Matthew 6:21

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

President Obama hosted an iftar, the special evening meal observed during Ramadan, last night in the White House dining room.

Obama participated in a similar gathering last year.

Obama wrote in a statement Wednesday:

Celebrations like iftar dinners “remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings,” .

Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality … a reminder that Islam has always been part of America and that American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country.

At the dinner Friday night, President Barack Hussein Obama (Peace be upon him) dispelled all doubt as to where he stood on one of the hottest subjects in America as he forcefully endorsed building a mosque near ground zero, saying the country’s founding principles demanded no less:

As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.

That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.  This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.

Republicans responded quickly to the president’s remarks.   Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y said:

President Obama is wrong.  It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much.

The White House had been silent on the subject of the mosque, which would be part of a $100 million Islamic center to be built next to the site where nearly 3,000 people were murdered when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Press secretary Robert Gibbs had deflected the subject as a local matter.

It was already a national issue, sparking debate around the country as top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich spoke out against it.   So did the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.

Obama made it a presidential issue Friday in no uncertain terms.

While insisting that the place where the twin towers once stood was indeed “hallowed ground,” Obama said that the proper way to honor it was to apply American values:

Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect to those who are different from us — a way of life that stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on that September morning, and who continue to plot against us today.

On the precipice of a Mid-term Election political massacre of Democratic politicians , Obama surely knew that his words would not only make U.S. headlines but would reach Muslims worldwide. The president has made it his mission to reach out to the global Muslim community, and guests at Friday’s dinner included ambassadors and officials from numerous Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

While his pronouncement concerning the mosque may win him some new friends in the Muslim world, Obama, once again, holds a view contrary to the view of the majority of the people that he is supposed to be the leader of.   A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved.

A number of Democratic politicians have run away from the mosque controversy like bachelors on Sadie Hawkins Day.  New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has been a strong supporter of the mosque, which has won approval from Liberal-stacked local planning boards.

The group behind the $100 million project, the Cordoba Initiative, describes it as a Muslim-themed community center.  Announced plans call not only for prayer space but for a swimming pool, culinary school, art studios and other features. The mosque group claims it will be a hub for interfaith interaction, as well as a place for Muslims to bridge some of their faith’s own schisms.

As I reported on Wednesday, the imam behind the proposed Islamic Victory Monument known as the Ground Zero Mosque Ground Zero is going on a multi-country jaunt to the Middle East funded by taxpayer dollars through the State Department.  Americans are rightly concerned that he will be using our money to raise the money he needs to build the $100,000,000 mosque. 

According to a State Department announcement that was given on Monday, Feisal Abdul Rauf is taking the publicly funded trip to foster “greater understanding” about Islam and Muslim communities in the United States.  Yeah, right. 

When asked about the trip, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said:

He is a distinguished Muslim cleric.  I think we are in the process of arranging for him to travel as part of this program, and it is to foster a greater understanding about the region around the world among Muslim-majority communities.

Crowley said no fund-raising for the mosque and cultural center during the trip would be permitted:

That would not be something he could do as part of our program.

However, Rauf is scheduled to make stops in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar, Islamic countries with deep pockets.

And now we know why Obama sent him.

The mask is off now.  Remember when Scooter slipped and said:

All the Liberals defended him by saying that he was being sarcastic in that interview.  I wonder what their defense of last night will be?  And how quickly will all the Democratic politicians seeking office in the Mid-terms distance themselves from their President?  Is Obama really so naive as to not realize that Islam is not just a faith, but a political ideology as well?

Most importantly, given the documented history of this Imam and the group behind this mosque, has this 60’s Radical excuse for a president just publicly supported and emboldened the enemies of America?

All sources of information in the preceding blog are embedded.

 

Americans all over the country are protesting Islamic mosques being built in their neighborhoods.

Members of a local Tea Party group in Temecula, Calif., in late June ,protested outside Friday prayers at a mosque that is seeking to build a new worship center on a vacant lot nearby.

In Sheboygan, Wis., some Christian ministers led opposition to a Muslim group that wanted to open a mosque in a former health food store bought by a Muslim doctor.

These protestors have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the Constitution with Islamic Sharia law.

These Americans are making the point that while Islam may be a religion, it also masks a violent political ideology.

However, Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky, is disturbed that Americans are speaking out:

What’s different is the heat, the volume, the level of hostility.  It’s one thing to oppose a mosque because traffic might increase, but it’s different when you say these mosques are going to be nurturing terrorist bombers, that Islam is invading, that civilization is being undermined by Muslims.

The professor, along with other clueless Liberals, are upset about the growing number of authors and bloggers, some of them former Muslims, who are invited to speak at rallies, sell their books and testify in churches. Their message is that Islam is inherently violent and poses a threat to America.

Attempts have been made by Liberals to counteract this message. In each community, interfaith groups led by Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, rabbis and clergy members of other faiths have defended the mosques.

The Ground Zero Mosque cleared a final hurdle last week before the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg erroneously equated this monument to Islamic victory on 9/11 to the cause of religious freedom.  Liberals and the usual “religious” social justice groups supported the Cordoba Initiative.  Opponents included the Anti-Defamation League, an influential Jewish group, prominent Republicans like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and the overwhelming majority of the citizens of New York City and the rest of America.

