Chairman’s Thoughts

We would like to make you aware that the Beck Center in Lakewood plans to open the blasphemous play/opera Jerry Springer:The Opera on Friday, February 18th. To give you an idea of how repulsive and anti-Christian this production is, in the U.K. the BBC shattered its previous record for complaints received over airing a show (1,200 for The Last Temptation of Christ) with 47,000 complaintsover airing Jerry Springer:The Opera. BBC producer Anthony Pitts quit the BBC after the its broadcast of Jerry Springer saying,“The blasphemy was far, far worse than even the most detailed news reports led me to believe.”

Below are examples of some of the blasphemous content. We regret to have to provide these accounts. We have still withheld a more detailed version as that would be too vulgar and blasphemous to include here.   Jesus is introduced as that “hypocrite son of the fascist tyrant on high, Jesus of Nazareth.” (Jesus’s immature behavior thereafter confirms the title.)

• Jesus is portrayed as an effeminate character who wears nothing but a diaper.

• Jerry Springer scolds Jesus, “Jesus, grow up for Christ’s sake….!

• Jesus admits “Actually, I am a bit gay.”

• Eve engages in a sexual act with Jesus, and the two also get into a physical brawl.

• The Eucharist is referred to as a “biscuit,” and then what appears to be a Eucharistic host is desecrated.

• The audience is told that Mary became pregnant with Jesus through being raped by the Angel Gabriel and God.

• Mary angrily yells at her son, Jesus, accusing him of abandoning her. Satan joins Mary in her rebuke of Jesus’ behavior towards her.

• God the Father is portrayed as being overwhelmed with running the world and so asks Jerry Springer to join him to “sit in Heaven beside me, hold my hand and guide me.”

Offensive material in general
Jerry Springer: the Opera is littered with countless profanities, many grotesque, as well as numerous crass descriptions of sexual perversions, some extremely strange. Not only is this material a plain attack on Christianity, but in staging Jerry Springer:The Opera, the Beck Center also shows tremendous disrespect for the many Christian children, families and individuals whom they serve through its theater, music, art and dance lessons.

Thus far, the Beck Center has received many, many requests from concerned people to halt production and yet it has declined to respect these. If you are outraged by the Beck Center’s staging of this production, we urge you to let the Beck Center know, and to add that, unless they halt the show’s entire 5-week run and apologize, you will join the Beck Center Boycott against its classes, lessons and performances, now and in the future.

The Beck Center can be reached by calling 216-521-2540 or via email by going to http://www.beckcenter.org/contact/

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Source: The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia abortion doctor has been charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a woman patient and seven babies who prosecutors say were born alive and then killed with scissors. The charges against Dr. Kermit Gosnell follow a long grand jury investigation.District Attorney Seth Williams says state regulators ignored complaints and failed to visit the clinic since 1993. Williams says the women were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society, which was shut down last year. Gosnell has been named in at least 10 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a woman who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus.

A doctor who gave abortions to minorities, immigrants and poor women in a “house of horrors” clinic was charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said. State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them given time limits and existing law, District Attorney Seth Williams said. Nine of Gosnell’s employees also were charged.

Gosnell “induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord,” Williams said.

Patients were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society, where Gosnell performed dozens of abortions a day, prosecutors said. He mostly worked overnight hours after his untrained staff administered drugs to induce labor during the day, they said.

Early last year, authorities went to investigate drug-related complaints at the clinic and stumbled on what Williams called a “house of horrors.” Bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses “were scattered throughout the building,” Williams said. “There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose.”

The clinic was shut down and Gosnell’s medical license was suspended after the raid.

Gosnell and four workers were charged with murder, while five others were charged with controlled drug violations and other crimes. None of the employees had any medical training, and one, a high school student, performed intravenous anesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics, Williams said.

All 10 defendants were taken into custody, authorities said.

Two listed numbers for Gosnell in Philadelphia have been disconnected. Defense lawyer William J. Brennan, who represented Gosnell during the investigation, noted that the doctor served patients in a low-income city neighborhood for decades. “Obviously, these allegations are very, very serious,” Brennan said.

The grand jury said the woman who died was a patient who came to Gosnell’s clinic for an abortion and died of cardiac arrest because she was given too much Demerol. Gosnell wasn’t at the clinic at the time, but directed his staff to administer the drug to keep the woman, a healthy 41-year-old woman, sedated until he arrived, prosecutors said.

