The Nanny State Drops the Hammer on Christianity

The religious intolerance of the Orwellian Nanny States is deep, strong and very aggressive. Indeed, those governments have stepped up the pace in striking hard at anyone who refuses to accept their version of political correctness.

Here's some examples just from the last couple of days.

* "Lesbian couple win anti-discrimination suit against Honolulu B&B" (SG Gate)

* "UK Christian B&B Forced to Sell Business After Denying Gay Couple Room" (Christian Post)

* "The Labor Department announced Wednesday that legally married same-sex couples should receive their 'spouse’s' employee benefits — even if they live in a state that does not recognize their union." (Citizen Link)

* "Obama Admin Takes Hobby Lobby to Supreme Court to Force it to Obey HHS Mandate" (LifeNews.com)

* "Obamacare is before the U.S. Supreme Court again. On Thursday, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) lawyers filed the first viable petition for Supreme Court review involving Kathleen Sebelius’ HHS Mandate, which requires employers to provide abortion-related insurance coverage, even if those employers have a religious objection to abortion." (Breitbart)

The "Big Picture" of Team Obama

Praying for the Persecuted Church

Today's Posts

An Endangered Species? The Religious Tax Exemption.

I Guess Drudgery Is Cleaning Your Own House

You Can't Fix ObamaCare. You Must Repeal It.

"Indefensible" -- Obama Administration Opposes Religious Rights Envoy

An Endangered Species? The Religious Tax Exemption.

In an eye-opening column over at Juicy Ecumenism, Rick Plasterer warns
of the coming battle that religious believers, churches and organizations in the United States will have to fight to in order to maintain the historic policies of tax exemption.

In the introduction to "The Tax Threat to Religious Charities," Plasterer writes, "The wide ranging assault on religious freedom occurring in America under the Obama Administration, and mirrored throughout the western world, currently focuses on the HHS contraceptive/abortifacient mandate, requiring religious institutions that are not houses of worship and businesses owned by objecting religious proprietors to supply goods that violate their consciences."

"But another area of assault, which may become a reality fairly soon, concerns the tax exempt status of religious and other charities."

Plasterer illustrates how the course of this conflict likely will be played out -- in the same way that it has in Great Britain:

...The United Kingdom, where religious charities face aggressively secularist activist groups and a bureaucracy that responds to secularist opinion, may show what lies in store for the United States. In 2006, the U.K. Charities Act removed the presumption that religious charities are for the public benefit, requiring instead that they prove public benefit according to secular standards.

Proposed changes in guidance concerning public benefit provided by the U.K. Charities Commission were analyzed by the Christian Institute legal service organization in Britain in 2008, and found to be open to interpretations of "harm" which would deny charitable status to religious organizations that maintain an opposition to homosexuality. Additional danger to religious charities in the U.K. was also shown by the 2008 Prospects case, in which a Christian charity for the disabled, Prospects, was told by Britain’s Employment Tribunal that it could not maintain a policy of hiring only Christians.

The Barnabas Fund, a British charity that supports Christians persecuted in the Middle East, although ultimately exonerated, was accused of supporting “Islamophobia” and thus being unworthy of charitable status. More recently, the Charities Commission denied charitable status to the Plymouth Brethren, because of their religious doctrine and practice of giving Holy Communion only to church members...

And you were sure it could never happen here, Reverend?

To read the whole article, go here.

And, by the way, this article gives me a reason to again post the Beatles song that was more prescient than any of their other records.

I Guess Drudgery Is Cleaning Your Own House

This Bloomberg article desperately wants to make good news out of the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Thus they delightfully report, "Unemployment data appear to reflect big advances for women. The jobless rate in August for females 20 years and older was 6.3 percent, the lowest since December 2008."

But the numbers showed something else too and, bless their hearts, the reporters at least admitted it; namely, "The downside is that the gains have been largely in lower-paying industries such as waitresses, in-home health care, food preparation and housekeeping."

So much for those "big advances for women."

And so much for women's liberation too.

After all, a key theme of secular feminism has been to decry the menial drudgery required of stay-at-home moms. However, those same feminists (loyal Democrats who support the present administration) are now forced to applaud women whose work is all about fixing and serving food, cleaning up, and taking care of kids.

