As Americans sit around, relaxing on a sunday afternoon, a man whose only crime is preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ awaits execution in the barbaric country of Iran.

And while this servant of God awaits his fate, the United States Government is in pursuit of an unholy alliance with an organization who can be tracked back to as the root of Islamic Terrorism.

International Business Times reports that:

Iran said on Saturday that Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death for rape, not for the crime of abandoning Islam.

Previous reports indicated that Nadarkhani was found guilty of apostasy because he converted to Christianity as a teenager. Nadarkhani has been sentenced to death by hanging for the crime, which is technically not in Iran’s penal code but is a religious doctrine enforced by an official fatwa.

“His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,” Gholomali Rezvani, the Gilan province deputy governor, told Farsn news agency. “He is guilty of security-related crimes.”

However, a December 2010 court ruling issued and signed by Supreme Court judges Morteza Fazel and Azizoallah Razaghi mentions the religious charges against Nadarkhani and nothing more.

But, hey, don’t worry, Pastor, the Obama Administration sent the mullahs in Iran a harshly worded letter on your behalf:

Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people,” the statement released by the White House read. “That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran’s own international obligations. A decision to impose the death penalty would further demonstrate the Iranian authorities’ utter disregard for religious freedom, and highlight Iran’s continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens. We call upon the Iranian authorities to release Pastor Nadarkhani, and demonstrate a commitment to basic, universal human rights, including freedom of religion.

While at the same time, Obama and his administration are trying to make nice with one of radical Islam’s biggest organizations:

Per reuters.com

U.S. officials have met members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, a U.S. diplomat said, after Washington announced it would have direct contacts with Egypt’s biggest Islamist group whose role has grown since U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

Washington announced the plans in June, portraying such contacts as the continuation of an earlier policy. But analysts said it reflected a new approach to the way it dealt with a group which Mubarak banned from politics.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked in an interview broadcast on Saturday with Egypt’s Al-Hayat television whether Washington would be ready to work with a future government that included members of the Brotherhood.

“We will be willing to and open to working with a government that has representatives who are committed to non-violence, who are committed to human rights, who are committed to the democracy that I think was hoped for in Tahrir Square,” she replied, according to a U.S. transcript.

Under the former Egyptian president, the Brotherhood was banned and its members often detained. Mubarak often presented himself as the bulwark preventing Egypt’s slide into Islamist hands, an approach that analysts said help secure him backing from Washington and other Western powers wary that Egypt could turn into another Iran or Gaza.

The group took a backseat in the early part of the anti-Mubarak uprising, which was broadly led by youth groups who put national concerns above religion. But the Brotherhood and its party have taken a increasingly prominent role since.

The diplomat said the U.S. contacts had been with “high-level” members of the Brotherhood’s party but did not give names. From the U.S. side, he said the contacts were not at ambassadorial level but he did not give further details.

Why did I call the Muslim Brotherhood one of radical Islam’s biggest organizations?

David Horowitz’s discoverthenetworks.org explains:

The “family tree” of modern-day terrorist groups traces its roots back to the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni organization founded in 1928 by the Egyptian activist Hasan al-Banna. Egypt has historically been the center of the Brotherhood’s operations, though the group maintains offshoots throughout the Arab-Muslim world and is also active in the United States and Europe. Islam expert Robert Spencer has called the Muslim Brotherhood “the parent organization of Hamas and al Qaeda.”

The Brotherhood was founded in accordance with al-Banna’s proclamation that Islam should be “given hegemony over all matters of life.” Accordingly, the organization seeks to establish a unified caliphate (kingdom) spanning the entire Muslim world. It also aspires to make Islamic law (Shari’a) the sole basis of jurisprudence and governance on earth. Toward this purpose — encapsulated in the Brotherhood’s militant credo: “God is our objective, the Koran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations” — the Brotherhood since its founding has supported the use of armed jihad to achieve its ends against its enemies, most notably the United States and Israel.

One of the Muslim Brotherhood’s offshoots, al Qaeda, is most famous for having carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The group was founded in approximately 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and Muhammad Atef — the latter a native Egyptian and a onetime member of the terrorist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Al Qaeda’s overriding objective is to establish a worldwide caliphate governing all the earth via the dictates of Islamic Law. Crucial to the achievement of that goal is the destruction of America by any means necessary. As one Al Qaeda Training Manual makes explicitly clear, violence is the preferred method of dealing with the enemy:

“Islamic governments have never and will never be established through peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established as they [always] have been by pen and gun, by word and bullet, by tongue and teeth.”

The manual further exhorts jihadists to “pledge … to make their [the infidels’] women widows and their children orphans … to slaughter them like lambs and let the [rivers] flow with their blood.”

Just think, the Government of the United States of America, who have sworn to protect and defend us from enemies foreign and domestic, is negotiating with these barbarians.

God save the Union.

Christianity has played a predominant role in the building of our nation.  In fact, the Capitol building itself was used for church services, even before Congress moved into the building, and continued to be used for Sunday Church Services until well after the Civil War.

The approval of the Capitol for church was given by both the House and the Senate on December 4, 1800, with House approval being given by Speaker of the House, Theodore Sedgwick, and Senate approval being given by the President of the Senate, Thomas Jefferson, whose approval came while he was still officially the Vice- President but after he had just been elected President.

