Comments may now be left on IVA website

We've constructed a new website, www.idahovaluesalliance.com, where our Daily Updates are posted. You may also sign up there to receive the Daily Updates delivered to your inbox.

We've added a comment feature there, which makes it possible for you to add your own commentary to the contents of each day's posting.

You can post a comment on the website going to the upper right hand corner of the home page and accessing the "Daily Update" for which you would like to leave a comment. Scroll to the bottom of the update, and you'll find the comment feature.

As a cautionary note, no comments will be posted which contain either profanity or vulgarity. We want to keep the discussion calm and focused on issues, fact, history, law, and reason.

Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 23, 2005

Bryan Fischer, Executive Director

WELCOME TO THE NEW IDAHO VALUES ALLIANCE WEBSITE!

Many thanks to David Hollander of SparkWeb Interactive for completing the design of our new website! You may access it by going to:

www.idahovaluesalliance.com

THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS – THE ELEVENTH HOUR

Christians continue to find their freedom of speech and religion hampered by political correctness run amok, even on the eve of the celebration of Christ’s birth. For example, a school district in New York has an office area devoted to multiculturalism that currently features a display or decoration for Kwanzaa (a holiday that wasn’t even invented until the 1960s), a menorah, a Star of David and a decorated tree. But a nativity scene donated by a parent was turned down.

Christmas battles waged to last minute

HANUKKAH: A CELEBRATION OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

While Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, our Jewish friends will be celebrating Hanukkah. Hanukkah is about many things, but perhaps the main thing it is about is religious freedom. When the Syrian tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes invaded Jerusalem in 168 BC, he brought Jewish worship to a halt and defiled the temple by offering a pig on the sacred altar.

This stirred Judas Maccabeus and his family to launch an insurrection to take possession again of what was rightfully theirs. After three years, the Maccabees and their followers reclaimed the temple area, cleansed it, and renewed the worship of the God of the Scriptures. Despite the fact that they possessed only enough oil for the temple lampstand to burn for one day, it miraculously burned for 8 days. And so the celebration became known as the Festival of Lights.

The story of the Maccabees reminds us that religious liberty is the most fundamental and important of all liberties, and a liberty that is worth defending even at great cost. It was the very first freedom our Founding Fathers protected when they enacted the Bill of Rights. It is worth fighting for as much today as it was in the days of ancient Israel.

According the John 10:22, Jesus himself celebrated this Festival (called “The Feast of Dedication”), which makes it a part of Christian tradition as well. Using a menorah I purchased in Israel, my family has observed the practice of lighting an additional candle for each night of the celebration and reading aloud the blessings assigned to each day. Happy Hanukkah to all lovers of religious liberty!

TODAY’S CHRISTMAS QUOTE

In December of 1944, during the dark days of the Battle of the Bulge, President Franklin Roosevelt declared: "It is not easy to say 'Merry Christmas' to you, my fellow Americans, in this time of destructive war... We will celebrate this Christmas Day in our traditional American way...because the teachings of Christ are fundamental in our lives...the story of the coming of the immortal Prince of Peace."

THE LIBERATING POWER OF THE CHRIST OF CHRISTMAS

In Wesley Pruden’s Washington Times Christmas column, he rehearses the story of John Newton, a notorious slave trader of the 18th century. He turned his back on the faith his mother sought to instill in him, and made his living trafficking in human flesh. “At this period of my life,” he later reflected, “I was big with mischief and, like one afflicted with a pestilence, was capable of spreading a taint wherever I went.”

After being reduced to cruel slavery himself, and a near fatal ship wreck, he was at last driven to his knees. "My prayer,” he said, “was like the cry of ravens, which yet the Lord does not disdain to hear.” He returned to England where he fell under the preaching of George Whitefield and the influence of John Wesley, and was born again into the new life in Christ.

He died on this day in 1807, after writing the immortal words:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

As Pruden says, “The malls and the Main Streets fall silent. The ringing cash registers and the happy cries of children are but ghostly echoes across silent streets. But the Christ born in a manger 2,000 years ago lives, liberating the hearts of sinners and transforming the lives of the wicked.”

