Free Republic

ISTANBUL, Turkey (BP) -- Iran's Ministry of Intelligence has ordered the last two officially registered churches holding Friday Farsi-language services in Tehran to discontinue them. Emmanuel Protestant Church and St. Peter's Evangelical Church were the last two official churches offering services on Fridays in Tehran in Iran's primary language, according to Middle East Concern (MEC). Officials issued the order on Feb. 10. Emmanuel and St. Peter's, both Presbyterian churches, are among Tehran's few registered churches that mainly serve the Armenian and Assyrian communities. The churches' Armenian- and Assyrian- language services are typically held on Sundays. In 2009, authorities had ordered...

When it comes to America’s first freedom, religious freedom, the Obama Administration has strong rhetoric – but its policies, regulations, and actions reveal a very different agenda. President Barack Obama recently issued a national proclamation commemorating Religious Freedom Day. With his words, he honored the aspiration of countless settlers who came to America “to practice their beliefs free from prejudice and persecution.” Last Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast, the president, with his words, praised his “strengthened White House faith-based initiative” that has “partnered with Catholic Charities to help Americans who are struggling with poverty.” However, the President’s lofty words...

The American bishops have, with alacrity, rejected President Obama's proposed "accommodation" on the contraception mandate in no uncertain terms. Their response came before the sun had set on the very day of his announcement. Noting that the "proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions," the Catholic hierarchy virtually guaranteed more political hemorrhaging for the White House. The bishops indicated that they were not consulted in advance of the President's announcement and had just received information about...

Barack Obama may have just lost the election. He has foolishly gone to war in an election year with tens of millions of Catholics, Protestants and Jews — Democrat, Republican and independent alike. He has thrown down a radical feminist gauntlet and dared the Church to pick it up. They've picked it up. From running up trillions in debt and deficit, to the vast expansion of the size and scope of federal bureaucracy, Mr. Obama has done more in three years to supplant our 236 year-old Constitutional Republic with a Euro-style socialist autocracy — than a lesser Marxist could have...

Over the last two weeks Catholics have heard read letters read at Mass which were written by the Catholic Bishops of the United States. We have been asked to rise up in prayer, fasting, Catholic Action in response to an unjust Edict issued by Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, on January 20, 2012. This mandate requires all employers, including Catholic and other religious employers, to cover sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception in their health care plans. The "exemption" provided for religious employers does not cover hospitals, universities, soup kitchens, outreaches to the poor and many other vital...

Last week’s landmark Supreme Court decision on religious liberty involves much more than just the freedom of churches to choose their ministers. It goes to the heart of the exceptional kind of country America is designed to be. It’s also yet another warning to persons in the charitable sector that overweening government is not their friend. The best evidence for that charge? The fact that all nine members of the court flatly rejected the government’s claims to power over religious groups in civil society. Even Obama appointees Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor signed on to Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion, which...

Paul Marshall of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom Washington D.C., Dec 6, 2011 / 02:51 pm (CNA).- A religious liberty expert is concerned that the U.S. State Department appears to be collaborating with a group that has worked to outlaw criticism of Islam around the world.“The U.S. government should not be getting into the business of trying to shape what people say about religion,” said Paul Marshall, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom.Marshall made his remarks to CNA on Dec. 5, after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited the Saudi Arabia-based Organization of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. December 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a speech designed to convince the world that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said religious objections to homosexuality should not stand in the way of vigorous United Nations action to promote the homosexual rights agenda. On Tuesday, Clinton said promoting the global acceptance of “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people” is “one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time,” likening the effort to ending racial, sexual, or religious discrimination. She noted that perhaps the “most challenging issue arises when...

Those of us who are paying attention, who see—and can read—the writing on the wall, plainly understand that the radical sodomite agenda and America’s constitutionally-protected freedom of religion cannot coexist. The two are mutually exclusive, and Macy’s department store has given us yet another proof of this truth, which I will explain in a few moments. The advancement of the militant homosexual agenda has reached “warp speed” under Barack Obama (or whatever his name is). He has packed his administration with homosexuals, refused to defend the federal law of the Defense of Marriage Act, and signed away the sanity of...

President Obama must prevent the shutting down of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The need for its work has never been so acute as Islamists gain power. Prof. Phyllis Chesler Prof. Phyllis Chesler is the author of fifteen books, including Women and Madness (Doubleday, 1972), The Death of Feminism: What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and most recently, The New Anti-Semitism. She is the co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology and the National Women's Health Network. â–º More from this writer Time has run out for the cause of worldwide religious...

