BMAT Moral Action Committee Watchman Report #93 07/21/2006

News Topics of a Particular Interest or Moral Concern

 

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Christianity / Religion

The Church in 2011: Catching the Age Wave

Lebanese Christians say: "Thank You Israel"

America’s Top 50 Most Influential Churches

National Church Leaders Demand Schumer Apology

 

Democracy / Security

We Are in the Third World War

Could the U.S. be going bankrupt?

Judicial supremacists strike against American Liberty and the War on Terrorists

 

Family / Social

GOP Unveils School Voucher Plan: $100 Million Proposal Targets Low-Income Students

Man Goes to Jail for Contempt of Court for Saying “Thank You Jesus”

Government / Legislation

Peoples U.S. House Votes to Protect the Pledge

President Bush Vetoes Life-Destroying Stem-Cell Research Bill

House of Representatives Failed today to approve a Constitutional Amendment Defining Marriage in America

New Ohio Law Requires Schools to Display "In God We Trust"

U.S. House Votes to Extend Voting Rights Act

Life Issues / Behavior

Meth still No. 1 drug problem, study finds

Judge Forces School District to Host Meetings of Pro-Homosexual Club

Police Arrest Christians for Anti-Abortion Message

Media / Internet / Entertainment

Attorney General Abbott Urges MySpace.com to adopt Real Safety Measures to Protect Children Online

Lord of the Rings Profits Used to Support Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Politics

IRS Warns Churches and Nonprofits about Endorsing Candidates

Rev. Jim Wallis Organizes ‘Religious’ Leftists in his goal of teaching liberals to use “God talk” in their election campaigns.

World / World Apostasies

Muslim Group Wants Franklin Graham Barred from Canada

Spain to Teach Children from Age 10 to Accept Homosexuality

Setting up Shop in Baghdad U.S. Quietly building the world’s biggest Embassy

Battle Hymn or the radically aggressive policies of the Madmen Religious Sect in Tehran

INSIGHT

"The world is a dangerous place to live—not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." —Albert Einstein

Christianity / Religion

The Church in 2011: Catching the Age Wave

July 18 2006 Prophecy News Watch

When I see the number 2011, I think of some distant future that is too far away to generate much concern. But 2011 is less than five years away, and significant demographic trends are taking place. These trends are profound, but I fear that the American church is not ready or even aware of the changing landscape.

Nearly one-third of all Americans living today were born between 1946 and 1964. This baby boom is sandwiched between the small generations of the Depression and the Vietnam eras. The boomer generation has repeatedly shaped much of American life, including church life.

Concurrent with the aging of the baby boomers is a longevity boom. In 1900, life expectancy was 47 years. By 2011 the life expectancy of adults will approach 80 years. A huge and long-living older generation will be residing in our communities. How will the church respond?

In just five short years, the oldest boomer will be 65 years old, and the midpoint boomer will be 56. These are not your typical mature adults, and churches that respond as they always have will miss a great evangelistic opportunity.

What are some emerging thoughts and facts about this generation? Look at the following pertinent issues:

• About two-thirds of the 76 million boomers are un-Churched, which means they attend church no more than twice a year.
• Our early research indicates that many of these boomers are becoming profoundly nostalgic. Among the un-Churched boomers, we found that a significant number would return to church if it resembled the church of their childhood.
• Typically, gospel receptivity wanes as a person ages. But the boomers may defy this trend. Indeed, early indicators tell us that gospel receptivity may actually be on the rise among the members of this huge generation.
• The senior boomers will have the largest accumulated wealth of any group in America's history.
• This age wave will include tens of millions of men and women who want to make a difference in their older years. They have pursued many paths to happiness, and the un-Churched boomers tell us that none have proved satisfactory.
• These older adults will respond poorly to most forms of senior adult ministries in churches today. They will walk away from churches that focus on travel and entertainment as the primary "ministries" to senior adults.
• The age wave adults will desire more than an occasional mission trip as a means to make a difference. They want to invest themselves in something that is meaningful and longer-term.
• These new senior adults will not perceive themselves to be older adults, and any organization that communicates to them that they are old will quickly lose the allegiance of this generation.
• The age wave generation is increasingly desirous of studying deep biblical truths, even among the un-Churched boomers.

In my travels to churches and in my discussions with church leaders, I often ask what their churches are doing to prepare for this age wave, especially since the impact will be felt in as few as five years. Most leaders admit that they have not even thought about the issue, much less strategically planned to reach this older generation.

We estimate that this older generation could shape organizations around the nation and the world for the next 25 to 30 years. Most secular groups are giving serious thought and expending millions of dollars to reach this new type of senior adult. But it seems that the American church is one of the least prepared for this age wave of any of the organizations today.

Most cutting-edge ministries in the church for the past 40 years have been aimed at reaching the younger generations. Indeed, churches should continue to reach young people with the gospel. But few churches have given much thought or resources to reaching older generations. And if something does not change in our churches, this age wave will pass by with millions never connecting with the church, and with millions never responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is your church doing to prepare to catch the age wave? The answer to that question may very well impact the eternity of millions of aging boomer Americans.

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Lebanese Christians say: "Thank You Israel"

July 18 2006 Prophecy News Watch

For the millions of Christian Lebanese, driven out of our homeland, "Thank you Israel," is the sentiment echoing from around the world. The Lebanese Foundation for Peace, an international group of Lebanese Christians, made the following statement in a press release to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert concerning the latest Israeli attacks against Hezbollah:

"We urge you to hit them hard and destroy their terror infrastructure. It is not only Israel who is fed up with this situation, but the majority of the silent Lebanese in Lebanon who are fed up with Hezbollah and are powerless to do anything out of fear of terror retaliation."

Their statement continues, "On behalf of thousands of Lebanese, we ask you to open the doors of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport to thousands of volunteers in the Diaspora willing to bear arms and liberate their homeland from Islamic fundamentalism.

We ask you for support, facilitation and logistics in order to win this struggle and achieve together the same objectives: Peace and Security for Lebanon and Israel and our future generations to come."

The once dominate Lebanese Christians responsible for giving the world "the Paris of the Middle East" as Lebanon used to be known, have been killed, massacred, driven out of their homes and scattered around the world as radical Islam declared its holy war in the 70s and took hold of the country.

They voice an opinion that they and Israel have learned from personal experience, which is now belatedly being discovered by the rest of the world.

While the world protected the PLO withdrawing from Lebanon in 1983 with Israel hot on their, heals, another more volatile and religiously idealistic organization was being born: Hezbollah, "the Party of God," founded by Ayatollah Khomeini and financed by Iran. It was Hezbollah who blew up the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in October,1983 killing 241 Americans and 67 French paratroopers that same day. President Reagan ordered U.S. Multilateral Force units to withdraw and closed the books on the marine massacre and US involvement in Lebanon February 1984.

