Why is Gay Marriage Progressing Across the Globe?

Diane Robertson

Legalized same-sex marriage is making progress around the globe.  Since the New Year, New Zealand, France, and Uruguay have legalized gay marriage. Great Britain is currently working on a law that would legalize gay marriage, and marriage is on trial in the Supreme Court of the United States.

The nations in the world that have legalized gay marriage are as follows:

The Netherlands 2001

Belgium 2003

Spain 2005

Canada 2005

South Africa 2005

Norway 2009

Sweden 2009

Portugal 2010

Iceland 2010

Argentina 2010

Denmark 2012

New Zealand 2013

France 2013

Uruguay 2013

1/5^th of states in the US  as of April 2013

And one state and Mexico City in Mexico

Just one year ago, only six states in the US had legalized same sex marriage and none of those states had voted to legalize it. Now there are 10 states. Washington, Maryland, and Maine made history last fall by obtaining a majority vote of the people to legalize gay marriage in their states. Rhode Island became the 10^th state this April as the State Governor signed a law that easily passed the state legislature.  The tide has turned from a year ago.  The tide began turning more than 50 years ago.

From a purely secular standpoint, traditional marriage is hard to defend against the moving tide. The main secular argument in favor of traditional marriage is: marriage is a conjugal union between two biologically compatible people that would produce offspring and raise the next generation responsibly. Governments had an interest in this union because it produced a healthy new generation. People got married to form a new family—to produce children.

The rise of birth control use and the sexual revolution in the Western world began changing the connection between sex and children, and ultimately between marriage and families.  No longer does the general population get married to form a new family; the general population gets married to legalize an emotional attachment. Commitment is still involved, but not all couples consider that commitment permanent.

The original argument in favor of birth control was very convincing. If married women could reduce the number of unwanted births, poverty would end.

And then what happened? Pregnancy was removed from the sexual act. Having sex with no consequences became the new powerful idea. Single people wanted on board too. Free love, free sex, and no consequences became the talk of the day in the 1960’s.

When pregnancy no longer had to be a consequence of sex, the idea of getting married to have sex disconnected in the minds of the people. Men and women quit feeling the need to get married to have children.  Births to single mother’s sky rocketed.  Abortion became legal. Couples began co-habitating and forming families without bonds. With so many people engaging in sex before marriage, it seemed unreasonable to ask them to give up the idea of free sex after marriage. Divorce rates sky rocketed.  Marriage broke.

It is hard to fight for something already broken. Most couples who get married, do so with the idea that if in a couple of years they do not like this arrangement, they can move on. While many couples want children, most marriages are based on emotional attachment.

Isn’t it discrimination to limit committed emotional attachments to couples of the opposite gender?  Those who believe marriage is just an emotional attachment do.

How can supporters of traditional marriage argue against gay marriage? Gay marriage is currently a social experiment. There isn’t much data on the effects of gay marriage on child rearing and society in general. However, there is a lot of data on problems fatherlessness causes children. Fortunately, most women have not abandoned their children and there isn’t much data on problems motherlessness causes children. If the problems caused by fathers abandoning children can be used as an indicator for what motherlessness will do to children, we should start building more jails now.

Gay marriage doesn’t just break marriage in the way free heterosexual practices broke marriage. Gay marriage changes the laws. In the countries and states where gay marriage has been legal for some time, laws have changed from the support of religious and conscientious freedom to the support of sexual freedom. Gay marriage laws punish free speech and conscientious religious objections.

If the western world wants to maintain the conscience, religious and speech freedoms that have allowed them to prosper for hundreds of years, individuals need to change.  Adults need to remember that marriage is really about forming a new biological family and that remaining faithful in your marriage is important to health, happiness, and freedom.  Parents need to teach those values to their children. Things can still turn around in favor of man and woman marriage if men and women break away from the ideas brought by the sexual revolution and once more encourage abstinence before marriage and complete fidelity afterwards.

Proselytizing compared to rape? Really?

