Religious Left Pro-Censorship Campaign Hits Rough Water

"Whether or not churchgoers agree with Limbaugh, Dobbs and Beck, the move to use the churches to silence them should be chilling to free speech advocates." -- Mark Tooley, IRD President

From The Institute on Religion and Democracy

A campaign effectively to censor conservative voices on the airwaves and sponsored by a Religious Left coalition has been suddenly dropped. Sponsored by George Soros' Open Society Institute and the ACORN-supporting Wallace Global Fund, the "So We Might See" campaign called for advertisers to stop supporting the Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs programs, as well as the firing of Dobbs. The "Color of Change" campaign targeting Beck has been removed from the "So We Might See" website, as has the "Drop Dobbs" campaign.

The move comes as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) joins a growing list of denominational agencies, including United Methodist Communications, which have removed their names from support for an FCC petition promoted by "So We Might See," a coalition that includes agencies of the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and the National Council of Churches, as well as the Islamic Society of North America and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops Office of Communications. The petition invokes the name of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh as an alleged purveyor of "hate speech" and seeks to effectively silence conservative talk radio voices.

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

"Shouldn't liberal religious voices defend free speech against an intrusive government? Regrettably, these Religious Left groups are all too willing to censor speech when it works against their political agenda.

"In the free-flowing marketplace of ideas, the truth usually emerges. Efforts to re-define 'hate speech' and intimidate targets by threatening to have them removed from the air are brutal tactics designed to suppress dissent. "Whether or not churchgoers agree with the likes of Limbaugh, Dobbs and Beck, the move to use the churches to silence them should be chilling to free speech advocates."

The Institute on Religion and Democracy, founded in 1981, is an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches’ social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, thereby contributing to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad.

Planned Parenthood Director Quits Abortion Business, Experiences Conversion at Starting Place of 40 Days for Life

From Christian Newswire

The director of the Planned Parenthood abortion center in Bryan/College Station, Texas has resigned her job. Abby Johnson had worked at the clinic for eight years, but departed from the facility following a profound change of heart about abortion. The Planned Parenthood clinic was the location of the first-ever 40 Days for Life campaign in the fall of 2004, and the prayer and fasting initiative has been held outside the doors of Johnson's former workplace five additional times since 40 Days for Life began its rapid spread to 282 cities across all 50 states and several other countries.

"This amazing conversion demonstrates the importance of a constant, peaceful prayer presence in front of abortion facilities," said David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life. "From that first campaign in 2004, we've prayed for Abby – and for all abortion workers – that they would come to see what abortion really is, and that they would leave the deadly business. In this case, those prayers have been answered. We are so proud of Abby's courage to leave the abortion industry and publicly announce her reasons for leaving."

Johnson said, "I left on good terms and simply had a change of heart on this issue. Over the past few months I had seen a change in motivation regarding the financial impact of abortions and really reached my breaking point after witnessing a particular kind of abortion on an ultrasound."

In the wake of her departure, Planned Parenthood has gone to court to seek a restraining order against both Johnson and the Coalition for Life, the local group that originated 40 Days for Life and continued regular prayer vigils in front of the clinic for the past five years. A court hearing on the order, which addresses disclosure of confidential information, is scheduled in a Texas court on November 10.

Shawn Carney, the director of the Coalition for Life and a 40 Days for Life board member, has been working with Johnson since she left her job last month. The former clinic director has even begun to pray outside the clinic where she formerly worked. "It's truly been a testament to the power of prayer and the courage of Abby to leave a job she felt she could no longer do in good conscience," Carney said. "It has been a joy for all of our volunteers who have prayed outside of the clinic for the conversion of the clinic workers to witness that conversion actually happen."

Johnson is one of eight abortion industry workers who left their jobs during the fifth coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign that concluded yesterday in 212 cities. She was the highest-ranking of the eight. Others who quit their clinic jobs included nurses, office staffers and security personnel.

In addition, a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Kalispell, Montana announced that it will close its doors on November 20, citing a decline in business as the reason for the closure. That clinic was the site of a 40 Days for Life prayer vigil this past spring.

New Hate Crimes Law is a Mistake says Star Parker

Star Parker has spoken out on the lunacy of creating a special class of victims based on sexual perversion. The founder and president of the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), has released the following statement:

"President Barack Obama has signed into law the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Actually, he signed into law the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act tacked onto which was the hate crimes legislation.

Sen. Harry Reid, our brave Democratic majority leader, slipped the hate crimes bill into the defense authorization bill to avoid having to have our senators consider the controversial hate crimes bill on its own.

It's for good reason that our Democratic legislators wanted to hide under a rock while passing this terrible piece of legislation. It may help them with the far left wing of their party. But weakening and damaging our country is not something to be proud of. And that is exactly what this new hate crime law does.

The bill adds extra penalties to violent crimes when they are deemed motivated by gender, sexual orientation, or disabilities. It's the first major expansion of hate crimes legislation originally passed in 1968, targeted then to crimes aimed at race, color, religion, and national origin.

