At Daybreak on the National Day of Prayer, May 2nd, 2013, I joined several Christian leaders on the steps of the Supreme Court to offer prayers for the Court and the nation. The liturgy for the morning was prepared by Rev. Rob Schenck the founder and president of Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital. Other participants included Bishop George Gurley, Dr Manon Gurley, Pastor Dave Kistler, Betsy Kistler, Abe Silos, and Will Pryor.

Praying for the Court, at the Court on the National Day of Prayer, 2013

Rev. Schenck, wearing the vestment in the photo at left, has for many years been bringing the Gospel to Capitol Hill and particularly to those associated with the Supreme Court. He and his brother faced jail time for protesting in front of abortion clinics, and it was a case involving him before the Supreme Court in 1995 that stopped the harassment of abortion clinic protestors nationwide.

Getting permission to pray on the steps of the Supreme Court is not in any way an easy feat. There is actually an area on the sidewalk protected by posts where people are allowed to gather, protest or pray, but no “gatherings” of any kind are allowed on the steps or actual property of the Supreme Court without written permission — which we had. The prayers we took turns reading had to be submitted in writing several days before. If more than ten people are involved it would be classified a demonstration and prohibited – YES – If a group larger than about ten try to pray, it would be a prohibited demonstration.

Although under close monitoring by the authorities, the annual assembly of Christian leaders to offer prayer for those who judge our nation is vitally important. There must always remain a remnant of the faithful to guide our nation to righteousness through prayer. It is an honor for me to participate in this event every year.

Those of us who prayed actually entered the Supreme Court at 7:30 AM after the prayers  and had breakfast in the Supreme Court cafeteria before walking to the Cannon House Office Building for the actual ceremonies for the National Day of Prayer in the Caucus Room. This is the same room I mentioned in the last Chairman’s Report that I had secured for a large Christian foundation’s summer camp leadership program.

The National Day of Prayer event is organized each year by Vonette Bright, widow of Dr. Bill Bright and by Shirley Dobson, wife of Dr. James Dobson; they have co-chaired the event for twenty-two years. During the three hour service different leaders prayed for each branch of government, including the Congress, the courts, the military and the Presidency. There were numerous notable moments. A sobering time came when Rear Admiral William Lee said of sharing his faith: “The lawyers tell me that if I do that, I’m crossing the line. I’m so glad I’ve crossed that line so many times.” Lee pledged not to back down from “my right under the Constitution to tell a young man that there is hope.”

The Saudi Campaign

Religious Freedom Coalition newspaper ad ran in California: As part of our advertising campaign, a newspaper ad exposing Saudi Arabia’s brutal treatment of Ethiopian Christian guest workers ran in a weekly newspaper that covers California’s 49^th congressional district which is the home of Camp Pendleton and Congressman Darrell Issa who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee which is conducting the Benghazi hearings. It is his committee that oversees the State Department.

The purpose of our Saudi ad campaign is simple – to convince congressmen that their constituents do care about the continued brutality of the Saudi Arabian government against Christians. Unless congressmen hear from their constituents, they in turn will not speak out against this evil.

This will not be a speedy campaign that raises money and does one big ad someplace for bragging rights. The purpose of the campaign is to actually change opinions and get congressmen to take some action. Than can only be done district by district. As the funds come in we will target districts of congressmen I believe we can convince to speak out about Saudi brutality toward Christians and their continued financing of radical mosques in America.

Next on our list are some of the Foreign Affairs Committee members including Chris Smith in New Jersey, Joe Wilson in South Carolina, and Mo Brooks in Alabama. We already have one member of the Foreign Affairs Committee on our side, Steve Stockman of Texas. Congressman Stockman has already sent one letter to the Saudi Ambassador on the arrests of Ethiopian Christian workers for praying in private. More at StopSaudiEvil.org

About that Saudi Ambassador: Immigration officials and police are “investigating” a report of human trafficking at a home owned by Saudi Arabia in northern Virginia.  Two women were rescued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers this month.  ICE spokesman Brandon Montgomery said the women, both from the Philippines, were “possible” victims of domestic servitude.

One woman tried to flee by squeezing through a gap in the front gate as it was closing. This house in McLean McLean, Virginia is near the home of the Ambassador from Morocco, a home I have visited in the past when Morocco was more “moderate” than it is today.

Neither the Saudi Ambassador or the State Department would reveal the names of the Saudi officials living in the home, however, local records indicate that the most probably resident is Saudi Embassy defense attaché Brig. Gen. Amin Muhammad Shaker, although others are linked to the property as well. Many diplomats from Islamic nations have been linked to cases of “domestic servitude” in the past in both Washington, DC and in Virginia.

Saudi domestic slave not just in Virginia: The UNHCR report for 2012 states: “Saudi Arabia is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and to a lesser extent, forced prostitution. Men and women from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and many other countries voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or other low-skilled laborers, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude, including nonpayment of wages, long working hours without rest, deprivation of food, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and restrictions on movement such as the withholding of passports or confinement to the workplace.”

The Religious Freedom Coalition has produced a three minute video concerning the Saudi use of domestic slaves in Virginia below. Please share this YouTube video with others.

Congress

Social Conservative “nose holding” – The election of former governor Mark Sanford to the U.S. House in a special election in South Carolina really upset me and not just for his imorral behavior, but because of the reaction to it from social conservative leaders.

During the primary for the special election my political action committee backed State Senator Larry Grooms, a godly man who was also endorsed by the Right to Life Committee, by Mike Huckabee and by every seated Republican congressman in South Carolina. Still Grooms  lost to the huge money Mark Sanford was able to raise from those concerned with money, not morals. After he won the primary I was one of the few social conservatives who publicly stated I would not back him in the general election. At least most of the others were just quiet.

I was shocked the day before the election which was held on May 7^th when I received an email from a well-known conservative leader asking that I “forgive” Sanford for his transgressions and help him in the final hours of the election. The fact that social conservatives would help this man make a political comeback shocked me to the core. After he won I wrote a column that appeared in WND.COM and other news outlets. The column states the obvious: If social conservatives will elect a Republican regardless of his behavior then there is no moral watchdog guarding the gates to Congress at all. Below is the column

The Day the Christian Right Died

By William J. Murray

The patient has been ill for a long time, having contracted the political power virus from the Republican Party. On Tuesday, May 7^th the last breath of the Christian Right came as former governor Mark Sanford waltzed onto a stage and patted himself on the back for a political comeback.

The day before, Christian conservative leader Foster Friess had sent out an e-mail urging conservatives in South Carolina to “forgive” Sanford for his transgressions and to vote for him. The e-mail urged conservatives across the nation to ask their friends in South Carolina to vote for Sanford as well.

Although the establishment National Republican Congressional Committee abandoned Sanford after he violated a court order this year and entered the home of his ex-wife in the middle of the night, the “true” conservatives stuck with him. After he secured the nomination, social conservatives including many of my good friends in Washington DC, halted any and all criticism of him. He received a free pass from virtually all of the Christian right so far as I can tell – except from me. My PAC – Government Is Not God – continued to expose him as a threat to good government. But other Social Conservative leaders viewed the election of his opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Steven Colbert, as the greater of two evils.

The problem of backing, tacitly or not, the disgraced governor has to do not only with his mistress and divorce, but with the rule of law. When the commander of a military unit abandons his post, should he be rewarded or court martialed? Sanford was the Commander-in-chief of the State of South Carolina, including the National Guard, and he abandoned his post as commander for a hookup in Argentina. Why no one on the conservative side sees a problem with this other than the very few is sort of baffling.

Sanford disappeared for several days in 2009 to fly to Argentina to meet in person with Maria Belen Chapur, whom he had met online. He lied about his whereabouts to his office and to the public as well as to his family. He was completely out of contact for days without transferring power to the Lieutenant Governor. In the event of a disaster, natural or otherwise, he would not have been available to activate the National Guard or direct assets of the state. Put plainly he deserted his post as commander. He also used a state owned aircraft meaning taxpayers financed his “personal time” in Argentina. Eventually he was censured by South Carolina’s Ethics Commission and forced to repay the cost of using the jet.

It is bothersome that many social conservatives, such as Foster Friess, not only ignored Sanford’s unfaithfulness to his wife, the lies to his children and the public, but his misuse of the public trust as well.

By backing Mark Sanford, or by saying nothing to stop his re-ascendancy, the social conservative leaders of the Christian Right have declared that they are Republicans first and moral leaders maybe second, third or fourth. If social conservative leaders can ignore the transgressions of Mark Sanford, who is currently shacked up with his mistress, what else will they ignore in support of the GOP?

In the more than thirty years I have worked around Capitol Hill, I have watched the political power virus take down many good men and women. That photo with a Senator or maybe even a President becomes worth taking off the garment of righteousness and hanging it at the door to the seat of power. Once that garment is taken off, it is very hard to put back on.

Who will listen now to the purveyors of righteousness in the Christian conservative lobby of Capitol Hill, when they come forward in future primaries to anoint the most “moral” candidate? It is now known that after any primary they will all “hold their noses” and jump on board the Republican bandwagon. With that knowledge what difference does it make if the establishment backs someone who is openly homosexual, smokes dope, has two wives or has previously abused the power of office?

On May 7^th social conservative leaders sent a clear message to the GOP establishment, the Democrats and to the media that their belief structure is infected so badly by politics that morals no longer matter.

We can do better than this!

International

Bishops Kidnapped: No news after weeks – There is no news as of the day I wrote this Chairman’s Report on the two Orthodox bishops kidnapped by American supported jihadists in Syria in April. I am continuing to work with different congressmen in the hope of presenting a congressional resolution or at least a group letter demanding the release of not only the Bishops, but of other clergy including two priests and an evangelical pastor held by the jihadist fighters in Syria. A petition is available to fax to your congressman at: www.FreeTheBishops.org

William J. Murray, Chairman
Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990

Jihad, Terror and Saudi Arabia

The Awakening: The Awakening is a large, annual gathering of mostly evangelical social conservatives, for a two day conference on various issues. On April 19^th and 20^th of 2013, The Awakening was held near Orlando, Florida on the campus of the First Baptist Church of Oviedo and the Religious Freedom Coalition was there to educate those present about the root of terror in the world today – Saudi Arabia.

Panel discussion on radical Islam: As chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, I served on the Radical Islam and National Security panel with Frank Gaffney, Pamela Geller, and Prof. Jonathan Matusitz. Frank Gaffney is the president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and served as Under-Secretary of Defense under President Reagan. Pamela Geller is a well known fighter against the politically correct approach to Islamic terror, and Professor Matusitz is an expert on Islamic affairs.

I was the first panel speaker and began by presenting the facts of 9-11 —  that 15 of the 19 hijackers were well educated Saudi citizens. I explained my frustration at the time with the Washington elites’ twisted mindset that directed American outrage against a third world nation, rather than against the heart of the problem, which is the Saudi Arabian Wahhabi cult.

The presentations of the other panelists were very pertinent as well. I made every effort to focus on the core problem of Saudi funding of radical mosques throughout the world, and the refusal of the United States to face this reality because of Saudi oil. I find the oil excuse somewhat strange, because the United States now imports virtually no Saudi oil, and by 2015 will actually produce more oil than Saudi Arabia. The United States and Canada together hold the majority of the energy reserves of the entire planet.

RFC literature booth at The Awakening

RFC at the convention: As part of the presence of the Religious Freedom Coalition at The Awakening, a booth was manned during the entire event. Two large vertical banners were on each side of our table presenting the facts about Saudi Arabia and its persecution of Christian guest workers. Our StopSaudEvil.org Internet site was promoted.

Literature was presented about our campaign to fax congressmen and ask them to speak up about how the Saudi royal family advances radicalism. We also had available brochures about the Religious Freedom Coalition, and some of my books.

Many of those who visited out table at The Awakening signed up for our weekly e-mail alerts from Capitol Hill. This year the Religious Freedom Coalition will participate in several of these types of events.

The Saudi Campaign

Religious Freedom Coalition newspaper ad ran in Orlando:As part of our advertising campaign, a newspaper ad exposing Saudi Arabia’s brutal treatment of Ethiopian Christian guest workers ran in a weekly newspaper that covers the Orlando area. This helped to reinforce our presence and resulted in dozens of the petitions being faxed to two Florida Congressmen.

