World Family Policy Center Newsletter
* News
relative to protecting the family worldwide *
Volume 4 Issue 1 - January 4, 2005
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Quote of the Day: “A man
does what he must — in spite
of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and
dangers
and pressures — and that is the basis of all morality.”
—John F. Kennedy
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Today’s Contents:
A. Featured Articles:
1. China
Claims New Religious Rules Will End Discrimination
2. Two Opponents
of Abortion Are Tapped for Senate Judiciary Panel
Democrats
Question Effect on Supreme Court Nominations
3. When
life is valued, miracles can happen: Tiny Twin 'a Blessing'
4.
Fastest growth found in 'red' states
5. Board
yanks Bible from reading list
6. Ark.
Ban on Gay Foster Parents Struck Down
B. Coming Events
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FEATURED ARTICLES
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1. China Claims New Religious Rules Will
End Discrimination
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
December 20, 2004
Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - China's communist
government, criticized in the West for severe violations of religious freedom,
has announced new religious regulations it says will end discrimination.
The "religious affairs provisions," set to
come into effect next March, were discussed and drafted over a six-year period,
during which legal, human rights and religious experts were consulted, the
state-run China Daily said Monday.
Under the new regulations, it said, the state would
protect "normal" religious activities. Neither "normal" nor
the alternatively used word, "legitimate," was defined.
It would also "safeguard the lawful rights and
interests of religious bodies, sites for religious activities and citizens who
believe in religion, and no one may infringe upon such freedoms and rights."
To read entire article:
http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200412\FOR20041220b.html
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2. Two Opponents of Abortion Are Tapped
for Senate Judiciary Panel
Democrats Question Effect on Supreme
Court Nominations
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 21, 2004; Page A23
Senate Republican leaders yesterday appointed two of
Congress's most outspoken anti-abortion members to the Senate Judiciary
Committee, which is bracing for potentially bruising hearings on nominations to
the Supreme Court.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Sen.-elect Tom Coburn
(R-Okla.) will join the panel's eight returning Republicans next month,
assuming the Republican Conference follows tradition and approves the
leadership's committee assignments for all 55 GOP senators. The breakdown of
Judiciary will be 10 Republicans and eight Democrats.
To read entire article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14759-2004Dec20.html?sub=AR
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3. When life is valued,
miracles can happen: Tiny Twin 'a Blessing'
Washington Times
December 22, 2004
CHICAGO (AP) — A
premature infant believed to be the smallest baby ever to survive was called "a
great blessing" yesterday by her mother, who is preparing to take the
little girl and her twin sister home from the hospital.
The baby, named Rumaisa, weighed 8.6 ounces — less
than a can of soda — when she was delivered by Caesarean section Sept. 19 at
Loyola University Medical Center. That is 1.3 ounces smaller than the previous
record holder, who was born at the same hospital in 1989, hospital spokeswoman
Sandra Martinez said.
Rumaisa and her twin, Hiba, were bundled in identical
striped blankets yesterday when they were introduced with their parents during
a press conference at the hospital.
Their mother, Mahajabeen Shaik, said she didn't
"have the words to say how thankful I was" when she first got to hold
her children.
"It's a blessing, it's a great blessing,"
she said.
To read entire article:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041221-103611-8139r.htm
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4. Fastest growth found in 'red' states
By Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg
USA TODAY
December 22, 2004
Robust population growth continues to sweep the
nation's Southern and Western states, according to estimates released Wednesday
by the Census Bureau.
If the trend continues at its current pace, states in
the Northeast and Midwest that have been population powerhouses since the 19th
century will lose their dominance to Sun Belt states by 2010. (Related chart:
Population and population trends by state)
New York, now the third most populous state, will
likely be overtaken by Florida in five years. New Jersey, the 10th-largest
state, could be passed by North Carolina in three.
"By 2010, none of the three most populous states
will be in the North," says Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan
Institute at Virginia Tech.
The USA's population on July 1 was 293.7 million, up
1% from July 1, 2003. If that growth rate holds, the nation will have 311.7
million people in 2010. That would put growth for the decade at about 10%,
compared with 13.2% in the 1990s, the highest rate since the 1960s.
To read entire article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2004-12-22-sun-belt_x.htm
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5. Board yanks Bible from reading list
District quietly removes donated Scripture over fears
of church-state entanglement
December 23, 2004
WorldNetDaily.com
The issue of God on campus is heating up in southwest
Missouri, where a school district has removed the Bible from an
accelerated-reading program.
The Neosho Board of Education was confronted this week
by parents Chuck and Mary Alice Nelson, who had donated the Bible and related
testing materials which cover subject matters in both the Old and New
Testaments.
According to the Joplin Globe, they donated the items
designed for elementary and middle schools at the end of last school year. But
they learned the material had been removed in September when their daughter, a
student at Neosho Middle School, tried unsuccessfully to access it on a computer.
The couple had not been informed of the removal by
anyone from the district.
"We're not trying to ram [the Bible] down
[students'] throats," Chuck Nelson told the board.
His wife said including the Bible was a question of
equal representation, noting the witchcraft-themed "Harry Potter"
books and works by Stephen King are eligible for the program.
Superintendent Mark Mitchell said the district decided
to "err on the side of caution" and removed the tests for fear they
might be "an excessive entanglement of church and state," according
to the Globe.
He says potentially controversial books are reviewed
by the district before being made available to students, but the biblical
reading tests were not addressed until they were already on the district's
computer server, and he was later notified by a school official.
Mitchell said he believes the Bible meets
"community standards" for wholesome and appropriate material, but
added the district is "keenly aware that we need to be careful about
school and religious conflicts."
Dick Kurtenbach, executive director of the American
Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri, told the paper the Bible
is appropriate for education, as long as schools don't provide incentives or
compel students to read it.
To read entire article:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42068
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6. Ark. Ban on Gay Foster Parents Struck Down
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas judge Wednesday
declared unconstitutional a state ban on placing foster children (search) in
any household with a gay member.
Ruling in a case brought by the Arkansas chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union (search), Pulaski County Circuit Judge
Timothy Fox (search) said the state Child Welfare Agency Review board had
overstepped its authority by trying to regulate "public morality."
At issue was a 1999 board regulation that said gays
cannot become foster parents, and foster children cannot be placed in any home
with a gay member under its roof.
The ACLU had argued that the regulation violates the
equal-protection rights of gays. But the judge's ruling did not turn on that
argument.
Instead, Fox noted that the Arkansas Legislature gave
the child-welfare board the power to "promote the health, safety and
welfare of children," but the ban does not accomplish that. Rather, he
said the regulation seeks to regulate "public morality" — something
the board was not given the authority to do.
"The testimony and evidence overwhelmingly showed
that there was no rational relationship between the ... blanket exclusion [of
gays] and the health, safety and welfare of the foster children," Fox
wrote.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142866,00.html
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COMING EVENTS
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Please note:
FORTY-NINTH SESSION
OF THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
will convene at the United Nations, New York City, NY
28 February to 11 March 2005
The Commission will be focusing on two thematic issues
as outlined in its multi-year programme of work:
1.
Review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome
documents of the special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women
2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first
century"; and
2.
Current challenges and forward looking strategies for the advancement and
empowerment of women and girls
For more information: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/49sess.htm
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Note: The preceding article excerpts are highlights of
current events and
do not necessarily represent the views of the World
Family Policy Center
or Brigham Young University.
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Newsletter created and distributed by:
World Family Policy Center
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
Managing Director:
Richard Wilkins
Executive Director:
A. Scott Loveless
Newsletter Editors: Joy S. Lundberg and Gary B.
Lundberg
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