Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ Supports Obama Health Plan

Dr. Charles Blake leads the largest Pentecostal organization in the United States, the Church of God in Christ, which claims over 6 million members.

Dr. Blake, along with other black church leaders, are expected to endorse President Obama’s healthcare plan in a news conference.  Blake, who opposes abortion, is endorsing the plan after Obama called the assertion that tax dollars will be used to support abortion “a myth.”  Blake offered his support to Obama during his presidential campaign but differed in public with Mr. Obama on the issue of abortion.

Blake and other black religious leaders support Obama’s vision for universal healthcare but have drafted a carefully-worded statement against the coverage of “medical costs related to the abortion of fetuses . . . “

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Conservatives urged to protest ‘hate-crimes’ bill today

Today is National “Stop S. 909″ Day.

The American Family Association, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and other conservative activist groups are urging their supporters to call, e-mail, fax, or visit their senators today to express their disapproval of S. 909, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Senate Bill 909). The bill would authorize the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute certain bias-motivated crimes based on the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.
Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., a member of the conservative coalition known as the Arlington Group, says the measure would have a chilling effect on the religious liberty of pastors.

“Back in 2006, [Democratic Representative] Artur Davis from Alabama, who will be running for governor by the way in that great state, made a statement to [Representative] Louie Gohmert [R-Texas] in a [House] subcommittee meeting that a pastor could be held liable or [as] a co-conspirator of sorts in a hate crime if we found out that his preaching and teaching incited — according to their thinking — someone to commit a violent act against someone that is gay,” Jackson explains.

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Sotomayor Supported Censoring Biblical Verse on Homosexuality From New York City Billboard

President Barack Obama looks on as his Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday May 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais )

(CNSNews.com) ­– Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is again drawing fire from conservative groups, this time as the result of a 2003 ruling against a Christian group.
In the case of Okwedy v. Molinari, decided in 2003, Sotomayor sat on a three-judge panel that upheld a lower court’s ruling (from 2001) against Keyword Ministries and its pastor, Kristopher Okwedy. The ministry had purchased billboard advertisements featuring Bible verses that condemned homosexuality.
The ads were taken down after a local government official complained about their message to the company that owned the billboard, and Okwedy sued both the company and the government official who wrote the complaint.
He claimed his rights were violated under the Free Speech, Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment; the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; and several state laws.

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Obama urged to appoint first ‘gay’ to Supreme Court

With a vacancy soon on the U.S. Supreme Court, homosexual blogs are discussing the potential of a homosexual being appointed.

Politico.com reports homosexual-rights groups are upset with President Barack Obama for not choosing an openly “gay” person for his Cabinet, and are urging him to appoint the first openly homosexual justice. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund is hailing the candidacy of First Amendment scholar Kathleen Sullivan, while Stanford law professor Pam Karlan is also frequently mentioned. Both have been open about their sexuality and have been active for homosexual legal causes.
Matt Barber is a spokesperson with Liberty Counsel. “Well, in light of this nation’s undeniable Christian heritage, it’s hard to believe we’re even having a conversation about whether a sitting United States president will count deviant sexual behavior as a favorable qualification in determining a nomination to the highest court of the land,” he says.
Barber offers a message for members of the Senate to send to President Obama. “We insist upon a Supreme Court justice who will strictly interpret the Constitution — which was the clear intent of our Founding Fathers — and not use the Constitution [or] abuse the Constitution as a means to an ideological end, which I fear this administration intends to do,” he concludes.
The new justice will replace Justice David Souter, who has announced he is retiring at the end of the current session.

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Court lets private schools expel lesbians

SAN FRANCISCO –The state Supreme Court left intact Wednesday a lower-court ruling that said a private religious high school wasn’t covered by California civil rights law and could expel students it believed were lesbians.

Over Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar’s dissent, the court denied review of an appeal by parents of two girls who were expelled from a high school in Riverside County. A lawyer for the parents said the ruling, which is binding on trial courts statewide, would allow private schools to discriminate against students on any basis they chose, including sex and religion.

The girls were juniors at California Lutheran High School in the town of Wildomar when the principal, Gregory Bork, called them to his office in September 2005 and questioned them separately about their sexual orientation, after another student reported postings on their MySpace pages.

