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The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), introduced in April and scheduled for a hearing on September 5, would create new privileged classes under the guise of prohibiting employment discrimination based on "sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Far from guaranteeing constitutional rights to a discriminated race or gender, this bill would grant special privileges to those who participate in homosexual activity and heap more intrusive regulations on businesses and organizations, including some religious organizations.
There are a number of serious problems with ENDA. Many employers who have religious objections to hiring homosexuals or transgenders would be prohibited from refusing to hire such a person based on those beliefs. Furthermore, many who have suffered real discrimination based on immutable characteristics such as race or gender, see adding sexual orientation as a protected class as an insult to what they suffered and achieved in the civil rights movement. Finally, if passed, ENDA could help make gay marriage and civil union legislation all the more likely.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), one of the most liberal members of Congress, has introduced the bill in the House (H.R. 2015), and it is now in several House committees. With heavy support from labor unions a similar bill will surely be proposed in the Senate so concerned citizens should be watchful. While churches are exempt from ENDA, other religious organizations are not, resulting in serious assaults to freedom of religion. Call your representative today and urge him or her to vote “No” on H.R. 2015, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)!
As if the need for a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage from the rulings of activist judges were not already apparent, a county judge in Iowa has just overturned the state’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) ruling that gay couples must be allowed to wed. The ruling proves that legislation alone is insufficient to protect against homosexual marriage. Several states have passed marriage protection amendments (many by large majorities), and it increasingly becomes apparent that a federal version will be necessary as well.
 
For more information on protecting traditional marriage check the AdvanceUSA marriage page.
This
video tells the story of Joe and Helen Roberts in Britain who were given a stern
warning by police for politely voicing their opposition to the active promotion
of homosexuality by their local government. Their story is frightening
evidence of why hate crimes laws such as S. 1105 (now in the Senate) should not
be passed in America.
Though S. 1105 may or may not directly threaten speech in the pulpit (there is
still some debate among legal experts), hate crimes laws will no doubt lead to
the adoption of “hate speech” monitoring or laws which would directly obstruct
the rights of Christians to share biblical truth.
Hate
crimes laws also violate the principle of “equal justice under law” by
prosecuting criminals who commit the same crimes differently based solely on
perceived internal beliefs. For more information on hate crimes click
here.
Over at Bench
Memos, NRO’s blog on judicial matters, Ed Whelan addresses several of the
unjust allegations and distortions leveled at Judge Leslie Southwick (President
Bush’s well-qualified, originalist nominee for the 5th Circuit
Court).
Excerpt
from an INVESTOR'S
BUSINESS DAILY article on the nomination of Judge Southwick:
Perhaps concerned with claims he's "not black
enough," Barack Obama plays the race card in the judicial nomination of
Leslie Southwick. That may score points with liberal activists, but it
shouldn't with fair-minded voters.
Click
here to read the full article.
 Tuesday afternoon AdvanceUSA, along with educators,
community leaders, and education advocates, attended the “Compassion in Action
Roundtable” sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives. The topic of the roundtable was “Real Choices for
Educational Improvement: How Faith-Based and Community Organizations Help
Bridge the Achievement Gap.”
A number
of government, church, educational, and community leaders shared success
stories of rising test scores and parental satisfaction because of the
intervention of faith-based and community organizations. Among the
speakers were Bishop William Lori who spoke about the dramatic improvements in
inner city schools in Bridgeport,
Connecticut as well as Sally
Sachar, Virginia Walden-For, and Chris Kelly who highlighted the DC Opportunity
Scholarship Program which benefits low income families in the nation’s capital.
AdvanceUSA
was pleased to hear several speakers emphasize the need for school
choice. Two general categories of school choice were discussed.
Vouchers are direct payments by the government to parents or
schools in order to provide for students’ private or public education thus
providing more options than just the local school district.
Tax Credits allow parents to deduct some or all of their tuition
payments from their taxes, or they give individuals or businesses a tax credit
for contributing to a non-public school scholarship fund. Some school
choice advocates prefer this method as it minimizes government involvement in
private school affairs.
The U.S.
Department of Education’s new report entitled “Education Options in the States:
State Programs that Provide Financial Assistance for Attendance at Private
Elementary or Secondary Schools” was also highlighted at the event and can
be read online here.
AdvanceUSA
hopes this interesting and inspiring meeting will help advance the cause of
school choice for parents and further improve the state of education in America through
the efforts of faith-based and community initiatives.
