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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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