The publication of this issue of the William J. Murray Report was delayed as we waited for the first reports from our mission team in the West Bank. The ten member Religious Freedom Coalition mission team departed the United States on July 4th for the Holy Land for the purpose of establishing a Vacation Bible School for Palestinian children.

All the members of the mission team other than our leader, Gary Gordon, raised their own funds for transportation. As a result, the cheapest possible tickets were purchased and the team had to spend an eleven hour layover in Frankfort, Germany on the way to Israel.

The mission team did arrive at the Tel Aviv Airport late on July the 5th. By Monday, July 7th, the mission team had the Vacation Bible School (VBS) up and running in Beit Jala just outside of Bethlehem. The VBS will be open to Palestinian children in the area for three weeks. The mission materials were primarily furnished by the Religious Freedom Coalition with some donations from churches.

Please pray for our mission team, both for their success in leading young people to the Lord and for their personal safety.

There have been some dangerous political changes since my last trip to the Holy Land which the new mission team must deal with. Israeli troops have been present in Bethlehem and most of the West Bank area during the last two years of the violent "Intifada." During that time hundreds of Jewish civilians have been murdered by suicide bombings and thousands of armed Palestinian men have been killed by Israeli troops.

In June President George W. Bush brokered a truce between the Jewish state of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. As a result of that truce the Israeli Defense Forces withdrew from the Bethlehem and Beit Jala area. This gave full authority over the area back to the Palestinian "police" who in the past have at best acted as a gang of thugs for Yassar Arafat.

President Bush refused to deal with Yassar Arafat and demanded that a prime minister be appointed for him to work with. It is that new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, with whom the deal has been made for a truce. Unfortunately it must be kept in mind that the Prime Minister is under the authority of madman Yassar Arafat. Also, the main murder gangs including HAMAS have agreed only to a three month truce. Why only three months?

In the last few months Israel changed is policy and went directly after the leadership of HAMAS. As a result, entire families of HAMAS leaders were wiped out in missile strikes. The leaders who had no problem sending out young men and women to blow themselves up on buses, suddenly found themselves and their families in danger. Immediately they agreed to a truce.

The final editing of the video documentary, Holy Land Teenagers is completed. Holy Land Teenagers features my daughter, Katie Murray, as she interviews Christian, Jewish and Muslim teenagers in the Holy Land. The editing was very difficult because of the number of teenagers interviewed but we now believe we have a good solid documentary that outlines the problems faced by the teenagers of that war torn land. Holy Land Teenagers is a documentary every Christian school in the United States should show to its students. If there is a Christian school in your area I urge you to order a copy of Holy Land Teenagers, view it yourself, and then give it to the school library.

The Supreme Court has formally approved of sodomy. In a 6 to 3 decision the court has ruled that the States cannot declare sodomy illegal simply because it is immoral. The moral line in the United States was at one time cast in cement. Over the last three decades of judicial activism moral issues have become a line in the sand. That line in the sand has been moved.

The Supreme Court decision was not just about sodomy; it was a declaration that all morals are relative to the state of mind of the society. The Supreme Court in effect discarded the Ten Commandments and the Constitution of the United States as absolute laws. The court gave itself the final say on what constitutes right and wrong morally at any given point in time. I would point out that this is the same position held by the courts in Nazi Germany when they allowed the extermination of Jews. The Nazi’s took over what few churches remained in Germany and the Old Testament was banned because it was "Jewish." The Nazi Gospel allowed just about anything.

The courts of the Communist nations were also godless. Moral limits depended upon the opinion of the dictator in charge. This lack of absolutes allowed communist dictators such as Pol Pot of Cambodia to murder millions. Pol Pot killed every Cambodian who could speak a foreign language because he believed they were "corrupted." In all, Pol Pot murdered more than half the adult population of Cambodia. More people were murdered by communist governments than died in all the wars in all the history of mankind.

If a state such as Texas cannot say that the immoral act of sodomy is illegal, then how can the state forbid a Muslim to marry more than one wife? The Koran says it's OK to have four wives. Can a State pass any law based on morals? Can a State even prohibit an adult from having sex with a ten-year-old? This decision opens a flood gate because most laws are indeed based on morals and on the Ten Commandments. This Court decision will eventually lead to the legalization of homosexual marriage. Legalization of polygamy will follow. Already polygamists have formed groups within liberal churches. One such group, the Unitarian Universalists for Polygamy Awareness received national publicity this past week. Martin Finucane of the Associated Press wrote a very favorable story which was printed in the religion sections of newspapers from Maine to California.

