In a move to protect traditional marriage, the Foundation for Moral Law and the Liberty Council are taking support for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to the appellate courts.

Passed by Congress in 1996, DOMA defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws, and provides that states need not recognize a marriage from another state if it is between persons of the same sex.

Roy Moore, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice and fonder of the Foundation for Moral Law, a religious liberties legal organization in Montgomery, Ala., filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit defending the constitutionality of DOMA last week.

“Marriage was defined by God at creation as between a man and a woman and no rhetoric or judicial gymnastics can alter that. Congress simply recognized that immutable, self-evident truth when it passed the Defense of Marriage Act,” Moore says. “When judges start attacking traditional marriage and the laws of nature, one wonders whether they ever learned the difference between boys and girls. Activist judges have been rewriting the Constitution for decades and now are attempting to destroy one of the most foundational principles of our society.”

Last year a federal district court judge in Massachusetts held that the federal definition of marriage in DOMA as “only a legal union between one man and one woman” was unconstitutional because it denied certain federal benefits to same-sex couples “married” in Massachusetts. President Obama’s Department of Justice is defending the law in court, but has abandoned most of the arguments that support the traditional definition of marriage.

In its brief, the Foundation defended the traditional definition of marriage as given by God when He created man and woman, a definition that has been sustained throughout the common law and American law. The Foundation asserts those interests raised by Congress when it passed DOMA: supporting marriage and responsible procreation and defending traditional notions of morality. The Foundation urged the appeals court to interpret the Constitution as the framers intended instead of rewriting the Constitution to fit a radical, liberal agenda.

The Liberty Counsel also filed an Amicus Brief in support of DOMA in the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, regarding The Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The brief states that the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman for federal purposes and law is clearly constitutional.
 
Liberty Counsel included a number of expert testimonies on the importance of both a mother and a father in each child’s life. Sociologist David Popenoe noted that “fathers tend to stress competition, challenge, initiative, risk taking and independence. Mothers in their care-taking roles, in contrast, stress emotional security and personal safety.” Popenoe continues, “While mothers provide an important flexibility and sympathy in their discipline, fathers provide ultimate predictability and consistency. Both dimensions are critical for an efficient, balanced, and human child-rearing regime.”

“Natural marriage between one man and one woman forms the foundation of any civilized society,” says Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law. “It is absurd to suggest that Massachusetts can force its distorted definition of marriage onto the federal government and then force the federal government to provide benefits. A state cannot change the intended recipients of benefits provided for and defined under federal law. This is like the tail wagging the dog.”

The European Parliament honored the victims of the Holocaust this week with the annual International Holocaust Remembrance day event on Tuesday night in Brussels.

The European Coalition for Israel, along with the European Jewish Congress and European Jewish Community Centre, organized the event under the patronage of Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament . The event was held in the presence of the EU High Representatives for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Baroness Catherine Ashton, members of the European Commission and the European Parliament, as well as Holocaust survivors, ambassadors and other invited guests.

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, shared a personal testimony of how a visit with his family to Auschwitz changed his life and understanding of the obligation to preserve the memory of the Shoah. In his personal quest to preserve the memory of Auschwitz he found a lifelong partner and friend in then Polish Prime Minister Buzek, who provided help and support.

In his keynote speech, Buzek shared his personal experience of growing up in occupied Poland, literally in the shadow of Auschwitz, and his commitment as a Pole and as the president of the European Parliament to preserve the memory of the Nazi death camps and his role in creating an international center to educate future generations.

Several speakers talked about how remembrance cannot be a ceremony of only looking back in time but rather to learn the lessons from history as they apply to today’s situation.

How many lives could have been saved if the world community had acted decisively and in time? European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor, who shared about the Evian conference of 1938 where the international community failed to open up their borders to the Jews who wanted leave Nazi-Germany and occupied Austria, asked this question. He urged listeners not to make the same mistake today when Israel is threatened with nuclear extermination.

Kantor was one of many speakers to remind the audience about how the modern state of Israel is the best guarantee for a safe haven for World Jewry.

