On Thursday, May 24th of this year the Religious Freedom Coalition arranged for a special White House briefing for more than one hundred Hispanic inner city pastors. This event was part of the on going relationship between this social conservative organization and pastors from the Puerto Rican community in New York and New Jersey.

Inner city pastors and leaders from New York at EOB entrance to White House complex.

The Puerto Rican community in New York traditionally votes for Democrat candidates who are pro-abortion and against school choice. Yet, the Puerto Rican community is almost one hundred percent pro-life and the overwhelming majority support school choice and school vouchers. For many years the Democrat party has used propaganda and lies to convince the Puerto Rican community that all conservatives are racists. This lie has been propogated by Democrat sponsored bills on welfare and food stamps that in reality have destroyed minority families and enslaved the poor.

The Religious Freedom Coalition outreach to inner city pastors is probably one of the organization’s single most important programs. The relationship began years ago when these pastors and their churches so strongly supported the Religious Freedom Amendment which would have allowed voluntary prayer in public schools. This program has been and continues to be successful in educating minorities about how conservative ideas and programs can lift people out of poverty and strengthen their families. The Faith-Based Initiative is such a program.

There are many upper middle class white churches in America that have pastors who are opposed to President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative. These churches would not qualify for the funds, anyway. There are virtually no white middle class churches that have drug rehabilitation programs or provide emergency shelters. They have no hot lunch programs because no one in the church wants to deal with poor kids coming to the church to eat. Given that, why would middle class white pastors want to support the Faith Based Initiative?

I have personally been to many of the inner city churches that would receive funds because of President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative. Many of these churches feed children the only hot meal they receive each day after school. Unlike secular "shelters" for the homeless, many inner city churches actually have programs to help educate and put the homeless to work.

Inner city churches running shelters, food banks and hot meal programs do not get any funds from foundations such as that run by the multimillionaire founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates. The millions of dollars he gives out each day go to the big secular outfits that have full time staff to work on obtaining grants. Most inner city church programs have no one on staff to help compete for these kind of grants. To be honest I don’t think they would get a dime from the likes of Bill Gates anyway. If his name can’t go on a plaque someplace in the building I don’t think he is interested at all in helping, but that is another issue.

The Faith-Based Initiative fills the gap. It helps programs run by inner city churches and other faith based organizations.

Deputy Director of the Faith-Based Initiative Bruce Eberly briefs inner city group in White House complex auditorium.

On May 24th two chartered buses arrived at the White House from New York at 10:30 AM. On board were more than one hundred pastors and lay leaders from inner city churches in the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. In total the pastors and lay leaders represented almost 100,000 evangelical Puerto Rican families in New York City. The fastest growing evangelical churches in America are in Hispanic communities such as these.

This was the first time in history that so many Hispanic pastors had come from one place to make an official visit to the White House. Not once during the Clinton administration had two busloads of pastors come from New York for a White house briefing.

These representatives of the Hispanic evangelical community in New York lined up at the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance to the White House complex at 11:00 AM and passed through security one by one, obtaining a special White House pass.

In a White House complex auditorium they were briefed on the Faith-Based Initiative by the deputy director of the program, Don Eberly and several others. Each pastor received a file folder containing information on the program. The folders had the Presidential seal and the words "White House" imprinted on the front. I am sure the folders and contents were displayed from many pulpits the following Sunday. Although President Bush was not available for this briefing, he had previously met with some of the Hispanic leadership.

Senator Santorum addresses the group in Dirksen Senate office building.

After the White House briefing, the group went to the Longworth House Office Building where they ate lunch in the congressional cafeteria. Probably never before had a group of inner city pastors been taken to this congressional cafeteria for lunch!

After lunch the entire group was taken from the House office building complex to the Dirksen Senate Office Building for a further briefing on the Faith-Based Initiative by congressional leaders. Senator Santorum was the lead briefer because he is sponsoring the President’s Faith-Based Initiative in the Senate.

Congressman Weldon and Rev. Ruben Diaz, president of New York Hispanic Clergy Organization

Congressman J.C. Watts addressed the group on behalf of the House. J.C. Watts is the sponsor of the President’s legislation in the House and his office is leading the effort to pass it there. The event was so important to Congressman Watts that he addressed the group even though this had been scheduled for him as a "personal day". Many questions were asked by the inner city pastors of both Congressman Watts and Senator Santorum.

