Why Illinois' Abortion Bill Is Much Worse Than New York's - LIBERTY COUNSEL CHARISMA NEWS

(Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash)

Why Illinois' Abortion Bill Is Much Worse Than New York's

5:30PM EDT 6/3/2019 LIBERTY COUNSEL  CHARISMA NEWS

The Illinois Senate voted 34-20 last Friday to pass a bill that is even more extreme than New York's infanticide law. The "Reproductive Health Act" repeals the state's ban on partial-birth abortion, allowing abortions through nine months, and requires insurance companies to provide coverage.

Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has campaigned to make Illinois the most progressive state in the country for abortion, hugged and congratulated supporters of the bill on the Senate floor after the vote. Pritzker has vowed to sign it into law.

SB 25 strips all rights from unborn children, changes the definition of viability, and legalizes abortions through all nine months of pregnancy, up to the moment of birth, for any reason. The bill eliminates the Abortion Performance Refusal Act so that medical professionals will be forced to recommend, perform or assist in abortion procedures. This legislation also compels insurance plans to provide "coverage for abortion care," and all licensing requirements for abortion facilities would be removed.

SB 25 repeals the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and "removes any penalty for performing late-term abortions, allows nurses to perform medication abortions, and eliminates licensing and health and safety inspections of abortion clinics."

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It also eliminates waiting periods and spousal and parental consent. Minors would be able to obtain abortions without parental notice and parents would be forced to pay for it, even if they objected and did not consent to the abortion.

The bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Kelly Cassidy, said, "This is treating abortion care like any other health care."

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "These are horrific days when Illinois lawmakers celebrate eliminating all protections for unborn children, allowing infanticide, removing conscience protection laws for health care workers, and allowing minors to freely obtain abortions without parental notification. This has nothing to do with healthcare. This a crime against humanity. Yet tragically, Governor Pritzker brags about it."

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Liberty Counsel Protects Assaults on Students' Religious Rights - LIBERTY COUNSEL STAFF CHARISMA NEWS

The Liberty Counsel is protecting the religious freedom of students, including in graduation speeches. (Ali Hanlon via Flickr)

Liberty Counsel Protects Assaults on Students' Religious Rights

05.07.18  LIBERTY COUNSEL STAFF  CHARISMA NEWS

Every spring, atheists and other secular thinkers seek to remove God from public school graduations. Every year, Liberty Counsel acts to ensure that prayer and religious viewpoints are not censored during these ceremonies.

Already, Liberty Counsel is helping a school create a policy that will protect religious freedom and allow constitutionally protected prayer.

This year, Liberty Counsel launches its 15th annual "Friend or Foe" Graduation Prayer Campaign. Liberty Counsel's web page offers legal memos, pocket guides for religious freedom and even red "I WILL PRAY" wristbands that can be a reminder for students who wish to pray. This campaign seeks to protect religious viewpoints at every graduation ceremony across the nation. Liberty Counsel will first educate and then, if necessary, litigate to ensure that prayer and religious viewpoints are not suppressed during graduation ceremonies and throughout the year.

"The key is that public schools should remain neutral towards any expression of a religious view, including graduation prayer," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "The school cannot command or prohibit religious language."

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Liberty Counsel was responsible for winning a precedent-setting case against the ACLU that went all the way to the Supreme Court. In Adler v. Duval County School Board, Liberty Counsel successfully defended the right of students to pray or give religious messages at graduation. The case established the legal principle that public schools are free to adopt a policy that allows students or other speakers to present secular or religious messages, including prayer, at commencement ceremonies.

"If the school allows a variety of viewpoints but bans religious viewpoints at graduation, then that is hostility to religion. That school's actions would be unconstitutional. Students do not lose their constitutional right to free speech when they step to the podium at graduation," said Staver. 

This article originally appeared at lc.org.

