On Friday of last week, the infamous 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco - the nation's most leftist and ineffective appeals court - continued its anti-Christian jihad as it refused to rehear the case of the Mount Soledad War Memorial Cross being removed by various liberal state and federal judges.  This beautiful 29-foot cross sits on public land on a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean which has been seen by countless millions over the decades.  It was dedicated in 1954 in honor of Korean War veterans. 
 
The equally infamous American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - a rabidly anti-Christian organization - has been fighting to get this war memorial cross removed for over a decade.  The ACLU and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have been working in tandem to rid God and Christianity from the public square.
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Do pro-life conservatives deserve the freedoms of our Constitution?  At least one liberal Democrat Senator says they don't.

At a recent Planned Parenthood rally to keep its hands in taxpayer's pocketbooks, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg said that "Planned Parenthood is under attack by Tea Party Republicans who have put their extremist ideology above women's health".  He then went a step further and, referring to pro-life counter-protestors, stated: "These people don't deserve the freedoms in the Constitution!"

New Jersey pro-life activist Marie Tasy suggested that such comments provide "evidence of how Planned Parenthood and its supporters actually feel."

She went on:

“This statement is shameful coming from a U.S. Senator,” Tasy added. “Lautenberg made these remarks surrounded by Planned Parenthood employees, supporters and state lawmakers who applauded him. These remarks are absolutely shameful and need to be exposed.”

Exactly.

The rally itself was part of Planned Parenthood's campaign involving a pink bus that's been traveling the country to drum up support for keeping their tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding in place.  This from an organization that has, as Tasy pointed out, been caught on tape engaging in criminal activity, (including aiding and abetting in the sex trafficking of minor girls).

(Click here and tell your members of Congress to STOP taxpayer funding of abortion today!) read more »

The more the bureaucracy moves to enact the Obama administration's notion of health care "reform", the worse it gets.  In this case, it's their move to eliminate the conscience protection rights concerning abortion that were provided for by the Bush administration.

Those protections were put in place on behalf of those in the medical community who did not want to be forced to participate in performing abortions.  The 2008 rule by the Bush administration was put in place to prohibit recipients of any federal funding from discriminating against those who had such moral objections.

The Obama administration now wants to reverse that somewhat and force those medical personnel to distribute drugs which are intended to induce abortion.

(Via LifeNews)

Several pro-life groups are sending a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warning her of the alarming effects on patients that will follow the Obama administration’s recent move to strip the medical community of key conscience protections on abortion. ... read more »

Once you start down the path of redefining marriage to include anything other than the exclusive union of a man and a woman, it's not long before those who firmly disagree with that redefinition begin to see their values come under assault.  And that is just what has happened in Illinois.

Christian bed and breakfast owners are being sued by homosexuals for not allowing the use of their facilities for a gay "civil union" ceremony.  And since (as of this June) the state of Illinois legally allows such unions, the complaint is over discrimination, and the Illinois Attorney General's office is investigating.

From the story:

The owner of the first B&B, the Beall Mansion of Alton, Ill., had told the complainant, Todd Wathen of Mattoon, IL, that they only let out their premises for weddings. The Christian owners of the second, Jim and Beth Walder of TimberCreek Bed and Breakfast of Paxton, had a similar response.

In the course of e-mail correspondence with Jim Walder, Wathen argued: “starting June 1st, a civil union is a wedding, you have to get a licenses at the county clerks office, it is just not a marriage ... but a legal wedding ... so aren’t you discriminating against me and my partner, because of our sexual orientation??” read more »

A judge in Great Britain has ruled that a Christian couple can no longer serve as foster parents due to their religious views that homosexuality is wrong.

Yes, really.  It's come to this.

The couple, Owen and Eunice Johns have been foster parents to over twenty children, but were banned from the program by social workers in 2007 as a result of interviews associated with the program where they expressed their opposition to homosexuality because of their faith.  Now a British court has upheld that ban.

The Associated Press reported that judges at London’s Royal Courts of Justice determined that laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination take precedence over the couple’s religious beliefs.

Britain, the judges ruled, was a “secular state, not a theocracy.”

