Many journalists, generally the ones who fit into this category, complain about being called climate change denialists. It doesn’t help when denialists like Clive James tries to make the link as well. They complain that the choice of words links to offensive individuals that deny the Holocaust.  Whether or not the first person who used the term had this in mind is beside the point. I do think denialists are causing harm, but I don’t think they are necessarily going to cause a new holocaust. If anything does happen, we are all to blame because even if we did believe in man-made climate change, we haven’t swift and significant enough demanded action from our elected leaders.

But, after watching Melanie Phillips on Question Time and her horrendously arrogant display, I think the debate is more akin the pro-choice and pro-life abortion debate in the US.  Phillips complains that the climate change believers (which makes us sound like some kind of sect, such as the scientologists), are running some kind of totalitarian scam and swindle. But the fact is, she was quite happy to laugh, patronise and rudely dismiss the public and other panelists who believe in man-made climate change. Practice what you preach Ms Phillips.

To be fair though, climate change believers do dismiss the denialists just as badly. This is why I think the issue is similar to the abortion debate. No one will talk or listen to the other side and will never take each other seriously. In this particular debate,  I don’t think the eveidence will ever convince a sceptic or believer to cross sides.

However, what is definetly true is that while the denialists want to debate the issue, journalists like Philips give the denialists a bad name.

I think we are all guilty of refusing to listen to the other side. While I don’t agree with David Davis’s point of view, I was impressed with his point of view on Question Time; that while he is sure climate change is happening and is 80% that it is caused by human intervention, he still feels there is room for debate and it is important not to vilify each other.

Climate change believes say there is no time for debate. I disagree. There is enough action currently going on, to increase renewables, to decrease fossil fuel use, to create carbon sinks, that there is still room for debate but at the same time we can begin the process of saving the earth. Debates like COP15 aren’t going to stop and we will still make a huge effort to cut emmissions. Even in the worse case scenario, that we are wrong on climate change, it is never going to harm to lower energy costs, make the air less polluted and generally improve the health of the planet.

But refusing to listen to each other and complaining about it isn’t going to help.

“With the House debate on health care at its hottest, the U.S. Catholic bishops issued a stunning ultimatum: Impose an absolute ban on tax funds for abortions, or we call for defeat of the Pelosi bill.

 ”Message received. The Stupak Amendment, named for Bart Stupak of Michigan, was promptly passed, to the delight of pro-life Catholics and the astonished outrage of pro-abortion Democrats.

 ”No member was more upset than Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, son of Edward Kennedy, who proceeded to bash the Church for imperiling the greatest advance for human rights in a generation.

“Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin responded, accusing Kennedy of an unprovoked attack and demanding an apology. Kennedy retorted that Tobin had told him not to receive communion at Mass and ordered his diocesan priests not to give him communion.

“False! The bishop fired back.”

Click here to read more

Not too long ago, a friend was amusing themselves at Felicity’s expense. As her mom, I was, understandably (internally) not happy, especially since, if you know Felicity, she is very shy and sensitive about such things and if she gets embarrassed, which she can do easily, she will quickly stop everything and hide. Fortunately, at the time, she was eating and didn’t give this person a second thought as food came first. If she had understood, I know my Felicity, she would have stopped eating and either cried for me to hold her or tried to hide. Then I would have been vocally upset.

In speaking to someone about the incident, I was reminded that the friend is not used to being around small children and, while such a thing might very well have been met with a less than happy response by an adult, the possibility that a child might be more sensitive may not have occurred to this person. The potential ignorance certainly could make a difference but I wondered about the possibility that this person might never have said anything if Felicity had been an adult. Could it be that this friend felt such a thing could be said simply because she was a child, and a small one at that? Do people treat children in a condescending manner simply because they are children?

There is a children’s show on Disney Channel called The Imagination Movers. It is about 4 men musicians who use their imaginations to come up with creative solutions to problems. The general concept is a fun and good one. My great dislike of the show are the actors/musicians who, in my opinion, overact to the camera. They ham it up simply because their audience is children. Children aren’t that dense. They pick up pretty quickly on things. Personally, I find it insulting the way they seem to think they need to treat children just to make themselves understood. But, it raised the question for me, does society regard children in a condescending manner?