There a smaller dust-up going on in Temecula, about 60 miles north of San Diego.  Muslims have been there for about 12 years.  They comprise around 150 families who meet in a warehouse.  Their imam is Mahmoud Harmoush,  a lecturer at California State University, San Bernardino.  The group wants to build a 25,000-square-foot center, with space for classrooms and a playground, on a lot it bought in 2000.

According to Mr. Harmoush, the Muslim families had contributed to the local food bank, sent truckloads of supplies to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and participated in music nights and Thanksgiving events with the local interfaith council.  He’s upset because they haven’t gotten any recognition for their good works:

We do all these activities and nobody notices.  Now that we have to build our center, everybody jumps to make it an issue.

That’s interesting.  Christians perform works like this for His glory, not ours.

A group of Americans have voiced their concerns about the mosque.  Diana Serafin, a grandmother who lost her job in tech support this year, contacted people she knew from attending Tea Party events and anti-immigration rallies.  They did their homework.  They read books by critics of Islam, including former Muslims like Walid Shoebat, Wafa Sultan and Manoucher Bakh.   She also went to a meeting of the local chapter of ACT! for America, a Florida-based group that says its purpose is to defend Western civilization against Islam.

Ms. Serafin said:

As a mother and a grandmother, I worry.   I learned that in 20 years with the rate of the birth population, we will be overtaken by Islam, and their goal is to get people in Congress and the Supreme Court to see that Sharia is implemented. My children and grandchildren will have to live under that.

 I do believe everybody has a right to freedom of religion.  But Islam is not about a religion. It’s a political government, and it’s 100 percent against our Constitution.”

Ms. Serafin was among 20 to 30 people who turned out to protest the mosque, including some who brought dogs along to offend those Muslims who consider dogs to be ritually unclean.  But they were outnumbered by at least 75 supporters. As a result of citizens’ concerns, the City of Temecula recently postponed a hearing on whether to grant the mosque a permit.

There are about 1,900 mosques in the United States, their meeting places vary from makeshift prayer rooms in storefronts and houses to large buildings with adjoining community centers, according to a preliminary survey by Mr. Bagby, the California professor mentioned earler.

A two-year study by a group of Liberal academics on American Muslims and terrorism came to the conclusion that contemporary mosques are actually a deterrent to the spread of militant Islam and terrorism.  I’m shocked.

The study was the product of professors with Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and the University of North Carolina.   They claimed that many mosque leaders had put significant effort into countering extremism by building youth programs, sponsoring antiviolence forums and scrutinizing teachers and texts.

Radicalization of alienated Muslim youths is a real threat, Mr. Bagby said:

But the youth we worry about are not the youth that come to the mosque.

In central Tennessee, the mosque in Murfreesboro is the third one in the last year to encounter resistance.

A group by the name of Former Muslims United put up a billboard saying “Stop the Murfreesboro Mosque.” The group’s president is Nonie Darwish, also the founder of Arabs for Israel, who spoke against Islam in Murfreesboro at a fund-raising dinner for Christians United for Israel, an evangelical organization led by the Rev. John Hagee.

Ms. Darwish said in an interview:

A mosque is not just a place for worship  It’s a place where war is started, where commandments to do jihad start, where incitements against non-Muslims occur. It’s a place where ammunition was stored.

 A spokeswoman for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro,Camie Ayash, was upset that people were listening to what she claimed was “total disinformation” on Islam.

According to her, her group was stunned when what began as one person raising zoning questions about the new mosque grew into mass protests with marchers waving signs about Sharia:

A lot of Muslims came to the U.S. because they respect the Constitution. There’s no conflict with the U.S. Constitution in Sharia law. If there were, Muslims wouldn’t be living here.

Ma’am, I do believe your burqa’s on fire.

Here’s an example of the difference in Sharia Law as opposed to our American system, found at theamerican-catholic.com:

Instead of precedents and codes, Sharia relies on medieval jurist’s manuals and collections of non-binding legal opinions, or fatwas, issued by religious scholars (ulama, particularly a mufti); these can be made binding for a particular case at the discretion of a judge.

In Wisconsin, the Town Executive Council voted unanimously to give the Islamic Society of Sheboygan a permit to use the former health food store as a prayer space.

Dr. Mansoor Mirza, the physician who owns the property, said he was trying to take the long view of the controversy.

Dr. Mirza said:

Every new group coming to this country — Jews, Catholics, Irish, Germans, Japanese — has gone through this.  Now I think it’s our turn to pay the price, and eventually we will be coming out of this, too.

Gosh, Dr. Mirza, I did not realize that those other groups you mentioned had issued fatwas against the United States, too.

Unfortunately for those Muslims seeking to build a new life for themselves in America as one percent of our population, the deafening silence by their leadership around the world toward Islamic Terrorism has indicated to Americans that these horrible acts of  barbarism are not abhorred, but condoned.  So, therefore, Muslims should not be surprised as all when Americans are less than welcoming to the proposed building of Islamic Mosques and Community Centers in their communities.