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The amazing grace of Christmas morn - The Washington Times

For Blog: www.idahovaluesalliance.blogspot.com

A Look Back at the IVA's First Month

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Bryan Fischer, Executive Director

LOOK BACK AT OUR FIRST MONTH

It’s been a busy first month for the Idaho Values Alliance. I’d like to take a moment to review some of the things we’ve been involved in during our first 30 days. I deliberately use the word “we,” because we are in this together. Your financial, moral, and prayer support make the IVA possible. Whenever I have opportunity to speak or write, I do so on your behalf. Ours is a collaborative enterprise.

Here are some things we’ve been doing in over the last four weeks:

~ Daily updates to a statewide distribution list

~ A column in the Idaho Statesman advancing religious liberty and exposing the radical agenda of the ACLU

~ An interview with the local CBS affiliate for a local news story on keeping “Merry Christmas” alive in Idaho

~ Helping to generate a “ton of calls” to the governor’s office in support of his decision to call the capitol tree a “Christmas tree”

~ Generating phone calls to the CEO of Target as part of a nationwide campaign to persuade the company to reintroduce “Christmas” in their advertising; the company reversed course

~ Guest appearances on the “Trish & Halli” show in the Idaho Falls/Pocatello area, and on Starr Kelso’s “Speak Up, North Idaho” talk show in the Coeur d’Alene area, to talk about our shared values and the mission of the IVA

~ Meeting with pastors, businessmen and concerned citizens in the Coeur d’Alene area to introduce them to the vision and mission of the IVA

~ Speaking briefly about the mission of the IVA with 50 or so members of the Coeur d’Alene Pachyderm Club

~ Numerous meetings and conversations with other pro-family leaders to develop the best possible language for a marriage amendment to the Idaho constitution

With your help, we will continue to work on behalf of our shared values to make Idaho a great place to raise a family. If you have not already, please consider a tax-deductible gift to the IVA as you make your end of the year giving plans.

You might mark your calendar for Sunday afternoon, January 8 at 2 PM. We will hold a press conference at the state capitol to announce publicly the formation of the Idaho Values Alliance and to discuss our goals for the 2006 session of the Idaho legislature. Your presence would be welcome.

CITY REVERSES DECISION, CALLS “CHRISTMAS” CHRISTMAS AGAIN

“Christmas” and “Good Friday” are going back on Greencastle, Indiana’s calendar after vocal opposition to a City Council decision to replace them with “winter holiday” and “spring holiday.” The council voted 4-0 to reverse the policy after nearly 200 people singing “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” filled the council’s chambers requesting the change.

A city councilman correctly observed, “When we use the terms 'winter holiday' and 'spring holiday,' we're not being inclusive, we're being exclusive.”

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20051222-122614-5099r.htm

“CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS” VIEWED AS MARRIAGES

Yesterday’s online edition of The Independent contains a lengthy story on the civil partnership ceremony of Elton John and his partner. The striking thing is that although their relationship is not technically a marriage, you would never know it from the words used in the story.

Altogether, eleven expressions are used that are normally reserved for wedding celebrations, such as “marry,” “I do,” “groom,” “exchanged vows,” “newlyweds,” “getting married,” “tied the knot,” etc.

In a related story, the supreme court of Washington may soon – as early as today - declare that gay marriage is a constitutional right in that state. This illustrates the danger that activist judges pose even at the state level to the institution of marriage. It is not possible any longer to argue that a state law is sufficient to protect marriage in Idaho. Protection must be elevated to constitutional status to prevent activist judges at the state level from imposing their own social agenda on the rest of us.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article334666.ece

CANADA SUPREME COURT: GROUP SEX LEGAL FOR CANADIANS AS YOUNG AS 14

Canada’s Supreme Court issued a ruling yesterday that group sex in publicly accessible venues is legal. The court declared that is it legal for clubs to provide opportunities for group sex as long as consent is given, the area is somewhat private, and no payment is directly involved, beyond an initial admission fee.

Since the age of consent in Canada is 14, it is not hard to imagine that this ruling will lead to the exploitation of teenagers. Since case law in Canada defines indecent acts as behavior which has the potential to cause harm to the community, these judges are evidently tone deaf to the reality that such clubs will be little more than breeding grounds for the rapid spread of sexually transmitted diseases, with all the accompanying social devastation they cause.

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05122104.html


For Blog: http://www.idahovaluesalliance.blogspot.com/

To sign up for these email updates: http://www.keepthecommandmentsidaho.com/

To be removed from the IVA Daily Update distribution list, please reply to this message with "Remove" in the subject line.

