Prayer urgent for Craig situation

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This is a critical time for the pro-life and pro-family community in Idaho to be in earnest prayer for Senator Craig and his family. All people of goodwill recognize that this is a tragedy of almost unimaginable proportions for them, and compassion certainly must prompt us to seek the God of new beginnings for healing, restoration and direction for the senator and his family.

We must also pray for Governor Butch Otter as he contemplates the

appointment of a successor. It will be a relief to members of the pro-family community in Idaho if he sees fit to replace the senator with a man of proven character who will maintain the senator’s consistent advocacy for public policies that protect unborn human life and are good for Idaho families.

The arrest and guilty plea of Sen. Craig has sent severe shock waves through the entire pro-family community, and so we must also pray that pro-family Idahoans will be guided by God’s wisdom as we process the traumatic events of the last week. May we all receive clarity of understanding and discernment, and be led by God’s counsel to think soberly and clearly so that our thinking will be in line with his eternal truth.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY UNDER ASSAULT: VALEDICTORIAN REFUSED DIPLOMA FOR MENTIONING “JESUS” IN GRADUATION SPEECH

The forces of rabid, fundamentalist secular liberalism reach even into tiny communities that you might be inclined to think are still safe harbors from political correctness.

Monument, Colorado is such a place. Class valedictorian Erica Corder had the effrontery to mention Jesus Christ in her graduation speech, following the example set by presidents from George Washington to George Bush, all of whom have mentioned Christ and Christianity in public speeches.

However, she was ordered to issue an apology for her “immature” comments and told that if she did not, she would not receive her graduation diploma.

Afraid that her college career could be placed in jeopardy, Miss Corder was blackmailed into issuing an apology for her remarks.

And so the thought police have now extended their reach into the high school level, and the new McCarthyites are now more than willing to punish those who deviate from secular orthodoxy by terminating their academic careers. You may be excused for thinking this has the ring of fascism.

Liberty Counsel is now representing her in a freedom of speech lawsuit against the school, and Miss Corder is pursuing the suit not just for herself but for “students in the future. I want to make sure they aren’t afraid of saying what they believe, and I want the school district to know what they did was wrong.”

The school is digging in its heels, and will “vigorously defend” its Inquisition-like punishment of Miss Corder and her exercise of freedom of speech and religion.

The lawsuit was filed after the family spent a year trying to persuade the district to clarify its policy with regard to graduation speeches.

An Iowa judge has joined the long, sad list of jurists who arrogate to themselves the right to decide public policy rather than leaving that task to elected lawmakers.

Iowa’s elected officials saw fit a decade ago to define marriage a

s the union of a man and a woman, but a lowly county judge last week ruled that what the Iowa legislature did was unconstitutional and, in defiance of the separation of powers doctrine, ordered local officials to process marriage licenses for homosexual couples.

At least one couple was able to get married under the judge’s order before an injunction issued by the Iowa Supreme Court temporarily halted this latest foray into out of control judicial activism.

Said Republican House Minority leader Christopher Rants, “I can’t believe this is happening in Iowa,” thus illustrating that there is no place in America that is now safe from elitist judges who are determined to force their view of morality on everyone else.

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Ø The British government’s “fertility regulator” is expected today to

allow British scientists to create human-animal embryos by grotesquely merging human cells with animal eggs. All in the illusory hope of extracting embryonic stem cells, which have yet to be used in even a single therapeutic treatment. (Human-animal embryo study wins approval | The Guardian)

Ø In a story that illustrates the tragedy and immorality of abortion, a woman bearing twins, one of whom had been diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, discovered that the “wrong” twin had accidentally been aborted by her surgeon. Eighteen weeks along in her pregnancy, the women elected to abort the Down’s baby. But the babies evidently changed positions in her womb before the abortion took place, and the healthy baby was aborted instead. She then proceeded to abort the baby with Down’s. The gynecologist that performed both abortions said her conscience was clear, and she is being backed by hospital authorities. The mother said her life has been ruined and that she can no longer sleep at night. The Roman Catholic Church’s official newspaper correctly observed that “No one has the right to suppress another life,” and that selective abortions are nothing more than eugenics, which stems from a “culture of perfection.” (Vatican talks of 'eugenics culture’ after abortion of wrong twin -Times Online)

Ø A court decision in Pennsylvania has opened the doors of an elementary school to books about witches but has banished the Bible

itself as being too “proselytizing.” A kindergarten student at the school was denied permission to have his mother read his favorite story to the class, simply because the story happened to come from the best selling and most influential book of all time. Students, however, with the approval of a U.S. District Court, are allowed to read books about “witches and Halloween.” Thus this federal court has put itself in charge of deciding which speech is too religious, a function flatly denied to it by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. If the decision is allowed to stand, says the Alliance Defense Fund, it will effectively “sound the death knell for religious freedom in public schools.” (WorldNetDaily: Kindergarten cops rule: Witches in, Bibles out)

Ø The death penalty system in California is so clogged up that the state would have to executive one prisoner a week for more than 10 years just to catch up. The average wait for an execution in California is 17.2 years, twice the national average, thus making capital punishment, according to one judge, nothing more than an “illusion.” Four times as many death row inmates have died of old age than execution over the last three decades. There are twenty procedural hurdles to execution in California, which robs the death penalty of its deterrent effect. As the Judeo-Christian tradition says, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). (Judge takes on death row gridlock - Los Angeles Times)

Ø Despite the fact that we are pelted with constant declaratio

ns about the “consensus” on the human causes of global warming, it turns out that an examination of peer-reviewed papers in every leading scientific journal in the world on the subject found that only 7% of the 528 papers published from 2004 to 2007 gave explicit endorsement to the “consensus.” Almost half the papers (48%) are neutral on the subject, refusing to either accept or reject the hypothesis. Bottom line: there is no “consensus.” Only one paper – one! – made any reference to climate change leading to catastrophic results. (DailyTech - Survey: Less Than Half of all Published Scientists Endorse Global Warming Theory)

Mexican president Felipe Calderon this past Sunday: “Mexico does not end at its borders. Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.”