Gosnell has been named in at least 46 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a 22-year-old mother who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus in 2000. Many others also involve perforated uteruses. Gosnell sometimes sewed up the injury without telling women their uteruses had been perforated, prosecutors said.

Gosnell charged $325 for first-trimester abortions and $1,600 to $3,000 for abortions up to 30 weeks. Abortions are legal up to 24 weeks gestation in Pennsylvania, although most doctors won’t perform them after 20 weeks, prosecutors said.

Some women came from across the mid-Atlantic for the illegal late-term abortions, authorities said. White women from the suburbs were ushered into a separate, slightly cleaner area because Gosnell believed they were more likely to file complaints, Williams said.

“People knew near and far that if you needed a late-term abortion you could go see Dr. Gosnell,” Williams said.

Few if any of the sedated women knew their babies were born alive and then killed, prosecutors said. Many were first-time mothers who were told they were 24 weeks pregnant, even if they were further along, authorities said.

Gosnell got his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and is board certified in family practice. He started, but did not finish, a residency in obstetrics-gynecology, authorities said.

“He does not know how to do an abortion. He’s not board certified,” Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said. “Once he got them there, he saw dollar signs and did abortions that other people wouldn’t do.”

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Join The Cleveland Catholic Forum For
Lord, Are You With Me?
Transforming Pain into God’s Purpose
On November 4, 2010 learn how one family was able to find God’s purpose from a tragedy, and how you or people you love can do the same. Cleveland Catholic Forum presents speaker Mark Tripodi, Executive Director of the Cornerstone of Hope. All are welcome to share an evening of reflection and exploration as Mark tells the inspiring story of how he and his family turned a tragic circumstance into a community ministry. Read more about the Tripodi story below.

When:
November 4, 2010
7PM to 8PM, followed by refreshments

Where:
St. Charles Borromeo Church
5891 Ridge Rd. Parma, OH.

Cost
FREE. No registration required.

The Tripodi Story

On Mother’s Day evening, May 14, 2000, we rushed our only son, Bobby, to the emergency room with a high fever. Though we knew something was wrong, we both expected to be home in a few hours to tuck Bobby into his bed and wake up the next morning to keep living our normal, blessed life.But we didn’t come home until the next evening, and we did so without our son. Bobby died from an infection caused by bacterial meningitis at just three years old. Soon after Bobby’s death, we searched for comfort and direction. We desperately needed help. Although our world seemed to have stopped, the world that we lived in had continued to orbit at a much faster pace. Mark was expected to get back to work soon after Bobby’s death; Christi was supposed to care for our other children in the very home that Bobby used to run around and play in – his room now empty, his laundry not dirty, his toys lying in the same spot.We started by attending a hospital support group. And while we desperately needed those monthly meetings, they just weren’t enough.

On November 4, 2010 learn how the Tripodi family was able to find God’s purpose in this pain and how you, or people you love can find purpose and peace from tragedy and pain in their lives.

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My friend Cardinal Francis George, the Archbishop of Chicago, comments that perhaps the most revolutionary statement we can make these days is the opening line of the creed, “We believe in God, the Father Almighty… ” as we pray at every Sunday Mass.

We look forward to all the festivities of our national holiday, the Fourth of July, this weekend.

We call it Independence Day, celebrating our independence from England, sealed on July 4, 1776, won at the cost of the blood of brave patriots during the Revolutionary War.

However, to profess our faith that “We believe in God, the Father Almighty… ” is actually an act of dependence: we admit that every breath we take, each day we have, every opportunity we are given, come from an omnipotent God, and we bask in the fact that we are totally dependent upon Him. He is sovereign, He is Lord, He has power and dominion. “Without Him, we can do nothing; with Him, nothing is impossible.”

Yes, this spiritual Declaration of Dependence is downright revolutionary. For today, it is chic to throw off—not the shackles of allegiance to King George, as our brave patriots gallantly did—but any sense of obedience to God, His revelation and the basic code of right and wrong He has engraved upon the human heart.

Oh, it’s not that we do not believe in God; it’s just that we consider ourselves to be gods: we claim dominion over life itself, as we accept abortion, euthanasia, destruction of embryonic stem cells, capital punishment and destructive poverty that causes starvation and plagues in the world.