Rachel Allison

There are bombs going off on more fronts than I can name.  The attacks are relentless and escalating.

Abortion—Now the truth is coming out about the “safety” and “compassion” of abortion clinics.  And we thought the supposed “back-alley abortions” were bad?

Euthanasia—being legalized and accepted as “killing with compassion.”

Marriage—If the Supreme Court redefines marriage, marriage, completely severed from its original purpose, might never pull out of its death spiral.  Religious freedom and rights of conscience will be severely compromised.

Educational decline—we have all witnessed its decline, and with Common Core being rammed through at break-neck speed, it will continue to be an agenda driven program run by non-elected federal agencies.

And there’s so much more…

What’s most alarming, a majority of the people seem to be totally unaware and even apathetic to the bombardment.

The most recent bombshell: Court marshals for those who proselyte  in the military.

I quote Bethany Monk from CitizenLink

The Pentagon has released a statement, confirming its policy that would punish service members who share their religious beliefs.

That follows a private meeting last week between Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and the Pentagon. Weinstein said military personnel who proselytize are guilty of sedition and “treason.” He said they should be punished to quell a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”  

“If this policy goes forward, Christians within the military who speak their faith could now be prosecuted as enemies of the states,” according to the Family Research Council. “This has potential to destroy military recruiting across the services as Americans realize that their faith will be suppressed by joining the military. Our brave troops deserve better. If chaplains and other personnel are censored from offering the full solace of the Gospel, there is not religious freedom in the military.”

As I have studied this and other relevant reporting it looks like the Department of Defense has had this particular regulation in place prior to Weinstein’s demands.

“Air Force Culture, Air Force Standards,” published on Aug. 7, 2012.

Section 2.11 requires “government neutrality regarding religion.”

“Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion,” the regulation states.

Military leaders were admonished not to use their position to “promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion.”

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council has said Weinstein’s hands are all over this work.  I wish I understood better whether MRFF could actually have had imput into the writing of the militaries’ regulations. Weinstein, an avid atheist is now demanding that the DOD start implementing it.

I quote Todd Starnes from Fox News

President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”

“Someone needs to be punished for this,” Weinstein demanded to Fox News.  “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.” He compared the act of proselytizing to rape.

“It is a version of being spiritually raped and you are being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian religious predators,” he told Fox News.

He said there is a time and a place for those in uniform to share their faith – but he took issues with fundamentalism that he says is causing widespread problems in the military.

Perkins and members of the Family Research Council were stunned that the Pentagon would be taking counsel and advice from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

“Why would military leadership be meeting with one of the most rabid atheists in America to discuss religious freedom in the military,” Perkins said. “That’s like consulting with China on how to improve human rights.”

If Weinstein has his way, and apparently he has the attention of military leaders “it threatens to treat service members caught witnessing as enemies of the state.”  “Non-compliance,” the Pentagon suggests, “even from ordained chaplains could result in court-martialing on a case-by-case basis.”

Does this sound like something that should be happening in the United States of America…or Hitler’s Germany?

With all the social, moral, and religious bombardment taking place we need to choose our battles wisely…but for America’s sake let us choose to fight! Apathy is a killer.

The FRC has launched a petition drive urging Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel to protect the religious freedom of troops “and not to proceed with the purge of religion within the ranks called for by anti-Christian activists.”

Reader Poll: “What decision do you think the Boy Scouts of America will make regarding their sexual orientation policy?”

Here’s the question we asked our readers:

“What decision do you think the Boy Scouts of America will make regarding their sexual orientation policy?”

Here’s how readers responded:

17 Percent                           Will revoke policy and allow homosexuals

33 Percent                           Will retain current policy

50 Percent                           Not sure

0  Percent                            Don’t care

Education: Third Cycle, Is there Hope?

Maddi Gillel

Editor’s note:  This is the third in a series on education.  To see “The High Water Mark,” go here, the second article, “The Nose Dive,” is here.