If you’d like to support the work of the IVA:

Idaho Values Alliance
PO Box 44873
Boise, ID 83711

Nativity Scene in Front of Boise City Hall

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

From Bryan Fischer, Executive Director

NATIVITY SCENE IN FRONT OF BOISE CITY HALL

My good friend Brandi Swindell, who serves with me as a co-director of the Keep the Commandments Coalition, is planning, along with other citizens, to set up a nativity scene in front of Boise City Hall on Friday afternoon. City officials have so far raised no objection, saying, “At this point, we don’t see any problem with it.” Their acquiescence may have something to do with a desire to avoid tangling with their own citizens again over freedom of religious expression.

Ms. Swindell and the others who are helping her organize the event are doing it to celebrate Christmas and as a way of taking a stand for religious liberty. The groups plan to use the plaza from noon to 8 PM, with a carol sing tentatively scheduled for 7 PM.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051221/NEWS01/512210320

IVA IN THE NEWS

Local atheist Gary Bennett co-authored a Readers’ View piece which appears in today’s Idaho Statesman in which he goes after yours truly for a column of mine which appeared in the Statesman in November. If you read Gary’s column, don’t forget that Jefferson prayed at his own inauguration in Jesus’ name, ordered copies of the Bible and Isaac Watts’ book of hymns as his basic textbooks for the Washington D.C. public school system, regularly attended worship services in government buildings, and authorized the spending of federal monies to support Roman Catholic missionaries. How much “separation of church and state” you can detect in all that?

Also, an online news service, “The Church Report” published a brief story on our fight to protect the Ten Commandments in Boise.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051221/NEWS0503/512210315/1055

http://www.thechurchreport.com/content/view/742/67/

APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS TEN COMMANDMENTS, CRITICIZES ACLU

In a ruling that will not make Gary Bennett very happy, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Ten Commandments display in Kentucky yesterday, saying flatly, “The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.” Further, the ruling declared that the ACLU's “repeated reference 'to the separation of church and state' ... has grown tiresome.”

The display was defended successfully by Francis Manion of the ACLJ, the very attorney who offered to defend Boise’s Ten Commandments monument free of charge. Manion said, "For too long (we) have been lectured like children by those in the ACLU and elsewhere who claim to know what the people's Constitution really means. What the 6th Circuit has said is…that the Constitution does not require that we strip the public square of all vestiges of our religious heritage and traditions."

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/

article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48006

VICTORY FOR INTELLECTUAL TYRANNY IN PENNSYLVANIA

You will have heard by now of a judges’ ruling in Pennsylvania that the teaching of intelligent design theory in science classes is unconstitutional, even though the exposure to ID consisted of a one-minute statement that evolution is a theory, and that ID an alternative. That’s it! There are any number of problems with this decision.

For one thing, it is a blow against academic freedom and inquiry. Schools should be about investigation, exploration, and debate. This judge has censored a point of view he finds personally distasteful and in so doing has imposed his own form of intellectual tyranny and censorship on an educational institution. The judge’s decision has no force outside his own district in Pennsylvania, so is of no legal effect in Idaho, but you can bet the splashy coverage given to his decision will dampen free speech everywhere.

Secondly, it is impossible for the school’s policy to violate the First Amendment, because the First Amendment applies only to Congress. It was no part of the intent of the Founding Fathers to restrain anyone other than Congress with the passage of the First Amendment.

Thirdly, it is another triumph for judicial activism. The court ruled that intelligent design is not a “scientific” theory. But who made this judge more competent than school board officials to decide what is “scientific” and not? He is no more a scientist than they are, and no more qualified to make a determination of this kind. This did not stop him from accusing the school board of “breathtaking inanity.”

And where does a judge get any kind of legitimate authority to set academic policies for a school district? That is the responsibility of school boards, and they should be left alone to do the job citizens elected them to do. This is an issue that never should have made it into a courtroom in the first place.

Fourthly, the voters in Dover already voted all eight members who voted for the intelligent design policy off the school board. In other words, the voters of the Dover school district are perfectly capable of deciding whether they liked the policies of the current school board or not. Deciding they did not, they made their voice and will known at the ballot box. The new board would have almost certainly reversed the existing policy. And it would have been done without involving a single judge.

This is how decisions should be made in a representative republic – by elected representatives, not unaccountable judges. As one former school board member put it, “We didn’t lose; we were robbed.”

http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0038988.cfm


For Blog: http://www.idahovaluesalliance.blogspot.com/

To sign up for these email updates: http://www.keepthecommandmentsidaho.com/

To be removed from the IVA Daily Update distribution list, please reply to this message with "Remove" in the subject line.