House Committee Votes to Stop Funding Terrorism - LIBERTY COUNSEL STAFF CHARISMA NEWS

The Taylor Force Act will defund the Palestinian Authority until it ceases and denounces its “Pay to Slay” policy. (Benoit Tessier / Reuters )

House Committee Votes to Stop Funding Terrorism

11/16/2017 LIBERTY COUNSEL STAFF  CHARISMA NEWS

The House Committee of Foreign Affairs unanimously voted Wednesday to proceed with the Taylor Force Act, which will defund the Palestinian Authority (PA) until they cease and denounce their "Pay to Slay" policy, which rewards terrorists and their families for acts against Israel and the United States. The Taylor Force Act will now advance to the Senate and House for a floor-wide vote.

Liberty Counsel and Christians in Defense of Israel have been instrumental in encouraging legislators to pass the Taylor Force Act. This legislation is named in memory of U.S. Army veteran and Vanderbilt student, Taylor Force, who served in combat deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, only to be senselessly killed as a civilian by a Palestinian terrorist in Israel.

The Taylor Force Act will force the PA to face the consequences of its violence or end this abhorrent practice immediately. The PA currently gives over $300 million annually to terrorists and their families. However, since the U.S. provides over $700 million of direct and indirect aid to the Palestinians, American taxpayer dollars are providing the funds to reward terrorists who kill American and Israeli citizens. As soon as attackers are arrested, the PA provides canteen expenses, salary and health benefits. A government job upon release is guaranteed for those sentenced to five or more years. The families of "martyrs" also receive large payments for the loss of their family member.

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If the bill is enacted, the PA would have to revoke any law, decree or document authorizing a compensation scheme for prisoners "that uses the sentence or period of incarceration to determine the level of compensation paid." The secretary of state would also have to certify that the PA "has terminated payments for acts of terrorism against American and Israeli citizens after the attackers being fairly tried and who have been imprisoned for such acts of terrorism, including the family members of the convicted individuals." The PA would also have to take "credible steps" against incitement to violence against Israelis and Americans.

"We commend the House Committee of Foreign Affairs for passing the Taylor Force Act that will cut the supply of blood money to the Palestinian Authority to murder innocent Israelis and Americans," said Mat Staver, Chairman of Liberty Counsel, president of Christians in Defense of Israel and founder and president of Covenant Journey. "We cannot reward acts of terrorism. This legislation will now force the Palestinian Authority to face the consequences of its horrendous violence or end this abhorrent practice immediately. It's unconscionable that even one American taxpayer dollar has been used to brainwash young Palestinians to hate the Jewish people and to pay terrorists to ruthlessly murder Israelis and Americans. We are hopeful Congress will pass this important bill before the end of the year."

For the original article, visit lc.org.

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Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign Battles Intimidation, Censorship - LIBERTY COUNSEL STAFF CHARISMA MAGAZINE

The Liberty Counsel's annual Christmas campaign is aimed to make sure that manger scenes like this one aren't outlawed. (Kevron2011 via Getty Images )

Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign Battles Intimidation, Censorship

11/9/2017 LIBERTY COUNSEL STAFF  CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Liberty Counsel has launched its fifteenth annual Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign. The campaign educates, and if necessary litigates, to make sure that Christmas and Christian themes are not censored.

Liberty Counsel has been actively monitoring cases across the country where there is intimidation by officials and groups to remove the celebration of Christmas in public and private sectors. These threats include atheist groups seeking to ban nativity scenes from public property, senior living centers that prohibit residents from singing Christmas carols, public schools that ban students from wearing the Christmas colors of red and green, school officials who censor religious words from Christmas carols and retailers which profit from Christmas while pretending it does not exist. Liberty Counsel has successfully educated and reversed these anti-Christmas actions in all of these situations.

Liberty Counsel provides a memorandum to offer guidance to public officials and schools regarding the public celebration of religious holidays. For example, publicly sponsored nativity scenes on public property are constitutional if there is a secular symbol of the holiday in the general context. Privately sponsored nativity scenes or religious symbols are also permissible on public property that has been opened to the general public for expressive activity. No secular symbol is necessary in the context of private speech on public property.

