SENATE-CONTRACEPTION
Senate Democrats seek to reverse Hobby Lobby ruling
WASHINGTON (AP) β The Senate is preparing to vote on a Democratic-sponsored bill aimed at ensuring that women receive free contraception coverage even if they work for a company that has a religious objection to it.
In the Hobby Lobby case, the Supreme Court ruled that employers don’t have to provide coverage for birth control methods their faith prohibits. Democrats say that amounts to letting bosses impose their religion on employees.
But Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said legislation to remove employers’ religious rights would “reduce the free exercise of religion from a fundamental human right to a cheap election year prop.”
Democrats are seeking to turn the battle into a women’s rights issue that can help them at the ballot box in November.
The bill appears unlikely to draw the 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate.
Sound:
282-a-09-(Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., in floor speech)-“forced upon you”-Senator Cory Booker says employees shouldn’t be denied birth control coverage that their employers believe is wrong. ((longer version of cut used in wrap)) (15 Jul 2014)
< 281-w-31-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor, with Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah)–The Senate is preparing to vote on a Democratic-sponsored bill aimed at ensuring that women receive free contraception coverage, even if they work for a company that has a religious objection to it. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (15 Jul 2014) < 283-a-08-(Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in floor speech)-“to destroy it”-Senator Orrin Hatch says the Senate should reject the bill’s limits to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. (15 Jul 2014) < TOWN BOARD-PRAYER Atheist opens NY meeting; top court OK’d prayers GREECE, N.Y. (AP) β An atheist has delivered the invocation before a town meeting in the New York community whose leaders won a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the right to start their gatherings with a prayer. Dan Courtney invoked the signers of the Declaration of Independence Tuesday and urged members of the Greece town board to “seek the wisdom of all citizens, and to honor the enlightened wisdom and profound courage of those 56 men.” The court ruled 5-4 in May that the prayers were in line with national traditions and said the content is not significant as long as the prayers don’t denigrate others or try to win converts. The town said persons of any faith were welcome to give the invocation. Town supervisor William Reilich (RY’-lihk) says it’s not unusual to have a diversity of views represented. Sound: 284-w-27-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor, with atheist Dan Courtney)–An atheist has delivered the invocation before a town meeting in the New York community whose leaders won a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the right to start their gatherings with a prayer. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (15 Jul 2014) < 285-a-07-(Dan Courtney, atheist, delivering invocation before town board meeting)-“of the governed”-Atheist Dan Courtney recites part of the Declaration of Independence. (15 Jul 2014) < 286-a-09-(Dan Courtney, atheist, delivering invocation before town board meeting)-“halls of Washington”-Atheist Dan Courtney says governments are human institutions formed by popular consent. (15 Jul 2014) < US-GAY-MARRIAGE-EXPULSION Student: Expelled from college after gay marriage OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) β A 22-year-old woman says she was expelled from a private Christian college in Oklahoma because she married her same-sex partner. Christian Minard says she received a letter last week from Southwestern Christian University notifying her of the expulsion after returning from her honeymoon in Las Vegas. Minard said she did not know how the university learned of her March 17 marriage in Albuquerque, New Mexico, though she did say she posted her marriage license on Facebook. University Academic Vice President and Provost Connie Sjoberg said Minard had been a student at the school in the Oklahoma City suburb of Bethany but no longer was. She said federal privacy laws kept her from providing details. Minard admitted that she violated her signed student conduct code, known as a lifestyle principal, which prohibits homosexual relationships. The code also includes prohibitions on smoking, drinking, cheating, premarital sex, discrimination, harassment and profanity. MARRIAGE AMENDMENT NC pastors call for support on marriage ban RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) β Pastors from across North Carolina are calling on Gov. Pat McCrory to defend the state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage from lawsuits filed by same-sex couples. When McCrory ran for governor in 2012, he supported the amendment that defines marriage as between a man and woman, but he has said little about recent lawsuits challenging it. On the steps of the old Capitol building in Raleigh Tuesday, about 30 people from the North Carolina Pastors Network rallied, describing judges’ decisions to overturn gay marriage bans in other states as judicial tyranny. The group is also sending McCrory a petition asking him to use his executive powers to defend the amendment. In 2012, 61 percent of North Carolina voters approved the amendment. CHINA-CHURCH CRACKDOWN Jailed Chinese pastor’s family escapes to US BEIJING (AP) β A U.S.