We presume to tamper with the basic institution of a civil society, marriage and family, re-defining it to suit the spirit of the age.

We revel in violence on TV, in movies, in the rap lyrics our young people sing, independent of the decency and respect God has instilled in us.

Creatures resort to war, and terrorism, feeling themselves above the moral limits of conflict that a civilized society has always tried to heed.

We defend freedom as the right to do whatever we want, whenever we want, wherever we want, however we want, with whomever we want, instead of believing that freedom is really the liberty to do what we ought.

The Ten Commandments become a list of suggestions, the Eight Beatitudes a set of nice ideas, the Bible mere literature, the Church unnecessary, religion a crutch for the unenlightened, objective truth an outmoded oppression.

Because, you see, we are independent. We are self-made, and we worship our creator—ourselves!

This is sure curious. For one, we are terribly dependent—not, regrettably, upon God—but upon money, insurance, gas, weapons, security systems or even upon alcohol, pornography, lust, gambling and drugs, in a culture of consumption and convenience.

Two, it is curious because the patriots who won independence for us in 1776 had no trouble at all acknowledging their total dependence upon God. In fact, the normative documents of our beloved country presume the existence of a providential God, objective truth, moral duty and the right to life itself.

The real invitation this Fourth of July is to be independent of earthly and selfish tyranny, whether that be King George, Osama bin Laden, or a slavery to the passions, while at the same time confessing an utter dependence upon God and His eternal law.

“The Truth shall make you free,” as Jesus taught.

Happy Fourth of July!

God bless America!

“We believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” And we will never declare our independence from Him. 

- Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

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Parents of school children in Seattle are learning a shocking lesson, when it comes to some very important decisions they don’t have a say. The mother of a 15-year old girl recently discovered that Ballard High School helped her daughter get an abortion and never informed her.

But it doesn’t end there. The school can also send children off campus for mental health care and drug addiction treatment without their parents ever knowing. Supporters say the confidentiality allows teens who are too afraid to tell mom and dad to get necessary treatment.

Parents signed consent forms for off-school treatment thinking it was limited to emergency health care when the parents could not be reached.  But the teen health clinics at 14 Seattle schools are about much more. They have a full-time registered nurse, counselor and nursing assistant on hand to help kids with more sensitive issues.

When the 15-year old girl’s pregnancy was confirmed, they counseled her on the options. The mother says they encouraged her to have an abortion and not tell her parents. She claims her daughter was told that if she informed her parents they would have to pay for the abortion, otherwise it’s free.

The teen clinics are administered by the King County Health Department. Officials say school clinic workers are supposed to encourage girls to include their parents in the decision. They will not comment on the specifics of the case.

As for the fact the girl was called a taxi and transported by herself to a clinic to have her abortion then driven back to finish her school day, officials say that’s not unusual. They would not say how many girls have been helped to have an abortion.

Washington State is one of thirteen states that does not have either a parental consent or parental notification law. Girls of any age can obtain an abortion without having to tell a parent.

State lawmakers included mental health care and drug counseling on the list of services kids can get without parental notification.

Take Action: 
1) See if your state has parental notification/consent laws and if not call your state representatives and ask that they create a parental consent law for abortion:
http://www.positive.org/Resources/consent.html

2) Parents, be involved in your children’s schooling, become active and run for the board of education to ensure that solid American Values such as family, and individual freedom are being taught and enforced in your child’s school.

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Donate to Catholic Relief Services Today and Make A Donation & Help Save Lives.

Please help the people of Haiti with your support of CRS as we respond in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that struck near the capital of Port au Prince. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and was still recovering from deadly 2008 hurricanes when the quake struck.

Go to Catholic Relief Services Today and Make A Donation.

Homes Toppled, Bodies Piled in Streets After Devastating Haiti Quake

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after a powerful earthquake crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped.

President Rene Preval said he believes thousands of people were dead from Tuesday afternoon’s magnitude-7.0 quake.

“Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,” Preval told the Miami Herald. “There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.” Leading senator Youri Latortue told The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead, though he acknowledged that nobody really knows.

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince was among the dead, and the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was missing.

The International Red Cross said a third of Haiti’s 9 million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge.