...Texas Gov. Rick Perry is on the attack, claiming in a new TV ad that President Obama is waging a "War on Religion," and he's the GOP candidate that can defend faith in America. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. As President, I'll end Obama's war on religion. And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage," says...

It’s an Obama world. While we were preoccupied with other disastrous Obama policies, military bureaucrats under Barack Obama passed a new rule that barred loved ones from bringing Bibles to wounded soldiers. The US Military says they are rescinding the order but only after a Republican lawmaker denounced the policy on the House floor. Todd Starnes reported: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said they are rescinding a policy that prohibits family members of wounded military troops from bringing Bibles or any religious reading materials to their loved ones. The decision to rescind the ban on Bibles came exactly one...

>As Christmas shoppers flock to stores, the familiar sights and sounds of Salvation Army bell-ringers with red kettles will prompt many to toss in their coins and remember the less fortunate. But not everyone is in a giving mood. MSNBC.com reported last week that some LGBT activists are urging people to ignore the bell-ringers because the Salvation Army holds Biblical views that the activists claim are bigoted. The Salvation Army adamantly denies that it discriminates against anyone, including LGBT, who seeks its services or programs. Gay leaders are not satisfied. Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, said, “We...

Confronting elements of President Obama’s healthcare legislation that are so fundamentally restrictive of religious freedom that Jesus “would not qualify as ‘religious,’” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been engaged in a protracted struggle to defend the integrity of Roman Catholic doctors in the face of a federal government seemingly bent on requiring them to act against their consciences. As a reward for their labors, House Minority Leader — and self-proclaimed “devout Catholic” — Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has belittled the bishops as nothing more than “lobbyists in Washington, D.C.” As reported in late September for The New American,...

Their sign warns those who are "Drunks, homosexuals, abortionist, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, witches, idolators" that "Hell awaits you." Their hearing will be in Houston Municipal Court, which is run by Barbara E. Hartle, who, according to the Dallas Voice, is listed by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund as "one of only a few out members of the Texas judiciary." She was appointed to the position by Houston Mayor Annise Parker, identified by the Los Angeles Times as "the first lesbian to head a major American city." Allen told WND that no matter what happens, the fact that...

From Our Store: Essays in Apologetics, Volume I (eBook) What is finally emerging as the sticking point between the Vatican and the Society of Saint Pius X is the question of the assent owed to the Second Vatican Council. This is now the subject of an important essay in L’Osservatore Romano by one of the key negotiators for the Vatican, the vicar general of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocariz. Note that there is a link to the full text at the end of our news story, which itself includes substantial quotations.I hate to say I told you so, but Msgr. Ocariz...

Ethnic Fulanis crying ‘Allahu akbar!’ attack church, communities. BARKIN LADI, Nigeria, November 28 (CDN) — Fulani Muslim herdsmen along with Muslim soldiers have killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state in the past week, Christians in this northern-central Nigerian town said. Smaller attacks beginning on Nov. 20, reportedly over allegations by Fulani Muslims of cattle theft, preceded an attack on a Barkin Ladi church on Nov. 23 that killed four Christians, and an assault the next day left 35 Christians dead in Barkin Ladi and nearby Kwok village, according to area Christian leaders. Church attendance was decimated...

VATICAN, November 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One of the highest ranking cardinals in the Vatican has said that the United States is “well on the way” to the persecution of Christians. Cardinal Raymond Burke Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis and now the head of the Vatican’s highest court, told Catholic News Agency that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S., “even by announcing her own teaching,” is accused of “engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality.” Asked if the cardinal could even see American Catholics being arrested...

Nohad Halawi, who worked at Heathrow Airport, is suing her former employers for unfair dismissal, claiming that she and other Christian staff at the airport were victims of systematic harassment because of their religion. She claims that she was told that she would go to Hell for her religion, that Jews were responsible for the September 11th terror attacks, and that a friend was reduced to tears having been bullied for wearing a cross. Mrs Halawi, who came to Britain from Lebanon in 1977, worked in the duty-free section as a perfume saleswoman of the airport for 13 years but...

NEW YORK, NY, November 25, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the aftermath of the legalization of gay “marriage� in New York state, some commentators had wondered why, despite their leadership role in the fight against the law, the state’s Catholic bishops’ efforts had ultimately seemed so strangely half-hearted, given the high stakes. One of these was gay activist Terence Weldon. Writing after the vote at the blog “Queering the Church,� he said: “the really interesting thing about the Catholic bishops and NY gay marriage is not how vigorously they fought against it (as the headlines would have it), but how lukewarm...