The value of the second cycle is that many have learned the hard way what works to make a country strong, healthy, prosperous, safe, and independent  in every way.

In his book Back to Basics: The Traditionalist Movement That is Sweeping Grassroots America, Burton Yale Pines expressed the yearning of the vast majority of Americans to get America back on track.  There is a call for reform in many areas:

1-     A revival of quality education by the national  commission (A Nation at Risk: The  Imperative for Educational Reform)

2-     A return to the free- market system with less intervention by government so that millions of new jobs can be created.

3-     A restoration of moral and spiritual values in both private and public life.

4-     A reduction in taxes; federal, state, and local.

5-     Paying off the national debt.

6-     Turning public welfare programs into workfare, education, and job-creating opportunities instead of allowing millions of Americans to become permanently trapped on the poverty level.

( Burton Yale Pines)

There are many in our  society who are doing what they can to resist that which weakens our country and encourage that which makes our country strong and free once again.  There are websites that are forwarded  to thousands to keep others aware of the news of the day; there are blogs such as this one, to encourage strong families, financial responsibility, and a return to values;  many more of our representatives understand and uphold the constitution and know how this country should be governed; many families have remained sufficiently intact that they have been raised by parents and grandparents who lived during the high water mark of our society; technological knowledge is at an all- time high, which has its downside, but the upside is that more can stay abreast of advancements in every aspect of our society –law, medicine, marketing, agriculture, retailing, engineering, education, political science, etc.

Many parents recognize the weakness of the education system and choose to home school their children- and this has been going on for quite some time.  Those children are in turn growing up, getting married, and home schooling their own children.

A College/University education was at one time,  thought to be the only way to make a good living, but many are choosing the trades (plumbing, electricity, carpentry, masonry,)  which  is  less expensive, takes less time, and will afford an ability to provide for one’s family ( of course keeping a strong work ethic in mind).  Keep in mind, that one can do a lot of reading and studying about any subject on earth in his own spare time and become an ‘educated’ person – there is formal education and informal education and a truly ‘educated’ person depends on his own volition.

There are an increasing number who are becoming more aware of the democratic process and are staying in contact with their representatives – through technology.  We can even sign petitions ‘on line.’

More reporters and journalists and radio hosts are choosing to be independent of ‘political correctness’ and can thusly keep their readers/listeners  apprised of what the real story is, as opposed to sticking to the talking points-‘ business as usual.’

To sum up, it is no mystery why billions are poured into education.  The ‘powers- that- be’ know that they have got to protect this institution. They can then do as they wish so children are raised to think along the lines of:  indifference to education (reading, writing, and math) socialism, religious and moral apathy, subjection to outrageous behavior from others (bullying, assault, profanity, vulgarity, negative peer pressure, etc.) and a lack of understanding and appreciation of the constitution.

Once again, and as usual, the home is crucial in teaching our children values, reading, math, writing, citizenship, financial responsibility, and family stability.

There is hope.

Some “What Ifs” of Gay Marriage

Rachel Allison

All four of my sons are Eagle Scouts.  I helped all four of them prepare for any situation as they packed for those monthly campouts and annual scout camps.  I watched them think through the “what ifs” of all the situations for which the scouting program is famous. Our sons learned to analyze the possible problems and prepare accordingly for each eventuality. By the time they earned their Eagle status they got pretty good at it.  Fifteen years’ involvement in the scouting program taught me the importance of being prepared.  I learned to analyze and mentally document the “what ifs” of my own life and that of my family.  I also learned that I can’t just hope for a positive outcome.  I have to analyze, work, study and sacrifice so the outcomes or consequences of my decisions are best for my family.

Enter the Gay marriage movement.  I have to admit that much of the pro-Gay rhetoric is convincing.  “Two people love each other.”  “They are responsible adults.”  “They deserve to be happily married under the law.”

Where should I stand on this issue?   Let me analyze from a mother/grandmother’s perspective.

