Louisiana voters approve gay-marriage ban
BATON ROUGE, La. — Voters in Louisiana have become the latest to endorse an amendment to their state constitution banning same-sex marriage.
By a 78-to-22-percent majority, Louisianans approved the amendment Sept. 18. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, the total vote was 618,928 in favor of the proposal and 177,103 votes against it. It carried every parish in the state — including the generally liberal Orleans Parish, home to the city of New Orleans.
Louisiana becomes the second state this year to adopt a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage by a large majority. In August, Missouri voters passed a similar amendment by a 71 percent majority.
Voters in as many as 11 other states will vote on similar amendments in the Nov. 2 general election, although the legality some of those ballot items is currently being contested in court by gay-rights groups. (ABP)
Senate panel approves mission-restoration bill
WASHINGTON — A Senate committee has given approval to a bill that would allow federal dollars to fund the restoration and preservation of historic Catholic missions in California.
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources approved the California Missions Preservation Act Sept. 15. The bill would provide $10 million for preserving 21 Roman Catholic missions from California's Spanish colonial past.
The bill also would fund preservation of the missions' religious artworks and artifacts. Nineteen of the 21 missions are still owned by the Catholic Church, and many still host religious services.
Some church-state separationists criticized the proposal for allowing unconstitutional government funding for religious buildings. The bill is H.R. 1446. (ABP)
Bush names members of religious-freedom panel
WASHINGTON — President Bush has appointed an evangelical social-policy expert and re-appointed an American Indian Catholic archbishop to a federal panel charged with monitoring religious-freedom conditions around the world.
Bush announced the appointments Sept. 20. He appointed Michael Cromartie of Arlington, Va., to a two-year term on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Cromartie is vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and an expert on the role of evangelicals and other socially conservative Christians in public life.
Cromartie replaces Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
Bush also re-appointed Archbishop Charles Chaput to a second two-year term on the commission. Chaput has been head of the Archdiocese of Denver since 1997. Upon his installation in that post, he became the first American Indian archbishop in U.S. history. (ABP)
Congressmen blast Presbyterian move on Israel
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan and interfaith group of 14 House members has asked the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to reverse a resolution its leaders passed in July calling for divestment in Israeli interests unless the Jewish state changes its policies toward Palestinians.
The resolution “leads us to only one conclusion: The Presbyterian Church has knowingly gone on record calling for jeopardizing the existence of the State of Israel,” the legislators said in a Sept. 20 letter to the church's stated clerk, Clifton Kirkpatrick.
Signers of the letter included three Presbyterians — Reps. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.), John Linder (R-Ga.), and Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) — as well as five Jewish members, such as liberal Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
In addition, several Baptists signed the letter, including House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). (ABP)
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