Atheists get Santa Monica Nativity’s display spaces in park

For nearly 60 years at Christmastime, Christian congregations from Santa Monica have come together to organize a life-sized Nativity scene, using 14 display areas in a city park to illustrate the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

This year, however, the story had to be abridged.

Because of a city lottery system to dole out available spots in Santa Monica’s Palisades Park, along Ocean Avenue, atheists have been able to claim most of the display spaces traditionally used for the Nativity, leaving room for only three of the scenes.

Damon Vix, an atheist, had a display last year that included a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “Religions are all alike — founded on fables and mythologies.” And this year, he told the Santa Monica Daily Press that he encouraged other atheists to join him.

“For 60 years, it’s almost exclusively been the point of view of Christians putting up Nativity scenes for a whole city block,” Vix told the Daily Press.

But the group that has long organized the Nativity scenes bristled at the atheists’ move, saying it upends a long-standing winter tradition for the city — and impedes their freedom of expression.”By trying to push the Nativity scene out of the park and silence us, these people are infringing on our freedom and 1st Amendment rights,” said Hunter Jameson, a Nativity organizer, said in a statement. “The truth is this: The Nativity Scenes Committee has no objection to displays anyone else puts up under the rules that disagree with ours. That is fine. That is the American way of free speech and fair play. Unlike our opponents, we are not trying to push anyone out of Palisades Park. There is plenty of room for all the displays that ever have been erected at Christmas, including this year.”One of the other displays includes a menorah set up by a Jewish group.City officials said it turned to the lottery system to make sure the process for distributing the display spaces was fair. City Atty. Marsha Moutrie told the Daily Press that “everyone has equal rights to use the streets and parks for expressive activities.”

Courtesy of http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/atheists-takes-santa-monica-nativity-scenes-spots-in-park.html

Texas Governor Sued Over Upcoming Prayer Rally

A group of atheists has filed a lawsuit against the Texas’ governor for his coordinating and being an advocate for a prayer rally that the group says violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

Gov. Rick Perry, 61, declared that August 6th be a day of prayer and fasting and invited governors from across the nation to be with him in Houston on this special day.

His office calls the celebration a “non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting hosted by the American Family Association,” a organization that believes “a culture based on Biblical truth best serves the well-being of our country.”

The governor’s proclamation itself does not mention AFA or Christianity. It cites moments in history when leaders turned to prayer, such as in 1787 when Benjamin Franklin urged for prayer in an address before the Constitutional Convention.

Regardless, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of members residing in the state, accusing the governor of providing official recognition to a religious event.

According to the foundation, the governor is “giving the appearance that the government prefers evangelical Christian religious beliefs over other religious beliefs” and that “non-believers are political outsiders.”

In their 19-page complaint, the foundation seeks an “injunction prohibiting Governor Perry’s further involvement in the scheduled prayer rally, as well as an injunction against future uses of official indicia of the State of Texas in promoting and proclaiming the establishment of religion.”

A spokesperson for Perry told ABC in response to the lawsuit that the governor believes the rally is “an important opportunity for Americans to gather together and pray to God.”

Gov. Perry is the longest-serving governor in Texas history, chair of the Republican Governors Association, and a potential 2012 presidential hopeful.

Courtesy of http://www.christianlawjournal.com/featured-articles/texas-gov-sued-over-upcoming-prayer-rally

Apologist Josh McDowell: Internet the Greatest Threat to Christians

Atheists and skeptics now have equal access to our children as we have, which is why the number of Christian youth who believe in the fundamentals of Christianity is decreasing and sexual immorality is growing, apologist Josh McDowell said.

“What has changed everything?” asked the apologist from Campus Crusade for Christ International as he spoke on “Unshakable Truth, Relevant Faith” at the Billy Graham Center in Asheville, N.C., Friday evening. His answer was, the Internet.

“The Internet has given atheists, agnostics, skeptics, the people who like to destroy everything that you and I believe, the almost equal access to your kids as your youth pastor and you have… whether you like it or not,” said McDowell, who is author of two books on Christian apologetics, More than a Carpenter and New Evidence that Demands Verdict.

The belief or worldview, McDowell said, forms values, which in turn drive one’s behavior. The worldview “is where we are falling down the most anywhere in the world.” So what is the prevalent worldview in America today? “There is no truth apart from myself,” that’s what even many young “evangelical, fundamental, born-again Christians” believe, he said.