We are a family who believes in God and the Bible.  I can’t force others, nor do I want to force others to believe as we do.  But if I accept gay marriage, the “what ifs” tell me that my Pastor might be prosecuted and even jailed if he preaches against the gay lifestyle. …or if he refuses to perform a marriage ceremony.  It has happened in other parts of the world.  It could happen here.  Could the Gay movement then become so emboldened as to shut the doors of my church, which would infringe on my families’ weekly devotionals?  As I watch the Constitution being violated on several fronts already, I must stand by principles that protect my religion and my right to worship.  My faith is too dear to not seriously analyze that “what if.”

Do I want my grandchildren reading about “Prince Ferdinand” and “Prince Edmond” who marry and live happily ever after? No I do not.  But it is already happening, in many of the elementary schools across our nation.  If gay marriage is legalized, the advancement of that type of propaganda will increase more and more blatantly as the years pass. Why?  Because there are many leaders in the Gay community who want to indoctrinate.  These leaders will not be content with just getting the right to marry. As I have done my research, I have seen it.  This indoctrination is blatant. And I don’t want my grandchildren confused by this in-your-face rhetoric from the gay advocates with a proselyting agenda. Again, I have done my homework.  I have been to their meetings.  There are Gays who are openly proselyting.

The Gay movement is well-organized.  There are battles being fought on all sides. They now appear to be gaining major ground with respect to the Boy Scouts of America.  I know there are Gays whose only purpose is to become a part of the scouting movement. But when one defines himself by his sexual practices, innocent boys will too quickly become not so innocent.  Nope.  I would not be willing to expose my sons to that education at the young age of 11 and 12.

I don’t pretend to be all knowing on this subject.  But I have studied and observed.  Gay marriage is just one major step of their agenda, but there are many more steps waiting to be implemented when the Gay-marriage laws are in place. I hope that we aren’t so naïve as to think this gay movement is just about the love of two responsible adults being given the right to marry.   For many Gays, the agenda is much more far-reaching.  If you don’t believe me, do your homework and you will begin to recognize all the “what ifs.”

Stripping the Religious of their Right to Speak Up

Diane Robertson

The purpose of government is to regulate human relationships– society. A good government supports and protects the family as the basic and most important unit of society. An important part of protecting the family is allowing freedom of religion which in turn lends support to families.

A bad government regulates religion and religious expression thereby ridding families of that support. Both removing support from the traditional family and regulating religion gives the government more power over the people.

Charles Donovan (son of James Donovan an OSS officer in the Nazi Army from 1944 to 1945) wrote, “Under the pretext that the churches themselves were interfering in political and state matters, [The Nazis]would deprive the churches, step by step, of all opportunity to affect German public life.” (America the Last Best Hope vol II, Bennett, William J… Nashville, TN. 2007. pg. 214)

The regulation of religious freedom and expression is once again beginning to be set in place by governments all over the Western World. This is occurring mostly as religious teaching about homosexuality conflict with anti-discrimination laws and gay marriage.

Recently, the European Court of Human Rights ruled religious beliefs cannot justify discrimination against same-sex couples. The Court ruled against Lillian Ladele, a public registrar, dismissed for refusing to officiate at civil partnership ceremonies for same-sex couples, and Gary McFarlane a counselor who provided psycho-sexual therapy to couples and stated in a work meeting that treating same sex couples was incompatible with his beliefs. Both were fired from their jobs and both have lost law suits against their employers.

In the United States the 6^th Circuit Court of appeals ruled that university diversity policies trump the First Amendment’s protections of religious freedom and religious expression. Crystal Dixon was dismissed from her university post after she wrote a personal letter to the editor of a local newspaper objecting to the characterization of homosexuality as being the same as race.

Cases like these are very common and similar outcomes are becoming the norm and even expected to be the norm. During his inauguration address, President Barak Obama declared:

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

This sounds nice—all are equal. For religious people, it isn’t nice. What it means is the religious teaching –in almost every religion– that homosexuality is a sin is discrimination. Therefore, anyone who believes that part of their religion is a bigot. As pro-family blogger Nathan Cherry stated:

There is a concerted effort to solidify religious people seeking to live out their religious convictions as bigots engaging in discrimination. This is why “conscience protections” will fail, because ultimately the state or federal government will decide that equality trumps religion and religious convictions will be defined as discriminatory.