According to David Barton at wallbuilders.com:

Jefferson attended church at the Capitol while he was Vice President 5 and also throughout his presidency. The first Capitol church service that Jefferson attended as President was a service preached by Jefferson’s friend, the Rev. John Leland, on January 3, 1802. 6 Significantly, Jefferson attended that Capitol church service just two days after he penned his famous letter containing the “wall of separation between church and state” metaphor.

U. S. Rep. Manasseh Cutler, who also attended church at the Capitol, recorded in his own diary that “He [Jefferson] and his family have constantly attended public worship in the Hall.” Mary Bayard Smith, another attendee at the Capitol services, confirmed: “Mr. Jefferson, during his whole administration, was a most regular attendant.” She noted that Jefferson even had a designated seat at the Capitol church: “The seat he chose the first Sabbath, and the adjoining one (which his private secretary occupied), were ever afterwards by the courtesy of the congregation, left for him and his secretary.” Jefferson was so committed to those services that he would not even allow inclement weather to dissuade him; as Rep. Cutler noted: “It was very rainy, but his [Jefferson’s] ardent zeal brought him through the rain and on horseback to the Hall.” Other diary entries confirm Jefferson’s attendance in spite of bad weather.

…Jefferson was not the only President to attend church at the Capitol. His successor, James Madison, also attended church at the Capitol. 14 However, there was a difference in the way the two arrived for services. Observers noted that Jefferson arrived at church on horseback 15 (it was 1.6 miles from the White House to the Capitol). However, Madison arrived for church in a coach and four. In fact, British diplomat Augustus Foster, who attended services at the Capitol, gave an eloquent description of President Madison arriving at the Capitol for church in a carriage drawn by four white horses.

The series of cacophonous thuds you just heard were the “I’m-smarter than-you” Atheists from both sides of the aisle, falling off their chairs.  You see, they (all 8% of them) will argue until they are blue in the face that Jefferson and Madison were not Christians, and our founding documents were not based on a Judeo-Christian system of beliefs.

Then, they go out to feed the unicorn in their backyard.

Jefferson told his friend, William Bradford (who served as Attorney General under President Washington), to make sure of his own spiritual salvation:

[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.

Concerning Christianity, Jefferson said:

The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.

The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

But, what about Jefferson’s re-writing of the Bible, leaving out Jesus’ miracles, you ask? David Barton answered that question in 2001, in a letter to a newspaper, in response to a reader:

The reader, as do many others, claimed that Jefferson omitted all miraculous events of Jesus from his “Bible.” Rarely do those who make this claim let Jefferson speak for himself. Jefferson’s own words explain that his intent for that book was not for it to be a “Bible,” but rather for it to be a primer for the Indians on the teachings of Christ (which is why Jefferson titled that work, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth”). What Jefferson did was to take the “red letter” portions of the New Testament and publish these teachings in order to introduce the Indians to Christian morality. And as President of the United States, Jefferson signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe wherein he provided—at the government’s expense—Christian missionaries to the Indians. In fact, Jefferson himself declared, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” While many might question this claim, the fact remains that Jefferson called himself a Christian, not a deist.

The other Founding Father whom Atheists claim was one of them is James Madison.

Per David Barton:

James Madison trained for ministry with the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, and Madison’s writings are replete with declarations of his faith in God and in Christ. In fact, for proof of this, one only need read his letter to Attorney General Bradford wherein Madison laments that public officials are not bold enough about their Christian faith in public and that public officials should be “fervent advocates in the cause of Christ.” And while Madison did allude to a “wall of separation,” contemporary writers frequently refuse to allow Madison to provide his own definition of that “wall.” According to Madison, the purpose of that “wall” was only to prevent Congress from passing a national law to establish a national religion.

Also, as this writing shows, Madison wanted all public officials – including Bradford – to be unashamed concerning their Christian beliefs and testimony:

I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.

Did you know that Madison was a member of the committee that authored the 1776 Virginia Bill of Rights and approved of its clause declaring that:

It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.  ?

And, per Barton, Madison’s proposed wording for the First Amendment demonstrates that he opposed only the establishment of a federal denomination, not public religious activities.  The proposal reads:

The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established.

But, wait.  There’s more:

In 1789, Madison served on the Congressional committee which authorized, approved, and selected paid Congressional chaplains.

In 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided a Bible Society in its goal of the mass distribution of the Bible.

Finally, throughout his Presidency (1809-1816), Madison endorsed public and official religious expressions by issuing several proclamations for national days of prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving.

So, if you run into one of those individuals who, when it comes to accepting the Faith of our Founding Fathers, proves that denial is not just a river in Egypt, you can respond with one or all of three things:

1.  Quote from this article.

2.  Give him/her this link to wallbuilders.com.

3.  Show them this excellent video, in which David Barton conducts a historical tour of the Capitol Building.

God Bless America!

 

 

Ten years ago today, the unthinkable happened:  America was the victim of the largest Islamic Terrorist Attack ever on our soil.

Per the Executive Summary of the 9/11 Commission Report:

At 8:46 on the morning of September 11, 2001, the United States became a nation transformed.

An airliner traveling at hundreds of miles per hour and carrying some 10,000 gallons of jet fuel plowed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. At 9:03, a second airliner hit the South Tower. Fire and smoke billowed upward. Steel,glass,ash,and bodies fell below.The Twin Towers, where up to 50,000 people worked each day, both collapsed less than 90 minutes later.

At 9:37 that same morning, a third airliner slammed into the western face of the Pentagon. At 10:03, a fourth airliner crashed in a field in southern Pennsylvania. It had been aimed at the United States Capitol or the White House, and was forced down by heroic passengers armed with the knowledge that America was under attack.