Sources:  nytimes.com, theamerican-catholic.com

10 missionaries, including 6 Americans were brutally murdered after having what was to be their last meal at a picnic in the forest in the Sharrun Valley, high in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan.

The aid workers, six Americans, a Briton, a German and four Afghans, coming home from a three-week journey on foot to deliver free medical care to the remotest regions of the country,  had just finished eating when they were raided by gunmen with long dyed-red beards, the police said.

The gunmen marched them into the forest, stood them in a line and mercilessly shot 10 of them, one by one.

The Badakhshan Province police chief, Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz said Saturday that the police found their bodies, seven men and three women, on Friday.

This slaughter, the largest massacre in years of aid workers in Afghanistan, offered chilling evidence of the increasing insecurity in the northern part of the country and added to fears that the insurgency has turned even more in vicious in recent months.

The Taliban proudly claimed responsibility for the killings, accusing the group of being spies and Christian missionaries.  Because of pressure in their traditional strongholds in the south and east by NATO forces, the Taliban have become more active in areas once relatively quiet, like Badakhshan Province.

They have recently begun using women and children as suicide bombers, and assassinating tribal elders. Now it appears they have the murdering of defenseless aid workers to their holy war in the name of Allah.   Aid workers in the past have often been free to work in both government and Taliban-dominated areas.

The police identified the group of doctors, nurses and technicians as working for the International Assistance Mission, a Christian aid group that has operated in Afghanistan since 1966.

Dirk Frans, the group’s executive director said:

All indications are this is probably our team.  They were on an optometric expedition, running an eye camp.

Mr. Frans confirmed that an Afghan man who survived the attack and later told his story to the police was the group’s driver.  And the local police identified the mission’s team leader, Dr. Tom Little of Delmar, N.Y., as one of the dead.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed that the aid workers had ignored orders from a Taliban patrol to stop and were shot as they tried to flee. He said they discovered among their belongings a Bible in the Dari language widely spoken in Afghanistan, and maps showing Taliban positions in northern Afghanistan.

This weasel proclaimed:

They were not actually here to provide medication for people, but were here for spying.  The punishment for spying is death.

Mr. Frans originally said that he doubted the Taliban claim of responsibility, and said the police had told him the probable motive was robbery. However, the police proved his assumption wrong after interviewing witnesses and on Saturday were saying that the Taliban were responsible.

The accusations of spying or proselytizing, Mr. Frans said, were “out of the question.”

That would be against the laws of this country and the rules of our organization.  Although we are a Christian-supported charity, we would absolutely not proselytize.

He said all aid workers signed agreements not to divulge any information to governments or outside parties.

Mr. Frans said Dr. Little, a 61-year-old optometrist, had been working in Afghanistan for the past four decades and spoke fluent Dari.

Friends and family members said that Dr. Little and his wife, Libby, had reared three daughters in Afghanistan, weathered the Russian occupation and the civil war that followed, hid in his basement for months during Taliban rule, but kept on serving the people of Afghanistan, even after a rocket attack flattened one of his hospitals so he could not provide eye care for impoverished Afghans.

He was even thrown out of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001 during a crackdown on Christian aid organizations,but returned after the Taliban were overthrown later that year.

A British surgeon, Dr. Karen Woo, 36, was also among the dead, according to by her organization, Bridge Afghanistan.

Dr. Woo wrote on a fund-raising blog:

The expedition will require a lot of physical and mental resolve and will not be without risk.  The effort is worth it in order to assist those that need it most.

Dr. Woo was engaged to be married.  She recently had an Afghan tailor make her a ball gown out of raw silk.

Sadly,  she wrote in the last entry on her personal blog before she left on the latest mission:

I hear what you’re saying about priorities, and seriously, I probably shouldn’t be worrying about a ball gown right now, but still, what’s a girl to do?

The police commander said that the other women were an American and a German.  The International Assistance Mission is withholding their names until positive identification can be made.

Two of the Afghans were killed. A third, the driver, saved himself by reciting the famous verses from the Koran, “There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet,” He later told the police that the Taliban released him. The fate of the fourth Afghan remains unknown.

The missionaries set out three weeks ago to reach the northern corner of Nuristan Province, traveling by foot with pack horses to carry their medical equipment and hiking over a 16,000-foot pass into the roadless Parun Valley.

With the exception of the driver, retained for the group’s final leg by four-wheel drive, the personnel were medically trained, and there were three doctors among them, including a dental surgeon.

In addition to treating cataracts and other eye problems, they planned to conduct maternal and infant health and dental clinics in the valley, where about 50,000 people live.

According to the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an umbrella group for aid organizations, abductions and assassinations of aid workers have been mounting quickly in recent years. Five Doctors Without Borders workers were killed in 2004, and four International Rescue Committee workers were shot to death in a Taliban ambush in 2008.

According to Mr. Frans, his group had run many such expeditions, as recently as 2009, always at the invitation of local communities, with a local guide. Even so, four of its workers have been killed in three separate episodes.

He said the mission to Nuristan was told that there were no active Taliban in the area, although Afghan officials said the Taliban and other insurgent groups had been active in northern Nuristan and even across the border in Badakhshan.