While 51 percent of evangelical Christians did not believe in absolute truth in an earlier survey, the percentage escalated to 62 in 1994. In 1999, it jumped to 78 percent. “You know what it is now?” asked McDowell. “One of the most staggering statistics in history of the church… 91 percent said there is no absolute truth apart from myself.”

Another study, added McDowell, showed that only six percent of all teenagers in America, including Christians, said there isn’t any truth apart from myself. There was a difference of only five percent between believers and non-believers, he noted. Moreover, less than four percent of evangelical born-again Christians believed the Bible was infallible in every situation, and 63 percent of them believed He is “a” Son of God and not “the” Son of God, he added.

“Now here is the problem,” said McDowell, “going all the way back, when Al Gore invented the Internet [he said jokingly], I made the statement off and on for 10-11 years that the abundance of knowledge, the abundance of information, will not lead to certainty; it will lead to pervasive skepticism. And, folks, that’s exactly what has happened. It’s like this. How do you really know, there is so much out there… This abundance [of information] has led to skepticism. And then the Internet has leveled the playing field [giving equal access to skeptics].”

McDowell, who lives in southern California with his wife Dottie and four children, said atheists, agnostics and skeptics didn’t have access to kids earlier. “If they wrote books, not many people read it. If they gave a talk, not many people went. They would normally get to kids maybe in the last couple of years of the university.” But that has changed now.

Around 15 years ago, the apologist added, when Christian youth ministries were raising money for youth projects, the big phrase was, “If you don’t reach your child by their 18th birthday, you probably won’t reach them.” What is it now? “If you do not reach your child by their 12th birthday, you probably won’t reach them.”

The Internet is weakening Christian witness and “we better wake up to it because it’s just beginning.” McDowell added that his greatest asset, value-wise, used to be his time until a year and a half ago. “My greatest asset now is my focus. There is so much out there just one click away, what am I going to focus on?”

McDowell, who considered himself an agnostic before accepting Christ, warned that the sexual immorality through the Internet was “marginalizing the maturity of the witness of Christ…all over the world.” It’s an “invasive, intruding immorality… that is all just one click away.” He said the majority of questions young people ask him are about sex, mainly “oral sex.”

The majority of all the 2.2 billion people who go to the Internet daily are between 15 to 25 years of age, he said. And there are 4.2 million pornographic sites. “Do you know how many pornographic emails would be circulated just today? 2.5 billion…just one click away.”

The Campus Crusade staff also said around 90 percent of the 16-year-olds, according to the latest statistics, had viewed pornography. And 80 percent of 15- to 17-year-olds had had exposure to hardcore pornography. In a recent study, teenagers were asked if pornography was acceptable, and 67 percent of the men and 59 percent of the women said “yes,” he added. “For 47 percent of Christian families, pornography is a major problem. Association of Divorce Lawyers came out and said that over 50 percent of divorces were directly related to pornography.”

How can this be checked? You can use the content control on a computer, but what about their cellphone, and their friends’ computers? “Folks, you can’t isolate your kids.”

McDowell proposed three ways to deal with the problem. “First, we have to model the truth. If you don’t model what you teach your kids, forget it. If they don’t see it, they won’t believe it… Second, we have to build relationships.” Just as truth without relationship leads to rejection, rules without relationship lead to rebellion, he said. “Kids don’t respond to rules. They respond to rules in the context of a loving, intimate relationship.” And third, he said, we have to use knowledge. “You better arm yourselves to answer your children’s and grandchildren’s questions…no matter what the question is…without being judgmental.” Kids’ greatest defense, he said, was the knowledge of truth.

However, McDowell said, as many as 85 to 90 percent of the evangelical Christian parents in America are not equipped to handle their kids. Christians, he urged, needed to understand the time, quoting 1 Chronicles 12:32: “Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…”

Courtesy of http://www.christianpost.com/news/apologist-josh-mcdowell-internet-the-greatest-threat-to-christians-52382/

Atheists head for high schools with new clubs for Godless teens

Chris Colfer (Kurt on

CAPTION

By Kevin Winter, Getty Images

If Glee shows singing geeks as high school pariahs, imagine being an atheist on campus.