More than 2,600 people died at the World Trade Center; 125 died at the Pentagon; 256 died on the four planes. The death toll surpassed that at Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

This immeasurable pain was inflicted by 19 young Arabs acting at the behest of Islamist extremists headquartered in distant Afghanistan. Some had been in the United States for more than a year, mixing with the rest of the population. Though four had training as pilots, most were not well-educated. Most spoke English poorly, some hardly at all. In groups of four or five, carrying with them only small knives, box cutters, and cans of Mace or pepper spray, they had hijacked the four planes and turned them into deadly guided missiles.

Our enemies throughout the Muslim World danced in the streets, thinking that they had struck a crippling blow, demoralizing “The Great Satan”, and thinking that Americans would meekly cower in our homes after their attack.

That night, President George W. Bush addressed the nation:

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.

The victims were in airplanes or in their offices — secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers. Moms and dads. Friends and neighbors.

Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.

The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger.

These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.

Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government’s emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it’s prepared. Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, D.C., to help with local rescue efforts.

Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.

The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight and will be open for business tomorrow.

Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business as well.

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I’ve directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

Now, 10 years later, the mastermind behind the mass murder, Osama bin Laden is dead, sent to Hell by an American Navy Seal team.  While still dangerous, the Islamic Terrorist Organizations have been dealt crippling blows by our intelligence services and our fighting men and women.

Hiding out in their caves, these barbarians sit, scratching their heads, trying to figure out why these Americans are different from others they have attacked around the world.

Why have they failed?

The answer is simple.  Allow me to present a very special teacher to explain it to you, gentle reader:

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten.  On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.

‘Ms. Cothren, where’re our desks?’

She   replied, ‘You can’t have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.

They thought, ’Well, maybe it’s our grades.’

‘No,’ she said.

‘Maybe it’s our behavior.’

She told them, ’No, it’s not even your behavior.’

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren’s classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the  day came and as the puzzled  students found seats on the floor of the desk less classroom, Martha Cothren said, ‘Throughout the day no one  has been able  to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the  right  to sit at the desks that are  ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.’

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.

Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.

Martha said, ‘You didn’t earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it’s up to you to sit in them.  It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don’t ever forget it.’

By the way, this is a true story. And this teacher was awarded Teacher of the Year for the state of Arkansas in 2006.

Americans understand the Cost of Freedom.  Freedom is not free. 

So, on this solemn anniversary, please take a moment to say a prayer for all those who lost their lives that fateful day, including the New York City First Responders,  and for all of our Best and Brightest, who have lost their lives in defense of our sovereign nation.

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Last week, in my article titled, The War Against Christianity in America – Battleground:  DeSoto County, MS, I told you about the efforts of a group of bitter Atheists from Wisconsin, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, to take away prayer from high school football games, in the county in which I live.

Their efforts were for naught.  While they did succeed in getting the DeSoto County School Board to ban prayer over the stadium loudspeakers, they did not count on Americans exercising their Freedom of Religion, and reciting the Lord’s Prayer, en masse, from the stands.  Nor,were they prepared for the teams’ quarterbacks telling their fellow players to take a knee and leading them in prayer after the game.

This week, these bitter frustrated whiners are at it again.

The DeSoto Times Tribune reports:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which last week notified the DeSoto School District board that it had received complaints about school prayer, has now turned its attention to the distribution of Gideon Bibles.

FFRF notified the school district on Monday that it has received complaints saying Gideons distribute bibles to DeSoto County students during instructional time of the school day, prompting the organization to ask the school to no longer allow the activity.

The letter asking to stop bible distribution references the U.S. Supreme Court Ruling from Berger v. Rensselaer Central School Corporation.

In the letter, the foundation’s attorney, Stephanie Schmitt, says, “Public schools have a constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion.” The letter continues, “In allowing Gideons to distribute bibles to elementary school students, DeSoto County Schools is placing its ‘stamp of approval’ on the religious messages contained in the Bible.”*

The complaint issued to the Freedom From Religion Foundation mentioned two specific schools, Oak Grove Central Elementary and DeSoto Central Elementary schools where the Bible distribution has taken place.

This complaint followed a letter the organization sent to the DeSoto County Schools Superintendent Milton Kuykendall asking him to apologize and to retract a statement he made last week in reference to the organization’s request that the district no long allow pre-game prayers to be led over the public address system.

The letter asking for Kuykendall to retract his statement refers to him saying, “…this organization out of Wisconsin doesn’t really care if we have prayer in our schools. They see an opportunity to try and accuse us of breaking the law and therefore give them a chance to sue our district and win a law suit and take millions of our funds.”

In the same statement, Kuykendall was responding to outraged parents and community members, telling them they cannot ban prayer but cannot allow school officials to pray or the schools’ public address systems to be used to broadcast the prayer. He went on, “As law-abiding citizens, we can not pick and choose the laws we want to obey.”

A representative from the DeSoto County School Board said they do not wish to comment further at this time.

Once more, if you are an average American like me, you’re probably asking yourself, gentle reader:

Who are these idiots?

Well, according to David Horowitz’s discoverthenetoworks.org:

Founded in 1978, the nonprofit, tax-exempt Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) consists of more than 13,000 members and calls itself “the largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics) in the United States.” Its mission is “to promote free thought and to keep state and church separate.”

