BC court tosses polygamy case
BC court tosses polygamy case
Tags: Court Case, Court Tosses, PolygamyBC court tosses polygamy case
BC court tosses polygamy case
Tags: Court Case, Court Tosses, PolygamyGay Couples Forced to Flee US Over Immigration Law
An estimated 36,000 Americans face a choice — separate or move abroad — because they can’t secure green cards for their partners like heterosexual spouses can., said U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, citing information from the advocacy group Immigration Equality.
Bills have been introduced in Congress to treat same-sex partners like heterosexual spouses for the purposes of immigration but are likely to face a strong fight, both from gay marriage opponents and anti-immigration groups. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act prevents immigration officials from recognizing gay marriages, even from states where they are now legal.
Proponents see the issue as a basic rights question, and Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Immigration Equality, said he believes the best chance for the legislation is as part of a larger immigration bill.
But other immigration advocates want to keep the issues separate, fearful of bogging down an already tough fight. Kevin Appleby, migration policy director for U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the push for same-sex partners in immigration is about getting recognition in federal law for gay marriage — which he opposes.
”It’s an unholy marriage of the immigration debate and the same-sex marriage debate,” he said. ”It’s very combustible.”
Lown’s decision last month brought the issue to an unlikely place, a town of 90,000 where ranchers and roughnecks from the vast open lands come to do their banking and send their kids to the regional state college. The town’s only other recent brush with national fame came last year when it housed the hundreds of children taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch in nearby Eldorado.
See Gay Couples Forced to Flee US Over Immigration Law
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New Hampshire Senate passes gay-marriage bill
New Hampshire’s Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would legalize same-sex marriage after an amendment was added that prohibits polygamy and marriage of family members, among other measures.
Governor John Lynch has not indicated whether he will veto the bill, which passed in a 13-11 vote and would would make New Hampshire the nation’s fifth state where gay marriage is legal. But the Democrat has expressed opposition to the measure.
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Church of Scotland magazine backs gay partnerships
A potential rift within the Church of Scotland over gay relationships emerged yesterday after the Church’s house magazine backed civil partnerships and openly gay ministers.
Accusing religious traditionalists of selectively quoting the Bible to support their attacks on homosexual relations, the editorial in Life And Work urged the Kirk to show strong leadership on an issue that has threatened to split the Church of England and could prove just as divisive in Scotland.
The article, which was written by the magazine’s editor, Muriel Armstrong, comes ahead of next month’s General Assembly in Edinburgh and has been timed to influence a key debate on whether openly homosexual ministers can be appointed to the Church.
Ms Armstrong rounds on the “selective literalists” who use parts of the Bible to bolster their own views but ignore other parts that undermine them. She says that these commentators “presumably no longer accept biblical teaching on sexual matters such as polygamy and sex with slaves” but are happy to quote Leviticus 18:22 on homosexuality: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”
The Church said yesterday that the magazine was editorially independent. “It is not the voice of the Church of Scotland, which is not trying to steer debate on this important issue,” the Rev Angus Morrison, convenor of the council of mission and discipleship said. He added that he had already received “a couple” of e-mails expressing concern that the magazine was interfering in the “due process” of the Church.
Senior figures within the Church fear that the issue of gay partnerships could prove as damaging for the Presbyterian ministry as the row that has split the Anglican Church.
A minority in the Presbytery of Aberdeen has already challenged the appointment of an openly gay minister, the Rev Scott Rennie, to Queen’s Cross Church in the city. They have appealed to the Commission of the General Assembly, with a final decision on the matter to be made next month.
In her editorial Ms Armstrong also champions the right of gay ministers to serve in the Church. She said said that two years ago the Church had effectively shelved its decision on the issue and that the moment had come to challenge those who use the “familiar arguments” of tradition, orthodoxy and the “plain meaning of scripture”.
“The question of the integrity of a relationship didn’t enter the \ argument. It has been suggested that if the Kirk stuck its neck out on this one it would upset other churches that are still in a reflective no man’s land on this issue. Isn’t it time for leadership?
“What is clear to the lay-person is that not everything Biblical is Christ-like. Every student of the Bible is a selective literalist. Those who swear by the anti-homosexual laws in the Book of Leviticus wouldn’t publicly advocate slavery or stoning women taken in adultery. They presumably no longer accept Biblical teaching on sexual matters such as polygamy and sex with slaves.
“And yet there are many who continue to be bound by a few Biblical verses — none of them in the Gospels — about homosexuality, nowadays understood as a matter of genetics rather than lifestyle.”
The debate on gays in the Church will involve members from every Presbytery, drawn from Scotland and overseas. It is likely to polarise opinion, just as it has in other Churches.
See Church of Scotland magazine backs gay partnerships Times Online
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Rick Warren works to calm gay marriage controversy
Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren continues to be haunted by past statements on gay marriage, and tried to soften his anti-gay marriage posture last week onLarry King’s show. Warren stood by his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but said he’s never been an activist on the issue.
