HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA
The United Methodist Church (UMC), Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) and Episcopal Church continue to wrestle over whether ministers should “bless” same-sex unions and whether homosexual men or women should be allowed to serve in the ministry.

In the UMC, for example, Rev. Karen Dammann, a lesbian UMC minister who is a part of the Pacific Northwest Conference, will have her situation adjudicated by the denomination’s supreme court, after two earlier church panels dropped charges against her.

Two years ago, Dammann told Seattle-area Bishop Elias Galvan that she was living in a “partnered, covenanted, homosexual relationship.” According to United Methodist News Service, Galvan responded by filing ecclesiastical charges against her, claiming that she was engaging in “practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings.” The UMC’s Book of Discipline prohibits the ordination of practicing homosexuals.

However, successive panels – from the Pacific Northwest Annual (regional) Conference Committee and the Western Jurisdiction Committee – both dropped charges against Dammann. Even though the decisions came on split committee votes, conservatives were infuriated.

The UMC’s Judicial Council will hear the case in late April.

Meanwhile, in March the PCUSA Judicial Commission ruled that a homosexual sexual orientation alone “is insufficient to make a person ineligible for ordination.”

The case arose after Katie Morrison, a self-avowed lesbian, was ordained in September 2001. According to the Presbyterian News Service, seven ministers claimed that when Morrison admitted she was a homosexual, it should have triggered a subsequent investigation, since the practice of homosexuality is considered a sin according to PCUSA guidelines.

The Judicial Commission, however, ruled that the PCUSA constitution only prohibits sinful practices, and that unless a person “self-acknowledge[s] a practice that the confessions call sin,” no further investigation is required unless the governing body “has direct and specific knowledge” that sexual sin has been committed.

The commissioners wrote in their decision that, because all people fall short of the glory of God, “sexual orientation alone would be no more sufficient or reasonable grounds for further questioning than would be singleness, obesity or any other categorization.”

In another case, a PCUSA minister, who “married” same-sex couples and is now awaiting an ecclesiastical trial, said he hoped his defiance would bring about “change and greater acceptance.”

Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken of Cincinnati admitted that he violated the constitution of the PCUSA, but said he believed he was right – and the church is wrong. The denomination’s highest court has ruled that ministers may “bless” homosexual couples’ relationships – but cannot marry them.

Presbyterians pressuring their denomination to enforce its constitution on the issue of homosexuality have filed charges in about 20 cases around the country.

On a similar note, an Episcopal Church report stated that its denomination should not try to set a policy on ceremonies to bless homosexual couples because Episcopalians “are nowhere near consensus” on the issue.

So-called “blessing” of homosexual unions is expected to be the hottest issue at the church’s convention this summer in Minneapolis. At the 2000 church convention, clergy and lay delegates narrowly defeated approval of same-sex blessings.
UMNS, 1/31/03, 3/3/03; Presbyterian News Service, 3/5/03; AgapePress, 3/24/03, 3/27/03

ACTIVISM
AFA works to support Iraqi children and families
With a war raging in Iraq and a nation to reconstruct after it’s finally over, AFA is partnering with Food for the Hungry to raise money to help the displaced people of Iraq rebuild their lives and let them know that Christians in America care for them.

Food for the Hungry was one of the organizations called to the nation’s capital for a meeting with government leaders to discuss how the basic needs of the Iraqi civilians will be met with the help of caring Christians.

“America has been known throughout history as a nation of compassion. It is our duty as Americans to give support to those who are breathing freedom’s air for the first time,” said Don Wildmon, chairman of AFA and American Family Radio (AFR).

“Food for the Hungry is rushing $1.1 million in medical supplies, equipment, blankets and food to hospitals in Jordan as officials there prepare for the anticipated influx of people across their borders from Iraq,” said Wildmon. “We are asking AFA supporters and AFR listeners to give to the Iraqi project.”
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“Currently there are thousands of people from Egypt, India, Sudan, Sri Lanka and other countries working and living inside Iraq,” said Ben Homan, president of Food for the Hungry. “Half of the anticipated 120,000 people crossing into Jordan will be from another country trying to find their way home; we’ll be there to help.”

On March 28, AFR had a special day of programming to help raise money for the Iraq project, including in-studio interviews with Food for the Hungry spokesman Matt Panos, as well as with those already helping Iraqi refugees and with humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan. More than $59,000 was pledged in the one-day promotion.

Tax-deductible donations can be made to Food for the Hungry by calling toll-free, 1-800-2-HUNGER, or by visiting the ministry’s web site (www.fh.org).

