laws

Recruiting Defiant Pastors

Late last night, I noticed WorldMagBlog was calling attention to this event:

Pulpit politics: Pastors to defy IRS

During sermons this Sunday, some 35 pastors across the country will tell their congregations which presidential candidate they should vote for, “according to the Scriptures.”

Their endorsements represent a direct challenge to federal tax law, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations from engaging in partisan political activity.

The clergy have embraced that risk, hoping their actions will trigger an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, which would then enable a Christian legal advocacy group to take the IRS to court and challenge the constitutionality of the ban.

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a conservative legal group based in Arizona, recruited the pastors for “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” to press their claim that the IRS tax code violates the free speech of religious leaders.

These pastors really were “recruited” for this purpose?

If that is the case, it seems the pastors are being moved by the wrong spirit, no? It certainly appears to me that whatever they “preach” would have more political and civic motivation than it would Spirit motivation.

Or am I missing something here?

(For a little more perspective on this: Church and State.)

Cell Phone Peril

This is a public service warning to all cellphone users and photographers and videorecorders living in or visiting Oregon: Get permission for the audio part!

Oregon law allows audio material to be recorded only if one of the parties is aware the recording is taking place. Judge said Vang was recording video and audio using his cell phone camera. Only the audio recording violated Oregon law, she stressed.

And failing (or opting not) to get permission for the audio, turn it off before shooting your video.

If you’re reading this from an Oregon prison cell due to your video indiscretions, be advised to read Ain’t Complicated daily.

PA Hate Crimes Law

Good news!

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules against Homosexual ‘Hate Crimes’ Law

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and attorneys with the Foundation for Moral Law applauded the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for its ruling yesterday in Marcavage v. Rendell affirming that the state legislature violated the Pennsylvania Constitution when it added “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to Pennsylvania’s “ethnic intimidation” law (18 Pa. C.S. § 2710) in 2002.

The Foundation, along with attorney Aaron D. Martin, represented Christian evangelists Michael Marcavage, Mark Diener, Randall and Linda Beckman, Susan Startzell, Arlene Elshinnawy, and Nancy Major, who in 2004 were arrested and charged under the “ethnic intimidation” law for evangelizing at a Philadelphia homosexual parade. The Christian evangelists sued and the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania agreed that the law was unconstitutional and struck it down. On appeal the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in a short per curiam order, agreed with the Commonwealth Court’s opinion and the Christian evangelists’ appellate brief filed by the Foundation.

Judge Roy Moore remarked on this historic case: “We are very happy that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled in our favor to stop the Governor and a group of corrupt politicians from sneaking a ‘hate crimes’ bill through the Pennsylvania legislature. Preaching to homosexuals about the sin of sodomy should not be made a ‘thought crime’ in Pennsylvania or any other state.”

But eventually things will change back in favor of homosexuals. Such are the times we live in and the times that are yet to come.

When the law of the land finally codifies such statements as hate crimes, what will Christians do?

Then Tax Abortions Also!

Taxes trigger big drop in U.S. smoking

Higher state taxes on smoking are producing sharp declines in tobacco consumption in the United States, just as Congress considers a huge federal cigarette tax hike, USA Today reported in its Friday editions.

The newspaper, conducting its own analysis of taxation and consumption figures, said the degree of decline in smoking appears to be tied directly to the size of the tax increase.

We know taxing smokes isn’t about legislating morality. So taxing abortion wouldn’t be either.

We know that consistency demands that “pro-choicers” should oppose someone deciding to smoke just as much as they should oppose someone deciding to have an abortion.

And what would be done with the money generated by state and federal taxes on abortions?

Well, I take you back to the story for my answer:

The Senate last week approved a $35 billion tobacco tax increase as a way to pay for expanded government health care for children. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has proposed its own plan to provide health care to children through higher tobacco taxes

Abortion taxes for the children!

Makes sense to me.

Two Southern Borders

In comments obviously for national consumption, Mexican President Vicente Fox . . .

denounced as “disgraceful and shameful” on Wednesday a proposal to build a high-tech wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants.

Concerned about the huge numbers of illegal immigrants streaming across the border and worried it could be an entry point for terrorists, a U.S. lawmaker has proposed building two parallel steel and wire fences running from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Coast. But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said a wall running the length of a border would cost too much.

Mexico has expressed indignation at the idea.