Can you say, irony?

And yes, I'm reminded of the same line from GK Chesteron that you probably are; that is, his description of a feminist rally in his day: "Ten thousand women marched through the streets shouting, 'We will not be dictated to,' and went off and became stenographers."

You Can't Fix ObamaCare. You Must Repeal It.

It seems that Democrat Congressman Ron Barber from Arizona, like everybody else in his party, needed the humongous ObamaCare bill to pass in order to, in Nancy Pelosi's now infamous phrase, "find out what was in it."

Well, lo and behold, once it passed and Barber's constituents found out what was in it, they were anything but pleased. In fact, they were really ticked off. As a result, Congressman Barber is now seeking to repeal a particularly egregious bit of the package; namely, the provision of Obamacare that diminishes the amount of medical expenses that senior citizens can deduct on their tax returns.

You see, taxpayers have been able to take a federal income tax deduction for medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income. But under ObamaCare, this will be raised raised to 10% for taxpayers under age 65 and, in three years, it will also apply to taxpayers 65 years and older. Barber's constituents are complaining that the financial damage caused by limiting deductions for medical expenses will "be disproportionately borne by that ‘selective segment’ of the population that, via the ‘aging process,’ is already the victim of catastrophic non-reimbursable medical expenses.”

They're right.

But Barber is wrong. Specifically, he's wrong in trying to fix the mandated mess that is ObamaCare merely by fixing just one of its many drastic errors. No, Congressman Barber, the whole thing needs to be defunded and dismantled…as soon as possible. Get on it, will you?

"Indefensible" -- Obama Administration Opposes Religious Rights Envoy

For a second time, the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation – by an overwhelming margin – to establish a special envoy focusing on the rights of religious minorities in parts of the Islamic world, with priority given to Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The Obama administration opposes the legislation, and the previous bill died in the Senate after a Democratic senator placed a hold on it, citing State Department advice, and then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) declined to hold hearings on the matter.

The bill, introduced by Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) passed Wednesday by a vote of 402-22, an almost identical result to the 2011 vote, which was 402-20.

Wolf urged swift action in the Senate this time.

In a speech on the House floor, he called the administration’s opposition to the establishment of the special envoy post “short-sighted and, frankly, indefensible.”

Here's more from CNS News.

Today's Posts

Adult Stem Cells: The Future of Medicine

6 Key Things in Understanding Suffering

Solid Theology for a Steady Life (Linus)

Goodnight, America

Terry McAuliffe Wants Abortion, No Matter What

Adult Stem Cells: The Future of Medicine

We've been demonstrating for a long time that the hope among scientists and grant writers that the use of embryonic stem cells would somehow, some way, someday prove medically useful was an immoral, expensive, and ultimately unworkable dead end.

Indeed, over and over again, it has been adult stem cell experiments and practical treatments that have paved the way for the future. Restored health, energized hope, lives saved -- that's the record of adult stem cells. Whereas ESCR has given us zero.

Want a case in point?

6 Key Things in Understanding Suffering

Ever since the ancient revolt, suffering has been woven, with perplexity and pain, into the fabric of human experience. We all live and move and have our being amid Eden's wreckage. Affliction and evil -- universal as they are real -- haunt us, stalk us, plague us.

In a recent lecture delivered at Houston's Lanier Theological Library titled "Going Beyond Clichés: Christian Reflection on Suffering and Evil" [video link attached], Don Carson proposes six pillars to support a Christian worldview for stability through suffering.

"A Christian worldview rests on huge, biblically established, theological frameworks -- all of which have to be accepted all of the time," the research professor of New Testament explains. "And this massive structure is stable and comprehensive enough to give you a great deal of stability when you go through your darkest hours." His proposed pillars aren't cute musings, in other words, but crucial bulwarks.

Good stuff -- insightful, helpful. Check it out here.

(Missionary Doug Nichols alerted me to this article. Thanks, Doug.)

Solid Theology for a Steady Life

Goodnight, America

Remember Barry McGuire's musical question, "And you tell me over and over again, my friend, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction?"