Both the offices of Congressmen Daniel Webster and Bill Posey have received many petitions asking congressmen to speak out about the continued persecution of Christian guest workers in Saudi Arabia.

Our next ads will appear in California near Camp Pendleton, the largest Marine base outside of Virginia. Camp Pendleton is inside California’s 49^th district which is held by Congressman Darrell Issa. Many retired Marines live in the area, as well as those on active duty. There is a high awareness among Marine families about the true nature of the threat to Western civilization, despite the near constant politically correct training our military is subjected to, with  materials approved by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The purpose of our Saudi ad campaign is simple – to convince congressmen that their constituents do care about the continued brutality of the Saudi Arabian government against Christians. Unless congressmen hear from their constituents, they in turn will not speak out against this evil.

Send a free fax to your congressman now asking him to
speak out against Saudi persecution of Christians workers.

Sometime in the next 24 months the United States will reach the point of producing more oil than Saudi Arabia. The United States and Canada are together producing so much oil that there is talk in Congress of lifting the ban on exporting oil pumped in the USA. North America has the largest known energy reserves in the world and that does not even include the vast oil fields off the coasts of California and Florida.

We don’t need Saudi oil, and there is no need for us to be forced to accept their vile hatred of Christians, Jews and our Western way of life. Let the Saudis peddle their oil elsewhere.

Congress

            Congressman supports our campaign -Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX) has written a stern letter to the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States requesting information on the Ethiopian Christians who were arrested in February for praying in a private home.

            I have spoken to Congressman Stockman several times about the situation with Christian guest workers in Saudi Arabia. Because the RFC has been unable to obtain information on the current status of the last group of Ethiopian Christians arrested, Congressman Stockman has agreed to get the information to us.

            The Congressman’s office has not yet received a response to his letter to Ambassador Adel A. al-Jubeir. As soon as a reply is received, the response will be reported here. To give an idea of the mindset that grips the Muslim controlled areas of the world: at the Saudi Embassy Internet site it is stated that the Ambassador was “appointed by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz as Ambassador to the United States.” Everything in the Muslim world refers to Mohammed or the mosque – religion and government are one.

Congressman Stockman bravely stands with just causes such as this.

Congressman Bill Posey standing righteous and humble –The image of the Congress outside the Washington Beltway is incredibly bad. The current approval rating of Congress is hovering around 15%, thanks in most part to the constant bashing by the media giants. In reality there are many fine men and women in Congress, including the more than 100 members of the Prayer Caucus headed by Congressman Randy Forbes; they meet weekly when Congress is in session to pray for our nation. Congressman Stockman, who is mentioned above, is a member.

Recently a large foundation which runs summer camps for Christian youth leaders asked if I could arrange a tour of the Capitol for the leadership trainers. The organization was bringing 130 young adults for training. They in turn would be the trainers for the leaders in the camps.

Congressman Posey

The group was simply too large for me to handle on a tour. Through the office of a  member of the leadership team in the House, I obtained the Cannon Caucus Room for a dinner on Saturday, April 13th. This is the most prestigious room in the House Office complex, and virtually impossible to reserve. I then arranged for David Barton, the founder of Wallbuilders, to fly in from his Texas headquarters to conduct his rather famous “Spiritual Heritage Tour” of the Capitol Building, after hours when the complex would be closed to all other visitors.

I put out the word that I needed “table mentors” for the dinner. The mentors would be at the tables to talk to the young adults about the realities of Washington, DC, and about working in overtly secular fields as committed Christians.

Congressman Bill Posey and his wife Katie volunteered to be table mentors. When Congressman Posey arrived at the Caucus Room with his wife at the appointed time, the room was almost empty because of security issues we were having getting the youth through the after hours security. Congressman Posey went with me to the security check point to expedite the screening.

During the dinner Congressman Posey sat at one table and his wife at another. They did not ask to be introduced and spoke candidly with the young adults at the two tables about their lives as Christians on Capitol Hill.

When the time came for the tour of the Capitol Building itself, the Posey’s went with the group, helping by answering questions as David Barton conducted the tour, and pointing out the significant symbols throughout the Capitol, of the Christian heritage of our nation.

Of the 130 young adults, not more than five were from Congressman Posey’s home state of Florida. He and his wife were not there for votes, or for the cold barbequed chicken dinner. They were there to share their love of their nation and of their Lord. The humble and faithful nature that Bill and Katie Posey displayed to these young people who are leaders in their communities, will have a long lasting and profound impact.

Congressman Posey is a constant target of the far left. The Congressman made the reasonable suggestion that those running for office, such as for the presidency, should be required to provide a birth certificate. In response, the so-called comedian Steven Colbert stated that Congressman Posey was born from the result of his grandmother having sex with an alligator during a flood in 1928. This is the kind of personal attacks that all godly men and women in Congress face virtually every day.

International

Bishops Kidnapped: American media doesn’t care – On April 22nd, two Orthodox bishops of Aleppo, Syria were kidnapped by U.S. supported Islamist fighters. Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos Yaziji, were kidnapped as they were returning from an attempt to obtain the release of two priests previously kidnapped. Father Michel Kayyal, an Armenian Catholic and Father Maher Mahfouz, a Greek Orthodox,  were kidnapped in February and still remain in the hands of the Islamist fighters that the Western media refer to as “rebels.” In a Huffington Post article, Orthodox priest Peter-Michael Preble said, “They were on a mission of peace, to bring aid and comfort, and they were taken hostage as part of the systematic extermination of the Christian population in Syria.”

Kidnapped Syrian Bishops

As an eyewitness to Capitol Hill I can say without hesitation that the Republican Party leadership is allowing the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Syria in order to obtain some minor political gain over President Barack Obama. A momentary “we got you” over Obama is more important to the Republican leadership than the lives of millions of Christians and the destruction of the ancient churches founded by Peter, Paul, and the other early Saints. Rather than trying to stop Obama’s support of the jihadist fighters in Syria, the Republican leadership is pushing for our overburdened and over deployed Armed Services to get directly involved in helping them!

Senator John McCain is the principle Republican promoter of the destruction of Syria. McCain seems totally blind to the human suffering of war and has no regard for Christians suffering at the hands of jihadists in Syria. As McCain sees it, Iran is currently our main enemy and eliminating one of its power bases – its alliance with Syria – is worth the human suffering and ethnic cleansing of the Christian population. McCain is actually pushing Barack Obama to do even more damage in Syria. McCain wants our Air Force involved today!

It is very true that Iran is a threat to the peace of the Middle East and to Israel, but arming jihadists associated with al-Qaeda and allowing them to murder Christians and destroy churches in Syria does not seem to me as the optimal way to limit the power of Iran. Indeed, the harsh persecution of Christians by jihadist fighters supported in Syria by Barack Obama is no different than the persecution of Christians in Iran. At least in Iran the Christians get a phoney show trial before they are jailed and tortured.  In Syria, Christians, with no trial at all, are tortured and murdered using American tax dollars given to jihadists by Barack Obama.

In Father Preble’s article he articulated the situation with great accuracy: “What has been called the “Arab Spring” in Syria has become the Christian Nightmare and it is high time that the United States government realize the part it has played and continues to play in this ethnic cleansing, genocide, holocaust whatever word you choose to describe what is being perpetrated on the religious minorities in Syria as well as Egypt.”

            Most Western news outlets have refused so far to carry news of the kidnappings of Christian clergy in Syria because it doesn’t’ fit the “Assad is the bad guy” story line. The press is silent even though the two bishops were kidnapped by Chechen jihadists, and this came just days after the Boston Marathon bombing by Chechen jihadists. We must break this silence somehow. Help the Religious Freedom Coalition tell the truth about Syria.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990

THE PRESIDENCY

Obama’s military: A Bronze Star for political correctness - An Air Force chaplain was awarded a Bronze Star, the fifth highest combat award, for developing a politically correct PowerPoint on how to be sensitive in handling Islamic religious materials. Lieutenant Colonel Jon Trainer, who is a non-denominational Christian chaplain, wrote the program after riots over the accidental burning of old Qurans on an Air Force base in Afghanistan. Every single member of the military, as well as civilian employees in Afghanistan, was required to view the PowerPoint. It is now required for pre-deployment to Islamic areas for all members of the services, and for civilian contractors.

In Trainer’s PowerPoint presentation to service members and civilians, it was stressed that the width and breadth of their sensitivity had to cover whatever constitutes Islamic religious material. As an example he stated, “When a Muslim writes down even a few verses from the Quran on a piece of paper that immediately gets that same protected status.”

Therefore if a Muslim writes a verse from a religious book calling for the killing of Jews and other “infidels” on a slip of paper, it has “protected status.” A service member, even if he is Jewish, must revere this slip of paper containing the anti-Semitic material. The slip of paper must be treated with the same “respect” as a Quran.

The prestigious Bronze Star is given for heroic or meritorious achievement in connection with operations against an armed enemy. Lt. Colonel Trainer apparently did this with a PowerPoint championing political correctness. I can’t even imagine what thoughts about this award must be going through the mind of a Marine who earned the same medal during a firefight in which he was wounded, and some of those in his unit were killed fighting Muslims.

Obama State Department wants more Muslims in USA –Better educated Muslims are more likely to be members of terrorists groups, a recent study shows. Therefore, the State Department plans to end terror by bringing more Muslims to the USA to take college places  away from Americans. This program is well underway now.

Meghann Curtis, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, stated that the bureau had always been driven by the notion that “we’d be a more stable, peaceful and prosperous world if we could all get to know one another”. Now it appears that this “notion” is in “high gear.” Curtis said programs to bring students and scholars from Muslim-majority countries into the U.S. had been “ramped up”.

The 9-11 hijackers came to the United States as students to learn how to fly commercial aircraft. How did that program work out? Many students who studied in the United States and Canada are now leaders of jihadist groups, some fighting in Syria. This program represents more of the insane, politically correct thinking coming from the Obama Administration.

A review by National Bureau of Economic Research associate Alan Krueger and co-author Jitka Maleckova found that an increase in educational attainment does not and would not reduce participation in international terrorism.

One finding: “Members of Hezbollah’s militant wing who were killed in action in the 1980s and early 1990s were at least as likely to come from economically advantaged families and have a relatively high level of education as they were to come from impoverished families without educational opportunities.”

Their study was called “Education, Poverty, Political Violence, and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?” and the researchers concluded that: “Instead of viewing terrorism as a direct response to low market opportunities or ignorance, we suggest it is more accurately viewed as a response to political conditions and long-standing feelings (either perceived or real) of indignity and frustration that have little to do with economics.”

Many of the leaders of terrorist organizations, including the current leader of Al-Qaeda, are medical doctors, some of whom were educated in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Obama’s “Arab Spring” Tunisia: “Stone her to death” - A Tunisian preacher is demanding that a teenaged protester be executed for posting her topless pictures on Facebook with an anti-Islamic slogan on her chest. To avoid arrest, her parents have apparently placed her in a mental institution.The first “Arab Spring” nation touted by Barack Obama was Tunisia. At the time he championed the ouster of the secular president in favor of a more “democratic” state. Tunisia has now become a haven for jihadists including many members of Al-Qaeda. Even Huffington Post is reporting the failure of the “Arab Spring” in Tunisia.

Obama’s “free Syria” covers young girls in black- Girls are now covered from head to foot in schools in the “liberated” part of Syria. The Syrian “rebels” have proudly posted videos on Youtube of public schools in areas under their control. Even very young girls are covered from head to foot in black, their faces even covered as they are taught to respect and serve men.

Under the Assad “regime,” wearing a religious covering to a public school was against the law. In Obama’s “new Syria” wearing the veil is mandatory. This curse on the girls and women of Syria is paid for by Saudi Arabia and supported by the United States. See the video

Obama to Israeli youth -Pretend you are Palestinians –During his visit to Israel, Obama promised to defend their nation. At the same time, he made an effort to directly interfere in the internal affairs of Israel by telling college students not to support the government there.

His instruction to students: “Put yourself in their shoes – look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day.”

Note that he called the Israeli Army presence in Samaria “foreign,” and in using the reference to a child had to refer to “her” instead of the generic “him.” Obama is the child of a liberal white education and he can’t escape it – ever.