Bork suspended the girls based on their answers, and the school’s directors expelled them a month later. The girls, who later graduated from another high school, have not been identified and have not discussed their sexual orientation, said their parents’ attorney, Kirk Hanson.

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Brownback votes for Sebelius

A Kansas pastor says by endorsing Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services secretary, Senator Sam Brownback “violated the scriptures and his own church’s teaching” and “betrayed” many conservative Christians who had been his largest base of support.

Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) joined home-state colleague Pat Roberts and seven other Republicans Tuesday to help Kathleen Sebelius win approval (65-31) to serve as HHS secretary. The nomination of the Kansas governor — which Brownback has supported since it was announced almost two months ago — was controversial because of her failure to pay taxes and her lack of honesty regarding the large sum of campaign donations she received from notorious Kansas abortionist George Tiller.

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Conservatives to Napolitano: Apologize and go home!

An ad calling for the removal of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will appear in The Washington Times weekly edition and today’s Times daily edition.

Don Feder is the communications director of NoPoliticalProfiling.com, the organization running the ad. He explains why the ad calling for Napolitano’s removal is necessary. "Her department produced a report…that was sent to law enforcement officials all over the country alleging that right-wing extremism and racist groups are a threat to our national security," he points out.
Feder notes the report ("Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment") did not identify the groups, but it did talk about individuals who were susceptible to recruitment by those types of groups. According to the report, anti-tax activists, people who believe in federalism, gun owners, pro-lifers, and military veterans were named.
"By the way, there was no evidence — none at all — in this report," Feder adds. "It was all based on speculation and, not coincidently, it was the type of smears that the left has been making of conservatives for years."

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Judiciary Committee greenlights ‘hate crimes’ Members refuse to protect Christian pastors from charges

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee today rejected an opportunity to protect Christian pastors who preach the biblical condemnation of homosexuality and approved on a 15-12 vote a "hate crimes" bill that supporters admit could be used to bring charges against religious leaders.

The bill, H.R. 1913, now will be considered by the full House of Representatives.

The committee rejected a number of amendments offered by several members seeking to protect religious liberty, to protect the unborn, to protect against violence by illegal aliens, and to clarify the bill’s meanings of "gender identity" and "sexual orientation."

One of the rejected proposals was offered by Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, who sought to ensure ministers could not be prosecuted for abetting a "hate crime" simply because they preach from the Bible or another religious book.

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GOP Senator Arlen Specter joining Democrats

WASHINGTON, DC – Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter has announced he is leaving the GOP and will join the Democrats. (Watch news video report)

In a statement released this morning, Specter said that since his election in 1980 as part of the Reagan "Big Tent," the Republican Party has moved far to the right.

According to Specter, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania have changed their registration to be come Democrats. He says: "I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."

He says he plans to run for re-election as a Democrat in the 2010 Pennsylvania primary. He has served five terms as a member of the GOP.

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1 million red envelopes deluge White House

Over one million, empty, red envelopes have poured into the White House mail room, symbolizing the empty promise of lives snuffed out in abortion; and with Red Envelope Day planned for tomorrow, coordinators estimate that number could more than double.

The Red Envelope Project is an idea sparked in the mind and prayers of a Massachusetts man, Christ Otto, who envisioned in January thousands of red envelopes sent to the White House, a visual expression of moral outrage over the president’s position on abortion.

On the backs of the envelopes, senders write a message Otto composed: "This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception."

"We are trying to change the president’s heart," Otto writes on a website explaining the project. "This is a message to a man that God hears the cry of innocent blood. It is not a political stunt, although I hope it changes policy in Washington. If the capital is flooded with so many letters that no one can deny it, I am hoping the image will be burned into Barack Obama’s mind that this is about human blood, and that he lies awake at night until he cannot resist doing something about it."

The original project began small, but when Otto sent out an email to friends asking them to join him in the envelope effort, the symbolic gesture spread through the Internet like wildfire.

"I sent an email to 120 people who pray for me daily, and asked them if they wouldn’t mind sending a red envelope, and if they thought it was a good idea, forwarding it on to their friends," Otto told WND. "About a week and half later, a friend told me to Google it, and I found about 30 blogs dedicated to the red envelopes."

Otto told WND a few days later, he began receiving contacts from national pro-life organizations and churches that had taken up the cause.