The governor of Nuristan Province, Jamaluddin Badar, said the local police had escorted the expedition members as they left the province, but when they crossed into Badakhshan, they told the authorities they no longer wanted armed guards in their midst.

General Kentoz, the provincial police chief said:

They said we’re doctors and civilians and no one will bother us.

 According to local residents, the red-bearded gunmen spoke the Nuristani dialect, which indicates that they probably were tracking the group. It is common in some parts of Afghanistan for older men to dye their beards with henna.

Ms. Little told family members in an e-mail that she last heard from the group on Thursday morning.  Her husband told her that their caravan of Land Rovers had been delayed trying to ford a flooded river.

Despite the slaughter of these missionaries, Mr. Frans said the organization would not be deterred from its work in Afghanistan:

We have worked here under the king, under the Russians, under the Communists, under the warlords and the Taliban.  Is it time to quit now?

The White House reaction?  **crickets**  The Obamas are too busy taking their four vacations in one month and, after all, Islam is the religion of peace.

What kind of faith does it take to serve the people of a foreign land for 30 years?

I want to leave you this Sunday with this promise: 

 1 John 2:1

…And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Talk to Him.  He’ll listen.  Here’s some information you need to hear.  It’s the world’s shortest sermon.  God bless you and may God bless America…again.

Sources:  nytimes.com, bible.com, youtube.com

George Washington – A Prayer for Guidance – An undated prayer from Washington’s prayer journal, Mount Vernon

O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before thy Divine majesty, beseeching thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks, that it hath pleased thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past from all the dangers poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and pleasant sleep, whereby I find my body refreshed and comforted for performing the duties of this day, in which I beseech thee to defend me from all perils of body and soul….  

Increase my faith in the sweet promises of the gospel; give me repentance from dead works; pardon my wanderings, and direct my thoughts unto thyself, the God of my salvation; teach me how to live in thy fear, labor in thy service, and ever to run in the ways of thy commandments; make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor an unwillingness to depart this life, may cast me into a spiritual slumber, but daily frame me more and more into the likeness of thy son Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life bless my family, friends, and kindred.    

Thomas Jefferson – A Prayer for the Nation – Washington D.C., March 4, 1801    

Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people, the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those whom in Thy name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   

Barack Hussein Obama (peace be upon him), speaking in Turkey in June 2006, repeated by him on CNN in 2007:   

Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation – at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers. 

How big is this “nation of nonbelievers”?  According to Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist organization, her business is booming:    

There are more legal challenges to prayer in the United States than ever before.  We’ve never had more complaints about government prayer.  We have just hired a second staff attorney in July. It’s turned into a cottage industry for our attorneys.  

The foundation allegedly has had a huge volume of complaints about prayer in the public sector, including numerous issues involving civic and government meetings where sessions have traditionally begun with a prayer or moment of silence.

In Arizona, school children were told they couldn’t pray in front of the Supreme Court building … Two University of Texas Arlington employees were  fired for praying over a co-worker’s cubicle after work hours … In Cranston, R.I., a high school banner caused a controversy when a parent complained it contained a prayer and demanded that it be removed.   

In Augusta, Ga., the city’s law department just issued a legal opinion defending the city’s practice of a pre-meeting prayer, saying it does not violate federal law. this was a response to a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation to the mayor’s office urging him to stop saying prayers (invocations) at the start of meetings. The foundation sent similar letters to three cities in South Carolina. 

Gaylor claims:

  These are flagrant violations of the laws. 

Not according to Nate Kellum, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, representing the Arizona school children and their teacher, Maureen Rigo, who said they were told they couldn’t pray on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.   

Kellum says:   

Religious liberties are under attack across the country.  My sense is that there’s some type of knee-jerk reaction, almost an allergic reaction, if someone sees the expression of religion.   

And the majority of the complaints are directed at Christians, he says:   

There’s an overreaching presumption that there’s something wrong   

The atheist Gaylor whines that there’s no country in the world where religion flourishes as much as in the United States, and she predicts that conflicts over public expression are going to increase.   

And San Fran Nan predicted that Tea Partiers would erupt into violence.   

This rocket scientist says:   

Fifteen percent of the people are not religious. There’s an increasing plurality of faiths. It’s inevitable there’s going to be this clash with more people being offended.   

Time out.  Let’s examine the statement:  “Fifteen percent of  the people are not religious.”  Most studies show that Ms. Gaylor has overstated her claim by at least 5 percent.  She also does not admit that seventy-five percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians.   That would leave a total of  just five percent to other faiths of which one to 1 and one half percent have been identified as Muslim. 

Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Institute, represents the two University of Texas employees who were fired for praying over a co-worker’s desk after hours. The co-worker was not even there at the time and had no idea until months later why the employees were fired.   

The university, in legal documents, said the employees prayer had been deemed harassment.   Judge Terry Means of the U.S. Federal District Court in Ft. Worth rejected that argument.   

Per Shackleford:   

One of the women just said ‘amen’ while the other prayed.  So she was fired for just saying ‘amen.’   

