LEGISLATIVE UPDATE - WEEK ENDING MAY 27, 2005
HOUSE AND SENATE RETURN FROM RECESS JUNE 6th!
PRESIDENCY
STEM CELLS AND SNOWFLAKE BABIES
President George W. Bush was pictured holding a snowflake baby on the front page of virtually every newspaper in the nation on Tuesday. In the East Room of the White House he held a reception for 21 snowflake babies and their parents in an effort to derail a bill allowing embryonic destruction and experimentation. Snowflake babies are adopted frozen embryos that were implanted in an adoptive mother and carried to term. Every snowflake baby was a discarded frozen embryo which was adopted. The snowflake babies are procreated during in vitro fertilization for infertile couples. During the procedure "extra" babies are produced and frozen for possible future use after one is chosen for implantation in the mother. It is those frozen babies, about 400,000 of them, that social liberals want to tear apart and extract stem cells from to allegedly find cures for diseases. At least that is what they want for now. This is one step toward cloning human beings for the purpose of extracting spare parts and the President understands this completely. The President told the snowflake babies and their parents, "This bill would take us across a critical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life. Crossing this line would be a great mistake." Later that same day House Democrats with the help of 50 Republicans passed the bill to use tax dollars to experiment on embryos. The President has promised a veto of the bill. There are not sufficient liberal votes in the House to overturn that veto. (Click here to see how your congressman voted)
CONGRESS
THE HOUSE AND STEM CELLS
Republican congressman Michael Castle (R-DE) made the statement that, "...110 million people will benefit from this research." This is of course on its face a bald faced lie. This is like saying that the ongoing research on a rain forest tree in Brazil will benefit 110 million people. It is beyond speculation, it is flat false. The reality is that no one has any idea what can or cannot be done with embryonic stem cells. One thing is for sure: nothing has been done so far to benefit anyone despite billions of dollars spent on this research worldwide. On the other hand, numerous cures for diseases have already come from experimentation on adult stem cells. Why then do social liberals want to divert funds from programs that work to some totally unproven line of experimentation that is destructive to human life? Because it is one step toward human cloning which is now a worldwide taboo. If they can clone and allow an embryo to live for a few days to extract stem cells then why not allow it to live a few weeks? If it can be allowed to live a few weeks, why not a few months, so that an entire liver or kidney can be grown and extracted? Social conservatives such as Majority Leader Tom DeLay understand the steep slippery slope. On the floor of the House before the vote he said that the bill tries to justify "killing some to save others." Bottom line: 238 congressmen including 50 Republicans voted to experiment on and destroy human life as a means of extending the lives of others. This line of logic is a direct offshoot of Roe v. Wade. When the government at the direction of the Supreme Court labeled unborn babies as non-human the gloves came off for eventual Nazi type experiments on human beings. What Nazi scientists only dreamed of doing in the 1930's and 1940's is being done in America today.
THE SENATE AND BRAIN CELLS
Apparently seven Republican Senators donated their brain cells to the Democrat Party for experimentation. Seven Republicans, including some Northeast liberals along with John McCain (R-AZ) and John Warner (R-VA), violated the trust of Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and joined seven Democrats in a takeover coup in the Senate. Stripping the Majority Leader of his authority, the ad hoc committee of 14 Senators signed an agreement to keep the 60 vote filibuster against judicial nominees. In the agreement the seven Democrats agreed to pass out three of the President's nominees who have been held up by filibusters for four years or more. One of those, Judge Patricia Owen of Texas has been confirmed. As part of the deal, the group of 14 said it would review all future Presidential judicial appointments, something the Judiciary Committee is supposed to do. The agreement included a provision for the group to present to the President a list of suitable nominees. As mentioned in my special midweek update, this was nothing more than a power grab by Senator John McCain to knock majority Leader Frist out of the front spot in the race for the 2008 Presidential nomination. McCain was the leader of the ad hoc committee of 14. McCain announced that he was returning order and "civility" to the Senate. Three days later Democrat leaders blocked the nomination of John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations with a filibuster. Although Bolton has the majority of the Senate backing his nomination it is being held up by a filibuster. Where is John McCain's "civility" now? McCain is not a team player and not a leader. Should he actually obtain the nomination of the Republican Party in 2008 he would easily be beaten by Hillary Clinton. Hillary is more consistent than John McCain and she does not betray her friends as does John McCain.