Personally, I’ve found that, no matter how small, you don’t need to be condescending to children, it can be harmful to be condescending if they understand you are doing so, and your ends may even be met easier and better if you do not condescend. For example, I know sometimes, if I bark an order at Cecilia, I can get immediate resistance. But if I explain to her why I want her to do something, she is generally more compliant. Her comprehension of my thinking gives me credibility to her agreement of the request and she is more amenable if I treat her like a person of equal thinking and understanding.

It is true that sometimes children require some extra consideration. When my dad strained a muscle in his knee, telling Cecilia that Grandpa strained something wouldn’t mean anything to her. But telling her that Grandpa has a boo-boo she understands. However, putting things in terms children can understand is not the same as talking down to them. Speaking to them in a way they can understand is a charity that lifts them up to your understanding. Treating them in a condescending manner is unloving, emphasizing the gap between their understanding and yours.

Obviously, in the case of the unborn, society doesn’t even regard children as necessarily worthy of life. Is it logical, then, that society would regard children as lesser beings than adults? While children have always been taught to respect their elders, children have not always been treated as expendable or as an accessory as society today seems to regard them with on-demand abortion and tailor-made children implanted from petri dishes and planned around financial statements the way people might plan buying a car.

Children may not understand everything the way an adult does and they may be smaller; they may not understand some things at all or they may be completely helpless, but the Golden Rule applies no less to them than it does to any adult. They bear the exact same human dignity and divine seal of the Image of God that every adult does and are just as worthy of the same considerations for their dignity and self-respect that adults demand for themselves.

How true!

“Genocide = dead human beings”

“Holocaust = dead human beings”

“Starvation = dead human beings”

“Abortion = dead human beings”

“They seem similar to me..”

“but I would also say that in general the welfare and livelihood of those of us in the here and now takes precedence over those who have not yet entered the world.”

The above are quotes from the commenter_____Not this writer…

Oh! War = Dead Human Beings! Reality vs. Scripture? Reality vs. imagination…Judgements and the religious-right winged Leaders vs. St. Matthew 7: 2… (Our Christ Jesus, as he was ending His “Sermon on the Mount”).

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

“Some of those guidelines currently are covered by the First Amendment, but those types of freedoms are vanishing around the world.”

Ans: The First Amendment is a created freedom. The rest of the world …Not there, but maybe, don’t you think would be Nice, No Great, No Heaven? Reality and not of this world… “All Men are Created Equal”…the principal author of the Declaration of Independence…owned slaves…Thomas Jefferson…Please help me with the truth?

• This Reverend would love to see a perfect world with our First Amendment. I would love to see newborn children enter into this world; parents filled with love for their new child, a ready bedroom with all the baby needs from crib to formula and on and on and…
• This Reverend believes in LIFE! Where life begins (human or not) is currently an error or truth thru semantics. Example: My God is bigger than your god…ad infinitum? And oops; this Reverend is an old white man. No! Not a notion of racism and… “Jesus loves the little children,
  all the children of the world.
  Red and yellow, black and white,
  All are precious in His sight,
  Jesus loves the little children of the world.” Words: C. Her­bert Wool­ston (1856-1927); Music: George F. Root (1820-1895) And! So do I…

And! In Milwaukee, there once was a month of small horrors…little Children having babies (not one but nine children).. The youngest was a beautiful, just turned 11 year old, riding on a gurney clutching a stuffed teddy-bear, victim of an orphanage and a rape by some big man though-”not my daddy and I hurt” and….this precious child was African American…(Should have aborted during the first trimester—you be the Judge)?

This Reverend is not a racist…This God-loving minister  brings scripture to the streets and in my writing. My heart during that “month of Horror,” had I not believed with all my being in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ would have been torn from my body and my soul. Instead! My heart was just broken and the reality…But enough about me.

• Because of the “no female” concept in China; by the end of 2010, this government will realize that they are about 120 million girls short and about 120 million boys with no girls…oops!

Should we believe in abortion? Should we believe in reality…“and love sister is just a kiss away”—Rolling Stones.

Gay Marriage is another wonderful example of our First Amendment…Let us pray that we will still enjoy that freedom 10 years from today.