The civilized world, which erroneously vilified the Christians and Israel back then and continues to vilify Israel, now, was not paying attention. While America and the rest of the world were concerned about the Israeli / PLO problem, terrorist regimes in Syria and Iran fanned Islamic radicalism in Lebanon and around the world.

Hezbollah's Shiite extremists began multiplying like proverbial rabbits out-producing moderate Sunnis and Christians. Twenty-five years later they have produced enough people to vote themselves into 24 seats in the Lebanese parliament. Since the Israeli pull out in 2000, Lebanon has become a terrorist base completely run and controlled by Syria with its puppet Lebanese President Lahood and the Hezbollah "state within a state."

The Lebanese army has less than 10,000 military troops. Hezbollah has over 4,000 trained militia forces and there are approximately 700 Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. So why can't the army do the job? Because the majority of Lebanese Muslims making up the army will split and unite along religious lines with the Islamic forces just like what happened in 1976 at the start of the Lebanese civil war.

It all boils down to a war of Islamic Jihad ideology vs. Judeo Christian Westernism. Muslims, who are now the majority of Lebanon's population, support Hezbollah because they are part of the Islamic Ummah-the nation. This is the taboo subject everyone is trying to avoid.

The latest attacks on Israel have been orchestrated by Iran and Syria driven by two different interests. Syria considers Lebanon a part of "greater" Syria. Young Syrian President Assad and his Ba'athist military intelligence henchmen in Damascus are using this latest eruption of violence to prove to the Lebanese that they need the Syrian presence to protect them from the Israeli aggression and to stabilize the country. Iran is conveniently using its Lebanese puppet army Hezbollah, to distract the attention of world leaders meeting at the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, from its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Apocalyptic Iranian President Ahmadinejad and the ruling Mullah clerics in Tehran want to assert hegemony in the Islamic world under the banner of Shia Mahdist madness. Ahmadinejad wants to seal his place as top Jihadist for Allah by make good his promise to "wipe Israel off the map.

No matter how much the west avoids facing the reality of Islamic extremism of the Middle East, the west cannot hide from the fact that the same Hamas and Hezbollah that Israel is fighting over there, are of the same radical Islamic ideology that has fomented carnage and death through terrorism that America and the world are fighting. This is the same Hezbollah that Iran is threatening to unleash in America with suicide bomb attacks if America tries to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapon. They have cells in over 10 cities in the United States. Hamas, has the largest terrorist infrastructure on American soil. This is what happens when you turn a blind eye to evil for decades, hoping it will go away.

Sheik Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, is an Iranian agent. He is not a free actor in this play. He has been involved in terrorism for over 25 years. Iran with its Islamic vision for a Shia Middle East now has its agents, troops and money in Gaza in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Behind this is this vision that drives the Iranian President Ahmadinejad who believes he is Allah's "tool and facilitator" bringing the end of the world as we know it and the ushering in of the era of the Mahdi. He has a blind messianic belief in the Shiite tradition of the 12th or "hidden" Islamic savior who will emerge from a well in the holy city of Qum in Iran after global chaos, catastrophes and mass deaths and establish the era of Islamic Justice and everlasting peace.

President Ahmadinejad has refused so far to respond to proposals from the U.S., EU, Russia and China on the UN Security Council to cease Iran's relentless quest for nuclear enrichment and weapons development program until August 22nd. Why August 22nd? Because August 22nd, coincides with the Islamic date of Rajab 28, the day the great Salah El-Din conquered Jerusalem.

Ahmadinejad's extremists ideology in triggering Armageddon gives great concerns to the intelligence community.

At this point the civilized world must unite in fighting the same enemies plaguing Israel and the world with terrorism. We need to stop analyzing the enemies' differences as Sunni-Hamas or Shiite-Hezbollah, and start understanding that their common bond in their fight against us is radical Islam.

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America’s Top 50 Most Influential Churches

July 2006 Insider Church Report

Two of the churches (Saddleback and Fellowship) are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and the other three are non-affiliated with a denomination (Willow Creek, North Point and Lakewood). Some are new churches and others date back to the late 1950s. Lakewood Church began in 1959 and is both the oldest of the five top congregations and largest in the nation. North Point is the youngest of the group and began in 1995 with about 1,200 people.

Both of the nation’s largest United Methodist congregations – Resurrection United Methodist Church (Leawood, Kan.) and Windsor Village United Methodist Church (Houston, Texas) – were named by other church leaders for this group of churches. Other major Methodist churches include Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church (Montgomery, Ala.) and Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church (Tipp City, Ohio). Other older mainline churches include the Episcopal Trinity Church (Manhattan, N.Y.) and the Presbyterian (PCUSA) Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (Menlo Park, Calif.).

Several churches are new to our list this year. These 19 churches are from various locations across the nation. Five are from California; two each are from Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Texas; and one each is from Arkansas, Arizona, Massachusetts and Oklahoma.

The 2006 survey was emailed to leaders of more than 2,000 of the largest non-Catholic congregations in the nation by Church Growth Today in April and May. A small selected group of smaller churches were also invited to recommend churches. Participants were asked to recommend up to 10 churches (vs. five last year) they considered to be among the nation’s most influential. A total of 83 churches were recommended. A total of 57 percent of all church leader recommendations named these five churches.

These churches are recommended by other church leaders as congregations that represent the passion and sense of mission mandated in the New Testament. They do not all share the same view of all biblical doctrine, their recognition came from others, and they do not view themselves as better than other churches. Each just considers itself as a church wanting to be pleasing and useful to God and their understanding of His mandates to them.

Changes in this years list reflects the rapid change and persity of ministry across the nation from year to year. It appears to also affirm the new expressions of ministry by emerging churches while also affirming the best of churches that endure through eras of dramatic change. We look forward to the churches that you will be recommending next year. Thanks to you who took the time to share in this year’s survey.

Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, Ill.), Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, Calif.), North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Fellowship Church (Grapevine, Texas) once again lead this years 50 Most Influential Churches list.

Among the other three churches, Willow Creek is the second oldest and began in 1975 with a core of 75 people. Saddleback followed in 1980 with only Rick Warren and his wife Kay initially. Fellowship Church is the second youngest of the five and began in 1990 with 150 people. All five of the churches now average more than 16,000 in weekend attendance and are consistently among the nation’s 15 largest and fastest growing churches each year.

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National Church Leaders Demand Schumer Apology

July 19 2006 Christian Newswire

New York Senator’s Comments Offensive and Dangerous

WASHINGTON, the executive committee of the National Clergy Council, representing church leaders from Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant traditions, today calls on New York senator Charles Schumer to immediately apologize for his bigoted comments made yesterday on the floor of the US Senate.

Mr. Schumer referred to traditional Christians who object to the willful destruction of human embryos as “theocrats” who “want their faith to dictate what the government does.” He then said this is why the Founders “put down their plows and took up muskets to fight.”