By February, Otto learned of a Texas man named Brian Potter, who set March 31 as Red Envelope Day, a date when supporters would drop hundreds of thousands of the envelopes in the mail, presumably being delivered to the White House near the beginning of Holy Week, just prior to the start of Passover.

Potter’s Red Envelope Day website has also partnered with AmazingCauses.com to enable supporters to send the red envelopes online in one easy and coordinated effort, so that, in Potter’s words, "they will send out a truckload of envelopes to the White House."

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President to pioneer chat on late-night TV

President Obama hasn’t been practicing one-liners, but he is going Thursday night where no sitting president has gone before: to a late-night comedy show.

Obama plans to be a guest on NBC’s The Tonight Show With Jay Leno at 11:35 p.m. ET. His press secretary says not to look for a comedy routine.

“I anticipate that a large amount of the discussion will center around the president’s economic plans, and the president’s economic ideas,” spokesman Robert Gibbs says. “And I think the president believes it’s a unique audience with which to explain those challenges and the decisions that he’s made.”

Presidential candidates have a history of appearing on TV comedy and talk shows. Bill Clinton donned dark glasses and played his saxophone on Arsenio Hall’s show; Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared on TheTonight Show when they were running for office.

In announcing Obama would be the first president to sit in the guest chair, Leno called it “the greatest honor I’ve had since I’ve gotten this show.”

Obama’s appearance comes during a media blitz. On Wednesday, he appeared on ESPN, in an interview about the men’s college basketball championship tournament. He picked North Carolina for the second year in a row. On Sunday, Obama will appear on CBS’ 60 Minutes, and he will hold his second prime-time news conference Tuesday night.

Presidential historian Stephen Hess calls it all “a continuation of the permanent campaign” — going to the venues where many people get their news and information these days.

“This is clearly a president who is not camera-shy,” Thompson says. He doesn’t see any risk for Obama in going late-night.

United Nations Resolution Against Blasphemy Aimed at Protecting Islam

Pakistan and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which presently includes 57 nations, introduced a resolution to the United Nations on “Combating the Defamation of Religion.”  The measure first passed in 1999, and now the United Nations wants to make the non-binding resolution binding for all member states.  While the resolution was amended to include religions other than Islam, the United Nations seems to have become much more sympathetic to Islam, citing ” . . . the intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minoritieis in the aftermath of 11 September 2001.”

In short, such a resolution, would make it illegal in the United States to speak against Islam (and presumably other religions) in any way that could offend the sensitivities of practitioners. 

Opponents say that this would trump the United States’ Constitution by violating our First Amendment right to free speech.  Under this resolution, discussing the connection between international terorrism and Islam could become a crime.

The binding resolution could be introduced as early as March.

Click here to read the full story.  Click here to watch the most recent discussion by news commentator and radio host, Lou Dobbs.

Obama Chooses Pentecostal Pastor to Direct Outreach Office

President Obama has named Joshua DuBois, the 26-year-old who ran religious outreach for his presidential campaign, to head the White House’s new office of faith-based programs, a White House aide said Thursday.

DuBois, who has worked as an associate pastor for a small Pentecostal church in Massachusetts and received a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University, was widely expected to get the position and is considered close to the president, for whom he also worked in the Senate.

DuBois’s appointment to run the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships — first reported by the New York Times — is the first sign of a new direction for the office, which partners with faith groups on social service issues and helps advise them on applying for federal funding.

Obama aides have said the president’s effort will expand the faith-based office at the White House. President George W. Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives made a priority of placing faith offices within federal agencies and was criticized by some former high-ranking staff members for becoming politicized.

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Obama reverses Bush abortion-funds policy

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration’s ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information — an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.

Obama’s executive order, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes.

The ban has been a political football between Democratic and Republican administrations since GOP President Ronald Reagan first adopted it 1984. Democrat Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but Republican George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.

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Obama Will Swear In with Bible Used by Abraham Lincoln

Recalling the memory of his Illinois presidential forefather, Barack Obama will take the oath of the office on the Bible used during the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln.

The burgundy velvet Bible with gilded edges was purcahsed and inscribed by William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court.  The Library of Congress, which holds the Bible in their collection, has made it available for use during the swearing-in.

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