Noteworthy News Notes

August 20, 2010
 

AFA Announces Home Depot Boycott!

For several years, the Home Depot has given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America’s towns. And it says it will continue to do so! “At the end of the day here, we’re not going to…forbid our associates to be involved in these pride festivals in any way,” said Stephen Holmes, company spokesman. (Note: The associates participating in these parades were clearly doing so as representatives of the company.)

Rejecting several requests by AFA [American Family Association] to remain neutral in the culture war, the Home Depot has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals. Most grievous is the Home Depot’s deliberate exposing of small children to lascivious displays of sexual conduct by homosexuals and cross-dressers, which are a common occurrence at these events.

The goal of every homosexual organization supported by the Home Depot is to get homosexual marriage legalized.…The Home Depot says it is committed to furthering the homosexual agenda.

“The bottom line is, it [remaining neutral] just runs counter to our inclusive culture…and that’s where we stand,” Stephen Holmes, company spokesman.…

1. Sign the Boycott Pledge at BoycottTheHomeDepot.com.

2. Call your local store manager. Let him know that you will not be shopping in his store until the company stops supporting the homosexual agenda.…

3. Print the paper petition and distribute it at Sunday school and church.

4. …Post this alert to your Facebook page…and encourage others to join the boycott!

—Tim Wildmon, president, American Family Association

 

Two in Five Evangelical Leaders Drink Alcohol

Forty percent of evangelical leaders said they “socially drink alcohol,” according to a new monthly poll.

Many of them added that they drink only “in moderation,” “on special occasions,” or “infrequently.” And they noted that they do so only with those who share similar views on alcohol consumption.

The poll, released [June 24], was based on responses from the Board of Directors of the National Association of Evangelicals, including the CEOs of denominations and representatives of a broad array of evangelical organizations.

Among the majority who said they did not consume alcohol, the common reason for abstinence was not because they believe it is sinful to drink.…

“Alcohol and its effects have been a major challenge in American society,” said Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. “Just as society has dealt with it, as evidenced in the 18th and 21st Amendments, so have evangelicals looked at how to interact appropriately with alcohol.”

An earlier study of Protestants in the country found that over a quarter of lay people (29 percent) said people should never drink alcohol, according to LifeWay Research. Meanwhile, 24 percent of senior pastors agreed. Also, while 68 percent of pastors said reasonable consumption of alcohol is a “biblical liberty,” just over half (54 percent) of lay people agreed.

At the same time, 90 percent of clergy said a Christian drinking alcohol could cause other believers to stumble or be confused, the LifeWay survey found.

Based in Washington, D.C., the National Association of Evangelicals  [NAE] represents more than 45,000 local churches from over 40 different denominations and serves a constituency of millions. The NAE defines an evangelical as one who takes the Bible seriously and believes in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

—Audrey Barrick for ChristianPost.com

EDITOR’S COMMENTS: Note that this is a survey of “evangelicals.” Fundamentalist churches and leaders are virtually unanimous in taking a firm stand against the consumption of alcohol and doing so based on biblical truths.

When alcohol gets accepted into the mix, you can safely assume that it is not the only cause for concern.

We are opposed to the use of alcohol as a beverage in all its forms and in any amounts!

 

Georgia Voters Say “Yes” to Personhood Amendment

Throughout the state [July 21], voters supported an amendment to the Georgia State Constitution that said the “right to life is vested in each human being from their earliest biological beginning until natural death” and that right should be protected by law.

In all 46 counties where the amendment was presented, it passed overwhelmingly by an amazing 75 percent! Georgia is the first state in the nation where voters have said “yes” to the personhood question.

Georgia Right to Life chapters began work this spring in requesting that their local county parties place this nonbinding “party” question on their local party ballots. Both Democrat and Republican parties were approached. Butts county was the only county to succeed in getting both parties to cooperate and approve the measure (Republicans 79 percent and the Democrats 72 percent). “There is no question that the people of Georgia would pass a Personhood Amendment if given the chance,” says Dan Becker, president of Georgia Right to Life. “The ball is now in the legislature’s hands to allow the people a voice on the most pressing human rights issue of the 21st century.”

—Christian Newswire

 

Praying Employees Win Round One in Legal Scuffle

Two employees of the University of Texas at Arlington who prayed over a co-worker’s cubicle—and were subsequently fired—will have their day in court.