A judge has acquitted a controversial pro-family activist from a July 2008 charge of trespassing at a Canadian university. William (Bill) Whatcott was arrested by campus security at the University of Calgary and put into a holding cell for distributing a pamphlet that addressed the “harmful consequences” of homosexuality. Whatcott, in an email to LifeSiteNews, called the ruling a “victory for all Canadians who value freedom of expression and religious liberty on our university campuses.” Judge J.D. Bascom ruled from the Provincial Court of Alberta on November 15th that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms “applies” to the University...

WASHINGTON, November 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) — In a rare successful pushback against the pro-gay rights corporate culture, customers of Bank of America and the Cisco Corporation have won a promise from the two companies not to discriminate against employees or vendors who publicly oppose same-sex “marriage.” The National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) Corporate Fairness Project announced Nov. 7 that both companies, which the leading gay rights group Human Rights Campaign had rated favorably, backtracked on a decision to cancel seminars by Frank Turek, who is a traditional marriage advocate. Frank Turek was 'fired' by both Cisco and Bank of America...

Christopher Manion This past September, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, President of the USCCB, sent President Obama a letter that was long overdue. “I write with a growing sense of urgency about recent actions taken by your Administration that both escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage,” the archbishop wrote. “The Justice Department’s [attack on the Defense of Marriage Act], in addition to other troubling federal decisions occurring recently, prompts me yet again to register my grave concerns.”Archbishop Dolan’s public overture represents a significant departure from the path of his predecessors. Only...

The conference has formed a new “religious liberty” committee, the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty and is hiring another attorney and lobbyist to address “religious liberty and marriage issues” on Capitol Hill. The Committee is also planning to lobby against a Congressional repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and the military’s repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Sadly, as part of this change in focus, the term “religious liberty” is being redefined away from protecting the rights to speak, believe, and practice religion. Instead, “religious liberty” is apparently the right to receive government money without restrictions. And we...

Michael Gerson thinks Obama's "Catholic strategy" is in shambles. I think he's wrong. In fact, I think that from the perspective of President Obama and his most ardent supporters (that is, those who will vote for him no matter how bad the economy is), this administration's "Catholic strategy" has been quite successful. Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, writes the following in a November 16th column for The Washington Post: In 2009, Notre Dame University set off months of intra-Catholic controversy by inviting a champion of abortion rights to deliver its commencement address. When the day arrived,...

[first paragraph omitted -- so that useful paragraphs might be excerpted...] ... The shepherds of America's 65 million Roman Catholics met this week for their fall conference, where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops created a new Committee for Religious Liberty. Father William E. Lori, bishop for Bridgeport, Conn., and chairman of the new group, told the assembled men of the cloth that "there is no religious liberty if we are not free to express our faith in the public square and if we are not free to act on that faith." The church has been embroiled in several skirmishes...

SAN FRANCISCO (BP) -- Supporters of California Proposition 8 won a major victory at the California Supreme Court Thursday in a case that could have a significant impact on the future of gay "marriage" in America. The justices unanimously ruled that the official proponents of Prop 8 have the right to defend the state constitutional amendment in federal court -- an important decision because the governor and attorney general have refused to defend it. In finding that Prop 8 proponents have what's called legal standing, the justices tossed the issue back to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which...

OTTAWA, Ontario, November 18, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s federal government has officially backed a private members bill seeking to repeal a controversial ‘hate speech’ provision that has been used to prosecute Christians and other conservatives for years. In response to a question on Wednesday by Conservative MP Brian Storseth (Westlock-St. Paul, AB), who introduced the bill to repeal section 13 of the Canada Human Rights Act on September 30, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson signaled what is likely the clause’s death knell. The ruling Conservatives have a sizeable majority in both houses and the bill is also expected to draw some...

GRASSTOPSUSA.COM - GIVE YOUR VALUES A VOICE In an email today, Chris Carmouche of GrassTopsUSA.com reports that the same sex marriage bill could have died in Senate Judiciary Committee, if not for the complicity of every Republican member. The Republicans on that committee are: Chuck Grassley (Iowa) - Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (Utah) Jon Kyl (Arizona) Jeff Sessions (Alabama) Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) John Cornyn (Texas) Michael Lee (Utah) Tom Coburn (Oklahoma) Here's the bulk of the email: GOP Senators Who Voted For Gay Marriage Before They Voted Against It So-Called "Homosexual Marriage" May Now Become The Law Of The...

