WHAT IS THE TRUTH, NAPOLITANO? - After weeks of intense efforts by social conservatives, veterans, and gun rights groups, Republicans in Congress made a formal demand this week to investigate how and why Homeland Security sent a "rightwing extremist" report to all law enforcement agencies in the country. The report targeted virtually every one of the constituency groups of the Republican Party, except Wall Street. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said, "She has not explained how this report came about, why she signed off on it, or why she defended it." Read more. The Leadership of the Republican Party acted after several organizations including the Religious Freedom Coalition, placed ads in the Washington Times demanding that Napolitano be forced to apologize or resign.

CONGRESS AND NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER - Speaker Nancy Pelosi had not much to say about the National Day of Prayer, but Minority Caucus chairman Mike Pence did. See his one minute National Day of Prayer speech on the floor. Congressman Forbes (R-VA) made a direct reference to President Obama when he stated, "Hopefully we'll have millions of people around the country that will make up for the void we see at the White House on the National Day of Prayer."

THOUGHT CRIMES BILL - On April 30th the homosexual enforcement act (otherwise known as "Hate Crimes") passed the House by a wide margin and headed to the Senate. What can happen if this becomes law? Congressman Randy Forbes gave a striking example: "Had [Hilton] done what he said he would do and stormed that stage and pulled that tiara off [Prejean's] head and [inflicted] bodily harm when he did it, there would not have been one ounce of protection under this piece of legislation for that young girl. But after he did it, if she had in response made a statement back about the very sexual orientation that had led him to his hatred and dislike for her, and if she had responded by slapping him or any physical injury, she would have had the potential of a ten-year federal piece of legislation coming against her." In other words this law creates a special class of people who receive extra protection under the law because of the way they commit perverted sexual acts.Read more

ALL NEW APRIL 23RD CHAIRMAN'S REPORT - The all new April 23rd, 2009 Chairman's Report is now available to read in PDF format. This issue contains more information about our work on Capitol Hill with the new 111th Congress, and also about our work on international issues. THIS IS A NEW CR SINCE LAST WEEK! Help your Sunday School class understand these issues better. Print out and distribute to your class or fellowship this Sunday! Click here to view

IRAQI CHRISTIANS NEED HELP - The Religious Freedom Coalition is receiving virtually no funds for our Iraqi Christian Refugee Project from Internet sources. Just a few hundred dollars have been generated at our Facebook page. Virtually no funds are being received from the publication of this email update, even though thousands of people subscribe. Your help is genuinely needed. Please help. Donation link

CLINTON PETITION DRIVE - The Religious Freedom Coalition is conducting a petition drive asking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to formulate a policy to stop the persecution of Christians in Iraq and to aid those Iraqi Christians who have been forced to flee. More than 100,000 paper copies of the petition have been distributed, and an online version is now available. Click here to see petition! NOTE: This is part of a large petition drive and you may receive a copy in the mail.

FACEBOOK FOR IRAQI CHRISTIANS - The Religious Freedom Coalition has a new Facebook page to expose the crisis faced by Iraqi Christians. If you have a Facebook account, please become our friend at this link. You can help Iraqi Christians directly by making a donation at the Facebook cause page!