FAITH BASED INITIATIVE

I actually understand what President Bush has done with his executive order to establish a White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. There are very few people who seem to understand the concept, particularly in the media

Last month I was fortunate enough to have received a presentation on the formation of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives by its Deputy Director, Mr. Don Eberly. Mr. Eberly is second in command of the new office under Professor John Dilulio. During the presentation it became apparent to me why the media so misrepresents what the President has done.

First, there are no new programs created and there is no new money. That is the biggest misconception. The media is portraying President Bush’s initiatives as new programs with new money. This is not so. Rather, the existing "pie" will just be apportioned out differently--with more groups, mainly the religious ones which have heretofore been left out, eligible to get a share. This means less for the liberal groups--less money, fewer people on the payroll, fewer people available to lobby Congress at a moment’s notice. The media realize this, so of course they don’t like the idea.

President Bush actually signed two related executive orders. One established the White House Office of which Mr. Eberly is a part. A second executive order established similar offices in five Cabinet level agencies. These Executive Department Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives were ordered to be established by the Attorney General, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

In each of these departments these offices will be present to make sure that existing programs are made available equally to both faith based and secular organizations. The President’s order directed these offices to "...eliminate regulatory, contracting, and programmatic obstacles to the participation of faith-based and other community organizations in the provision of social services."

The President also ordered "...department-wide audit to identify all existing barriers to the participation of faith-based and other community organizations to the delivery of social services."

Example: The department of health has funds available for abstinence programs. Currently only secular organizations receive the funds as a legacy from the Clinton years. Clearly, an abstinence program that completely leaves out God is not going to be very effective. Under President Bush, faith-based organizations will be encouraged to apply for funds and they will not be discriminated against automatically.

In a press conference the President set a clear goal by saying, "As long as there are secular alternatives, faith-based charities should be able to compete for funding on an equal bases, and in a manner that does not cause them to sacrifice their mission." This part of his directive addresses what really worries many conservative Christians. Having suffered so much censorship and harassment for so many years, many Christians are understandably suspicious that accepting federal money will lead to "inspectors" coming in to strip the walls of crosses or religious pictures, to forbid religious speech or music or books. In fact, this is just about what does happen today in day care centers or half way houses that accept federal money. President Bush is saying this ought to stop. It is an attempt to break down the hostility government has assumed toward religion ever since prayer was removed from public schools.

Dr. Pat Robertson has raised the issue of government strings on the money that could lead to government control of faith based organizations. Deputy Director Don Eberly responded this way: "Our objective is to level the playing field, not to force everyone to suit up and play." In other words organizations who have such a fear do not have to get involved. He also said that no faith based organization should accept so much federal money that losing it would cause a major financial problem for them.

None of the faith-based organizations I am an officer of have or will apply for any funding, but not because I do not agree with the President. We simply do not have programs that fit the profile. The Religious Freedom Coalition is an educational and advocacy organization, not a service organization. The RFC does not feed those with physical hunger, but we do offer the meat of the Gospel to congressmen and Senators. There is no federal program that will fund that.

Also, nonprofit organizations which receive funds from the Federal Government may not lobby Congress on any issue. Any nonprofit that believes it may have a need to lobby Congress should not accept funds under any Federal program.

Liberal groups have received funds for years. The "faith-based" organizations led by "Rev." Jesse Jackson receive millions of dollars a year in federal funding. Much of the money Jackson has received has not been accounted for. Liberal organizations, faith based or not, have always sought after federal funds and found some way to obtain them.

President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives just level the playing field so that real faith-based organizations that actually help people can receive these funds, not just the politically correct versions displayed by Jesse Jackson.

In dealing with Mr. Eberly I also gained information on how President Bush really chooses people and runs things. He invited Mr. Eberly onto the committee to conceptualize the faith-based initiative and lay out the ground work for how it would work. Mr. Eberly thought this would be a temporary task and that "professionals" would be given the task to run the office. After seeing his work product, President Bush asked him to stay on as Deputy Director.

Remember how then Governor Bush asked Dick Cheney to locate a vice-presidential candidate? After watching Cheney work at finding the right man, Bush was so impressed that he selected him. I have heard of several more instances in which President Bush has given individuals outside of government tasks that turned into major appointments.

LIBERAL NON-PROFITS VIOLATE LAW

The recent confirmation hearings for Attorney General John Ashcroft presented a good example of how liberals ignore and violate the law. On January 9, 2001, more than 200 left wing, and mostly nonprofit, organizations met at the headquarters of the American Association of University Women to plot their lobbying campaign against Ashcroft. In addition to fielding a small army of protesters, these groups spent millions of dollars in mailings and telephone campaigns against John Ashcroft. Why? Because they did not want an Attorney General who would uphold the rule of law and have respect for our Creator.