Now. the Secular Student Alliance, which promotes atheism and humanism with chapters at more than 200 colleges, is sending in reinforcements for teen free-thinkers — a push to launch 50 new high school clubs.Godless teens want the same social benefits that evangelical teens find at the annual “See you at the pole” flagpole prayer events at thousands of schools every September, and the court-sanctioned after school Bible clubs, and Christian, Jewish and Muslim student groups.

J.T. Eberhard, of the Columbus, Ohio-based Alliance, says.

High school is hard for anybody and we are among the most reviled groups in America. These clubs give kids a chance to socialize with like-minded people. There’s nothing in our mission statement about tearing down religion.

Even Glee took an episode to show the double-trouble that gay character Kurt faced when Kurt came out as an atheist.

Eberhard is a young ex-believer (“a teacher witnessed to me in high school,” he recalls) who was hired last month by the Alliance to focus on high school outreach. But so far this year, he’s hit a Jericho wall with administrators using technicalities to block student-led clubs.

The Alliance has launched five new clubs but “three had a struggle and six more are still stymied.” So far, of the two 17 student-led clubs now operating, “two meet secretly,” Eberhard says.

Alliance spokesman Jesse Galef verified the experience of an Oklahoma student (name withheld at his request) who shared his anonymous saga on Reddit’s atheism site last year.

The student held one meeting but as soon as the principal heard about it, he was ordered to the school office where he was accused of launching a “hate club.” Shortly after, the requisite faculty adviser withdrew. According to the student’s saga, the adviser was told it would be “a bad career move.”

Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, calls such maneuvers

… an illegal end-run around the constitutional rights of non-religious students.

Lynn, who helped write the Equal Access Act in 1984, calls it “a free speech benefit,” for believers and atheists alike. The only purpose of including a faculty member in the club establishment requirements is just to be sure discipline and order are maintained, not to make any religious, or irreligious connection in a student led activity, says Lynn.

Brian Lisco, 18, a senior Stephen Austin High School in the Houston suburbs, found his efforts to form a club were delayed for three months by one hurdle after another. At one point the principal said he could have the club — if he just called it a Philosophy Club and did not affiliate with the Secular Student Alliance.

Lisco, however, wouldn’t give up the Alliance ties. He says,

We atheists are already invisible — we don’t come out. That’s a form of repression in itself. It’s about getting pushed to the margin of our community.

 

Atheists want eveyone to celebrate the 202 birthday of evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin on Saturday. Secular Student Alliance clubs will hold Darwin Day parties.

CAPTION

AFP/Getty Images

After a request for comment from USA TODAY, the school abruptly granted Lisco the Secular Student Alliance Club on Tuesday. If Lisco moves fast, he can still organize a Darwin Day celebration: Saturday is his 202th birthday.

The experience was different for June Murphy, 17, co-founder of the Unbelievables, the Secular Student Alliance club at the elite public magnet high school in Chicago, Northside College Prep. She recalls,

The only bummer was when our flyers were mysteriously torn down.

All it took were three students, a mission statement and an adviser and they were rolling — with new flyers placed in sight of school security cameras.

The 20-or-so Unbelievables fit right in with the religion clubs like one for Muslims and another for Christians, says Murphy, who is also vice-president of the Jewish Student Union, “because I come from a long line of atheist Jews.”

They meet weekly although it was canceled once by “an act of God, the blizzard closed the schools last week,” Murphy says. They talk about how to get through the religious holidays and recently played ” ‘religion Jeopardy’ to see what we know about the Bible.”

And the Secular Student Alliance, now celebrating 250 clubs total, expects more growth. Their latest press release touts findings by the American Religious Identification Survey:

29% of 18-29 year olds are religiously unaffiliated, compared with 15% of the population as a whole.

Ciourtesy of http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2011/02/atheists-group-takes-on-high-school-/1

Editor Note: It is a sad commentary for these young people who are so deceived into running from and turning their back on God who is so good, magnificent and awesome that they miss out on a relationship with Him. They bring to mind the sad truth in Job that another will die in bitterness of soul never having tasted that God is good. I pray that their eyes are opened and God works a miracle in their hearts.

Pro-Christian Message Shadows Atheist Ads in Texas

A week after atheists rolled out their “Good without God” bus ads in Fort Worth, a blue mobile billboard truck appeared in the city declaring an entirely different message.

I still love you. – God,” the billboard reads. In a smaller font size, the ad also states, “2.1 billion people are good with God.”