According to FFRF, religion invariably has been a negative force in human societies. “The history of Western civilization shows us that most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion,” the organization says. “… In modern times, the first to speak out for prison reform, for humane treatment of the mentally ill, for abolition of capital punishment, for women’s right to vote, for death with dignity for the terminally ill, and for the right to choose contraception, sterilization and abortion have been freethinkers [i.e., atheists and agnostics], just as they were the first to call for an end to slavery.”

FFRF promotes its message through a variety of vehicles, including a weekly national radio program; a newspaper titled Freethought Today; a “freethought billboard campaign”; scholarships “for freethinking students”; high-school and college “freethought essay competitions” with cash awards; annual national conventions honoring a “Freethinker of the Year” for state/church activism; and the sale of educational products, bumper-stickers, music CDs, winter solstice greeting cards, and books promoting “freethought.” The Foundation also provides speakers for events and debates on subjects related to religion, and has established a “freethought book collection” at the University of Wisconsin Memorial Library.

The Foundation is led by its co-presidents, Dan Barker and his wife, Annie Laurie Gaylor. Barker was a Christian preacher for 19 years before renouncing his faith in 1984. Gaylor, who earned a journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980, co-founded FFRC with her mother and the late John Sontarck in 1978. She is author of the books Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So (1981), and Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children (1988). She also edited the 1997 anthology Women Without Superstition: No Gods, No Masters. Today she edits FFRF’s newspaper, Freethought Today, which is published ten times annually. Since October 2007, she and her husband have co-hosted a one-hour weekly radio program called Freethought Radio, which is [was, thank God] broadcast by Air America Radio.

FFRF Co-President, Annie Laurie Gaylor, issued a press release in 2010, in a simular case, which read:

What we need is a little accountability from the school district. This is irresponsible advice. Public schools may not serve as conduits and facilitators for the Gideons — an aggressive and predatory Christian male missionary society which openly targets fifth-grade students. Children in our public schools are a captive audience. These adult missionaries need to pick on someone their own size and stay out of our public schools.

Per gallup.com, 92 % of Americans believe in God.  Therefore, it stands to reason that 8 % do not…and that’s fine, we are still a free country.

However, I fail to see how the dissemination of the Book of Faith that was embraced by our Founding Fathers can, in any way, harm the young, developing minds of today’s schoolchildren. 

If fact, in my humble opinion, quite the opposite is true.

High School Football on Friday Night.  It’s something wholly American.  A rite of passage that unites families behind their son, nephew, cousin,  and/or neighbor, as they strive on the field of competition.

Here in DeSoto County, Mississippi, in America’s Heartland, last night held a special significance, as average Americans stood up on their hind legs, defying a bitter minority group seeking to limit their right of Religious Freedom.

A group from Wisconsin, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, several days ago, sent a letter to the Schools Superintendent, insisting that the pre-game prayer, spoken over the stadiums’ loudspeakers, a tradition held in DeSoto County as long as anyone can remember,  be silenced.

Who is the Freedom of Religious Foundation and why should they be concerned about prayer at high school football games in Mississippi?

According to their website:

The purposes of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

Incorporated in 1978 in Wisconsin, the Foundation is a national membership association of more than 17,000 freethinkers: atheists, agnostics and skeptics of any pedigree. The Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt, educational organization under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3). All dues and contributions are deductible for income tax purpose.

What Does the Foundation Do?

• Publishes the only freethought newspaper in the United States, Freethought Today

• Sponsors annual high school, college and grad student essay competitions with cash awards

• Conducts lively, annual national conventions, honoring state/church, student, and freethought activism

• Sponsors an online forum for members

• Bestows “The Emperor Has No Clothes” Award to public figures for “plain-speaking on religion”

• Promotes freedom from religion with educational books, literature, music CDs

• Provides speakers for events and debates

• Maintains a Web site at http://www.ffrf.org

• Broadcasts Freethought Radio

• Places freethought billboards and bus signs

…First Amendment violations are accelerating. The religious right is campaigning to raid the public till and advance religion at taxpayer expense, attacking our secular public schools, the rights of nonbelievers, and the Establishment Clause.

The Foundation recognizes that the United States was first among nations to adopt a secular Constitution. The founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution wanted citizens to be free to support the church of their choice, or no religion at all. Our Constitution was very purposefully written as a godless document, whose only references to religion are exclusionary.

It is vital to buttress the Jeffersonian “wall of separation between church and state” which has served our nation so well.

Funny.  Jefferson was a faithful attendant of Sunday Church that was held at the Capitol Building.  He once explained to a friend while they were walking to church together:

No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I, as Chief Magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example.

He also proclaimed

I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens.

But, I digress…

DeSoto County Schools went along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s request, despite the disappointment of many students and parents.

And that’s when Americans started organizing.

Y’see, teammates traditionally would take a knee after the game to thank the Lord for a good game and His blessings and to pray for those injured during the game.  And their parents were bound and determined that their young men were not going to have that freedom taken away from them.

So, last night, instead of the coach telling the team to take a knee, the quarterback did.

Earlier, on Friday morning, students and parents held a prayer walk outside DeSoto County Schools.

As the bright, blessed day gave way to the dark, sacred night in DeSoto County, parents and students began to pray.

According to student Paige Lewis:

If they’re saying that we can’t pray over a loudspeaker, then we’re going to pray alone.

Earlier in the week, The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a second letter to School Superintendent Milton Kuykendall.  They not only asked the district to stop praying before school events, but also demanded an apology for the comments the superintendent made in a letter sent out earlier this week.

