Showing posts with label ACLU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACLU. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Humanist Org Seeks To Boycott Franklin Graham's Operation Christmas Child - HelloChristian.com

NEWSLETTER

Oct. 25, 2017

A humanist organization is seeking to boycott Franklin Graham's heartwarming 'Operation Christmas Child' campaign with Samaritan's Pu...
Steph Curry Says He Needs To Remember He Plays For God After Getting Thrown Off Court 
NBA megastar Steph Curry has apologized for his behavior after being thrown off court for unsportsmanlike behavior in his most recent g...
Man Teaches Us All How To Forgive As He Runs Marathon With Guy Who Paralyzed Him 
If you want to know what true forgiveness looks like, just check out this story of a man who was paralyzed in a traffic accident. B...
Mike Bickle Believes Trump Can Usher In A Great Awakening Across America 
International House of Prayer leader Mike Bickle has asserted his belief that the Trump Presidency could open some key spiritual doors for...
Students Refuse To Take Down Christian Flag After Atheist Legal Threats 
A group of Christian students have refused to take down a flag that is symbolic of their faith despite legal threats from Atheist organizati...
Parents Demand Removal Of Bibles And Crosses From Church School 
A group of 'concerned parents' are seeking the removal of Christian groups from a Church of England School. Oh, and they also want...
ACLU Insists That Christian Baker Has No Free Speech Defense In SCOTUS Case
The American Civil Liberties Union has asserted its argument that the Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple's we...
More Young Americans Are Turning To Witchcraft In Exchange For Religious Faith 
New research undertaken by MarketWatch.com indicates that an increasing number of young Americans are engaging in witchcraft...
Philosopher Jean Vanier Recovering In Hospital After Serious Operation 
Famed philosopher Jean Vanier is currently recovering in hopsital following a serious operation in which he had a stent fitted. The Fr...
Is There 'Enough Jesus' Inside The $500 Million Museum Of The Bible? 
No expense has been spared in the construction of a new Washington DC museum solely dedicated to the best-selling book of all time: the...
Kirk Cameron, Ravi Zacharias, Ben Carson Lead Night Of Worship For America 
Kirk Cameron, Ravi Zacharias, Ben Carson and others are leading a night of worship for America as part of the 'Revive Us 2' promotion...
Outrage As Portuguese Court Uses Bible To Justify Assault On Woman 
A Portuguese court has sparked outrage after citing the Bible and a 19th century law to allow a man who assaulted his wife to walk free...
‘Pastor’ Gets Congregants To Drink Beer For ‘Deliverance’ 
A controversial pastor appears to have given his congregants beer to help deliver them from spiritual darkness. Pictures emerged of the...
Franklin Graham Slams Schools For Teaching Graphic Sex-Ed Classes: "It’s Wrong, And It’s Evil" 
Evangelist Franklin Graham has slammed an Oklahoma school for teaching a graphic sex education class on the '4 types of sex' which they...
Three Key Things That Every Leader Must Give Up NOW 
There are many things that we as Christians must seek to give up in order to honor God with our whole lives. But it can be hard, can...
Randy Clark, Heidi Baker Predict 'Second Wave' Of Spiritual Renewal 
Evangelist Randy Clark and missionary Heidi Baker say that they predict the 'second wave' of spiritual renewal will soon come upon...
Man Sentenced To 20 Years For Alabama Church Shooting 
A man accused of injuring three people after opening fire in an Alabama Church has been sentenced to two decades behind bars. 27-...
What Did God Know Before He Created Me? 
Watch this brilliant sermon from Brian Jones as he answers the complex question: 'What Did God Know Before He Created Me?' ...
2 Phrases That Every Preacher Needs To Stop Using In Kids Gospel Messages 
Delivering the gospel message is a wonderful thing. However, it should be done with caution and care. When speaking to kids about salvation...
Greg Stier: Dare 2 Share LIVE 2018 Is On For October 13, 2018
September 23rd, 2017—the day of the first ever Dare 2 Share LIVE event—was a history-maker. Thousands of teens acros...
Sound Of Adoration - Jesus Culture 
'Sound of Adoration' is a brilliant new song from worship group Jesus Culture. When we were lost, Jesus came and rescued us. That is...

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Millionaire Producer: God Told Me to Rebuild Ten Commandments Monument - TAYLOR BERGLUND CHARISMA NEWS

A statue of the Ten Commandments is seen after it was installed on the grounds of the state Capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas.
A statue of the Ten Commandments is seen after it was installed on the grounds of the state Capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas. (REUTERS/Steve Barnes)

Millionaire Producer: God Told Me to Rebuild Ten Commandments Monument

TAYLOR BERGLUND  CHARISMA NEWS
Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