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Classroom discussion of the religious aspects of the holidays is permissible in public schools. A holiday display in a classroom may include a nativity scene or other religious imagery so long as the context also includes secular symbols. A choral performance also may include religious and secular holiday songs. If the students select their own songs independent of the direction of school officials, there is no requirement that the songs include secular selections. Students may distribute religious Christmas cards to their classmates during noninstructional time, before or after school or between classes. If the students are not required to dress in uniform, then they may wear clothing with religious words or symbols or religious jewelry.

"Censoring Christmas or Christian themes is not only insensitive but often unconstitutional," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "Censorship is patently obvious when other holiday themes are permitted but Christmas, or references to God or Jesus, are not. Celebrating or acknowledging Christmas is legal in public schools and in public venues." 

For the original article, visit lc.org. 

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Thousands to Exemplify Hebrews 12:2 This Morning - LIBERTY COUNSEL CHARISMA NEWS

Students gather at the flag pole to pray. (See You at the Pole/Facebook)

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Thousands to Exemplify Hebrews 12:2 This Morning

09//27/2017 LIBERTY COUNSEL  CHARISMA NEWS

All across the world, millions of students will gather at their schools' flagpoles on Wednesday, September 27, to pray for their schools, friends, families, churches, communities and nation at the annual See You at the Pole™ (SYATP) event. SYATP is a day students are committed to global unity in Christ and interceding for their generation. The theme this year is "Fix Our Eyes" taken from "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus" in Hebrews 12:2.

For over 25 years, SYATP has been about one simple act: prayer. A small group of teenagers began what has become an international movement of prayer among young people. Now each year, more than three million students participate in more than 20 countries.

The Global Week of Student Prayer, this Sunday, Sept. 24, through next Saturday, Sept. 30, is also dedicated to prayer and encourages students to find new and unique ways, places and times to pray throughout the week. Whether they attend public school, private school or homeschool, many students will initiate prayer opportunities and launch on-campus Bible clubs, prayer strategies and student ministries.

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The First Amendment guarantees students the right to pray individually or in groups on school grounds during any non-instructional time. All students may express their opinions verbally or in writing before or after school, in between classes, during the lunch hour or on the playing field, according to the federal guidelines on prayer in public schools found on Liberty Counsel's website.

"Liberty Counsel supports all students who exercise their constitutional right to pray during the annual See You at the Pole event, the Global Week of Student Prayer and throughout the school year," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "These Christian young people are leading the way and providing an incredible example that all people should follow," said Staver.

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New Israeli Research Reveals that Men Are Men and Women Are Women - CBN News

New Israeli Research Reveals that Men Are Men and Women Are Women

CBN News 05-12-2017

A new study by Israeli researchers found that a man cannot become a woman by simply "identifying" as one and vice versa. 

Geneticists from Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science discovered certain genes that are only expressed in women, while others are only expressed in men. 

Professor Shmuel Pietrokovski and Dr. Moran Gershoni studied 20,000 genes, sorting them by sex, and searching for differences in expression in each tissue.

They eventually found around "6,500 genes with activity that was biased toward one sex or the other in at least one tissue, adding to the already major biological differences between men and women."

Some of the biggest differences were in genes responsible for body hair, fat storage, muscle building, and milk production for breastfeeding. 

The researchers also found that biological sex also plays a role in preventing specific illnesses.  For example, some genes expressed only in the left ventricle of the heart in women work to protect their hearts from disease until the women reach menopause.  Another gene, in the liver, processes drugs differently according to the gender.

Essentially, their research means more than 21 percent of the entire human genome, which is composed of about 30,000 genes, are based on sex -- something a sex change operation and hormones cannot replace. 

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, says this research affirms God's creation. 

"This recent study from Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science further proves that you cannot fool Mother Nature," Staver said. "The saying, 'I think, therefore, I am' is best left to philosophy and not science. Gender confusion is mental, not physical or biological. God made male and female and no amount of protestation will change the natural created order."

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

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

 3/17/2017 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." 