It’s just so crazy!  There’s a hostility, and there are folks who want to change this country and want to engage in some kind of religious cleansing.   

Shackelford is also part of the legal team that filed a brief on Thursday defending the National Day of Prayer, which Federal Judge Barbara Crabb ruled unconstitutional in April. Even though the Justice Department announced one week later that it planned to appeal the judge’s ruling after there was a deafening outcry, and despite President Obama’s proclamation of National Prayer Day the next month, because he got blasted, too, the Liberty Institute, along with the Family Research Council, took legal action because of what they claim is “the Obama Administration’s weak defense of the National Day of Prayer.”   

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, issued a statement saying:   

The President’s attorneys failed to cite any of the key cases that would require immediate dismissal of this lawsuit because the plaintiffs lack standing to bring it. FRC plans to mount a robust defense of this important national event that a liberal judge has attempted to scrub from the public square.   

Shackelford says, and rightfully so:   

The thing that makes [America] unique is that we believe our freedoms don’t come from government, they come from God.   

 

It appears that some Liberals in positions of power are taking steps to insure that President Obama’s proclamation that “America is not longer just a Christian nation” is reinforced.  I’ve got some news for the psuedo-intellectual Elite:  Christians outnumber you.  The freedom Americans have experienced for over 200 years is God-given, not man-made.  It is not yours to give or take away.  That is way above your pay grade.  President John Adams explained it very eloquently over 200 years ago:   

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

 Sources:  foxnews.com, brainyquotes.com, beliefnet.com, americanthinker.com   

  

Faithful America is running a radio ad across America attacking Glenn Beck as a pagan, heathen, and drowner of puppies (not actually, but just about) for his recent programs investigating the marxist-inspired ideology of Social Justice and all the progressive leaders and organizations that are involved in this movement.

Who is Faithful America?  I’m glad you asked. 

Per their website:

Faithful America is an online community of tens of thousands of citizens motivated by faith to take action on the pressing moral issues of our time. We come from diverse faith traditions but share a unifying commitment: to restore community and uphold the common good in America and across the globe. In service to this core commitment, we seek to:

• end poverty and promote economic security for all
• promote peace and restore America’s commitment to human rights and diplomacy
• prevent the catastrophic effects of climate change
• counter hate speech and misinformation in the media pertaining to people of faith
• work for welcoming communities where immigrants and people of all faiths are welcome

By speaking out, mobilizing and taking action in the public square, we are building a powerful grassroots movement to put justice and the common good back at the center of the American values debate. At this critical juncture, when our actions or inaction will have profound and permanent global consequences, our faiths demand nothing less.

Faithful America was founded on June 15, 2004, when a group of  progressives took it upon themselves to raise $36,000 to place an advertisement on Arabic-language satellite television, in order to apologize to Muslims for the abuse committed by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison.

Here is what the spot said:

A Salaam A’alaykum [“Peace be with you” in Arabic]. As Americans of faith, we express our deep sorrow at abuses committed in Iraqi prisons. We stand in solidarity with all those in Iraq and everywhere who demand justice and human dignity. We condemn the sinful and systemic abuses committed in our name, and pledge to work to right these wrongs.”

Faithful America claims that it has “tens of thousands of members”.   It urges its’ members to take action on issues ranging from poverty to health care to Iraq.  They claim that their campaigns have provided African children with malaria-preventing mosquito nets, (my local church did that on our own) gathered thousands of signatures on petitions to the White House, (thousands of individuals do that every day) and enabled thousands of people of faith to lobby their elected representatives in Washington to make moral decisions on issues from Guantanamo to Darfur.  

Again, individuals have the ability to do this on their own.  Why does an organization have to “urge” them to do it?

Faithful America was previously sponsored by the National Council of Churches in Christ (NCCC). In August 2007, Faith in Public Life took over this organization.

From faithfulamerica.org:

Faith in Public Life (FPL) is a communications and organizing resource center dedicated to helping faith leaders reclaim the values debate in America for justice, compassion, and the common good. FPL increases the strength and visibility and faith movements with cutting-edge media and infrastructure-building strategies. FPL’s website, http://www.faithinpubliclife.org is a valuable resource to activists, faith leaders and journalists, with an active blog and daily news clips from media outlets around the country.

Faith in Public Life (FPL) is a tax-exempt charity which was originally launched in 2006 as a way to embolden and strengthen the progressive evangelical (social justice) movement.   If you visit their website you’ll read that the group’s original mission was to counter the ideology surrounding President Bush’s 2004 reelection in which “faith was often deployed in service of a narrow and partisan agenda.” 

Ironic, huh?  Or maybe, hypocritical is a better word.

40 religious leaders throughout the United States were instrumental in FPL’s founding.  The main founders, however, were Jim Wallis of Sojourners; Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Melissa Rogers, Director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University; Rev. Dr. Jim A. Forbes, Jr., founder of Healing of the Nations Foundation; Ricken Patel, co-founder and Executive Director of Avaaz.org, which is a project of Moveon.org and Res Publica; and last, but certainly not least, Sister Catherine Pinkerton, a NETWORK lobbyist who gave the closing benediction at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. 

