A lawsuit filed by West Coast atheist Michael Newdow could cause the chaplains of the United States House and Senate to be "unconstitutional." The lawsuit was filed in a Washington, DC federal court by Newdow.

You may recognize Newdow’s name from the lawsuit he filed this year to have the words "under God" stripped from the Pledge to the Flag. In that case the loony 9th District Federal Court of Appeals sided with him and declared the Pledge unconstitutional. After a major uproar from everyone from Joe Six-Pack to the President of the United States, the court temporarily reversed itself and we have not heard much from them since.

This new lawsuit by Newdow comes at a particularly bad time as Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie steps down for personal reasons (see below). The lawsuit could interfere with the selection of a new Chaplain at a time of spiritual turmoil in the nation and in the Congress.

Being an atheist who cares about nothing but himself, Newdow does not understand the difficult job of the congressional chaplain. When four hundred and fifty-five congressmen and one hundred Senators convene in Washington each week, they are bound to bring family and other problems with them. I know of one congressman, for example, who has been struggling with alcohol when he is away from his family and alone in Washington, DC. Where does such a man go for counseling? He can’t go to a public AA meeting.

With this many congressmen and Senators present, there are bound to be deaths in families during the year and spiritual problems with children. Often the pastors of congressmen and Senators are hundreds if not thousands of miles away and the situation is such that a telephone call would just not work. Newdow does not understand the need for counseling in a situation of grief such as the death of a loved one because as an atheist he sees a human being as no different from a cat or a mouse. To him dead meat is dead meat and who cares about feelings?

There are congressmen and Senators who do care, and the last week of November a friend-of-the-court brief was filed by twenty-two congressmen and six Senators asking that the suit brought by Newdow be dismissed. In their brief the lawmakers said it is clear that the "case has no merit and should not be permitted to move forward."

In their brief the lawmakers stated that the Supreme Court had made it clear in 1983 in the case of Marsh v. Chambers that there was no constitutional ban on chaplains. In that decision the court stated, "To invoke Divine guidance on a public body entrusted with the making of laws is not, in these circumstances, an establishment of religion or a step toward establishment; it is simply a tolerable acknowledgment of the beliefs widely held among the people of this country."

What is of particular interest is the list of those congressmen and Senators who filed the brief with the court. On the House side the sixteen members were: Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL), Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), Rep. Michael Collins (R-GA), Rep. Jo Ann S. Davis (R-VA), Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA), Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Rep. Ernest Istook, Jr. (R-OK), Rep. John Linder (R-GA), Rep. Donald A. Manzullo (R-IL), Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-CA), Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC), Rep. Charles Pickering, Jr. (R-MS), Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R-PA), Rep. Jim R. Ryun (R-KS), Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK), and Rep. J.C. Watts, Jr. (R-OK).

The political action committee of which I am chairman, Government Is Not God, assisted in the election of six of these congressmen and endorsed two others. I backed Congressman Jim Ryun six years ago when the media said he was just too much of a "right wing Christian evangelical" to win any public office. I also supported John Sullivan as well as Todd Akin in very tight races against pro-abortion candidates. I also worked hard as a PAC chairman on the Jo Ann Davis race during her first election to Congress,

Other names you may recognize from past issues of the William J. Murray Report include Congressman Ernest Istook who for many years has promoted a school prayer amendment and Congressman Pitts, the head of the Values Action Team.

On the Senate side those working to block the Newdow lawsuit include Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-MO), Sen. Michael B. Enzi (R-WY), Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY), Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-OH).

The congressmen and Senators standing tall against the atheists represent a variety of Protestant denominations as well as Catholics.

The goal of atheist Michael Newdow and of groups such as the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State is the elimination of any reference to God in public. If they win these cases, eventually they will want crosses removed from the front of churches and Scripture verses chiseled off gravestones in public cemeteries. A line must be drawn in the sand over which these fanatics are not allowed to cross.

Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie will retire, effective March 15, 2003. The 61st chaplain of the Senate has served for eight years. Ogilvie is leaving to tend to his wife who has been on a ventilator for more than seven months after a bout with severe pneumonia. As he has prayed for so many in need over the years, we all should be praying for him in this time of personal need.

Senator Lott referred to Rev. Ogilvie as "...a confidant, mentor, friend and wonderful chaplain, but most important, he has been the watchful shepherd; a man of God ministering to our Senate family."

My dear friend Senator Paul Coverdell died suddenly of a stroke in July of 2000. Ogilvie was at his side in the hospital room comforting his family. When Senator Wellstone died in a plane crash during the last campaign, Ogilvie traveled with fifty Senators to the memorial service.

In June of this year when the courts found for atheist Newdow that "under God" in the Pledge was unconstitutional, Chaplain Ogilvie pronounced these words upon opening the Senate in prayer the next day, "We acknowledge the separation of sectarianism and state, but affirm the belief that there is no separation between God and state." The event, usually attended by just a few Senators, was packed when he continued, "...we are one Senate, united under you (God), to lead a nation that is free to say confidently, 'In God we trust'."

The job of Chaplain in the Senate is not a partisan one and should not be. The Chaplain must be able to deal equally with conservative and liberal, Democrat and Republican. Chaplain Ogilvie filled the spiritual needs of the Senate and he will be greatly missed.

On November 16th the American Atheists issued a statement praising Senate Democrats for defeating S-1924 (the Charity, Aid Recovery and Empowerment Act). The CARE bill would have provided funds to faith based organizations which care for homeless children and battered women as well as recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. The bill to provide for those in need in our nation was also opposed by the ACLU.

Early on, the Religious Freedom Coalition supported the CARE act on an active basis. But then, as the bill moved from the House to the then Democrat-controlled Senate, it was changed to force faith based organizations to employ homosexuals and others who would have destroyed faith-based programs from within. The Senate language proposed by Senator Ted Kennedy would have required Jewish groups to hire Muslims, for example. In addition, the Senate Democrats modified the House bill to allow those receiving the aid to tell the providers how to run the program if they did not like aspects of it, such as prayer.

Even though the Senate Democrats had changed the bill much to the liking of the atheists, they still applauded its failure to pass because faith-based organizations would still have received funds from the government to assist the poor and incapacitated.

The Hate Crimes legislation proposed by Senators Kennedy and Clinton never got to the floor, thanks to petition drives by many social conservative organizations including the Religious Freedom Coalition. A great "thank you" goes out to all those who signed petitions to stop this insanity which would have allowed bureaucrats to edit "hate" language out of the Bible.

Don’t count it completely dead. Senators Kennedy and Clinton will try to find a back door to move this legislation onto the Senate floor with the help of liberal Republicans from the Northeast. We must remain vigilant.

THE RFC ACCOMPLISHED MUCH IN 2002

In March and then again in November the Religious Freedom Coalition ran large ads in daily newspapers during major atheists events. In March during the American Atheist convention in Boston we ran a large ad inviting the atheists to Christ. Then in November during their "Godless March on Washington," we ran a quarter page ad in the Washington Times for two days inviting the atheists to a relationship with Christ while exposing their true aims and purposes to the public.

The Religious Freedom Coalition also had two great petition victories. I have already mentioned the petition drive to stop Ted Kennedy’s S-625, the Hate Crimes bill.

When atheist Michael Newdow "won" his lawsuit to find the words "under God" in the Pledge to the Flag unconstitutional we were the first to have an online Internet petition up. More than 85,000 people signed that petition in support of "under God" in the Pledge to the Flag.

The online petition to protect the Pledge allowed me to do many radio and TV shows to direct people to the Internet site of the petition. There was considerable "buzz" in the news media and inside the Beltway about the success of our petition drive.

This year I have met with President George W. Bush twice and with the Vice President once. Because of our support of the President’s efforts against human cloning, I was invited to a special news conference the President gave in support of legislation to ban human cloning. This legislation did pass the House but died in the Democrat controlled Senate.