As part of the briefing and to expose the inner city pastors to other conservative issues, I invited several other individuals and congressmen to talk with them including newly elected Congresswoman Melissa Hart from Pennsylvania. Congresswoman Hart discussed the issue of child abandonment with them, a problem increasing in our nation each year. She currently has legislation to create "safe havens" where women can leave their newborn babies without fear of punishment, and so hopefully will not abandon them on street corners or toss them in trash cans.

After briefings by both the White House, Senators and congressmen these inner city pastors were ready for action!

On May 24th of this year more than 100 inner city pastors marched through the halls of congress to the office of New York Senator Hillary Clinton to demand that she vote for the President’s Faith-Based Initiative. The group arrived at Hillary Clinton’s office on the fourth floor of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington at about 4:00 PM after first visiting the offices of the other New York Senator, Charles Schumer.

Inner city pastors enter Hillary Clinton's Senate office at Capitol

Hillary Clinton was shocked. Her chief of staff, Tamara Luzzatto actually spoke to the group, she did not. The group told her Chief of Staff point blank that they wanted Hillary Clinton to vote for the Charitable Choice Act and the other elements of President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative.

Staffers from other Senate offices came into the hall to see the inner city pastors gathered outside Hillary’s door. They were very surprised to learn that this group of inner city pastors had not come to give Hillary Clinton any awards but to demand that she vote for President Bush’s proposals on the Faith-Based Initiative.

At Charles Schumer’s office the group of inner city pastors was told that he supported "some" of the Faith-Based Initiative. We will see when it comes time to vote. Schumer’s base consists of left-wing nut groups like ACLU members and supporters of the PAW.

White middle class churches will not be the beneficiaries of the Faith-Based Initiative. They don’t need the money and don’t want to deal with the government paperwork. Inner city ministries need the Faith-Based Initiative and the Democrats could lose their support in this community if they fight President Bush on this issue.

After the various briefings and the visits to Senators Clinton and Schumer, I escorted the very large group of inner city pastors and lay leaders on a brief tour of the Capitol Building. In particularly I wanted to show them the statue of the Rev. John Gabriel Muhlenberg in the small House rotunda of the Capitol. Each state has two statues at the Capitol and this statue came from Pennsylvania even though the statue depicts something Muhlenberg did in Virginia. He served as the vice president of Pennsylvania from 1785 to 1788 until elected to the first Congress in 1788.

In 1776 he was a pastor at a church in Woodstock, Virginia. While visiting Williamsburg he witnessed the seizure of arms and ammunition from the residents of the city by the British Army. After witnessing the brutality of the British troops he returned to his church to deliver a stirring patriotic sermon. At that time all clergy wore clerical robes. At the conclusion of his sermon he took off the robe to reveal his uniform as an officer in the Continental Army. By the time he got to the back of the church building that Sunday he had recruited 300 men to serve in the 4th Virginia Regiment which he later commanded. He served as a Brigadier General and was present at General Washington’s side at the surrender of the British.

Muhlenberg had his critics, of course, as some people then as now said a clergyman, or any Christian, should not get involved in political or worldly matters. His response was that if we don’t defend our freedoms, we will lose them, even the freedom to preach the Gospel. Many Christians would have agreed with him back then. A little known fact is that of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 27 were ordained clergymen!

In fact, in 1800 the Congress decided that the Capitol Building should be used as a church also, and regular worship services were held there every Sunday morning for many years, just as they were in other government buildings in Washington. Presidents, Senators, congressmen and many ordinary citizens came to the Capitol to worship. They, of course, had never heard about "separation of church and state." The Capitol guides of today will never tell visitors facts like these.

I mention this because you will not find this information in any of the guide books sold at the Capitol or in any official government literature. In no official literature does the federal government tell what the statue of General Muhlenberg represents him as doing. Once pointed out, however, it is clear that this is the event the statue depicts!

I also wanted to point out to the group of inner city pastors that of the four large murals in the Rotunda, all depict religious events including the baptism of Pocahontas.