Cheeky, huh?

These bitter whiners were upset that Kuykendall wrote:

In my opinion, most people do not realize that this organization out of Wisconsin doesn’t really care if we have prayer in our schools. They see an opportunity to try and accuse us of breaking the law and therefore give them a chance to sue our district and win a lawsuit and take millions of our funds. This is money that is needed to pay teachers and educate our students.

According to Professional Atheist, Annie Laurie Gaylor, of the Foundation:

It hurts our reputation to have a public official saying we just complained to make money, nonetheless millions. We never make any money on our litigation. That’s ridiculous.

What she was alluding to, is the fact that they have sued 50 American high schools, in their attempt to ban prayer from public events.

Well, your salary comes from somewhere, Wendy Whiner.

As her and her compatriots’ heads no doubt exploded, hundreds of parents and students spontaneously gathered to pray aloud before the opening kick-off of high school football games across DeSoto County Friday.

Per the local newspaper, the DeSoto Times Tribune:

At the Olive Branch game, spectators began to pray the Lord’s Prayer in unison around 7:15 p.m. just moments before the Olive Branch High School Conquistadors and Memphis Trezevant took to the field.

The same was the case at Hernando High School just prior to kickoff against Pontotoc.

The Rev. Mike Coker, pastor of the Refuge Church in Hernando led a prayer outside Tiger Stadium before the game and encouraged people in the crowd to pray.

After the singing of the national anthem, people in the stands recited the Lord’s Prayer.

A large group of Horn Lake High School and Lake Cormorant High School parents also joined in saying the Lord’s just prior to the Horn Lake – Lake Cormorant football game at Horn Lake.

The group prayer was not sponsored by the DeSoto County School system and was led by parents, not teachers or administrators.

At their meeting this past Monday, DeSoto County School Board members stood by their current policy which states that “school administrators, teachers and staff shall take a neutral approach regarding the promotion of prayer or other religious activities in schools or at school-sponsored events. They cannot interfere with students exercising their religious rights as permitted by law and they cannot tell or suggest to students that they should pray or participate in religious activities. Prayer over the intercom or at school-related activities shall not be allowed except as specifically stated above.”

What the Foundation, Obama, and the other Progressives attempting to remove Our Creator from day-to-day American Life don’t seem to understand is: 

Salvation is an individual experience, not something that happens to a collective. 

And America, our sacred land,  was built upon individual freedom.

During a Vice-Presidential Debate in 1992, Ross Perot’s running mate, distinguished Admiral James Stockdale, uttered a phrase which many of us have asked since time in memorial:

Who am I?  Why am I here?

On the occasion of my 500th post on this blog that bears my name, I would like to reflect on those questions for a moment.

As my introductory page states, I am a 52 year old Christian American Conservative.  I was raised by members of The Greatest Generation.  My father landed at Normandy.  I love God and I love this Sacred Land that I was blessed to be born in.

I am the youngest of three children, growing up with a step-sister, who is gone now, and a sister, with whom I remain close.  I am a well-trained husband, and I  am the father of a special daughter, who has been a blessing to me over and over again during her 24 years.  I have helped to raise three step-sons, and am proud of all three of them, as I am equally proud of my two grown nephews and my niece.   And I plead guilty to spoiling my 3 and 1/2 year old grandson, Robert.

I am a son of the South, currently residing in the Northwest corner of Mississippi, after living the majority of my life in Memphis, Tennessee.

I love music, having sung in churches since I was 19, a legacy from my earthly father, who possessed a beautiful tenor voice.  I have also played rhythm guitar since that age.  I even got to see Elvis Presley in concert in the early 70s from the top row of the Mid-South Coliseum.  He was wearing a blue jumpsuit.

The majority of my generation had similar experiences, as I did, growing up.

We had basketball goals hanging on our carports.  We played football in our front yards.  We had black light and Farrah Fawcett posters in our rooms.  And we all ran out and bought Frampton Comes Alive double albums.

We said yes ma’am/sir and no ma’am/sir, when addressed by our parents or any adult, especially in the South.  And all the parents in our neighborhood treated us like we were their kids.

The origin of my web identity goes back to 2008, right before the national election.  I found a Conservative website named Hot Air, owned and managed by the phenomenal Conservative, Michelle Malkin.  I wanted to contribute comments, but I needed an anonymous handle.  I came up with the name kingsjester in homage to the King of Kings, and because of the fact that I bear the middle name of King, as did my father before me.

The  jester part of my handle came from the fact that, like my father before me, I love to laugh, and having been blessed by God with a quick wit, and a quicker mouth, well…it just seemed natural.

I am currently in my sixth year of reading God’s Word all the way through.  I read 4 chapters a morning, before I sit down to write this blog.  I view this not as a ritual, but a necessity.  He teaches me something new every day.

My Conservatism comes naturally, having been raised by my parents to love this country, and watching them exercise good old-fashioned American values in our home.  My political leanings were solidified for me in the 1980s, as I was privileged to spend my 20s during the presidency of Ronald Wilson Reagan.

I suppose that is why I so fiercely oppose the presidency and actions of Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).  Having seen and experienced so many great things that living in our country has to offer, it chapped my hindquarters to watch a sitting President of the United States go around the world, apologizing for the greatest country on God’s green Earth.

And then, later in this nightmare called a presidency, this Chamberlain wannabe, who is supposed to be defending our country from enemies foreign and domestic, held secret meetings with fanatic worshipers of the very ideology that was responsible for massacring 3,000 of our citizens on September 11, 2011.  Frankly, it made my blood boil.