If you’d like to support the work of the IVA:

Idaho Values Alliance
PO Box 44873
Boise, ID 83711

Gay "Weddings" Begin This Week in Britain

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

From Bryan Fischer, Executive Director

GAY “WEDDINGS” TO BEGIN THIS WEEK IN BRITAIN

Almost 700 same-sex couples plan to conduct "gay weddings" in Britain on Wednesday, the first day such ceremonies can take place. (A lesbian couple went through the first ceremony yesterday in Ireland, where the new law went into effect two days early.) Couples who enter into civil partnerships are granted almost all the same legal rights as married couples.

The Scotsman reports that Elton John turned down a $10 million offer from an American television company to cover his “wedding,” and also reports that a videotaped congratulatory message from former president Bill Clinton will be played during the ceremony.

There are a couple of things we can learn from Britain’s example. One, Idaho’s marriage amendment must expressly prohibit the recognition of “civil unions.” Such relationships, no matter what they are called in legal terms, are treated in the press and public perception as marriages. If we want marriage to be reserved for the union of a man and a woman, our amendment must deal unambiguously with marriage counterfeits.

The first gay couple to get “married” Wednesday in Scotland actually lives in Washington, D.C. With our courts increasingly citing international law in their decisions, it’s not hard to imagine a gay couple initiating a lawsuit demanding that their overseas “marriage” be recognized as valid in the U.S.

A second lesson is that once you abandon the one-man, one-woman standard, there is no logical place to stop. Pressure is already being put on British leaders to expand “civil partnerships” to include unmarried brothers and sisters, which of course in the end will make marriage an utterly meaningless concept and create even more societal confusion and more insecurity for vulnerable children.

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/17/ngay17.xml

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2433372005

CORD BLOOD BILL PASSES AFTER CALLS FLOOD SEN. HARKIN’S OFFICE

I reported yesterday that Democratic leadership had filibustered a bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith that would have created a bank for umbilical cord blood, a non-controversial source of stem cells. After Sen. Harkin’s office was flooded with calls last Friday, he removed his hold yesterday and the bill passed the senate.

Umbilical cord blood is routinely discarded, but now, as Rep. Smith said, "We will now be able to turn medical waste… into medical miracles.” Adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood are already being used to treat diseases such as leukemia and sickle cell anemia.

This episode shows again that if enough ordinary citizens like you and me make our voices heard, we can have a decision-changing influence on our elected officials.

http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0038975.cfm

LEGISLATIVE VICTORIES ON SCHOOL CHOICE, BOY SCOUTS

In a major step forward for parental choice in education, a bill was passed yesterday that will provide up to $6000 per student in Katrina relief funds for displaced parents who send their children to private or religious schools. And the schools won’t have to jump over the hurdles Sen. Edward Kennedy previously tried to place in their way.

In a victory for the Boy Scouts, a Bill Frist-sponsored bill passed that assures that the Scouts will not be ousted from any military facilities where they have been given access.

(Source: Tony Perkins, Daily Briefing, Family Research Council)

TWENTY PERCENT OF U.S. ABORTIONS PERFORMED BY PLANNED PARENTHOOD

According to Planned Parenthood’s own annual report, it now performs about twenty percent of all abortions performed in the United States. The organization performed over 250,000 abortions in 2004, while it referred just 1400 women to adoption agencies.

This means that Planned Parenthood performed 180 abortions for every adoption referral it made. The most straightforward explanation for that discrepancy is that there is no money in adoption. PP operates 850 facilities nationwide, well short of their announced goal of 2000 facilities by the year 2000.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat1900.html

CHINA SELLS ORGANS OF EXECUTED PRISONERS FOR $40,000 - $60,000

Today’s Washington Times reports on a burgeoning trade in the sale of the kidneys and livers of executed prisoners to individuals in the West, including Britain. In a repressive regime like China’s, this raises the specter of executions being carried out to conform to surgery schedules, and of increasing numbers of death sentences to satisfy medical demands.

http://washingtontimes.com/world/20051219-115834-8584r.htm

TODAY’S CHRISTMAS QUOTE: FDR

As further evidence that the public acknowledgement of God is not and should not be a partisan affair, read these words from Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Christmas message of 1942: “To all Americans I say that loving our neighbor as we love ourselves is not enough- that we as a Nation and as individuals will please God best by showing regard for the laws of God. There is no better way of fostering good will toward man than by first fostering good will toward God. If we love Him we will keep His Commandments.”


