6.5.2007

In Louisiana: Jail or Prayer?

click to enlarge photo ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson with 30 TeenPac students who observed the oral arguments over public prayer at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Copyright 2007 Alliance Defense Fund

ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson recently participated in oral arguments before the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Doe v. Tangipahoa Parish - that's 19 judges!

This is the case in which the Louisiana ACLU said that individuals offering public invocations should be "jailed" and "removed from society."

And later, the head of the Louisiana ACLU compared the school officials who allowed public invocations to Islamic terrorists (watch the video).

This prayer battle has been hard fought, but Mike offered the following report on the en banc hearing: "The oral argument went very well for our side. I felt the prayers of so many…I'm optimistic in the outcome. Thus, with God's grace the centuries' old tradition of opening public meetings with a prayer may yet survive another day."

Please be in prayer for this case. It will set an important legal precedent on public invocations.

Mixed Victory for Faith-Based Adoption Group...
Adoption Profiles, L.L.C., an Arizona company operates an online service that posts profiles of potential adoptive parents for review by birth parents who wish to put their child up for adoption. When a same-sex "couple" from Northern California submitted an application to be displayed on the site, their request was turned down. The two men subsequently filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that the company's refusal was "discrimination" under California law and demanded a posting.

In a settlement following months of difficult litigation fought by ADF, Adoption Profiles will be able to continue to operate its business without betraying its core principles. While this settlement deprives advocates of homosexual behavior of a legal precedent that could be used to force faith-based organizations to submit to their agenda, Adoption Profiles agreed to no longer accept profiles of adoptive parents from California. Tragically, we have seen another demonstration of how the radical demands of the homosexual legal agenda trump the well-being of America's children.

ADF Senior Counsel Glen Lavy says: "While we are disappointed that Adoption Profiles can no longer serve California families, we are glad that they continue to serve parents and children elsewhere without betraying the principles upon which it was founded."

Please pray for the thousands of children awaiting adoption - that they will find warm and loving homes with both a mother and a father - and not be used as pawns to further the demands of the homosexual legal agenda.

Prayer Requests | Visit the ADF prayer page
"Without Christ, we can do nothing." - John 15:5

1. Please pray for the 2007 Blackstone Legal Fellowship leadership training program which started this week.
   
2. Please pray for wisdom and victories in the legal battles ahead.