National Clergy Council president, the Rev. Rob Schenck, said in response:

“Senator Charles Schumer’s remarks were not just insulting to tens of millions of Americans of traditional Christian faith, but his words were down right menacing. For a US Senator to vilify a whole segment of the American population based on their religious convictions and then suggest fighting them with guns is frightening.

We appeal to Mr. Schumer to apologize immediately, set the record straight and urge Americans to engage in civil and non-violent debate on these matters.”

Senator Schumer was the only US Senator to refuse an Easter / Passover gift package from the National Clergy Council’s affiliate group, Faith and Action that was hand-delivered to all congressional offices earlier this year. The Senator sent back the package of two books and a personal letter from Rev. Schenck. Schumer included his own letter noting that he was not accepting the gift. In contrast, numerous senators sent personal notes of appreciation to Faith and Action.

Mr. Schenck is an appointed missionary to the federal government, a minister and a board member of the Evangelical Church Alliance, America’s oldest association of Evangelical clergy. He is available for further comment.

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Democracy / Security

We Are in the Third World War

July 14 2006 Newt Gingrich

The recent attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel – with the active political, financial and military support of Iran and Syria – are just the latest acts in what is now a 58-year war. On the one side, civilization and the rule of law, and on the other, are the dictatorships of Iran and Syria and their terrorist clients Hezbollah and Hamas.

But what we are witnessing in Israel is only part of a greater global conflict.

The nature of the threat is at its core ideological and best described as the irreconcilable wing of Islam – irreconcilable, because its values are non-negotiable with the civilized world.

In the past several months, we have seen a wave of deadly attacks carried out across the world upon innocent civilians that reflect a scale of challenge much larger than we currently recognize here in the United States. So much so, that the current situation could be accurately characterized as a Third World War, every bit as serious and dangerous as the two great conflicts of the 20th Century.

We are not calling for a Third World War, we are in it.

Look at what’s happening in the world: an Iran-Syrian-Hezbollah-Hamas terrorist alliance is waging war against Israel; seven bombings in Mumbai, India killed more than 200 people; North Korea launched seven missiles, including a nuclear capable intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the West coast of the continental United States; seven Americans in Miami pledging allegiance to al Qaeda on video; a plot to bomb New York City subways and tunnels; and eighteen Canadians arrested with twice the explosive force used in the Oklahoma City bombing with a plot to blow up the Canadian parliament. Moreover, the British government reports that it has uncovered more than 20 "major conspiracies" by Islamic terrorists, and believes that as many as 1,200 potential terrorists are living in the United Kingdom.

Whether operationally connected or not, these attackers and plotters are connected in their ultimate aim to destroy the values of freedom, security and religious liberty that sustain civilization in the modern age.

When this list is added to it the deadly bombings in Baghdad, the previous attacks in New York, Washington, London, Madrid, Bali, Beslan, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Sharm-el-Sheikh, New Delhi, Amman and many other cities, you begin to see a picture emerge of a world war.

In a Third World War, there will be two sides, those who believe we're in a war to defend civilization – and therefore must defeat the terrorists and their state sponsors – and those who are made uncomfortable by the price of defeating terrorists and therefore will seek accommodation and appeasement with those whose values are irreconcilable with our own.

It will be incumbent upon the civilized, law-abiding nations to win this war. Time is not on our side. Time affords our enemies the ability to develop the means to do us incalculable harm. Anything less than victory threatens our very survival, the rule of law, and freedom as we have known it.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America

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Could the U.S. be going bankrupt?

July 18 2006 Prophecy News Watch

The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the country's central bank.

A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve.

Prof Kotlikoff said that, by some measures, the US is already bankrupt. "To paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in consequence of failure to pay its creditors," he asked.

According to his central analysis, "the US government is, indeed, bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who, in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds''.

The budget deficit in the US is not massive. The Bush administration this week cut its forecasts for the fiscal shortfall this year by almost a third, saying it will come in at 2.3pc of gross domestic product. This is smaller than most European countries - including the UK - which have deficits north of 3pc of GDP.

Prof Kotlikoff, who teaches at Boston University, says: "The proper way to consider a country's solvency is to examine the lifetime fiscal burdens facing current and future generations. If these burdens exceed the resources of those generations, get close to doing so, or simply get so high as to preclude their full collection, the country's policy will be unsustainable and can constitute or lead to national bankruptcy.

"Does the United States fit this bill? No one knows for sure, but there are strong reasons to believe the United States may be going broke."

Experts have calculated that the country's long-term "fiscal gap" between all future government spending and all future receipts will widen immensely as the Baby Boomer generation retires, and as the amount the state will have to spend on healthcare and pensions soars. The total fiscal gap could be an almost incomprehensible $65.9 trillion, according to a study by Professors Gokhale and Smetters.

The figure is massive because President George W Bush has made major tax cuts in recent years, and because the bill for Medicare, which provides health insurance for the elderly, and Medicaid, which does likewise for the poor, will increase greatly due to demographics.

Prof Kotlikoff said: "This figure is more than five times US GDP and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap one's head around $65.9trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments are needed to eliminate this red hole. The answers are terrifying. One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143pc."

The scenario has serious implications for the dollar. If investors lose confidence in the US's future, and suspect the country may at some point allow inflation to erode away its debts, they may reduce their holdings of US Treasury bonds.

Prof Kotlikoff said: "The United States has experienced high rates of inflation in the past and appears to be running the same type of fiscal policies that engendered hyperinflations in 20 countries over the past century."

Paul Ashworth, of Capital Economics, was more sanguine about the coming retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. "For a start, the expected deterioration in the Federal budget owes more to rising per capita spending on health care than to changing demographics," he said.

"This can be contained if the political will is there. Similarly, the expected increase in social security spending can be controlled by reducing the growth rate of benefits. Expecting a fix now is probably asking too much of short-sighted politicians who have no incentives to do so. But a fix, or at least a succession of patches, will come when the problem becomes more pressing."

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Judicial supremacists strike against American Liberty and the War on Terrorists

July 18 2006 Phyllis Schlafly

Who could have guessed that Osama bin Laden's driver/bodyguard would be one of the privileged few to be granted a hearing by the high and mighty U.S. Supreme Court, after refusing to hear appeals from thousands of Americans during the past year, the court's liberals jumped at a chance to rule that President George W. Bush was wrong.

It wasn't compassion for Guatanamo Bay prisoner Salim Ahmed Hamdan. It was that Hamdan v. Rumsfeld offered an opportunity to proclaim judicial supremacy over both the other two branches of government and to slap the Bush administration in the process.

The Supreme Court had no business taking the Hamdan case. Congress had passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 withdrawing jurisdiction over Guantanamo prisoners' habeas corpus petitions from every "court, justice, or judge" except the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The Supreme Court did not, and could not, dispute Congress' power to do exactly that. The U.S. Constitution clearly grants this power to Congress.