For Blog: http://www.idahovaluesalliance.blogspot.com/

To sign up for these email updates: http://www.keepthecommandmentsidaho.com/

To be removed from the IVA Daily Update distribution list, please reply to this message with "Remove" in the subject line.

If you’d like to support the work of the IVA:

Idaho Values Alliance
PO Box 44873
Boise, ID 83711

Origin of Christmas: Nothing to do with Paganism

Monday, December 19, 2005

From Bryan Fischer, Executive Director

IVA IN THE NEWS

The Catholic News Agency included a story on our Boise battle for the Ten Commandments. The story deals specifically with our hearing before the Idaho state Supreme Court on Dec. 9. (After accessing the link below, you will have to scroll down to pick up our story.)

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/showarchive.php?date=2005-12-09

ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS: NOTHING TO DO WITH PAGANISM

Despite the commonly accepted perception that Christians chose Dec. 25 to Christianize an already existing pagan festival, Gene Edward Veith, in the Dec. 10 issue of World Magazine, says there is no basis for that belief in historical fact.

Christians came up with the Dec. 25 date in a round about way. Using an obscure Jewish belief (not found in Scripture), that the date of the death of great prophets was connected to the date of their conception, the early church fathers identified March 25 as the day on which Christ was conceived. Nine months later, they reasoned, Christ was born on Dec. 25.

The truth, according to Veith, is that there were no winter solstice festivals in ancient Roman religions. One Roman emperor, Aurelian, tried unsuccessfully to start one on Dec. 25, 274 A.D., as an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date already commemorated by Roman Christians. Thus the truth about Christmas is not that Christians were imitating pagans, but the other way round.

http://www.worldmag.com/geneedwardveith/veith.cfm?id=18584

MOST AMERICANS HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH CHRISTMAS

According to a new Gallup Poll, 97 percent of Americans don't mind public references to Christmas. And only 8 percent of non-Christians and 5 percent of those who identify themselves as having "no faith" report that they are bothered by advertising or other public statements that mention Christmas. As I’ve mentioned before, this is our response to those who say we should say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” to be more inclusive: “Ninety-six percent of Americans celebrate Christmas. It’s hard to get more inclusive than that.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20051216-125643-4064r.htm

SAN FRANCISCO “RENTING” CHRISTMAS TREES

To avoid environmental guilt, San Francisco is now renting living Christmas trees to residents, which are then planted after the Christmas season is over. The reason for the program: cutting down trees for a few weeks of pleasure is a “waste of resources.” My favorite part was a quote from a self-identified “tree-hugger” who rented three of the trees for his -- cabinet shop! How does he get past other tree-huggers to get the wood for his cabinets?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-16-rental-trees_x.htm

DEMOCRATS FILIBUSTER LIFE-SAVING LEGISLATION

Senators Harry Reid and Tom Harkin blocked passage of a bill late last week that would establish a national cord-blood registry and would boost the collection and maintenance of cord blood. Umbilical cord blood is a rich (and perfectly ethical) source of adult stem cells, which are already being used to treat over 60 medical conditions and diseases.

The Democratic leadership opposed it because of their insistence that language to expand embryonic stem cell research be included. This despite the fact that there is not one single proven therapeutic use of embryonic stem cells, and despite the fact that embryonic stem cell research is not ethically neutral because it always requires the destruction of a human embryo. As one legislator said, an embryo is “not a potential human being, but a human being with potential.”

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20051216-125648-4055r_page2.htm

ACLU TO COURT TO ALLOW MUSLIMS TO SWEAR ON KORAN

Despite the fact that North Carolina state law specifies that oaths are to be taken on the “Holy Scriptures,” which clearly refers to the Bible, the ACLU is appealing a judge’s ruling prohibiting Muslims from taking oaths on the Koran.

State law allows someone to affirm to tell the truth while holding their hand upraised if they have a conscientious objection to taking an oath on the Bible, and the Muslim witness in question exercised that option. And of course, the ACLU could always appeal to the legislature to add the Koran to the statute.

But their strategy is virtually always to advance their cause through activist judges rather than through our elected representatives. They know that their views are so far out of the mainstream they’d never get most of them past the people who represent ordinary Americans like you and me.