President Obama promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort, adding that the U.S. commitment to its hemispheric neighbor will be unwavering.

We have to be there for them in their hour of need,” Obama said.

SLIDESHOW: Devastation in Haiti (Warning: Graphic)

FAST FACTS | FOX NEWS’ FULL COVERAGE

Other nations — from Iceland to Venezuela — said they would start sending in aid workers and rescue teams. Cuba said its existing field hospitals in Haiti had already treated hundreds of victims. The United Nations said Port-au-Prince’s main airport was “fully operational” and open to relief flights.

Aftershocks continued to rattle the capital of 2 million people as women covered in dust clawed out of debris, wailing. Stunned people wandered the streets holding hands. Thousands gathered in public squares to sing hymns, as detailed of the extent of the suffering and devastation trickled out to the outside world:

People pulled bodies from collapsed homes, covering them with sheets by the side of the road. Passers-by lifted the sheets to see if loved ones were underneath. Outside a crumbled building, the bodies of five children and three adults lay in a pile.

The prominent died along with the poor: the body of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, said the Rev. Pierre Le Beller of the Saint Jacques Missionary Center in Landivisiau, France. He told The Associated Press by telephone that fellow missionaries in Haiti had told him they found Miot’s body.

Preval told the Herald that Haiti’s Senate president was among those trapped alive inside the Parliament building. Much of the National Palace pancaked on itself.

Even the main prison in the capital fell, “and there are reports of escaped inmates,” U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva.

The international Red Cross and other aid groups announced plans for major relief operations in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

Many will have to help their own staff as well as stricken Haitians. Taiwan said its embassy was destroyed and the ambassador hospitalized. Spain said its embassy was badly damaged.

Tens of thousands of people lost their homes as buildings that were flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions collapsed. Nobody offered an estimate of the dead, but the numbers were clearly enormous.

“The hospitals cannot handle all these victims,” said Dr. Louis-Gerard Gilles. “Haiti needs to pray. We all need to pray together.”

An American aid worker was trapped for about 10 hours under the rubble of her mission house before she was rescued by her husband, who told CBS’ “Early Show” that he drove 100 miles to Port-au-Prince to find her. Frank Thorp said he dug for more than an hour to free his wife, Jillian, and a co-worker, from under about a foot of concrete.

An estimated 40,000-45,000 Americans live in Haiti, and the U.S. Embassy had no confirmed reports of deaths among its citizens. All but one American employed by the embassy have been accounted for, State Department officials said.

Even relatively wealthy neighborhoods were devastated.

An AP videographer saw a wrecked hospital where people screamed for help in Petionville, a hillside district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians as well as the poor.

At a destroyed four-story apartment building, a girl of about 16 stood atop a car, trying to see inside while several men pulled at a foot sticking from rubble. She said her family was inside.

“A school near here collapsed totally,” Petionville resident Ken Michel said after surveying the damage. “We don’t know if there were any children inside.” He said many seemingly sturdy homes nearby were split apart.

The U.N.’s 9,000 peacekeepers in Haiti, many of whom are from Brazil, were distracted from aid efforts by their own tragedy: Many spent the night hunting for survivors in the ruins of their headquarters.

“It would appear that everyone who was in the building, including my friend Hedi Annabi, the United Nations’ secretary-general’s special envoy, and everyone with him and around him, are dead,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on RTL radio.

But U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy would not confirm that Annabi was dead, saying he was among more than 100 people missing in its wrecked headquarters. He said only about 10 people had been pulled out, many of them badly injured. Fewer than five bodies had been removed, he said.

U.N. peacekeeping forces in Port-au-Prince are securing the airport, the port, main buildings and patrolling the streets, Le Roy said.

Brazil’s army said at least 11 of its peacekeepers were killed, while Jordan’s official news agency said three of its peacekeepers were killed. A state newspaper in China said eight Chinese peacekeepers were known dead and 10 were missing — though officials later said the information was not confirmed.

The quake struck at 4:53 p.m., centered 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of only 5 miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti.

Video obtained by the AP showed a huge dust cloud rising over Port-au-Prince shortly after the quake as buildings collapsed.

Most Haitians are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of buildings were shoddily built and unsafe normally.

The quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and in eastern Cuba, but no major damage was reported in either place.

