URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS:
"Missionary in Philippines: 'Bodies Laying Everywhere'- By Dale Hurd and Heather Sells, November 12; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/November/Truckloads-of-Bodies-Filipinos-Plead-for-Help/ - [PRAY that relief supplies will get to the needed area in time to help the tens of thousands who are in great need. PRAY that security can be established in the midst of looters causing problems in the midst of the devastation. - Stan]
NEWS ALERT: Oct. 23: "Christians Fleeing IRAQ Area Once Considered Safe," - CBNNews.com, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/October/Christians-Fleeing-Iraq-Area-Once-Considered-Safe/ PRAY that believers in Iraq will know God's protection and provision; that believers will know[ whether they are called to flee or remain and persevere; and that their persecutors may come to hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ. - Stan]
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"- CBNNews.com, Aug 14, 2013 http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/ - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.]
NEWS ALERT: Monday, November 04, 2013 - Saeed's Life in [Greater] Jeopardy After Prison Transfer - CBNNews.com, ; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/November/Saeeds-Life-in-Jeopardy-after-Prison-Transfer/ IRAN - Vigils Mark One Year Imprisonment of Pastor Saeed - CBNNews.com, Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Today marks one-year that American pastor Saeed Abedini has been held in an Iranian prison. He is serving an eight-year sentence because of his Christian faith. It has been a year of torment as he has suffered beatings, physical pain from untreated medical conditions, and separation from his wife and two children... The suffering has not dampened his passion for Jesus. Pastor Abedini has led more than 30 prisoners to Christ during his time in prison. This afternoon, thousands of Americans from coast to coast will pray for his release. Events will be held in 40 states at capitols, city halls, parks and churches. Thousands more will join from 15 nations around the world
PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
- GO TO SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release
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"Polygamy, Sister Wives, and the Slippery Slope" - By Elizabeth Slattery, December 17, 2013
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"Polygamy, Sister Wives, and the Slippery Slope" - By Elizabeth Slattery, December 17, 2013
"Polygamy, Sister Wives, and the Slippery Slope" - By Elizabeth Slattery, December 17, 2013
infuslv-07/INFphoto.com/Newscom [1]
Late last week, a federal judge in Utah [2] struck down part of the state’s law that criminalizes polygamy. The challenge was brought by Kody Brown of the television show Sister Wives. Brown is a polygamist who has one legal wife and three other wives by “spiritual union” based on their religious beliefs.
Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states under state law, and until 1978, there was a federal statute prohibiting polygamy, which the Supreme Court upheld in Reynolds v. United States [3]. Under Utah’s law, passed in 1973, a person is guilty of bigamy if “knowing he has a husband or wife or knowing the other person has a husband or wife, the person purports to marry another person or cohabits with another person.”
After the state opened an investigation into Brown and his four wives, he challenged the law as a violation of various constitutional provisions, including the Due Process Clause [4] and the Free Exercise Clause [5]. In a decision last Friday, Judge Clark Waddoups ruled that Utah’s ban on cohabitation violates free exercise. Citing Utah’s selective enforcement, Judge Waddoups stated that the ban on cohabitation impermissibly targets religious groups that believe polygamy is a core religious practice.
According to the Supreme Court’s current First Amendment jurisprudence, a neutral and generally applicable law that incidentally burdens religious practices is presumptively constitutional. But when a law is shown to impermissibly target religious practices, it must be narrowly tailored to advance a compelling government interest in order to stand. Judge Waddoups found that Utah’s express ban on bigamy withstands scrutiny, but its ban targeting cohabitation does not. He noted that while plural cohabitation based on religious beliefs is banned, “virtually any other cohabitation is unpunished.”
Judge Waddoups also considered whether polygamy and plural cohabitation are “fundamental rights” that deserve special protection under the Due Process Clause. Drawing from the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas [6] (striking down a state law criminalizing homosexual sodomy), the Browns argued that there is a “fundamental liberty interest in intimate sexual conduct” that forbids the state from “imposing criminal sanctions for intimate sexual conduct in the home.”
Critics of that decision have repeatedly pointed out [7] that arguments in favor of same-sex conduct are not constitutionally distinguishable from arguments for polygamy. Indeed, in Lawrence, the majority stated that the anti-sodomy law sought “to control a personal relationship that, whether or not entitled to formal recognition in the law, is within the liberty of persons to choose without being punished as criminals.” While Judge Waddoups declined to extend fundamental rights status to polygamy and plural cohabitation, he found the Browns’ arguments “very persuasive.”
This decision does not necessarily legalize polygamy (which 83 percent of Americans [8] believe is morally wrong). But as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia predicted [9] in his dissent in Lawrence, laws that the public considers to be based on moral choices, such as “laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution…[and] bestiality” are now “all called into question.”
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/12/17/polygamy-sister-wives-slippery-slope/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/Sister-Wives131217.jpg
[2] a federal judge in Utah: http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/bigamy-ruling-12-13-131.pdf
[3] Reynolds v. United States: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=98&invol=145
[4] Due Process Clause: http://www.heritage.org/constitution#!/search/due+process/amendments/14/essays/168/state-action
[5] Free Exercise Clause: http://www.heritage.org/constitution#!/search/free+exercise/amendments/1/essays/139/free-exercise-of-religion
[6] Lawrence v. Texas: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZS.html
[7] repeatedly pointed out: http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/345618/candid-case-polygamy-ed-whelan
[8] 83 percent of Americans: http://www.gallup.com/poll/162689/record-high-say-gay-lesbian-relations-morally.aspx
[9] Antonin Scalia predicted: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZD.html
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
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