A small Catholic college has sued the Department of Health and Human Services, saying a new requirement to provide contraceptives contradicts the school’s religious beliefs.

Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C., said Thursday (Nov. 10) that the mandate, ordered in the health care bill passed last year, is unconstitutional because it violates the school’s freedoms of religion and speech.

Hannah Smith, senior legal counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed the suit on behalf of Belmont Abbey, said: “This is much worse than an unfunded mandate; it is a monk-funded mandate.”

The suit comes as some religious groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, say that the mandate violates the conscience of organizations that oppose contraception on moral or ethical grounds.

The 26-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the legislation does not treat religious groups neutrally and “runs roughshod” over the college’s beliefs, forcing it to either violate them or pay significant penalties.

“Having to pay a fine to the taxing authorities for the privilege of practicing one’s religion or controlling one’s own speech is un-American, unprecedented, and flagrantly unconstitutional,” the suit says.

A spokesperson for HHS could not be reached immediately for comment on Friday.

Human rights activists asked recently the Egyptian government to free hundreds of refugees from Eritrea and other African countries who have been kept hostage for one month in a desert prison.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Agenzia Habeshia, EveryOne Group and Human Rights Concern Eritrea also sent a joint appeal for urgent international intervention saying the 250 refugees have been tortured, are chained at the ankles, undergo electric shocks and lack food and water, Worthy News reported.

According to Worthy News, many of the hostages are Christians who fled persecution from their country of origin, and who paid $2,000 for passage to Israel. Instead, they were kept in purpose-built containers in the Sinai Desert by Bedouin human traffickers.

CSW told Worthy News that kidnapping, the trading of groups of asylum seekers and the trafficking of organs is common in the area and several gangs are involved. They exploit asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa and demand payment of up to $8,000 for a hostage’s release.

CSW expressed grave concern that already some 100 of the 250 refugees “were moved overnight” despite claims by the Egyptian government that it is working “round the clock” to seek the release of the victims, Worthy News reported.

CSW told Worthy News that no real progress has been made by the government. Stuart Windsor, CSW national director said, “The latest news that some of the refugees have been moved suddenly and under cover of darkness is deeply worrying. The welfare of the remaining refugees is also of great concern.”

Prior to separating and moving the Eritrean hostages, their religious materials were torn up and those who failed to make full payments were assaulted, according to Worthy News.

Case filed

Charges have been filed in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt, against traffickers by EveryOne Group and Agenzia Habeshia. However, human rights groups are also appealing to the international community to pressure Egypt to strengthen measures to free the refugees, Worthy News said.

Christians, many of them evangelicals, often flee Eritrea and other countries to escape persecution and imprisonment. In Eritrea only four religious groups are recognized, namely Islam, the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea, the Eritrean Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, Worthy News said.

However, according to Worthy News even those from recognized religions experience persecution in Eritrea, which is in the U.S. State Department’s list of “worst violators” of religious freedom. Eritrea’s government has denied persecuting anyone for their religious beliefs.

Italy appealed recently a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that bans crucifixes in the classrooms of all state schools, the Telegraph said.

The Italian government’s appeal will be raised before the Grand Chamber in Strasbourg. A decision is expected within three months and if Italy loses, crosses will be banned from all state schools in the European Union, the Telegraph said.

Credit: bjearwicke/sxc.hu

The case was initiated originally by Soile Lautsi, an Italian citizen. Lautsi was upset because her children went to a school in a small town near Venice where the cross was displayed in all of the classrooms, the Telegraph said.

When education authorities refused to take the crosses down, she filed a case in the Italian courts for several years. Finally, she brought her case to Strasbourg, the Telegraph said.

Last year the court ruled in her favor, causing an outcry in Italy where 90 percent of its people are Christian. The ruling was viewed to be invasive of the nation’s culture, religion and history, the BBC said.

The Vatican said the European court had no right to intervene, and added that the court seeks to ignore the part that Christianity played in the making of Europe’s identity, the BBC said.

Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini decried the ruling and cited the cross as a symbol of the country’s tradition, the BBC said. Gelmini added, “…If we erase symbols we erase a part of ourselves,” the Telegraph said.

Crucifixes have been displayed in all classrooms in Italy since the 1920s, the Telegraph said.

Human trafficking claims 100,000 girls annually in the U.S. alone. Photo credit: iStockphoto.

Human trafficking: it’s not a fictional plot device created by talented scriptwriters for Hollywood action flicks like Taken and TV dramas like 24.

It is a real, modern-day form of slavery in which individuals (women and young girls in particular) are taken hostage and forced and coerced into performing sexual acts for commercial profit, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

And it’s something more and more filmmakers are addressing.

Since September 2009, the five young directors, writers and producers behind “Sex and Money: A National Search for Human Worth” have traveled across the U.S. to investigate and expose one of the most illegal underground industries in the world.

While the group’s last television series primarily focused on human trafficking in other parts of the world, their new documentary will strictly investigate the U.S. sex slave trade.

Besides conducting research in Washington D.C., they have interviewed porn stars, former prostitutes, political leaders and authors in an effort to raise awareness and encourage social awakening.

Photojournalist Tim Dyk told Christianity Today’s Elissa Cooper that as Christians, “We need to be willing to go to these areas, be willing to have conversations about sex, about prostitution, about helping people who are coming out of prostitution, because even Jesus wants to [reach out to] prostitutes. He recognized that they are needy people just like anyone else, just like we are.”

Although producers are not marketing the documentary as a “Christian” film, many people who working on the project are outspoken believers. In conjunction with photogenX, a ministry of Youth With A Mission, they are striving to expose the hard truths about prostitution in America, including the “the sexual exploitation of children,” according to the film’s official web site.

“There are so many different ways that we can work [against trafficking],” said Dyk. “I just think a lot of this requires the church, as followers of Christ, to walk out in what he’s calling us to do, [and] it can look different for each person. I think people just need to see how the Spirit leads and see how they can use their gifts.”

You can find out more about “Sex + Money: A National Search for Human Worth” at their official web site: www.sexandmoneyfilm.com. You can also watch trailers and webisodes on the group’s YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/sexandmoneyglobal.

The documentary is tentatively scheduled for a fall 2010 release date.