CP World Report: Contraceptive Mandate, Verbum Domini Bible, Gay Marriage, Google
U.S. Senate Democrats made a decisive move in the controversial fight over birth control and faith. Democrats voted to table the Blunt amendment, effectively killing it. The amendment, introduced by Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, takes on the issue of whether religious employers should have to cover contraception in health plans. The measure would have reversed President Obama's policy requiring all health care plans cover them. Republican Senator Orrin hatch had this to say before it was tabled….
The "Verbum Domini" Bible exhibit is now on display at the Vatican. The diplay shows the story of the extraordinary survival of God's word in spite of the odds. While a few clicks on the web or a trip to the local bookstore are all most of us need to get their hands on a Bible, the story of recording and preserving Scriptures over thousands of years has often been a struggle. Dr. Scott Carroll, the driving force behind the exhibition scoured collections from the United States to China in search of items for the display which contains 150 biblical antiquities
Google is the predominate search engine in the world, so how are we going to protect our privacy rights when Google's new policy is said to be intrusive?
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Much of the controversy surrounding gay marriage has been centered in California with several recent court rulings that will most likely determine if same-sex unions will become permanent in the Golden State. Now, a new poll shows that public opinion on the issue is also increasing. Registered voters in California now favor same-sex unions by fifty-nine percent to thirty-two percent. The twenty-five point gap is the largest margin of support since the issue has been polled over the past thirty years. On the East Coast Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law Thursday a bill recognizing same-sex marriage, making Maryland the eighth state to do so. Although the bill is now officially law, it stipulates that no marriage licenses may be issued to same-sex couples until 2013. The bill also states that religious officials cannot be forced to perform any marriage ceremonies that would be "in violation of the Constitutional right to free exercise of religion."
Meanwhile, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has voiced support for the U.N. Human Rights Council in a call for nations to respect the human rights of gay individuals in countries where they are often targeted for violence. He also suggested that anti-gay legislation is akin to racial discrimination. In most Muslim countries the existence of homosexuality is not openly acknowledged and gay individuals can be sentenced to prison or corporal punishment, and even capital punishment in some cases. The same is the case in African countries that are not mostly Muslim, like Cameroon, which is 40 percent Christian.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has launched an unprecedented investigation of a fertility-treatment consultant, citing alleged violations of laws that ban the buying and selling of sperm, eggs and the services of surrogate mothers. The raid appears to be the first under eight-year-old federal legislation governing the fertility industry. Critics say the legislation has been ineffective in the face of widespread evidence of black-market trade in egg, sperm and surrogates.
AND IN HEALTH NEWS
You gotta have heart….Susan Hendricks introduces us to a man who gets a heart transplant and tells us about his new lease on life.
