Daily Archives: October 20, 2014

10/20/14

I Do, Becomes I Won’t — Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Gov’t Tells Ministers To Perform Gay Marriage Or Face Jail

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Never in my wildest nightmares would I have believed this could happen in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where I lived for five years until recently and where I spent part of my childhood. Idaho, is for the most part, a bastion of conservatism. Now, pastors are facing 180 days in jail if they refuse to perform a gay marriage ceremony:

(Alliance Defending Freedom) Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order Friday to stop officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from forcing two ordained Christian ministers to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.

City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved constitutional amendment that affirmed marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

“The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “Many have denied that pastors would ever be forced to perform ceremonies that are completely at odds with their faith, but that’s what is happening here – and it’s happened this quickly. The city is on seriously flawed legal ground, and our lawsuit intends to ensure that this couple’s freedom to adhere to their own faith as pastors is protected just as the First Amendment intended.”

We were told this could never happen, except it just did in Houston, Texas and now in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. This horrifically violates our freedom of religion as Christians. As I write this, many pastors have decided to stand their ground and go to jail over this if it is pursued. If they follow their faith, they have very little in the way of alternative choices here.

This mandate by these fascist city officials is against the law, including Idaho’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as well as the 1st Amendment of the US Bill of Rights.

From William Teach at Right Wing News:

Oh, and just to be truly clear, here’s Section I, Article 4 of the Idaho Constitution:

Guaranty of religious liberty. The exercise and enjoyment of religious faith and worship shall forever be guaranteed; and no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privilege, or capacity on account of his religious opinions; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed to dispense with oaths or affirmations, or excuse acts of licentiousness or justify polygamous or other pernicious practices, inconsistent with morality or the peace or safety of the state; nor to permit any person, organization, or association to directly or indirectly aid or abet, counsel or advise any person to commit the crime of bigamy or polygamy, or any other crime. No person shall be required to attend or support any ministry or place of worship, religious sect or denomination, or pay tithes against his consent; nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship. Bigamy and polygamy are forever prohibited in the state, and the legislature shall provide by law for the punishment of such crimes.

Not only do the Knapps face 180 days in jail, they face fines of $1000 a day for defying these city officials. I have a sincere urge to say something very un-Christian right now, but will refrain. That’s more jail time than they give some child molesters. What happened to freedom of choice? Freedom of religion? Freedom, period? I guess separation of Church and the so-called State only applies when the powers-that-be want it to apply.

We have now started skidding down that slippery slope that the Progressives set up over gay marriage. Tolerance for thee, but not for me if I’m a Christian.

The Daily Signal had this to say about government coercion:

The Knapps have been married to each other for 47 years and are both ordained ministers of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. They are “evangelical Christians who hold to historic Christian beliefs” that “God created two distinct genders in His image” and “that God ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman.”

But as a result of the courts redefining marriage and a city ordinance that creates special privileges based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the Knapps are facing government coercion.

Governmental recognition of same-sex relationships as marriages need not and should not require any third party to recognize a same-sex relationship as a marriage. Government should respect the rights of all citizens. Indeed, a form of government respectful of free association, free contracts, free speech and free exercise of religion should protect citizens’ rights to live according to their beliefs about marriage.

The Knapps have been celebrating weddings in their chapel since 1989. Government should not now force them to shut down or violate their beliefs.

After all, protecting religious liberty and the rights of conscience does not infringe on anyone’s sexual freedoms. No one has a right to have the government force a particular minister to marry them. Some citizens may conclude that they cannot in good conscience participate in same-sex ceremonies, from priests and pastors to bakers and florists. They should not be forced to choose between strongly held religious beliefs and their livelihood.

I don’t see how the city of Coeur d’Alene can claim that forcing the Knapps to perform a same-sex wedding is a compelling government interest being pursued in the least restrictive way. There are numerous other ways where a same-sex couple could tie the knot. Indeed, there is a county clerks office directly across the street from the chapel.

CDA is taking a step many opponents of same-sex marriage feared would come – forcing those with religious objections to perform same-sex marriages or risk facing prosecution for violating non-discrimination laws. That day is now here and upon us. Christians and pastors must stand tough and together on this and not budge, for the sake of our churches, Christians and our faith.