The blue truck was sponsored by an anonymous group of individuals, according to Heath Hill, president of Lime Media, which owns a fleet of mobile billboard trucks.

“These are business owners and individuals that really just want the atheists to know God hasn’t give up on them and still loves them,” Hill told Fox 4 News.

The truck ad is in response to the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason’s ad campaign, launched last week. The ads, plastered on the sides of Fort Worth’s “T” buses, declare, “Millions of Americans are good without God.” The backdrop of the ads is an image of an American flag made up of the faces of actual atheist and agnostic people.

The coalition said the campaign is designed to raise awareness about people who don’t believe in a god and to guide those interested to the 15 area nontheistic groups that make up the DFW coalition.

The atheist group had also planned to run the ads on Dallas buses, but the Dallas Area Rapid Transit rejected the campaign.

“They chose to stop running all religiously-related ads rather than include ours,” DFW coalition coordinator Terry McDonald said in a statement.

Still, similar ads have been showing up in cities across the country as part of a national effort by the United Coalition of Reason.

McDonald said they are not only trying to reach out to like-minded Americans, but also sending a message to religious people.

“We want religious people to understand that non-believers are basically the same as everyone else,” he said. “We are as good, as moral as any other group. If you look you’ll find us among your friends, neighbors, coworkers and family members. There are about 50 million non-religious people in the United States. It’s time we were recognized and granted our rightful place in society.”

The DFW Coalition of Reason began advertising last year, with billboards informing the secular public that they are not alone in their unbelief.

While the atheist group tries to spread its message this holiday season, the anonymous group behind the blue truck is proclaiming its pro-Christian message from closely behind. The blue truck was hired to shadow a “T” bus in Fort Worth carrying the atheist ad, beginning Monday.

Courtesy of http://www.christianpost.com/article/20101207/pro-christian-message-shadows-atheist-ads-in-texas/

Atheists Break Out New Ritual Tool: The Blow-Dryer

Wielding a blow-dryer, a leading atheist conducted a mass “de-baptism” of fellow non-believers and symbolically dried up the offending waters that were sprinkled on their foreheads as young children.

At the annual American Atheists Convention, one of atheism’s premier provocateurs, Edwin Kagin, faced the crowd and raised high a hairdryer labeled “Reason and Truth.”

At the annual American Atheists Convention, one of atheism’s premier provocateurs, Edwin Kagin, faced the crowd and raised high a hairdryer labeled “Reason and Truth.”

Said one woman who travelled from Cincinnati to undergo the de-baptism, “I was baptized Catholic. I don’t remember any of it at all.” The woman, Cambridge Boxterman, 24, added, “According to my mother I screamed like a banshee, and those are her words, so you can see that even as a young child I didn’t want to be baptized. It’s not fair. I was born atheist and they were forcing me to become Catholic.”

Kagin, who is American Atheists’ national legal director, firmly believes that regardless of one’s religious beliefs, each person has the right to say or do what he or she wants, provided it is within the law. In the past, he has reportedly called out parents who subject their children to strict fundamentalist religious education, referring to it as child abuse.

“It is teaching children that the world works in other ways than it does,” he said. “This can be extremely dangerous.”

“They are practicing child abuse in teaching that the world operates in ways other than it does,” he told the convention crowd. “And in my opinion, they are engaged in terrorism by weakening our nation and our understanding of science and things with which we can defend ourselves and progress. If it had not been for these fools we could have been at the stars 2,000 years ago.”

Kagin, author of “Baubles of Blasphemy,” has a history of behaving in ways that elicit a rise from God-fearing people. He’s known to have asked female atheists to dress in burqas and perform a song, “Back in their Burquas Again,” he’s referred to Mary Magdalene as a deranged hooker and he’s called the Holy Eucharist “Swallow the Leader.”

Kagin said religion should not be used to determine how people ought to live their lives. “They’re doing harm to women who want to control their own bodies and their own reproductive rights,” he said. “They’re doing harm to a great number of people and they’re saying that ‘what we’re doing is sacred and inviolate. We can do whatever we want to your rights, and you can not react.’ That’s what they’re doing.”

It is in this same spirit that Kagin performs the de-baptism.

One of atheism’s premier provocateurs, Edwin Kagin, right, with his son, Stephen Kagin, who is a minister.