And now, this bozo and his minions in the MSM, and on both sides of the aisle, are attacking the grassroots movement known as the Tea Party.  In fact,  syndicated columnist and hardcore Lib, Leonard Pitts, Jr, reports that:

…The noteworthy thing about the CNN/ORC poll, which was conducted Aug. 5-7, is not simply that it found 51 percent of Americans now regard the tea party unfavorably, up from 26 percent when they first started asking this question in January 2010. No, what’s telling is where the dislike is coming from. You see, the spike does not reflect a change of mind from the tea-party faithful. Approval numbers have remained relatively stable over the 19-month history of the survey, starting out at 33 percent, peaking to 38 percent twice, falling back to 31 percent this month. Once one drinks the tea, apparently, the tea stays drunk.

No, the fluctuation has come from those who previously knew nothing about the party. Twenty-four percent of Americans said in January of last year that they had never heard of it. Only 5 percent say that now.

As that number has fallen, tea party disfavor has risen.

To put that more simply: The more Americans learn about this movement, the more they dislike it.

Bull.  The Tea Party is America.  That oversampled CNN poll is nothing but a worthless Liberal propaganda tool.

So, tell me, Leonard…How do you explain the fact that, just yesterday, gallup .com reported that Obama’s job approval rating is now tanking at a new low of 39%, compared to Bush’s 60% at the same time in his presidency?

Thanks, everybody, for your support.  We’ve got a lot of work to do.  November 2, 2010 was just the opening act. It’s up to all of us. 

I know that I’ve got at least another 500 posts in me.  We’re just gettin’ started, y’all.  Let’s roll!

Yesterday morning, Texas Governor and possible Republican Candidate for President Rick Perry, did something that was labelled shameful and harmful in the eyes of many Liberals and so-called “Fiscal” Conservatives in our great nation:

He actually prayed (GASP!) at a Houston Prayer Breakfast, along with over 30,000 other Americans.

OH, THE HORROR!

Standing on a stage surrounded by thousands of fellow Christians, Gov. Perry called on Christ to bless and guide the nation’s military and political leaders and “those who cannot see the light in the midst of all the darkness.”

Gov. Perry prayed:

Lord, you are the source of every good thing. You are our only hope, and we stand before you today in awe of your power and in gratitude for your blessings, and humility for our sins. Father, our heart breaks for America. We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government, and as a nation we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us, and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.

Speaking for around 13 minutes, the Governor read several passages from the Bible (OH, NOES!) during the prayer rally he sponsored. Thousands of people stood or kneeled in the aisles or on the concrete floor in front of the stage, some wiping away tears and some shouting, “Amen!”

Governor Perry also asked those in the audience to pray for President Obama:

Father, we pray for our president, that you impart your wisdom upon him, that you would guard his family.

Those who refuse to accept the fact that this great nation was founded on a Judeo-Christian belief system, by actual Christians, or as they like to derisively call us, Christianists, are beside themselves over the fact that Gov. Perry unshakably proclaims Jesus Christ as his Savior.

For example, here’s the New York Times, attempting to retain a facade of neutrality, while obviously seething inside:

In many ways, the rally was unprecedented, even in Texas, where faith and politics have long intersected without much controversy — the governor, as both a private citizen and an elected leader, delivering a message to the Lord at a Christian prayer rally he created, while using his office’s prestige, letterhead, Web site and other resources to promote it. Mr. Perry said he wanted people of all faiths to attend, but Christianity dominated the service and the religious affiliations of the crowd. The prayers were given in Jesus Christ’s name, and the many musical performers sang of Christian themes of repentance and salvation.

Mr. Perry, a lifelong Methodist who regularly attends an evangelical megachurch near his home in West Austin, has been speaking and preaching in sanctuaries throughout Texas since he was state agricultural commissioner in the 1990s. Organizers for the event, called The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis, estimated that more than 30,000 people were at Reliant Stadium when Mr. Perry spoke…

The Times went on to mention that the seating capacity of the Event Center is 71,500, and pointed out all the empty seats in the upper deck, just for good measure.

The Prayer Breakfast was held nine days after a federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed against Governor Perry by a national group of atheists. Their flimsy argument was that his participation in the rally in his official capacity as governor violated the First Amendment’s requirement of separation of church and state.

Defeated in court, the miserable members and supporters of that group, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, were among dozens of people protesting outside the stadium. Others miscreants included gay activists who criticized Mr. Perry for supporting the American Family Association, which organized and financed the rally. The association is a conservative evangelical group based in Mississippi that is listed as an antigay hate group by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.

Gov. Perry invited his fellow governors to join him, but only Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas, a Republican, attended. Gov. Rick Scott of Florida made a video statement that was played in the stadium.

Then, there’s this from yahoo.com:

On Thursday, a Fox News opinion website called Fox Nation aggregated a “Playbook” column by Politico’s Mike Allen about President Barack Obama’s 50th birthday bash, changing Allen’s typically long headline with this:

‘Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs’

The private party included dinner (“BBQ chicken, ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta, salad”) in the Rose Garden was attended by Obama’s staff and celebrities including Al Sharpton, Jay-Z, Chris Rock, Charles Barkley, Steve Harvey, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. There were performances by Stevie Wonder, R&B singer Ledisi, jazz legend Herbie Hancock. A DJ “played Motown, hip-hop, and ’70s and ’80s R&B.”