But the court held that pending cases were exempt from this particular withdrawal of jurisdiction even though the law did not say that. Justice John Paul Stevens' majority decision ignored what Justice Scalia's dissent called a "plain directive," and (in the words of a primary sponsor of the Detainee Act, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.) "made legal contortions to get the result the Court wanted."

Maybe the court was emboldened to tweak Congress's Article III power over the federal courts by Congress's pusillanimity in failing to use it in two obvious hot-button cases. In 2004 the House of Representatives passed two bills withdrawing jurisdiction over the Pledge of Allegiance and the definition of marriage.

One of Chief Justice William Rehnquist's last acts was to acknowledge, but not criticize, efforts to withdraw jurisdiction.

But Congress lost its will to rein in the Court. Not only did the Senate fail to pass those popular bills, but the House failed even to repeat its work and pass them again in the current session.

The court heard the message: Congress is too weak or cowardly to curb judicial power. In the Hamdan case, the court virtually dared Congress to assert its authority to define the Court's powers.

Having thumbed its nose at Congress, the Supreme Court then attempted to invade the last remaining sanctuary thought to be beyond its power: military decisions of the Commander-in-Chief in wartime. The court claimed final authority over international relations and military necessity by presuming to write its own version of the Geneva Conventions.

The Geneva Conventions are irrelevant to Hamdan's case because al-Qaida is not a nation, is not a signatory to the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners, and certainly does not abide by the rules of war that are essential to the treaty's provisions.

The Geneva Conventions are irrelevant to Hamdan himself because he is a terrorist combatant who fails to meet the conventions' definition of a prisoner of war and therefore is not entitled to its POW protections. Osama bin Laden's driver is not on American soil and was captured halfway around the world during our war on terror.

Determined to invoke international law anyway, the court cited the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3, which applies only to civil wars, not international conflicts. The Court assumed that al-Qaida is not in an international conflict, despite having committed acts in the United States, Somalia, Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dissenting justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas agreed with Bush that the Geneva Conventions' protections for soldiers should not apply to terrorists. It is probable that Congress and the American people agree, too.

We shouldn't overstate the reach of the court's decision because it did not command Bush to shut down Guantanamo, or to forfeit the use of military commissions with different procedures, or to release any of the Gitmo detainees, or to treat them as legal POWs, or to give them an O.J. Simpson-style trial. The Court was just asserting its extraordinary power to second-guess the Commander-in-Chief on what is "practicable" in time of war.

"I am willing to abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court," Bush said. Whatever happened to his repeated campaign statement that he will not stand for activist judges who are "legislating from the bench"?

The Supreme Court's supremacist views will continue to expand if the other branches of government continue to accept the arrogant notion that whatever a judge says is the law of the land. Congress and the President can fix the problems created by Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, but only if they have the courage to rebuke the supremacist justices.

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Family / Social

GOP Unveils School Voucher Plan: $100 Million Proposal Targets Low-Income Students

July 19 2006 Lois Romano Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration and Republican legislators yesterday proposed a $100 million national plan to offer low-income students private-school vouchers to escape low-performing public schools. The plan was immediately assailed by Democrats, unions and liberal advocacy groups.

The proposal comes four days after the independent research arm of the Department of Education issued a report showing that public schools are performing as well as or better than private schools, with the exception of eighth-grade reading, in which private schools excelled. The results prompted questions from foes of vouchers about why taxpayer money should go toward private schools instead of toward improving public schools.

The National Center for Education Statistics compared fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores from about 7,000 public schools and more than 530 private schools. Private-school students historically score higher, but the NCES made adjustments to account for student background -- such as socioeconomic factors and race -- which leveled the playing field.

The report also found that conservative Christian schools -- a constituency that supports vouchers -- lagged significantly behind public schools in eighth-grade math. The report supported similar findings from a University of Illinois study on math.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings told reporters yesterday that she hadn't yet read the report and made references to the report's "modest sample." The report itself cautioned that because schools are all very different, overall comparisons of the two types of schools may be of "modest utility."

"It was not an evaluation of how school vouchers, how scholarship programs, how additional resources work for low-income families trapped in chronically low-performing schools," she said. "I do see them as . . . apples and oranges issues."

Grover "Russ" J. Whitehurst, director of the Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences, said this was the first time NCES used student variables. He said that while the report shows that considering the variables did change scores, it is of limited value because it's just a snapshot in time -- with no long-term reference points.

Spellings, flanked by Senate and House leaders on Capitol Hill, said the "opportunity scholarship" plan would be aimed at helping low-income students "trapped" in poor schools by offering them transfers to other public schools, tutoring, and scholarships to private schools, up to $4,000 per student. The secretary said the plan would cover 28,000 students.

Spellings said that if schools cannot show progress after six years of required improvements under the federal No Child Left Behind law, then parents must be offered a way out for their children.

The plan will give "the children of lower-income families . . . the same opportunities wealthier families have," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

Spellings was later pressed by reporters on whether private schools would be held to the same accountability standards under the plan, since they would be taking public money.

"Well, as we have gotten very sophisticated about data and measurements in public schools, I think parents have come to expect that, they have come to expect report cards not only about their child but about the quality of their schools," she said, sidestepping the question. "I certainly am a strong believer of accountability in education."

"They are calling this a scholarship. A voucher is a voucher. Where I come from, it's called perfuming a pig," said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the teachers union. "Anything that takes away from our ability to better our schools is wrong."

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Man Goes to Jail for Contempt of Court for Saying “Thank You Jesus”

July 17 2006 Peter J. Smith LifeSiteNews.com

HONOLULU, Hawaii, a Honolulu man may now continue his life as a free man after a judge dropped contempt of court charges. He was charged with contempt of court after verbally thanking Jesus when a jury found him “not guilty” of abusing his son, according to the Honolulu Advertiser.

Junior Stowers, 47, raised his hands and cried out “Thank you Jesus!” after the jury reached the June 29th verdict that he was “not guilty” of hitting his 15 year old son with a broomstick back in January. According to court records Stowers’ son denied his previous accusations and confessed that his brother had hit him with a car door. His brother verified this in court, freeing Stowers from misdemeanor charges of physical abuse, carrying a sentence of a year in jail.

Yet, to the utter shock of family members and Iakopo Sale, Stowers' pastor at the Assembly of God Church, who were watching in the gallery, Stowers was accused of contempt of court for thanking Jesus for his deliverance, and was kept in custody.

Following Stowers’ “outburst,” Judge Patrick W. Border of the 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu said, “There will (be) no more of that,” and declared him in contempt of court. Although Stowers requested to approach the bench and apologize, Judge Border refused his plea and ordered him to remain in the courtroom, and then in the cellblock. He was released after 6 hours, with an order to attend a hearing on July 7th.

"I don't think there's anything about saying 'Thank you, Jesus' that rises to the level of contemptuous behavior in this case," said Deputy Public Defender Susan Arnett to the Honolulu Advertiser.