With electricity out in many places and phone service erratic, it was nearly impossible for Haitian or foreign officials to get full details of the devastation.

“Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken,” said Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official in Port-au-Prince. “The sky is just gray with dust.”

Edwidge Danticat, an award-winning Haitian-American author was unable to contact relatives in Haiti. She sat with family and friends at her home in Miami, looking for news on the Internet and watching TV news reports.

“You want to go there, but you just have to wait,” she said. “Life is already so fragile in Haiti, and to have this on such a massive scale, it’s unimaginable how the country will be able to recover from this.”

Source: www.foxnews.com

Donate to Catholic Relief Services Today and Make A Donation & Help Save Lives.

Please help the people of Haiti with your support of CRS as we respond in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that struck near the capital of Port au Prince. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and was still recovering from deadly 2008 hurricanes when the quake struck.

Go to Catholic Relief Services Today and Make A Donation.

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President Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar,” already a target of social conservatives for his past drug abuse and what they say is his promotion of homosexuality in schools, is under fresh attack after it was revealed that the pro-gay group he formerly headed recommends books his critics say are pornographic.

The group under fire is the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which Kevin Jennings, now the assistant deputy secretary for safe and drug-free schools in the Department of Education, founded and ran from 1990 to 2008.

GLSEN says it works to create a welcoming atmosphere for homosexual students in schools, and that effort includes recommending books for students of all ages.

But critics say many of the books, particularly some that are targeted for children between Grades 7 to 12, are inappropriately explicit. A full list is available at the blog Gateway Pundit, which has published dozens of controversial passages from the books.

One recommended book is titled “Queer 13: Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade.” On pages 43 through 45, writer Justin Chin tells of how as a 13-year-old, he went along with “near-rapes” by older men, but “really did enjoy those sexual encounters.” Chin also recounts each sexual action he performed with an “ugly f*** of a man” he met on a bus.

In another book, “Passages of Pride,” the author writes about a 15-year-old boy’s relationship with a much older man.

“Near the end of summer, just before starting his sophomore year in high school, Dan picked up a weekly Twin Cities newspaper. Scanning the classifieds, he came upon an ad for a “Man-2-Man” massage. Home alone one day, he called the telephone number listed in the ad and set up an appointment to meet a man named Tom…. Even though Tom was older, almost twice Dan’s age, Dan felt unthreatened by him. Dan admits Tom was a ‘troll’ in every sense of the word — an older closeted gay man seeking sex with a man much younger. But Dan says he was not intimidated by the discrepancy in their ages. ‘He kind of had me in a corner in that he knew I didn’t have access to anything I wanted.’ says Dan. ‘But everything was consensual.’”

On Page 13 of a third book, “Reflections of a Rock Lobster,” the author recounts his sexual encounters in first grade.

“By first grade I was sexually active with many friends. In fact, a small group of us regularly met in the grammar school lavatory to perform fellatio on one another. A typical week’s schedule would be Aaron and Michael on Monday during lunch; Michael and Johnny on Tuesday after school; Fred and Timmy at noon Wednesday; Aaron and Timmy after school on Thursday. None of us ever got caught, but we never worried about it anyway.”

“Reflections of a Rock Lobster” was recommended in 1995, the year Jennings became GLSEN’s first executive director; “Passages of Pride” made the list in 1997 and “Queer 13″ in 1999. Those are just three out of over 100 books that GLSEN has recommended for students in grades 7-12 since 1990, and all three remain on GLSEN’s recommended reading list.

Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, says the content of the books is shocking, and it raises concerns about Jennings’ judgment.

“The graphic sexual content of these books is so extreme that I think any average parent or citizen, regardless of how they feel about homosexuality, would be shocked at these books being recommended to young people,” Sprigg said.

GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard defended her group’s recommendations, telling FoxNews.com in a written statement:

“Some of the books that might be used with young adult audiences contain mature content, as is true of many memoirs and works of literature. Because of the presence of mature content in some of the works, GLSEN provides very clear guidelines throughout, recommending that adults review each book to make sure the book is suitable.”

Those guidelines, listed on each book recommendation page, read: “All BookLink items are reviewed by GLSEN staff for quality and appropriateness of content. However, some titles for adolescent readers contain mature themes. We recommend that adults selecting books for youth review content for suitability.”