God's Not Dead executive producer Troy Duhon says God led him to donate money to rebuild Arkansas' destroyed Ten Commandments monument.
Arkansas' new Ten Commandments statue, located on public land but paid for with private funds, was demolished just one day after its installation. The culprit, Michael Tate Reed, professed to be a Christian and posted a video of his vandalism to Facebook.
"The first day it gets put up, a gentleman decides he's going to run it over," Duhon said. "I was on the bus, headed to Creation Music fest, and I felt God say, 'Will you help me?'"
Duhon and fellow executive producer Bob Katz called the governor's office and donated $25,000 to efforts to rebuild the monument. One week later, Duhon and Katz flew to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the formal presentation of the check. Michael Berry, deputy general counsel and director of military affairs for First Liberty, was also present. A skilled debater for religious freedom, Berry fielded several press questions at the event regarding separation of church and state.
Duhon says not to mistake this as the end of the battle, though. The ACLU will likely file suit, and the case will live on. But Duhon says Arkansas' willingness to "take the fight on" is exciting.
"From a private citizen's perspective and being a Christian, I was so impressed with what the state of Arkansas is doing," Duhon said. "Instead of relinquishing their rights, they are fighting to put rights back into the state capitol, back into schools."
God's Not Dead 2 was filmed in Little Rock. It was the first of many great experiences for Duhon in the state.
"God is doing something special in the state of Arkansas," Duhon said. "I think the rest of the country is going to open their eyes and realize, especially if they prevail, that God is doing something."
Duhon believes that this Arkansas monument battle is symbolic of a much larger battle for Christians nationwide.
"My oldest son said, 'Why is this relevant?'" Duhon said. "I said, 'Son, tell me what America would look like if Americans operated under the Ten Commandments. When you look at the crime rate, the divorce rate, the incarceration rate and the murder rate, what would America be if we honored the Ten Commandments?'
"I think it's something as Christians we need to fight for. We need to fight for our rights. My hat's off to State Senator Jason Rapert because for a senator to take this fight on, coming under the scrutiny he's been under, and not be afraid—we as a Christian community need to support him and endorse him." 
Readers are Leaders! Subscribe now and get 3 magazines for the price of 1. Get Charisma, Ministry Today and SpiritLed Woman all for $24. YES - Sign me up!
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Click here to draw closer to God!

Friday, March 17, 2017

Alabama's Dismemberment Abortion Ban Is Under Attack - BOB ESCHLIMAN CHARISMA NEWS


AHA Protester
With Alabama's ban on dismemberment abortions under attack, Liberty Counsel has filed an amicus brief on behalf of two groups of doctors who support the law. (Reuters photo)

Alabama's Dismemberment Abortion Ban Is Under Attack

BOB ESCHLIMAN  CHARISMA NEWS
With the West Alabama Women's Center—with support from the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and other liberal pro-abortion activists—challenging Alabama's law prohibiting dismemberment abortions, Liberty Counsel has stepped forward in defense of life.
In filing an amicus brief on behalf of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists and the American College of Pediatricians, Liberty Counsel attorneys have written that dilation and extraction abortions, based on the medical evidence of unborn children's ability to feel intense pain, are both "barbaric" and "gruesome." It argues that the Alabama law protects the health and safety of the mothers as well as furthering the state's "compelling interests in respecting the life of the unborn child, preventing cruel and unusual punishment and protecting the ethics and integrity of the medical profession."
The brief details medical experts' testimony to Congress and in other states that demonstrate unborn children can respond to painful stimuli as early as the eighth week of development. It also details the emotional and psychological toll that can be inflicted upon physicians who perform these D&E abortions.
Click here to read the entire brief.
"We give our pets greater legal protections than we provide to the future citizens of America who have proven their humanity and their sensitivity to pain," Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said. "Alabama's law is a commonsense solution to a barbaric and gruesome procedure." 
Leaders are readers! Subscribe now and get 3 magazines for the price of 1. Get Ministry Today, Charisma and SpiritLed Woman all for $24. YES - Sign me up!
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Click Here to draw closer to God!

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Debunking The 'Separation of Church and State' Myth - MATT BARBER CHARISMA NEWS

Remain undaunted by the threat of government intervention or punitive action by the state.

Remain undaunted by the threat of government intervention or punitive action by the state. (Reuters)