FPL also is very closely connected to John Podesta‘s Center for American Progress (CAP). Two of CAP’s senior fellows, Fred Rotondaro and Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, are currently members of FPL’s board. Other well-known Liberal groups affiliated with FPL include People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO); ACORN; Children’s Defense Fund; the Interfaith Alliance; People for the American Way; the Center for American Values and Public Life; and Pax Christi USA.

A bunch of well-known leaders in the progressive movement serve as speakers and organizers for FPL. Among these are Greg Galluzzo, national director of the Gamaliel Foundation; Kim Bobo, founder of Interfaith Worker Justice; Sister Simone Campbell, national coordinator of NETWORK; and Rabbi Jonah Presner of the Industrial Areas Foundation.

FPL is an advocate for open borders and is a leader in organizing for progressive change.   FPL helped to found the New Sanctuary Movement (NSM) in 2007, along with Kim Bobo and Interfaith Worker Justice.  This organization provides sanctuary for illegal immigrants facing deportation and tries to create sympathy for radical immigration reform.

One of FPL’s top priorities during the 2008 election was to try to change the view of the America public that evangelicals made up a conservative voting bloc.

FPL even circulated a Faithful America petition stating: 

The presidential primary exit polls, sponsored by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and the AP, must stop stereotyping people of faith.

In February 2008, FPL joined up with the Center for American Progress Action Fund to commission a poll in two “Super Tuesday” states, Missouri and Tennessee.  The manipulated poll found that evangelicals were an important part of the Democratic base.  The results of the poll led Jim Wallis to declare that “evangelicals are leaving the Religious Right in droves.”

FPL also focused on portraying Democratic politicians as advocates of religious faith. On April 13, 2008, FPL – along with the ONE Campaign, Oxfam America, and Messiah College – organized the Democratic Candidates Compassion Forum in which CNN anchor Campbell Brown and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham hosted an evening with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and a number of Liberal religious leaders.   During that FPL forum, Jim Wallis took the opportunity to suck up to then-Senator Obama and successfully solicit his “new commitment” to “economic (social) justice.”

Wallis fawned over Obama, saying:

As you reminded us a week or two ago,when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 40 years ago, he wasn’t just speaking about civil rights. He was fighting for economic justice.

Although Wallis publically says that he does not endorse political candidates, in early 2008 he fiercely defended Obama and his 20 plus years association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

FPL advocated for President Obama’s health-care reform initiative in 2008.   Whining  that town-hall meetings, had “degenerated into armed shouting matches,” FPL staged a Liberal counter-effort in the summer, entitled “40 Days for Health Reform.”  Working through Sojourners, PICO, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, FPL produced and aired cable television ads and hosted a webcast call-in program with President Obama and Liberal religious leaders, trying to “reframe the debate” about health care.  FPL also generated 20,000 (pro-health care reform) phone calls to Congress, as well as 100 visits to Congressional offices, in a single day. 

Astroturf at its best.

Advocating against the use of enhanced interrogation procedures on suspected terrorists, FPL applied pressure on the Obama administration by creating lobbying groups like the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good.

Per the Washington Post, these efforts had a direct effect on White House policy in 2009 and early 2010:

[P]rogressive faith campaigns had an influence on everything from Obama’s signing of executive orders reducing torture, to his cautious (insincere) wording about public funding for abortions in his health care proposals.

FPL’s total disdain for the Tea Party movement of 2009 and 2010 was the same old propaganda it spewed against the town-hall meetings concerning health care reform.

In May 2010, Wallis criticized the Tea Party Movement and criticized the values upon which the movement was based:

The Libertarian enshrinement of individual choice is not the pre-eminent Christian virtue. Emphasizing individual rights at the expense of others violates the common good, a central Christian teaching and tradition. 

I will wrap up this post by quoting  Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:

Regrettably, there is no shortage of preachers who have traded the Gospel for a platform of political and economic change, most often packaged as a call for social justice…

The church is not to adopt a social reform platform as its message, but the faithful church, wherever it is found, is itself a social reform movement precisely because it is populated by redeemed sinners who are called to faithfulness in following Christ. The Gospel is not a message of social (collective) salvation, but it does have social implications.

Luke 20:25  

And he (Jesus) said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar‘s, and unto God the things which be God’s.

Sources:  glennbeck.com, faithfulamerica.org, faithinpubliclife.org, discoverthenetworks.org, albertmohler.com

Pro-Palestinian “Activists” on board a six-ship flotilla, supposedly carrying aid to the Gaza Strip,  tried to capture and hang the Israel Navy commandos who boarded their boat flying under the flag of Turkey early Monday.   At least nine people were killed and several more were wounded in the ambush.

The commandos intercepted the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara after it ignored orders to turn back from its course to Gaza  encountered violent resistance from the men on the ship who were armed with sticks and knives. These “activists” threw one of the soldiers from the upper deck to the lower after they boarded. The Pro-Palestinian organizers of the flotilla claimed that the troops opened fire first.

Per an Israeli military spokesman, some of the commandos were equipped with paintball guns.   However, they proved to be insufficient against the “activists” who had batons.

