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In
our continuing series of interviews for our weekly online newsletter, we recently
interviewed Jim Pfaff of the Colorado Family
Institute.
DH: It’s finally beginning to
look like spring here in the Midwest.
Are you still snow-bound out there in Colorado?
JP:
Here on the Front Range just below the mountains we go back and forth from Spring
to Winter all the way until May, but up in the mountains, they’ll have winter
and skiing for some time to come due thanks to heavy snow all winter. They’re not talking Global Warming at the
resorts this year.
DH: What is the mission of the
Colorado Family Institute?
JP: Colorado
Family Institute (CFI) is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 research and educational
organization committed to strengthening the family. Our goal is to restore and defend traditional
moral principles in the culture by advocating for sound public policy. We are part of a nationwide network of family
policy councils associated with Focus on the Family® and Dr. James Dobson. We
educate and equip churches and citizens on important public policy issues that
affect marriage, life and the family—and ultimately to shape public opinion on
these issues.
DH: How did it get started? How long has it been around?
LifeNews reports.
Basically,
even if iPSC did allow for easier cloning or easier creation of hybrid embryos,
it does not change the fact that iPSC is an excellent and ethical source of
pluripotent stem cells. As in many
instances, just because a scientific procedure (i.e. induced pluripotent stem
cell research) can be abused (i.e. human cloning, human-animal hybrid embryos,
etc.) does not mean that procedure is inherently unethical.
AdvanceUSA
contacted Dr. David Prentice and he concurs that recent “concerns” over iPSC
are probably attempts to create hype which undermines the significance of
ethically derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) which make human cloning and embryonic stem cell research unecessary.
 Homosexual activists gathered in our nation’s capital from a few days ago until Tax Day (today) lobbying for what they call “family values.” Their agenda includes supposed anti-discrimination legislation like ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) and instituting laws which provide what substantively amount to marriage benefits to same-sex couples.
Concerned citizens must be careful to clearly state that we do not hate homosexuals or wish to persecute them, but that we strongly object to creating special rights and privileges based on sexual behavior and we believe that organizations and companies should have the right to deem certain behavior unacceptable for their employees.
If these legislative goals proceed they will likely include some sort of “religious exemptions” which only protect churches and other explicitly religious organizations, but which do not cover individual employers such as private companies and certain non-profits. For example, while a Catholic church might be exempted from being forced to hire or accommodate homosexuals or same-sex couples, a Catholic businessman or leader of a faith-based charity would not be protected. The religious freedoms of individuals should be protected, not just the religious freedom of large organizations.
The bottom line is that sexual behavior should not be given preferential treatment under law under the guise of anti-discrimination. Also, the crucial institution of marriage should not be undermined by offering special marriage benefits to same-sex couples.
ACTION: We do not yet know when Congress will consider such legislation, but we encourage you to contact your representative and both your senators to urge them to oppose ENDA and other attempts to give substantive marriage benefits to same-sex couples.
William
J. Federer provides some important historical
context to the oft-quoted but seldom understood phrase “separation of
church and state.”
Here
are some helpful resources on the recent Senate dust-up over judges.
Thanks
to the leadership and courage of many senators one more appellate court nominee
has been approved (Catharina Haynes, 5th Circuit). The Senate still has a long, long way to go
to do justice to President Bush’s nominees so we encourage senators to keep up
the pressure on judges.
As
our newly updated
graphic shows, the Senate has been acting at a “snail’s pace” on judges and
needs to step it up.
The
Metro (UK) reports. Excerpt:
Paralysed [sic.] people could gain the use
of their limbs again after scientists found a 'messaging system' that could be
used to control adult stem cells.
Researchers found the cells respond to
chemical signals which instruct them to help repair tissue.
The work, funded by the Medical Research
Council, could eventually lead to the development of techniques to tell adult
stem cells to mend the body.
Scenta
(UK) also reports. Excerpt:
Avoiding many of the ethical issues
associated with embryonic stem cells, ASCs could have many therapeutic uses and
could potentially be controlled by the chemical signalling [sic.] systems
within the body that instruct cells to contribute to tissue repair.
Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spoke out
on the slow pace of judges this morning in the Senate. Excerpt:
It’s been 108 days since this Senate
confirmed a federal judge of any kind. It last did so the week before
Christmas, on December 18, 2007.
Since then, the Senate has made precious
little progress on judicial nominations.
It has not confirmed any federal judicial
nominees this year, and the Judiciary Committee has held only one hearing on
one circuit court nominee since last September.
Today we will finally be able to confirm
some judicial nominees. That is obviously good news. But after we confirm the
judicial nominees on the calendar that may be it for a while, due to the
glacial pace at which the Judiciary Committee is proceeding.
We
have been informed that the Senate will today consider the following judicial
nominees.