But critics say the guidelines themselves are damning, because they confirm that GLSEN staff have checked the books for appropriateness. And Jennings, they point out, was in charge at the time.

“It’s like Jennings just doesn’t realize he’s working with kids here…. You need a totally different set of rules when you’re working with kids,” said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality.

LaBarbera said the books should be seen in light of other recent controversies surrounding Jennings.

In September it came out that, when he was a teacher in Massachusetts, Jennings did not report an incident in which a 16-year-old boy told him that he was having sexual relations with an older man he met in a bus station bathroom. After that, 53 Republican members of the House publicly called for Jennings to be dismissed.

But Alvin McEwen, who runs a blog called “Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters” and has commented extensively on the Jennings case, said GLSEN’s book recommendations should be seen in a different light.

“GLSEN is saying that parents should decide. They are saying these books may be a good idea to read, but ultimately it is up to parents,” he told FoxNews.com.

McEwen said that even though Jennings was the director of GLSEN when the books were recommended, there was no evidence that he personally selected the books.

“This is ridiculous guilt-by-association … just another moral panic thought up by people who don’t have any legitimate reason to oppose Jennings, so they’ve made a mountain out of molehill,” he said.

Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton declined to comment about Jennings’ role in recommending the books.

But critics say Jennings, as GLSEN’s first full-time employee and first executive director, must be held responsible.

“He was at GLSEN from the beginning and was in charge during the time when these books were approved,” said Warren Throckmorton, a professor at Grove City College.

The blogger at Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft, wrote elsewhere concerning a “black book” that contains a gay bar guide and explicit sexual references that was handed out at a GLSEN event.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/14/obamas-safe-schools-czar-tied-lewd-readings/

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I want to take a moment to encourage you to listen to Monday’s Focus on the Family^® radio broadcast. On this program, Dr. Dobson will be joined in the studio by his friends Chuck Colson and Dr. Robert George to discuss an important new document called the Manhattan Declaration.Crafted by Mr. Colson and Dr. George along with Timothy George, Dean of the Beeson Divinity School, the Manhattan Declaration rallies Christians to work to preserve the sanctity of human life, the sacredness of marriage, and the vibrant culture of religious liberty. This historic document also calls followers of Christ to examine their own hearts and lives to ensure that they’re doing all they can to reflect these God-ordained values. The interaction between Drs. Dobson and George and Mr. Colson promises to be both challenging and inspiring, so I hope you’ll tune in.Once again, you can hear the program on Monday, Nov. 23, either on your radio or on our Web site at focusonthefamily.com. Also on our Web site, you’ll have the opportunity to read the Manhattan Declaration in its entirety and to add your name to the growing list of individuals who have signed on to it.

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Here are the deals:

The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians’ reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5 percent to 6 percent reductions in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill…or else!

The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the healthcare bill. Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues.Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP — which supposedly represents them — will make more money. (If this galls you, join the American Seniors Association, the alternative group)The drug industry backed ObamaCare and, in return, got a 10-year limit of $80 billion on cuts in prescription drug costs. (A drop in the bucket of their almost $3 trillion projected cost over the next decade.) They also got administration assurances that it will continue to bar lower-cost Canadian drugs from coming into the U.S. All it had to do was put its formidable advertising budget at the disposal of the administration.

Insurance companies got access to 40 million potential new customers. But when the Senate Finance Committee lowered the fine that would be imposed on those who don’t buy insurance from $3,500 to $1,500, the insurance companies jumped ship and now oppose the bill, albeit for the worst of motives.The only industry that refused to knuckle under was the medical device makers. They stood for principle and wouldn’t go along with Obama’s blackmail. So the Senate Finance Committee retaliated by imposing a tax on medical devices such as automated wheelchairs, pacemakers, arterial stents, prosthetic limbs, artificial knees and hips and other necessary accoutrements of healthcare.So these endorsements are not freely given, but bought and paid for by an administration that is intent on passing its program at any cost.

SOURCE: http://www.newsmax.com/morris/healthcare_reform_bribe/2009/11/08/283349.html?s=al&promo_code=905C-1

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The Obama Administration is working to erase respect for conscience from health insurance and the law in general Don t believe me?