Note the irony here. The ACLU, for all its blather about the separation of church and state, is looking for a judge, not to eliminate a religious book, but to force another one into court! Apparently the ACLU’s angst is not with religion in general but specifically with Christianity. In the ACLU’s view, other religions are welcome in the public square, but Christianity is not.

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051216/NEWSREC0101/512160306


For Blog: http://www.idahovaluesalliance.blogspot.com/

To sign up for these email updates: http://www.keepthecommandmentsidaho.com/

To be removed from the IVA Daily Update distribution list, please reply to this message with "Remove" in the subject line.

If you’d like to support the work of the IVA:

Idaho Values Alliance
PO Box 44873
Boise, ID 83711

IVA Signs Letter to the President

Friday, December 16, 2005

From Bryan Fischer, Executive Director

BRIEF REMARKS TO THE PACHYDERM CLUB IN COUER D’ALENE

Today’s daily dispatch is later than usual, as I had the privilege over breakfast this morning of briefly sharing the mission and strategy of the IVA with the 50 or so members of the Pachyderm Club of Coeur d’Alene. I also spent all day yesterday with like-minded businessmen and pastors here in the Coeur d’Alene area who share our values and believe in the work of the IVA. My visit to CDA is a part of our effort to make the IVA a truly statewide alliance.

WEBSITE NEARING COMPLETION

Our webmaster, David Hollander, is close to finishing the construction of the IVA website. David designed the number one website in the world – http://www.narniaweb.com/ – for the new “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” movie, and has been consumed with maintaining that leading up the premiere of the movie.

His Narnia website has been generating more traffic even than the studio’s own website – over 100,000 hits the weekend of the premiere alone. I’ll let you know as soon as the website is functional, but you are going to like it.

The web address will be: http://www.idahovaluesalliance.com/

IVA SIGNS LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

The Idaho Values Alliance has been invited to add our signature to a letter being sent to President Bush by the Family Research Council, which we have done. The letter will be signed not only by the IVA but also by pro-family groups all across America. The letter urges President Bush to address the topic of a federal marriage amendment in this year’s State of the Union address.

The letter reminds the president that a federal judge in Nebraska, in the first ruling of its kind, overturned that state’s marriage amendment even though was passed by the people of Nebraska overwhelmingly (70-30). This makes it clear that we must amend not only our state constitution but the federal constitution as well if we are to insulate the definition and recognition of marriage from activist judges at all levels.

LONG-TERM PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ABORTION

When a woman walks into an abortion clinic, the casualty count is always the same: one dead, one wounded. Although protecting access to abortion is billed as woman’s rights issue, evidence continues to accumulate that abortion is in reality harmful to women.

A study recently completed in Norway reveals the long-term mental and emotional damage caused by abortion. Women who have abortions suffer from mental anxiety, guilt, shame, and distress years later. Those negative emotional feelings can last as long as five years after the abortion or even longer.

Right now there is no informed consent legislation in Idaho to ensure women are made aware of the full range of physical and psychological risks they run when they seek abortions. The IVA will work alongside other pro-family and pro-life groups this year to see if something can be done on this issue for the women of Idaho.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat1895.html

CLONING PIONEER ACCUSED OF FALSIFYING DATA

First, an American scientist quit the human cloning project of South Korean scientist Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, because of his concern that coercion and financial inducements had been used to obtain eggs from female project staffers. Now questions have been raised about photographs that appear to be duplicates of each other and about possible pressure on lab scientists to fake project data.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council points out the diabolical inconsistency over this sudden concern for ethics. “Why,” he says, “is it unethical to fabricate evidence, but not unethical to try to fabricate a human being?”

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/47855.html

AMERICAN HISTORY QUOTE OF THE DAY

After the Boston Tea Party, the men of Marlborough, Massachusetts, declared: "Death is more eligible than slavery. A free-born people are not required by the religion of Jesus Christ to submit to tyranny, but may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their liberties... We implore the Ruler above the skies that He would bare His arm...and let Israel go."


For Blog: http://www.idahovaluesalliance.blogspot.com/

To sign up for these email updates: http://www.keepthecommandmentsidaho.com/

To be removed from the IVA Daily Update distribution list, please reply to this message with "Remove" in the subject line.

If you’d like to support the work of the IVA:

Idaho Values Alliance
PO Box 44873
Boise, ID 83711