AFA asks Congress to investigate FCC
Sickened by the deepening depravity of network television, AFA has asked congressional House and Senate committees that oversee the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to begin a thorough and in-depth investigation of the department for “failure to properly protect the viewing public from indecent broadcasts on network television.”

In March, AFA chairman Don Wildmon sent letters to Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), and 53 other lawmakers. “It is apparent that the FCC has failed to enforce broadcast indecency laws, as evidenced by the fact they have not fined a single television station in at least 25 years!” Wildmon wrote. “All the while, network television continues to grow bolder in its broadcasts of indecent programming.”

Wildmon cited a February 25 broadcast of ABC’s NYPD Blue as a prime example. In one scene, a six-year-old boy comes face-to-face with his father’s live-in sex partner. The woman is totally nude, covering her breasts and pubic area with her arms and hands.

Wildmon said a shake-up of FCC commissioners may be needed in order for the plight of the American family to be recognized.

“People are tired of television filth, plain and simple,” said Wildmon. “Because the airwaves belong to the public, and not the networks, the people’s outcry for common decency should not be ignored.”

CULTURE
High Court okays state sex offender postings
States can continue to post information on the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

In a 6-3 ruling, justices rejected arguments by two Alaska sex offenders who said they were being punished a second time for their offenses after already having served time for their crimes. They were sentenced before Alaska’s registration law was enacted.

Such registrations are part of what are known as Megan’s laws. The laws are named for seven-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl kidnapped, raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex criminal who lived in her neighborhood.

In writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the law allowing states to post addresses, photos and crime details of convicted sex offenders is not punitive.

“Our system does not treat dissemination of truthful information in furtherance of a legitimate governmental objection as punishment,” Kennedy wrote. “The purpose and the principal effect of notification are to inform the public for its own safety.”

Dissenting justices included Ruth Bader Ginsberg, John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer. They argued such registries will submit past offenders who pose no threat of recidivism, “to long-term monitoring and inescapable humiliation.”

About three dozen states currently have such registries online.
The Associated Press, 3/5/03

ENTERTAINMENT
Study: Children who watch violence on TV often violent as adults
Children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior even 15 years later, according to a study by psychologists at the University of Michigan. The effect appeared in both sexes regardless of how aggressive a person was as a child.

It’s one of the few TV violence studies to follow children into adulthood. The study linked violent TV viewing at ages 6 to 9 to such outcomes as spousal abuse and criminal convictions in a person’s early 20s. Experts said the results were not surprising, but the results were significant because the study used a range of measures.

Psychologist L. Rowell Huesmann, one of the researchers, said televised violence suggests to young children that aggression is appropriate in some situations, especially when charismatic heroes are shown responding with violence. He also said such exposure erodes a natural aversion to violence. He recommended parents restrict viewing of violent TV and movies by toddlers through preteens as much as possible.

The study involved 329 adults who were initially surveyed as children in the late 1970s. To check on adult aggressive behavior, researchers interviewed the surveyed people and their spouses and friends, and also checked criminal records.

Shows the participants watched were popular at the time, and included programs such as Starksy and Hutch, The Six Million Dollar Man and Roadrunner cartoons. These programs were deemed very violent.
ABC News, 3/10/03; American Psychological Association, 3/9/03

PORNOGRAPHY
Religious leaders ask GM to exit porn business
A group of religious leaders has asked General Motors to get out of the business of pornography.

The Religious Alliance Against Pornography was scheduled to meet with two top-level executives from GM in early March to discuss the automaker’s distribution of pornography through DirecTV, the satellite company it owns. DirecTV has more than 10 million subscribers and carries highly profitable adult channels, making GM one of the nation’s biggest distributors of pornography.

“We’re saying to them, ‘You can either have your good name or you can distribute pornography, but you cannot do both,’” said Dr. Jerry Kirk, who helped found the Alliance.

Kirk also said some of the programming distributed by GM could be classified as illegal obscenity, which is prosecutable. “We’ve had some of the top lawyers in the country evaluate it in depth, and they have written a brief outlining why they believe it’s prosecutable,” he said.

The Alliance is sponsoring a petition drive addressed to President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft, calling for the government to vigorously enforce the nation’s obscenity laws. The American Family Association has also sent petitions to the Attorney General’s office demanding action. The Alliance’s petition can be found on the Internet at www.nationalcoalition.org/ashcroftpetition.phtml.
Family News in Focus, 3/5/03

Visa takes stand against child porn
Credit card company Visa has made it publicly known it wants nothing to do with child pornography and images of other sexually deviant behavior. Its message is backed up by action.

