinicples when adjudicating contract disputes, “fan the flames of religious intolerance while nurturing public acceptance of the notion that the religious commitments of our citizens have no place in our courts.”

“Canon law and biblical principles are not dirty words in the American court system,” writes Professor Vischer, “and Sharia should not be either.”

 

Catholics and Evangelicals issue statement defending religious freedom

Evangelicals and Catholics Together, an ecumenical fellowship established almost twenty years ago, has published “In Defense of Religious Freedom” in the March issue of First Things, a journal of religion and public affairs. [National Catholic Register] The document  responds to growing concerns about the security of freedom of conscience and religion in the United States and elsewhere.  The document was co-written by 11 prominent Evangelical Christians and nine well-known Catholics and is substantially supported by over 45 others from both denominations.

 

Obama administration requests comments

The Obama administration has filed a document for publication in the Federal Register that requests comments about making rules to accommodate “religious organizations” that have religious objections to providing insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives and embryocides.  Among the points of interest:

  • The rules for accommodation may not be finalized until ten months after the November, 2012 presidential election.
  • “Religious employer” continues to be defined to exclude individual religious believers and most of the social, educational and charitable organizations operated by religious believers.
  • Protection against enforcement (“safe harbour”) is offered only to non-profit organizations, not to individual religious believers or businesses run by them.
  • “Accommodation” is said to be the equivalent of exemption, which raises the question of why broader exemption was not offered to begin with.
  • The new term, “religious organization,” is undefined.  The Departments ask which of these undefined entities should be accommodated.
  • In several places later in the document, statements are made that appear to contradict earlier assertions that providing contraceptive coverage is cost-neutral or may save money.
  • Public funding of surgical sterilization, contraceptives and embryocides is proposed as an acceptable alternative.

 

Increasing medical alteration of disabled children

Surgical and pharmaceutical treatment to limit the growth of disabled children is becoming more frequent.  A British newspaper has identified a dozen families involved in them.  Such procedures first came to public notice about five years ago, when a severely disabled nine year old girl living near Seattle was subjected to a series of medical procedures to prevent her from growing further.  [The Guardian]

 

California refuses reparation to victims of forced sterilization

The government and state politicians in California admit that the forced sterilization of about 20,000 citizens between 1909 and 1963 should not have happened.  The sterilizations were part of a state eugenics programme designed to prevent those identified as “feeble minded” or “defective” from having children.  However, they are unwilling to authorize compensation or reparation for the victims. [CNN]