ACLU: Hijack Prevention Measures are Unconstitutional (FRC) Not everyone is happy that tighter security has managed to prevent a rerun of the 9/11 attacks. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing Boston’s Logan Airport, the very facility used by Osama Bin Laden’s suicide hijackers, claiming that its security measures led to the illegal detainment of one of its officials.
Qouteworthy: These are the two great unifying forces of our time; "love of God or hatred of Him"
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, in a speech to the 106th Congressional Bipartisan Opening Ceremony, during which he noted the two forces are incompatible and the nation "must decide which is paramount."Department Of Defense Unable To Defend Boy Scouts (The Washington Times) A Lawmaker and veterans are calling on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to reverse administration lawyers [who] agreed to warn military bases against officially sponsoring the Boy Scouts Of America; as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Critics of the settlement said that the Pentagon caved to the ACLU, which said the government improperly supported a group that requires belief in God, and that it was particularly offensive after the Nov. 2 elections, when the most pressing voter issue was the country’s values.
"Without a shot being fired, Department of Defense lawyers apparently abandoned the Boy Scouts, threw up their hands and surrendered to the ACLU’s latest radical attack on the cherished heritage, values and character through a series of outdoor activities.
Mr. Hayworth calls the lawsuit "an ongoing effort on the part of the ACLU to drive the Boy Scouts of America into extinction." Bob Bork, a spokesperson for the Boy Scouts of America said; "The ACLU has had a maniacal obsession with the Boy Scouts for decades. I have no doubts they want to force us out of any relationship with the military or any other entity whatsoever."
Advocates For The Government’s Removal From Education Gathered In Washington (Jim Brown-Agape-Press) Christians who advocate a mass exodus from public schools met in Washington, DC, last weekend for the tenth annual "Separation of School and State" conference. Since the Alliance For Separation of School and State http://honested.com
was started ten years age, more than 26,000 people have signed a proclamation calling for the end of government involvement in education.
Many of those signatories will be on hand for SepCon 2004, which began Saturday, November 20th. Alliance founder Marshall Fritz says SepCon is "the worlds boldest education conference" because those who attend are willing to consider or already believe socialism is the wrong way to educate children.
The Russians proved in 70 years of trying that it’s the wrong way to grow wheat. And we’ve tried for 164 years to use socialism to grow children," Fritz says. "More and more, we Christians are finding that these government run schools are not only officially godless, but they’re trying to destroy children’s innocence." According to Fritz, the conference will feature some of the most "interesting" thinkers in education; who support the complete privatization of schooling.
Internet Tax Moratorium Continues (Keith Peters-Citizen Link) The Senate has passed a bill that prevents your internet service provider (IP) from taxing you. The Senate has cleared the way to ensure that you won’t be taxed by your internet service provider-- until November 2007.
Pete Sepp, vice president for communications with the National Taxpayers Union said Senate bill 150, "Internet Access Tax Ban would prevent new kinds of taxes on internet services, from being enacted.
ACLU Takes On Abstinence Program (World Net Daily) The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has threatened legal action against Louisiana because a state-sponsored web site promoting abstinence mentions God!
Chinese Christian Persecution (Keith Peters Center-Link) A capitol hill hearing focuses on religious oppression in the Communist nation. Advocates for Chinese Christians went to capitol hill Thursday, the week before Thanksgiving; looking for help to counteract religious persecution in China, which has been growing in severity over the last few years. Bob Fu, president of the China Aid Association, said the sheer numbers behind the persecution are sobering. "Over 20,000 members of underground religious groups have been arrested, detained, kidnapped or under house arrest," he said. "Hundreds of churches and homes have been destroyed. Many of the arrested believers, especially women, were tortured.
34-year old Chinese Christian Martyred In a report from the Voice of the Martyrs’ November 2004 issue, sister Jiang Zongziu, a 34-year old Christian, [who] along with her mother-in-law, was caught distributing Bibles and gospel tracts in a Chinese marketplace. They were sentenced by the public Security Bureau (PSB) to 15 days incarceration for "suspected spreading rumors and disturbing the social order." But it was not enough for the PBS to arrest and beat these two Christian women. The following afternoon Mrs. Jiang Zongziu was pronounced dead. The PBS claimed she died of natural causes, a "sudden illness." The fact is she was beaten to death. Visit the web site at---------
http://www.persecution.com/sisterjiang to learn what really happened to Jiang Zongziu. On this web site, you will also find a suggested letter you can send to your government officials to protest this extreme persecution of our sister.
As California Goes, So Goes The Nation? (The Duluth News Tribune) It’s only been weeks since California passed a massive proposition that will fund embryonic stem-cell research, and now it looks like Wisconsin wants to hop on the bandwagon of junk science. Wisconsin Democratic Governor Jim Doyle announced plans this week to spend $750 million on human embryonic stem-cell research and other scientific research, the Duluth News Tribune reported.
Action Urged On Family Movie Act (Citizen-Link) Family advocates are hopeful that the U.S. Senate will take up the family Movie Act. The act confirms the legalities of families to filter sex, violence and profanity from movies in their homes. It passed the house in September, and now awaits action in the Senate before President Bush can sign it into law. If the bill passes , families could purchase a mechanism for their TVs that would allow them to mute inappropriate content. TAKE ACTION: Please contact the senate leader listed below and urge him to add the Family Movie Act language to the omnibus appropriations bill.
Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN. http//capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=540&&submit-148&submit.y=13
The King Of Terrorist (Free Nations United) After a lifetime of murderous violence, and after his death Arafat was praised as nothing less than a man of "courage" by French President Jacques Chirac and a "freedom fighter’ by former South African President Nelson Mandela. The U.N. in an act both unsurprising and deeply disturbing actually lowered its flag to half staff.
Dems Worried About Possible Fines Placed On TV Indecency (Washington Report) Last week, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) tried once again to get the Broadcast Decency Act language included in an appropriations bill. Sen. Brownback understands Congress must uphold its responsibility to American families to ensure common-sense decency standards on public television. The bill was halted by Democrats in the Senate who disagreed with the fines against performers who commit indecent acts. The Senate Democrats chose the values of Howard Stern and Michael Moore over family values. Passage of the Broadcast Decency Act will be a major issue for the 109th Congress.
Lost Tribe Found? Jewish group Seeks Return To Israel (S. David-Christianity-Today) Tongkhao Aviel Hangshing is not a name that you will find in the Bible. Hangshine, however, is one of the 5,000 Jews in the Northwest Indian state of Manipur, an area the size of Washington D.C. between Myabmar and Bangladesh in South Asia. The Jews here call themselves Benei Menashes. They say they are descendants of one of the ten lost tribes, the tribe of Manasseh, who fled from the Northern Kingdom in 721 B.C.
Visitors commonly see men with knitted skullcaps reading the Hebrew Scriptures. In August, a delegation of Israeli rabbis led by Shlomo Amar spent a few days with the Benei Menashes, who have been practicing Judaism for more than 30 years.
The rabbis are expected to issue a ruling soon on whether the Benei Menashes are Jews and thus have the right to return to Israel.
Hangshing says the group discovered its orgins when the Bible was translated into the local language in the 1970s. Leaders found that the stories, customs, and practices of the Jewish people were very similar to ours so we thought "we must be related.
Howard Wilson
hwilson@texasmoralaction.org