Here's just a few examples from the morning's news that show how inescapably relevant Barry's question is in the fall of 2013.

* High school students in Tennessee doing a three-week course on world religions have been taken to a Hindu temple and to a mosque -- where they were given cookies, a lecture on Islam, and copies of the Koran. But no field trips were allowed to a church or synagogue. In fact, the whole course was heavily biased in favor of Islam. Also, students who protested the heavy-handed and unfair policy were harshly punished. (Read the details in this Todd Starnes column.)

* Proudly citing their introduction of Jackie Robinson to manor league baseball and being "on the right side of history, " the Los Angeles Dodgers have announced their first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Night OUT event on September 27 when they play the Colorado Rockies. Other teams have hosted similar "outings" including the Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins, and San Francisco Giants.

* Households on Food Stamps Now Outnumber All Households in Northeast U.S.

* "UK Bioethicists Promoting Second Wave of Eugenics, Genetic Manipulation of Embryos" (Michael Cook, LifeNews.com)

* Census on Obama’s 1st Term: Real Median Income Down $2,627; People in Poverty Up 6,667,000; Record 46,496,000 Now Poor

* "7 Examples of Discrimination Against Christians in America" (John Hawkins, Right Wing News)

* "Suki L. Handly was convicted of prostitution, drug possession, and larceny in the late ’90s. In 2008, the state of Connecticut hired her to dispense welfare, and what followed was...exactly what you’d expect, actually." (Jillian Kay Melchior, "Connecticut Hires Ex-Hooker to Dispense Welfare, Predictable Results Ensue," NRO)

* "Student Indoctrination" (Walter E. Williams, Town Hall)

Terry McAuliffe Wants Abortion, No Matter What

Terry McAuliffe, the Clintonian liberal who ran the Democratic National Committee and who now wants to run the state of Virginia, is now on record as opposing basic safety and sanitation regulations for the abortion clinics in that state. Indeed, McAuliffe's zealotry for abortion is so extreme that he's promised to circumvent the law and the will of the people by using executive orders to protect abortion mills from meeting those basic health standards required of dentist offices, emergi-care clinics, and tattoo parlors.

And they say it's Republicans who are waging a war on women?

Dr. Susan Berry's story over at Breitbart quotes Steve Rossie of the Family Foundation: McAuliffe’s “reckless promise comes in the recent aftermath of the conviction of notorious Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell for killing babies after they survived botched abortions. Remember, it was then-Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge who ignored the law in that state requiring abortion center inspections that allowed Gosnell to go unnoticed for years, harming untold numbers of women and children.”

McAuliffe is running against an authentic pro-life advocate, Ken Cuccinelli, a fellow who has voted to overturn former Gov. Mark Warner’s veto of a partial-birth abortion ban, drafted Virginia’s parental consent law, led efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, and demanded that the state’s abortion facilities meet the same health standards as other surgical centers.

Cuccinelli is running behind McAuliffe in the polls right now and could certainly use more prayers and more financial support. Here's his website.

Today's Posts

A Seed of Kindness

The Hypocrite-in-Chief: Obama's Selective Outrage Over Poisoned Children   

A Gun That Liberals Will Like?

Have You Asked Your Politicians to De-Fund ObamaCare...Lately?

Planned Parenthood: Maintaining Margaret's Meanness

A Seed of Kindness

H/T -- "This Three Minute Commercial Puts Full-Length Hollywood Films to Shame" (Neetzan Zimmerman, Gawker)

The Hypocrite-in-Chief: Obama's Selective Outrage Over Poisoned Children

The excerpts below are from Star Parker's excellent column, "Abortion Support Undermines Obama's Moral Leadership."

Whether we are talking about respect for a nation or for an individual, nothing undermines respect more than duplicity -- saying one thing and acting differently.

I think it is a big reason why President Barack Obama's Tuesday speech to the nation, in which he attempted to explain why he has proposed military action in Syria, fell so flat…

Earlier this year, Obama became the first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in America. He concluded his remarks to that group the same way he concluded his address to the nation about Syria, saying, "God bless you."

How can a president who appeals for God's blessing for America's largest abortion provider possibly be credible in justifying American military force abroad because of moral outrage?

