A Mississippi senator says he will fight against the efforts of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats to break a GOP filibuster of the Defense Authorization Act because it contains an amendment designed to repeal the 1993 law that bans homosexuals from serving in the military.

Reid has scheduled a vote next week on the Senate version of the bill, which contains language to repeal the law known as Section 654, Title 10 that says homosexuality incompatible with military service, but has often been confused with Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, opposes changing the law...

The military will not reinstate any gay service members discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy despite a judge's ruling last week that the policy is unconstitutional, the Pentagon said Monday.

Though the ruling gave a boost to gay rights activists trying to overturn the policy via Congress and the courts, a Pentagon spokeswoman said the decision has no bearing on military policy.

"This ruling has no impact on the current law. The current law is still in effect," spokeswoman Cynthia Smith told FoxNews.com...

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge said she will issue an order to halt the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, after she declared the ban on openly homosexual service members unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ruled Thursday that the prohibition on openly homosexual military service members was unconstitutional because it violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of homosexual men and women. The policy, she said, doesn't help military readiness and instead has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the armed services by hurting recruitment efforts during wartime and requiring the discharge of service members who have critical skills and training...

A group opposed to ending the ban on openly gay troops in the military has released a national survey that challenges earlier independent polls asserting that a wide percentage of Americans favor repealing the ban.

The Military Culture Coalition hopes the survey by a Republican pollster will help persuade moderate to conservative Democrats to oppose President Obama's campaign promise to lift the ban as final votes in Congress loom.

The question is, is the poll too late? The House as well as the Senate Armed Services Committee have passed repeal legislation. That leaves the full Senate vote, a House-Senate conference bill, and then Mr. Obama's signature to end the 1993 law that states that open homosexuality is a threat to combat readiness...

A coalition of conservative activists who support the ban on homosexuals serving in the military has released the findings on a new poll of likely voters who prefer retention over repeal of that 1993 law.

In pushing their agenda, radical homosexual activists and other supporters of allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military have cited public opinion polls, claiming that 75 percent of Americans support the effort to repeal the law that states homosexuals are not eligible to serve in the military -- a statute that has often been confused with Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

But now, the Military Culture Coalition has released the findings of the survey it commissioned last month of 1,000 likely voters, which show little support for the current movement to repeal the law...

(CNSNews.com) – Religious leaders warn that if an Aug. 6 ruling by a federal judge on same-sex marriage is upheld, it could wind up putting a gag on Christians speaking out about homosexuality – a gag that a top Southern Baptist leader says his denomination will not accept.

In a 136-page decision barring California’s Proposition 8, which limited marriage to one man and one woman, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker found that “Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.”

Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University Law School and chairman of the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, said Walker's finding is shocking, and, if upheld, would have ominous implications for Christians wanting to present the Bible’s position on homosexuality...

(CNSNews.com) – A nationwide survey of 1,000 likely voters found that 59 percent of Democrats think that members of Congress should consider the opinions of homosexual advocacy groups over the opinions of top military commanders when considering a repeal of the law prohibiting homosexuality in the military.

The survey also showed that half of Democrats support penalizing soldiers opposed to homosexuality, including those who oppose it for religious reasons.

“Americans understand that the current push for sexual minorities in the military is motivated by politics, not principle,” Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, said in a statement about the poll results on Tuesday...

(CNSNews.com) – A professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), who was purportedly accused of “hate speech” and relieved of his teaching duties for teaching Catholic doctrine on homosexuality in his introductory class on Catholicism, will be allowed to teach the class again this fall.

In a letter last week, University of Illlinois Deputy Counsel Steven Veazie told the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) that the university will be contacting Dr. Kenneth Howell to offer him the opportunity to teach Religion 127, Introduction to Catholicism, as a visiting instructor for the fall semester.

“The University has corrected, for the time being, its academic freedom violation by not just suspending the decision to terminate him, but by bringing him back to the classroom,” ADF senior counsel David French told CNSNews.com. “It’s a huge win for academic freedom"...

A federal judge has ruled in favor of a public university that removed a Christian student from its graduate program in school counseling over her belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. Monday's ruling, according to Julea Ward's attorneys, could result in Christian students across the country being expelled from public university for similar views.

“It’s a very dangerous precedent,” Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, told FOX News Radio. “The ruling doesn’t say that explicitly, but that’s what is going to happen.”

U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh dismissed Ward’s lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University. She was removed from the school’s counseling program last year because she refused to counsel homosexual clients....

MINNEAPOLIS - Mainline Presbyterians (Presbyterian Church USA) at their General Assembly in Minneapolis could vote today to approve same-gender "marriage" and ordination.

Michael Adee, who heads the homosexual-rights group More Light Presbyterians, says he has "dreamed and prayed and worked for these moments" for years.

But the Rev. Carmen Fowler, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, says she's "heartbroken" that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is seriously considering changes she views as unbiblical.

General Assembly votes to redefine marriage and allow homosexual men and women to serve as ministers wouldn't take effect unless they're approved by a majority of the PCUSA's regional presbyteries. But a vote to let ministers preside at same-sex weddings where it's legal could take effect immediately...