The 42nd General Assembly of the Unitarian-Universalist Association allowed a polygamy information workshop. Over 100 people attended the workshop to hear how it is possible to have more than one wife and to "love" more than one person at a time.

A key statement in the article came from a self proclaimed polygamist, Ken Haslam of Chesterfield, Maryland. He said, "We just do relationships differently." Isn’t that what the homosexuals said? Another spokesman for the polygamists said in the AP article that she hoped what she called "polymorists" would be accepted by the Unitarian church "... as are homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people."

On numerous occasions I have stated that once society gives its blessing to homosexual relationships, polygamy cannot be outlawed. Within days of the Supreme Court opening the door to homosexual marriage by legalizing sodomy, the push began to formalize and legalize polygamy in the United States.

Next the homosexuals will demand the right to engage in sex acts publicly and they will probably use the Supreme Court decision legalizing sodomy as a precedent. If the States are not permitted to use "morals" as a basis for laws, how can public nudity and public sexual acts be banned? After the state of Texas was prohibited from banning acts of sodomy, can that state prohibit adults from being naked at the beach?

Meanwhile, nudist camps for teenagers are the latest rage in the United States. Camp White Tail in Ivor, Virginia is a summer camp for nudist teens age 11 to 18. Yes. You read that right ... 11-year-olds to 18-year olds. Parents are approving and paying for the children as young as pre-teen to go a nudist camp called "White Tail." The counselors in that camp are age 19 to 25.

This is the first nudist camp in Virginia for kids, but not the first in the nation. There are camps already established in Florida and Arizona but they did not get any publicity until the conservative Washington Times ran a story on the Virginia camp.

Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore said he is looking into the camp; however, as long as it is located on private property and there is no "lewd" behavior there is nothing he can do. Excuse me, but isn’t running around naked just a little on the lewd side for teenagers?

The very existence of nudist camps for pre-teens and teenagers that are "lawful" makes clear where the morals of the nation are going.

Why doesn’t every teenager smoke marijuana? Because it is illegal. Most teenagers don’t participate in illegal behavior despite what most adults believe. With sodomy legalized, an adult man can honestly say to a young teenager, "Hey, its legal." The huge teachers’ labor union, the National Education Association, wants transgender rest rooms at public schools for kids who are not "gender specific."

In other words the NEA wants rest rooms for boys who dress like girls, or for both sexes to use at the same time if they want to. The NEA also backs pro-abortion teaching in the public schools as well as how to have "safe" sodomy.

When any behavior is made legal it is going to be tried by more people than if it is illegal. It is that simple. The legalization of homosexuality in the United States will cause even more young boys to be pulled into its evil web. In the United Kingdom the legal age of consent to be involved in a homosexual relationship has been reduced to just 14 years of age. That means a man is not a pedophile until he has sex with a 13-year-old boy--or younger.

Homosexuals in the United States will first push to force the nation to approve of homosexual marriage, then the push will begin to lower the age of consent for homosexual relations to age 14 as it is in the United Kingdom.

My advice: If you have children or grandchildren get them out of the public school system, get them out of harm’s way.

As I previously reported, Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) has introduced a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution that would outlaw "gay marriage" and start the nation back to a rational path. So far the Amendment has just 25 co-sponsors but it is hoped that the Supreme Court ruling legalizing sodomy will alert more congressmen to the danger at hand and cause them to co-sponsor the Amendment.

The Amendment reads, "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."

The first sentence of the Amendment defines marriage as between one man and one woman. The second sentence will stop any judicial activists from distorting the laws of the states and giving marital status to other than one man and one woman.

All Constitutional Amendments must be passed from the House first before being considered by the Senate and the States. However, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has said he would support the Federal Marriage Amendment once it reaches the Senate. The conservatve groups in Washington are split on the FMA's being effective. The large groups such as FRC and CWA oppose it.

