Arguments begin in case of minister accused of ‘crimes against humanity’ for homosexuality remarks | LifeSiteNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeSiteNews.com:

• Lawyers for a Massachusetts pastor have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by a foreign homosexual advocacy group accusing him of “crimes against humanity.” 
• During a 90-minute hearing on Monday in U.S. District Court, Judge Michael Ponsor said the lawsuit filed by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) against Springfield-based minister Scott Lively poses a test of free-speech protection and the rights of sexual minorities to equal protection under the law.
• Ponsor heard arguments from lawyers representing both Lively and SMUG. SMUG, represented in court by the George Soros-funded “Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR),” accused Lively of “violating the law of nations” and “crimes against humanity” as well as conspiracy and various “civil rights” crimes because of his outspokenness against the homosexual agenda in Uganda.  In their filing, they listed a number of violent acts committed against homosexuals in Uganda that they claim Lively’s speeches against homosexuality incited.
• The suit demands compensatory damages, punitive damages, exemplary damages, attorneys’ fees, and a “declaratory judgment that the Defendant’s conduct is in violation of the law of nations” as well as “all such other and further relief that the court may deem just and proper.”

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Arguments begin in case of minister accused of ‘crimes against humanity’ for homosexuality remarks | LifeSiteNews.com

Publicly declare the Catholic Church as a Pillar of American society. | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government

No doubt you have read or heard about the petition on the White House website asking that the Catholic Church be labeled a 'hate group'. There is now a new petition on the White House website asking that the Catholic Church be declared as a Pillar of American Society.

You may go the White House page for this petition andd sign it there. I did, mine is the 5th signature there. You can get there by clicking the link below, or by clicking this post's title.

Publicly declare the Catholic Church as a Pillar of American society. | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government

From The Dignitatis Humanae Institute: French Government: we will "dissolve" "religious pathology" and "excesses" in the Church

Note: The following is a press release from The Dignitatis Humanae Institute

Rome, 6 January 2013

The liberties of French Christians have long been in a perilous state, however now the recently elected Socialist Government is set to impose a new form of secularist surveillance upon the Church and lay organisations, seeking to discover and 'dissolve' any potential cases of what it deems 'religious pathology.'

The month of Advent saw a disturbing spate of attacks and desecrations of Christian icons and buildings across France; from the burning of a Nativity scene in Savoy, statues decapitated in Frejus and Churches attacked in Mayenne and Soissons. Yet rather than defend the religious liberty of her persecuted people, the French government is pushing ahead with a further curtailment of religious expression.

Announced by President Hollande, the new 'the National Observatory of Secularism' will come into being this year, tasked with closely monitoring religious organisations for any potential 'excesses.' French Interior Minister Manuel Valls highlighted various Catholic organisations, stating that "All excesses are being minutely registered in case we have to consider dissolving it."

This aggressive form of imposed laïcité is coupled with the proselytization of what the Socialist education minister Vincent Peillon called a 'secularist morality' within the state education system. This compulsory form of re-education will seek to remove any ethics other than the core, secularist, tenets of the Republic. The Federation of State School Parents has already protested against what could be viewed as child indoctrination.

In response to these worrying trends, Benjamin Harnwell, Founder of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, warned of the dangerous precedents being created:

"The French government has already defied its own constitutional courts on its tax policy and now seeks to redefine its notions of justice and due process. A government that can predetermine your guilt before any actual crime has even been committed, based solely on a supposition of religious belief, has abandoned any claim to being a pluralist democracy and has become something far more sinister. This disturbing move marks yet another descent in a country which already heavily curtails the universal right to public displays of religious expression."

The Dignitatis Humanae Institute aims to uphold human dignity based on the anthropological truth that man is born in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an innate human dignity of infinite worth to be upheld. The Institute promotes this understanding by supporting Christians in public life, assisting them to present effective and coherent responses to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.