Brian
Miller (Arkansas)
James
Randal Hall (GA)
John
Mendez (CA)
Stanley
Anderson (TN)
Catharina
Haynes (Fifth Circuit)
We
are glad to see Catharina Haynes on this list and look forward to adding
another number to our circuit
court chart comparison, bringing the number of Bush appellate court nominees
confirmed in his last two years to a whopping 7 (compared to 15 in Clinton’s
last two years).
Former Judiciary Chairman Sen. Orin Hatch
(R-UT) also
spoke out on judges. Here is an
excerpt from his speech:
…one of my colleagues was recently quoted
as saying that facts are stubborn things.
The facts are that the majority has
virtually shut down the judicial confirmation process.
 The Washington Times reported in
February on the case of Elaine Huguenin, a Christian photographer in New Mexico,
who refused
to take pictures of a lesbian civil ceremony. Elaine is being prosecuted under
anti-discrimination laws and the Alliance
Defense Fund is now coming to her assistance. This case is a chilling reminder of why
anti-discrimination laws based on “sexual orientation or gender identity”
should be opposed, especially on the federal level (i.e. ENDA). Here’s an excerpt from the Times:
An evangelical Christian photographer was
brought before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission after she declined for
religious reasons to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony.
When Elaine Huguenin of Albuquerque, N.M.,
declined in September 2006 an e-mail request from a lesbian couple to
photograph their ceremony, one of the lesbians responded by lodging a human
rights complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Division, the state agency
charged with enforcing state anti-discrimination laws and sending cases to the
commission to be adjudicated.
LifeSiteNews
also reported
on this case.
CNN
Money reports.
Our
friend Dr. David Prentice was quoted in the piece. Excerpt:
Dave
Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Christian organization Family
Research Council, opposes the use of human embryos in research. "You
shouldn't be destroying human embryos at the earlier stage of human life to
harvest cells," said Prentice, who has a PhD. in biochemistry from the University
of Kansas.
Other stem cell options are available, he said, such as harvesting them from
umbilical cord blood or adult tissue, or "reprogramming"
adult cells to behave like stem cells, as demonstrated in recently-released
but early-stage studies.
LifeNews reports. Let’s hope other states follow suit with this
important legislation which seeks to give women complete information of what
abortion involves.
Daniel Herbster
reporting
The Lighted Candle Society is on the
cutting edge of the fight against pornography.
They marshal the latest scientific research on the dangerous effects of
pornography (on the individual and on society) to fight the porn industry in
the courts. I was able to interview my
fellow blogger and facebook friend Justin Hart, who is the Vice President of
Communications for the Lighted Candle Society, and the following is the text of
that interview.
DH: I’ve been
familiar with Justin’s work online for several months, and after communicating
with him online from time to time it was a real treat to meet him in person at
a bloggers meeting in Washington, DC recently.
He’s also one of my “facebook friends.”
I’m so grateful Justin was willing to answer my questions and let our
readers know about the great work the Lighted Candle Society is doing.
Justin, what is the Lighted Candle Society and
how did it get started?
JH: The Lighted
Candle Society was founded in 2001 by Ed Meese (former Attorney General under
Ronald Reagan) and John Harmer (former Lt. Governor of California under Reagan
in the 60s). Both John and Ed are
veterans of the culture wars, having fought for decency issues over the last
four decades.
John Harmer is the driving force behind the Lighted Candle
Society. He started the non-profit
organization to fight pornography is a very unique and unprecedented way.
DH: How long have
you been with LCS and what kind of things do you do for them?
JH: I've been
with the Lighted Candle Society for almost a year now. They really felt the need to ramp things into
high gear. I came on as Vice President
of Communications to make that happen. I
help develop the multiple websites which we maintain, organize our online
fundraising efforts, and create our action alerts to our members.
DH: How can our
readers take a stand against pornography and sexually oriented businesses in
their communities?
 There is more encouraging news in the potential power of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) which are obtained ethically by inducing ordinary skin cells into an embryonic-like state without actually creating or destroying embryos. News of treating Parkinson’s with iPSC is especially important in light of the recent misleading media reports that cloning (SCNT) had been used to treat mice with Parkinson’s. Unlike SCNT, which would be completely unethical in humans, induced pluripotent stem cells offer an exciting and ethical alternative source of pluripotent (can become any type of tissue) stem cells for research and potential treatments.
For more information on stem cells check the stem cell page.
Jeff
Jacoby provides some insightful commentary on the disturbing
trend toward sex-selection abortion around the world and here in the United
States. This is yet another reminder of
the prevalence of the culture of death in our world. Excerpt from Boston Globe article:
THE UNFETTERED "right to choose"
is a progressive value, we are instructed by the abortion lobby - one
indispensable to the empowerment of women. But a new study in PNAS (the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) prompts an awkward question:
How exactly are American women empowered when abortion is deployed to prevent
the existence of American girls?