If people seeking to live out their religious convictions are considered bigots engaging in discrimination because of government policies then, like Nazi Germany, governments today will become successful in depriving the churches, step by step, of all opportunity to affect public life.  Families will be left with some form of freedom of worship, but no longer freedom of religion.

Education- Phase 2 The Nose Dive

Maddi Gillel

Editor’s note:  This is the second in a series on education.  To see “The High Water Mark,” go here.

The second phase began around 1887.  There were those who wanted to experiment with ideas to make changes in the system:

1-The populist movement demanded that the federal government use income taxes to confiscate some of the property of the rich and redistribute it among the lower economic classes

2-  Industrial and financial leaders  wanted to influence the federal government to forcefully regulate our economy and limit competition at home and abroad.

3-  A group of political leaders and economists wanted to try the theories of socialism (which means government  ownership and control of production and distribution).

4-   Leading intellectuals rejected the spiritual and moral foundation of the American formula and wanted it eliminated from education.

The Founders had pronounced all of these ideas formulas for failure and warned of their destruction to the American system.  These 4 ‘experiments’ began to infiltrate  every aspect of our  society, and serious erosion began.

Five independent studies by leading educators across the country began calling for a return to basics.   A report from the National Commission on Excellence in Education declared: “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”  (US Department of Education, “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform”)

The commission found serious danger signals, such as:

“Over 3 million American adults were functionally illiterate by the simplest tests of everyday reading, writing, and comprehension.

About 13 percent of all 17 year olds in the US could be considered functionally illiterate.

Between 1975 and 1980, remedial math in public 4-year colleges increased by 72 percent .

Business and military leaders were required to spend millions of dollars on costly remedial education and training programs  for reading, writing, spelling and computation. “

During the 2^nd cycle, the moral and social quality of our culture was in serious decline. White collar crime skyrocketed;   divorce became far more common; more babies in gestation were destroyed by abortion than were born alive; promiscuous sexuality among the youth created  a wave of unwed mothers and illegitimate children, and the social destabilization which results from these problems; sexual depravity in some of its most bizarre forms began to be widespread; filthy speech was promoted in the name of free speech (4 letter words had become prominent in routine conversations of many); First Amendment rights were used as a license for the sale, distribution and broadcasting of pornography; obscenity was the principal attraction for commercial exploitation in books, magazines, films, and television shows; drugs became a plague on the nation.

A strong drive to completely secularize all phases of public education was begun. The Supreme Court eliminated prayer and Bible reading from the schools. The teaching of morality and spiritual values were eliminated from the schools. Stories with moral lessons (which were so popular in the McGuffey Readers) disappeared from textbooks.

There was much less emphasis on patriotism or any firm commitment to the Constitution or the Founders’ formula for prosperity.  Volumes were written about the Founding Fathers which leveled serious accusations against their reputation and character.  Researchers are now finding these stories to be myths and of recent invention.

A powerful federal government began to replace local government.  The shift of power from the states to the central government involved numerous violations of the Constitution.

There was a shift from a free-market economy (capitalism) to a highly regulated economy (another violation of the Constitution).

During this time – against the Monroe Doctrine –  the U.S. entered into entangling alliances and began meddling in the affairs of nearly every nation on earth. Hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars were spent (and the objectives of this meddling were not even met).

The U.S. went from virtually no national debt, to the biggest national debt in history, and more than all other countries’ debts combined

Our soldiers were ordered to fight in undeclared wars such as Korea and Vietnam (prohibited by Article 1 section 8 of the Constitution).

The Supreme Court began issuing mandates and decrees which unlawfully amended the provisions of the Constitution.