CONGRESS

Congressman:  “Don’t arm our enemies” - Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) delivered a powerful speech on Washington, D.C. politics to a gathering of conservatives at Freedom Center’s 2013 retreat in California.

Gohmert, a committed Christian and social conservative, discussed a variety of topics   including the destruction of our armed forces by the Obama Administration – and the arming of our enemies in Egypt with sophisticated weapons. Gohmert noted: “… you don’t have to pay people to hate you; they’ll do it for free.”

He said, “We keep paying countries [like Egypt].  For heaven’s sake, even sending them F-16s and tanks.  And mark my words, those tanks and F-16s will someday kill Israelis and Americans.  It’s not a smart idea.”

I attended a small dinner gathering with Congressman Gohmert in late March and discussed the situation in Libya and Syria with him. I learned that he had gone to the Army’s Walter Reed Medical Center to visit with survivors of the attack on our consulate in Benghazi. The State Department refuses to produce the survivors to testify about the attack which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed on an anti-Islamic YouTube video. I am not at liberty to discuss the entire conversation other than to say that Hillary Clinton is a two-faced liar.

Jewish Senator supports jihadists in Syria –Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, who is Jewish, has joined Senator John McCain in calling on President Obama to bomb airports in Syria to help establish yet another Islamist state on the border of Israel. Strangely, the two Senators used a chemical attack by the Islamists on Syrian government troops as a reason to bomb the Syrian government troops.

Conservative Senators offer Pro-life legislation –On the domestic front, Florida Senator Marco Rubio offered the “Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act.” The act would require that an abortionist, before performing an abortion on a minor from another state, must first notify one parent, unless the minor is the victim of sexual abuse or faces a life-endangering emergency. Other pro-life amendments to budget bills were offered by Senators Mike Lee and David Vitter. Since the legislation is in the Senate controlled by Harry Reid, it will not pass.

RELIGION AND CULTURE

American Al-Qaeda fighter arrested – How bizarre is this? Eric Harroun is a former Army soldier from Phoenix who joined “rebels” fighting the secular government of Syria and who boasted to Fox News about his exploits killing Syrian soldiers. He has referred to himself as a Muslim soldier of fortune, and the Syrian “rebels” posted many videos of him fighting on Youtube.

When he returned to the United States in March he was arrested at a Virginia Airport and could face life in prison for association with a terrorist organization. What is so unbelievable about this? Harroun was fighting for the same “rebels” our government supports to overthrow the secular government of Syria and install an Islamist regime. Maybe he was fighting with the “wrong” group of rebels killing and raping their way across Syria.

Christians most persecuted group in world – Nina Shea, Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert introduced their new book, Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians at a public discussion on religious persecution at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC on March 27th. All three have authored previous books on the persecution of religious minorities and the worldwide decline in religious freedom over the last fifteen years.

I was present at the luncheon when the book was presented, and the event was broadcast on CSPAN. Since the presentation, the Religious Freedom Coalition has promoted the book as it details the continuing struggle of the churches founded by Peter, Paul and the other Apostles in the Middle East and Asia.

Paul Marshall noted that “There is a phenomena of growing persecution of Christians over the last 15 to 20 years that is largely ignored” in the United States. He noted that one of the greatest problems is a lack of awareness in the Christian communities within the nation. He stated that there is much less talk about the persecution of Christians in American churches today than there was fifteen years ago.

Paul Marshall was asked by a member of the audience if the statement by Secretary Kerry and other Administration statements, or lack thereof, was driven by a fear of having more Christians persecuted in Islamic nations because they are American allies. Marshall replied that in reading Al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist literature it is “clear that Americans are hated because they are viewed as Christians by radical Islamists, not because Christians are viewed as Americans.” He was making the point that Islamists see everything in terms of religion, not in terms of poverty or social issues the way American leaders have been trained to think by the Muslim Brotherhood here in the United States. Read more

 INTERNATIONAL

Saudi Arabia: No word on Ethiopian Christians – Despite numerous efforts by members of Congress, I have been unable to learn the fate of the Ethiopian Christians arrested in Saudi Arabia in February for praying in a private home. Read more

Nigeria: Easter attacks kill 80 Christians -Nigerian Christians appealed for prayers after Easter season violence in troubled central Nigeria left as many as 80 people dead, and displaced some 4,500 others. Read more

Pakistan: Muslim mob attacks Christians – On April 2, incited by calls from mosque loudspeakers, a large Muslim mob attacked a Christian neighborhood in Gujranwala, injuring at least five Christians, damaging churches and destroying dozens of shops and vehicles. Read more

Bangladesh: Christian children rescued from Islamic traffickers disappear – Eleven of the sixteen Christian children who were rescued from Muslim traffickers in Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 2 have been kidnapped and returned to slavery. Read more

Fact Finding Mission and Tour of Israel – William J. Murray, the chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, along with Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy and author Bill Federer, will lead a tour to Israel that will include a visit to an IDF base, the Golan Heights and the West Bank. Join them in a once in a lifetime journey combining a Biblical tour with a fact finding mission on Middle East security. Read more

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990

In February, 53 Ethiopian Christians were arrested in the Saudi Arabian city of Dammam for the crime of praying together in a private home. I reported on this and previous arrests of Christian guest workers in Saudi Arabia in the February 28^th edition of the Chairman’s Report. At the time only one congressman had spoken out about the arrests and brutal treatment of the African Christian workers. There was at the time, and continues to be, a solid wall of silence from the rest of the congressmen and Senators as well as from the White House.

Despite Saudi Arabia being an absolute monarchy/dictatorship, there is never a word of criticism from Western leaders or the Western press against the atrocities there. Rather, Western leaders – including President Obama – often travel to Saudi Arabia to bow before the royalty to either beg for loans or in an attempt to sell arms to them.

15 of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were well educated Saudi citizens

It is virtually never mentioned in the press that fifteen of the nineteen jihad attackers on 9-11 were Saudi citizens, all well-educated with oil money. Radical mosques around the world are financed with Saudi money and the entire anti-Semitic movement in Europe is paid for with Saudi money. In Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, the Saudi Academy teaches Islamic and Arab supremacy, anti-Semitism, and it also instructs students that democracy is an apostate religion that must be destroyed! Virtually all the children of Arab diplomats attend the Saudi Academy and the state of Virginia gives it special benefits.

The material used in Islamic private schools and in 90% of mosques is furnished by the radical Wahhabi government of Saudi Arabia, using oil profits. The material teaches hatred against Europeans, Jews, infidels and democratic forms of government. Maps do not show Israel and refer to Spain as “occupied Arab territory.” Many of the graduates of Saudi funded Islamic schools in the United States and Europe are now fighting jihad in Mali, Yemen and Syria.

There is more than silence from Western leaders — there is support.

Why does this continue? Why do the liberals such as Barack Obama, who promote same-sex marriage in the United States, say nothing about the hanging of homosexuals in Saudi Arabia? Why do American feminists say nothing about the stoning to death of women accused of adultery in Saudi Arabia? Why do congressmen who demand people in America be allowed to vote without showing any ID, say nothing about there being no vote at all in Saudi Arabia?

Congressman Wolfe summed up the problem during a meeting I attended with him last year. He said that the reason congressmen say nothing about the persecution of Christians in Saudi Arabia and other Islamic nations is the failure of pastors to speak out. Congressman Wolfe said, “Congress takes no action because they don’t hear from pastors.”

In the last few weeks I have learned that not only don’t congressmen hear from pastors, they hardly hear from anyone about the persecution of Christians.

Was my work for no purpose? – Shortly after I wrote in the Chairman’s Report about the latest arrests of Ethiopian Christians in Saudi Arabia I also wrote a column for WND.COM. That column about the arrests and the failure of congressmen, Senators and the President to speak out about the abuses in Saudi Arabia was read by tens of thousands of people. I then appeared on Mike Huckabee’s national radio show and other radio shows to expose the persecution of African Christians who are guest workers in Saudi Arabia.

I didn’t stop there.  I produced a three minute video that was posted on Youtube and embedded not only at the Religious Freedom Coalition Internet site but at many others as well. On Facebook, the Youtube video had thousands of views. I posted and promoted stories on Facebook that had thousands of visits. All of these stories, radio shows and Youtube promotions pointed people to a free fax service. At FaxCongress.com a free fax could be delivered to the sender’s congressman asking him to speak out against Saudi persecution of Christians.

Sadly, over a period of ten days, my work resulted in just 14 people sending the fax to their congressman. (Note: After appearing on more radio shows the count was over 100 faxes sent to congressman as of march 22,2013.) I was flat out ashamed at the response and embarrassed to actually show up at any congressman’s office claiming I have support from the American Christian community to stop the persecution and torture of Christians in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else. No wonder Barack Obama is so confident of his support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia. Christians in America apparently are so lethargic that they are going to let him get away with helping radical Islam destroy the churches founded by Peter, Paul and the other saints.

For years I have blamed the Congress and the arrogance of the White House for the continued failure to say a single word against the continuing destruction of the church in the Middle East and the persecution of Christians. Suddenly I realized in my heart that the problem was not with political leaders but with the church in America. Pastors don’t know about or don’t understand the problem of persecution of Christians. If pastors don’t know or understand that Christians are being persecuted, they don’t talk about the issue in the pulpit. If the pastors don’t speak out, then those in the pews are not going to be politically active about it.

Without pastors and individual Christians making congressmen and Senators socially aware of the persecution, it cannot be stopped.

Just this week I met briefly with a Senator and talked to him about the arrests of the Ethiopian Christians and their torture. Bottom line: The Senator had never heard about the arrests. He had no knowledge of the Mutaween (religious police) in Saudi Arabia. He did not know that 20% of the population of Saudi Arabia are Christian guest workers. He did not even know that there was not a single church allowed in Saudi Arabia or that it was against the law for those Christians workers to even own a Bible. He didn’t know because there had been no pressure on his office and no information had been sent to him. Few, if any, people had contacted his office about persecuted Christians and he simply did not know they existed anywhere in the world much less Saudi Arabia.

If we cannot stop the persecution of the church outside the United States, I can promise you that the church inside the United States will feel the whip of persecution.

This is a social issue. It is politically incorrect for politicians, newspapers, pastors or even individual Christians to talk about the persecution of Christians. This is why there is virtually no mention in newspapers of the hundreds of Nigerian Christians killed each week or the Pakistani Christians jailed for “blasphemy” and often executed.

How we sold out to the Saudis

For decades I have been trying to make people aware of the persecution of Christians particularly in the Middle East. Before the 9-11 jihad attacks I stepped forward on behalf of the Christians in Bethlehem when the United States forced Israel to hand the Christian city over to the Islamist run Palestinian Authority. I warned there was more to come after bombings of jetliners in the 1980’s and after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Have my efforts failed? Should I just give up?

Unless we want to see the church in America suffer in the same way as the Coptic Church in Egypt is suffering today, I cannot give up and neither can you.

More must be done. Many of those fighting this battle, including myself, have been trying to reach political leaders — and that is the effort that has failed. The political leaders will not stand fast against Islamic advances, including the introduction of blasphemy laws in the United States as has been done in Europe, unless there is real resistance from the people. That resistance can come only from social change. The society has to care, Christians have to care.

We have to change the society, and we have to make it politically incorrect to ignore the persecution of Christians. We have to move people to action and we can do that through the media. The best way to get media attention is through advertising. Just reaching the minority of people who are aware and who care, is not enough. We have to cause people who don’t understand what is happening and who don’t care what is happening, to become concerned and to speak out against the persecution of Christians and the loss of religious freedom in America.

Advertising sells everything from cars to politicians. We need to use advertising to change perspective and activate Christians, particularly pastors. New programs need to begin, that will change attitudes on the street and in Washington, DC. Instead of sending small amounts of aid to destroyed churches in Iraq and Syria, we need to change the society in such a way as to be of real help to the persecuted church.

Over the next three or four weeks I am going to develop a program of both newspaper ads and church information packages. The newspaper ads will dramatically tell the public of the problem of the persecution of the church in the Middle East. At the same time I will develop a package to send to pastors of every denomination showing them how the churches founded by Peter, Paul and the other early saints of the church are being destroyed. I want to continue to use the free service to send congressmen a fax, but I want to grow it to the point that a thousand faxes a day are going to Congress about the persecution of Christians. For that to happen, we have to change the culture.