(Courtesy Edwin Kagan)

Standing at a podium wearing a long brown monk’s robe, Kagin read with the oratorical skill of a preacher from a set of pages in his hand and invited participants to come forward to be de-baptized.

He recited a few mock-Latin syllables, to the audience’s amusement. An assistant produced a large hairdryer, labeled “Reason and Truth,” and handed it to Kagin. The man who’d elected himself to be de-baptized stood before him. Kagin turned on the hairdryer, blowing the hot air in his face in an attempt to symbolically dry up his baptismal waters.

“Come forward now and receive the spirit of hot air that taketh away the stigma and taketh away the remnants of the stain of baptismal water,” Kagin shouts.

Atheists poke fun at baptisms in this ceremony, saying they believe their waving around a hairdryer holds the same level of magical and spiritual powers as does the baptismal ceremony.

Kagin said that many people have undergone de-baptism.”Many have taken it as somewhat of a joke, but some have found it truly, if you will, a spiritually cleansing experience,” he said.

Kagin has said he doesn’t particularly care who he’s offending with his actions, and that he is acting completely within his rights. “You can mock anything you want because you have the right to,” he said. “Humor is humor and what types of humor are you going to outlaw?” he said.

He conceded that although it may not be good manners to continually take a mocking stance toward religion, “in many cases, it is the only real response.”

Kagin said he thought some people might get overly offended by his poking fun at religion. “If someone is so secure in their faith, why are they the least bit concerned about some little atheist mocking them?” he asked. “I think the reason they are worried and concerned is the very deep fear that if everyone doesn’t believe it, maybe it isn’t so.”

For Kagin, this struggle between godless and god-fearing hits very close to home: his son, Steve Kagin, is a fundamentalist minister in Kansas.

He founded Camp Quest, a secular summer camp for young nonbelievers, many of whom, he says, have been harrassed or hounded for their lack of faith.

And then there’s this interesting twist. His own son, Steve Kagin, is a fundamentalist minister in Kansas.

Kagin said that his son claims to have a personal revelation in Jesus Christ. “I am totally unable to say that’s not true,” he said. “There are examples all through history of quite sane people who have had such experiences. I don’t think it is but I’m not going to say it isn’t.”

When asked if he is pained by their opposing views on this issue, Kagin chuckled. “Oh, one wonders where they went wrong,” he said. He and his son, Steven, have an excellent relationship, Kagin said, but they do have their limits.

“We just understand there are certain things we really can’t, at this point, talk about,” he said.

“I don’t lose much sleep over [it] because everyone has the right to do what they want to do within the law,” he said. “That’s what I believe in.”

As Cambridge completed her de-baptism, she expressed no qualms about how it might be perceived. “Sometimes you’ve got to have shock value,” she said. “There’s some times where you just have to shock people into getting attention and from there, they ask questions… And maybe they learn a bit.”

Kagin said that he saw the conflict between atheists and believers as America’s religious civil war. He said bad manners are a reasonable weapon in that war, but he said it was unlikely that atheists would emerge as the victors.

“Atheists have no chance whatsoever of prevailing in a direct confrontation with believers,” he said. “There are far too many [believers].”

Courtesy of http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/atheists-conduct-de-baptisms/story?id=11109379&page=3

Atheists, religious groups lobby on Day of Prayer

MADISON, Wis.—To pray or not to pray? That’s the issue government leaders across the country are facing after a federal judge ruled that the National Day of Prayer set for May 6 was unconstitutional.

The ruling can’t take effect until all appeals are exhausted, but that’s not stopping atheists and prayer advocates from firing off letters, e-mails and even planning to put up billboards to convince state and local leaders across the country to see things their way.

Nothing’s changing in Topeka, Kan., says Mayor Bill Bunten.

“Some of these judges have lost their way,” Bunten said. “Every day is a day of prayer in most Kansas lives, whether they are Christian or Muslim or Jewish or whatever, and to say that a prayer day is illegal is just ridiculous. That judge better go back and read some history about how this country was formed. Next thing you know we won’t be able to sing ‘God Bless America.’”

The ruling raised a furor among religious advocacy groups, who say the day has become an American tradition. And the announcement this week by President Barack Obama’s administration that it would appeal galvanized atheists, who are trying to persuade officials not to attend local events. Their campaigns illustrate the persistent tensions over any combination of religion and government.