Attorney Jeff Mateer of Liberty Institute tells OneNewsNow that after work hours the plaintiffs prayed over the cubicle of an employee with whom they had had trouble. After losing their jobs, the workers brought suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the first phase of the case has ended in their favor.

“The court recently ruled in favor of the two ex-employees, saying that they could proceed to trial, defeating the university’s motion for summary judgment, which would have resulted in the case being dismissed,” Mateer reports.

He believes the school will have a tough time proving its case. “The university claimed that by praying for a co-employee, they were harassing that employee,” the Liberty Institute attorney explains. “The university’s position has been consistently in this case that praying for a fellow employee constitutes harassment.”

In his ruling, the judge made it clear that he found that argument faulty. So now that a green flag has been waved for the trial, Mateer is confident his clients will prevail. He notes, however, that the university could also settle the case out of court.

—OneNewsNow.com

 

Wichita Council Keeps Prayers at Meetings

The Wichita City Council in Kansas will continue having invocations before each meeting despite protests by a group of humanists.

“I can’t agree with the statement that religion has no place. It has a place in our entire lives. It’s not just here at city hall,” said Councilwoman Sue Schlapp on [July 20]. “So I don’t think I can exclude that from my daily life just because I walk into city hall.”

Vickie Sandell Stangl, president of the Great Plains Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, brought her concerns before council members at their meeting Tuesday.

She argued, “There’s no good reason to use public time to express private beliefs. The only real purpose seems to be an elevating of public officials’ piety before the citizenry.”

“Invocations before government meetings only serve to promote religion,” she added, noting that the majority of the invocations have been Christian. “Public business should be free of religious sentiment.”

Three of the council members disagreed with Stangl’s arguments.…

[Councilman Paul Gray] and others on the council noted, however, that they make sure everyone has the opportunity to express his or her opinion, celebrate his or her religion and give the invocation at their meetings.

“But it doesn’t require us to have an absence of religion because a few people out there, a very slim majority, feel offended,” Gray added. “I think the majority of the country does not have a problem as long as everybody gets a fair representation.”…

If the city council plans to continue with invocations before every meeting, Stangl suggested that they be more diverse to include such persons as Wiccans and humanists.

Mayor Carl Brewer said the invocations already reflect the diversity of the community.

—Nathan Black for ChristianPost.com

EDITOR’S COMMENTS: We salute the Wichita City Council for their responsible and thoughtful handling of this challenge.

 

Feds Funding Abortions—No and Yes!

While the House was busy introducing a bill to ban abortion funding, one Senate committee was passing a bill to expand it permanently. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), a big proponent of the State Department’s team of family planning globetrotters, slipped an amendment into the foreign appropriations bill that would make overseas abortion funding a steady fixture of U.S. spending. Under his language, the Mexico City Policy—which blocks our government from giving financial aid to any overseas group that promotes abortion—would be completely abolished. (Back in January, President Obama signed an executive order allowing this funding to flow temporarily).

Of course, this isn’t the first time New Jersey’s Senator has tried this stunt. Last year, he snuck in a similar amendment, only to watch it die on the Senate floor. This time, Senator Lautenberg’s proposal was voted out of the Appropriations Committee (18-12) along with the rest of the bill.

Unfortunately…there is plenty more to be concerned about in the overall legislation. Not only does it make abortion a permanent U.S. export, but it also funnels millions more taxpayer dollars to groups like the U.N. Population Fund [UNFPA], which has a history of endorsing barbaric laws like China’s one-child policy. On top of the $55 million to UNFPA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—the same agency that’s illegally lobbying to legalize abortion in Kenya’s new constitution—would get a $24 million raise. (To help finance other vote-buying schemes, perhaps?) Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) seemed frustrated along with the other Republicans. “It’s us funding abortions overseas,” he said. “There are a lot of people in the country that find this deeply offensive.” It’s just too bad that none of those people seem to work for this administration.

—Family Research Council

  

Christianity, “Gay Rights” Clash in Counseling Controversies

A string of recent controversies regarding views on homosexuality in the counseling realm have some wondering whether conservative Christians eventually will be shut out of the profession.

The latest controversy involves Augusta (Ga.) State University, where the faculty allegedly required Jennifer Keeton—a counseling student with strong Christian beliefs—to attend “diversity sensitivity” training, increase her interaction with homosexual populations, read scholarly articles about homosexuality, and then write about what she learned and how her beliefs were impacted. The faculty allegedly even encouraged her to attend a “gay pride” parade in Augusta.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, filed suit against the school July 21. The school, in part, pointed to the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) code of ethics, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of a host of categories, including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” The American School Counselor Association has a similar code. The Augusta case, though, is only the latest dust-up pitting religious beliefs against nondiscrimination policies.