My friend Bookworm Room perhaps put it best:

It’s important to add here that the Knapps, like my hypothetical Catholic priest, aren’t crazy people who came up with their religion yesterday, while shopping at the Piggly Wiggly, and included in their brand new faith core doctrines demanding ritual Barbie doll dismemberment, mandatory bestiality, and 100% tithing. The Knapps, like my hypothetical priest, are interpreting Christian religious doctrine as it has been interpreted for 2,000 years. They are interpreting Christian religious doctrine as it existed when the Founders enacted the First Amendment. They are interpreting Christian religious doctrine in a way that meshes with most religion’s core doctrinal points right up until the last 40 years, when a bunch of churches and synagogues ran off into the far reaches Leftist swamp lands.

Under the First Amendment, those faiths that wish to marry same-sex partners should be allowed to do so.  And those churches that hew to traditional religious interpretations about marriage and do not wish to marry same-sex partners, should be left entirely alone — and that’s true whether they perform the marriage ritual for free or on a fee-for-service basis.  The issue isn’t money; it’s faith.

When Queen Elizabeth I of England came to the throne after decades of religious strife, she famously refused to resume religious inquisitions, saying, instead, “I would not open windows into men’s souls.” What’s happening in Coeur d’Alene isn’t just opening a window into men’s souls, it’s interpretation of its own ordinance is a rock thrown directly through that window in an effort to destroy men’s faith entirely.

This is about principle and faith. Not only should the pastors tell the officials in Houston in regards to their sermons, “Come and take them!” The pastors in CDA need to tell their officials that they are making a stand and this is our Alamo.

10/20/14

The Temple Mount

Arlene from Israel

I’ve written several times about the growing problems on Har Habayit – the Temple Mount.

Temple Mount

Credit: Wiki Commons

Again now I report on the situation, which is grave and most be considered with utmost seriousness.

Over the week of the Sukkot holiday, there was a rash of Arab violence that was clearly premeditated.  It began on Wednesday, the 8th of October: that evening began Sukkot and many Jewish worshippers came to ascend to the Mount (emphasis added):

“The fighting began when masked youths threw stones, iron bars, cinder blocks and Molotov cocktails at police officers as the Mughrabi Gate opened to non-Muslim visitors earlier in the day.

“Police chased the demonstrators toward the Al-Aqsa mosque, where they barricaded themselves inside and continued hurling objects in the direction of the police, said police spokeswoman Luba Samri.

“Samri said the Palestinians had prepared for the confrontation ahead of time, and had set up obstacles at the holy site to slow down police. She said the Palestinians threw firebombs and rocks at police from within the mosque.

Police responded with ‘nonlethal riot control means,’ Samri said.

“A radical Islamic cleric in Israel, Raed Salah, had called on Muslims to be present at the mosque Wednesday morning. About 30 young Palestinians slept the night before at the mosque in preparation for the confrontation, according to Palestinian eyewitnesses.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/three-police-hurt-in-holiday-eve-melee-on-temple-mount/

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Credit: TheJerusalemConnection
The violence continued intermittently over the course of the week of Sukkot.  But finally, it seems, Israeli authorities, confronting the serious of the Arab threat, are responding with greater determination.  This is to be celebrated.  For many years, Arabs knew that all they had to do was riot or even threaten to riot, and Israeli police, citing security concerns, blocked entrance to the Mount for Jews.  The wrong people were being deprived of the opportunity to be on the Mount. But now (emphasis added):

“In a policy change since the beginning of the Jewish New Year, instead of closing the Temple Mount to [Jewish] visitors after Muslim rioting, the Israel Police push the rioters back inside the Al-Aqsa mosque and leave the Temple Mount compound open. But the policy may change again if the current situation persists, Aharonovitch said.

“’If the Jews cannot go up to the Mount, the Muslims will not go up to the Mount,’ he said.”

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/10/19/temple-mount-tensions-reach-a-boiling-point-during-sukkot/

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What we are dealing with is a battle for control of the Mount.

Jordan, which controls the Muslim Wakf (trust, or authority) on the Mount, charged Israeli police with fomenting the problem.

“The forces of the occupation … prevented religious officials entering (the compound) and cleared it of all Muslims, while at the same time enabling Jewish extremists to storm it, and pray with security forces protection,” complained Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momeni.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/185983#.VEQdM5txnIU

Note: “forces of the occupation” implies Israel has no right to be there.

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And now it has come to this (emphasis added):

”Palestinian Authority President (sic) Mahmoud Abbas called on Palestinians on Friday to prevent Jewish ‘settlers’ from entering the Temple Mount.