“The president asked everyone to dance — and they did!”

The headline, not surprisingly, immediately sparked renewed charges of racism against the network. But Fox is standing by it.

Bill Shine, Fox executive vice president of programming in charge of the Fox Nation site, defended the decision in a statement to The Cutline: “We used the hip-hop reference per Politico’s Playbook story this morning which stated ‘Also present: Chicago pals, law-school friends, donors–and lots of kids of friends, who stole the show by doing dance routines to the hip-hop songs, in the center of the East Room.'”

The network has shut off further comments on the article, which were becoming incendiary.

“We found many of the comments to be offensive and inappropriate and they have been removed,” Shine said.

Previously, the Rapper/Poet/Actor known as Common performed a poetry reading at the White House on May 11, 2011.

His appearance was protested by the New Jersey State Police and their union.

The focus of their concern was the song “A Song For Assata” about a member of the Black Liberation Army named Assata Shakur, previously known as Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted in 1977 of the first degree murder of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster. Lyrics of “A Song For Assata” claim that Shakur was wrongly convicted.

Assata had been convicted of a murder she couldna done/Medical evidence shown she couldna shot the gun.

Reportedly, at another poetry reading, Common said, “flyers say ‘free Mumia’ on my freezer,” a reference to Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

Jay Carney, the White House Secretary,in speaking for President Obama said that the president does not support, but actually opposes, some of the kind of words and lyrics that have been written by Common and others. Even though the president does not support the lyrics in question, he believed that some reports were distorting what Mr. Lynn stands for more broadly.

If he does not support those lyrics, why was Common allowed in the White House, and, furthermore, why was Hip Hop played at Obama’s 50th Birthday Party?

And yet…the media focuses on a Texas Governor, who dares to proclaim Christ as his  Personal Savior.

Yesterday, on Father’s day 2011, NBC utilized their impeccable taste and creative skills to put together what they perceived as an electrifying, patriotic opening for the United States Open Golf Championship.

The opening featured a reading of the Pledge of Allegiance by a group of children in a classroom.

That would have been enough to stir the patriotic soul of even the most callous observer, right?

Wrong!

It stirred up Americans’ sense of Patriotism, alright. The idiots at NBC edited out the phrase UNDER GOD!

This is what viewers of the golf tournament heard:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, with liberty and justice for all.

And once was not enough for NBC. They did it twice!

The kids actually recited the pledge two times.  NBC edited the second version to not only leave out UNDER GOD, but ONE NATION, as well.

To say that Americans got stirred up is probably an understatement. Immediately, viewers took to Twitter and internet comment boards, calling NBC “scumbugs” and pledging to boycott the network.

Of course, once they realized that the overwhelming majority of America’s did not appreciate their selective editing,  NBC tried to feebly apologize.

From washingtonpost.com:

NBC apologized for cutting the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance in its leadup to coverage to the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club.

The move quickly drew criticism Dan Hicks said, during the broadcast of Open action:

We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago and when we did it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open Championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s capital for the third time. Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone and we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.

Once is an accident.  Twice is deliberate.

So,  how did the phrase UNDER GOD come to be in the Pledge of Allegiance?

According to associatedcontent.com:

In 1953, Representative Louis Rabaut, a Democrat from Michigan, introduced the first bill in the U.S. Congress that would officially add “under God” to the Pledge. Rabaut’s effort was not immediately successful. It was, however, passed by Congress the following year, 1954. The Presbyterian Reverend George M. Docherty, who counted then-President Eisenhower among his congregation, was seen as influential in pushing the change.

In 1954, there were actually two bills introduced into Congress seeking to modify the Pledge of Allegiance by adding “under God.” The Senate passed one such bill. Congressman Rabaut, however, blocked efforts to pass that bill in the Congress, insisting that his bill be passed instead. On June 7, 1954, Congress did pass the Rabaut version, and the Senate passed the same bill on June 8, 1954.

The decision of Congress to add “under God” to the Pledge was, at least in part, a reaction to the Cold War with Soviet Russia. One of the differentiating factors between Soviet Communism and American

Democracy was that the Soviets officially advocated atheism. The phrase “under God” was seen, therefore, to reaffirm an important distinction between the two competing worldviews.

On June 14, 1954, President Eisenhower signed the bill officially adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. The President remarked that, “millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town … the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.”

NBC isn’t alone in the zeal to remove God from the Pledge of Allegiance.  Harry Reid did it on April 12th, 2011, while citing the Pledge on the floor of the Senate:

Liberals have been pursuing their quest for years. In 2002, Minnesota Congresswoman Betty McCollum left the phrase UNDER GOD out of the Pledge, while leading it on the House Floor:

What is it about the phrase UNDER GOD, being in the Pledge of Allegiance, that causes Liberals to react like vampires in the shadow of the Cross?

On December 1st, 2008, in an article titled “It’s Time to Update the Pledge”, posted on newsweek.washingtonpost.com, Sally Quinn wrote:

Today, pluralistic America is engaged in mortal combat against anti-modern, fundamentalist, religionized humanity.

It isn’t our belief in God that makes us different. It’s our belief in the liberties (religious and other) enshrined in the Constitution. The American creed is faith in liberty for all, not the religion of most.

Evidently, Ms. Quinn, Rep. McCollum, Sen. Reid, and their fellow Liberals at NBC have failed to heed the words of United States President John Adams who penned:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Isn’t it funny how those who claim to be the most tolerant Americans, are actually the least tolerant of all?