Among the groups coordinating the attack on John Ashcroft were the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women, the National Education Association, and the National Black Women's Health Project. Some of these nonprofit organizations receive millions of dollars in federal money. For example, the NAACP has received $1.1 million in federal grants since 1997. Planned Parenthood received $27 million in 1999 alone. Some grants from the Clinton years blatantly supported left-wing groups.

These liberal nonprofit groups are wealthy and powerful because of the Federal money they receive. Although lobbying by nonprofit organizations is unlawful if they receive federal funds, they simple ignore the law. The Clinton administration and the IRS for years looked the other way and let them do whatever they wanted. On the other hand, conservative groups which do not receive any federal money were hounded by vengeful IRS audits during the Clinton years.

Because of the blatant lawbreaking by the liberal non-profits during their attacks on Ashcroft, action against them has been taken, at least by a private legal group. The Landmark Legal Foundation has complained to the IRS and asked for an investigation to determine whether they broke the law with their lobbying efforts. Now that we have a new administration and a new Justice Department headed by John Ashcroft, maybe these powerful groups will be reined in and forced to obey the law.

It is especially important that the non-profits which receive Federal money should be forced to obey the law because they have vowed to oppose any godly men and women President Bush may appoint to Federal judgeships, especially to the Supreme Court.

NEW SUPREME COURT CASE

On February 28, 2001, the Supreme Court heard a case with wide implications for religious groups. The case began when the Milford, New York school district refused to let the Good News Club meet after school in the town’s only K-12 school building. They did, however, allow various secular groups such as the Girl Scouts and 4-H Club to use the school. The Good News Club, which operates similar clubs in virtually every state, decided to sue.

The Milford Good News Club is run by Rev. Stephen Fournier and his wife Darleen. He said, "I’m not asking the school to establish Good News Club as their religion. I’m not asking for their support in any way, shape or form. I just want to use space that my tax dollars pay for."

The school district says that any use of government owned buildings for religion is a violation of 'separation of church and state.’ Of course the ACLU has sided with the school district, but more than eleven states and dozens of organizations have filed friend-of-the-court briefs on behalf of the Good News Club.

A representative of the Religious Freedom Coalition was at the February 28 hearing before the Supreme Court. The Milford School District attorneys were under attack from virtually every one of the Supreme Court judges. None of the Justices could seem to understand why the school could allow use of the building for one type of club and not another. The overall tone of the hearing seemed to move in our direction.

The school district has said they may ban all clubs from using the facility paid for by taxpayers if they lose the case.

BOY SCOUTS NO! GIRL SCOUTS YES!

While the Boy Scouts are under constant attack for such things as retaining "duty to God" in their oath and for barring openly homosexual members and scout masters, no one ever seems to object to the Girl Scouts. The Girls Scouts get plenty of sponsorship and are welcome in the schools that have turned against the Boy Scouts. Why? Because the Girl Scouts long ago became a politically correct organization that indoctrinates young girls in left wing ideology and feminism. The Girl Scouts teach the politically correct concept that homosexuality is normal.

According to Girl Scout staffers writing in the book, On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experience, published in 1997, about one third of the organization’s paid professional staff is lesbian. This is a frightening figure when one realizes that lesbians account for no more than 1% of the population. Their disproportionate numbers in the Girl Scout leadership shows the importance the homosexual community places on recruiting children.

The Girl Scouts and their politically correct lesbian agenda are welcome in school districts such as Milford Central School.

Some Christians will undoubtedly object to having religious groups in the schools after school hours because they fear meetings will also be held by Muslims or other non Christians organizations. Our God is plenty able to defend Himself in the free marketplace of ideas. We need to have faith that if God’s truth can be spoken aloud, He will do the rest. It is only when our God is prohibited from public places that the void is filled by Satanic thought and secularism.

Some seem to believe that if there is no mention of God or Jesus in the public schools, then the schools will somehow be "neutral". But the schools are not neutral. Atheism is taught every day in biology classrooms, where evolution is referred to as a fact and everything which would disprove it must be suppressed. Every day in American classrooms children are taught that there is no absolute right or wrong, and that every person must create his or her own values, paying no attention to parents, pastors, or tradition. While after school Good News Clubs can’t undo all the damage, they can at least allow the truth about Jesus in the same building.

IN THE LOWER COURTS A VICTORY!

During the Clinton years there was a major push to promote various types of "thought crimes" legislation. The liberals call these laws "hate crimes", but make no mistake about it-- their objective is to make what people think against the law. Although the secularists have not been able to have much success at the federal level, they have done very well at the local level and particularly in our schools and universities.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit invalidated the State College Area School District’s "Anti-Harrasment Policy" as unconstitutional. Speaking for all three judges, Judge Alito wrote, "There is no categorical ‘harassment exception’ to the First Amendment’s free speech clause."

