Chairman’s Thoughts

OneNewsNow.com - Sixteen Catholic senators recently voted against an amendment that would have restored the Mexico City Policy. The policy, instituted by President Reagan in 1984, prohibited U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding organizations that perform or promote abortions in foreign countries. Catholic activist Judie Brown, president of American Life League, says she was especially disappointed by the vote of a freshman Democrat from Pennsylvania who claims to be pro-life.

“Other than Robert Casey, who is an enormous disappointment to me, I think we could have expected the pro-abortion vote from the other 15 so-called Catholic senators,” says Brown. “It’s no surprise to me that those 15 individuals voted against life because they’ve been doing so consistently for a very long period of time.”

Brown says that Senator Casey (D-Pennsylvania) ran on an “alleged pro-life platform” and that she suspects that he was “deceiving the voters in Pennsylvania and is indeed as pro-abortion as his fellow pro-abortion Democrats and Republicans.” She is calling on her fellow Catholics, and Christian people in general, to contact the bishops in the diocese where these senators reside and ask them to publicly condemn their vote.

I firmly believe, as do the majority of the American people, that the United States needs to build a culture of life where every unborn child is welcomed into life. No matter where people fall within the abortion debate, I think that the majority of us can agree that using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions abroad is a bad thing. The U.S. Government is 9 trillion dollars in debt. Bankrolling abortions around the world is not what we need our government to do. As a nation, we need to help future generations by handing them a nation which is flourishing and free from heavy debt.  Most importantly we need to give future generations a chance to live and make the world a better place.

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London (CNSNews.com)- Christian groups are warning that proposed new equality laws could wreak havoc on British churches and lead to the further secularization of society.  As part of its efforts to streamline decades’ worth of anti-discrimination law, the British government is currently drawing up a new Single Equality Bill, which is expected to come before parliament soon.

Having studied draft proposals released earlier this year, the (Anglican/Episcopalian) Church of England said in a formal response that the new laws could be twisted and turned against religious charities that operate in the public sector.

For example, it charged that charities might be accused of harassment if they displayed crucifixes on their walls or said grace before meals. In other areas, clergy might be compelled to marry someone who had undergone a sex-change operation, despite the fact that doing so would go against their religious beliefs.

Though the church approved of much about the new proposals, it expressed concern that they formed part of the trend of trying to achieve religious equality by eliminating belief in public institutions.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, a spokeswoman for the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, said Thursday the proposals could be dangerous.

Anti-Christian activists could attend church services and then file harassment suits against pastors who preached sermons that offended them, she said.

“What you’re going to get is that a church is going to be targeted,” she said. “Possibly a big one.”

In recent years, Williams said Christian groups in Britain had been singled out more, a trend which the new proposals would only exacerbate.  Christian organizations on university campuses have been refused classroom space and funding from student governments, while one Christian-oriented radio station has been the focus of a systematic campaigns to have it shut down, she noted.  Within the last year, religious groups and the British government also have battled over new regulations that comprehensively outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation.  Charities complained that they would have to rent their halls to homosexual-rights organizations.  Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops unsuccessfully lobbied for exemptions for Christian adoption agencies.

My friends, I tell you that laws similar to this have been proposed within the U.S. Congress - luckily so far they have not become law. These so called “anti-discrimination laws” are really “anti-church” laws and they are designed to weaken all churches ability to teach according to their faith and render financially impotent churches that fail to secularize. Enemies of freedom will work to make these “anti-church” laws the law of not only Europe, but the law in Canada, Mexico and even the United States of America. Please pray for freedom.  Keep your ears open to your members of Congress and the Presidential candidates to see what they say about “anti-discrimination laws”.   Then vote against those that support “anti-discrimination laws” that limit a church’s freedom to teach according to its faith.  If these type of ideas become law, your church could lose its religious freedom. The very fine line between a church’s freedom of beliefs-what they believe, profess, and live-and the government’s power is becoming gray.  This issue raises the question: Is there really a separation of church and state? And what does that really mean? Most Americans want religion in their lives.  They want God and morality. 

Why can’t the government just allow freedom of expression for both churches and homosexuals?  It is wrong to silence the church and these laws can in-effect do just that.

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Iranian leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has threatened to wipe the nation of Israel off of the map.  Terrorists have the goal of killing the maximum number of innocent men, woman and children in order spread their hateful ideology.  Politicians are often corrupt and selfish, looking for their own self-interest over that of their own nation.  Families face an assault from radical left-wing ideologies that are becoming more and more mainstream.  There is a media that encourages the corruption and moral weakness of our next generation.  Too many kids do not have good male role models.  People are encouraged to think of themselves first and to do something if it feels good.  48,590,000 innocent children have been robbed of their chance of life since 1973, when abortion was legalized during all 9 months of pregnancy, for any reason, within the United States…and the list of troubles goes on.  It could be overwhelming through the eyes of a faithless man or woman but it is not overwhelming at all.  The answer to a better future is surprisingly simple.
 
All of the problems above have many different causes and the solutions to the problems above are very complex.  However, the bottom line is this – Christ tells you to “Love God above all else and love your neighbor as yourself.”  If people did that the problems above would not exist.
 
The solutions to the world’s problems do not lie within new and great government policies, although that may play a part.  The solution to the world’s problems is found within the individual heart.
 
So my advice to you, in charity to your fellow man and the world that you live in, is to change your heart so that you are a better person, to pray that others do the same, and to be a beacon of light in the world.
 
You may say that if you do that it will make no difference, but just look to history.  The Christian faith was built by 12 humble sinners, and today the Christian faith leads the course of human events. 
 
The United States of America was founded by a small handful of men with a dream of freedom and equality. Nothing quite like it had ever been done before in human history.  And this small handful of men created the greatest nation that ever existed.
 
Then, the country was made better by good men, like John Adams and Abraham Lincoln who loved God and wanted a true republic with true freedom. In our founding, John Adams vehemently opposed slavery. Then, Lincoln, less than 100 years later, freed us from the bondage of slavery and brought us closer to God.  These men loved God above all else and loved their neighbor as themselves – they changed history and together solved the horrible sins of tyranny and slavery.
 
Evil will be conquered.  The only question is – will you do your part to conquer it?

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On today, the anniversary of the murder of 3,000 American innocents, please pray for our soldiers and their families. Their daily sacrifice, hardship and heroism is more than most American’s sufferings in a year’s time. Please pray for peace and reconciliation between the religious factions and tribes in Iraq.  Pray for a free and stable government in Iraq. Pray for the defeat of evil, and the wisdom and good-faith of our national leaders.  Our nation is in a long and difficult struggle.  War is a difficult thing where the pains, agonies and hatred of hell find its way into humanity.  With prayer and time, good prevails.  God Bless you and God Bless the U.S.A.

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There is often an anti-religious attitude that finds its way into major media outlets.  As a result, sometimes folks are misled as to what their actual rights are.

So I encourage you to let others know that in a 6-3 decision in Good News Club v. Milford Central School, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a New York public school district must let the Good News Club hold after-school meetings for grade-school children to pray and study the Bible.  As a result of that ruling, it is now very clear that if a government entity, such as a school, allows groups, clubs or individuals to hold events on government property, it must apply the same standards to religious-based groups as it does to all other groups.

This means that Bible studies, prayer groups, mission groups, Christmas and Easter clubs, etc. all have the right and freedom to meet at public schools, public universities, city halls, churches, work places and any other government facility that allows clubs, organizations, or groups to meet there.

So be confident and boldly celebrate your constitutional rights.

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