Homosexuals have changed the culture for the worse using the media. The homosexual groups used advertising and media insiders to cause a sea change in America, leading the majority of young people to support sodomy as “love.” If the media can be used to sell sin, it can be used to sell righteousness. The success of the brand new mini-series “The Bible” shows that we can move the media and as a result move society, but we have to start somewhere.

Last year our newspaper advertising campaign to tell Americans about the social agenda of President Barack Obama was a huge success. Our hard hitting ads in newspapers caused many newspaper stories to be written for and against us. There were many radio talk shows about the ads and even TV news referred to them. We need to repeat this success – not in a political vain – but in an effort to change the thinking of the society and the media about the persecuted church.

Yes … We must keep our ministry commitments to the persecuted church. This month the Religious Freedom Coalition paid $3,800 for a security system at the building in Amman, Jordan used by our sister ministry to distribute aid to Christian refugees. This was above and beyond our normal commitments to supply aid. During 2012 the Religious Freedom Coalition paid to transport containers of donated supplies to Jordan for distribution to Christian refugees. We will meet our commitment to assist the Christian youth camp we support in Jordan, with such things as replacing worn out mattresses. We will continue to support our outreach church in the “West Bank” city of Ariel. Many Arabs have come to Christ in this ministry.

URGENT NOTE: Our funds for Syrian Christian refugees have been frozen in our transfer bank in Cyprus as the EU demands that nation steal the funds of depositors it win more loans. Help is urgently needed -  donate today! (March, 2013)

However, in the United States we must change direction. We can’t continue to simply place stories of Christian persecution on Facebook and Internet sites as do so many other organizations. There are dozens of Internet sites warning of the dangers facing the church from Islamic oppression. But the stories of persecution on these Internet sites do not reach the general public, nor do they reach pastors who can make a difference.

Over the next month it is my intention to develop, with the help of an advertising agency, newspaper ads that will make people want to learn and care about the persecuted church. These will not be full page ads and they will not run in the Washington, DC newspapers to be seen only by congressmen and Senators. The ads will run in newspaper markets such as Orlando, Buffalo, San Antonio, Tucson, Fargo and many more, and they will run not just for a few months because of an election, but until there is social change.

Ad run by the Religious Freedom Coalition in the Washington Times and other newspapers less than 30 days after 9-11

We can’t make our society care about persecuted Christians in Egypt, Nigeria or Pakistan overnight, but with time we can make them understand that not caring will bring about the persecution of the church right here in the United States. That will cause societal change.

This will be a slow process. We may have to start out targeting one or two congressional districts at a time. If we can cause people to care in just one or two congressional districts, the pastors in those districts will address the issue. This year if we can get pastors in just one or two congressional districts to speak out, we will get congressmen on our side. To change the way America deals with worldwide Christian persecution … To change the way America deals with the despotic source of Islamic evil – Saudi Arabia – we must win congressmen to our side. For that to happen we must win the hearts of the pastors of American churches.

Just after the jihad attack on 9-11, I was shocked to see the Saudi kingdom get “off the hook” so easily. Although 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudi citizens, the Kingdom’s role was passed over and explained away. This so shocked me that within 30 days I actually ran an ad in the Washington Times pointing to the fact that the Saudi Kingdom was no different from the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan. Looking back, I wish I would have continued to run that ad in newspapers across the nation. I deeply regret not doing that, as I see the damage Saudi money is doing and how it is used to persecute the church and advance Islamic supremacism and spread anti-Semitism. I pray that you will join me in a project – a mission – that could change the way America thinks and reacts to the persecution of Christians worldwide.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990

 “My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish.” Those were the final words of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal before he was beheaded in 2002. The beheading was filmed and proudly distributed in the Islamic areas of the world as proof of the good deed of following the way of Mohammed. In the Islamic Hadith the example is given:

Then the stones or trees will call: ‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’”

            Mayor Edward Koch, who was Jewish, was an old fashioned Democrat, the kind that used to exist before that Party was taken over by the radical left. He served as an infantryman during World War II and later as both a congressman from New York and the mayor of New York City for three terms. As mayor he cut spending and taxes and actually reduced the city payroll. He crossed party lines to endorse President George W. Bush in 2004. The endorsement of Bush had much to do with his understanding of the peril faced by Israel from its Islamic neighbors and his knowledge of the threat of Islamic expansionism.

When he died the Jewish Times said of him:

“Originally a crusader against Communism and eventually against what he viewed as Muslim extremism, Mayor Koch was a one-man anomaly: a self-declared secular Jew who harbored a strong belief in God and embraced the trappings of the faith on his own terms.”

The New York and national media did not report on much of what he had to say about “Muslim extremism.” While saying Muslims had a right to build a mosque where they pleased he said the construction of one at Ground Zero was insensitive.

The heart of Mayor Koch’s concern over the expansion of Islamism is probably best exemplified by his tombstone. On it are the final words of Daniel Pearl and beneath those words is an explanation of the circumstances in which they were uttered:

“My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.”
(Daniel Pearl, 2002, just before he was beheaded by a Muslim terrorist.)

            Many things I did not agree on with Mayor Edward Koch, but his final statement, the one he chose for his own tombstone, should be a reminder to us all of the threat facing Western civilization from those who truly believe the words of Mohammed.

THE PRESIDENCY

Obama Administration blocks UN resolution against car bombing – On February 21^st four car bombs were detonated at various locations inside Damascus. There were no clear strategic targets and the vast majority of those who died were civilians. If police are counted as civilians, then everyone who died was a civilian. The largest bomb was detonated near a school, killing 60 people including children. In that one bombing alone 200 were injured, many severely. Al-Qaeda and its associated organizations claimed responsibility for the bombings.

A resolution was proposed at the United Nations condemning the terrorist bombings and murder of the civilians in Damascus. The resolution was vetoed by the United States.

US blocks UN resolution condemning car bomb that killed 53 including children

Apparently some car bombings that kill and maim civilians are worse than others in the eyes of the Obama Administration. President Obama’s UN Ambassador wants UN resolutions condemning car bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Obama Administration also wants UN resolutions condemning the secular government of Syria for bombing bases of “rebel” forces supported by the United States — but none against the abuses by those “rebel” forces.

After some discussion the United States finally agreed to a resolution on the bombing but only if it stated that the Syrian government caused the Al-Qaeda bombing of its civilians by refusing to surrender Damascus to the Islamist rebels. That idea was vetoed by the Russians who said the United States was practicing a “double standard;” Russia asked why resolutions condemning bombings in Afghanistan don’t blame the presence of the United States Army.

Here is the bottom line for Obama: If Islamists setting off car bombs are supported by the United States, there will be no condemnation. Is this a double standard? Of course, but the USA and the British are acting as proxies for the Saudi and Qatar governments in the Syria war.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have invested over $2 billion in the war against the secular government in Syria. By destroying the government in Syria, they hope to block a natural gas pipeline from Libya to Europe through Syria that would cut revenue to Qatar and Saudi Arabia by billions of dollars a year.  At the same time, installing a “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood government, which was the original goal, would reduce the influence in the region by Saudi Arabia’s main antagonist, which is Iran.

The United States wants the “omelet” of a curtailed Iran as well, because that nation is viewed as a “main enemy” of the United States. As one State Department official said, “To make an omelet you have to break eggs.” Unfortunately the broken eggs in Syria are the Christians, who will be forced to live under a Sharia government if the Saudi Arabia financed jihadists win.

The vast majority of car bombs detonated by the “rebels” in Aleppo, Syria are in Christian neighborhoods. The Christian families, who have lived in Aleppo since the time of Christ, live mostly in the “old city” which is under constant attack by the jihadists supported by the United States and the European Union.

Catholic priests and nuns cannot wear their habits in the streets because they are targeted by snipers supplied with modern British sniper rifles. This is the reality of Syria today.

Obama sees no Saudi evil – Two full weeks after I ran the news on our two Facebook pages, Fox News finally picked up the story of the arrest of 53 Ethiopian Christians for praying in a private home in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, charged into a private prayer meeting of at least 53 Ethiopian Christian workers this month, arresting them for merely practicing their faith.

The arrests came in the coastal town of Dammam, the capital of a wealthy oil province in eastern Saudi Arabia. Three of the Christian leaders, all women, were charged with seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Arresting Christian guest workers in Saudi Arabia is a common event, and in jail their treatment is horrendous, particularly if they are African. For example, during Advent of 2011, the mutawa stormed a prayer meeting at a private home in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, arresting 29 women and six men for more than seven months. The men were barbarically beaten and the women were subjected to torture of a sexually intrusive nature.  There was an outcry by some on Capitol Hill, but not from the White House.

Nina Shea, the director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com that the arrests in Dammam are “part of Saudi Arabia’s policy to ban non-Muslim houses of worship and actually hunt down Christians in private homes.”

In a FoxNews.com story that ran several weeks after the arrest, Nina Shea said,“the U.S. government does not raise its voice in protest”as part of the U.S.-Saudi strategic partnership. She added that the failure to push the Saudis to change their intolerant behavior “has taken the backseat to oil and the war on terror. The Saudis are playing a double game — cooperating with the war on terror and working against the war on terror campaign.”

I have worked with Nina Shea on various religious freedom projects in the past. She served for several years on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and is the author of In the Lion’s Den: A Shocking Account of Persecution and Martyrdom of Christians Today and How We Should Respond.

So far only one lawmaker has spoken up about the latest abuse of Christians by the Saudi Arabia monarchy/dictatorship. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb) who sits on the Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East said, “Nations that wish to be a part of the responsible nations of the world must see the protection of religious freedom and the principles of reason as an essential part of the duty of the state.”

SEND A FREE FAX TO YOUR CONGRESSMAN DEMANDING
SUPPORT FOR CONGRESSMAN FORTENBERRY

The contrast to ignoring the persecution, even torture, of Christians by our Saudi “ally” is the condemnation of Russia by the Obama Administration and many Senators of both parties when members of a feminist, anarchist punk rock band called Pussy Riot were arrested for demonstrating in a rather foul performance inside Christ the King Orthodox Church in Moscow.

According to the Obama Administration and the mainstream press this “free expression” should be allowed by Russia, but arresting Christians in Saudi Arabia for praying in a private home seems not a problem at all.  The liberal politicians and liberal press in the United States will stand up to defend the radical feminist band’s defiling of a sacred place, but have no desire to defend Christians who are tortured by the Islamic government of Saudi Arabia.

All the members of the punk rock band were charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” because of their anti-church, anti-government performance at the altar of Christ the King Church, and two leaders were sentenced to two years in jail.

Meanwhile, Christians in Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim dominated nations have been sentenced to life prison terms and even death for blasphemy — with no liberal outrage manifested in any Western nation. Indeed the liberal press often casts the blame on the victims of Islamic violence, as was the case with the attempted assassination this year of Lars Hedegaard the head of the Danish Free Press Society in Europe.

For liberals in the West there will be a price to pay for their support of Islamic suppression of human rights. As Islam overtakes Europe, the radical left will be the first to pay with their heads for their support of drugs, homosexuality, prostitution and promiscuity — that is if God does not render judgment on them first.

THE CONGRESS

Congressmen demand action on Iranian pastor – My good friend Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) is the chairman of the International Religious Freedom Caucus and one of the few voices on Capitol Hill fighting to protect religious minorities in Islamic dominated nations.

Congressman Franks recently authored a letter calling on the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, to “exhaust every possible option to secure U.S. citizen Saeed Abedini’s release from Iran.” Franks was able to obtain the signatures of 80 other congressmen on the letter.

Saeed Abedini is a convert from Islam who is now a Christian pastor. He studied in the United States, became a citizen and married an American. He has three children. Abedini made several trips to Iran in recent years to work with Christian pastors there, but the Islamic Republic has repeatedly harassed him. Pastor Abedini was arrested on his last trip to Iran and is being tortured in one of Iran’s most notorious prisons after a mock trial on charges of blasphemy.