For more
information on school choice ideas check the AdvanceUSA pro-family page.
Last
November, a dangerous and deceptive amendment to the Missouri constitution was narrowly approved
by voters (51% - 49%). The amendment claimed to ban cloning but in fact
created a constitutional right to clone human embryos as long as they were
killed for their stem cells before 14 days of development. So cloning of
the “therapeutic” variety is actually legal in Missouri at this time.
Yesterday
morning a new amendment was proposed by the group Cures Without Cloning.
The proposed amendment would close the glaring loopholes in last year’s
amendment by clarifying the definition of cloning so that it is scientifically
accurate and so that it protects all innocent human life. The St. Louis
Post-Dispatch reports
here. Cures Without Cloning must obtain approximately 150,000
signatures in order to place the amendment on the 2008 ballot, but Missouri pro-lifers are
convinced that with the truth on their side they will see human cloning truly
banned in their state.
Some Missouri bloggers
covering this story are Rodney Albert at Press
On and the folks at Missourinet.
UPDATE:
More Missouri
bloggers will be linked here as blog posts on this issue become available:
UPDATE
2: Noted
bioethicist Wesley J. Smith exposes
an incident of media distortion regarding the new Missouri amendment on his
blog.
We can expect similar distortion from many (but not all) major news media
sources concerning the Missouri
anti-cloning movement in the days ahead.
UPDATE 3: David Freddoso at NRO has a
particularly helpful summary in his piece entitled ‘Third
Clone War: Missouri measure would repeal “right to clone”.’
For more
information on human cloning (including helpful diagrams) and the conflicts in Missouri check the
AdvanceUSA Missouri Cloning page.
Also, check the Cures Without Cloning
website.
To listen
to a recording of yesterday’s press conference click
here. To read the text of the new amendment click here
or continue reading.
AP report excerpt:
Ralph Neas is stepping down as president of People for the American Way, a liberal organization that has fought President Bush's conservative judicial nominations.
"I just feel this is the time to make a move," Neas, 61, said Friday.
As this Washington Post article mentions, Ralph Neas and People for the American [Liberal] Way led the obstruction efforts and eventual defeat of Judge Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987, and continue to obstruct important judicial nominees to this day.
Ralph Neas, President of People for the American Way, photo source
For more information on the critically important issue of judicial nominations check the AdvanceUSA pro-justice page or click here.
A new Barna poll finds that the issue of most concern to American voters is their children. While our friends on the left no doubt will see this as evidence the American people want bigger government, hopefully it will provide motivation for political candidates to show how conservatism truly benefits our nation and our children.
On Saturday, September 15 young people across the nation will arm themselves with scrub brushes, soap suds, and hoses and do battle for the pro-life cause. The second annual Wash for Life recruits young people to hold car washes around the country. The funds raised from the car washes will go to local crisis pregnancy centers which do such great work lovingly supporting pregnant women contemplating an abortion and helping them make the choice for life. Help activate the next generation of pro-lifers and show your support for pregnancy centers by getting your car washed at a Wash for Life car wash on September 15 or by organizing a Wash for Life in your area.
For more information check the Wash for Life website. If you would like help organizing a car wash near you, contact the Wash for Life staff at info@washforlife.org or you can call (703) 405-5783 or (704) 241-7171.
Please participate in this important pro-life endeavor! With a small investment of time or money you can help activate the next generation of pro-lifers and help stop abortion one life at a time by providing pregnant mothers with the resources and encouragement to choose life.
What you can do:
- Get your car washed by a Wash for Life car wash team.
- Help organize a Wash for Life car wash in your neighborhood.
- Recruit young people to wash cars on September 15.
Judge
Leslie Southwick was nominated by the President to sit on the 5th Circuit
Court of Appeals, but liberal groups have tried to slander his character by blatantly
distorting two past judicial decisions which he joined, out of the thousands he
has participated in. The Washington Post’s
recent editorial counters
the baseless liberal accusations and highlights his sterling qualifications.
An older Wall
Street Journal article and this
National Review article also refute the slanderous accusations against
Judge Southwick.
Southwick was recently voted out of committee, but the liberal attack email
below should provide evidence enough that radical organizations will continue
to seek to obstruct Judge Southwick’s nomination and likely the confirmations
of further judicial nominees. Your
senators need to hear the truth about Judge Southwick and of the need to
appoint more qualified, originalist judges to the federal bench.
Below is
the text from an email that AdvanceUSA has obtained which was sent by the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC), a radically liberal “gay rights” organization.