”Addressing Fatah activists from east[ern] Jerusalem in Ramallah, Abbas also called on Palestinians to be present at the Temple Mount at all times to confront the ‘fierce onslaught on Al-Aksa Mosque, Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre Church.’

He said Fatah should spearhead the effort to stop ‘settlers’ from entering the Temple Mount.

“We must prevent them from entering the Noble Sanctuary in any way. This is our Al-Aksa and our church. They have no right to enter and desecrate them. We must confront them and defend our holy sites.”

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Abbas-calls-on-activists-to-prevent-Jewish-settlers-from-entering-Temple-Mount-379153

These statements by Abbas are always calculated.  Note the term “settlers,” which is pejorative, referring to Jews who are presumably where they do not belong.

And a “fierce onslaught” on the Holy Sepulchre Church?  (Which, by the way, is not on the Mount at all.) This is a ludicrous attempt to make it seem as if Muslims protect Christians from Israeli attack. The reality is that Muslims are massacring Christians, who are in fact safe no where in the Middle East except Israel.  Christians pray freely at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is in eastern Jerusalem.  But Abbas says what he pleases, with impunity and with no regard for the truth.

Abbas’s statement, which represents a new low, is incitement clear and simple.  This is the man with whom Israel should negotiate?  Let’s see how long it takes for Kerry to call him on this.

Just one day after this outrage, Abbas went even further:

In a speech yesterday to to the Revolutionary Council of his Fatah party, he referred to Jews entering the Mount as a “herd of cattle.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/186265#.VEQjYptxnIU

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”Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman blasted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday night after Abbas said that Jews should be prevented from visiting the Temple Mount and that Palestinians should defend the site from them.

“Lieberman said Abbas’ remarks reveal his attempt to ignite the conflict by using the most sensitive place, the Temple Mount. In a statement released on Saturday night, Lieberman accused Abbas and the PA of being behind the disturbances of the residents of east Jerusalem.

”The foreign minister said that the remarks also reveal Abbas’ ‘true face’ as a ‘Holocaust denier who speaks about a Palestinian state free of Jews.’ He said Abbas was and remains an anti-Semite.

“’Behind his [Abbas’] suit and the pleasantries aimed at the international community, he ramps up incitement against Israel and the Jews and calls for a religious war,’ he said.”

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Liberman-calls-Abbas-anti-Semite-compares-him-to-ISIS-after-Temple-Mount-remarks-379154

True, all true.

 

Credit: jmpoint.hu
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I noted with particular interest a quote Martin Sherman provided in his most recent JPost column (and for which I thank him):

‘With the two-state solution… Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the chosen people? What will become of all the sacrifices they made – just to be told to leave? They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse…. Then we will move forward.”

– Abbas Zaki, senior PLO official. (ANB TV, Lebanon, May 7, 2009)

www.jpost.com/Opinion/Into-the-fray-The-two-stage-solution-379041

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Where Zaki refers to Jerusalem, with its spiritual status, read “Temple Mount,” which is at the very core of that spiritual status.  It must not be relinquished. Our presence on the Mount must be constant, and our security forces and authorities must be ever strong in defending our rights there.

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And the good news today? We had rain. A period of torrential rain that turned the streets to rivers.  I got caught in it, and I called it a blessing.  We began praying for rain on Simchat

Torah, Thursday.  The beginning of the winter season.  May it be a very wet one.

Credit: Marc Israel Sellem

10/20/14

Vote Strategically!

by Dick Manasseri
RIGHTMI.com

Stop Trott——Un-Gridlock D.C.——Gridlock Lansing

Fortune Magazine: Boehner to Business – Help Me Stiff-Arm the Nuts . The Nuts? That would be We, We the People, We the Constitutionalists. We, who are so fed-up with the GOP, Snyder, Trott, etc., that We may stay home on Election Day.

From Fortune’s perspective: “To the credit of the party — and allies like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Karl Rove-affiliated American Crossroads — Republicans are fielding recruits across the map handpicked to help Boehner [ignore the Conservatives and vote with Democrats]. In Michigan, Dave Trott, an entrepreneur and major Republican donor himself, mounted a successful primary challenge to Kerry Bentivolio, a Tea Party incumbent …”

Fortune agrees with Daniel Horowitz of Conservative Review that GOP’s strategy is to vote for “soggy white bread candidates” so that Boehner can give Democrats a victory over Conservatives in the House, and then identifies David Trott as the poster child for Big Money and all the Crony Capitalism that money can buy.”