How many lives could have been saved if a Jewish state would have been established already in 1938? Chief Rabbi of Israel Meir Lau asked this question, reminding the audience of the failures of the world community to intervene in time for the Jewish people who perished in Europe.

Yuli Edelstein, Israeli Minister for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs , spoke about how the modern state of Israel today faces the same prejudice and hatred as the Jewish people have experienced throughout history. But, he said,  today people like to hide behind the false facade of anti-Zionism and not admit if they are anti-Semitic.

European Coalition for Israel was represented by Tomas Sandell, who reminded the audience about an EU emergency summit in 2004 when Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel expressed his disappointment on how only the Jewish communities reacted against the rise of anti-Semitism. At the conference he pleaded, where are “all the others?”

In his speech, Sandell reassured the meeting that the Jewish people are not alone but that many Christians stand by their side in “a coalition of all the others.”

The Holocaust Remembrance day in the European Parliament was launched by the ECI in 2005, the same year as the United Nations declared the 27th January as an official day for Holocaust commemoration. Though January 27th is the official date, in churches and faith communities across Europe the day will be commemorated on Sunday the 30th of January with a special appeal to help Holocaust survivors in Israel.

For some, watching the cool, quirky or comical Super Bowl ads has become as much a part of the show as the halftime entertainment—or even the game itself. Every year, advertisers launch some of their most memorable campaigns during the NFL’s main event.

But this year’s Super Bowl ads won’t be all talking babies and beer commercials. Fixed Point Foundation is launching a new initiative called “LookUp 316.” As part of the initiative, Fixed Point is airing a commercial in Alabama during Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6, 2011.

Rather than selling a product, advancing a political cause, or promoting an organization, the ad will encourage people to look up John 3:16 and consider its profound message of hope.

The genesis of the project started with a simple thought: If you had 30 seconds to speak to millions of people, what would you say? Would you sell something? Offer social or political commentary? Or would you want to say something else? Fixed Point saw the annual Super Bowl advertising hype as a an opportunity to say something truly meaningful.

The original goal of LookUp 316 was to air a national commercial during Super Bowl XLV. Fixed Point claims Fox Sports, the network airing this year’s event, rejected the commercial because it contained “religious doctrine.” Fox Sports could not immediately be reached for comment.

“Of course, it seems one can advertize just about anything else,” the organization says. “Few movie trailers are deemed too violent or beer commercials too sexual for primetime. But religious messages, particularly Christian ones, well, that’s just too controversial. So we have taken our message to local markets.”

Fixed Point believes Super Bowl XLV is an opportunity to encourage football fans to look up John 3:16. After all, the group says, John 3:16 is part of the culture of football. It is occasionally seen on signs in end zones after field goal and extra point attempts, on players’ tape and tattoos, and Tim Tebow was famous for writing it in his eye black. Yet, Fixed Point concludes, many fans don’t know what it means. Fixed Point hopes to change that for millions on Super Bowl Sunday.

What kind of impact do you think Fixed Point will make an impact with its Gospel strategy?

Abortionists have launched a lawsuit against Oklahoma’s new informed consent law.

In April, the Oklahoma Legislature passed an informed consent provision through an act that requires pregnant women seeking an abortion to undergo an obstetric ultrasound at least one hour prior to having an abortion performed—including any anesthesia or medication taken in preparation of the lethal procedure. During the ultrasound, images of the preborn baby must be displayed and described to the women, unless she declines to see them.

Following passage of the law, Nova Health Systems challenged the constitutionality of the act, making several unsubstantiated claims, according to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).
ADF attorneys argue that all of the provisions stated within the law are constitutional, including the pre-abortion requirements of informed parental consent and mandatory ultrasounds.

ADF and Jubilee Campaigns’ Law of Life Project attorneys received a bench order on Monday granting their motion to intervene, allowing them to defend against a lawsuit waged by abortionists.