May Respect and Understanding and Peace and Love (Rupl) be with all of us…forever?And! I pray that our Right-Winged Clergy grow Left-wings so that our Dove of Peace may fly once more…Amen.

by Jessica Bryan

The ERLC wrote about the Senate vote to allow debate on the health care reform bill which supposedly includes funding for abortion.

In the latest ERLC Life Digest post, the group discussed a man who was in a coma for 23 years but was conscious the whole time, the passage of a Baltimore, MD law that requires pregnancy help centers to post signs displaying services (like abortion) that it does not provide, the decision by an ethics panel to continue to provide life support for an infant with a genetic defect and pulmonary vascular disease, the failure of a bill in Australia that would have allowed voluntary euthanasia, and, finally, the distribution of over $64,000 to pregnancy centers and adoption agencies in Louisiana from profits made off of the state’s Choose Life license plate.

The ERLC also discussed the film The Blind Side,  the drafting and signing of the Manhattan Declaration on life, marriage, and religious liberty in response to “a genuine increase in the threat, especially on the sanctity of life front,” and citied pro-life leaders criticism of the decision by pro-life Democrats who voted to allow debate on the health care reform bill, saying they “let down the movement.”

An email from Richard Land notes that he joined the signers of the Manhattan Declaration.  The email links to an article which includes excerpts from the Declaration.

 Pray to end abortion, pray to change the heart of our president, pray to bring the believer back to the Altar.

Thanksgiving – Psalms 95:2

Simplicity – 2 Corinthians 1:12

Reverence – Psalms 89:7, Hebrews 12:28

Truth – John 17:17

Significance – 1 Corinthians 14:10

Love – Proverbs 10:12

Forgiveness – Matthew 6:14

Power – Acts 2:1-2, 4:31

Faith – James 5:15

Jesus prayed. Matthew 26:39

The Christian Leaders uniting on Political issues are from 145 evangelical and both Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders. This group has created a declaration (manifesto), stating this: 

 “We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence to: participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we (the above) bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnership, treat them as marriages or the equivalent.”

Stop! This spiritual waste of time…We need jobs, food, clothing and shelter for too many Americans. Is the Church a santuary for these men and women? Are the doors of these huge structures wide open? Why not?

And! This minister believes that our gay folk deserve a world without moral pandering and a stupid manifesto. If embryo-destructive research saves lives…Abortion is not a playground for religion…It is a human situation both personal and personal and personal and…Old white men telling young women what they should do with? How about assisted suicide and euthanasia? This is again a human situation and is personal and personal and personal and…

Robin’s article is here at American Thinker. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Like for most feminists, it was a no-brainer for me to become a Democrat. Liberal men, not conservatives, were the ones devoted to women’s issues. They marched at my side in support of abortion rights. They were enthusiastic about women succeeding in the workplace.

[...]Then along came Sarah, and the attacks became particularly heinous. And I realized something even more chilling about the Left. Leftists not only sacrifice and disrespect women, but it’s far worse: many are perpetuators.

The Left’s behavior towards Palin is not politics as usual. By their laser-focus on her body and her sexuality, leftists are defiling her.

[...]The Left has declared war on Palin because she threatens their existence. Liberals need women dependent and scared so that women, like blacks, will vote Democrat.

And so the Left must try to destroy her. And they are doing this in the most malicious of ways: by symbolically raping her.

Just like a perpetuator, they dehumanize her by objectifying her body. They undress her with their eyes.

They turn her into a piece of ass.

Liberals do this by calling her a c__t, ogling her legs, demeaning her with names like “slutty flight attendant” and “Trailer Park Barbie,” and exposing her flesh on the cover of Newsweek.

And from Atlantic Magazine’s Andrew Sullivan “Sarah Palin’s vagina is the font of all evil in the galaxy.”

Nothing is off-limits, not actress Sandra Bernhard’s wish that Palin be gang-raped or the sexualization of Palin’s daughters.

As every woman knows, leering looks, lurid words, and veiled threats are intended to evoke terror. Sexual violence is a form of terrorism.

Read the whole thing.

Do conservatives oppose women?

Conservatives think that men and women should make good choices and do good things. That is why on this blog hardly a moment goes by without me praising women like Michele Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Jennifer Roback Morse and Trayce Hansen for making good choices and doing good things.