Debunking The 'Separation of Church and State' Myth

Clarion Call, by Matt Barber
The American church has a problem. It's one part fear, one part confusion and one part apathy. Pastors, priests and rabbis have long swallowed the false notion that all things religious and all things political are somehow mutually exclusive—that never the twain shall meet.
Leading up to Ronald Reagan's landslide presidential victory in 1980, Rev. Jerry Falwell, the founder of Liberty University, captured the crux of the church's apathy problem. "I'm being accused of being controversial and political," he said. "I'm not political. But moral issues that become political, I still fight. It isn't my fault that they've made these moral issues political. But because they have doesn't stop the preachers of the gospel from addressing them. ..."
"What then is wrong?" he continued. "I say the problem, first of all, is in the pulpits of America. We preachers must take the blame. For too long we have fearfully stood back and failed to address the issues that are corrupting the republic. I repeat Proverbs 14:34: 'Righteousness exalteth a nation.' Not military might, though that's important. Not financial resources, though that has been the enjoyment of this nation above all nations in the last 200 years. But spiritual power is the backbone, the strength, of a nation."
Indeed, it is not just within the church's purview, but it is the church's duty to insert itself into state matters relating to morality, public policy and culture at large.
Contrary to popular opinion, the words "separation of church and state" are found nowhere in the U.S. Constitution. Yet many are misled into believing they are.
So why the confusion?
It's been intentionally fomented. It's the byproduct of a decades-long religious cleansing campaign. The First Amendment's "Establishment Clause," a mere 10 words, is the primary tool secular separatists misuse and abuse to "fundamentally transform" America to reflect their own anti-Christian self-image.
Yet these words remain abundantly clear in both scope and meaning. The Establishment Clause states merely: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. ..."
That's it.
And the founders meant exactly what they said: "Congress," as in the United States Congress, "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
In a letter to Benjamin Rush, a fellow-signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, often touted by the left as the great church-state separationist, spelled out exactly what this meant then, and what it means today. The First Amendment's Establishment Clause was simply intended to restrict Congress from affirmatively "establishing," through federal legislation, a national Christian denomination (similar to the Anglican Church of England).
As Jefferson put it: "[T]he clause of the Constitution" covering "freedom of religion" was intended to necessarily preclude "an establishment of a particular form of Christianity through the United States."
The individual states, however, faced no such restriction. In fact, until as late as 1877, and after religious free exercise became absolute with passage of the 14th Amendment, most states did have an official state form of Christianity. Massachusetts, for example, sanctioned the Congregational Church until 1833.
Even so, today's anti-Christian ruling class insists on revising history. The ACLU's own promotional materials, for example, overtly advocate unconstitutional religious discrimination: "The message of the Establishment Clause [to the U.S. Constitution] is that religious activities must be treated differently from other activities to ensure against governmental support for religion," they claim.
This is abject nonsense. It's unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination—a twisted misrepresentation of the First Amendment. Secular "progressivism" depends upon deception as much as it relies upon revisionism. Yes, "separation" applies, but only insofar as it requires the state to remain separate from the church. That is to say, that government may not interfere with the free exercise of either speech or religion.
For decades, hard-left anti-theist groups like the ACLU, People for the American Way (PFAW) and Barry Lynn's Americans United (AU) have employed a cynical disinformation scheme intended to intimidate clergy into silence on issues of morality, culture and Christian civic involvement—issues that, as Falwell noted, are not political so much as they have been politicized; issues that are inherently "religious."
AU, for instance, annually sends tens-of-thousands of misleading letters to churches across the nation warning pastors, priests and rabbis that, "If the IRS determines that your house of worship has engaged in unlawful intervention, it can revoke the institution's tax-exempt status."
That's a lie.
In reality, there is no legal mechanism whatsoever for the Internal Revenue Service to take away a church's tax exemption. Churches are inherently tax-exempt, or, better still, "tax immune," simply by virtue of being a church. Churches do not need permission from the IRS, nor can the IRS revoke a church's tax immunity.
Since 1934, when the lobbying restriction was added to the Internal Revenue Code, not a single church has ever lost its tax-exempt status. Since 1954, when the political endorsement/opposition prohibition was added, only one church has ever lost its IRS letter ruling, but even that church did not lose its tax-exempt status.
The case involved the Church at Pierce Creek in New York, which placed full-page ads in USA Today and the Washington Times opposing then-Gov. Bill Clinton for president. The ads were sponsored by the church, and donations were solicited. The IRS revoked the church's letter ruling, but not its tax-exempt status. The church sued, and the court noted that churches are tax-exempt without an IRS letter ruling. It ruled that "because of the unique treatment churches receive under the Internal Revenue Code, the impact of the revocation is likely to be more symbolic than substantial." Not even this church lost its tax-exempt status, and not one donor was affected by this incident.
As Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel has observed, "Pastors can preach on biblical, moral and social issues, such as natural marriage and abortion, can urge the congregation to register and vote, can overview the positions of the candidates, and may personally endorse candidates. Churches may distribute nonpartisan voter guides, register voters, provide transportation to the polls, hold candidate forums, and introduce visiting candidates."
Since 2008, the Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom has spearheaded a First Amendment exercise called "Pulpit Freedom Sunday." Since then, thousands of pastors across America have boldly exercised their guaranteed constitutional rights by addressing "political" issues from the pulpit. This has included directly endorsing candidates. These pastors have dared the IRS to come after them, and, not surprisingly, the IRS has balked.
Pastors, this election season follow the lead of Christ. Speak moral/political truths, in love, fearlessly. Remain undaunted by the threat of government intervention or punitive action by the state. And encourage your congregation to vote for candidates who sincerely reflect, in both word and deed, a biblical worldview and biblical principles.
Be "salt and light."
Because Christ didn't give us an option to do otherwise.
Matt Barber is founder and editor-in chief of barbwire.com. He is an author, columnist, cultural analyst and an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. Having retired as an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer, Matt has taken his fight from the ring to the culture war. (Follow Matt on Twitter: @jmattbarber).
For a limited time, we are extending our celebration of the 40th anniversary of Charisma. As a special offer, you can get 40 issues of Charisma magazine for only $40!
NEW from CHARISMA: Do you want to encounter the Holy Spirit and hear God speak to you? Increase your faith, discover freedom, and draw near to God! Click Here
Did you enjoy this blog? Click here to receive it by email.