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North Carolina Taxpayers May Get a Big Break - BOB ESCHLIMAN CHARISMA NEWS

North Carolina Taxpayers May Get a Big Break

4/1/2016 BOB ESCHLIMAN  charisma news

North Carolina taxpayers, facing a lawsuit challenging the state's new ban on transgender bathrooms, have a new ally on Friday. (Reuters photo)

After North Carolina Attorney General Ray Cooper, a Democrat, refused to defend his state's new law that requires transgendered people to use the bathroom of the sex that appears on their birth certificate, a top religious liberty law firm has stepped forward.

In a letter to the leaders of the state's legislature, Liberty Counsel offered to defend the state at no charge. The Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act was recently signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory, who is being challenged by Cooper in November.

The new law sparked a federal lawsuit from the North Carolina Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal on behalf of transgendered students and staff at various University of North Carolina campuses, as well as a lesbian law professor in the state. The letter emphasized the importance of the state legislature's role in establishing a uniform rule of law.

"I understand that the rule of law is critical to our survival as a people and a nation, and that the rule of law, and other cultural institutions are under attack," wrote Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver. "For these reasons, I am offering Liberty Counsel's resources to the service of the people of North Carolina. Moreover, the North Carolina legislature is and ought to remain the authority over matters of statewide import, such as nondiscrimination law, and should be commended for its swift defense of its citizens' safety and privacy rights in public facilities."

He also noted Cooper's refusal to defend the new law could be grounds for impeachment.

Founded in 1989, Liberty Counsel is a non-profit, constitutional litigation firm with offices in Lynchburg, Va., Orlando, Fla., and Washington, D.C. Staver has personally argued religious liberty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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NRB Awards Kim Davis for Commitment to Christian Values - LIBERTY COUNSEL CHARISMA NEWS

NRB Awards Kim Davis for Commitment to Christian Values

2/26/2016 LIBERTY COUNSEL  charisma news

Above: Kim Davis leaves jail. (Reuters)

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Kim Davis, the Rowan County Clerk who was jailed for her Christian faith and her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, received the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) President's Award for her faithful commitment to Christian values despite political and media opposition. Last year, this award went to Miriam Ibrahim, a woman imprisoned in Sudan for her Christian faith.

Kim Davis will receive the Heroine of the Faith award for her courage from Bott Radio Network, a Christian radio network with more than 100 stations nationwide that reaches more than 50 million people. The NRB conference brings together thousands of similar Christian communicators each year to encourage and educate them about current trends and issues facing the religious community.

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, joined Kim Davis at the podium to represent the importance of our First Amendment freedoms and free-speech rights. Staver said, "Our client, Kim Davis, never asked for the spotlight. She was just doing her job while remaining faithful to Christian values. Our nation should never force people to choose between their jobs and their faith. Kim has been an encouragement to me and to everyone she meets, showing how completely God can transform a life and use it incredibly beyond what you can imagine, ask or think. I'm thankful to Jesus Christ for transforming lives. What you see in Kim is a woman whose life was transformed by Jesus, and she will not be unfaithful to our Lord, and that's why she was there. That's the story of Kim Davis."

Kim Davis is still in the process of a legal battle in Kentucky, where her case is pending. There has been victory after victory for Liberty Counsel's client, including the governor's executive order protecting her freedoms and a legislative bill that permanently removes clerk's names from the marriage license. There still remains her court case that we are continuing to fight for clarification of the religious freedom of all county clerks and for all citizens' First Amendment freedoms.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.

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Christian Leaders Threaten Civil Disobedience if Supreme Court Legalizes Gay Marriage

4/29/2015 TODD STARNES   charisma news

Gay marriage supporters rally outside the Supreme Court. (Reuters)

"We will not obey."

That's the blunt warning a group of prominent religious leaders is sending to the Supreme Court of the United States as they consider same-sex marriage.

"We respectfully warn the Supreme Court not to cross that line," read a document titled, Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage. "We stand united together in defense of marriage. Make no mistake about our resolve." 

"While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross," the pledge states.