<p>America’s Catholic bishops are planning how to strategically engage in the politically-charged issues of gay marriage, and access to abortion and contraception during their annual fall meeting.</p> <p>A portion of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ three-day meeting starting Nov. 14 in Baltimore will be used to strategize their already-tense relationship with the Obama administration and the public. Maryland was one of the first states to protect religious freedom.</p>

The Catholic Diocese of Belleville and Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois said Thursday that they would part ways in the wake of a new state law that granted same-sex couples the right to seek civil unions and disrupted the work of Catholic agencies working in foster care and adoption. The announcement came in separate statements months after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services stopped referring foster care and adoption cases to Catholic charitable groups. Catholic agencies have refused to license same-sex couples in civil unions as foster parents, a position the state sees as discriminatory. The Catholic...

LEDYARD, N.Y. (AP) - A town clerk in upstate New York's Finger Lakes region who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs has won her re-election race.Longtime Ledyard town clerk Rose Marie Belforti defeated Ed Easter, a write-in candidate who said he ran because Belforti's stance on licenses was wrong.New York became the sixth and largest state to sanction gay marriage this summer. Belforti said her Christian beliefs preclude her from issuing licenses to same-sex couples. Her solution was to have her office issue all marriage licenses by appointment so a deputy can...

Incumbent Rose Marie Belforti on Tuesday won re-election as town clerk in Ledyard in a race that divided townspeople and drew national attention over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Belforti, a Republican, defeated Ed Easter, of Aurora, who launched a write-in candidacy some six weeks ago after learning of his opponent’s stance against the state’s recently passed Marriage Equality Act. Belforti’s position polarized residents in this mostly rural town of about 1,900 residents on the east side of Cayuga Lake. The township includes the village of Aurora, home to Wells College. By mid-afternoon nearly...

IRAN: Act by 9 November to call for Pastor Nadarkhani's pardon during Eid Pastor Nadarkhani was arrested in Rasht in 2009 while attempting to register his church. In 2010 he was tried and found guilty of apostasy (abandoning Islam), and was sentenced to death. He now awaits a decision on his case from the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, and a formal written verdict. His life is still in the balance.

As a transplanted Michigander, I’ve always maintained pride in my home state. I’ve only owned American cars. I believed in the Lions even during the really dismal years. I still point to my hand to show people which part of the state I’m from. But the Michigan legislature is doing its best to make me hang my head in shame. On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled state senate passed an anti-bullying bill that manages to protect school bullies instead of those they victimize. It accomplishes this impressive feat by allowing students, teachers, and other school employees to claim that “a sincerely held...

House Democrats today filed a brief in support of a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. The amicus brief filed by 133 Democrats, including the party’s top leaders, maintains that Congress hastily passed legislation during President Bill Clinton’s presidency to limit who can marry and asserts that the law is unconstitutional. The brief was filed in a consolidated court case being considered in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, although a release said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other top Democratic leaders...

ROME, Ga. (BP) -- A "Personal Lifestyle Statement" for employees of Shorter University has placed the Georgia Baptist school in the news. The lifestyle stipulations, which employees of the university must sign or risk termination, is one of four new policy statements adopted by the university's board of trustees. The lifestyle statement includes requirements that employees: -- agree with the university's Statement of Faith. -- be active members of a local church. -- "reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality." -- abstain from alcohol in...

NEW YORK — When Timothy Dolan arrived in New York nearly three years ago to take over the state's Catholic Archdiocese, his "brother bishops" had a bleak warning to deliver."We've got a bruising battle coming up over same-sex marriage," he remembers being told in his first meeting with local clergy. "We are not going to relent, we are going to give it everything we've got. But you need to know that the fortune-tellers are telling us that we ain't gonna win."The Roman Catholic Church had long been at the forefront of the fight over defining marriage in the Empire State,...

Gay Couples To Be Allowed Civil Ceremonies In Church Homosexual couples will be able to take part in civil partnerships in church and other places of worship from next month, it will be announced. It is estimated that about 1,500 civil partnerships a year would take place in religious settings once the ban is lifted. By Andrew Porter, and Martin Beckford 01 Nov 2011 Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, will say that the ban on the ceremonies in religious surroundings will be lifted on Dec 5. The move has been championed by David Cameron but is likely to be opposed...

Shorter University in Rome, Ga., is requiring its employees to certify that they are not gay as a condition of employment. All 200 employees of the Baptist university, located about 65 miles northwest of Atlanta, received a "personal lifestyle statement" last Wednesday, which they must sign or risk being fired. Employees must pledge to be "active members of a local church" and to abstain from, among other things, drug use, premarital sex and homosexual behavior. "I reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality," the statement...