On July 26 a federal judge ruled that Eastern Michigan University was within its rights to dismiss a graduate student, Julea Ward, from its counseling program because she chose not to counsel a homosexual patient; the man previously had been counseled about his sexuality and now wanted counseling for depression.

Ward wanted to refer him to another counselor, but the school found her action insufficient. She was given three options: 1) going through a “remediation program,” 2) voluntarily withdrawing, or, 3) going before a university panel. She chose to appear before the panel, which found she had violated the ACA’s code of ethics.

—Baptist Press

 

D.C. Methodists Host Gay Episcopal Bishop!

[On] Sunday, [July 18,] famously liberal Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., once home church of Bill and Hillary Clinton, hosted openly homosexual New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson. Foundry is thinking about blessing same-sex unions, thereby violating United Methodist rules. And, of course, Robinson was cheering them on.…

Why would any church listen to Bishop Robinson? His 2003 election as bishop triggered a schism in the Episcopal Church and his New Hampshire Diocese has suffered plummeting membership since his election. His real agenda is pushing sexual liberation, not evangelizing for Jesus Christ.…Pushing the former at the expense of the latter kills churches.

I remember over 10 years ago listening to another radical Episcopal Bishop, John Shelby Spong, speak at Foundry Church. He openly mocked the miracles in the Gospels and traditional Christianity in general. Similar to Robinson, Spong’s New Jersey Diocese lost 40 percent of its members under his leadership. Some might call these bishops church killers.

[On] Sunday, [July 25,] United Methodist Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of Mississippi [spoke] at Foundry Church. She ignited enormous controversy by featuring a lesbian couple at her annual conference last year.

—Mark Tooley, Institute on Religion and Democracy

EDITOR’S COMMENTS: Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., has been a pacesetter for liberal activism within the United Methodist Church for many years.

 

Liberal Churches Pray Against Arizona Immigration Law

Energized by a recent court ruling against part of the new Arizona immigration law, religious left groups have orchestrated an “Isaiah 58 Solidarity Vigil and Fast for Arizona” across the United States to protest the law and to push for national liberalized immigration.

The Isaiah solidarity prayer vigil and fast across the summer was conceived by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, a religious left lobby group for liberalized immigration. Members include Jim Wallis’s Sojourners, United Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ and Episcopal Church agencies, left-wing Catholic groups like Pax Christi, and the Islamic Immigration Center, among others.

—Institute on Religion and Democracy

EDITOR’S COMMENTS: Liberals, including religious ones, have a penchant for getting on the wrong side of a lot of issues. Here is a case in point.

 

Mayors Urged to Resist Atheists’ Demands to Drop Invocations

Attorneys with a Christian legal firm have urged mayors in South Carolina and Florida not to give in to the demands of atheists by removing Christian invocations from their council meetings.

“[W]e write to assure you that the Constitution clearly still protects the cherished practice of opening invocations,” Brett Harvey, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund [ADF], wrote in a letter to Mayor Gow Fields of Lakeland, Florida.…

The attorneys contend that the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Atheists of Florida were wrong when they claimed invocations are unconstitutional.

“America’s founders opened public meetings with prayer, and public officials today should be able to do the same,” Harvey argued. “The First Amendment protects public officials who choose to invoke divine guidance and blessings upon their work. Those who oppose this are essentially arguing that the Founders were violating the Constitution as they were writing it.”…

ADF attorneys…said sectarian references in public invocations are constitutionally permissible.

“[T]he rule of thumb is that the government cannot compel someone to pray in accordance with one preferred religious viewpoint. For this reason, a policy which mandates only ‘nonsectarian’ prayer would itself likely be unconstitutional,” they assured as they cited legal precedent. “Instead, public bodies are much safer when they provide an open forum for individuals to offer prayer according to the dictates of their own consciences.”

Harvey explained simply, “Feeling offended does not mean the Constitution has been violated.”

He pointed out that humanist and secularist groups are threatening hometown governments through “fear, intimidation and disinformation” because they’re considered easy prey.

“Public officials throughout our country need to be encouraged and reminded that they can and should resist the increasingly strident demands of radical secularist groups.”

—Nathan Black for ChristianPost.com

 

 

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