During the last year, Visa has set up a system to identify Web sites that use Visa to sell illegal pornography. When a site or company is identified, the company is reporting those sites to global police forces responsible for enforcing child porn laws.

Visa is also requiring the 7,000 U.S. financial institutions that are members of the Visa association to register “high-risk merchants” who process adult content and use the Visa card. If they fail to do so, they run the risk of losing their relationship with Visa.
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Visa searched more than one million Web pages a day for the past year, and estimates that 80% of the 400 Web sites it has identified as child porn have either been shut down by law enforcement or have had their Visa privileges terminated. It also reports that pedophiles in chat rooms are complaining it is becoming increasingly difficult to find Web sites oriented toward them.

“This is a powerful new tool to assist law enforcement in these crimes to eliminate a resource for individuals to use, download and purchase pornography,” said Reuben Rodriguez, director of the Exploited Child Unit at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

In addition to child pornography, Visa has said it also does not want its brand to be used to purchase Internet photos and videos involving rape and bestiality.

Christian Science Monitor, 2/24/03

Another Marriott Hotel turns off adult movies
Another Cincinnati-area hotel has nixed adult fare from its in-room TV offerings. This brings to four the total number of hotels in the region to get out of the pornography business.

Marriott North in West Chester Township becomes the second hotel in the chain to drop adult movies. The move came after officials in the Butler County [Ohio] Prosecutor’s Office warned hotel officials some of the movies could potentially lead to hotel owners facing obscenity charges.

In July 2002, Cincinnati Marriott Northeast in Deerfield Township, Warren County, stopped showing adult movies in its rooms. Soon after, Travelodge and Comfort Suites in Campbell County followed suit.

The hotels dropped the offerings after supporters of Citizens for Community Values checked into rooms at the hotels, videotaped some of the adult movies offered at each one, and forwarded the tapes to county prosecutors’ offices for review.

The Cincinnati Enquirer, 3/5/03

PRO-LIFE ISSUES
Recent court cases find in favor of life
The pro-life cause received a boost recently when judges in three important court cases ruled in favor of life.

First, in a stunning victory for pro-life activists, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1986 jury’s verdict that found protesters in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). In an 8-1 decision, the judges declared that the lower courts had interpreted RICO too broadly – that although pro-life activists may have disrupted service at abortion clinics, they did not “obtain clinic property,” a requirement for extortion.

According to USA Today, several other activist organizations cheered the ruling, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Craig Bradley, lawyer for PETA said, the new ruling “doesn’t mean [that activists] will be able to run roughshod, but that a very expansive view of RICO is now gone.”

A second Supreme Court decision made it possible for the state of Indiana to finally begin fully enforcing a law originally passed in 1995 that requires individual counseling and an 18-hour waiting period for a woman considering abortion. The law had been challenged by seven abortion clinics and a doctor. As a result, the requirement for individual counseling had not taken effect.

Mike Fichter, executive director of Indiana Right to Life, says, “For the first time, abortion providers in Indiana will be required to give women information about the risks. We’re glad that the court battles look like they’re finally over.”

Finally, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld Arizona’s parental consent law, which requires the consent of a parent or guardian for girls under 18 to have an abortion. The 1999 law had been rendered ineffective as the result of a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood, which said the law did not guarantee the privacy of girls who sought a judge’s approval for an abortion. The 2-1 decision by the Court of Appeals paves the way for the law to now go into effect.

USA Today, 2/27/03; AP, 2/25/03; Citizenlink, 2/25/03

RELIGION
Two complaints result in removal of cross
After nearly four decades, a 30-foot cross that towered above Oklahoma’s State Fair Park (in Oklahoma City) was taken down as the result of two complaints charging that its existence on the fair grounds violated the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against state-sponsored religion.

An article in The Daily Oklahoman indicated the cross was removed upon instructions from City Manager Jim Couch after he received two letters suggesting the city would be sued because the fair park, while run by the private Oklahoma State Fair, is owned by the city.

Both complaints originated as the result of “watch-dog” organizations devoted to upholding their perceived notion of “separation of church and state.” While the first letter came from an Oklahoma City resident, Mr. Jim Worrell, he used the removal of the cross from Edmond, Oklahoma’s, city seal as the basis for his argument. That cross was removed as the result of a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The second letter, penned by the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, echoed Worrell’s complaint and asked that the cross be removed.

“It’s a sad commentary on the state of our nation when two complaints based on incorrect information can have such an adverse effect,” said Don Wildmon, chairman of American Family Association. “Christians must begin writing letters and making phone calls to stand against actions such as these. Most of us have kept quiet and allowed such false interpretation of our Constitution far too long.”

The Daily Oklahoman, 2/27/03