Congressman Franks and other members of Congress are demanding the Obama Administration find its voice when it comes to defending Pastor Abedini’s religious freedom. I applaud their efforts, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for Obama or Kerry to stand up and help any Christian pastor persecuted in any Islamic dominated nation. Please contact your congressman and Senators and ask them to help Congressman Franks free Pastor Abedini.

The Religious Freedom Coalition is working on other issues on Capitol Hill as well, but there is simply not room in this letter to report on them this month. Almost daily I post updates at two of the Facebook pages I edit. Check Facebook.com/ReligiousFreedomCoalition.org and Facebook.com/ShariaFreeUSA. All of the Chairman’s Reports as well as my weekly updates from Capitol Hill are located at ReligiousFreedomCoalition.org. At that site there is a rotating globe that shows the location of visitors our main site has had since December, 2012. You may be surprised, as we have visits from every continent except Antarctica.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Islam and the ballot box

On January 30^th the Wall Street Journal carried a column by former CIA Middle East specialist Reuel Marc Gerecht which made the preposterous assertion that Islam would become moderate in a democratic setting. Gerecht went so far as to state that Israel would eventually be accepted by its Islamist neighbors when they are all “free men voting.”

Muslim demonstrate against democracy

The alarming nature of the column was the fact that this is the advice that has been given to presidents and Congress for many years, and the results have been disastrous, as can clearly be seen in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Libya and other Middle East nations.

I authored a very lengthy rebuttal to Mr. Gerecht which I knew would not be published by the Wall Street Journal, since their editors drink the Kool-Aid that makes them believe the ballot box will eliminate poverty and war worldwide — never mind the fact that Adolph Hitler was duly elected to office by the German people.

Because I believe it is so important to expose the thought processes of those in the establishment CIA and State Department who advise the White House and the Congress, I am reprinting my WND.com column in this edition of the Chairman’s Report. The headline of the column makes reference to the “Pickle Factory,” the insiders’ name for the Central Intelligence Agency. The name comes from code for the daily CIA briefings to the President which are called Pickles. (WND.com changed the title to The ballot box will not tame Islamism.)

Contrary to CIA specialist, democracy will not “diminish” Islamic imperatives
How a Wall Street Journal column rationalizes delusional thinking at the Pickle Factory

By William J. Murray

The Wall Street Journal used a half page of its editorial space on January 30^th to publish a totally illogical, if not delusional, column (Israel’s New Islamist Neighborhood: If Western history is any guide, the growth of democracy slowly diminishes religious imperatives) by former CIA Middle East specialist Reuel  Marc Gerecht regarding the future “moderation” of Islam in the Middle East. It appears the Wall Street Journal’s editors, economic conservatives who can see no wrong in the human rights abuses in wealthy Islamic nations, wanted to highlight the column to justify U.S support of the Muslim Brotherhood in the takeover of half a dozen nations in the vicinity of Israel.

Gerecht asserts that:

“Israel may one day be accepted by its Arab neighbors and by its most deadly foe, Iran—but only when Arab and Iranian Muslim identities allow for it. At best, that change is decades away. Modern Islam’s great internal tug of war, between the search for authenticity and the love of modernity, must quiet before the Israeli-Palestinian clash can end.”

The key word in this paragraph is “modernity” which brings in the assumption that Islam will move out of the 7^th Century and somehow accept a Martin Luther who will “fix” Islam with a reformation that will bring about the equivalent of same-sex marriages in the Episcopal Church.

On what does Gerecht base his assumptions? Later in the column he writes:

“Yet if Western history is any guide, the growth of democracy slowly diminishes religious imperatives. Representative government demystifies politics and ethics, as the here-and-now takes precedence over abstract aspirations. It makes the mundane transcendent. It promotes healthy division because it puts competing visions, even competing fundamentalist visions, to the vote. It localizes ambitions and focuses people’s passions on the national purse.”

Western history is no more a guide for modernizing Islamic nations through democracy than Stalinist history was a model to modernize China. It took over 500 years, from the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 until the ratification of the American Constitution in 1789, for cultural acceptance of democratic thought despite a Judeo-Christian religious base which promotes the dignity of the individual’s rights. Islam has no such history or character.

And to what “national pulse” does Gerecht refer? The Super Bowl? Europeans are less in touch than even Americans with any political pulse other than to demand even more benefits from their governments.

Reuel Marc Gerecht

Apparently Gerecht sees a morally splintered Western society in which citizens have the power to vote themselves lavish entitlements as the model for the Middle East. His discussion of democracy shows his total lack of understanding that the words democracy and freedom have different definitions. Democracy is merely a process of selecting leaders and is in no way synonymous with freedom, as can be seen in the United Kingdom where even politicians are jailed for their Facebook comments which are deemed politically incorrect.

In that same paragraph be asserts that democracy “puts competing visions, even competing fundamentalist visions, to the vote.” When has this ever happened anywhere? Are the views of Orthodox Jews, fundamentalist Baptists, conservative Catholics or murderous mullahs put to the vote in Western democracies? This is nonsense.

Speaking briefly of Iran, Gerecht states:

 “The Iranian people, if their votes could rule, would surely restore diplomatic relations with Washington and possibly even with Israel.”

However, this statement on Iran’s electoral process is false. The current Islamist president of Iran was elected by a vast majority of the people. The youth who demonstrated in the streets for change in 2009 were a minority, and were easily crushed by the government.

Contradicting his own statement about Iran, Gerecht then says of the new Islamist states around Israel which were created by Barack Obama and his EU partners:

 “Their attempts to enforce certain Islamic values through legislation will inevitably produce faction and fatigue. Secularists will grow stronger. And unlike their great liberal forbearers of the 19th and early-20th centuries, Muslim secularists who win at the ballot box will be much less inclined to kowtow to orthodox Islamic sentiments.”

Gerecht reaches this conclusion by showing a profound lack of knowledge of the basic tenets of Islam and the history surrounding it.

At the end of the article is Gerecht’s prediction of peace in the Middle East:

“The age of Islamism and democracy has just arrived. The interplay may be long, arduous and ugly. But it is conceivable that Israelis, Arabs and Iranians will finally find a modus vivendi based on something more profound than land-for-peace. It will be based on free men voting.”

He conveniently does not mention that Turkey, now firmly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, had a secularist democratic government for decades after its founding by Ataturk. Turkey’s constitution outlawed religious political parties, and the army was tasked to protect the secular nature of the nation. After the Muslim Brotherhood came to power — in a democratic election — repression began. Dozens of generals have been sentenced to long prison sentences for “conspiracies” that allegedly occurred decades ago. Turkey has jailed more journalists than Iran since the rise to power of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Once an ally of Israel, the nation of Turkey is now perhaps that nation’s most dangerous enemy as it is well armed with modern weapons from NATO nations.

Does Turkey represent Mr. Gerecht’s vision of “modernity” of Islam under democracy?

Mr. Gerecht’s ideas about the modernization of Islam under democracy come from his time at the CIA, and help explain the bizarre actions of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in addressing the Middle East. Apparently our entire security apparatus is advising our presidents that the ballot box is the cure-all for societies based on the 6^th and 7^th century theology of illiterates whose idea of government was enslavement and the sword. Mr. Gerecht now serves with a conservative think tank that features this article with the image of burning Israeli flag. It is worth noting that almost the entire GOP establishment in Washington, DC back President Barack Obama in giving modern tanks and fighter jets to radical Islamist leaders such as Mohammed Morsi of Egypt.

Real scholars, such as Stephen Coughlin, who understand the nature of Islam and who have studied the great jihad periods of history have been purged from the Pentagon, NSA, CIA and FBI in favor of those approved by CAIR (Counsel on American Islamic Relations.) Agency manuals on terror have been cleansed of words such as “Islamist” and “jihad” in hopes this appeasement will bring democracy and love for the West among those calling for the destruction of the “Great Satan.”

With “specialists” such as Reuel  Marc Gerecht giving advice to Presidents, Congress and generals, the situation is virtually hopeless and defeat of the West at the hands of the Islamists almost certain.

As you may note I end the column on a very pessimistic note. This was done because I knew it would have wide distribution on Capitol Hill and I wanted to call Congressmen and Senators to the grave nature of the situation at intelligence gathering agencies. Opinions such as Mr. Gerecht’s taint the data received and make men such as Egypt’s Mohammed Morsi look far less dangerous than they are. Please feel free to copy and distribute the column.

INTERNATIONAL

Ignorant: Adil Rashid (pictured) did not know it was illegal to have sex with a 13-year-old girl

In the United Kingdom a judge let walk a rapist because he was a Muslim: The judge ruled that Adil Rashid (pictured at left) did not know it was illegal to have sex with a 13-year-old girl he had lured on the Internet, because he was educated in an Islamic faith school (madrassa) where he was taught that women are worthless.

Adil Rashid, 18, claimed he was not aware that what he had done was illegal in the U.K.  Judge Michael Stokes gave Rashid the slap on the wrist of a suspended sentence, saying: ‘Although chronologically 18, it is quite clear from the reports that you are very naive and immature when it comes to sexual matters.’ The normal sentence of an adult having sex with a young girl in the UK is four to seven years.

The judge said that because Rashid was ‘passive’ and ‘lacking assertiveness’, sending him to jail might cause him ‘more damage than good’. Apparently the judge did not think any damage was done to the British girl. In his testimony Rashid had blamed the victim saying he was ‘tempted by her’ after they met on Facebook.

In comparison: Kevin Carroll, the Chairman of the British Freedom Party, was arrested in Luton, UK in January just for making a comment on Facebook. What horrid thing did Kevin Carroll post on Facebook to caused his car to be stopped and surrounded and for him to be arrested in public? Was it some kind of treasonous statement?

Kevin Carroll was arrested and jailed for this statement on Facebook about Islam:

“They are all backward savages, a devil-spawned death-cult worshiping all that is unholy and barbaric. Pure evil.”

Muslims took screen shots of the comment “allegedly” made by him and gave it  to police. He was immediately arrested without further investigation and charged with “Religious and Racial Hatred.” Carroll is currently out on bail with conditions, and must report to a police station twice a week.

Israel Fact Finding Mission: The fact finding mission I was to lead to Israel in April has been moved to the Fall because of many conflicts and time restraints including some with Israel. The fact finding mission will now depart to Israel on September 30^th and return on October 9^th. I will lead the group to areas no other tours go to, such as an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) base, a West Bank “settlement” and the Golan Heights. We will have panels with experts each night that will include Israeli politicians. For information check www. MissionIsrael2013.com.

Almost daily I post updates on stories such as the two above from the UK at one of the Facebook pages I edit. You can find this page at www.Facebook.com/ShariaFreeUSA. There is now also a rotating globe at the www.ReligiousFreedomCoalition.org that shows where people are logged onto the site from all over the world. Please take a look at it.

 William J. Murray, Chairman
Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990

Hot Tub Multiculturalism

A chance encounter reminded me of the true dangers of the liberalism in the West that allows those who hate us to enjoy our culture.

There were about six people in the whirlpool, including a Jewish couple from New Jersey, a Muslim businessman from Guinea Africa and myself. Someone mentioned drug use in the United States among the youth and with a broad smile the Muslim businessman said, “We don’t have that problem in Guinea — if someone has drugs or guns they are executed.”

I looked at him calmly and said, “Yes, and if a Muslim converts to Christianity he is executed as well.” The Muslim’s smile turned quickly into a straight face and his eyes filled with hatred. The Jewish couple, realizing they were in a hot tub with a man who would be willing to cut their throats if they were found in Guinea, quickly exited. Within a minute just the Muslim and I remained in the tub. He said to me, “We have freedom of worship in our nation and respect other religions.” He thought that I could be fooled as easily as former President George W. Bush or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That was not the case.

“Really,” I replied. “Tell me then why your president ordered the brutal torture, execution and mutilation of Pastor Michel Loua?” The reply from the Muslim was swift: “That was a special case. Those who are born Christians are not bothered.” He then smiled and said, “You should visit our nation.” I replied that I had visited most of Africa, including the Sudan, on fact finding missions, but given the fact that I valued my life I had no plans on visiting his nation any time soon. At that point the Muslim smiled, bid me good day and departed, leaving me alone in the whirlpool.

