Freedom of Religion: Clergy Declare State of Emergency for Churches

Clergy Declare State of Emergency for Churches Over Obama Demands

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- The National Clergy Council, representing church leaders of Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox, and Protestant church traditions, has declared a State of Emergency for the Churches in response to the order by President Barack Obama for religious organizations to compromise their religious and moral beliefs by complying with a mandate to provide employees with certain forms of insurance coverage.

In recent days, Jewish rabbis have joined all Catholic bishops in the United States in expressing alarm over the President's "healthcare" mandates and other violations of the Constitution. The National Clergy Council deliberated for the last week on what it would do, consulting pastors, moral theologians, organizational executives and activists from around the US. As a result, the Reverend Rob Schenck, president of the Washington, DC based group, will begin the holy season of Lent 2012 by appealing to President Obama for answers with a "State of Emergency and Time for Speaking" declaration to be hand-delivered to the White House on Ash Wednesday morning, February 22, 2012.

Speaking for the Council, Rev. Schenck says in his communique to the President, "[W]e state to you our unwavering position on the sanctity of our constitutionally protected right to espouse certain principles of conscience; and, we maintain and insist on our God-given, moral rights to act upon these principles of conscience within our respective institutions and in keeping with their attendant prerogatives; Furthermore, while we hope for a resolution to this crisis that includes the rescinding of your directives, we must hold to our convictions and positions and act according to our prerogatives no matter the legal, social, pecuniary, or political consequences."

As Rev. Schenck explains in the document, the action he and his committee have taken is inspired by the Nazi-era hero Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "the German pastor and martyr, who is an exemplar of what it means to hold to and to exercise one's religious, moral, and ethical convictions, even to the surrender of every other right, including the right to one's life." Bonhoeffer wrote on the "status confessionis," a time when churches must speak out. Schenck says in his letter this is such a time, "during which we must take extraordinary action to respectfully resist your decrees, state our deeply held and felt reasons for doing so, and call our coreligionists, and all people of conscience to stand with us." President Obama was publicly given a copy of a recent biography on Bonhoeffer by the author, Eric Metaxas, when Mr. Metaxas and the President shared a podium at the February 2 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

Rev. Schenck is currently writing his doctoral thesis on Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the Faith Evangelical College and Seminary of Tacoma, WA. The spokespersons for this National Clergy Council on this subject are the Reverend Dr. Charles Nestor, senior fellow for public policy, 863-698-2270, or magrev1@yahoo.com, and the Reverend Norm Lund, Ph.D., Lutheran moral theologian and advisor on the theology of church and state, 425-402-9624 or nlund@oxfordtutor.org.
From Christian Newswire

After Abortion Care

After Abortion...

Healing and Support Programs

Rachel's Vineyard Ministries
1.877.467.3463
www.rachelsvineyard.org

CareNet (Option Line)
1.800.395.0072
www.optionline.org

National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation & Healing
1.800.593.2273
www.marquette.edu/rachel

Hope Alive USA
1.479.855.0072
www.hopealiveusa.org


Women wo have had abortions need our love, support and care.