For example, here’s Michele Bachmann speaking out about National Adoption Day.

Adoption is a good thing. Conservatives support the choice to love and nurture vulnerable children. We don’t support the choice to kill an unborn person. Conservatives support good choices, and oppose bad choices.

At the beginning of the week, Moderate Republicans saw their lives in the Republican Party flash before their eyes. Some overzealous RNC member with plenty of idiotic co-sponsors decided to create a “purity test” for candidates running for election or re-election in 2010. If you have not had a chance to read the wonderful,common-sense, harebrained resolution, check it out here.
Now don’t get me wrong, this whole purity push is asinine. However, the resolution did give us a glimpse of a step forward for the Party. Now I am sure you are wondering how the hell is a resolution whose sole intent is to deny financial and political support for moderate Republicans running for election or re-election in 2010 a step forward. The answer to the question is found in the resolution itself.

We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

Point 9 in the Purtity Test is focused on Health-Care Debate. It is also the only point that closely resembles anything Pro-Life in the purity test. This language is much more open than anything previous push forward by the Republican Party. Just look at the party’s platform…

Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life.

Is this a sign the GOP is more open to Pro-Choice GOPers? Probably not but being Pro-Choice won’t hurt a candidate according to this test. Now that is a step forward for the Republican Party

I personally know the woman in whom God spoke “No, not this one” to in order to keep her from getting an abortion of her son (this article says daughter).  Her story is much deeper than the surface look in the article, but it just shows the awesome and caring heart of the Father to step in personally on behalf of one precious child of His.  Jesus, I plead Your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation.  God, end abortion and send revival to America!-Behold Jesus

“We’re out here praying and interceding on behalf of our nation and also unborn babies that don’t have a voice.”

(Kelowna, BC)—Well over 100 people, the vast majority youth, “stood in the gap” and prayed for an end to abortion in front of Kelowna General Hospital on Saturday morning.

The BC Interior Health Authority has run a weekly abortion clinic inside Kelowna General Hospital since 2001.

Organizer Dusty Reid reported that 132 people came out to line the sidewalk across from Kelowna’s abortion facility wearing red duct tape bearing the word LIFE over their mouths and praying for an end to abortion and a spiritual revival for Canada. (Photo: Kelowna Right to Life)

Reid, founder of Bound4LIFE Kelowna Chapter, said that Saturday’s turnout exceeded all expectations and reflects a growing desire among young Christians to stand up against the evil of abortion. “The vast majority, perhaps as many as 90%, of participants were under the age of 30, a statistic that offers hope and encouragement for the future of the pro-life movement everywhere,” Reid said.

“We’re not protesting anything, the tape kind of stops anyone from doing that,” Reid told a Kelowna.com reporter.

“We’re out here praying and interceding on behalf of our nation and also unborn babies that don’t have a voice.”

She said the concept of a prayer siege is based on Ezekiel 22:30. “I look for a man who will build a wall, stand in the gap on behalf of the nation,” quoted Reid. “That’s what we’re doing. Standing in the gap and praying.”

Marlon Bartram, the Executive Director of The Kelowna Right to Life Society, said Kelowna has become known as a hotbed of pro-life activism, and the inclusion of regular prayer sieges will only add to that reputation. “Several other pro-life initiatives are in the works for the Kelowna area as well, not the least of which is a recruitment drive to host a 40 Days for Life next Spring,” he said.

Other efforts of Bound4LIFE Kelowna Chapter include “No, Not This One,” wherein a mass text message is periodically sent to subscribers asking them to pray for women in crisis pregnancies and their unborn children.

“No, Not This One” was developed by Lou Engel, co-founder of Bound4LIFE, after a woman told him of an experience she had while waiting to go in for an abortion years ago. The woman told Engel that she repeatedly heard a voice telling her simply, “No, not this one” and eventually got up and left the clinic. She gave birth to her daughter a few months later.

Reid said Bound4LIFE is also planning additional pro-life events and Silent Sieges will be held every month in Kelowna. “The event promises to attract church-goers from neighboring communities such as Vernon and Penticton,” she told reporters.