“Giving women all of the information they need prior to making such a weighty decision is far more important than an abortionist’s bottom line,” says ADF Senior Counsel Steven Aden. “Those attacking this law are obviously more concerned about financial gain than the best interests of women and their preborn children.”

Recently, Rick Santorum and Al Sharpton squared off in a fiery debate about race and abortion on the “Hannity Show” on Fox. Now, black pro-life leaders are weighing in on Santorum and Sharpton’s takes on the controversial subject.

Former Senator Santorum is the chairman of America’s Foundation, a political action committee committed to helping candidates and causes who share his commitment to conservative principles. America’s Foundation believes that U.S. national security must be our foremost priority, free market principles are the most effective way to remedy our ailing economy, and we must protect those who are the most vulnerable.

Al Sharpton is president of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization. Founded in 1991 by Sharpton, the network says it works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda that includes the fight for social justice and one standard of justice and decency for all people regardless of race, religion, national origin, and gender.

But Sharpton’s views on civil rights didn’t sit too well with African-American pro-lifers, including MLK’s own family.

“I cannot believe that Sharpton called the taking of innocent life in the womb a civil right,” says Alveda King, founder of King for America and director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life. “This is not the right my father and my uncle gave their lives for. Civil rights protect individual freedoms, not deny them. The right to life is the 21st century civil right that will protect all human beings from conception to natural death and we must all fight for it.”

Rev. Dr. Johnny Hunter of Life Education and Resource Network, pointed to a spirit of division in Sharpton’s comments. “Al Sharpton, for the sake of Al Sharpton, railed against Rick Santorum for calling attention to the horrific impact abortion is having on the black community,” says Hunter. “It is inconceivable that blacks today continue in that same spirit of division as we saw on the Hannity Show.”

“As in the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court, in 1973, denied protection to a class of citizens,” says Walter Hoye of Personhood USA. “Justice Blackmun and the core of eugenicists he collaborated with cloaked their racial intent in the garment of abortion and Al Sharpton has happily agreed to be one of the faces of the Negro Project authored by Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger.”

Dean Nelson, vice president of CareNet’s Urban Outreach, notes that abortion has cut into the birthrate of the black community for more than 38 years: “The black community must recognize that Roe v. Wade is the modern answer to the lynching and killing fields of the south. It must be stopped.”

“More black children have died by abortion than the seven leading causes of death in the African American community combined,” argues Catherine Davis of the Network of Politically Active Christians. “Since the days of Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood has targeted the black community in order to control the growth of our population.”

Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, says Sharpton is not his leader, then launches a raging accusation against him.

“Mr. Sharpton’s head is buried so deep in the silk pockets of Planned Parenthood he can’t see the light of day. In the early 70s, we were told pre-born children were blobs of tissue. We were ignorant to the truth and didn’t know any better,” Gardner says. “But now with modern technology and the advances in 3D and 4D ultra sounds—we know the truth. Abortion is the greatest civil rights issue of our time! So, when we hear old cronies like Al Sharpton harping on protecting the civil rights of a woman to kill her child–I have to ask: What about the civil rights of the younger woman she’s carrying? That baby girl is ‘fully human’ and her rights need to be protected, too—especially the most basic right, which is the right to life.”

Sharpton could not immediately be reached for comment.

Charisma first reported on an alleged First Amendment violation in a California school Monday. Now, the school district is responding to the charges.

But the Desert Sands Unified School District Board of Education seems confused by an Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) lawsuit defending two California women who’s brick pavers were rejected as part of a sidewalk because they were inscribed with the Word of God.

Here’s the back story: In February 2010, the Palm Desert High School PTO announced its brick pavers fundraiser, which was approved by the school principal, as well as by the board and superintendent of the school district. No limitations were given as to the content of the messages on the pavers—other than the length—and the fundraiser policy stated that the messages could be used to pay tribute, create a legacy, commemorate a special event, or give recognition to various entities.

Shortly thereafter, Lou Ann Hart and Sheryl Caronna submitted requests to purchase brick pavers with Scripture verses engraved on them, for which they later paid. In August, after the bricks were made, but before they were installed on the new campus’ walkway, Hart and Caronna were notified that their pavers’ inclusion on the walkway was denied because they quoted Bible verses.