Lorna Jose Mendoza has been given a choice. She can either assist in an abortion this week at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, or she could refuse and risk losing her job. Mendoza is one of a dozen nurses who filed suit today against the hospital – accusing them of violating federal and state law by forcing them to assist in abortions against their religious and moral objections. “The hospital told the nurses they have no regard for their religious beliefs,” said Matthew Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund. “They were going to be assigned...

(AINA) -- In mid-October Egyptian media published news of an altercation between Muslim and Christian students over a classroom seat at a school in Mallawi, Minya province. The altercation lead to the murder of a Christian student. The media portrayed the incident as non-sectarian. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic news website, refuted this version and was first to report that the Christian student was murdered because he was wearing a crucifix. "We wanted to believe the official version," said activist Mark Ebeid, "because the Coptic version was a catastrophe, as it would take persecution of Christians also to schools."...

I recently read an article that said that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world and nowhere more persecuted than in the middle east. Pope Benedict recently expressed concern for the persecution of Christians around the world. Coptic Christians have been repeatedly slaughtered in Egypt, both pre and post Arab Spring.  Earlier this month Egyptian forces drove over Coptic Christians in military vehicles at a rally in Cairo. ACN reports: Christians in Egypt are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries. This statement was made by the Coptic Orthodox Bishop Stephanos of Beba and Elfashn to the...

Former SNP leader Gordon Wilson has failed in his bid to be re-elected to the board of Dundee's Citizens Advice Bureau. Members withdrew their support from Mr Wilson over concerns about his outspoken criticism of gay marriage. The 73-year-old is chairman of Dundee-based Christian faith group Solas, which is calling for a referendum on same-sex marriage. A Scottish government consultation on the issue was launched this month. In a statement, the director of Dundee Citizens Advice Bureau, Mary Kinninmonth said: "It's sad that the tremendous achievements and work of Dundee CAB has been overshadowed by an issue which called into...

Pastor Nadarkhani Is One of Many Christian Leaders Suffering Persecution in Iran Iranian officials are attempting to convert Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani while he awaits his verdict under the jurisdiction of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported. CSW has been informed that during Nadarkhani’s stay in prison, guards and officials have provided him with religious Islamic literature “allegedly as part of an official campaign to convert Christian prisoners.” “CSW is deeply concerned at news of a further increase in the harassment of Iranian Christians,” CSW Special Ambassador Stuart Windsor said in a statement. Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor,...

WASHINGTON — In an escalation of the U.S. bishops’ campaign against “grave threats to religious liberty,” Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., endorsed three bills designed to strengthen First Amendment rights. The bishop, who heads the newly established Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops testified before Congress yesterday, Oct. 26. “I am here today to call to your attention grave threats to religious liberty that have emerged even since June — grim validations of the bishops’ recognition of the need for urgent and concerted action in this area,” said the bishop. “I focus...

An employee with the New York Archdiocese warned of an “impending persecution” after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called same-sex “marriage” opponents discriminatory and “anti-American” last week.

No Way Out: A campaign by Christian Solidarity Worldwide Egyptian Christians need your support now more than ever. After living with the threat of discrimination, harassment or violence for decades, they are highly vulnerable. This long-planned campaign has the chance to bring hope and change to Egypt's Christians as the vital reform process begins. Speak up for Egypt’s Coptic community As peaceful protests turned violent in Cairo this week, we need your help to speak up for Egyptian Christians in the face of increasing sectarian attacks. Peaceful demonstrations led to bloodshed on Sunday as a crowd of thousands of Coptic...

A New Jersey high school teacher became the center of a Facebook controversy on Thursday after writing on the site that “homosexuality is a perverted spirit that has existed from the beginning of creation” and complaining about a school display recognizing October as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History month. The teacher, Viki Knox, posted a photo of a display from the school, Union High School in Union Township, on her personal Facebook page last week. It included photos of Virginia Woolf, Harvey Milk and Neil Patrick Harris. When a friend asked if the school had really put it up,...

The principal at a Catholic elementary school in Winnipeg faces possible dismissal after he allowed students to count the 40 Days for Life vigil towards community service hours. Principal David Hood of Christ the King School advertised the local 40 Days campaign in a recent newsletter and then allowed students who approached him to join the vigil to satisfy part of the 10 hours of community service required of grade 7 and 8 students. The move led to a media firestorm this week with calls for the school, which is independent and under the auspices of the Archdiocese, but receives...