-based Christian rights group says three relatives of an imprisoned pastor have sneaked out of China to the United States after complaining about an extended campaign of harassment from Chinese authorities. China Aid said Tuesday that activists helped Zhang Shaojie’s daughter, son-in-law and 1-year-old grandchild leave China through Southeast Asia. China Aid founder Bob Fu said the three landed in Dallas on Monday and flew Tuesday to Midland, Texas, where the First Baptist Church will help them settle in. Fu says they were greeted at Midland’s airport by the church choir singing “Amazing Grace.” Pastor Zhang, who led a church in the central province of Henan, was sentenced to 12 years in prison this month after being convicted of fraud and gathering crowds to disturb public order. His church had been involved in a dispute with local authorities over land for a new building. Sound: 265-a-07-(Bob Fu (foo), founder and president of China Aid, in AP interview)-“of religious freedom”-Bob Fu, founder and president of China Aid, reads part of a statement from the daughter of the pastor jailed in China. (15 Jul 2014) < 263-a-07-(Bob Fu (foo), founder and president of China Aid, in AP interview)-“Pastor Zhang Shaojie”-Bob Fu, founder and president of China Aid, says the jailed pastor’s family members are being cared for by members of the First Baptist Church of Midland. (15 Jul 2014) < 262-a-09-(Bob Fu (foo), founder and president of China Aid, in AP interview)-“States for freedom”-Bob Fu, founder and president of China Aid, says three relatives of a jailed Chinese pastor have arrived safely in Midland, Texas. (15 Jul 2014) < 264-a-16-(Bob Fu (foo), founder and president of China Aid, in AP interview)-“family’s hard-fought freedom”-Bob Fu, founder and president of China Aid, reads part of a statement from the daughter of the pastor jailed in China. (15 Jul 2014) < VATICAN-POPE-UNACCOMPANIED MINORS Pope seeks protection of young US-bound migrants VATICAN CITY (AP) β Pope Francis has called for “urgent intervention” to welcome and protect minors traveling on their own from Central and South America to the United States in increasing numbers. The pontiff said such measures should include an information campaign on the dangers of the journey. He called on the international community to rise to the challenge and adopt “new forms of legal and safe migration.” Tens of thousands of children have streamed from chaotic Central American nations in recent months to the U.S. border, overwhelming the government’s ability to respond. Francis issued his message in a letter to a Vatican conference on migration in Mexico, drawing attention to the “tens of thousands of children who are emigrating alone, unaccompanied, to flee poverty and violence.” KOREAS-POPE’S VISIT N. Korean Catholics asked to attend Pope’s mass SEOUL, South Korea (AP) β The South Korean Catholic church says it has asked North Korea to send about 10 Catholics to a Mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis during his August visit to Seoul. The Aug. 14-18 visit will be the first visit by a pope to the Korean Peninsula in 25 years. The Archdiocese of Seoul said Tuesday that it expects North Korea to respond by early August to the request to send Catholic believers. Spokesman Father Hur Young-yup says there were about 50,000 Catholics in North Korea before the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but in practice only government-approved services are tolerated. HOUSTON-SUBURBAN-SHOOTING-FUNERALS Funerals set for family members in Texas shooting HOUSTON (AP) β A funeral is scheduled today for six members of a family who were fatally shot in their suburban Houston home last week. The funerals for Stephen and Katie Stay and four of their children, ranging in age from 4 to 14, will be held at a Mormon chapel in Houston. The Stays were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A top Mormon official is to speak at the funeral service, according to a church news release. The couple’s 15-year-old daughter, Cassidy Stay, survived by playing dead after she was shot. She was released from a hospital Friday. Ronald Lee Haskell, accused by authorities in Wednesday’s shooting, remains jailed without bond, charged with capital murder. CASH FOR GRAVES New Jersey Catholic cemetery probed SADDLE BROOK, N.J. (AP) β A New Jersey prosecutor is investigating the financial practices of a Catholic cemetery in Saddle Brook that sold graves at a discount for cash. The Diocese of Paterson forbids the practice of taking cash and the pastor of St. Mary’s Assumption Church in Passaic raised concerns about the financial management of St. Mary’s Cemetery. Diocese lawyer Kenneth Mullaney told The Record newspaper that the pastor thought there was a drop-off in cemetery income. An accountant’s report was turned over to the Bergen County prosecutor after the previous cemetery director left. The newspaper reports an “absence of records” led the cemetery to bury a man in the wrong grave last month. Mullaney would not say how much cash was accepted for discounted gravesites. CHURCH ABUSE-MINNESOTA-TEGEDER Document: Archdiocese considered silencing priest MINNEAPOLIS (AP) β A Catholic canon lawyer who became a whistleblower against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says church officials considered silencing a critic by declaring him to be disabled. In a sworn statement released Tuesday, Jennifer Haselberger alleges a former top deputy to Archbishop John Nienstedt proposed declaring the Rev. Michael Tegeder disabled to silence his opposition to the archbishop’s efforts to promote a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage. Tegeder calls the idea laughable and the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. Tegeder, who serves as pastor at St. Francis Cabrini Church in Minneapolis, has been calling for Nienstedt to step down for some time. He says the archdiocese needs to go without a bishop for a year or two so lay people and credible clergy can put things right. SENATE-BOSWORTH Bosworth trial scheduled for November in Pierre PIERRE, S.D. (AP) β Former U.S. Senate candidate Annette Bosworth is scheduled to stand trial for alleged election law violations this November in Pierre, South Dakota. KCCR-AM reports a Nov. 13-14 trial was set Tuesday for the Sioux Falls Republican. The physician is charged with six counts each of perjury and filing false documents, which carry a maximum punishment of 24 years in prison and $48,000 in fines. Prosecutors say she fraudulently attested to gathering voter signatures when she was really on a Christian mission trip to the Philippines. Bosworth lost the June 3 Republican primary with 6 percent of the vote. She was charged the next day and said she was the victim of “political persecution.”