The next siege is scheduled for December 20th at 5:00 pm at the “Sails” sculpture in downtown Kelowna, and is being billed as a “Candlelight Prayer Siege.”

“Expectations are high for another solid turnout that evening,” Marlon Bartram said.

Visit the Kelowna Right to Life website here for pictures of the Silent Siege Kelowna event.

Source: LifeSiteNews.com

http://forum09.faithfreedom.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1156&p=82364#p82364

sword_of_truth wrote:
Quran 4.34 famously instructs the husband to beat his wife as a third step in getting her to obey him if she is involved in nushoos or ill-conduct.

What qualifies as nushoos? Depends on who you ask.

Paarsurrey wrote:

Hi friends

I give the verses:

[4:35] Men are guardians over women because Allah has made some of them excel others, and because they (men) spend of their wealth. So virtuous women are those who are obedient, and guard the secrets of their husbands with Allah’s protection. And as for those on whose part you fear disobedience, admonish them and leave them alone in their beds, and chastise them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Surely, Allah is High, Great.
[4:36] And if you fear a breach between them, then appoint an arbiter from his folk and an orbiter from her folk. If they (the arbiters) desire reconciliation, Allah will effect it between them. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
[4:37] And worship Allah and associate naught with Him, and show kindness to parents, and to kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and to the neighbour that is a kinsman and the neighbour that is a stranger, and the companion by your side, and the wayfarer, and those whom your right hands possess. Surely, Allah loves not the proud and the boastful,
[4:38] Who are niggardly and enjoin people to be niggardly, and conceal that which Allah has given them of His bounty. And We have prepared for the disbelievers an humiliating punishment,
[4:39] And for those who spend their wealth to be seen of men, and believe not in Allah nor the Last Day. And whoso has Satan for his companion, let him remember that an evil companion is he.
[4:40] And what harm would have befallen them, if they had believed in Allah and the Last Day and spent out of what Allah has given them? And Allah knows them full well.
[4:41] Surely, Allah wrongs not any one even by the weight of an atom. And if there be a good deed, He multiplies it and gives from Himself a great reward.

http://www.alislam.org/quran/search2/sh … 4&verse=34

Quran favors men and women living in families and respecting the bond of love they have mutually bound themselves with; Quran does not favor non-family single living and or the ascetic life as does the Christianity. Quran’s approach as mentioned above is pro-family and pro-life while that of the Atheists Agnostics and their collaborators Christians here is not that.

So, what is bad if one admonishes are chastises the spouse and saves the family structure for good of the family and children and the society.

The West has forgotten the Role Model of Jesus and Mary; neither Jesus had any girlfriends nor did Mary have any boyfriends. Quran wants that the West should adopt Mary as a Role Model of Women, instead of the Celebrity Culture; though popular but is unnatural.

If a woman has any similar grievance against her husband; she could go to the court.

I love Jesus and Mary as mentioned in Quran.

Thanks

Murder!

Its horrible what is happening around us all the time

People are allowed to kill innocent!

Yes! The innocent unborn

Forbid women to decide!

Make her give birth to your seed

- Just as you made her bear it

Be you rapist or husband, she deserved it

That is what she is meant to do

Your children will be a good asset in the war

For ALL life is sacred

]]> http://texan2driver.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/update-obama-blackmails-catholic-church/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:32:10 +0000 texan2driver http://texan2driver.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/update-obama-blackmails-catholic-church/

The New Barack Channel (NBC) has jumped into the fray between Kennedy and the Catholic Church.  As usual, they are doing so with a leftist bias.

The second paragraph of the article which I have highlighted in bold below sums up the crux of the matter.  When a church or other conservative  organization compromises what it believes in order to support some liberal/progressive policy, no one says anything about separation of church and state (which is a misinterpreted load of liberal crap anyway).  But let the same organization take the same conservative stand they have taken since the beginning of time, and the left comes out screaming.  Hypocrites.

Now you have the Catholic Church, which to my knowledge has been around even longer than the United States, and has always said that abortion is wrong, is saying what it has always said:  “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”  They are telling this Kennedy idiot that Catholics (and Christians) can not support or condone abortion, and if you do support or condone abortion you can’t be a Catholic, or at least not one in good standing.  They are illustrating what God has always tried to teach us, that the world is black and white, not the shades of gray that liberals portray it to be.  There IS right, and there IS wrong.  Right and wrong don’t change with the times.  The religion of moral relativism propagated by liberals has taken over our society like a cancer.