The school district’s "anti-harrassment policy" bans "...unwelcome verbal, written or physical conduct which offends, denigrates or belittles an individual." The policy included "sexual orientation" and that brought on the lawsuit. A college professor at the state college who had two children in the school district filed the lawsuit. A Christian, he believed that the policy of the school would prohibit his children from expressing their Biblically based beliefs that homosexuality was a sin.

On numerous occasions the Supreme Court has said that schools may only prohibit "lewd, vulgar or profane language" but not the content of ideas. The purpose of the rules was simply to prohibit the freedom of speech of conservative Bible believing Christians. The ruling affects only Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey but sends a message to politically correct school districts everywhere that there is no such thing as an "offending speech exception" to the right of free speech of the American people.

MORE "THOUGHT CRIMES"

How far can the thought police go to satisfy the politically correct of this nation who would rule over our minds? Fox News reports that the residents of a housing project in South Boston are being asked to remove shamrocks in commemoration of Saint Patrick’s Day from doors and windows because they are "bias indicators" and offensive to minority residents. Oddly, it is the Irish who are the minority in the housing project and there is no rule to have blacks remove any pictures of Malcolm X.

Boston Housing Authority's Lydia Agro said that "in response to concerns, we’re including shamrocks along with swastikas, Confederate flags and other symbols which may give offense." A shamrock is as offensive as Hitler’s swastika? If a shamrock to celebrate St. Patrick’s day is offensive, then so is the Star of David, the Cross of Christ and the very mention of Mohammed.

This is what happens when you start down the road of outlawing what someone deems "offensive". Well, I thought Bill Clinton was offensive, but no one shipped him out of the country as a result. This whole "thought crimes" concept must be destroyed before it leads to book burnings. The liberals of America think the same way the Nazis of Germany thought, and this could lead to real repression in America.

CANADA WANTS ONLY POLITICALLY CORRECT TEACHERS
CHRISTIANS NEED NOT APPLY

Christian teachers pose a danger to their students because of their beliefs say Canadian bureaucrats. In the province of British Columbia, the teacher accrediting agency is refusing to grant accreditation to Trinity Western University, a conservative Christian college. Without this accreditation, Trinity graduates will not be eligible to be hired in public schools.

What terrible thing is Trinity Western University guilty of? Do they have low academic standards, or do they have poor quality graduates? No, not at all. The problem is that Trinity students must sign a code of conduct forbidding--among other things-- smoking, premarital sex, cheating and homosexual behavior. Canada’s education bureaucrats say that Trinity graduates might be intolerant of homosexual students in their classrooms. This makes them unacceptable as public school teachers.

This decision is being challenged and the case is now before the Supreme Court of Canada. If the Court decides against Trinity, then all graduates of conservative Christian colleges will be barred from teaching in Canadian public schools. If the anti-Christian fanatics win in Canada, I believe we can expect similar challenges to Christian colleges in the United States before very long.

OPPOSING BLASPHEMY A NEW MENTAL DISORDER?

The blasphemous play, Corpus Christi, is one of the most bigoted, anti-Christian pieces of trash ever to be written and produced. It had a short run on Broadway in 1998, but so disgusted the public that it was soon closed down. Not to be dissuaded just because the play is trash, the drama department at Temple University in Philadelphia decided to produce Corpus Christi on campus. They apparently felt that a play depicting Jesus and his disciples as a group of homosexuals was something a major university should present.

A Christian student named Michael Marcavage protested the play and was brutalized by the school. Marcavage complained to the head of the theater department and to the president of the university, informing them of the nature of the play. He also posted fliers around the campus letting other Christian students know what was being done. University leaders were concerned about a protest being staged outside the theater, and Marcavage agreed not to organize one.

Instead, he asked for and received permission to stage a Christian outreach to students at the university. But when he arrived the next morning for a scheduled meeting with university officials, he was grabbed roughly and taken away in a campus police car to Temple University Hospital, where campus officials tried to have him committed to the psychiatric ward as a "clear and present danger to others."

A puzzled staff psychiatrist and psychologist examined Marcavage but could find no psychological problem at all and released him after three hours. Far from being "dangerous," Marcavage is a talented young man who is on the Dean’s List, has been a White House intern with security clearance, runs his own business and has worked with Campus Crusade for Christ and Feed the Children. He was simply exercising his right of free speech in standing up against a blasphemous and pornographic play at his school. Ironically, the same school officials who loudly proclaim their own "right" to present offensive plays like Corpus Christi, will use any and all means to silence and intimidate those who express a different point of view.

NOW COME THE ATHEISTS

So if you think the secularists who run our public schools and universities have gone too far with their political correctness, just imagine what the atheists would do!