Fox News has now picked up the story including Trott’s “Foreclosure King” moniker. The story has garnered 400+ comments and over 1,000,000 Tweets in the first 24 hours.

The Constitutionalists in MI-11 need to send a message to Boehner and the Michigan GOP by doing whatever is necessary to Stop Trott. One option – write in “Kerry B.”.

Another strategic villain that “We the People” need to stop is

Senate Majority Leader, “Dirty Harry” Reid.

 Harry has single-handedly emasculated the U.S. Senate by creating a limbo where 500 bills from the House now sit enabling Obama to use Executive Orders and his runaway bureaucracy to control our lives. Reid has been able to obscure the truth about Obama’s scandals while imposing the “nuclear option” to fast-track Obama’s appointments.

The “Save our Seat” initiative makes the case that the D.C. Gridlock that Reid imposes on the legislative process needs to stop now. We can

Un-Gridlock D.C. by voting for Terri Lynn Land.

And then there is the 800-pound villain in Lansing –

Big-Money Big-Government Rick Snyder.

Why in the world would Michigan Public TV discuss the possibility of Gridlock in Lansing if the notion wasn’t gaining momentum? As analyst, Bill Ballinger says, “Mark Schauer won’t be able to enact his liberal agenda because the legislature is controlled by the Republicans… and they hate Schauer.”

There lies problem of the last four years – Rick Snyder has been able to force his progressive agenda, precisely because he can and does strong-arm the “soggy white bread” Republicans in the legislature that he controls like a tyrant. He is connected to the Big Money sources, e.g. The Chamber of Commerce, the Devos-family funded LGBT mafia, the Islamist lobby, and the federal government bureaucracy, and he makes sure the legislature understands how these money sources can work on their behalf despite the fact that the GOP base vehemently disagrees.

Snyder’s fiscal policies have earned him a D from the Cato Institute, the lowest grade among Republican governors and lower than several Democrat governors.

The Vote for Gridlock initiative makes the case that divided government in Lansing, which requires strategic voting to boycott Snyder, is the only way to effectively Gridlock Lansing and stop the ominous slide to the Left engineered by the Governor.

10/20/14

November 4: the most important election in history

By: James Simpson
DC Independent Examiner

The GOP has surged in the polls leading up to the November elections as people come to the shocking realization that Obama is deliberately risking the American population’s health by encouraging unfettered access to America by Ebola-infected West Africans. And while we are preoccupied with this horror show, he is intent on legalizing tens of millions of aliens to obtain a permanent Democrat majority nationwide. Obama’s goal is to destroy the middle class and steal future elections with a tidal wave of amnestied illegal immigrants.

Obama’s vindictive, destructive agenda has him plummeting in the polls, even with almost universal protection from the treasonous mass media. Republicans are likely to increase their margins in the House and take the U.S. Senate. A dreampt-of long shot would be for them to obtain veto-proof majorities in both houses. That is an unlikely scenario. What is more likely is Democrat victories in close races, both because they are gearing up for massive voter fraud and pushing for major turnout by minorities. Blacks are a reliable voting bloc for Democrats despite the decades of destruction Democrats have deliberately visited upon them to keep them dependent on government. Still some are finally wising up. The rapidly growing Hispanic population is the Democrats new favored minority, and they will push to turn out the Hispanic vote, both legal and illegal.

Americans need to understand going into this election that there will probably not be one of greater import. Conservatives and independents need to turn out in record numbers. The Left is vicious, relentless, and incredibly duplicitous, and the leftist political/judicial/bureaucratic infrastructure built over decades will do everything it can to limit the damage Obama is causing, and give close elections to Democrats.

Whatever the outcome, the GOP needs to fight this with everything it has. They need to earn our support this time. In 2010 we gave the GOP historic victories. State governments did a fairly good job of capitalizing on these victories. Most notable was Scott Walker’s victory in Wisconsin, where the unions had literally priced themselves out of the market. Even liberals will go only so far in supporting wholesale theft of taxpayer dollars. But at the national level, the GOP House of Representatives, led by the insipid, self-serving jellyfish, John Boehner, has been inept at best in its handling of Obama. If the GOP wins big in November, we cannot afford to squander it with non-leadership like Boehner’s.

Whoever is in charge of the House and Senate, they will have to fight like tigers for the next two years to make sure that Obama’s monstrous agenda is stopped in its tracks. If they do nothing else, that alone will be a resounding victory, and give us breathing room to recover from Obama. If they fail, we are finished as a nation. Hillary will just be the cleanup crew.