I copied this information from www.physiciansforlife.org

Psalm 119:10 and Choices

Psalm 119:10 - In this, the longest Psalm in the Bible, there are many heart grabbing verses. This particular verse grabbed me in my morning devotional time,"With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments."
This is a plea which acknowledges to the Lord, first, that the writer desires to know Him in all His wisdom and glory. He longs to have that close personal relationship that we acquire when we come to know our Savior, Jesus. As I prayed and read scripture and sought the Lord with all of my heart this morning I reflected on the duality of my searches in scripture. I read trying to find answers to my own personal questions but I also read with an open ear to God's commands and desire for all mankind.
I try not to be selfish in reading scripture. God gave us His written Word as a guidebook and a manual for our lives, however, the big picture certainly involves more than what the Lord can do for each of us individually. The big picture is that it's not all about me, but it is "all about" Him!
Jesus came and presented Himself as a Savior for all mankind, including little old me! But in the scope of the universe and the vast eternity that God has created I seem to be nothing. He cared enough to die for me and every one of us, yet we are all nothing without Him. With Him we are the precious children of a King, but I imagine that I would appear microscopic if one were looking from a heavenly vantage point! Even so, Jonah found out that he couldn't hide from the Lord and Psalm 139:1 says,"O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me."
Lest we get too caught up in our royalty status as believers in Jesus Christ, let's look at the back end of Psalm 119:10 "O let me not wander from thy commandments. This was the grabber, the hook, for me this morning. As I read this I prayed, "o Lord, let me not do it MY way but Your way." I search the Lord with my whole heart, but I'm human enough to start calculating and figuring out things for myself in my own life and forgetting that I need to totally follow Him in order to receive a blessing!
Psalm 119:1 begins, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD." Following His commandments will allow me to receive God's best for me in my life.
So how does this all relate to abortion?
One of God's laws is "Thou shalt not kill." However, in today's culture we rationalize taking the lives of the innocent. We stop following God's command to not kill and begin to follow our own ideas. This is an act of creating our own god!
When we do this, it is evidence of wavering faith in the One who set the moon and stars in the sky.
Does He know best, or do we? We can't walk on both sides of this fence. Abortion in the case of rape or incest is still wrong no matter how we try to rationalize it. If a woman in Philadelphia who was raped in the 1930's had aborted the baby conceived by that hideous act, one of my dearest childhood friends would never have been born. It was not a legal option in the late 1930's. Seventy years ago our nation did not dishonor God legally endorsing abortion.
"With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments."

Pro-lifers, are pro-death? Scott Roeder and Dr. George Tiller

"Dr. George Tiller is dead and we deeply mourn his loss. But with him died any credible argument that the antiabortion movement is "pro-life." from Momentum,
THE RIGHT TO KILL by Joyce Marcel, American Reporter Correspondent, Dummerston, Vt.


I'm afraid that the pro-abortion movement is using the murder of George Tiller to try to promote the idea that pro-lifers are all angry, murderous criminals who support the actions of Scott Roeder who calculatingly murdered late-term abortionist George Tiller as he was handing out bulletins in his church one Sunday morning. Scott Roeder believed that in doing so he was saving the lives of many unborn babies.
The writer of the article from which I have taken this quote also says that Scott Roeder was "obviously crazy" and then she goes on to try to link all pro-lifers with him! On the contrary, his actions have been condemned by every pro-life organization whose comments concerning the case I have read. We value all life. As a Christian, I pray that and others like Dr. George Tiller will come to repent of their actions because I really do want to see all souls go to heaven. That was Jesus' desire.
The first thing I automatically think, however, when I hear that Dr. Tiller was an usher in church is, "What, how can that be?" But then I remember, I left a denomination with ambiguous abortion language written into it's Discipline. In that denomination, the United Methodist Church, there are many out spoken abortion supporters (as well as pro-lifers), so why should it surprise me that Dr. Tiller was an usher and that his pastor tolerated his presence in the worship service? Don't get me wrong, I believe that all should have a chance to worship and there's always the expectation that conversion will come! But, his standing as an usher makes me believe that he was probably a member and membership must be approved by the pastor.
Have I stood and preached before sinners who were members of the churches in which I pastored? Absolutely, and I also count myself in that number of sinners as the Bible tells us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The key word here is "repentance". In Philipians 2:12 we learn that all Christians are expected to "work out" their "salvation with fear and trembling". We are all on a journey to be more like Jesus. I don't know all of the facts about George Tiller, so I could be wrong, but it appears that he was not repentant and continued in his ugly work with forceful aggressiveness.
The bottom line is that we are all people and not one of us is perfect. There are pro-abortionists who truly believe that they are so right even though they are so wrong. We need to pray that their eyes will be open to the sin, to the death, to the disrespect of God's laws and to the Truth. "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." John 3:17

Abortion Stops a Beating Heart

Abortion Stops
A
Beating Heart








Norma McCorvey, alias Jane Roe in the Roe vs. Wade court decision which made abortions legal in the U.S., said that a bumper sticker much like this was one of the things that helped her to understand that abortion is wrong. She is now a Christian and actively participates in Pro-Life campaigning. Check out her "Roe No More Ministry" Homepage on the web.