“They had pistols with live ammunition as back-up, to defend themselves,” he said. The IDF said it had confiscated two pistols from the boat.

One of the commandos told reporters:

They beat us with metal sticks and knives.  There was live fire at some point against us.

Per the IDF,  the “activists” took some of the soldiers’ helmets and equipment and tossed several from the top deck to a lower deck, forcing them to jump into the sea to escape.

Another commando said:

They jumped me, hit me with clubs and bottles and stole my rifle.   I pulled out my pistol and had no choice but to shoot.

The  Israeli soldiers were forced to open fire after the activists bashed one of their comrades in the head and trampled on him. A senior IDF field commander ordered the soldiers to respond with gunfire.

The IDF said its rules of engagement allowed troops to open fire in this “life-threatening situation”.

Elite troops from Shayetet 13, a naval commando unit, boarded the protest boats at around 4:00 A.M. Al Jazeera claimed Monday morning that the Gaza aid flotilla had changed course to avoid any trouble with the Israeli warships.

There were 700 pro-Palestinian activists on the boats, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, and European legislators. The boats were  officially carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid and supplies to Gaza.

The flotilla would not turn around, so Israeli troops were prepared to board the ships to steer them away from the Gaza shores toward the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

One of the flotilla organizers, Huwaida Arraf,  said the convoy began the journey from international waters off the coast of Cyprus on Sunday afternoon, after two days of delays.  The flotilla had been expected to reach Gaza, about 400 kilometers away, on Monday afternoon, and two more ships had been expected to follow later.

After the raid, Israel’s top officials began the process of defending their actions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his meeting with President Barack Obama to head back to Israel from North America, while the UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting in New York.

Israeli ambassadors around the world began explaining the incidents to their host governments.   The Foreign Ministry held a briefing with all foreign ambassadors in Israel.

There were protests against Israel in Jordan, Turkey, Beirut, Greece and Pakistan.

Activists clashed with police near the Israeli Embassy in Paris. Many in the throng shouted, “Israel, assassin!” and “We are all Palestinians,” while young people near the front tried to break through the police line to break into the Israeli Embassy.   There were protests in London also.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said:

I am shocked by reports of killing of people in boats carrying supply to Gaza. I heard the ships were in international waters. That is very bad.

 He called for a “thorough investigation.”

The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton,wants Israel to launch an investigation into the incident.  The holder of the EU presidency, Spain, said Israel’s storming of the flotilla was “unacceptable.”

Netanyahu spoke by telephone with Obama, and they agreed to reschedule their meeting at the first opportunity.  The White House was notably cautious and understated in their press release about the raid:

The president expressed deep regret at the loss of life in today’s incident, and concern for the wounded, many of whom are being treated in Israeli hospitals. The president also expressed the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances around this morning’s tragic events as soon as possible.

 Netanyahu strongly reaffirmed the policy of intercepting the flotilla and firmly backed the conduct of the IDF itself.

“I fully support the IDF action,” said Netanyahu. He  proceeded to explain to reporters, after a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that Israel needed to check the cargo that the flotilla was bringing to Gaza, to make sure that it did not contain any weapons.  They had already inspected 5 ships, but the sixth had not cooperated, said Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s Memorial Day observance was stopped in its tracks Monday afternoon by a frog-choking downpour featuring bolts of lightning and booming thunder.

Obama’s pontificating was overruled by a Higher Court.

Obama had just enough time before the storm to quietly lay a wreath at another part of the cemetery, and then stood, his head bowed, as a bugler played “Taps.”

The president last year laid the traditional wreath on the tomb of The Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetary.  But this year he visited a cemetery about 50 miles southwest of Chicago, so that his Presidential duty would not interrupt the long holiday weekend at his private home with his wife and daughters.

Genesis 12:  1-3 (English Standard Version)

 ¹Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Sources:  jerusalempost.com, haaretz.com, drudgereport.com, yahoo.com, bible.com

The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman.

On Thursday April 15, 2010 U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb (a Clinton appointee), ruled that the National Day of Prayer, scheduled for today, was unconstitutional.    Crabb wrote in her ruling (excerpt):

It goes beyond mere “acknowledgment” of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience

One might argue that the National Day of Prayer does not violate the establishment clause because it does not endorse any one religion. Unfortunately, that does not cure the problem. Although adherents of many religions “turn to God in prayer,” not all of them do.

Further, the statute seems to contemplate a specifically Christian form of prayer with its reference to “churches” but no other places of worship and the limitation in the 1952 version of the statute that the National Day of Prayer may not be on a Sunday.

Judge Crabb apparently does not understand the meaning of the word voluntary. 

Exactly one week after the ruling, our fearless Commander-in-Chief came courageously to the defense of this national voluntary observance.  Per CNN.com:

The Obama administration will fight to preserve the law establishing an annual National Day of Prayer, the Justice Department confirmed Thursday (April 22nd).

The Justice Department’s official filing of a “notice to appeal” Thursday came as no surprise, after White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said following the ruling that President Obama intends to recognize this year’s National Day of Prayer, which is May 6.

The injunction against the National Day of Prayer would not take effect until the appeals have been exhausted.