The RFC also worked hard to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which would have made it a Federal Crime to kill an unborn child during a violent act against a pregnant woman where the Federal government has the jurisdiction, such as military bases and national parks. Unfortunately this bill was also blocked by Senate Democrats.

The Religious Freedom Coalition did continue to work with the White House on legislation important to social conservatives despite our fundamental disagreement with the President on the nature of Islam.

Many of you recall the frustration I expressed in September of 2001 after the Jihad attack against our nation on 9-11. For years I had written articles in the William J. Murray Report warning of the Islamic movement and the horrible persecution of Christians in Islamic nations. In two issues of the William J. Murray Report in the Spring of 2001, I had issued warnings about the dangers of allowing Islam to be compared to Christianity as a path toward God.

I had been particularly critical of Saudi Arabia, which I viewed as no different from the Sudan or Afghanistan. The only reason Jews and Christians are not killed in Saudi Arabia is that there are none. They have already been driven off or killed. Saudi Arabia is just another Nigeria except that all the "Dhimmi" have been eliminated there. (Dhimmi means Christians and Jews)

My frustration was so great at the lack of media reality that I purchased ads in daily newspapers comparing the Saudi Royal rulers to the Taliban.

I have been tireless in my efforts to tell the truth about Saudi Arabia and the hateful and violent Wahhibism it exports and finances around the world, particularly in the United States.

At last my voice and the voices of others such as former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and Worldnetdaily.com editor Joe Farah have been heard. We are breaking though to the media and to the House and Senate. At last Senators are calling for investigations into the role of the Saudi government in the jihad attack of 9-11 and their continued support of terrorist organizations such as those who recently attacked a civilian airliner with missiles.

Now Republican and Democrat lawmakers are demanding answers about the Saudi royals, the 14,000 cousins who run Saudi Arabia. On a Sunday news talk show Democrat Senator and former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman charged that the Saudi government is not cooperating with the United States in the war against Islamic terrorism. Both he and Republican Senator Richard Shelby on a Sunday TV talk show stated that the Saudi "charities" were funding terrorism throughout the world.

More and more leaders in Washington, DC are building a consensus that the Saudi role has been hidden from them and from the public. And the Saudis continue with their support of radical Islam while mouthing their support for the United States.

Saudi money bankrolls the "madresses" or religious schools all over the world, including in the United States, that teach hatred of Christians and Jews. Saudi funds the Islamic prison ministries in the United States that recruit young convicted felons into radical Wahhibism.

In the midst of these revelations in November President Bush took aim at those who have pointed out the hatefulness of Islam as practiced by the Saudis. On November 13th he made this statement to Kofi Annan of the United Nations in front of the press:

"Some of the comments that have been uttered about Islam do not reflect the sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans. Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others. Ours is a country based upon tolerance, Mr. Secretary General, and we respect the faith and we welcome people of all faiths."

This statement was made by the President shortly after public criticism of Islam by several high profile evangelical leaders including Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson.

Secretary of State Colin Powell then issued a statement that what the United States really needs is more Islamic immigrants.

On virtually every issue the left-wing Washington Post stands opposed to President George W. Bush, except one. On the issue of Islam the Post believes President Bush is right on the money in calling it a "religion of peace," ad nausium.

A November 30, 2002 article in the Post "exposed" the rift between conservatives and the President. In a key paragraph of the article the author Dana Milbank states:

"But a large number of foreign policy hawks -- some of them with advisory roles in the Bush administration -- have joined religious conservatives in taking issue with Bush's characterizations. While most of them understand the political rationale for Bush's statements -- there's no benefit in antagonizing Muslim allies such as Pakistan and Indonesia -- they say the claim is dishonest and destined to fail."

He quotes Kenneth Adelman who sits on the Bush Pentagon's Defense Policy Board that calling Islam a religion of peace, "is an increasingly hard argument to make." Another member of that policy board told Milbank that "The enemy has an ideology, and an hour spent surfing the Web will give the average citizen at least the kind of insights that he or she might have found during World War II and the cold war by reading 'Mein Kampf' or the writings of Lenin, Stalin or Mao."

