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1. Civilization saved from the brink of destruction
The top courts in New York and Georgia both ruled today that state marriage laws are constitutional. The New York Times, which calls the New York decision "a crushing blow for advocates of gay and lesbian marriage," emphasizes on its home page that the "court did not rule that the state should not or could not allow gay marriages, only that the state constitution did not require that it allow them."

Or, in the language of the New York State Court of Appeals decision, "We hold that the New York Constitution does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same sex. Whether such marriages should be recognized is a question to be addressed by the Legislature."

The New York decision was split, with three judges signing on to the majority opinion, one judge concurring, and two dissenting. The Georgia Supreme Court decision, however, was unanimous—but the issue it considered was much narrower and technical. A lower court judge had thrown out Georgia's marriage amendment because the state constitution requires ballot measures to focus on a single subject; critics said the amendment's sentence "No union between persons of the same sex shall be recognized by this state as entitled to the benefits of marriage" was too broad. The Georgia Supreme Court disagreed. "[I]t is apparent that the prohibition against recognizing same-sex unions as entitled to the benefits of marriage is not 'dissimilar and discordant' to the objective of reserving the status of marriage and its attendant benefits exclusively to unions of man and woman," the justices ruled in their brief opinion.

2. Malaysia government: You can't convert from Islam to Christianity "at will"
Lina Joy is a Christian Malay. At least, that's what she says. The Malaysian government says she's still a Muslim named Azlina Jailani, and won't let her change her identity card without the Islamic Shari'ah (Syariah) courts approving her "apostasy." Meanwhile, the government says, she can't have a Christian wedding so long as she's officially a Muslim.

"The issue here is that, in order to renounce Islam, she must go to the proper channels as provided by law and she cannot renounce her religion, Islam, at will," a government lawyer argued at Malaysia's Federal Court, the nation's highest judicial authority, yesterday. "The issue of renunciation is a matter pertaining to the akidah (faith) of a Muslim transgressed into the realism of the Syariah Law, which needs serious consideration and proper interpretation of such laws. As such, only the Syariah Court and/or bodies are qualified to make such a determination."

Compass Direct reported in April that the Syariah courts have never granted permission for a Malaysian Muslim to leave Islam.

3. U.K. call to regulate churches
AFRUCA (Africans Unite Against Child Abuse), a British charity, says recent high-profile cases of child exorcisms and anti-witchcraft actions in African churches in the U.K. demonstrate the need to regulate religious practices. "AFRUCA is calling for the establishment of a registration and monitoring system to regulate the faith sector and ensure anyone who wants to set up any place of worship is vetted to ensure they are fit to do so," the organization says in a press release. "We believe such a system should help to weed out unscrupulous persons and ensure they are fit to be spiritual leaders with responsibilities for vulnerable families and their children most of whom rely exclusively on their faith networks for support, help and assistance in settling into their lives in the country." Of course, child abuse is already a crime in the U.K., so this measure would simply ensure that churches are forced to be churches in precisely the way that the government wishes them to be.

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July (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50