…
But nothing can excuse such abortions in
the United States - nothing except the theology of "choice," which
elevates the right to an abortion above all other considerations. You don't
have to be a feminist to know that being a girl is not a birth defect, or to be
horrified by a practice that lethally reinforces the most benighted forms of
sexual discrimination. For what kind of feminist would it be who could
contemplate the use of abortion to eliminate ever-greater numbers of girls, and
not cry out in horror?
Ken
Connor reminds us that the scourge
of slavery continues in our world today, even in the United States. Part of the reason for this continued trade
is the expansion and mainstreaming of pornography and sexually oriented business
which fuels the demand for so-called “sex workers” including slaves. Excerpt:
Unfortunately, slavery is still a
widespread practice all over the world, including the US. The Civil War may
have removed the public sanction of slavery, but it is still a common
underground practice. Journalist Benjamin Skinner undertook four years of
undercover investigation into "human trafficking" (a euphemism for
slavery) in order to increase awareness of this international injustice. His
research and experiences are chronicled in his recent book, "A Crime So
Monstrous." Skinner posed as a customer at underground brothels in several
countries in order to get a better picture of the realities of the slave trade.
Operation
Rescue has created a
helpful timeline of events to help people understand the outrageous
abortion scandals involving late-term abortionist George Tiller and Planned
Parenthood of Kansas. This is an
important case for the pro-life movement and we are grateful for this helpful
resource.
Our friends at the Committee for Justice provide an interesting and exciting account of the recent showdown in the Senate Judiciary Committee over the sorry lack of progress on giving hearings or fair up-or-down votes to President Bush’s judicial nominees.
We applaud the committee members who spoke up on the issue and encourage them to keep up the pressure until all of the President’s pending appellate court nominations have had hearings and floor votes. Appointing well-qualified, originalist judges to the federal bench (especially when many courts are experiencing vacancy crises) is too important an issue to do anything less.
Please call Chairman Leahy and both your state’s senators and urge them to do their constitutional duty and hold hearing for and vote on the Presidents judicial nominees.
The
House of Representatives has approved
a version of PEPFAR anti-AIDS funding that is much improved from the original
version which would have mandated abortion funding, drastically cut back
abstinence and faithfulness education, and weakened anti-prostitution
provisions. Though significant
improvements have been made to the bill, not all conservatives support the
measure because of fiscal concerns over massive spending increases and concerns
that there is insufficient accountability over how funds are spent. The bill will now go to the U.S. Senate.
The
Arizona
Republic reports. Despite being held
up in the legislature, Arizona marriage proponents are examining their options
and planning to move ahead with a constitutional amendment to protect the
traditional definition of marriage.
On
April 1 Senator Specter addressed the need to make progress on President Bush’s
judicial nominations. We applaud Sen.
Specter for his speech, and urge the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty
to provide “advice and consent” to the President on the important matter of
judicial nominations. Excerpt of Sen.
Specter’s speech:
We have a situation where there has not
been one confirmation of a Federal judge this year. Since September 25th of
last year, there has only been one hearing for a circuit judge, and that was on
February 21, in the midst of a recess. There have only been two hearings that
included district court judges, the one on February 12 and one other. Six
nominees have been heard; four are on the agenda for this week's executive
business meeting.
The comparison between what has happened
with President Bush and President Clinton shows a decisive imbalance which
requires prompt action by the Senate on the confirmation of President Bush's
judges.
To
see a graphic illustrating the historical imbalance Sen. Specter referred to click here.
There
is disturbing news coming out of Britain as the Telegraph
(UK) reports. Using a process
similar to SCNT, scientists put human DNA into unfertilized cow eggs in order
to obtain mostly-human embryos for stem cell research. Tampering with human life in this way is
degrading, and the scientists’ assurances that the hybrid embryos will be destroyed
(killed) within 14 days does not provide any comfort to pro-lifers.
These
developments highlight why the Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act should be
passed in the United States Senate as soon as possible.
LifeNews and Times
Online (UK) also report.
Graphic source: Telegraph
The Wall Street Journal reports that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is planning to lead a strategy to shut down the Senate unless President Bush’s many appellate court nominations are given hearings and fair up-or-down votes (which is the Senate’s constitutional duty). In light of the extreme importance of appointing well-qualified, originalist judges to the federal bench, we applaud his leadership in forcing the Senate to do its job when it comes to judges. Excerpt from WSJ article:
The Democratic Senate has confirmed a mere six nominees with no plans in sight to move the remaining 11 forward. Judicial nominees rarely are confirmed in the final months of a President's second term, so the clock is running out. Democrats figure they'll retake the White House in November, and they don't mind leaving the courts short-handed for another year or two as they stall for liberal nominees. | | |