AdvanceUSA
staff had the opportunity last night to attend a reception for an exciting pro-life
organization.
Students
for Life of America is doing excellent work across the country recruiting
and training the next generation of pro-lifers. Here’s an excerpt from their
website:
A pro-life, student-run, non-profit organization since
1987, Students for Life of America
is the nation's oldest pro-life organization wholly devoted to educating
college students about the medical and ethical issues of abortion, euthanasia,
and infanticide.
Formerly known as American Collegians for Life, SFL's
commitment to facilitating the pro-life movement on American college campuses
has remained strong since its founding. SFL has worked to develop a nationwide
network of prolife students. Now connecting hundreds of college campuses in the
largest national directory of its kind, Students for Life will continue to
serve pro-life champions in every college and university in America.
At last
night’s reception pro-life activists were introduced to the Students for Life regional
recruiters who after this week’s training will fan out across the country working
with college students and groups for the cause of life.
For more
information on Students for Life, check their
website.
This
excerpt from a
Newsday article says it all:
“A New Jersey church group is suing the state
over whether the organization should be required to allow a lesbian couple to
hold a civil union ceremony at a beachfront pavilion owned by the group.”
Stories
like this clearly demonstrate how the gay agenda can often clash with religious
liberty.
A bill in the House of Representatives could determine just that. H.R. 733 would grant “home rule” to the District of Columbia allowing the district to directly manage the funds received from Congress (via American tax-payers), but unless the bill is amended, it would also allow the District to fund abortions with tax-payer dollars. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has proposed an amendment to fix this huge pro-life loophole, but the amendment was not considered before Congresses recessed. This will no doubt be an important pro-life issue when Congress returns in September.
The 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Oklahoma’s law prohibiting
gay adoption is unconstitutional. The court said that Oklahoma violated the
“full faith and credit” clause of the U.S. Constitution by not recognizing the
laws of other states. This is the same argument that has and will be used
to force “gay marriage” on states that do not recognize it unless a federal
constitutional amendment defending traditional marriage is ratified.
For more
information on defending traditional marriage click here. For more
information on pro-family issues click here.
UPDATE: In a recent TownHall
column Austin Hill asks “is
the ‘M’ word the same as the ‘C’ word” referring to the fact that homosexual
“civil unions” are in many ways just another term for “gay
marriage.”
 CitizenLink reports on a storage facility in San Francisco that offers to remove the embryonic stem cells from the “leftover” embryos of parents for future medical use. StemLifeLine Partners exploits health fears to entice parents into sacrificing the lives of their unborn embryos for unproven and unethical science.
“StemLifeLine is a life sciences company offering a novel service for individuals who have undergone in vitro fertilization, fulfilled their childbearing needs and now have to decide what to do with their remaining stored embryos. We can help transform these embryos into individual stem cell lines that our clients may one day use to create personalized therapies for themselves and their families.”
-StemLifeLine website
They conveniently forget to mention that embryos must be destroyed in order to “transform” them into stem cell lines. Dr. Zanga emphasizes the main argument against such practices in this quote:
“We should never be trying to or intending to take someone else’s life to make our own better”
-Dr. Joseph Zanga, professor of pediatrics at the Brody School of Medicine
The Senate will soon vote on whether our tax dollars should be used to support this kind of unethical research that destroys human embryos. For more information check the AdvanceUSA stem cell page.
This
article contemplates whether the
Republican Party will remain pro-life. The fact that many activists
will work hard to keep a pro-life plank in the party platform is encouraging,
but there are other causes of concern for pro-lifers.
Will the
Republican Party stay pro-life? It seems that only the Republican primary
voters can tell us that.
2008
Republican Presidential Candidates (from left to right): Tommy Thompson, Sam
Brownback, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul,
Duncan Hunter (Tom Tancredo, not pictured)
UPDATE:
David Limbaugh has an article at TownHall about whether
a social liberal has a chance at the GOP nomination and whether that would
be good for conservatism.
A court in Georgia has dismissed charges against Frederic Baumann who was arrested for passing out religious literature on public property.
“Christians have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else in America and cannot be treated as second-class citizens. The government should not force them to get special permission before practicing their constitutional right to free speech. The fact that the court dismissed the charges against Mr. Baumann is not just significant for him but for all citizens who cherish their First Amendment rights.”
- David Cortman, ADF Senior Legal Counsel
AdvanceUSA last reported on this story on July 17.