Congress established a national prayer day in 1952 and in 1988 set the first Thursday in May as the official day for presidents to issue proclamations asking Americans to pray. Many state and local officials follow suit on that day.

Two years ago, the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the federal government, alleging the day violated the separation of church and state. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled April 15 that the day amounts to a call to religious action. She included a caveat, though, that said her ruling would have no effect until all appeals are exhausted.

A day after Crabb’s ruling, the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group of Christian lawyers, fired off letters to mayors telling them it has no bearing on prayer day activities.

“Public officials should be able to participate in public prayer activities just as America’s founders did, and a recent federal judge’s ruling does not prevent America’s cities from lawfully observing the National Day of Prayer,” ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson said in a statement.

On Friday, the Madison offices of the Freedom From Religion Foundation—a converted rectory now dubbed “The Freethought Hall”—were bustling.

Employees prepared letters to governors and the mayors of more than 1,000 cities urging them not to participate in prayer day. They worked under signs that quoted Richard Dawkins (“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction”) and Mark Twain (“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so”).

They were drafting an online petition where people could urge Obama to honor Crabb’s ruling and “leave days of prayer to individuals, private groups and churches, synagogues, mosques and temples.” Annie Laurie Gaylor, one of the foundation’s leaders, was putting the finishing touches on a full-page ad for the New York Times.

The foundation also plans to take out billboards promoting the separation of church and state in Colorado Springs, Co., home of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. The signs will read “God and government: A dangerous mix.”

“Whether or not we win in court, I want to win in the court of public opinion,” said Gaylor. “This law is based on lies and bad history.”

John Bornschein, executive director of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, said atheists try to sway government leaders from participating in the prayer day every year, but are being more aggressive. He called such efforts a waste of money that could go toward the poor.

“We’re an office full of patriots,” Bornschein said. “To see bickering over these sorts of things, it’s not a positive environment for people who need encouragement now more than ever.”

Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt said he issues a proclamation every year recognizing the prayer day and attends a prayer breakfast with his name on the invitation. Nothing will change this year, he said.

Carl Brewer, mayor of Wichita, Kan., said the city recognizes prayer day every year. Officials often take prayer breaks and read Bible passages at events. He said this year will be no different.

“Prayer, he said, “is the foundation of the Midwest.”

———

Associated Press writers Ryan J. Foley in Madison and Briana Bierschbach in St. Paul, Minn., contributed to this report.

Courtesy of http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14946447?source=searchles

Hanging a bull’s-eye on Christian prayer

There’s a bull’s-eye being hung on Christian prayer right now, and one of the attorneys who wages war for the right of Americans to express their faith publicly says on this 2010 National Day of Prayer it’s because of a national atmosphere that encourages atheists to make their demands.

“The radical secular, militant atheists are feeling empowered right now,” Mike Johnson, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund told WND.

The ADF is one of the premiere organizations that fights for civil and religious rights in the United States and is made up of thousands of lawyers who take on cases as they develop.

Johnson cited two recent developments that reveal a growing antagonism toward Christian prayer – even though the Continental Congress recognized the value of prayer even before the U.S. became a nation.

The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, was disinvited to serve as the honorary chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force event at the Pentagon because some Muslims were offended by past remarks. And last month, a federal judge in Wisconsin  ruled that the National Day of Prayer as recognized for hundreds of years and especially as formalized in recent decades is unconstitutional. The decision is being appealed.

“Leftists are feeling empowered,” Johnson said, describing the “barrage” of requests for help in the defense of traditional Christian prayer events, such as invocations at meetings.

“Beginning about three or four years ago, we noted a trend. There was an increase in the overt attacks on public invocations, traditional public prayer,” Johnson said.

The attacks came from groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, he said.

“It was almost as if they got together in a room somewhere and decided on a strategy to go after prayer,” he said.

One case came up that was decided against Christian prayer, a small town procedure that required prayer in Jesus name at public meetings.

And while Johnson said the decision was correct, leftist groups took it and ran with it, citing it in warnings to other towns, counties and other bodies that all of their prayer procedures also were unconstitutional, whether they were or not.

He said lawyers immediately noticed the trend and started mapping it, watching it move from the Carolinas up and down the eastern seaboard, then westward across the country.

Their response was to create a model invocation policy that met constitutional muster and distribute it to 22,000 cities and other governments across the country.