The executive branch began issuing thousands of executive orders each year which were enforced by the courts as federal laws (Article 1 section 1 states that Americans were not to be subject to any laws which had not been approved by Congress).

The nation – without a Constitutional amendment- was taken off the gold and silver standard.

There are too many in our society that believe the way things are now is the way they have always been and should always be.  But, how is it all working for us? I would say – “not too well.”

With all of these negative experiences emerging from  the  second cycle, it was inevitable that the vast majority of Americans would begin calling for reform – which will take us into phase 3 – next week.

THE HIGH WATER MARK IN EDUCATION

Maddi Gillel

“The strict discipline in educational preparation for professional life is described by John Adams.  By the time his son, John Quincy Adams was 18, the youth had become fairly proficient in Latin, French, and Greek.  He had also studied English and French literature, many of the Greek classics, Roman, English, and Greek history, the theorems of Euclid, plane trigonometry, algebra, decimal fractions, geometrical proportions and conic sections.  However, John Adams said his son was a little weak in calculus!”  (Koch, The American Enlightenment, pp. 190-191

What all was going on from 1607 to 1890 that encouraged such a marvelous education in our society?

1-    In 1836, William Holmes McGuffey began publishing his famous McGuffy Readers.  These became national best sellers and soon nearly every child was studying from at least one of them.

2-   Basics in:  Reading – phonics (involved memorizing), Writing – script, which is faster than print and was taught from the first grade – Arithmetic, especially as it applied to business and bookkeeping – Communication – which included spelling, essay writing, declamation, and oratorical contests – Literature- classical and contemporary- McGuffey included an assortment of these, Music – singing or playing an instrument – Art- painting, drawing, sculpture, Nature- study of plant, animal, astronomy – History – especially American history and its Constitutional form of government, Hygiene – mental and physical.

3-   Prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, a brief reading of the Bible, and a song comprised the opening exercises of a school day.

4-   Teachers (and the texts) were to drill into the students the importance of being: trustworthy, loyal (to God, family, and country), obedient (to parents, teachers, and others in authority) friendly, courteous, kind (to all), thrifty, brave, reverent (toward God, His commandments, and His creations), cheerful (even when life is unpleasant).

Alexis de Tocqueville, came to America to study our system and was so impressed with what he saw, that he stayed 2 years, returned to France and wrote his famous 2-volume work Democracy in America. He had this to say about education: “It cannot be doubted that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic; and such must always be the case.  I believe, where the instruction which enlightens the understanding is not separated from the moral education.”

De Tocqueville was amazed at the knowledge the children possessed concerning the Constitution and how the American system operated.  Many were studying from a little book of questions and answers called THE CATECHISM ON THE CONSTITUTION. (Arthur J. Stansbury, 1828)

Next week, I will report on the 2^nd educational cycle – (we are now living in the 3^rd cycle which I will report on in 2 weeks. )

FYI – The books mentioned in this article are still available.

Religious Freedom Day – Really?

Carol Soelberg

Wednesday, January 16, commemorates the adoption of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom drafted by Thomas Jefferson back in 1786.  That document declared the freedom of religious choice and religious free exercise all thought to be “natural rights of mankind.”

Fast forward to today.  Pres. Obama issues a statement of commemoration all the while efforts are underway all around to undermine that fundamental freedom.

Some of the most recent affronts to religious liberty include:

• The ObamaCare mandate that requires businesses and organizations provide sterilizations and contraceptives – including drugs that can cause abortions.  They are required to do this in spite of religious and moral objections or in the case of businesses like Hobby Lobby, face a million-dollar-a-day fine.  Yes, you read that number right.  Hundreds of  individuals and companies have now filed lawsuits against the healthcare mandate.

• New York high school science teacher, Joelle Silver, was told by school administrators that she had to remove Christian items from her room and desk.  Silver is the adviser for the school’s Bible Study Club and kept a prayer request box in her office, used scripture post-it-notes, and had quotes from Ronald Reagan and First Corinthians hanging in her classroom.  All were deemed unacceptable.  (Seems it’s OK to display rainbow flags and quotes on environmentalism and social justice, but anything relate to Christianity and traditional values have to go.)