NBC and their Liberal brethren would be well-served to watch and learn from this explanation of our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance, given by America’s Clown Prince of Comedy, Mr. Richard “Red” Skelton, who, coincidentally, ended his long and storied career in network television with a half-hour series on NBC in 1971.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the incomparable Mr. Red Skelton:

Why do Liberals hate Israel?  And why are the majority of American Jews Liberal?

This is a paradox that has perplexed Christian Conservative Americans, such as myself, for a long time.  What is it about the existence of the state of israel that vexes the minds of Liberals and Progressives so?

David Mamet, a former Liberal turned Conservative author is  in the process of publicizing his new book, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture, which studies in depth the themes he announced in his 2008 op-ed for the Village Voice, “Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal.’

Yesterday, June 11th, 2011, americanthinker.com’s Rick Richman posted an article, reviewing Mamet’s new book. In this article, the author touches upon the subject of Liberal Anti-Semitism:

In a chapter entitled “The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Socialism and Anti-Semitism,” he first argues that “social justice” is a sort of Sunday religion that does not carry over to the pressures of the workweek, and he illustrates his thought as follows:

One may bemoan the plight of the Palestinians, who have elected a government of terrorists and daily bomb their neighbor to the West, but we realize that any support past the sentimental is elective: we do not want to live there, nor to go there, and we blink at the knowledge that monies spent in their support may be diverted to the support of terror, and of organizations pledged not only to kill all the Jews, but to kill Americans and Westerners of all faiths.

Where does sympathy stop, and where may it not become sanctimony and hypocrisy?

And then he answers his own question with a mini-drama:

Our American plane has been forced to land at some foreign airport, by the outbreak of World War III. It will not be allowed to depart. Two planes are leaving the airport; we must choose which we want to board. One plane is flying to Israel and one to Syria, and we must choose.

That’s where the sympathy stops.

No one reading this book would get on the plane to Syria. Why? It is a despotism, opposed to the West, to women, to gays, to Jews, to free speech. … And yet one may gain status or a feeling of solidarity by embracing the “Arab cause.”

Mamet’s mini-drama works even if you believe Israel is not a “laudable precious democracy” but “guilty of all the horrors” alleged against it:

I assert that you would still fight with every force and argument at your command to get on the Israeli plane, you and every hard Leftist and every head-shaking misinformed One Worlder and anti-Semite up to and including Jimmy Carter and Noam Chomsky, would, if the issue were his life, suspend his most cherished convictions of Israeli perfidy, and plead for the protection of that state you would then not only acknowledge but assert to be your ally …

There is nothing any reader of this book would not say or do to get himself and his family on the Israeli plane.

Per the americanthinker.com article, one of Mamet’s own previous books: The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews, which is basically an extended letter to his fellow Jews, has a Foreword to the book which ends with this striking paragraph:

To the Jews who, in the sixties, envied the Black Power Movement; who, in the nineties, envied the Palestinians; who weep at Exodus but jeer at the Israel Defense Forces; who nod when Tevye praises tradition but fidget through the seder; … whose favorite Jew is Anne Frank and whose second-favorite does not exist; who are humble in their desire to learn about Kwanzaa and proud of their ignorance of Tu Bi’Shvat; … who bow the head reverently at a baptism and have never attended a bris – to you, who find your religion and race repulsive, your ignorance of your history a satisfaction, here is a book from your brother.

Also, per the article, in his new book, The Secret Knowledge, Mamet asks the following pertinent and poignant question:

Why would any American Jew wish to become a “citizen of the world”? This fantasy is akin to one who believes in the benevolence of Nature. Anyone ever lost in the wild knows that Nature wants you dead. Enjoy the benefits of liberty and defend them as an American, rather than posing as a “citizen of the world.”

In an earlier article, posted on June 2, 2011, on americanthinker.com, Why Does the Left Hate Israel,  Richard Baehr attempts to answer David Mamet’s question:

…I have been to several of the left wing Israel hate fests. They are scary. There is real passion in the air. There is something about Israel that gets the juices going. Anti—Semitism is a part of it. There are a lot of people who are envious of Jews, on the left as well as the right. Patrick Buchanan thinks Jews have hijacked the conservative movement. But on the left, particularly in the academy, and in journalism, I am certain there is professional envy of the many Jewish faces and what better way to get even, and get back for sometimes losing the competitive battle, than by picking on the Jewish state as a surrogate. Leftist Jews sometimes lead the assault against Israel in these venues, thereby giving the attacks, whatever their reason, greater moral authority. Few Jews will stand up for Israel in these environments, because of the great pressure on the left to conform to the group think in the institutions they control.

…The evidence I believe is clear today that Israel faces far greater threats from the left than the right. The left is reflexively anti—Israel and has established important beachheads in significant American institutions— academia, the media, and the old line Protestant ‘high’ churches, as well as in the very seats of government power in many Western European countries, and their intelligentsia. It is not surprising that Israel seems unable to get a fair shake from college professors, the BBC, Reuters, NPR, or liberal churches. Being anti—Israel has become part of their religion.

As a Christian American, I know who I support in the Middle Eastern Conflict:  God’s Chosen People. 

You see, I’ve read The Book.  I know the ending.  Hallelujah!

In the meantime, pajamasmedia.com’s Andrew Klaven presents the following solution to the problem of Israel, with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

As he himself says:

Now, why didn’t somebody think of this before?