I had written about the execution of Pastor Michel Loua in 2010. In 2006 he and his family came to the United States so he could attend seminary in preparation to preach in Guinea. He graduated in 2009 with a master’s degree from Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary in Jacksonville, Texas. He and his family were members of the Rosewood Baptist Church, and in December, 2008 he preached a revival there.

Loua returned to Guinea in June, 2010 and was arrested within a few weeks. He was literally offered as a human sacrifice to “enhance” the leadership of the president.  One news source said that “according to Guinea Muslim beliefs, it was necessary to kill an infidel (non-Muslim) to insure the new leadership’s success. Loua was reportedly tortured, shot through the heart, and his body mutilated.”

Pastor Loua was born a Muslim and accepted Jesus as Savior at the age of twenty-two. After his conversion he survived, among other things, a stoning by his Muslim relatives.

At the time of his death he had been married to Elisabeth for 15 years and had three children — a fourteen-year-old son and two daughters, aged twelve and four. At the time of his murder by President Alpha Condé, his wife was expecting a fourth child.

Occasionally my wife and I take a seven day cruise in early December or January when the prices are about half off. The meeting above with the African businessman occurred on a medium sized cruise ship in the Caribbean, and as a result I was to cross paths with him a couple of other times during the week, including once as he was seated with two of his wives for lunch.

THE PRESIDENCY

Obama’s gay inauguration – The only evangelical religious leader scheduled for Obama’s second inauguration, a pastor from Georgia, has now been forced to withdraw. What was the crime of Pastor Louis Giglio? It seems that back in the 1990′s, he once delivered a pro-marriage sermon that homosexuals called “homophobic.”

The White House quickly distanced itself from the evangelical leader – and said his participation would not have reflected their desire to have a diverse inaugural. “We were not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection and they don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this Inaugural,” said Presidential Inaugural Committee spokesperson Addie Whisenant.” Translation: Champion homosexuality or you are not welcome here.

Meanwhile Obama picked a Cuban-American “gay poet” named Richard Blanco to serve as “Inaugural Poet.” Blanco has written numerous poems critical of heterosexuals and in particular his grandmother. Newsweek magazine’s most recent cover depicted Obama as “the first gay president.”

The new Cabinet members – Obama has appointed several controversial men to his cabinet. The main lightning rod so far is his pick for Secretary of Defense, former two term GOP Senator Chuck Hagel, who is a decorated Vietnam veteran. Critics point to his many anti-Israel and pro-Iranian statements, but miss the point. The White House makes the policy and the Cabinet members just follow that policy.

Hagel was picked because of his positions, not in spite of them, and critics should be more vocal in pointing out that fact. Rather than be critical of Hagel for his anti-Israel statements, Senators should be asking the White House if this is the current position of the United States and if that is why Hagel was chosen.

Congressman against Obama’s tanks and jets for Egypt – President Barack Obama knows full well that the tanks and jets he is sending to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt will eventually be used against Israel, but has cleared the sale anyway. Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-FL) has joined the chorus of critics asking Obama to stop the shipments of 20 American F-16 fighter jets and 200 Abrams tanks to Egypt.

“Simply put, the U.S. should not be providing military assistance to a regime that supports Hamas and is looking more and more like a dictatorship than a trustworthy democracy,” Buchanan wrote.

Obama just can’t criticize Islamic murders – It is a Muslim tradition in Nigeria to invade Christian churches during Christmas services and murder worshipers. For Christmas 2012, even with heavy security limiting the carnage, three churches were invaded and more than 30 killed. The best count we have is that 770 Christians have been murdered by Muslims in Nigeria in 2012. The real count is much higher, as Christians are found murdered virtually every day, but the Nigerian government wants to hold down “sectarian violence” and does its best to cover up most of the atrocities.

There was no comment from the White House about the Christmas murders in Nigeria or the slaughter that goes on there year round. The Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamic terrorist group, is still allowed to raise funds in the United States and it appears that the Obama Administration intends to continue to allow them to do that. Obama spent Christmas in Hawaii. For him Christmas is not a day of worship; it is a day of vacation, just as it is for many other Americans.

CONGRESS

Social conservatives and the new Congress – I was on Capitol Hill on Thursday, January 3rd as the 113th Congress was sworn in. Only families of the Members are allowed at the actual swearing in ceremony, but I attended a reception with some of those that were elected with the help of the Government Is Not God- PAC (GING-PAC) of which I am the chairman. GING-PAC helped elect socially conservative Senators Cruz (R-TX) and Deb Fischer (R-NE). Please note that not a single economic conservative candidate backed by Karl Rove’s PAC won. Every Karl Rove candidate backed away from social issues, and every one of them lost. On the other hand, establishment talking heads tell the story that social conservatives caused the GOP to lose. Far from it. Without the pro-life candidates, the GOP would have only half of the Members in the House that it has now.

House: One in five faces are new – There are 82 new Members in the 435 seat House, and 14 new Senators. On the House side almost 20% of the Members are new, although one did previously serve back in the 1980′s. There are also two empty seats because of resignations that occurred before the new 113th Congress even had a chance to convene.

Of the 34 seats in the Senate up for grabs, 14 of them changed hands. More than one-third of the Senate seats that could get new Senators did. The only African-American in the Senate is a pro-life social conservative Republican. Everywhere I go, conservatives champion “term limits” because Congressmen “stay forever.”

At a recent Tea party meeting where I spoke, I asked those attending what percentage of seats they thought had changed hands. The guesses ranged from one to three percent. The reality is different from this “they stay forever” perception. The average length of service for Representatives is currently 9.8 years (4.9 terms) and for Senators is 11.4 years (1.9 terms).

Our work with Congress – Planned parenthood has gone wild, aborting more babies in 2012 than ever before while receiving more tax dollars than ever before from federal and state governments. Planned Parenthood’s 2011-2012 Annual Report showed they received a record $542 million in total taxpayer funding in one year, which made up 45% of their annual revenue.

I joined 29 other social conservative leaders in Washington, DC in signing a letter to Members of Congress supporting Representative Marsha Blackburn’s (TN-7) first pro-life bill in the U.S. House of Representatives on the first day of this session of Congress, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 61).

Blackburn’s legislation would prevent Title X federal funding from going to big, profitable abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood until they agree not to perform abortions or to refer women for elective abortions.

CULTURE AND RELIGION

For big bucks the media goes Islamic - The Islamization of America is accelerating in 2013 – thanks to Al Gore and Rupert Murdock.

Al Gore recently refused to sell his failing Current cable TV network to Glenn Beck, but he was more than willing to sell it to Al Jazeera, the terrorist-supporting Islamist network. Gore would rather have Americans exposed to radical Islamic propaganda than to a conservative such as Glenn Beck. This should come as no surprise, since leftists who hate the Judeo-Christian heritage of our nation seem not to find any fault in Islam. The left seems willing to side with anyone who has the goal of destroying the Christian nature of our nation.

For introducing al-Jazeera to America through a TV network that once showed with pride IED’s killing Americans during the Iraq war, Al Gore will make a profit of tens of millions of dollars. The payout to the great “environmentalist” will come from Arab oil money.

Rupert Murdoch and the “Prince”

Meanwhile on the right, the competing network to Al- Jazeera is partially owned by News Corp, the parent of Fox News. News Corp has an 18.97% stake in Saudi Prince Bin Talal’s Rotana Media group, which in turn owns the Al-Risala Arab speaking network.

Al-Risala is the flagship “religious broadcasting” television network of Rotana. In a lengthy exposé, author Diana West called it “an odious mouthpiece for the Sharia supremacism, anti-Westernism, general xenophobia, Jew-and broader infidel-hatred spewn forth from, and sadly pathognomonic of, contemporary Middle Eastern broadcast media.”

My good friend, author Dr. Andrew Bostom has made a suggestion to Rupert Murdock: Trade your share of this Islamic hate network to Prince Bin Talal for his share of News Corp. That trade would place Murdock out of the business of bashing Christians and Jews in the Middle East and keep Prince Bin Talal’s nose out of Fox News where he attempts, sometimes with success, to candy coat stories on Islamic hatred and violence.

            Almost daily I post updates on stories such as this one on Rupert Murdock at one of the Facebook pages I edit. You can find this page at www.Facebook.com/ShariaFreeUSA. There is now also a rotating globe at the www.ReligousFreedomCoaltion.org that shows those logged onto the site from all over the world. Please take a look at it.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990

How will the mass shooting at Newtown affect our nation? – Shortly after the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut this month, I wrote a lengthy column that was published by World Net Daily (WND.COM) which has the largest base of readers of any conservative publication. The publisher, Joseph Farah, is a good friend of mine whom I have known since 1982 when he was a reporter interviewing me about my first book, My Life Without God. He later told me that the book had a profound effect on him which led him to a closer relationship with the Lord.

Video game violence

The column I wrote, School Carnage: Blame church, not God or guns had a phenomenal response. Within 24 hours there were more than 350 comments left at WND.COM about the article. Governor Mike Huckabee contacted me and requested that I be on a segment of his national radio show on Monday, December 17^th. Several other media outlets also contacted me. I received a huge number of positive e-mails about the column. Dozens of pastors contacted me as well with positive views of the column.

The core of the column is simple logic: We have an out-of-control, violent culture and a church whose message is too weak and ineffectual to be effective. A just God who punishes sinners is not preached from most pulpits, so the threat of hell is not a deterrent to vile acts. Within two days of WND.COM publishing my column, others including Pat Buchanan also came forward with similar articles.

Meanwhile, the “mainstream” media outlets such as ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and the major newspapers are trying to blame mental illness and guns for the tragedy at Newtown. On the ABC nightly news it was asserted that 20% of children in the United States are mentally ill and that huge sums of money must be directed to help them. (ABC News stated that 23% of American women and 17% of American men are mentally ill.) It is ridiculous to state that one in five American children is mentally ill, but it would be right to state that at least one out of five children have no exposure to Christian teachings or morals.

Liberals of course want to use the murders at Newtown to ban guns, although the first such mass killing of young children at their school occurred in Dunblane, a small Scottish town where the United Kingdom’s worst school massacre occurred. On March 13, 1996, a gunman walked into the gymnasium of a primary school in the small close-knit town and shot dead 16 children and their teacher. This occurred in a nation where it is virtually impossible to buy a gun of any kind. In the UK only criminals and cops have guns. The real gun problem stems from the ridiculous privacy rules that came from the Roe v. Wade ruling by the Supreme Court, rules which allow the truly mentally ill to purchase guns. Not even the FBI can find out who has been in a mental ward.

Because of the tremendous response to School Carnage: Blame church, not God or guns I have decided to reprint the column in its entirety in this issue of the Chairman’s Report. I am also placing a permanent PDF version of the article on the Internet for anyone who would want to reprint it. The column appears below:

NEWTOWN MASSACRE:
School carnage: Blame church, not God or guns
William J. Murray reveals only way to turn society from violent, destructive path

by William Murray

William J. Murray is the chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Religious Freedom Coalition and the author of seven books including “My Life Without God,” which chronicles his early life in the home of destructive atheist and Marxist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair. Having lived the Marxist and the Ayn Rand lifestyle, he has a unique perspective on religion and politics.

If an individual is not afraid of the wrath of God, it is impossible to cause him to fear the justice of the state.

The killing of young children at their school will be linked by many pundits to the availability of guns. Still others will blame the violent act on some pathology or childhood trauma. Some may even blame the Hollywood culture with its disregard for humanity, on which human bodies are seen being dissected nightly on network TV. Virtually no one will call what occurred in Newtown an act of evil.

Probably not a single sermon will be preached in which the perpetrator is predicted to have begun his eternal punishment for his crime after judgment by a just and angry God. A splintered American church driven by a pew-hungry, feel-good message will offer assurances that eternal peace awaits all those who died, including the shooter. The words “hell” and “sin” will very likely not be used in any sermons associated with the massacre.

Yes, there is societal blame: Ridiculous privacy rules that allow the mentally ill to conceal their condition from schools, employers and gun-shop owners is just one. The constant esteem building in public schools teaching even low-functioning kids with anger problems to judge themselves equal to the valedictorian is yet another.

But the greatest villain is a church that has accepted the world’s view that hell does not await evildoers.