“We said if you haven’t been threatened yet, you will be,” Johnson said.

He said the model policy has helped, but even so, the “militant secularists” continue filing lawsuits at will.

“They are pulling out all the stops,” he said.

Graham said there are alarming trends in the U.S., a nation that recognized the importance of prayer even as leaders assembled as the Continental Congress.

In a report in USA Today, he said the Pentagon’s disinvitation amounts to a “slap in the face of all Christians.”

Meanwhile, he said on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “Brody File,” under President Obama, Islam is getting a “pass.” 

Officials report that in 2009, there were some 40,000 individual events held to mark the Christian prayer of the nation.

Graham said his belief is in Christianity, and for that he was targeted.

“Muslims do not worship the same ‘God the Father’ I worship,” he said. “No elephant with 100 arms (from Hinduism) can do anything for me. None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation.”

The White House also recently dropped the phrase “In the year of our Lord” from a proclamation about Jewish Heritage Month, even though the year indicated was 2010, not the 5,000-plus it would be under the Jewish calendar.

During the webcast of a Family Research Council prayer event today, Graham said preaching is allowed now in America, but there may come a time when it is permitted only inside certain walls, because of the growing attacks on Christianity and expressions of faith..

“Maybe in my lifetime,” he warned.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force said the observance was established in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Harry Truman. It is founded on the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and religion.

The Task Force concentrates on prayer for the well-being of America and for leaders at all levels. The 2010 theme is “Prayer, For Such a Time as This,” based on the verse from Nahum 1:7, which states: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”

But prayer – on a governmental level – has been going on since 1775, when the Continental Congress designated a time of prayer for forming a new nation. It was in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln called for such a day.

It is not designated as a “Christian” event and encourages Americans regardless of religion to celebrate their faith. The Task Force, however, focuses on the Judeo-Christian beliefs held by many of the Founders.

The most visible events are held in Congress and in other Washington locales. But local volunteers and coordinators set up events across the nation including prayer breakfasts, Bible reading marathons, prayer concernts, rallies and prayer vigils.

Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and the national chairmwoman for the Task Force, said the nation’s “heritage of prayer has come under unrelenting assault.”

“On April 15, 2010, federal judge Barbara Crabb issued a ruling striking down the National Day of Prayer as unconstitutional. And now, a small group of naysayers in Albuquerque has demanded that the Pentagon cancel its planned National Day of Prayer. … It is time to say, ‘enough is enough.’”

According to historical documentation assembled by Wallbuilders, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote in 1847, “The right of a society or government to [participate] in matters of religion will hardly be contested by any persons who believe that piety, religion, and morality are intimately connected with the well being of the state and indispensable to the administrations of civil justice. The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion – the being, and attributes, and providence of one Almighty God; the responsibility to Him for all our actions, founded upon moral accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation of all the personal, social, and benevolent virtues – these never can be a matter of indifference in any well-ordered community. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how any civilized society can well exist without them.”

Former U.S. House Speaker Robert Winthrop wrote in 1852, “Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.”

And among the multitude of other references to faith, John Adams, second president, said in 1854, “[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.”

There is a Congressional Prayer Caucus to acknowledge Christian beliefs and interests in Congress and a Presidential Prayer Team to pray for the president and other national leaders.

Courtesy of http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=150365

Atheists say the Funniest Things

It’s even funnier (actually sad) they take their God-denying rants seriously.

… I do not know of ANY who think they [atheists] are “just as good” as Christians. That, quite honestly, is an insult to me as an Atheist. Not only do I believe that those who have evolved beyond religion, stand on a higher moral ground, but that most Atheists have a much better grasp on reality, are more open minded, more compassionate, and just simply have more common sense than any Christians that I have met.1

Atheists “stand on a higher moral ground”? They don’t have any reference for morality2, as even the atheist prophet Dawkins admits (Dawkins can’t even say Hitler wasn’t wrong in what he did). That doesn’t mean they can’t be moral people, only that they obtain their moral values somewhere else — the atheist worldview has no method for absolute morality — atheism by itself is without morality.

How about atheists “simply have more common sense than any christians”? Atheism is by definition illogical and absurd. If you want to call that “common sense” you can, but it makes you look silly to everyone else who understands atheism is by definition illogical3. Perhaps that’s why the “New Atheists” frequently use Dialectic thought4 to use two different definitions for atheism. In private, they use the dictionary definition of atheism5 (“There is no God”), while in public they revert to a more agnostic definition — lack of reason to believe in God, but not denying His existence.