THE PRESIDENT AND OUR SCHOOLS

On Tuesday, July 1st, two members of the Religious Freedom Coalition staff were present for an announcement by President George W. Bush. Our executive Director, Peggy Birchfield, and I were invited to the KIPP Academy in the South East section of Washington, DC for a meeting with the President. Washington, DC mayor Anthony Williams and Secretary of Education Rod Paige were also present.

At the meeting President Bush condemned what he called "the soft bigotry of low expectations." For years the liberal white educational establishment has treated blacks in the inner city as if they can't learn. The President said, "...when you lower the bar, that's what you get, low results." He pointed to the success of the KIPP Academy, which is a "charter school" outside of the normal DC educational establishment. By all measures this inner city school is a success, with test scores far above those of the rest of the Washington, DC public schools. In fact, the Washington, DC public schools score below all fifty states, even though the amount of money spent per pupil ranks very high.

The President praised Mayor Williams, a Democrat, who has just recently defied the National Educational Association and backed voucher programs proposed by the President. Mayor Williams applauded when President Bush announced that he will ask Congress for $320 million more for charter schools such as KIPP Academy and another $75 million for scholarship funds. The scholarships will range up to $7,500 per student and can be used for any private school. These "choice incentive program" funds can be used in any private school, religious or secular. The President said that kids in private schools using the funds will make those schools accountable ... the schools will have to administer standardized tests.

The President concluded his remarks by saying, "And I'm here to say to the parents of Washington, DC: We care about your children. Each child matters. We believe every child can learn. We're going to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations in the nation's Capital and around the country, because we know a more hopeful America depends on this nation's capacity to educate each and every child."

At the end of his remarks the President spent some time with those who had gathered at the school including several of the students. The President is a compassionate man and he truly believes that every American child can learn and can receive a good education if the bar is raised and the schools are held accountable. He believes that a voucher system will force the public schools run by the National Education Association to compete and provide a real education to the students in their charge.

President George W. Bush in June also called for an end to the hiring restraints for religious organizations. He believes that a Catholic organization should be able to hire Catholics and that a Jewish organization should be able to hire Jews. He wants to do away with antiquated liberal laws that require religious organizations "not to discriminate." Why should a Jewish organization be forced to hire a Muslim or a Baptist organization be forced to hire an atheist?

This is a major shift from previous administrations that have held fast to the idea that religious organizations can’t "discriminate" by requiring that their employees believe the same thing as the organization that hires them. This is a refreshing view of what freedom in this nation should be about. Freedom is not forcing someone to hire an employee that hates what they stand for. Freedom is being able to hire those who agree with your beliefs.

FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS SPEECH

On Wednesday of this week I met with Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) concerning the Houses of Worship Freedom of Speech Restoration Act (HR-235). In the last session of Congress the bill was titled the Freedom of Speech from the Pulpit Act. The new title makes it more clear that there was once freedom of speech from the pulpit which no longer exists.

Prior to 1956, any pastor could get up behind the pulpit and make any comment he wanted to, political or not. If a candidate for public office was a drunkard or a philanderer he could say so. That all stopped when then Senator Lyndon Johnson - who was a drunkard and a philanderer - inserted an amendment into the tax code prohibiting pastors in his home state of Texas from telling the truth about him from the pulpit.

HR-235 now has 165 co-sponsors. If we can hit the 218 mark the bill is a done deal because the majority of congressmen in the House will have co-sponsored it. There are ten congressmen in particular who should be contacted as very likely co-sponsors. They are Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Joe Baca (D-CA), Mary Bono (R-CA), Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), Mike McIntyre (D-NC), Bill Thomas (R-CA), Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), Zach Wamp (R-TN), Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Bill Young (R-FL). Even if none of these congressmen are from your district, please contact them asking them to co-sponsor HR-235.

Virtually all the co-sponsors so far are Republicans. If your congressman is a Democrat you may want to contact him and ask him if he will vote for HR-235. There is now a Senate sponsor. This means we will see some action once the bill is passed out of the House.

HOLY LAND TEENAGERS

Holy Land Teenagers is the third in a series of video documentaries produced by the Washington, DC based Religious Freedom Coalition. Holy Land Teenagers was filmed on location in Jerusalem, Ariel, Beit Jala and Washington, DC. This documentary belongs in every high school library in America. VHS format - Approx. 50 min. Just $19.95 including shipping! (Ships last week of July) Order Here