At the July 7th contempt hearing, Judge Border dropped the contempt charges against Stowers. The defense informed the judge that Stowers’ defense lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Carmel Kwock, did not have time to relay to Stowers the judge's directive that no party display emotion inside the courtroom.

In the court’s minutes, Judge Border found Stowers’ "non-verbal gestures and outbursts to be disruptive and improper regardless of content." Nevertheless his immediate impatience with Stowers, whom Arnett described as a devoutly religious man, is something that Arnett maintains she has never seen in her 20 years experience in the law.

Arnett said that a defendant is held in contempt after repeatedly ignoring warnings issued by the judge; but Stowers had not caused any trouble in the courtroom before he expressed his thanks to God. A conviction for contempt of court is a petty misdemeanor and carries a jail sentence of up to 30 days in Hawaii. “Contemptuous behavior has to be much higher than [what Stowers did],” Arnett said.

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Government / Legislation

Peoples U.S. House Votes to Protect the Pledge

July 19 2006 Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor Citizen Link

Representatives affirm the right of school kids to include "under God."

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Pledge Protection Act — H.R. 2389 — 260 to 167. The act seeks to remove cases involving the Pledge of Allegiance from the jurisdiction of federal courts.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., is in response to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2002 that declared the Pledge unconstitutional because of the words "under God." The Supreme Court overturned the decision, stating that atheist Michael Newdow did not have standing to bring the case.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals banned 'under God' from the Pledge, it was out of step with the American public and the spirit of the Constitution.

"Nearly 90 percent of Americans believe 'under God' should remain in the Pledge and that students should be allowed to recite the Pledge," he said. "I am pleased to see Congress exercising its constitutional authority to check the power of the courts which have tried to strip 'God' from the Pledge of Allegiance."

The Pledge Protection Act, Perkins said, will help restore the system of checks and balances intended by our Founding Fathers.

"We continue to see attempts to remove any acknowledgement of God from the public square," he said. "If the Pledge falls under the attack of liberal activists and their judicial accomplices, we can expect our nation's motto and other historical inscriptions to fall as well."

Perkins noted that the threat from crusading atheists and activist judges will not cease until the Pledge Protection Act is signed into law.

"We urge the U.S. Senate to act promptly and adopt this measure before the August recess," he said. "Our overburdened courts will be more effective when they focus on areas of genuine dispute and cease tampering with first principles on which the American people are united."

TAKE ACTION:
Encourage your senators to support the Pledge Protection Act.

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President Bush Vetoes Life-Destroying Stem-Cell Research Bill

July 19 2006 Pete Winn, associate editor citizen Link

Bush tells Congress he's "not going to allow" an unethical bill to become law.

President Bush today vetoed his first piece of legislation, H.R. 810, which would have dramatically increased the incentive for researchers to kill embryonic human beings to obtain stem cells.

"If we're to find the right ways to advance ethical medical research, we must also be willing, when necessary, to reject the wrong ways," Bush told a White House crowd peppered with pro-life leaders.

"So today, I'm keeping the promise I made to the American people by returning this bill to Congress with my veto."

In sending him H.R. 810, the president said Congress had crossed an ethical boundary.

"If this bill would have become law, American taxpayers would have — for the first time in our history — been compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos. And I'm not going to allow it!"

Focus on the Family Action Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., praised the president for taking action to defend innocent life.

"His unswerving commitment to the cause of the preborn underscores the lack of conviction displayed by the supposedly pro-life members of the House and Senate who voted to pass this barbarous legislation," Dr. Dobson said.

The legislation would have overturned what Bush called his "balanced policy on embryonic stem-cell research" of the past five years — which allows federal funds to go for research only on stem-cell lines obtained before August 2001.

"This bill would also undermine the principle that Congress itself has followed for more than a decade," the president said, "when it has prohibited federal funding for research that destroys human embryos."

The U.S. House of Representatives late this afternoon failed to override Bush's veto. A year ago, when the House passed the bill, the tally was 52 votes short of the number required to overcome a veto.

The failure to override was small comfort for pro-lifers, according to Amanda Banks, federal issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action.

"It's still very disappointing that more than half of the members of the House voted for this bill," Banks said. "They should have known better."

On Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill 63-37 — falling just four votes short of the two-thirds majority it would have needed to override a veto. Several senators who normally vote pro-life cast their ballots for the bill.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a pro-life champion in Congress, was not one of them.

Dr. Coburn congratulated Bush for taking a stand — and chided those who claim Bush is standing in the way of medical progress.

"Blocking this bill will do nothing to halt the true march of science, which is toward adult stem-cell therapies," the physician-lawmaker said.

"President Bush’s veto will also have zero effect on private investments into both embryonic and adult stem-cell research," he added. "In the real world, money follows success, and it is important for the public to understand that private research dollars are flowing toward adult stem-cell and germ-cell research because it holds much more promise than embryonic stem-cell research."

In making today's announcement, Bush was surrounded by "snowflakes" — children who were once frozen embryos at in vitro fertilization clinics, but remained frozen after the fertility treatments were complete — the same as the ones targeted for destruction by this research. They have since been adopted into loving families, the president pointed out.

"These boys and girls are not spare parts," he said. "They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells. And they remind us that in our zeal for new treatments and cures, America must never abandon our fundamental morals."

The Rev. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, said the president seems to understand what many in the House and Senate do not: that science is clear about what an embryo is – a new human life — and that it's wrong to kill the innocent.

"I thank God and I thank the values voters of this nation that we have a president who acknowledges both of these truths," Pavone said.

Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus on the Family Action, agreed that embryos are protected for another day because we have someone in the White House who understands the sanctity of human life.

"It wasn't that long ago that we witnessed then-President Clinton's repeated vetoes of partial-birth abortion bans," Earll said. "It matters who sits in the White House when it comes to these important life issues, and we should be thankful for President Bush's strong leadership."

TAKE ACTION:
Please thank President Bush for his courage and strong leadership in signing the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006, S. 3504, and for rejecting the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, H.R. 810. Then find how your lawmakers voted on these measures and let them know you have taken note.

See How Your Lawmakers Voted on Stem-Cell Related Bills

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House of Representatives Failed today to approve a Constitutional Amendment Defining Marriage in America

July 18, 2006 Gary Bauer American Values

Today the House of Representatives failed to approve a constitutional amendment defining marriage in America as the union of one man and one woman. This is not exactly a radical idea. Forty-five states currently define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Since 1998, the citizens of twenty of states have taken the additional step of passing marriage protection amendments at the ballot box by an average vote of 71%. They did so in response to attempts by homosexual activists to redefine marriage through judicial fiat.

Obviously the American people understand the value of civilization’s most enduring institution and they have resoundingly rejected the argument that marriage is an “irrational form of bigotry.” Yet, today only 54% of the House of “Representatives” voted in favor of the federal marriage protection amendment. (A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds super-majority to pass.) I’m disappointed, but not defeated.