Of course they failed to explain just what that has to do with anything.  I don't think it's lost on anyone who knows absolutely anything about history that England is not a theocracy.  But (at least until this point it seems), that hasn't stopped anyone from having their own personal religious beliefs.

“We have been excluded because we have moral opinions based on our faith, and we feel sidelined because we are Christians with normal, mainstream, views on sexual ethics,” Mrs. Johns said. read more »

As incredible as it seems, Vanderbilt University actually HAD a policy of forcing its nursing students to pledge to assist in abortions that they have since backtracked from.  Note that they have to "pledge" that they will assist, which leads one to believe they didn't have a lot of volunteers otherwise.

Here's their statement that accompanies the pledge:

“If you are chosen for the Nurse Residency Program in the Women’s Health track, you will be expected to care for women undergoing termination of pregnancy. Procedures performed in the Labor and Delivery unit include…terminations of pregnancy,” it states. “If you feel you cannot provide care to women during this type of event, we encourage you to apply to a different track of the Nurse Residency Program to explore opportunities that may best fit your skills and career goals.”

What makes it even more perverse is that it forced people who wanted to study to save lives to assist in taking them before they could complete studies necessary for their profession.

Of course the university didn't "backtrack" until a complaint was filed by a pro-life legal group.

It turns out that Vandy receives more than $300 million in federal funding every year, and it is against federal law for funding recipients to force health care workers (or those studying the profession) to violate their conscious or religious beliefs by participating in abortions. read more »

In another stunning example of just how far things have gone in our country when it comes to government's hostility to religion, a group of students were told by officials to stop praying outside of the US Supreme Court.

The group of 15 Christian school students, there on a trip from Arizona, were confronted by a Supreme Court police officer and told that their praying was against the law.

According to a spokesman with the Alliance Defense Fund, the officer's interruption of their prayer was "abrupt", and that "they were told to stop praying because they were violating the law and they had to take their prayer elsewhere".

They did.  They moved down to the sidewalk and stood in the gutter.

Via Fox News: read more »

As hard as it may be to believe, it's true.  Four Christians were arrested in Detroit this week for distributing copies of the Gospel outside of an Arab International Festival.  In addition to being arrested, the camera (with any video of what they were doing, as well as how event security and police reacted) was confiscated.

In many ways you expect to see this sort of thing in some third world countries. But this is America.  And now it's here.

(Via the Christian Examiner) read more »

If you needed an example of just how far some elements in our country have gone to breed a sense of hostility towards Christianity (and anything that remotely reminds them of the Christian faith), then look no further than to what happened this week to the war memorial in the Mojave Desert.

Under cover of darkness, vandals removed the cross-shaped memorial from its place atop a hill in the desert.

The memorial had been at the center of a long running legal battle over whether or not it was constitutional for the symbol to be on public land, but within the past month the US Supreme Court finally weighed in and found the monument to be constitutional.

Given the fact that it's in such a remote location, (only a few dozen cars pass that way each day), and the theft comes so soon after the Supreme Court decision, it's pretty clear that this was motivated by anti-religious sentiment.

From the story: read more »

As incredible (or not) as it may seem, senior citizens at a Georgia rest home have been told by a company that contracts with the city of Port Wentworth that, since the meals they provide are primarily subsidized by the federal government, they should not openly pray before meals.

The result?  This past Thursday's meal was preceeded by a "moment of silence" instead.  The city's Mayor and City Attorney are trying to find a way out of the problem.

Via the AP:

Mayor Jones said he was outraged by the change and has promised to find a solution.

"It was one of the hardest things I ever did as mayor is to look those people in the eyes and ask them to be patient with me and honor their God in a moment of silence until I can have a resolution to this," Jones said. "For me to look at their eyes and tell them they can't thank God for their food, it's unheard of - I can't take it."

Jones said he flirted with the idea of ending a contract the city has with Senior Citizens Inc.

"Like one lady said, 'You can stop me from speaking, but you can't stop me from praying what's in my heart,"' he said. "But the best answer right now is that we're trying to get the best information possible and legal council is looking at what would happen if we continued to pray." read more »