So, why are liberals trying so hard to remove God from the public square?  Two reasons.

1. Acknowledging the existence of God reminds liberals of their own sin, and they do not want to be reminded of that.
2. Liberals/communists know that people who have a strong moral foundation can’t be controlled easily.  Someone without a moral foundation will believe whatever they are told by the powers that be.  This also speaks to the dumbing down of our educational system.

Whether you are a Christian or not, you need to stand up against this coordinated, intentional assault on Christianity and organized religion in America.  Right now it may not appear that liberals are attacking islam, but that is only temporary.  Political correctness is the only thing preventing that at the moment.  If the muslims win before the liberals do, the liberals will wonder where the Christians are to protect them from beheading.  If the liberals get their way before islam takes over, the liberals will persecute the muslims just like they persecute us.  As I was saying, this is more than just an assault on religion.  It is an assault on freedom.  Let’s review the 1st Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Any educated, reasonably clear thinking individual can see the wisdom behind the wording of the 1st Amendment, and that the liberals have taken great liberty with it to arrive at the current interpretation regarding “separation of church and state.”  It means that the government will not establish a STATE religion that you must be a part of.  It DOES NOT prohibit those in government who are of various religions from displaying or participating in their religion while on the job.

Wake up, people!  An attack on one of our freedoms is an attack on all of them.  Jealously guard your freedom, for tomorrow it may be taken from you.

NBC Takes Up Kennedy vs. Catholic Church ‘Crossing the Line’ Into ‘Political Blackmail’

By: Tim Graham
November 24, 2009 10:55 ET

Monday’s NBC Nightly News took up the story of liberal Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s public feud with the Catholic Church, and NBC’s Ron Allen implied something improper in how “the Catholic Church is flexing its religious and political muscle.”

When Catholic officials endorse liberal initiatives like immigration reform or oppose an execution, the networks don’t worry about the separation of church and state. But with traditional stands against abortion and gay marriage in the crossfire, NBC’s screen graphic asked if the church was “Crossing the Line?” A secular-left lobbyist accused the church of being “not above spiritual and political blackmail.”

(Read rest of article HERE)

Socialist Deputy Manuel Valls (1962- ) (centre) of the French Assemblée Nationale (the lower house of the legislature), sponsor of pro-euthanasia legislation in France.

Deputies of the French Assemblée Nationale rejected a bill proposed by Socialist deputy Manuel Valls, which advocated the establishment of “medical care for those wishing to die with dignity”, that is, the legalisation of euthanasia. 326 Deputies voted against the bill and 202 voted in favour of the legislation. “Every adult person with serious conditions may seek medical help to die with dignity”, the bill stated. Today, euthanasia is legal in some European countries, in particular, the Benelux countries and Switzerland.

The Spanish government intends to ban Christian symbols in schools, hospitals, prisons, and barracks. Spanish media reported that ministers of the government would no longer take their oaths of office using the Bible and the crucifix. Currently, the government is considering appropriate amendments to the Law on Freedom of Conscience. In 2008, the City Court of Valladolid, in response to a lawsuit of a group of parents, ruled that a private school had to remove all crucifixes from its classrooms. This decision provoked criticism from the Vatican and Catholic clergy in Spain.

The Spanish Constitution, adopted in 1978, guarantees freedom of religion with the stipulation that “no religion can have the status of a state religion”. However, it declares that the government must “take into account the religious beliefs of Spanish society and to cooperate with the Catholic Church and other religions”. In September, a survey showed that nearly 75 percent of Spaniards consider themselves Catholic, although only 15 percent attend Mass every Sunday, and 55 percent “almost never” do so. 20 percent of Spaniards identify themselves as atheists.

On 3 November, the European Court of Human Rights prohibited the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools in response to a suit filed by Soile Lautsi. She complained that Christian symbols in schools where her children attended prevented them from receiving a secular education. The government of Italy announced its intention to appeal the verdict of the court.

25 November 2009

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33057

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33066