With a weak message from a weak church, there is no restraint or lessening of the violence. The shooting at Newtown was immediately followed by a shooting at a Birmingham, Ala., hospital and a Las Vegas hotel. Across the country, there are more than 16,000 murders each year. Of those, two-thirds are committed with guns. One in three murders is a very personal, vile act of evil using a knife, a blunt instrument or bare hands.

And the response of the church to this violence is “God loves you. Have a nice day.”

Adam Lanza had to shoot his way into the locked building. Public schools are not the soft targets many think they are. In more populated areas, there is virtually always an armed “safety officer” on duty because of the threat of student violence. Why?

My mother, atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, fought to make the public schools the armed camps they are today by removing prayer, the recognition of the authority of God. In 1962 and 1963, I was attending an all-boys public high school in downtown Baltimore, Md. The school was a magnet school before the term even existed and was intended to prepare young men for college, majoring in science and engineering. There were 1,800 teenage boys in the school, and there was not a cop in the building – ever. The doors were unlocked and often the un-air-conditioned rooms had open windows. There were no metal detectors, no picture IDs, and students went in and out the doors on the honor system.

The authority of God was present, even though I am very sure many of those young men, including myself, had some pretty vile thoughts that were not in the least way moral. The presence of the authority of God, vested in the teachers by His recognition every morning, was reinforced by the churches and the families of the students.

That high school has since merged with a girl’s school in another location, for purposes of political correctness. The last time I checked, the old building itself was the headquarters of the Baltimore City Schools Police Force, something that did not exist when Baltimore’s population was nearly double what it is now. Every kid at every school now has a photo ID. All the doors of every school are locked. All doors have metal detectors and drug-sniffing dogs roaming the corridors. I am told that every school in Baltimore has at least one armed “safety officer.”

In the vast majority of America’s public schools, the authority of God has been replaced with the authority of the iron fist of government. Morals? Without the authority of God, there are no morals, and none are taught in the public schools today. The ethics that are taught are situational, perhaps the same situational ethics that led to the logic that caused the tragic shootings in Newtown.

This condition exists in the schools and the society in general because of a failed church that is splintered and weak.

A large advertising sign near my home reads, “A church for those who don’t like church.” Translation: “No condemnation of sin here – we have coffee latte and great music.”

How about this politically incorrect sermon subject: “An angry God condemns the carnal sin of Adam Lanza, the Newtown school shooter who killed 26, and he will rot in eternal torment in hell, as do all those who turn their backs on God and his goodness and continue their wicked and sinful ways.”

No way, no how in America today.

No number of gun-control laws can contain the evil that has been let loose in America. Not even black clad police with masks and automatic weapons can maintain social order in our out-of-control society. The nation needs a religious revival to steer it away from certain moral destruction. That revival will not come from feel-good, coffeehouse sermons that do not call sin what it is.

What are preachers today offering to “save” people from, if sin is never mentioned? What punishment are they being “saved” from, if hell is never mentioned?

The fear of an angry and vengeful God was far more likely to have stopped the shootings in Newtown than the warm voice of a psychologist or the soothing feeling of drugs.

Eternity in hell is a very long time.

One of the greatest revival sermons of all times was that of Jonathon Edwards – “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Can you imagine even this one portion being repeated in a church in America today:  “There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men’s hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it.” (Jonathon Edwards)

God is not in the business of saving evil nations from themselves, but He is in the business of offering salvation to individuals. A nation is saved from ruin when enough of its people turn from their wicked ways and follow His righteous commands.

The challenge is to the churches of every denomination to preach the true Word of God, the nature of sin and the consequences of perpetrating evil. This alone can turn the society from its violent and destructive path. (End of column)

CONGRESS

It may be worse than you think – I am a social conservative first. My main point of advocacy work on Capitol Hill is to promote Christian values, protect the Christian heritage of our nation and petition to help the beleaguered Christians of the Middle East. I don’t work on tax issues, gun or other conservative issues unless they are somehow related to social or family issues. However, I am present at many of the closed meetings with congressmen and Senators when issues of the economy and taxes are discussed.

The situation is far worse that is publicly discussed. One Senator told me that a full default of the United States will occur and the best that can be done now is to delay it. The federal debt is so huge as to be unimaginable. This example sums up the problem: Bill Gates is the world’s richest man. If the government took all of his wealth, every dime he has, it would cover the Federal deficit for only 15 days.

The current debt does not include obligations for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military or government retirement obligations. We are at a point of having just two workers for every one person receiving some entitlement from the government. Eventually Social Security and Medicare will have to be cut or handed off to the states and everyone in Washington is aware that the only thing keeping the nation from becoming another Greece is that we can still borrow money. The government borrows 40% of the money it spends. How long can that last?

Will taxes go up in January? Yes. In fact there may be some retroactive tax increases. Taxes will not solve the problem. If all the babies that have been aborted could have lived, we would have a huge tax base and a growing economy. We need to make that point again and again to a selfish secular society.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990

A politician who robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the vote of Paul – This statement was obviously proven in the election of Barack Obama who spent four years expanding the ranks of dependency using every avenue of government possible, from food stamps to mortgage reductions.

At the founding of our nation, Benjamin Franklin said, “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” California has lead the way to hell in numerous ways for decades, and in November the vast majority of voters in that state passed a referendum to increase benefits to them by taxing a minority of the population. Politicians throughout the nation salivated over the results of the vote in California. In the 18^th century Voltaire wrote, “In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.” This requires central planning.

President Barack Hussein Obama has a vision of an American utopia not of equal opportunity, but of centrally planned equal outcomes. Many refer to Obama as a socialist or even a communist, but those are just two of the roads politicians in the past have chosen to create their vision of a centrally planned utopian state, or a false Garden of Eden on earth. Adolph Hitler is most often referred to as a fascist, but he was also one of the foremost central planners and utopianists in history. He called his brand of utopianism “national socialism.”

Central planning attempts at creating a utopia have always been paid for with stolen money, and most have lasted only until the stolen money was all spent. Hitler, for example, was indeed anti-Semetic, but his hatred of the Jews had practical applications as well. He stole the homes, furniture, jewels, money and even gold teeth of the Jews he killed to finance his thousand year utopian dream that lasted less than three decades and caused the deaths of tens of millions and the destruction of entire cities. He ran out of stolen money to finance his war machine and bring his utopian dream to the world. Toward the end he tried to trade Jews to the Allies for cash.

To create the “common good” and have “economic equality” a central government must “plan.” Barack Hussein Obama has vastly increased government to expand the central planning that already existed, thanks to both political parties. His version of central planning covers everything from “green energy” to forcing religious institutions to pay for contraceptives and abortions. His utopian central planning czars want to control our energy use, our diets and our incomes. Next, government will tell us where and when we can talk about our faith in the Lord.

There is freedom in central planning, but as F.A. Hayek pointed out in his famous Road to Serfdom, it is the “unlimited freedom of the planner to do with the society what he pleases.” Judeo-Christianity, which emphasizes the freedom of the individual under a supreme God, is not compatible with a central planner’s visions of a society in which “all gods are equal” under government. On the planet Barack Hussein Obama comes from, his vision of social good comes first, and all religions – except Islam – must conform to the centrally planned society. Individual freedom is not possible in a centrally planned society.

To the surprise of those who cherish true freedom and individual liberty, socialist utopians Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Barack Obama were both reelected this year. Neither of them has as yet run out of other people’s money to spend. Both men have still more money to grab and tens of millions of those dependent on government who will keep them in power.  The vote in California by a majority to increase the taxes on a minority was not a fluke; it was the new reality of an American society with a culture of dependency.

Only the revival of the family as a unit of stability can move the nation away from the condition of dependency it is in. One of the keys to rebuild American families is the church, which must stop preaching feel good messages and return to the truths of the Bible.

Obama’s international destruction – Over the past several decades I have driven rental cars myself in several Middle Eastern and African states. Two years ago my wife Nancy went on a mission trip with me to Israel and Jordan. While in Jordan, we took two days off and drove from Amman to Petra, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I drove the 250 kilometers or so south along the Jordan River, and Nancy and I stopped at several locations on the way, including an old crusader castle. We ate in local restaurants and I pumped my own gas.

Two years ago Syria was just as safe for Americans to drive around in as Jordan, perhaps even safer. Syria had a population of 2.5 million Christians before Barrack Hussein Obama began his Muslim Brotherhood campaign to overthrow the secular government of that nation. The city of Homs had 80,000 Christians when the Islamists began their uprising nearly twenty months ago. The last Christian in Homs, an 84-year-old man who refused to leave, was murdered by Obama supported rebels in November. The churches of Homs have been desecrated by the Islamist rebels and the dead were dug up from Christian cemeteries and their remains defiled.

In the last week of November, Islamists launched several suicide attacks against Christian targets. The final death toll is not yet in from a series of car bombs and suicide bombers who attacked the Christian neighborhoods of Damascus and the Christian town of Jaramana. The death toll from just two attacks at last count was 54, although rescue workers were still digging in the rubble. Christian civilians are killed almost daily by the Islamist rebels.

Communications equipment furnished to the Islamist rebels by the United States is probably used to coordinate the attacks on Christian targets. On December 1, the State Department bragged that the United States had furnished “spy proof” communications equipment to the murdering Islamist thugs terrorizing civilians. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “They are all designed to be independent from and able to circumvent the Syrian domestic network, precisely for the reason of keeping them safe, keeping them secure from regime tampering, regime listening and regime interruption.”

The United States supplies only “non-lethal” aid to the Islamist rebels such as spy gear, body armor, vehicles and full logistical support from the CIA including satellite images to guide Islamist rebels to targets. The actual weapons used by the Islamists are paid for by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two of the world’s most repressive nations, both which lack any freedom of speech and repress women. Does anyone really believe the Saudis want democracy in Syria?

Ambassador Stevens, who was killed in Benghazi on September 11^th, was there to arrange weapons transfers from Libya to the Islamist rebels in Syria. He was actually killed shortly after meeting with a Turkish military attaché.

Obama supports Egyptian Muslim oppression – Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi issued a decree forbidding courts to rule against virtually anything he does, in what can only be described as assuming dictatorial powers. Although Christians and secularists are demonstrating in the streets of Cairo, the Obama Administration stands firmly with Morsi and has no criticism of his power grab. Meanwhile Morsi’s organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, continues to call for jihad against Israel and the killing of Jews.

Obama’s West Point gay wedding chapel – The Defense of Marriage Act, which is the law of the land, clearly states that the federal government only recognizes marriage between one man and one woman. Despite this law, the Obama Administration has championed homosexual marriage in the military.

On December 1st the chapel at the West Point Military Academy was defiled by a lesbian wedding. The wedding made a mockery of the chapel and the founding principles of the United States Army. Over the last four years, Obama has turned the military upside down, demanding to change it from a unified fighting force to a laboratory of social change. Respect for one’s superior is tantamount in any military operation. Now married men who love the Lord must follow the orders of lesbians and homosexuals who hold their beliefs in contempt.

The refusal of leading Republicans to condemn the use of the chapel at West Point for a lesbian marriage is appalling. Congress must act to reinforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Obama Administration refuses to defend in court against lawsuits by radical homosexuals.

Obama’s intentions are clear with regard to same-sex marriage. He plans to alter the federal code and the Medicare rules to allow homosexual “couples” the benefits now reserved for heterosexual married couples, at a cost of billions of dollars a year to the taxpayers of this nation.

CONGRESS

 Too late the GOP calls to rein in entitlements – Senate Minority Leader McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner spent the entire last week of November ignoring all social issues and continuing their fight to stop Barack Obama from increasing taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year.

News flash for McConnell and Boehner: You lost the election doing this.

The nation has gone past the tipping point. There are simply not enough people paying income taxes to get majority public support for this position. Obama is robbing Peter to pay Paul as mentioned above. All those “Pauls,” plus the radical environmentalists, Christian-hating atheists, homosexual radicals and nutty rich liberals like Warren Buffet, came together to vote for Obama and kept Harry Reid in charge of the Senate. The Republicans desperately need social conservatives, yet are now ignoring our issues.