• Walter Tutka, a New Jersey substitute school teacher, was fired because he offered a student a Bible.  Tutka’s troubles began when he quipped to a tardy student, “Remember son, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”  Later, the student asked Tutka the source of the quote and then the student sought out Tutka while in the school cafeteria and asked for more information.  Tutka showed him the source and the boy replied that he didn’t have a Bible at which point Tutka offered him his own.  Now Tutka is looking elsewhere for employment.

• Rev. Louis Giglio, an evangelical pastor, was asked to withdraw from the invitation he received to give the benediction at Pres. Obama’s second inauguration.  Why?  Because Rev. Giglio maintains the position that homosexual behavior is wrong and should not be promoted.  As Janice Crouse explains:  “By disinviting the clergyman announced as the choice for giving the second inaugural benediction, the inaugural committee established a beachhead of moral rebellion that prohibits the presence of representative of Christian doctrine in the public square of America.”

So on this day of commemoration, let us all recommit to stand up for our religious heritage and freedoms and not be cowed by those who have concluded that government is required to champion secularism.

“What the Supreme Court and American elites have failed to recognize – once religion is removed from the schools what is left is not a tone of neutrality between religion and secularism.  What is left is simply secularism….  Thus removing religion from the public square and from public schools also violates the norm of governmental neutrality, since government is then indirectly and implicitly favoring secularism.”  – The Challenge of Pluralism; Church and State in Five Democracies

Where Have We Gone Wrong?

Rachel Allison

I was wide awake at 4:30 this morning.  My husband came downstairs ten minutes later.  Neither one of us could sleep, and so we sat together and just talked.  Our conversation covered mixed topics, but I was surprised at how often we returned to the topic of the recent Connecticut shooting.  “Did you receive the email about mental illness?”  discussion…change of topic…

Then “I wasn’t able to watch the news yesterday.  I heard they were showing the faces of the victims. I can’t see their faces.  It’s too painful.” Discussion.  Change of topic.

Then “As I drove to the bank yesterday I was listening to Dennis Prager.  He asked his radio audience to listen to a rabbi and a Catholic Priest talk about the tragedy of the shooting, but before playing the clip he asked us to notice the one word that was carefully avoided.  I tried to determine what word he was referring to, but couldn’t. It was ‘God.’  Prager’s point? ‘How can we talk about a tragedy like this and leave God out of the discussion?’ We have become so sensitive to the far left’s godless agenda that we guard our speech so as not to “offend.””…more discussion…

I’m sure that our dialogue is not much different than most conversations at this time of unbelievable shock and sorrow.  We are grieving for the families of the innocent victims.  I can’t even begin to imagine the mental and physical anguish they are living right now.  We are grieving for our society where something like this can happen.  And I, like many, am grieving for a society that doesn’t understand the comfort, strength and peace that comes from a strong and solid belief in God. There are many who will ask, “Why did God allow this to happen?”  God does not allow this to happen.  Our society and our culture have allowed this to happen.

We have focused too long on political advantage. We have catered to the few who have learned to speak loudly and adamantly against God, virtue, and goodness. Too many of us who know better have allowed ourselves to be submissively silent…even when we fully recognize the faults of their philosophy.  When we unite our voices…when we stand just as strong…perhaps the Godless will listen and rethink their anger.  I’m grieving for them also.  How empty their lives must be.

One of the topics discussed with my husband early this morning was how to react with people who overconfidently verbalize their prowess on a subject when in reality they haven’t a clue.  Those who dismiss God are in this category.  There are too many facts…too much substantiated evidence.   Millions recognize His hand in their lives every day. I am one of those.

“Great truths are often violated by our speech, but they are also outraged by our silence, and made ineffective by our dullness and by our lack of confidence, faith and enthusiasm.”  Sterling W. Sill