Thus, in public they attempt to avoid the logical absurdity of atheism, while in private stating as an unproven fact no God exists. A classic case of Orwellian doublethink6 — “The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

What about open minded? Are atheists open minded? Not at all. They’ve eliminated any discussion of God7 from their thoughts, and the “New Atheists” are actually quite militant in their God-denying. Open-minded? We think not.

Compassionate? That’s difficult to measure, but where are the atheist hospitals? Atheist charities? Atheist organizations helping the homeless and disaster victims? For the compassion measure, we’ll just say he doesn’t have any evidence in support of his position, although any measure would be difficult.

The fact they actually believe rants like this is sad, but it demonstrates the logical absurdity of their position. You’re quite free to be a God-denier if you wish, but calling it open-minded and common sense is laughable.

Courtesy of http://www.dyeager.org/post/2010/04/atheists-say-funniest-things

Atheists say prayer makes them physically sick

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Michael Newdow

Atheists recruited to be part of a lawsuit that is trying to rid government ceremonies such as the inauguration of a president of any invocation or other prayer have claimed they are made physically ill by prayer.

“As I watched the inauguration, my stomach did a somersault with disgust for how much our country was violating the constitution (sic), the most important document in our country,” wrote a 15-year-old in testimony being given to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.  

The lawsuit was filed before President Obama’s inauguration and subsequently was dismissed at the district court level. Briefs now are being submitted to the appeals court in plaintiffs’ hopes the case will be reopened.

“I felt a temporary state of disconnection when these religious statements and prayers were made during the inauguration,” wrote another plaintiff, according to an appendix of information submitted with the plaintiffs’ recent arguments in the case.

“All the prayers made me feel excluded from the political process and a second-class citizen,” wrote another. “But, when Chief Justice Roberts asked the president to say, ‘So help me God,’ I felt threatened and sick to my stomach.”

Officials with the Pacific Justice Institute, who are defending the Revs. Rick Warren and Joseph Lowery, who spoke at the inauguration, said in their response that the Constitution simply does not require that the government be “amoral or atheistic.”

“Prayers designed to solemnize public events have a long and venerable history in our nation,” said PJI Chief Counsel Kevin Snider, who authored the brief rebutting the claims.

“The First Amendment cannot be divorced from common sense,” added Brad Dacus, president of PJI. “While atheists, humanists and freethinkers are a tiny minority in America, they are free to express and practice their lack of faith as they please.

“That does not mean,” he continued, “however, that the vast majority of God-fearing citizens and public officials must be silenced in order to appease them.”

The complaint originally was filed by a long list of people who describe themselves as atheists, as well as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the American Humanist Association, Atheists United, Atheists for Human Rights and Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers.

The trial court judge speculated he didn’t have the authority to censor speech at the inauguration. And he suggested that perhaps a sitting federal judge did not have the authority to instruct the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and the soon-to-be commander-in-chief what they could and could not say at an inauguration.

Eventually the case was dismissed because the inauguration, at which the atheists wanted to prevent any prayer, already had taken place.

The case named those involved in the inauguration as defendants. The ministers, Warren and Lowery, offered prayers at the inauguration and also are named as defendants. They are being represented in the dispute by PJI.

The PJI response noted that Michael Newdow, a California lawyer who has litigated over references to God a number of times, previously challenged inaugural prayers twice and twice has had his arguments rejected.

However, in this case he goes so far as to suggest an ulterior motive in having invocations and benedictions at Washington ceremonies.

“Plaintiffs … contend that the ‘real meaning’ of these declarations goes far beyond that constitutional benignity [of affirming believers' views], for they contain an element analogous to the ‘real meaing’ of the ‘separate but equal’ laws of our nation’s earlier history and tradition,” the atheists argue.

“Specifically, the ‘real meaning’ is that Atheists are ‘so inferior and so degraded’ that their religious views warrant no respect,” they allege.

Faith and the Law note: Michael needs to get a life. It could have been the inauguration hot dog he ate that made his stomach feel so bad. But truthfully it is hard to stomach this case as it is just another attack on God and our national heritage. 

Courtesy of http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112261