While the battle to preserve marriage in Congress may be over for now, the focus will shift, once again, to the states, where at least six marriage protection amendments are pending on the November ballot and all are expected to pass. Maybe then, when more than half of the states in our union have constitutionally protected the definition of marriage, will Congress get the message and take action to preserve traditional marriage.

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New Ohio Law Requires Schools to Display "In God We Trust"

July 14 2006 News Release Liberty Council

Columbus, OH - Governor Bob Taft recently signed into law a bill requiring all public and community schools to display any donated copies of the national motto, "In God We Trust" and the state motto, "With God, All Things Are Possible." The bill passed the Senate vote in May and Governor Taft signed on the earliest possible date. The bill requires public schools and charter schools using state money to display copies of the mottos if they are donated for use in a classroom, auditorium or cafeteria.

Both mottos have already withstood court challenges claiming that use of such phrases violates the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. If challenged, it is unlikely that the law would be found unconstitutional, especially when appeals courts are regularly upholding public displays of the Ten Commandments.

Three federal courts of appeal have upheld displays of the Ten Commandments in public buildings in the past year, including the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs Ohio. That court also upheld, in ACLU of Kentucky v. Mercer County, Kentucky, the Foundations of American Law and Government display, which Liberty Counsel defended. In Elkhart County, Indiana v. Books, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the same Ten Commandments display, which Liberty Counsel defended. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld a stand-alone Ten Commandments monument.

Liberty Counsel President Anita L. Staver commented: "Public displays of our national motto, 'In God We Trust', and state mottos with religious themes are constitutional. Acknowledgement of our religious heritage is not an establishment of religion. Patriotism should be encouraged in schools, and part of patriotism is learning about this great nation, including our national motto."

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U.S. House Votes to Extend Voting Rights Act

July 14 2006 UPI Staff United Press International

WASHINGTON, the U.S. House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to extend the Voting Rights Act for 25 years, after beating back four amendments.

Most Republicans -- including some who had attempted to dilute provisions in the act -- joined the majority in Thursday's 390-33 vote, The Washington Post reported.

Most Democrats would have refused to support the act with any of the amendments.

"Today, Republicans and Democrats have united in a historic vote to preserve and protect one of America's most important fundamental rights -- the right to vote," said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., after the vote.

Two of the amendments involved the act's requirement that states with a history of racial discrimination get federal clearance for changes in voting laws. One would have removed the provision while the other would have extended it to all states where turnout fell below 50 percent.

Another amendment would have removed the requirement for bilingual assistance, and the fourth would have shortened the extension to 10 years from 25.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chair of the Judiciary Committee, said he hopes the Senate will give extension final passage before it recesses in August.

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Life issues / Behavior

Meth still No. 1 drug problem, study finds

July 18 2006 Sam Hananel, Associated Press Writer

Meth abuse continues to fuel an increase in crimes like robbery and assault, straining the workload of local police forces despite a drop in the number of meth lab seizures, according to a survey Tuesday.

Nearly half of county law enforcement officials consider methamphetamine their primary drug problem, more than cocaine, marijuana and heroin combined, the survey of the National Association of Counties found.

"Abuse of this highly addictive brain-altering drug continues to destroy lives and strain essential county services across America," said Bill Hansell, the association's president and commissioner of Umatilla County, Ore.

The survey of 500 county law enforcement officials in 44 states showed that about half reported a decrease in the number of meth lab busts as a result of laws that restrict the sale of cold medicines with precursor ingredients used in the manufacture of meth.

That's consistent with federal figures released last month showing a 30 percent drop in the number of labs seized nationwide. But county officials said supply of the drug remains high from superlabs in California and Mexico.

About half the counties reported that one in five inmates are jailed because of meth-related crimes like robberies and burglaries. Another 17 percent of counties reported that one in two inmates are incarcerated for meth-related activity.

Hansell called on Congress to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with the meth problem that includes more funding for anti-drug task forces, drug prevention campaigns, treatment programs and cleanup of toxic chemicals used to make meth.

Last month, the White House drug-policy office set a goal to cut meth use by 15 percent over the next three years and increase seizures of meth labs by 25 percent.

Hansell also urged federal lawmakers to reject a Bush administration proposal to eliminate the Justice Assistance Grant program, which funds drug task forces around the country. That call was echoed by local law enforcement officials at a news conference to announce the survey.

"It makes absolutely no sense to fight a war on drugs then reduce the funding when you're in the midst of battle," said Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel. About 1,000 of the 2,800 inmates in the Oklahoma County jail are incarcerated for meth-related crimes, he said.

The survey, taken at the end of June, is based on a random sample of sheriffs or police chiefs in 500 of the nation's 3,066 counties. The association does not reveal the identity of the counties because it would discourage them from responding freely, said Jacqueline Byers, NACo's director of research.

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Judge Forces School District to Host Meetings of Pro-Homosexual Club

July 18 2006 Jim Brown Agape Press

A Georgia school district has been ordered to permit a homosexual activist group to meet on campus.

Federal District Judge William C. O'Kelley issued a permanent injunction requiring White County High School in Cleveland to allow students in the "gay-straight alliance" (GSA) club PRIDE to meet on campus. On behalf of three students in the club, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the school district in February, claiming that school officials violated the students' rights under the federal Equal Access Act.

A spokeswoman for the ACLU of Georgia calls the ruling "a great victory for the lesbian and gay students and their friends" at the school that will allow them to address "violence and harassment against gay students" at White County High. Beth Littrell also says all students will benefit because the school had shut out all non-curriculum-related clubs and activities in its attempt to block PRIDE from meeting on campus.

But Mike Johnson, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, points out the Equal Access Act cited by the ACLU was intended to ensure that religious clubs in public secondary schools receive the same treatment afforded to secular non-curriculum-related student clubs. Johnson says for the last 20 years, that legislation has bolstered the religious freedom rights of Christian student clubs, but now is being used to force schools to admit organizations they regard as morally objectionable.

"If at least one non-curriculum-based organization is allowed, the school probably has to remain open to all such organizations," Johnson says. "But the solution there is what we call 'compliance without complacency.'"

The attorney explains that means school districts like White County ought to enact "very specific and strict regulations" that would prohibit any student program or presentation that is "unlawful or vulgar," would contribute to the delinquency of a minor, or be disruptive to the school.

"The discussion of human sexuality will very often cross the line and even violate existing state statutes," he notes, "and we have had courts uphold those kinds of restrictions."

Judge O'Kelley says the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and other groups that have also been "denied access" will now be allowed to meet on campus.

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Police Arrest Christians for Anti-Abortion Message

July 18 2006 Christian Report

In Jackson, Miss., police arrested two pro-life supporters. Yesterday morning two Christian gentlemen were arrested and being held for expressing their views on abortion. They were holding signs displaying images of aborted fetuses. Both men were standing on an overpass during rush hour traffic displaying their signs to commuters on their way work.