Fox, speaking in Tamaulipas state across the border from Texas, said such extreme security measures would violate immigrants’ rights.

He again called for the easing of U.S. immigration laws to benefit millions of undocumented Mexican fruit pickers, waiters and janitors working north of the border….

Señor Presidente, una idea, por favor. (“Mr. President, an idea, please.”)

  • Treat the illegals on your southern border as you would have the US treat illegals on its southern border.
  • How about easing your immigration laws to benefit those Central Americans entering (and wishing to enter) through your southern border?

Perhaps you should show the US how it’s done. :mrgreen:

Just a (wild) thought.

DISCLAIMER: I have no ill-will for Mr. Fox nor his countrymen (there or here). For the record, Mexico is the land of my infancy, childhood and youth, though not quite of my nativity. I also served there five years as a missionary. I love Mexico and her people.

Food Fight (and More)!

In Hong Kong:

A transatlantic row on food aid boiled over and anti-globalisation protesters clashed with police on Tuesday as troubled trade talks got under way in Hong Kong.

Tension between the United States and the 25-nation European Union burst into the open as the meeting got under way, with European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson calling for “radical reform” to the U.S. system of food aid for developing nations.

Meanwhile, another marriage chapter begins to open in the US and Canada (and elsewhere also, no doubt:

“Polygamy rights is the next civil rights battle.” So goes the motto of a Christian pro-polygamy organization that has been watching the battle over homosexual “marriage” rights with keen interest.

Oh, and speaking of marriage, here’s a story from Northern Africa somewhere:

Four American women — a missionary named Molly*, a journeyman named Susan* and two volunteers — sit among a dozen or so African prostitutes in a circle of mismatched chairs and a couch. They all listen intently as the Old Testament story of Joseph and Potiphar plays from a cassette. From the hall outside comes the sound of Molly’s toddler, Joshua*, playing with African friends.

In a home across town, Molly’s husband, Mike*, pulls dishes from the cabinet and sets out two pans of lasagna to thaw, getting ready for the evening’s house church. Christopher*, the couple’s 3-year-old, throws a ball outside with a neighbor.

And while we’re focused on family, some public school parents may have had a rude awakening in Hillsboro County, Florida:

In a districtwide survey, nearly half of high school students and one in five middle school students said they have had sexual intercourse, and a higher percentage of high school boys than girls reported being physically hurt by their “significant others.”

Before we leave Florida, there’s this from West Palm Beach:

They could be called the other “anti-abortion” photographs, if photographer J. Scott Kelly could stomach those words for only a moment.

Instead of trying to persuade people not to do something with what he describes as gruesome “shock and awe” pictures plastered on buses and the like, Kelly decided last spring that he wanted to sway expectant mothers from abortion by exhibiting the tenderness of parenthood in poster-sized black-and-white studio portraits.

North Carolina is (back?) in the ACLU crosshairs:

In an effort to end the Bible’s monopoly on the swearing-in procedure in the courtroom, the American Civil Liberties Union is now suing the state of North Carolina.

A lawsuit has been filed in Superior Court in Wake County, N.C., on behalf of the organization’s statewide membership of approximately 8,000 individuals of many different faiths, including Islam and Judaism.

And in a Florida courtroom:

For a third time, a court dismissed claims in a lawsuit against Jews for Jesus prompted by a woman who complained she was defamed when the group called her a “Jewish believer” in its newsletter.

This time, Florida State Circuit Court Judge Edward Fine in West Palm Beach dismissed the entire $1 million suit with prejudice, meaning none of the claims can be re-filed.

And in a courtroom in San Diego:

A federal judge on Monday lifted the final legal barrier to completing a border fence meant to thwart illegal immigrants in the southwestern corner of the U.S. The project comprises 14 miles of additional fencing in San Diego.

And in El Paso, Texas, today . . . .

Two national presidents set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border and ending a century-old dispute. President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. In 1964.

Further away (I assume), in Adwar, Iraq . . .

Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole — two years ago today.

And in Los Angeles, Tookie Williams finished his 26 years (or so) in prison. He left San Quentin a little over seven hours ago. Lying down. In plain sight of a few people. I wonder what he is learning wherever he arrived after that.


“Laughed as he told his friends
how the victim gurgled as he lay dying”

I spent way, way, way too much time at this! 🙁

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Above all, love God!