INTERNATIONAL
GUATEMALA
Last week one of our daughters, a registered nurse, departed to Guatemala for a one month medical mission trip. Katherine will be training three student nurses working with her in remote areas of the Guatemala mountains. The medical mission was organized by Liberty University. As part of our continuing participation in mission work the Religious Freedom Coalition contributed a "MAP" pack of medical supplies to the mission work. Each pack contains several thousand dollars of medicines and supplies, but can be obtained by us for only $400 because of our non-profit status. I hope to be able to print updates as to the mission team's progress in Guatemala during the next 30 days.
OUR MEETING WITH ARIEL SHARON
As mentioned in my special mid-week update I was among 20 evangelical Christian leaders who met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, DC on Tuesday. Among those in attendance were Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Pat Robertson, Dr. John Hagee and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer. In his opening remarks Prime Minister Sharon made it very clear that he sees the evangelicals as friends of Israel and welcomed the political influence we have as a group both on Capitol Hill and within the White House. The Prime Minister had more of an agenda in meeting with us than praising our support of Israel; he wanted our support of his disengagement plan. My main concern in dealing with the Prime Minister was the location of the security fence being built in relation to the city of Ariel where the Religious Freedom Coalition is heavily involved. We support full time evangelists in Ariel who minister among the Palestinian people as well as conducting other ministry outreaches there. The Prime Minister assured me that Ariel would be a part of Israel. Do I have my doubts? As the Prime Minister said at the meeting, "Agreements are between leaders, not peoples." The Prime Minister is 77 years old. (Click here for full report on Sharon meeting.)
THE "WEST BANK"
Most Americans, most in the West, do not understand that Bethlehem is considered to be part of the "West Bank." Bethlehem is part of Bill Clinton's "Area A," the first part of the West Bank to be "given back" to the Palestinians. Other than military incursions to uproot terrorists in refugee camps in Bethlehem, the area has been under the control of the Palestinian Authority for nearly ten years. The results have been devastating to Christians who live there.
Professor Justus Weiner is a member of the New York and Israeli Bar Associations and an author of several books. He is a scholar-in-residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Policy and has written numerous scholarly dissertations on the deteriorating conditions for Christians in Bethlehem and other formerly Christian towns and villages. The Religious Freedom Coalition has produced a new documentary based on an interview I did with Justus Weiner that is available free of charge at our Internet store (there is a shipping charge). I and a handful of Christian conservatives have been warning about the deteriorating conditions for Christians in Bethlehem for years. Bethlehem is fast becoming a Christian theme park for tourists run by Muslims. Now you can hear the horrifying details of what is happening from a well known and unbiased legal scholar. I urge you to order a copy of Persecuted Christians in Bethlehem today. Again, the DVD is free; you pay only the shipping. Click here or on image to order.
OLIVE OIL SOAP ON HAND - FOR NOW!
We have been having some problems with bringing the handmade olive oil soap from Samaria to the United States. To reduce costs we had a large shipment sent by boat. That shipment was delayed in a warehouse in New York for "extensive examination." It was then shipped to Richmond, Virginia and inspected by the FDA. That is now complete and the soap has finally arrived in our warehouse. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused, but the logistics of getting the soap to the United States is complicated. The handmade olive oil soap is now just $3.95 per bar! To learn more about this handmade olive oil soap click here or on the image.
HELP NEEDED
We really need help this month with funding for our projects both on Capitol Hill and internationally. Please consider at least a small gift to the Religious Freedom Coalition this week. A secure donation link is located at: http://www.rfcnet.org/donate.html
CHECK CLOSEOUT ITEMS AT OUR INTERNET STORE
William J. Murray, Chairman
Religious Freedom Coalition, P.O. Box 77511, Washington, DC 20013. Phone: (202) 543-0300
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Religious Freedom Coalition * Copyright - 2005