The Post article goes on in an attempt to show that most Americans really believe Islam is a "religion of peace" by using a survey that had nothing whatsoever to do with Islam to portray 56 percent of Americans as being "more tolerant" over the past year with respect to those of other "cultures."

More and more the White House finds itself isolated in trying to convince Americans that Islam is not a hot bed of terror. The "elections" in Pakistan did not help much when pro-Taliban governments were elected in several Pakistan states and Islamists basically took control of the parliament. If the "vast majority" of Muslims are "peaceful," why did those who preach hatred and death win the elections in Pakistan? That is a question the White House is not going to respond to any time soon.

THE SAUDI PROPAGANDA MACHINE

While funding schools and prison workshops that teach converts to kill Jews and Christians, the Saudis are also funding a project to teach Americans that Islam is a religion of peace. The Saudi government is bankrolling a series of new books and videos designed to promote Islam in the United States. The books and videos, which are pure propaganda, will be placed free of charge by the Saudi royals in 17,000 public libraries in the United States. These books and videos will have a "sanitized" version of Wahhibism.

Meanwhile books that tell the truth about Wahhibism are mysteriously vanishing from libraries across the nation. Several librarians have told me that it is impossible to keep books such as Unveiling Islam on the shelves because they are stolen and destroyed.

The Saudis have even bankrolled a new Internet site and news agency to portray Islam in a positive light in English. I was so impressed by how "moderate" arabnews.com is that I have reproduced one of their many editorial cartoons. One can just glance at this cartoon to see how "moderate" Saudi Muslims think.

Meanwhile the Grand Mufti of Egypt, who is that country’s top Muslim cleric, was interviewed by Insight magazine. The interview was enlightening in exposing Islamic logic. He stated that Dr. Jerry Falwell was a terrorist because he offended Muslims. He then stated that Muslims killing civilians in Israel was justified and not an act of terror. The complete interview was in the November 26th edition of Insight magazine. The logic is so warped I had a problem following it.

It has taken some time, but the first documentary from my August trip to the West Bank is ready. The 30 minute documentary, Holy Land Terror, is now available. In the documentary I examine the conditions of Christians in the West Bank. I have included scenes of destroyed Christian homes and the new mansions being constructed for Yassar Arafat’s Islamic henchmen.

The documentary was cut to 30 minutes to allow it to be shown on public access channels. If you order a copy I urge you to have it shown on cable TV in your area. Holy Land Terror is just $20.00 including postage and handling. To order a copy using a credit card please call 1-800-650-7664.

The main goal in the August trip to the West Bank was to find Christian families in need and provide for them as best we could. I soon learned that the greatest need was in helping the Christian schools in the West Bank. In Holy Land Terror I show clips from Yassar Arafat’s state controlled TV, showing how kids in his public schools are taught to hate Jews and Americans and how jihad and suicide bombing are glorified.

If Christian parents cannot send their kids to private Christian schools in the West Bank, they must attend Arafat’s schools which promote a culture of death.

So far the Religious Freedom Coalition has identified one Christian school to assist in the West Bank and monthly support is being sent there. I was unable to visit other schools during my August trip because of a curfew imposed by the Israeli military after a major suicide bombing and the fact that many of the schools were closed for the summer as well.

A representative of the Religious Freedom Coalition will visit schools in the West Bank in a few weeks to identify those needing help. As Christians we must reach out to our brothers and sisters who are so persecuted and make sure that their children are not forced into Islamic schools.

Financial aid is needed by the West Bank Christian schools. If your church or Sunday School would be interested in assisting a specific school, please contact our office at (202) 540-0300.

HOLY LAND TERROR: Islamic Persecution of Christians is just $20.00 including postage and handling!  Order yours today click here!

Click here to see other videos and books by William J Murray

Go to main page of Internet store