According to ADF, officials cited the so-called “separation of church and state.” Hundreds of other pavers had been accepted, including ones with inspirational and religious messages. Nevertheless, school officials erroneously asserted that the Bible verses used by the women would establish an unconstitutional establishment of religion. Each woman paid several hundred dollars; neither received refunds.

In November, ADF attorneys sent a public records request letter on behalf of Hart and Caronna to school officials, informing them that their denial violated the ladies’ constitutional rights, requesting a copy of the paver fundraiser policies, denial communications, and a list of all other approved brick inscriptions. ADF reports that the officials denied the request for the documents later that month, and also refused a second request for the documents in December. Hart’s five bricks and Caronna’s larger brick remain uninstalled.

The lawsuit Hart v. Tomack was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. But according to Cindy McDaniel, assistant superintendent at the The Desert Sands Unified School District Board of Education, no one from the district has been served. However, McDaniel tells Charisma News that the district is aware of the lawsuit.

“We are surprised and disappointed by the Alliance Defense Fund’s decision to file a lawsuit because they were informed that although the district was not involved in the fundraiser at issue, the district was looking into the matter,” McDaniel says.

“The district does not wish to interfere with anybody’s First Amendment rights.  We are sensitive to First Amendment issues of speech and religion, and we are aware of our obligations under the law. I can assure you that the district has not taken any action that would amount to a violation of First Amendment Rights.”

The ADF was not immediately available for comment.

Do you believe the school district or the ADF?

Three years after the death of a Christian who was a captain in the Nepal Army, his widow, Gamala Guide, faces fresh grief.

The grave of her husband, Narayan Guide, is threatened with destruction as authorities of Nepal’s most powerful Hindu temple are reclaiming the forested land where it is located.

“What kind of strange country is this that doesn’t allow its own citizens to rest in peace?” the 55-year-old recently asked leaders of the Christian community in Kathmandu. “Please do something to stop the desecration, or my husband will die a second death.”

 At least 200 graves, many of them unmarked due to Christians’ fear of discovery and destruction, could share the same fate. The Pashupatinath Area Development Trust, the organization administering the Pashupatinath temple that dates back to the fourth century AD, has begun renovating the shrine as Nepal celebrates 2011 as its “tourism year” with the goal of attracting 1 million visitors. The temple has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. 

 “In the late 1980s, the government gave us 292 hectares of land to develop the Pashupatinath temple,” said Ram Saran Chimoria, director of the trust. “We have accordingly drawn up a five-year plan that will renovate the main shrine and beautify its surroundings. The forested land adjoining the temple will be used to grow plants considered sacred by Hindus.” 

 Chimoria said part of the forest is also meant to be used for Hindu burials. 

 “A Hindu sect called the Dashnami, which has 10 sub-groups under it, buries its dead here, as Muslims and Christians do,” he said. “Since Pashupatinath is a Hindu temple, the 10 sub-groups are allowed to bury their dead here. But other communities also began burying their dead here, first pretending to be the Dashnami and then clandestinely. This is against Hindu traditions, and the temple is seeking to reclaim what belongs to it. It is the responsibility of the government to allot burial grounds to non-Hindus, not the trust’s.” 

 The burial ground lies opposite Arya Ghat, a cremation ground at Pashupatinath, where bodies are burned on pyres according to Hindu tradition. Known as the Sleshmantak Forest, it is a steep and nearly inaccessible wooded tract where monkeys and foxes roam. Locals advise visitors not to wander into the forest alone, even during day time, for fear of robbers.

“I attended several burial rites there,” said Chirendra Satyal, spokesman of the Catholic Assumption Church of Kathmandu Valley. “They were all low-key. Many of the graves are unmarked to avoid detection. The burial ground is used as a garbage dumping site, and at times foxes dig up the buried bodies. There are also cases of bodies being dumped on top of one another.” 