Part of what’s gotten him into hot water was a video-taped interview, available on the Internet, done before the Nov. 4 vote to implement the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. In it, Warren seemed to liken gay marriage to incest, pedophilia and polygamy.
“I’m opposed to having a brother and sister together and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to having an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.”
The interviewer then asks, “Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?
“Oh, I do,” responded the megachurch leader, whose subsequent selection to give Barack Obama’s inaugural invocation stirred controversy.
Warren later posted a video on his Web site to try to clarify his view. But there was still more clarifying going on with Larry King last week.
“I am not an anti-gay or anti-marriage activist. Never have been, never will be,” he said. “During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement.
“The week before the vote, somebody in my church said, ‘Pastor Rick, what do you think about this?’ And I sent a note to my own members that said, ‘I actually believe that marriage really should be defined - that that definition should be saved between a man and a woman.’ And then all of a suddenly out of it they made me, you know something that I really wasn’t. …
“I wrote to all my gay friends, the leaders that I knew and actually apologized to them. That never got out. There were some things said - everybody should have 10% grace when they say public statements and I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest which I absolutely do not believe.”
See Rick Warren works to calm gay marriage controversy
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/rick-warren-w…
Rick Warren works to calm gay marriage controversy
Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren continues to be haunted by past statements on gay marriage, and tried to soften his anti-gay marriage posture last week onLarry King’s show. Warren stood by his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but said he’s never been an activist on the issue.
Part of what’s gotten him into hot water was a video-taped interview, available on the Internet, done before the Nov. 4 vote to implement the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. In it, Warren seemed to liken gay marriage to incest, pedophilia and polygamy.
“I’m opposed to having a brother and sister together and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to having an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.”
The interviewer then asks, “Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?
“Oh, I do,” responded the megachurch leader, whose subsequent selection to give Barack Obama’s inaugural invocation stirred controversy.
Warren later posted a video on his Web site to try to clarify his view. But there was still more clarifying going on with Larry King last week.
“I am not an anti-gay or anti-marriage activist. Never have been, never will be,” he said. “During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement.
“The week before the vote, somebody in my church said, ‘Pastor Rick, what do you think about this?’ And I sent a note to my own members that said, ‘I actually believe that marriage really should be defined - that that definition should be saved between a man and a woman.’ And then all of a suddenly out of it they made me, you know something that I really wasn’t. …
“I wrote to all my gay friends, the leaders that I knew and actually apologized to them. That never got out. There were some things said - everybody should have 10% grace when they say public statements and I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest which I absolutely do not believe.”
See Rick Warren works to calm gay marriage controversy
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Christian, Muslim groups join to oppose polygamy case
(Ottawa) The very judicial thinking that opened the door to same-sex marriage in Canada could result in legalized polygamy, two evangelical Christian organizations are warning.
In what they said is a pre-emptive strike against activist courts, Charles McVety of the Institute for Canadian Values and Brian Rushfeldt of the Canada Family …
Tags: Canada Family, Canadian Values, Charles Mcvety, Christian Groups, Christian Organizations, marriage, Muslim Groups, Ottawa, Polygamy, same sex marriage, Same Sex Marriage In Canada“Traditional Marriage” Resolution Passes - Sioux City Sides with the Bigots
One of today’s most controversial topics drew passionate comments from Sioux City residents Monday, as the City Council debated a resolution supporting the “traditional” definition of marriage, between one man and one woman. “Because character, in my opinion, is all about faith and beliefs.” Councilman Ferris talked for several minutes Monday, explaining why he re-introduced the resolution after voting to table the measure in December, 2008. “Our belief system is at the base of those decisions.” He said morality is more important than being politically correct. He claimed the council ’skirted’ the issue when it tabled the resolution. “I have an obligation to my faith,” he explained. But after opening to public comment, some residents agreed with Councilman Rixner, echoing his argument that the resolution is none of the City’s business. “The separation of church and state, is that sacred, anymore,” said one resident. But voices like hers were outnumbered a dozen times over, in a room with few chairs to spare. Many argued for traditional marriage, but for different reasons. ”We will most certainly face the issue of polygamy,” said another supporter, continuing, “If we give them an inch, they’ll ask for a mile.
KPTH - Correctionville,IA,USA
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Defense For Canadian polygamists cites gay marriage
(Creston, British Columbia) The court appearance Wednesday of two men accused of practicing polygamy was greeted with a sense of relief by the Vancouver lawyer attempting to convict the two religious rivals of illegally having more than one wife.
Special prosecutor Terrence Robertson said outside court that the legal cases against …
Tags: Court Appearance, Creston British Columbia, gay marriage, marriage, Polygamists, Polygamy, Rivals, Special Prosecutor, Two Men, Vancouver Lawyer