If the use of chemicals to destroy children is what bothers this president, why does it not bother him that a growing percentage of abortions done in our nation are chemically induced using drugs? The most common is RU486, which became legal in 2000.

In 2008, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, 32 percent of the early-term abortions performed in Planned Parenthood clinics, for which our president seeks God's blessing, were done using these abortion-inducing drugs…

 In June, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives -- sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., with 184 co-sponsors -- that would make abortion illegal after 20 weeks (five months). The legislation is called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

The bill includes this language: "By 8 weeks after fertilization, the unborn child reacts to touch. After 20 weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult human, for example, by recoiling."

The Obama administration wasted no time in issuing a statement noting opposition to this legislation and indicating, "If the president were presented with this legislation, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto this bill."

Perhaps abstract arguments can take place regarding the status of the unborn child in very early stages of pregnancy. But after five months, as the pregnancy enters the third trimester, the living, human status of the unborn child is clear and obvious. It takes a true moral callousness to deny this.

This president not only sits by and allows wanton murder of unborn children. He supports and endorses it, using dubious arguments about women's health and "reproductive rights."

The light of liberty cannot shine if it is not fueled by the light of consistent moral principle…

A Gun That Liberals Will Like?

Guns? To progressives, guns are bad because, after all, they can kill people.

But abortion? To progressives, abortion is good because, after all, people in the womb can be killed without compunction.

Imagine then the schizophrenia progressives will experience when they meet the "abortion gun."

Kristan Hawkins and James Christophersen have the story here, "Shooting a Gun at Women’s Private Parts is a Big Deal." And it's a story that details the extreme dangers that so-called contraceptive devices pose both to babies and their moms.

Have You Asked Your Politicians to De-Fund ObamaCare...Lately?

When I talk to people about making their views known to their political representatives, I often hear something like "Oh yes, I signed one of those online petitions last year" or "He knows where I stand. I sent him a letter when he was elected."

That's fine but our political reps need to hear from us frequently. After all, we need to remember that they live in a very noisy environment. The voice of their constituency can easily be drowned out by the press, the TV networks, the talk radio programs, and the endless lineup of lobbyists showing up at their office door.  Therefore, your views need to be stated clearly...and re-stated with some regularity.

It is often suggested that citizens contact their representatives once a month (or once every two months) on issues that they are especially keen on. Is that too much? Not at all -- particularly if your call or letter has a new point or additional information from your last contact. Of course, your letter, call or e-mail may only register as a single digit in an ongoing tally of pros and cons, yet even that can be of extreme importance.

So, don't just make your opinions known to the guys you meet for coffee at the donut shop. Share them with those who can make a difference.

Case in point? I'm sending e-mails to my Congressman and Senators with a copy of the photograph below AND a link to John Fund's NRO article, "Congress’s Exemption from Obamacare." You can join me (in fact, I heartily encourage you to do so) by simply copying these two URL links and sending them to your representatives too. Let's go.

Planned Parenthood: Maintaining Margaret's Meanness

This past weekend Planned Parenthood celebrated the birthday of their founder, Margaret Sanger. And though Sanger was, as proven by her own writings, an alarmingly outspoken racist, elitist and eugenicist, the organization she started continues to honor her.

Worse still, however, is that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in the world, continues to apply Sanger's mean-spirited doctrines.

Amazing? Disgusting? Yes to both. But the most pressing question is why the American public doesn't know the truth about Sanger and the radical abortion business which Planned Parenthood has become.

And that's where you and I come in; namely, to awaken our friends and neighbors to those plain and terrible facts about Sanger and her mega-abortion corporation -- facts that the liberal media has kept well-hidden.

Here at Vital Signs Blog we frequently provide you with just the information you need for this task. For instance, among the recent posts you'll find of use are:

Planned Parenthood’s 3-Step Plan for Young Women

Here's 9 Things About Planned Parenthood Everyone Should Know

Despite Media Cover, Planned Parenthood's Scandals Are Hurting the Brand and

Democrats Still Throwing Money to Planned Parenthood.

And for more, you can scan all the posts which appear under the heading of "Planned Parenthood" on the right sidebar.