 An increasingly angry Christian community, tired of petitioning the government for an official burial ground, is now seeking stronger measures. 

 “Nepal became secular in 2006, and two years later, we petitioned the prime minister, the culture minister and the top human rights agency in Nepal, saying that in a secular democracy Christians should have the same rights as others and should be given their own burial ground,” said C.B. Gahatraj, general secretary of a Christian committee formed to provide recommendations to parliament, which is drafting a new constitution. “We understand the temple’s position. But the state should understand ours too.” 

 The committee had identified forested land on the outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley, in an area called Duwakot, and proposed that it be given to them.

“We would make it one of the most idyllic sites in Nepal,” said Gahatraj. “It would have gardens and would be an attractive destination for tourists as well. But so far, there has been no response from the state.” 

 Believing the time has come for stronger action, Christians plan to discuss the issue with 22 major parliamentary parties on Sunday (Jan. 30).

“At the meeting, we will present our case again,” Gahatraj said. “We also want the trust to suspend the demolition drive till we are given our own land. If there’s no result, we will internationalize our case by taking our problem to international rights organizations and the United Nations.” 

 As the first such public protest, on Feb. 15 at Maitighar Mandala, one of the most prominent areas of the capital, the Christian community will begin a “relay hunger strike.” Christians are also beginning the first-ever Christian census this year to ascertain their true position in society.

“We estimate there are about 2 million Christians now [out of a population of nearly 29 million],” Gahatraj said.   

 Catholics, however, form a tiny fraction of the Christian community. Satyal assessed there were about 7,500 Catholics. In 2009, three women were killed at the Assumption Church when a militant underground organization planted a bomb there. All three had to be cremated. 

 “Land is a premium commodity in Kathmandu Valley,” said Anthony Sharma, Nepal’s first Catholic bishop. “When the living don’t have land, it is futile to seek land for the dead. We have accepted cremation for Catholics in Nepal in keeping with acceptance worldwide.” 

 But even the cremation is dogged by discrimination.

“The Arya Ghat cremation ground at Pashupatinath distinguishes between upper castes and lower castes,” the bishop said. “If Christians are taken there, they would be treated as lower castes. So we have organized our own cremation site in Teku [in a different part of the town].”

Madhav Kumar Nepal, who resigned as prime minister on June 30 but leads a caretaker government, was regarded as having a soft spot for Christians. After the attack on the Assumption church, he was among the first state officials to visit the injured in the hospital and kept his promise to bring the culprits to justice, with police managing to arrest the blast mastermind.

Nepal resigned last year under pressure by the largest opposition party, and since then the turbulent republic has remained under a powerless caretaker government, unable to make any major decision.
 
With the squabbling political parties unable to form a new government and a political deadlock spilling into its seventh month, there are now new fears about the prospective constitution, which is expected to consolidate the secular nature of the nation. The constitution was to have been completed last year, but as the bickering parties failed to accomplish the task, the deadline was extended to May 28.  

 The delay has enabled a spurt in activities of Hindus calling for the restoration of Hinduism as the state religion. If Nepal’s May deadline fails as well, Christians fear it could be impossible to obtain their own official burial site.

Convert, leave the city or face death.

That’s the message Ethiopian Muslims are sending the Christians in Besheno.

According to International Christian Concern (ICC), Muslims are posting notices on the doors of Christian homes. So far, three Christian leaders have reportedly been forced to flee the city and two Christians have been forced to convert to Islam.

Only about 30 Christians remain in the Muslim majority city.

“We are alarmed by the posting of threats on Christian homes and the attacks against Christians in Besheno,” says Jonathan Racho, ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa. “We urge Ethiopian officials to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice, protect the Christians from further attacks and grant them permits to build a  place of worship as well as a cemetery,”
 
Evangelist Kassa Awano remains in critical condition after Muslims attacked him on November 29, 2010.  A few days after the attack, nearly 100 Muslims surrounded a vehicle carrying Christian leaders on their way to negotiate for peace with Muslim leaders. Two men, Tesema Hirego and Niggusie Denano, were seriously wounded, and the other leaders suffered minor injuries. On January 2, Muslims assaulted Temesgen Peteros with a knife after he testified about the attacks on these Christians in court.
 
