[1]NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land believe its “nuts” to believe that President Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen, and Land believed that before the president released his long-form birth certificate.
Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, made the comment during an April 24 broadcast of ABC’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour.” Amanpour had asked Land why “people like yourself” don’t challenge birther rumors about Obama.
“I do. I do all the time,” Land said. “I say the idea that he wasn’t born in Hawaii, and the idea that he’s a Muslim is just flat nuts.”
Earlier in the broadcast, Amanpour had pointed to a poll showing 18 percent of the country believing Obama is Muslim.
“I think they’re irrational, and a little imbalanced,” Land said. “I have no doubt whatsoever that Barack Obama is a very typical 21st century mainline Protestant.”
Obama’s short-form birth certificate, long-form birth certificate, and a 1961 birth announcement in the Honolulu Star Bulletin all say he was born in Hawaii. The birth announcement information came directly from the state’s health department in 1961, the newspaper has said.
[2]‘GAY MARRIAGE’ DIES IN R.I. — Rhode Island Democratic House Speaker Gordon Fox has abandoned his plans to push “same-sex marriage” legislation during this session, which ends in June. Instead, Fox, who is openly gay, said he will support civil union legislation that could be introduced this week. Civil unions provide the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples without using the word “marriage.”
“Civil unions are a judicial stepping stone to same-sex marriage,” Chris Plante, director of the Rhode Island chapter of NOM, told the Associated Press. “We’ll see what he (Fox) comes up with, but we have grave misgivings.”
In at least three states, civil unions have been used as a stepping stone to “gay marriage.”
Meanwhile, the Minnesota legislature is considering a bill that would allow residents to vote in 2012 on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In order to go to voters, the legislation would require majority support in both chambers.
According to a statewide poll released by the Minnesota Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage, 74 percent of Minnesotans believe the people should decide the definition of marriage.
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Compiled by Michael Foust, associate editor of Baptist Press. The item about Minnesota and Rhode Island is an edited story from World News Service.