Police told the two men that this was an inappropriate place to display these sorts of signs. The two men contend that they were well within their rights to display their signs where they were. When they refused to leave, police arrested the two, who are being held in jail at this time. Both men were part of Operation Rescue / Operation Save America (OSA).

Elsewhere is Jackson, a group of masked anarchist threatened to murder Christians the day before. The masked crowd proceeded to destroy one of the cars at the site of an anti-abortion rally outside of Universalist Church. The police refused to control the situation and would not even take a report until the rally attendees volunteered to handle the situation through lawyers. Later, a number of Christians were cited and held on police buses for protesting in front of an abortion clinic. In addition to the citations, Christian signs were confiscated from people young and old.

“When was the constitution of the United States rescinded? When were the rights of peaceful citizens removed? Where is the right to freely express your opinion on the public sidewalk?” said Rev. Flip Benham, Director of OSA.

July 17 2006 Gudrun Schultz LifeSiteNews.com

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Media / Internet / Entertainment

Attorney General Abbott Urges MySpace.com to adopt Real Safety Measures to Protect Children Online

July 13 2006 News Release Texas Attorneys General Office

Abbott calls new measures “window-dressing”; renews call for meaningful reform

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a nationally recognized leader in the fight against online predators, criticized MySpace.com for not implementing real safety measures to protect young users of their social networking Web site from being subjected to sexually explicit images and unwanted solicitations.

Attorney General Abbott criticized today’s announcement by MySpace.com to partner with Hollywood movie stars in launching national television public safety advertisements and a downloadable guidebook to Internet safety for parents instead of adopting the definitive safety measures that Abbott recommended in May.

“MySpace.com continues to resist implementing real reform measures, including age verification measures and filtering software, and instead offers window-dressing that offers no real protection to the millions of children and teenagers who use their networking sites and chat rooms,” said Attorney General Abbott. “Parents have to grant permission for their child take an over-the-counter medicine like Tylenol in school, and parents should also have the opportunity to decide whether their child should have access at school to an online playground that attracts dangerous predators, that are looking to rob a child of their innocence and destroy a childhood. Social networking site operators are part of the problem, and to be part of the solution they must do more than pay lip service to providing a safe environment for children.”

Attorney General Abbott issued a letter to social networking Web site executives in May calling on them to strengthen safeguards against pornography and sexually explicit solicitations after his Cyber Crimes Unit arrested three men in Texas who used MySpace.com and other Internet chat rooms to solicit minors for sex.

Today, Attorney General Abbott again called on site operators to implement more stringent age verification measures to protect younger users on the networking site. He pressed operators to upgrade their resources and utilize filtering software that would provide parents with the opportunity to block access to the sites at their discretion. He also stressed the importance of records retention to assist law enforcement in tracing complaints of online child pornography or inappropriate contact.

“The incorrigible nature of sexual predators requires public officials, law enforcement, industry leaders and parents across Texas to join together to make the Internet a safer place,” added Attorney General Abbott. “The law enforcement community will remain vigilant against child sex predators, but without the commitment of social networking Web site operators to put meaningful precautions in place, no child is safe from the unwanted advances of social networking site or chat room predators.”

Attorney General Abbott has made pursuing sexual predators a top priority of his administration. On July 11, he was invited by U.S. Congressman Joe Barton to testify at a congressional hearing in Washington on federal legislation that would require publicly funded schools and libraries to limit access to commercial social networking Web sites like MySpace.com.

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Lord of the Rings Profits Used to Support Embryonic Stem Cell Research

July 17 2006 Gudrun Schultz LifeSiteNews.com

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, profits from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy are being used to fund destructive human embryonic research at the University of California, reported the Mainichi Daily News.

Filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who brought the J.R.R. Tolkien epic to the screen, together donated US $310,000 last Saturday to fund research using the stem cells of human embryos.

“Stem cell therapy has the potential to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses which up until now have been labelled ‘incurable,’” the pair said in a statement released by the University of California.

“Continuing advances in stem cell medicine will change all of our lives for the better.”

Despite such assumptions, research using human embryonic stem cells has so far been unsuccessful. All of the breakthroughs using stem cells for medical therapy have so far been found through the use of adult stem cells—cells obtained directly from the individual in need of therapy and used successfully to treat a growing list of serious illnesses.

Embryonic stem cell research has received international criticism, including disapproval by the US government, because the research involves the killing of human embryos in the very earliest stages of development. The Catholic Church, in particular, has condemned any research that involves the use or destruction of the human embryo as intrinsically immoral.

Ironically, despite the undercurrent of traditional morality that forms the foundation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy—Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic—the film has been used as a springboard to promote policies in direct opposition to Catholic teaching.

British actor Ian McKellen, who portrayed the wizard Gandalf in the film, has used the international recognition generated by the film to further his promotion of homosexuality, campaigning for homosexual “marriage” in Britain.

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Politics

IRS Warns Churches and Nonprofits about Endorsing Candidates

July 18 2006 Citizen Link

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has sent advisories to churches and other nonprofit organizations warning that improper campaigning could endanger their tax-exempt status.

The Los Angeles Times reported that notices were sent to more than 15,000 tax-exempt groups, numerous church denominations and tax preparers, detailing the IRS' new enforcement program, the Political Activity Compliance Initiative.

The IRS said it will expedite investigations into claims of improper campaigning.

Since 2004, the IRS has investigated more than 200 organizations.

IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson acknowledged in a statement that the vast majority of churches do not engage in politicking.

"The rule against political campaign intervention by charities and churches is long established," he said. "We are stepping up our efforts to enforce it."

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Rev. Jim Wallis Organizes ‘Religious’ Leftists in his goal of teaching liberals to use “God talk” in their election campaigns.
July 13 2006 Traditional Values Coalition

Longtime leftist minister Jim Wallis recently sponsored a “Pentecost 2006” conference in Washington, DC to rally liberals to use religious talk when campaigning for the mid-term elections in November.

Mark Tooley, with the Institute on Religion and Democracy covered this event for the American Spectator and published “Pentecost of Big Government” on July 10.

According to Tooley, “Wallis, the old Students for a Democratic Society hell-raiser from the 1960s has tempered his rhetoric. But he still looks to the federal welfare and regulatory state as the source of secular salvation.”

Wallis was joined by Senators Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Children Defense Fund leader Marian Wright Edelman and others. Dean declared that our nation is entering the 1960s again, which he characterized as an age of “enlightenment, led by religious figures who want to greet Americans with a moral, uplifting vision.” Dean compared the Bush Administration to the McCarthy era “when there wasn’t (sic) civil rights, at a time when there was an authoritarian government that felt they deserved everything and that nobody needed to know anything.” (Dean was referring to the Eisenhower Administration.)