Christians in Besheno have been targeted by Muslims for many years. On May 21, 2004, Muslims murdered the seven-year-old daughter of Evangelist Tesfaye Hobe. Muslims continuously attack Christians for listening to Christian songs and watching Christian videos, ICC reports.
 
The local Muslim officials of the city refuse to protect the Christians. According to ICC, officials ignore their appeals for justice, declining repeated requests for the building of a place of worship and a cemetery. On January 19, a Christian mother was forced to bury her deceased daughter in a town more than 20 miles from Besheno, due to the absence of a cemetery for Christians.
 
Besheno is a city located in the province of Alaba in Southern Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, 93.84 percent of the population of the province is Muslim. Christians make up 5.82 percent of the population.

A former atheist is on the offense against a major university that he claims denied him a due promotion because he confesses Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Mike Adams, a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington (UNCW), is fighting back against what he sees as an unconstitutional move. He argues that his promotion was denied because his application referenced his nationally syndicated opinion columns that espoused religious and political views university officials don’t agree with.

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel David French will offer oral arguments at a hearing in Adams v. Board of Trustees of the UNCW on Wednesday. The hearing is an appeal of an unfavorable lower court decision against Adams.

“Christian professors should not be discriminated against because of their beliefs. Disagreeing with an accomplished professor’s religious and political views is no grounds for refusing him promotion,” says French. “Opinion columns are some of the clearest examples of free speech protected by the First Amendment. Mentioning them on a promotion application does not change that.”

A former atheist, Adams frequently received accolades from his colleagues after the university hired him as an assistant professor in 1993 and promoted him to associate professor in 1998. However, after his conversion to Christianity in 2000, Adams claims he was subjected to intrusive investigations, baseless accusations, and the denial of promotion to full professor, even though his scholarly output surpassed that of almost all of his colleagues.

ADF attorneys representing Adams sued UNCW in April 2007. A federal court denied the university’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in 2008, but then ruled against Adams last March. ADF attorneys appealed the district court decision and filed an opening brief in June 2010. The following month, The American Association of University Professors, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression filed a joint friend-of-the-court brief supporting Adams’ appeal.

Have you ever felt discriminated against in the workplace because you love Jesus, and people know it?

Following the smashing success of its audio-based Bible app in English, Faith Comes By Hearing has rolled out a Spanish version. Now, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users—as well as Android consumers—can listen to the Bible in Spanish.

Like the English app, the Spanish version allows users to read, listen and share the Bible from mobile devices. The social media connection empowers friends and family from across the country, or around the world, to engage in God’s Word together.

“Listeners will still have access to the many other languages offered on the app, but this version opens the door and welcomes millions of Spanish speakers who may have never found us because they don’t speak or read English,” says Troy Carl, national director of Faith Comes By Hearing.

Via Bible.is, listeners can enjoy Scripture in a dramatized audio format in more than 90 languages. The app is available in Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, French, Indonesian and Japanese, as well as less common languages like Koonzime, spoken in regions of Cameroon by roughly 30,000 people, and Cacua, spoken in parts of Colombia by fewer than 500.

Faith Comes By Hearing says it’s committed to providing the poor and illiterate people of the world with God’s Word in audio, and in their own language. Spanish localization is another step forward in the ministry’s efforts to accomplish this goal. Localization of the free Bible.is app into other major languages is currently under development. Faith Comes By Hearing currently has Audio Bible recordings in 500 languages, spoken by 5 billion people, with the goal of reaching 2,000 by 2016.

“Recording Scripture in a people’s heart language is only beneficial to them if they can access and use it to engage in God’s Word,” argues Carl. “As a part of the work to fulfill the Great Commission, we will continue to provide that access until all have heard.”

Want to read more content in Spanish? Check out Vida Christiana.