(I am reprinting this for Valentine's Day)

"Oppressive" Government ?

  North Carolina Students will be studying about "oppressive" United States Government if the proposed  Curriculum for their required Civics and Economics course is approved.
  This is the actual wording of the "Formative Item" in the Civics and Govt. section.

"Using three Supreme Court Cases (e.g., Brown v Board, Roe v Wade, Korematsu v US) as support explain how the US Supreme Court has upheld rights against oppressive government"*

  (Brown vs. Board was a landmark case involving racial segregation and Korematsu. vs. US involved Japanese internment Camps during WWII.) They are using the Roe vs. Wade decision to show how we were supposedly once oppressed in our inability to kill pre-born babies legally. Now we are supposedly free from oppression and anyone can abort their baby under the eyes of the law. If the proposed healthcare plan goes through unchecked, not only will we be free from oppression but we will all be free to pay for it too! Oh, wait a minute. We won't be free. We will be obligated. We will be forced by the government to take part in butchering babies! Now, hold onto your seats....in 17 states, including my home state of New Jersey, this is ALREADY happening!
  I started this post to talk about how the educational system is grabbing the minds of our young. That will have to be in the next post.
  The bottom line is... we need to be aware of what God says about the matter of life. Until we all get back to the Bible and are educated with a knowledge of God's Word, this madness will continue.

Genesis 1:27  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." 28a "And God blessed them..." *http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/phase2/ 1.Draft of Essential Standards, Civics and Economics

Patriotism and the American Way - Who will help?

 On a plaque inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reads this section of the famous poem written in 1883 by Emma Lazarus:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

  As we near Presidents Day and the celebration of the birthdays of our two most famous Presidents, I am pondering the meaning, and the cost of, liberty. Presidents Washington and Lincoln were both embroiled in wars which were essentially movements for peace. There would be no peace in America until the colonies were freed from the rule of a foreign king whose interests were not with the people of this continent and so the Declaration of Independence was written and signed in 1776.
  Likewise, there would be no peace in this land until slavery's ugly head was severed and the Emancipation Proclamation was written in 1863. Noticeably, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War raged on after these precious documents were written, but they were catalysts towards the end reward of peace.
  Foreigners have fled foreign soils for many years to come to this dear land of freedom and bravery where anyone willing to work hard can earn a living and ostensibly at least, be free of tyranny.But there are those who can not run or hide or speak for themselves. We have, living among us, unborn babies in mother's wombs.
  Maternity clothing lines and baby outfitting shops cater to those who look forward to and are planning the birth of these babies. Cheerful and bright colors predominate the marketing scene, trying to catch the eye of the buyers for these little ones to be born. On a darker side, there are unborn babies traveling in wombs to seedier destinations. These are babies who will never see a bright color or hear a new musical toy. Their first and only taste of the outside world will be an abortionist's killing tools and chemicals.
   We need a document such as the Emancipation Proclamation or the Declaration of Independence, which embodies the feel of the poem that resides at the Statue of Liberty. This will be a Resolution which publicly unites those who value life in a call for freedom of the unborn. Who is willing to help? I believe we need to do this in two steps. The first step is to write a document which will declare unequivocally that we, as taxpayers will in no way federally fund abortions. Beware, no matter what the political rhetoric may be, they are trying to slip this one in through the side door, even though most taxpayers will not approve.
   The next step is to write a document which will call for the end of all abortions.
   I understand that there are politicians in Washington trying to work this out, but they are in the minority and they need our help. The minority in Washington is representing the majority in the US! The majority in Wash. is representing the minority!
 
   Who is willing to help write the first document which will declare that no taxpayer funds should in any way be used to pay for abortions? I know I am really stepping out on a limb here, but somebody needs to do something! Time really is of the essence. Once the health care reform bill gets passed with ambiguous abortion language this will open the door to federally funded abortions and we, as a nation will never go back.
   Look what happened when the Bible was taken out of public schools. One woman, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, was against the nation and she won. Nobody did anything to stop her. Look at what happened with Roe vs. Wade. This nation stands accountable for 52,000,000 aborted babies. The eyes of God are upon us now. Who will take a stand?

 "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"