This was remarkable, considering that the President refuses to allow the Federal Government to participate in this observance.   However, realizing that 75 % of Americans identify themselves as Christian and, as Fox and Friends informed us yesterday morning, 83 % of Americans believe that God answers prayer, what choice did President Obama have?  Maybe he actually learned something in those 20 years under the most honorable Reverend Wright, besides how to spell America with three K’s in front of it.

Our Founding Fathers recognized the need of prayer:

Benjamin Franklin at the Congressional Congress, 1787

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth–that God Governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move–that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

Presidents have always realized the power of praying to their Creator.   As Michael Barone wrote on January 19th, 2005 for wsj.com about George W. Bush’s Second Inauguration:

George W. Bush has been criticized for his religious references. But he has only been following tradition. Every Second Inaugural since Washington’s brief statement has included some reference to God, from Jefferson’s “that Being,” Madison’s “Heaven” and Monroe’s “Supreme Author of All Good” to Reagan’s “God bless you” and Clinton’s “May God strengthen our hands for the good work ahead–and always, always bless our America.” Four years ago Mr. Bush referred, in Founder’s language, to the “author” of “our nation’s grand story.” Expect something similar from him tomorrow.

Today, our nation stands at the precipice, looking over into future’s abyss of  unknown possibilities.  Will we remain true to our founders, who began a new nation based on Judeo-Christian values and beliefs?  Or will we be destroyed at the hands of our enemies, foreign and domestic?  Please join millions in observing the purpose of this day.  We are a nation standing in the need of prayer.

Sources:  The Dangers of Prayer and Eye Black (this blog),  cnn.com, wsj.com, chuckbaldwinlive.com

In the 24 hour news cycle yesterday, the majority of time  (and rightfully so)  was taken up by the capture of and subsequent revelations about the Times Square Bomber, Faisal Shahzad.  It was revealed that he was a naturalized citizen who left to return to Pakistan for additional (ahem)technical training 3 months before going through his citizenship ceremony.   He returned here without his American wife and two children to complete his mission.

There was all sorts of speculation among the Main Stream Media and Liberal Politicians as to his motivation for trying to blow up a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder Saturday night in the heart of one of the busiest entertainment meccas in America.  Some speculated that he was angry over the foreclosure of his house.    Some claimed it was Boooosh’s fault.  New York City Mayor Bloomberg  told perky Katie Couric that he thought the Bomber was:

Homegrown maybe a mentally deranged person or someone with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.

And some in the Main Stream Media were just downright disappointed:

Amongst all the angst by our self-appointed arbitrators of appropriateness, there was one term that I never heard yesterday until I was watching Monica Crowley (God bless her) sitting there with Alan (Skelator) Colmes last night on the O’Reilly Factor.  That term was (shoo away the small children) Muslim Extremist. (gasp!).

Along with Barak Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) and his Administration, the sycophantic MSM has determined that calling a Muslim Terrorist a Muslim Extremist  is so offensive, that just speaking those dreaded words might do irreparable harm to the wonderful relationship that the Greatest President of  All Time has forged with the Middle East.  (Just ask Bibi Netanyahu about our POTUS.)

Hey, it’s worked great so far, hasn’t it?  While Iranian President Ahmedinejad is fervently rushing to build a nuclear arsenal in order to blow the U.S. off the face of the Earth, Scooter breached Protocol and torqued off one of our staunchest allies, Israel, at a White House Conference, and then he held a Summit Conference for Muslim Entrepreneurs.

So, while President Pantywaist’s Administration and the MSM are pussy-footin’ around, the Muslim Extremists (Yeah, I said it.) have become emboldened to the point that they are now embedding themselves in our culture, like the old Russian Sleeper Cells during the Cold War, just waiting to kill as many Americans as they can and claim their 72 virgins.  Thanks to the naive at best, treasonous at worst, policies of this President and his Administration, America is having to fight the War on Terror on the streets of our own cities.

But, Scooter is waaaay smarter than we are.  He speaks about Islam from personal experience, as in his Cairo Speech on June 4, 2009:

Now part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I’m a Christian (Is that why you said that we were no longer a Christian nation?), but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims.  As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia (in a Madrassa) and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk.  As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith (like Calypso Louie Farrakhan?).  As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.  It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment (nothing like Revisionist History).  It was innovation in Muslim communities — (applause) — it was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed.  Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation (and beheadings).  And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds (like jihad) the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.  (Applause.)

Y’know, I was called an Extremist yesterday.  It happened on a very popular Conservative Website by a Liberal poster, after I dared asked why the MSM was not referring to Faisal Shahzad as a Muslim Extremist.  I replied:

Yep.  I’m an Extremist.  I’m extreme in my love for God, my family, and my country and the freedom it affords which gives you the right to be a total jerk on the Internet.

He did not have a snappy comeback for that.

By the way, on Fox and Friends this morning, it was announced that 83 % of Americans believe that God answers prayers.  That means that, according to the Administration and the Main Street Media, 83 % of you are Extremists, too.

Sources:  foxnews.com, drudgereport.com, youtube.com