Not even a month has passed since the election and the GOP establishment is distancing itself from social conservative leaders. These establishment guys really believe that telling the 50% of the adults who pay no income tax at all that they are going to reduce spending and cut taxes is going to get them elected. How? People on food stamps are not going to vote for the GOP if the social issues are tossed in the trash. And meanwhile the Democrats are proud of their stance on social issues. Democrat congressmen ride in “gay parades” and help women get to abortion clinics. Most Republicans hide on the day of the Right to Life march in January.

Many of those who pay no taxes at all and receive government assistance vote for Republican candidates because they are pro-life and pro-traditional family. Is such a family on food stamps going to vote for a Republican who both supports same-sex marriage and wants to cut food stamps?  The same family will, however, vote for a strong social conservative.

In the November election 80% of the candidates backed by my social conservative political action committee won! Not a single candidate supported by Karl Rove’s political action committee won, despite the fact that he spent hundreds of millions of dollars. Of the four Senate candidates my political action committee backed, two won. Both are 100% pro-life and stand for the traditional family.

The stupidity in the GOP establishment is stunning but I do understand it.

Speaker John Boehner listens as William J Murray speaks

John Boehner and John McConnell don’t even know anyone who doesn’t pay big time taxes. Both these men pay tens of thousands of dollars in federal income tax each year and just don’t get the fact that half of Americans no longer pay anything. All their friends pay tens of thousands of dollars in tax each year.  It just comes natural for them to think: “I could do good things with that money if the government doesn’t take it.” And Obama has the answer for them:  “Give it to me and I will do what I deem to be good.”

Obama even wants to curtail tax deductions for charitable giving. Obama prefers the government to get your money in tax dollars, rather than you being able to give to charity.

Democrats are proud of their unholy alliances with evil, but the Republican establishment is ashamed of their moral allies who stand with the Bible. Thankfully there are more than one hundred members of Congress in the Congressional Prayer Caucus that social conservative leaders like me can continue to work with.

The GOP establishment needs to get some Old Time Religion!

Since the election I have met with six different Republican Senators and several congressmen.  I have forcefully pressed the message that Republicans cannot stay in power with the sole strategy of keeping taxes low … Yes, we do need low taxes for economic growth, but our nation also needs to be right in the eyes of God.  America cannot at the same time kill over one million babies a year, mock the Bible with same-sex marriages, and bow to the false god of Islam throughout the world, without receiving God’s judgement.

We must continue the fight on Capitol Hill for both financial responsibility and the Judeo-Christian values of our nation.

Four More Years: The victory of Barack Hussein Obama was no real surprise to me. I expected the outcome, and the only state that went to Obama that really surprised me was Virginia. Most social conservatives held the same view as I did about the election, but did not publicly speak about the probable reelection of Obama for fear of discouraging voters at a time when many good social conservatives were running for the House and Senate.

As did other social conservative leaders, I worked diligently to educate the public about the real agenda of Barack Hussein Obama despite knowing he would probably win. For several months the Religious Freedom Coalition ran newspaper ads exposing the threat that Barack Hussein Obama poses to religious freedom. Personally, I wrote numerous opinion-editorials for newspapers and online publications such as WND.com. I warned that Obama was a utopionist, a proponent of central planning and collectivism and that these concepts inevitably lead to disaster for nations.

However, in my heart, I knew that Barack Hussein Obama had won the election the day that Gov. Mitt Romney won the GOP primary.

I am sure that Mitt Romney loves his nation and that he is an honorable man, but no one can win a national election on just one issue. Romney talked only about economic issues. For months he campaigned on the fact that he would lower taxes and create jobs.

Problem one: Only one out of every two households in the United States pays income taxes. A promise to lower the taxes of those who pay no taxes at all just does not resonate. A few weeks before the election, Mitt Romney made his 47% remark at a fund raising event, and the media pounced on his “gaff”.  It was not a gaff, but not really the truth either. Romney said the 47% who paid nothing in and took lots out were not going to vote for him.

His mistake was in not realizing that many in this group vote Republican for issues other than taxes.  The 47% includes millions of very socially conservative seniors who are on social security after a lifetime of hard work, and who are concerned about the country their children and grandchildren are inheriting.  It includes veterans angry about the weakening of the military and the attempt to force the homosexual agenda on our soldiers. It includes hard working couples and individuals who don’t make enough to pay taxes, but who care about the country’s moral collapse and the drift toward welfare dependency.

Romney had virtually nothing to say about religious freedom, abortion, same-sex “marriage”, fighting the war on drugs, stopping illegal immigration, or any social issue.

The GOP candidate’s single issue “lower taxes and more jobs” strategy was no match for the millions of people who voted for Obama because of “what’s in it for me.”  Some Obama voters feared welfare payments would be cut or unemployment payment periods reduced by a Republican. Still others voted for Obama because they were promised more union jobs with higher pay. Most Obama voters had no interest in the “fiscal cliff” or the huge deficit, or the declining economic and military power of our nation. They voted for Obama’s race, his image and for their hope of personal gain.

Barack Hussein Obama received millions of votes from people who have little command of the English language beyond that needed to shop at Walmart, and who have no concept of our form of government.  Millions more cast their ballots for Obama for purely racial reasons.

Blacks, Hispanics, and single mothers were the biggest voting blocks for Obama. What issues concerned these voting blocs?

Continued affirmative action in jobs and education for blacks and Hispanics
Continued welfare payments without work
Continued years of unemployment payments
Continued free medical services for children under the SCHIP program
Continued free lunch programs at schools
Continued free day care services
Continued expansion of the Food Stamp program
Continued massive student loans and much more!

There are also power players who backed Obama and who donated generously to his campaign, but who are not among the takers.  Those included a variety of wealthy socialists such as George Soros, trade unionists who want card check, various minorities who want special status, plus those who want legalization of same-sex marriage, or legalization of marijuana and other mind altering drugs.

There was a common theme uniting those who voted for Obama: “What is in this for me?” or, “what is in it for my agenda?”  With this single objective in mind, there is no need to understand the Constitution, basic economic principles or the dangers of foreign entanglements.  Aircraft carriers are not needed to deliver food stamps or welfare checks, so military strength is not an important issue.

Those voting for Romney, Johnson or Goode wanted less personal involvement with government, not more. As for the Tea Party, most Tea Party members would prefer to have their lives virtually invisible to government. People supporting themselves don’t want government involved in their lives. This is a huge contrast, and it is a contrast that divides the nation.

Final analysis – The 2012 presidential election was not lost in 2012, but years earlier. As the welfare state grew, a tipping point was reached, I believe sometime during the 1990’s when the Republicans were firmly in charge of the Congress. The footprint of those who pay income taxes was reduced. So many people did not pay income taxes that it was no longer an important issue for the majority. In 2000, George W. Bush actually lost the popular vote by 543,816 votes. In 2004 he only won reelection because of the number of states, including Ohio, that had marriage protection acts or anti-gay marriage amendments up for a vote at the same time. Karl Rove, who knew Bush would be defeated without a strong social conservative vote, orchestrated the traditional marriage votes in swing states to help Bush win.

The only GOP candidate with a hope of winning the 2012 election was populist Rick Santorum, whom I supported. Santorum’s strong pro-life position along with his knowledge of the Islamist threat and known record of support for Israel could have helped him win. Running for office in Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum received a huge share of the Jewish vote.

The GOP establishment and the big money men in the anti-tax movement handed Mitt Romney all the money he needed to beat Santorum and win the primary.

A lot of that money going to the GOP this election cycle came from those opposed to the views that you and I hold dear. Billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, who directed millions to anti-tax GOP candidates including Romney, support same-sex marriage. Both men also want to cut the military as a way to lower taxes.

Is the nation as we know it lost? – Social Security is the “third rail” of politics. It is a tremendously popular program not only with seniors but with their children as well. Social Security provides a safety net for the elderly but also reduces the burden on younger Americans to care for elderly parents. Unfortunately Social Security has become an excuse for many children to financially abandon their parents. This has harmed both the family and social fabric.

The war on the traditional family began with President Franklin Roosevelt’s Social Security and other programs. One of the main reasons for marriages staying together was maintaining homes and wealth for old age. With the promise of government retirement money, many marriages could be walked away from for some very frivolous reasons. The divorce rates climbed as Social Security and other government benefits increased.

With many elders taken care of by the government, younger Americans could spend their money on themselves. Social Security and other benefits provided by government encouraged people to borrow and spend rather than to save. With a promise of government payouts to come in the future, the savings rate in the nation dropped to zero.

Federal welfare spending increases

In the 1960’s Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty” started providing “poor children” and “single mothers” with government benefits. A second front was opened up against the traditional family. Now the government paid women with children not to marry. With the advent of Medicare for the aging and “SCHIP” to provide medical care for children in homes with incomes of up to four times the level of poverty, younger adults had even more money to spend on everything from booze to cars to Chinese made clothes. The more adults were freed from the financial responsibilities of family life by government, the more families began to deteriorate.

The benefits government provided grew in the cities faster than anywhere else. Cities offered more housing, food and health benefits than suburban and rural areas. People who wanted the government to take care of more of their needs gravitated toward the cities, while those who wanted less government and more freedom moved away from the cities. Take a good look at the election map by county for 2012. It reveals a divided nation, with most takers in the cities and most of the payers in the suburban and rural areas.

Dependence on government gets extreme in some of these environments.  In Manhattan, if a light bulb burns out in an apartment, the resident calls maintenance to replace it. By contrast,  in rural Georgia, if someone has a sewer problem he rents a backhoe and fixes it himself. These are two totally different views of the world. Those who provide for themselves understand the city dwellers and the takers.  But the takers view independent people as bigots who should be taxed because they are “more fortunate.” No one in Manhattan can understand why anyone, anywhere in the nation, would need a pickup truck or a high calorie breakfast.

In New York City the mayor wants to outlaw sodas of more than 16 ounces and discourage people from eating cheeseburgers. With all the free services provided by the city including daycare, education, housing and medical care, who would need to work hard enough to eat a high calorie meal? Besides that, those receiving the benefits in the cities also provide millions of high paying government jobs to those handing out the benefits.

Can those who simply want freedom from government interference in their lives, return to power in a nation in which one out of every two households receives government aid?

For at least a decade I have heard the “tipping point” warnings coming from conservatives on Capitol Hill.  I still hear those warnings, but they are now useless.

As I mentioned above the nation has passed the tipping point. There are simply now more receiving than paying in.  Families are so broken that constant government support must be provided. Government has taken on family expenses including school lunch for millions of kids.

The worship of sex and violence by the media and by the public enfeebles the power of the church and synagogue. More people watch human bodies being nonchalantly dissected on TV crime shows each week than attend church. Yes, the tipping point has been passed, but it was not just the fiscal tipping-point; it was the moral tipping point as well.

When government rather than the family becomes the main provider, people see fewer practical reasons for morality. More adults live together without benefit of marriage. More children are born out of wedlock. More young men destroy their lives in homosexuality. Drug use destroys the will to work and the will to live. And government finances it all, but at a cost to the future. Benefit payments are so high that basic government services are not affordable.

Highways which were once free to use are being rebuilt by private companies as toll roads, because the entitlement spending has reached a level that does not allow for other needs, such as proper repair of the infrastructure. The nation is $14 trillion in debt, and that is about the same amount of money needed to repair aging roads, bridges and other critical systems. Our military is the smallest since World War I and our currency is devalued daily by government printing presses churning out dollars. Real inflation eats away 6% of our savings each year, while the government pretends it is just 2% to keep down Social Security payments which are adjusted each year for inflation. This keeps interest the government pays on loans low as well.

The Koch brothers, Donald Trump and anti-tax king Grover Norquist will push the GOP to drop its “moral wing” to attract single mothers and homosexuals. It doesn’t matter; no political party can save America, but the Lord can save Americans.

Hope does remain: That hope is in the promise of Jesus Christ and the Word of God. The Gospel changes lives and hearts and we must all work to win hearts at all levels. That alone can change the direction of our nation.

We cannot surrender. The truth of the Gospel and the Biblical view of the family must still be presented to the lost. On a political level those who love the Lord and hold the Bible as truth must continue to knock on the doors of congressmen and Senators. It is our responsibility as believers to warn the leaders of this nation away from the dangerous path they have chosen for the people. We must return both power and responsibility back to the God ordained family.

 William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990

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