In his address at the University of Notre Dame, Obama talked a good game about respecting conscience on abortion rights. He did the same thing when he met the Pope. But that was all it was — talk.

The Obama Administration s attack on Belmont Abbey College proves that.

Belmont Abbey College is a small, private, Catholic college located in North Carolina. For 130 years, it and the Benedictine monks who run it have been dedicated to handing on the Catholic faith.

But the Obama Administration is now trying to force them to abandon that faith or go out of business.

You see, the Administration at Belmont Abbey College removed contraception, abortion, and voluntary sterilization from its faculty’s health care policy after discovering it had accidentally been a part of existing plans.

Employees of the school who objected to this change in policy brought a complaint against the school accusing them of gender discrimination.

This accusation against Belmont Abbey College couldn t be further from the truth.

Belmont Abbey College was not discriminating against women. Unlike many believers in name only the college was adhering to the principles of its faith.

At first, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found no evidence of gender discrimination by Belmont Abbey College ..

After a few weeks, the EEOC mysteriously reversed course and announced, in effect, that the college had better toe the Administration s line, or else.

They are now demanding the school go against the very principles it exists to serve.

Don t be fooled.

Killing or funding the killing of unborn children has nothing to do with promoting human health. And including these atrocities in every health care plan — no matter how shrewdly hidden or diplomatically stated violates the consciences of Catholics everywhere.
No Catholic college or other religious institution should ever be required by the government to violate its moral beliefs …

… Which is why I m asking for your help today.

Your immediate support for the defense of Belmont Abbey College is VITAL, not only for Belmont Abbey, but for all religious institutions in America.

Too many were silent when Obama went to Notre Dame. As a result his Administration has been emboldened to attack all Catholic institutions. Now, they are shamelessly picking on a small Catholic college Belmont Abbey.

Tomorrow it could be your local church, the parochial school you send your kids to, it could be the Jesus bumper sticker on your car

If Obama is given the opportunity to attack even the oldest and most respected religious establishments across the country, what will be next?

The President of Belmont Abbey College has bravely stated that he would rather close the school than go against the church s most fundamental teachings …

I commend him for his moral conviction, but I m afraid for the future of religious freedom in our country.

Think I m overreacting?

The impact of even one Catholic college knuckling under or closing would be a catastrophe for all religious institutions.

Which is why I am asking for your help.

Will you stand with me against the Obama Administration s war on conscience?

Luckily, the Belmont Abbey College has enlisted the help of a law firm that specializes in defending against this type of travesty. It s called the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

The Becket Fund has a solid reputation for being the best in the business.

I know first hand how effective the Becket Fund is in preserving our freedom of religion. I ve known them for years.

Way back in the Clinton Administration when Clinton threatened to court-martial military chaplains who followed their consciences by preaching against Clinton s veto of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, it was the Becket Fund that filed suit in federal court and got that gag order struck down.

And just this past week, when the Freedom from Religion Foundation sued to strike under God from the Pledge of Allegiance, it was the Becket Fund that intervened in the case and successfully defended the Pledge.

In between they have successfully defended all sorts of believers and religious institutions.

Archbishop Chaput knows them well too. As he likes to say, The work of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is more than good. It s vital.

By contributing to the Becket Fund, you can directly support religious freedom for Belmont Abbey and every other religious school or institution in the country.

Make no mistake, this will not be easy. The Obama Administration is relentless about silencing religious believers.

Will you do me a personal favor, in the name of religious freedom, and contribute today — to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty s fight for Belmont Abbey College and for all other religious institutions?

Time is of the essence. Belmont Abbey College stands for the moral teachings and principles of the Catholic Church — it stands for life.

… You and I simply cannot allow the radical leftists in this country to succeed in demanding Belmont Abbey College turn its back on the most basic and fundamental teachings of the church or else close.

Belmont Abbey President William Thierfelder recently said, “All of us need to have moral courage in today’s world.” He added. “We are so resolute in our commitment to the teachings of the Catholic Church that there is no possible way we would ever deviate from it, and if it came down to it … we would close the school rather than give in …

…. Will you exercise your moral courage and help me defend Belmont Abbey College with an urgent and immediate contribution of $500, $250, $100, $35, or whatever you can afford, to prevent religious freedom from becoming a thing of the past?

I’m counting on you to act TODAY!

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