At the request of the U.S. Justice Department, a federal appellate court dismissed on Friday an attempt by the Justice Department to require that its birth control mandate go into effect for Tyndale House Publishers while its lawsuit is pending.

The retreat means the Obama administration is getting nervous about defending its position that a Bible publisher is not religious enough to warrant an exemption from the birth control mandate, argues Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Tyndale House in the case.

"Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish," Bowman said. "The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn't religious enough to qualify as a religious employer. For the government to say that a Bible publisher isn't religious is outrageous, and now the Obama administration has had to retreat in court." more >>

An Ohio company that manufactures reservoirs for air brakes has filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services over the "preventive services" mandate.

Johnson Welded Products, Inc. of Urbana filed their complaint on Tuesday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

"Plaintiffs seek a preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining the challenged mandate and a declaration that the mandate violates federal constitutional and statutory law," reads the suit in part. more >>

The Food and Drug Administration announced its approval of making Plan B or the "morning after" pill available for women as young as 15 years of age without a prescription.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg said in a statement Tuesday that the FDA approved an amended application by Teva Women's Health, Inc. to begin marketing Plan B to women 15 and older sans a prescription.

"Research has shown that access to emergency contraceptive products has the potential to further decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States," said Hamburg. more >>

President Obama's new "religious tolerance" consultant to the Pentagon, Mikey Weinstein, wants Christian military service members who openly talk about their faith in uniform to be charged with treason, which is a crime punishable by death according to military law.

By employing his consulting services, and as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama is effectively endorsing Weinstein's recently voiced and written views such as: "Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized [sic] and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation's armed forces."

Weinstein's inflamed word picture helps the rest of us understand what the world looks like to those who live with their eyes wide shut and sort of sounds like that old cereal commercial… except this time Mikey doesn't like it – Christianity, that is, so no one else should. And Mikey's giving the rest of us an object lesson in intolerance by showing us what liberal secularists are about: "It's our way, or we shut you down." In this case, Obama's anti-Christian hit man, Weinstein, proposes that honorable men and women in the military who speak about their faith should be charged with a crime worthy of capital punishment. Smells like bull to me. more >>

A couple of months back I wrote about the issues of school-based violence and how it is killing our school system and our students. I noted that over 857 students drop out of school each hour of the school day and that some 4,500 commit suicide each year as a result of this violence.

To combat this, I proposed the use of Collaborative Justice principles that marry Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice practices so that victims are given an actual voice and that offenders atone for their offenses through the use of Reintegrative Shaming techniques among others. Finally, I suggested the use of my own Shalom-centric Holistic Intersocial Forgiveness Transformation (S.H.I.F.T.) Theory. Specifically, S.H.I.F.T. is a three-fold understanding of forgiveness based on three distinct definitions of forgiveness as it relates to the three parties to an offense: the victim, the offender and the community. In regards to S.H.I.F.T., I contended that all parties had to forgive in order for them transcend past the conflict.

Since that time, it would appear that I have struck a chord with multiple groups. Non-Christians want to ignorantly throw Deuteronomy in as an alleged "Christian" way of handling conflict and therefore claim that my position is "un-Christian" – which is both absurd and laughable. Some Christians disagree with my stance only because I suggested treating others more as Christ would rather than converting them to Christianity – a difference in theology where I contend that people must see Christ in you so that they can see a compelling justification to turn to Christ as their one and only Savior. Finally, actual professionals in the field of Peace and Forgiveness Studies took exception to by my S.H.I.F.T. Theory because they felt that the use of "must" can easily be translated to mean "forced" in regards to forgiveness – which is a valid point but any forced forgiveness is truly no forgiveness at all if it does not come from the heart. more >>

Editor's Note: Warning, graphic material in the following article.

Abortionist Kermit Gosnell, 72, could receive the death penalty or life in prison if jurors find him guilty of any one of the four counts of first-degree murder for killing four babies born alive in his West Philadelphia abortion clinic. He also faces charges for one count of third-degree murder in the death of patient Karnamaya Mongar who died at his clinic in 2009.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday. more >>