The atheist organizations, which have fallen on hard times since the death of their leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair, are shooting for a comeback in the Florida home of Disney World. This year the atheists plan their annual convention during Easter. The atheists traditionally hold their conventions from Good Friday to Easter Sunday during the hours Christ spent in the grave.

This year the theme of the atheist convention is an outreach to family. Of course, their idea of what a family consists of is a little different from the traditional idea, to say the least. The atheist concept of a family can consist of two male parents, two female parents or maybe two male and one female parents. Since there is no God in their lives, the only moral restraints are what they make up in their own minds. I have never met a "pro-life" atheist.

The atheists will rule the media during the atheist convention in Orlando, Florida during Easter simply because there will be nothing newsworthy going on elsewhere. The President and the Congress will be home with family. Even most foreign governments do nothing during this special time for Christians. The media will fawn all over the atheists to write one story after the other about them.

The atheist convention is more than a media event for the atheists; it is evangelistic in nature. They use the media to suck in young people to attend. Once in the doors they try to steal God from their hearts.

I will be in Orlando during the atheist convention to do my best to counter the assaults upon Christ of the atheists. I also plan on running a large newspaper ad in the Orlando Sentinel addressed to the atheists and warning the Orlando area of the atheists’ vile plans for their children.

NEVER AGAIN A NAZI OLYMPICS!

The Olympic Committee is considering a repeat of the 1939 Olympics when the world’s best athletes came together in Berlin, the center of Nazi power, to hold what is supposed to be a gathering to promote peace and good sportsmanship. The Nazis never should have been awarded the honor of hosting the Olympics.

Now, for the year 2008 Olympics, the Committee has already narrowed their search down to five cities, and two of them, Bejing, China and Istanbul, Turkey, are from countries with disgraceful records of human rights abuses and religious persecution. China is one of the most repressive states in the world, using forced abortions and sterilizations to control its population. Chinese Christians, as well as followers of other religions, suffer great persecution in China. The Chinese government is trying to eradicate the underground Catholic Church there, and in 1999 officials arrested and threw into jail five Catholic bishops. The fate of these five is not known, but it seems unlikely these faithful, elderly men could have all survived the harsh conditions of Chinese jails or labor camps. The youngest was Bishop Han Dingxing, aged 63 and the oldest was Bishop Xie Shigung, aged 85. The others were aged 83, 80, and 65. Surely this brutal regime should not be honored and financially benefit from hosting the International Olympics.

The Olympic Committee is also considering Istanbul, Turkey. Turkey is one of the more "moderate" Muslim countries, and the military government there does try to keep it officially a secular state, not under Islamic rule. But the sheer numbers of more radical Muslims makes this an impossible goal. I have personally been to Istanbul, once the great Christian city of Constantinople, whose beautiful churches were famed throughout the world. The grandest of these is Hagii Sophia. I will never forget walking into this marvelous old church, only to see Islamic banners hanging from the domed ceiling, with praises to Allah. No Christian worshippers come there, because the Christians are all gone. The large Christian and Jewish communities that once thrived in Istanbul are no longer to be found. Those who would not bow to Allah have all been murdered or driven into exile, and all over the city stand ancient churches and synagogues that have been converted into mosques.

As you may recall, the seven churches to whom John was to deliver the Book of Revelation were all located in what is now the country of Turkey. They were: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Phildelphia, and Laodicea (Rev. 2:11). Where are all these churches now? They are all gone, trampled under the iron boots of intolerant Turkish Muslims.

The Nazis should not have been chosen to host the 1939 Olympics. Modern day tyrants like those in Bejing and Istanbul should not be chosen either. Please write and ask the Olympic Committee to choose one of the other contenders--Paris, Toronto, or Osaka. Write to: 

International Olympic Committee
Chateau de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland

For more about what is happening to believers in China and Turkey, as well as other countries, read my friend Paul Marshall’s book, Religious Freedom in the World, which we are offering this month for just $20.

Also, you may visit his web site at www.freedomhouse.org/religion

A Global Report on Freedom and Persecution
by Paul Marshall

The Church of Jesus Christ is under assault in many countries of the world, especially by the communists, Muslims, and Hindus. Here are the facts about religious persecution which the mainstream press ignores. This is the standard reference work on international religious freedom. Paul Marshall, award-winning, best-selling author of Their Blood Cries Out has an international reputation in the area if religious freedom. In Religious Freedom in the World, he gives a report card on each country of the world.

Every Christian should have this information. If we are to be effective in helping and praying for persecuted believers, then we must have sound information. Every pastor and church library should have a copy of Religious Freedom in the World. 342 pages, paperback.

For a copy of Religious Freedom in the World, send a check for $20 or more to: The William J. Murray Report, P. O. Box 77511, Washington, DC 20013 and mention offer 01N03. Credit card orders may call (800) 650-7664.