The signees are a who's who of religious leaders including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, National Religious Broadcasters president Jerry Johnson, Pastor John Hagee, and Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse. 

The pledge was co-drafted by Deacon Keith Fournier, a Catholic deacon, and Mat Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel. Also involved in the document were Rick Scarborough, the president of Vision America Action and James Dobson, the founder of Family Talk Radio. 

"We're sending a warning to the Supreme Court and frankly any court that crosses the line on the issue of marriage," Staver told me.

He said that once same-sex marriage is elevated to the level of protected status—it will transform the face of society and will result in the "beginning of the end of Western Civilization."

"You are essentially saying that boys and girls don't need moms and dads—that moms and dads are irrelevant," Staver said. "Gender becomes pointless when government adopts same-sex marriage. It creates a genderless relationship out of a very gender-specific relationship. It says that it doesn't matter and that two moms or two dads are absolutely equivalent to a mom and a dad."

Dobson said the legalization of same-sex marriage could fracture the nation.

"The institution of marriage is fundamental and it must be defended," he told me. "It's the foundation for the entire culture. It's been in existence for 5,000 years. If you weaken it or if you undermine it—the entire superstructure can come down. We see it as that important."

And that means the possibility of Christians—people of faith—engaging in acts of civil disobedience.

"Yes, I'm talking about civil disobedience," Staver said. "I'm talking about resistance and I'm talking about peaceful resistance against unjust laws and unjust rulings."

That's quite a shocking statement. So I asked Mr. Staver to clarify his remarks.

"I'm calling for people to not recognize the legitimacy of that ruling because it's not grounded in the Rule of Law," he told me. "They need to resist that ruling in every way possible. In a peaceful way—they need to resist it as much as Martin Luther King Jr. resisted unjust laws in his time."

Scarborough said the pledge was meant to be forthright and clear.

"We're facing a real Constitutional crisis if the Supreme Court rules adversely from our perspective on same-sex marriage," he told me. For me there's no option. I'm going to choose to serve the Lord. And I think that thousands of other pastors will take that position and hundreds of thousands—if not millions of Christians."

Scarborough is urging pastors across the nation to sign the pledge. 

He referenced the "outrageous penalties" being assessed against people of faith simply because they don't want to participate in a same-sex union.

An Oregon bakery is facing a $135,000 fine for refusing to make a cake for a lesbian wedding and a Washington State florist faces fines for refusing to participate in a gay wedding.

"Christians are being declared the lawbreakers when we are simply living by what we have always believed, and by a set of laws that the culture historically has agreed to," he said. "Right now the courts are changing the playing field and declaring that what the natural eye can see and natural law reveals is not truth. ... What will we do, and how will we respond?"

Dobson said there's no doubt that LGBT activists are targeting Christian business owners.

"For about 50 years the homosexual community has had as its goal to change the culture, to change the ideology and if necessary—to force people who don't agree by use of the courts," Dobson told me. "I think there's a collision here and we can all see it, and where it's going to go is anybody's guess—but it is serious."

To be clear—the men and women who courageously signed this pledge did so knowing the hell storm that is about to be unleashed on them—and their families.

"We have no choice," Staver told me. "We cannot compromise our clear biblical convictions, our religious convictions.

Todd Starnes is host of "Fox News & Commentary," heard on hundreds of radio stations. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter, be sure to join his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter. His latest book is God Less America.

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Faith Leaders Warn Supreme Court: 'Don't Cross That Line'

Faith Leaders Warn SCOTUS: 'Don't Cross That Line'

CBNNews.com

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

A group of prominent Christian leaders are issuing a warning to the Supreme Court. If it legalizes gay marriage, they will not obey.

"We respectfully warn the Supreme Court not to cross that line," read a document titled, "Pledge in Solidarity to Defend Marriage." "We stand united together in defense of marriage. Make no mistake about our resolve."

The pledge goes on to state, "While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross."

The signees include Franklin Graham, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.

The pledge was co-drafted by Keith Fournier, a Catholic deacon, and Mat Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel.

They're urging pastors across the nation to sign the pledge.