Some time ago Congressman Pitts and his wife arranged a tour for myself, my wife Nancy and several others led by historian David Barton. David is not personally able to lead many Christian heritage tours of the Capitol Building and I was very fortunate to be invited. The tour was conducted at night which can only be done if a congressman or Senator accompanies the group. David Barton’s tour is inspirational and clearly shows the Christian heritage of this nation. For those who do not have the opportunity to visit the Capitol with David Barton, he does have a book available. The book is 110 pages and includes photographs. No church, no Christian school should be without this book!

On May 29th the Supreme Court continued its assault on the Christian heritage of the nation by refusing to defend the Ten Commandments on which all earthly law is based.

The ACLU had brought a lawsuit against the city of Elkhart, Indiana which has had on display a granite copy of the Ten Commandments since 1958. The Ten Commandments were displayed outside the city office building.

The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the city which said that the Ten Commandments had historical significance as the basis of law. By refusing to hear the appeal the Supreme Court allowed to let stand a decision by the seventh district court ordering the Ten Commandments torn down.

Because of the rules of the Supreme Court, four Justices must agree to take a case. In this instance only three Justices--Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas--were interested in bringing the case before the court. If there were only one more social conservative judge, this case would have been heard. Only one more vote was needed!

In recent years many of the Supreme Court votes on social issues important to Christians have been decided by a five to four decision. This is why prayer has been banned from so many aspects of American public life. All by one vote. Sometime in the next four years President Bush will make a nomination to the Supreme Court and the far-left pro-abortion foes are ready to fight him. Groups that hate God and want sin as the norm in America are now far better financed than are social conservative groups such as the Religious Freedom Coalition. With the Senate now in the hands of a pro-abortion political party that wants to legalize homosexual behavior in our schools, what our the chances of Bush getting a conservative appointed?

Former Presidential candidate Gary Bauer reported in on of his recent End of Day fax bulletins that social conservative groups were actually laying off people while liberal groups were hiring! There is a "let George do it" attitude rolling through the evangelical Christian community that is going to doom the entire conservative movement. President George Bush cannot get the job done without conservative groups to support him at a grassroots level.

The ACLU usually manages to stop some school someplace from having some kind of prayer this time of year. It is a hallmark of the ACLU to try to stop any reference to God at any school graduation. Indeed they send out massive mailings threatening school boards and school administrators with personal lawsuits if they allow kids to pray.

The eighty year tradition of a a Senior giving a graduation prayer of his choice was ended at Washington Community High School in Washington, IL as a result of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU. In this instance the school had nothing to do with the prayer. This was a student tradition. The students actually picked someone themselves to say the prayer and the school had no input whatsoever as to the content of the prayer.

There is hope. Different federal courts have rendered different decisions. The eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals is not as left-wing as many other federal courts. On May 11,2001 the court voted eight to four upholding a students right to speak and pray at graduation.

Because of the conflicting decisions a final ruling will probably be made by the Supreme Court. We must pray that before there is a final Supreme Court ruling President bush will have the opportunity to place a godly man on that bench who honors the Word of God.

A major purpose of the ACLU is to try to stop any political activity within conservative churches. During election years the ACLU and the PAW mail letters to pastors in traditionally conservative denominations telling them they may not be involved in any form of political activity. No such mailings are made to traditionally liberal denominations such as AME churches. (Apparently Martin Luther King never received the ACLU letter.)

The ACLU letter is in fact a lie. According to IRS rules a 501(c)3 corporation may spend up to ten percent of its budget on political activity. The amount that can be spent is capped at $1,000,000. About 95% of churches in the United States are 501(c)3 corporations. A church may not support a particular candidate for election, but a church can support specific legislation at the city, county, state and federal level.

YES ... A church can lobby in Congress to pass pro life legislation. The church may spend up to ten percent of its annual budget. YES ... A church can lobby a local government to pass zoning rules to shut down topless bars and sex shops.

The problem is that the churches receive only the ACLU mailings and not the truth.

The Religious Freedom Coalition has prepared an IRS information poster to display at church offices telling exactly what political activity is allowed. Posters will be mailed free of charge to churches beginning later this year.