After signing this new law, Obama celebrated it by saying that in this nation we should "embrace our differences."

But law isn't about embracing our differences. It is about providing equal and non-arbitrary protection to all citizens.

Equal protection for every individual American under the law is what the 14th Amendment to our Constitution, passed after the Civil War, guarantees. That this nation takes this guarantee seriously -- that there are no classes of individuals treated differently under the law -- has been a justifiable obsession of blacks.

A society in which all life is not valued the same, where murder of one citizen is not the same as the murder of another citizen, is a horror that black Americans have known too well.

So it is a particular irony that this major expansion of the politicization of our law has been signed by our first black president.

What could it possibly mean that the penalty for the same act of violence -- for murder -- may be different depending on what might be deemed to be the motivation?

Can you imagine a football game where the penalty for roughing the passer is 20 yards rather than 15 yards if the referee concludes that the violence perpetrated was motivated because the quarterback was homosexual?

Is it not a sign of our own pathology that we now have codified that it is worse to murder a homosexual than someone who has committed adultery, even with your husband or wife, or who has slandered or robbed? Isn't the point murder?

Can we really believe that someone capable of murder is less likely to do so if the victim is a homosexual and the penalties are greater?

It should be clear that hate crime law has nothing to do with improving our law but rather with creating favored political classes. It is something that should be hateful to everyone who cares about a free society, and particularly hateful to those, such as blacks, who have been victimized by politicization of law.

How about the sad and pathetic recent murder of a 16-year-old Christian black honor student in Chicago by four teenage thugs, also black?

A hate crime?

Black on black homicides are tearing up our inner cities. Hate crimes?

The social breakdown that produces the disproportionate violence in black America is the product of the same moral relativism and politicization of law that has produced hate crime bills.

We already have a source, which instructs against murder and to love your neighbor as yourself.

But this has been banned from our schools and our public spaces.

So once again, in what is becoming our Godless nation, we mistake the disease for the cure."

A Homily by Father Franklyn M. McAfee - "Let Christ Be King"

Homily of Reverend Franklyn M. McAfee, D.D.

Pastor Emeritus
St. John the Beloved Catholic Church
McLean, Virginia

October 28, 2007

Katherine Jenkins - "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep"

In Memory of Those We Have Loved

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BREAKING: Scozzafava Suspends NY 23 Campaign

From Politico

Republican Dede Scozzafava has suspended her bid in next Tuesday’s NY 23 special election, a huge development that dramatically shakes up the race. She did not endorse either of her two opponents -- Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman or Democrat Bill Owens.

The decision to suspend her campaign is a boost for Hoffman, who already had the support of 50 percent of GOP voters, according to a newly-released Siena poll, and is now well-positioned to win over the 25 percent of Republicans who had been sticking with Scozzafava.

Scozzafava has “probably made her last campaign appearance between now and Election Day,” spokesman Matt Burns told POLITICO. “She’s releasing her support to the two other candidates."

"I had a discussion with her last night, and we made the decision after I spoke with her. We talked about it, what this came down to was spending. It came down to the ability to defend herself from the get-go. And that’s the reality. She was unable to define herself where the people didn’t know her."

POLITICO has the full story on Scozzafava's surprise decision here.

Scozzafava's statement:

Dear Friends and Supporters:

Throughout the course of my campaign for Congress, I have made the people of the 23rd District and the issues that affect them the focal point of my campaign. As a life long resident of this District, I care deeply and passionately about its people and our way of life. Whether as a candidate for Congress, a State Assemblywoman or a small town Mayor, I have always sought to act with the best interest of our District and its residents in mind—and today I again seek to act for the good of our community.

The opportunity to run as the Republican and Independence Party candidate to represent the 23rd District has been and remains one of the greatest honors of my life. During the past several months, as I’ve traveled the district, meeting and talking with voters about the issues that matter most to them, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support I’ve received as I sought to serve as their voice in Washington. However, as Winston Churchill once said, Democracy can be a fickle employer, and the road to public office is not always a smooth one.

In recent days, polls have indicated that my chances of winning this election are not as strong as we would like them to be. The reality that I’ve come to accept is that in today’s political arena, you must be able to back up your message with money—and as I’ve been outspent on both sides, I’ve been unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about my record. But as I’ve said from the start of this campaign, this election is not about me, it’s about the people of this District. And, as always, today I will do what I believe serves their interests best.

It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my Party will emerge stronger and our District and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for generations.

On Election Day my name will appear on the ballot, but victory is unlikely. To those who support me – and to those who choose not to – I offer my sincerest thanks.

Sir Kenneth Clark's "Civilisation: The Fallacies of Hope"

In this twelfth episode of "Civilisation," Lord Clark describes the progressive disillusionment of the artists of the Romantic movement through the music of Beethoven and the poetry of Byron.