AdvanceUSA
applauds the efforts of groups like Citizens for Community Values for investigating
companies that provide pornography for hotel chains and reporting
violations of the law to authorities. As the LodgeNet case shows, many
objectionable businesses and materials could be eradicated by simply enforcing
current obscenity laws.
For more
information on fighting pornography in society and in individual lives visit
the AdvanceUSA pro-morality page.
Pharmacist
Ethan Vandersand was fired from Wal-Mart for refusing to dispense Plan B (the
“morning after pill”) to a Planned Parenthood employee. LifeNews reports
that Vandersand has won a court ruling which upheld his right to refuse to dispense a
drug which can sometimes result in abortion and dismissed Wal-Mart’s
attempt to have the case dismissed.
Pharmacists should have the right to follow their conscience in regard to
important life issues. For more information on Plan B visit the
AdvanceUSA pro-life page.
Today the
Senate Judiciary Committee voted Judge Leslie Southwick’s nomination to the 5th
Circuit out of committee 10-9. Now the full Senate must decide whether
or not to confirm his nomination. Thusly, the McConnell
amendment is now unnecessary as Southwick will finally get his fair
up-or-down vote in the full Senate (assuming there is no judicial filibuster).
For more
information on Judge Southwick’s nomination check the AdvanceUSA home page
or pro-justice page.
Republican
Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell made the following statements after Judge Southwick
was approved by the Judiciary Committee:
UPDATE: Call
both
your senators today and urge them
to vote “yes” on Sen. McConnell’s amendment to express the sense of the Senate
that Judge Southwick should receive a fair up or down
vote!
“It Is The Sense Of The Senate That The Nomination Of
Judge Leslie Southwick To The United
States Court Of Appeals For The Fifth
Circuit Should Receive A Vote By The Full Senate.”
So reads
the amendment
proposed today by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. It is
very important that Judge Leslie Southwick receive a fair up-or-down vote by
the full Senate on his nomination to the 5th Circuit Court of
Appeals, and this amendment is a strategic tool in the process. Since
liberal interest groups have fought a simple confirmation vote using a variety
of smear tactics and political bullying, this unusual measure will be a telling
indicator.
Senator
McConnell’s staff has highlighted some important quotes regarding Judge
Southwick which are reproduced below.
 As mentioned in previous blog posts, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bills in the House and Senate are dangerous steps toward socialized medicine AND a problem for pro-lifers. In 2002 the Bush administration allowed states to cover “unborn children” under SCHIP. Liberals in Congress, apparently not wanting to allow any provisions that suggest the humanity of the unborn, have intentionally left out this provision and substituted language that does not allow states to cover costs for the unborn. The liberals are proposing that “pregnant women” rather than “unborn children” be eligible under SCHIP, and there are grave concerns that this substitute language could, in some cases, lead to taxpayer funding for abortions.
Thankfully, members of the House and Senate have proposed amendments to the SCHIP bills which would codify the 2002 guidelines and protect the unborn while highlighting their humanity.
- Congressman Joe Pitts (R-PA) offered an amendment in the House which would have codified the Bush regulation and protected both unborn children and pregnant women. Rep. Pitts’ amendment was disallowed in the Energy & Commerce committee, and the House Rules Committee refused to allow it to be considered by the full House. The House is expected to vote on the SCHIP bill (H.R. 3162) today without this important amendment.
- Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) has proposed an amendment in the Senate which would codify the important regulation protecting the unborn under SCHIP. This amendment could be voted on by Thursday.
If not fixed through amendments, the underlying SCHIP bills should be opposed because they minimize the humanity of the unborn and are a dangerous step toward socialized medicine.
For more information on SCHIP check the AdvanceUSA home page or pro-life page.
Despite
the long-standing practice of giving deference to home-state many senators are
refusing to give Judge Leslie Southwick a fair up-or-down vote in the full
Senate even though both senators from Mississippi
(Trent Lott and Thad Cochran) strongly support his nomination. The Senate
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against the apparent “double
standard” in video posted below.
Below are
some relevant quotes helpfully provided by Senator McConnell’s staff:
On Monday
Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) took to the Senate floor to defend the nomination of
Judge Leslie Southwick for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (full
transcript in Congressional Record) which is currently stalled in the
Senate Judiciary Committee. Southwick had been the victim of outrageous
liberal attack but he is a sterling nominee for the federal bench and deserves
a fair up-or-down vote in the full Senate.
Below are excerpts of Sen. Hatch’s remarks.
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