Clinton warned the audience: “Don’t let people get away with nice words. Don’t let them quote scripture to you.”  Obama told the audience: “We’re tired of seeing faith used as a tactic.”

Edelman told her fellow liberals: “God sent the angel to Mary, Joseph and Muhammad. We are all God’s children.”

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World / World Apostasies

Muslim Group Wants Franklin Graham Barred from Canada

July 18 2006 Prophecy News Watch

An Islamic advocacy group wants Rev. Franklin Graham barred from entering Canada because of allegedly hateful statements made towards Islam. Graham's spokesman says the Evangelical minister's comments have been "misconstrued" by some Muslims.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations of Canada (CAIR-CAN) claims allowing Graham into Canada would be evidence of a "double standard." British Muslim Riyad ul-Haq was denied entry into Canada in June after being accused of inciting hatred towards Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims - a violation of Canada's so-called "hate propaganda laws."

"We do not welcome hate-mongers," said Leslie Harmer, spokesperson for Immigration Minister Monte Solberg, the official who ordered that Canadian authorities block ul-Haq from entering the country.

CAIR-CAN noted that shortly after the 9/11 attacks Graham called Islam "a very evil and a very wicked religion." The group argues that, like ul-Haq, Graham should be forbidden to come to Canada for a scheduled visit later this year.

"The comments they have made are very widely available, and there isn't a great deal of difference between the two individuals," CAIR-CAN Communications Director Halima Mautbur told Cybercast News Service.

"As Muslims and as Canadians," Nickner added, "we stand firmly against any hateful religious speech by representatives of all faiths."

But Graham, who is president of his father's Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), previously explained that he does not hate Muslim people and only wants to speak out about crimes committed in the name of Islam.

Jeremy Blume, a spokesman for the association, said Graham would not comment further on the matter because he already responded in an opinion-editorial piece for the Wall Street Journal, clarifying statements he said the Muslim community misconstrued.

"It is not what he is about. He is about relief work, about spreading hope of Jesus Christ," Blume said. "People misconstrue when he talks about it. They think he is against Islam and people of Islam. That is why he wrote this, so people could refer to it and just be done with it so he can get back to relief work.""

In his essay, Graham said that he does not believe Muslims are evil people because of their faith, adding that he has many Muslim friends.

"While as Christians we disagree with Islamic teachings, if we obey the teachings of Jesus, we will love all Muslims," Graham wrote.

"But I decry the evil that has been done in the name of Islam, or any other faith - including Christianity," Graham continued. "I believe it is my responsibility to speak out against the terrible deeds that are committed as a result of Islamic teaching."

Despite Graham's explanation, CAIR-CAN is demanding that the Canadian government clarify its position on freedom of speech.

"We have sort of entered into an area which is creating a lot of confusion for our community given the differential treatment of these two clerics," said Mautbur. "It is incumbent on the government to provide some information to Canadians about how exactly this sort of policy of censorship is going to be used, and when it is going to be used."

Canadian officials have not responded to CAIR-CAN's complaints. Graham is still scheduled to visit Winnipeg in October.

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Spain to Teach Children from Age 10 to Accept Homosexuality

July 18 2006 Prophecy News Watch

Spanish children as young as 10 will be taught pro-homosexual material as part of a new school curriculum, the Telegraph reported this week.

The socialist government revealed plans to include teaching about the homosexual lifestyle in the schools, emphasizing the normalcy of homosexual relationships. The general secretary for education, Alejandro Tiana, said the move was necessary because "children need to learn there are various types of families."

The inclusion of homosexual material in schools is the latest in a string of anti-family, anti-faith policies instituted by Premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Spain's law recognizing same-sex "marriages" was passed by the Zapatero government just over one year ago, despite strong opposition by much of the population. The law also permits adoption of children by homosexual couples.

The government has also authorized embryonic stem cell research, as well as relaxed the divorce laws.

Last March, Spanish pro-family organizations called for the resignation of Alejandro Tiana after the education secretary said parents do not hold primary authority in educating their children.

"In a modern educational system, the State cannot be given a subsidiary role with respect to families," he said. Eduardo Hertfelder, president of Spain's Institute for Family Policy, said the statements were an attack on the rights of parents, which are protected by Spain's constitution.

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Setting up Shop in Baghdad U.S. quietly building the World’s Biggest Embassy

May 22 2006 Chicago Tribune

The United States has quietly been erecting the world's largest embassy in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone.

Work on the project goes on 24 hours a day with the aid of floodlights, despite the lengthy blackouts that are a fact of life in most of Iraq. A Kuwaiti group is handling most of the construction, which is being done entirely by imported labor, mostly from Asia.

The $592 million complex will have its own facilities for power, sewage, and water, giving it complete autonomy. The area will be as large as Vatican City when completed and include housing for diplomats and Marines, with separate residences for the ambassador and deputy ambassador, and amenities such as a gym and swimming pool.

Although the size of the project has made hiding it a futile task, embassy officials are barred from discussing it for security reasons. Chicago Tribune

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Battle Hymn or the radically aggressive policies of the Madmen Religious Sect in Tehran
July 18 2006 Slater Bakhtavar

The world knows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the volatile leader of a dangerous country, but according to FSM Contributing Editor Slater Bakhtavar, he may also be a representative of a little-known, but equally dangerous fundamentalist religious sect.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a little-known clandestine Islamist group remerged from the ashes. Formed in 1953 with a radically anti-Bahai and anti-Sunni ideology, the Hojjatiehs flourished during the Revolution that ousted the Shah. The fiery, respected Sheik Hamud Halabi urged the Hojjatiehs to vote in favor of the Velayat-e-Faqih form of government in the referendum mainly due to fear of a communist takeover.

Velayat-e-Faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult", is the modern political doctrine set out by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In his book of Jurist governmental rule, he addressed the role of the clergy in the government. Under this doctrine, he proclaimed himself and his successors as Supreme Leaders of a purist Islamic nation. In spite of propaganda purported by apologists and the naïve attention to Iran's presidential elections, virtually all authority lies with an absolute dictatorship under the Velayat-e-Faqih government: a concept dearly advocated and embraced by the founders of the Islamic Republic. Due to disagreement over the Velayat-e-Faqih system, the Hojjatiehs were banned in 1983. Ayatollah Khomeini was adamantly opposed to the Hojjatiehs’ conviction that Shiites should advocate a more progressive arrival of the 12th Imam.

 The Imam is a core concept in the teachings of Shiite Muslims. Born Muhammad Al-Mahdi, the Imam ventured into a cave in 941 AD hidden by the Gate of Occultation. Shiites believe that the Twelfth Imam will one day return to lead the religious battle between good and evil when the world has become consummately nefarious. They argue that it is only at that stage that a genuine Islamic Republic will emerge.

 Since the arrival of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the group has seen a mass resurgence in the government. Recently a former chief of staff of Khomeini claimed that the Revolutionary Guards and many of the cabinet