Conservative Culture

[Picture: Columbus Dispatch] A lawyer testifying for stiffer penalties for the same crimes was himself caught in a child-sex sting. The person was former children’s services lawyer. I believe he won’t be asked to testify again. The age of the child he expect t meet was 14. Bond is set for $50,000.

[AP] COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A former children’s services lawyer was arrested in an Internet child-sex sting Wednesday in the basement of the Ohio Statehouse, minutes after the investigator who lured him there testified two floors above in favor of a bill that would increase penalties for such crimes.

Barry Mentser, 48, of nearby Gahanna, thought he had been communicating online with a 15-year-old girl, said Lt. Jeff Braley, a detective from Hamilton Township in Warren County in southwest Ohio. Braley said he posed as the girl to set up a Statehouse meeting with Mentser.

Braley, who said he had been communicating with the man for about a year, testified before the state Senate Criminal Justice Committee in favor of a bill that would set mandatory sentences of one to five years for importuning by telecommunications, a statute aimed at sexual offenders who seek out children through the Internet.

Braley said later that he didn’t arrange the sting at the Statehouse to draw attention to the bill or his testimony, but that he knew Mentser was in the Columbus area and that police were aware of his identity.

Another related issue to the marriage expansion. Teachers, students and administrators are not allowed to share their own views on same sex marriage issues that would reflect on same sex orientated people in a negative light. They are required to “preach” the State policy. Welcome to the Newest Step toward the a real “RED” state. Sound’s like what happened in the Soviet Union and how they neutralized the “state” churches.

[Christian Examiner]  Silencing schools
In signing the California Student Civil Rights Act, known as SB 777, the governor has made it illegal for any public school to use curricula, other resource materials and activities that portrays gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered in a negative light.

Ron Prentice, president of the California Family Council, in a meeting of 175 San Diego pastors held the day before the Los Angeles briefing, warned that SB 777 is intended to silence teachers, administrators, staff and students from sharing their faith and beliefs regarding alternative lifestyles.

“You need to know that for many, many years the homosexual lobby has been pursuing this agenda. … The reality is there is a very clear agenda, and they almost accomplished all of it,” Prentice said.

One of the few remaining holdouts, he said, is traditional marriage, although domestic partnership laws granted by the state of California have already bestowed most traditional marriage rights to same-sex couples.

“Everything is moving toward an annihilation of the traditional, biblical and historic definition of marriage between one man and one woman,” he said.

Prentice told the spiritual leaders that he believes the ultimate goal of the pursuit of same-sex marriage is not for the right to marry, but to normalize homosexuality. In Sweden, he added, where same-sex marriage is legal, less than 3 percent of same-sex couples actually wed.

“Heterosexual marriage is built on commitment and covenant before the Lord, and homosexual relationships are something very, very different,” Prentice said.

Ministers are taking the lead on a new project meant to educate Christians on vital family related issues.

[Christian Examiner] Pastors take lead in opposition against push for same-sex marriage
New ‘God’s Design for Marriage’ project seeks state constitutional amendment

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A new coalition of pastors who have committed energies and resources into supporting a state constitutional amendment protecting marriage are hoping the concept across California.

“God’s Design for Marriage” was launched Oct. 16 in San Diego to encourage pastors to get involved in efforts to block the legalization of same-sex marriage in California.

Jim Garlow, senior pastor of Skyline Church in La Mesa, and Miles McPherson, pastor of the Rock Church in San Diego, brought their message to Los Angeles Oct. 17 during the California Restoration Project’s pastors’ policy briefing. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was the guest speaker.

Organizers gave Garlow a few minutes to share about a burgeoning movement in San Diego.

“They seemed responsive,” Garlow said a few days after the meeting. “The response was extremely strong. I think there is high motivation to take action, a high motivation to do something.”

Lynne Ruttkay, who leads a Salt and Light Ministry at Maranatha Church in Rancho Bernardo, said she’s involved in a project with Calvary Church affiliates statewide to notify pastors of a pending signature drive to place the matter on the November 2008 ballot.

Salt and Light ministries are a relatively new movement that educates Christians about vital family-centered issues such as religious freedom, homosexuality and abortion. Ruttkay said Calvary was already in the process of forming a statewide Salt and Light leadership team to develop local ministries when the issue of same-sex marriage recently escalated.

This type of news seems to come in waves and then subside. It appears that Ireland is on the way to giving some legal status to same-sex couples. The issue is being driven by the Labour Party and Green Party.

[Ireland.com] Same-sex couples to get legal status

Plans to give legal recognition to same-sex couples have been announced.

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Brian Lenihan said last night that the heads of a Bill to legislate for civil partnerships would be ready by March and detailed legislation would proceed as quickly as possible.

But the Government has ruled out gay marriage as being in conflict with the Constitution.

The Government opposed a Labour Party Bill on civil unions on the basis that the advice of the Attorney General was that it was contrary to the explicit recognition given to the family based on marriage in the Constitution.

The Green Party, which supported the Labour Bill in spring, backed the Government. The Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, said he was pleased that for the first time the State would recognise same-sex partnerships.

The Labour Party spokesman on the Constitution and Law Reform, Brendan Howlin, described the Government rejection of his party’s Bill as “a shameful abdication of responsibility on the part of the three parties in Government”.

Mr Lenihan said last night that many same-sex couples wanted to be recognised within society and to create mutually enforceable rights and obligations towards each other.

But he was adamant that the mechanism proposed by the Labour Party was not the way to achieve this objective because it referred to the rights and duties of marriage as similarly applying to parties to civil unions.