Sep
09
2009
[Fox News]
If you tuned in to the soap “One Life to Live” this week, you may have noticed there’s been a change of character. One character in particular.
Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs.
Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on “OLTL” for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired.
Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian, told FOX News that character Vega’s gay-friendly dialogue was not in line with the character she helped create by drawing on her own faith.
“I did not object to being in a gay storyline. I objected to speaking the truth of what that person, how that person would live and breathe and act in that storyline,” she said. “And this goes against everything I am, my belief system, and what I know the character’s belief system is aligned to.”
Read more here.
[From me]
I don’t know about the firing but I wonder how a devout Christian could be on a soap opera in the first place. Maybe she has been a light in a dark world. But every Soap I remember seeing was nothing but smut.
What do you think?
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Feb
19
2009
[LA Times]
A classroom dispute at Los Angeles City College in the emotional aftermath of Proposition 8 has given rise to a lawsuit testing the balance between 1st Amendment rights and school codes on offensive speech.
Student Jonathan Lopez says his professor called him a “fascist bast**d” and refused to let him finish his speech against same-sex marriage during a public speaking class last November, weeks after California voters approved the ban on such unions.
When Lopez tried to find out his mark for the speech, the professor, John Matteson, allegedly told him to “ask God what your grade is,” the suit says. Lopez also said the teacher threatened to have him expelled when he complained to higher-ups.
In addition to financial damages, the suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks to strike down a sexual harassment code barring students from uttering “offensive” statements. Jean-Paul Jassy, a 1st Amendment lawyer in Los Angeles, said a number of cases have explored the tension between offensive speech and the expression of religious views. Often, he said, the decision depends on the specifics of the situation.
“Free speech really thrives when people are going back and forth, disagreeing sometimes and sometimes finding things each other says offensive, but there are limits, particularly in a school setting,” Jassy said after reviewing the lawsuit.
Lopez, a Los Angeles resident working toward an associate of arts degree, is described in the suit as a Christian who considers it a religious duty to share his beliefs, particularly with other students. He declined to comment. Matteson could not be reached.
[From me]
I guess tolerance only counts in secular colleges if you agree with a liberal point of view.
What do you think?
Feb
18
2009
[World Net Daily]
For holding up a poster that reads, “Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help you,” outside an Oakland abortion clinic, a pastor in California now awaits a judge’s sentencing that could send him to prison for harassment.
In May of 2008, Rev. Walter B. Hoye II of the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church of Berkeley, Calif., filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, arguing that an Oakland city ordinance banning counselors or protesters from approaching within eight feet of people entering an abortion clinic is a violation of constitutional free speech rights.
Twelve days later, Hoye was arrested for allegedly violating the law he was seeking to overturn.
Hoye was charged with “unlawful approach” and “harassment.”
Read more here.
[From me]
How is telling someone that they are loved harassment? The pastor was trying to protect a precious life and make sure that the lady didn’t make a decision that she would regret? It is pretty sad in the US when you can’t have freedom of speech!
What do you think?
Feb
10
2009
[San Diego Union-Tribune]
A federal judge ruled yesterday that a nondiscrimination policy at San Diego State and Long Beach State universities required for formal campus recognition does not infringe on the rights of religious groups that demand fidelity to Christian ideals and bar openly gay students.
The ruling by District Judge Larry A. Burns decides the lawsuit filed by Every Nation Campus Ministries in 2005. The group had alleged that complying with the policy violated its rights to free speech, free association and religious liberty.
Read more here.
[From me]
Why would anyone want to join a group that had beliefs different than theirs? I wouldn’t join an Atheist group or GLAAD? What’s next–a church will have to allow someone to join even if they don’t believe in God?
What do you think?
Jan
21
2009
[Los Angeles Times]
In his inaugural invocation Tuesday, evangelical Pastor Rick Warren delivered a message of unity that pleased some of his most vocal critics in the gay and lesbian community.
Yet even as the founder of Orange County’s Saddleback Church appeared to mollify those who have fought with him over gay marriage, he raised other eyebrows by invoking Jesus’ name and concluding with the Lord’s Prayer — both distinctly Christian practices on a day that has typically been characterized by more general expressions of “civil religion.”
“I don’t think he acquitted himself very well,” said Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Columbia University who considers Warren a friend. “To lead the nation in saying the Lord’s Prayer, which is so particularly Christian, was a mistake.”
Read more here.
[From me]
What would you expect from a Christian pastor? Would you ask an Auburn Football player to come to an football banquet and talk about Alabama? No, Rick Warren is a believer and his relationship with God rules his life. I would have no respect for someone who waters down their beliefs just to get a speaking opportunity. Kudos to President Obama for keeping Rick on the platform.
What do you think?
