Parks Services Reverses Decision – Permits Woman To Distribute Free Bibles

A Louisiana woman who was ordered by Park Rangers to stop giving away free Bible at her farmer’s market stand, will now be permitted to after some timely legal assistance led to the Park Services Department reversing its decision.

According to reports:

“I was really just elated,” the woman, Shirley Elliott, told The Christian Post. “I was just happy that I could do what I felt like I needed to do, and what the Lord wants me to do.” Elliott says she always kept Bibles in her car to give to others, but found the Thibodaux Farmer’s Market near Jean Lafitte National Historic Park to be an ideal place to offer them to shoppers. She has been selling produce and homemade jellies at the market since 2011, according to Liberty Counsel, and in 2012 she set out the books along with a sign indicating they were free. But in December she was told by a park ranger that she could no longer offer the Bibles at her stand because “they were on federal property,” and she was instructed that she could hand them out in a separate area designated for literature distribution. (source).

Rather than give up her desire to share the Gospel at her stand, Elliot contacted the Liberty Counsel a legal advocacy group which represents Christian victims of religious discrimination. Liberty Counsel attorney Richard Mast Jr. wrote a letter to Carol Clark, superintendent of the park. In the letter he advised of why the park’s decision amounted to viewpoint discrimination. According to the park’s own policies, non-profit distribution of literature that pertains to education, youth and nutrition is permitted. And thus preventing a licensed vendor from giving away free Bibles to those who choose to take them would be discrimination solely on the basis of its religious nature.

Thankfully the letter led to a swift resolution of the matter:

Clark responded with a letter to Liberty Counsel in which she called the situation a “misunderstanding.”  “The NPS (National Park Service) respects the right of vendors to make free religious materials available,” wrote Clark. “Please assure Ms. Elliott that she is welcome to offer free Bibles at her produce and homemade jellies table.” (source).

The Bible has returned to the Farmers Market.

The efforts to silence the voice of Christianity is becoming so vociferous that even a woman giving away free Bibles at a food stand is subject to persecution. Jesus Christ prophesied that this persecution would take place and even His own disciples faced it during their ministry:

Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. – Acts 5:25-32.

Pray for Christians to continue to exercise their right of free speech to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the unbelieving world. As it grows more hostile to the Bible’s message (while accommodating and embracing other faiths), it is even more urgent to share the message of forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

Courtesy of http://beginningandend.com/parks-services-reverses-decision-permits-woman-to-distribute-free-bibles/

Obama Issues National Day of Prayer Proclamation

President Barack Obama on Friday proclaimed May 5 as the National Day of Prayer, continuing a long tradition in the face of protest.

With ongoing opposition from atheists and other nonbelievers, Obama made sure this year’s proclamation did not exclude any group.

“Let us be thankful for the liberty that allows people of all faiths to worship or not worship according to the dictates of their conscience, and let us be thankful for the many other freedoms and blessings that we often take for granted,” he stated.

The proclamation comes just weeks after a federal appeals court overturned a 2010 ruling that found the annual prayer day unconstitutional.

In a 3-0 decision, the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals determined that the presidential proclamation imposes no requirement on a person and therefore no one is hurt by a request that can be declined.

“Those who do not agree with a president’s statement may speak in opposition to it, they are not entitled to silence the speech of which they disapprove,” chief judge Frank Easterbrook, a Reagan appointee, wrote in the court opinion.

The court ruled that Wisconsin-based atheist and agnostic group Freedom from Religion Foundation lacked the legal standing to challenge the National Day of Prayer, saying that a “feeling of alienation” was not sufficient legal grounds for a lawsuit.

“Hurt feelings differ from legal injury,” the court concluded.

Each year, since 1952, presidents have designated the first Thursday in May as the National Day of Prayer.

Just before last year’s prayer day, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb struck down the federal statute creating the “National Day of Prayer,” concluding that it connotes endorsement and encouragement of a particular religious exercise.

The Obama administration appealed the decision and Obama went ahead with the annual presidential proclamation, where he noted that prayer has long been an important part of U.S. history.

In this year’s proclamation, Obama pointed to President Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as examples of leaders who turned to the Lord in prayer when they had nowhere else to go.

“On this National Day of Prayer, let us follow the example of President Lincoln and Dr. King,” he stated.

He called for prayers for the Armed Forces, those affected by natural disasters in recent months and those abroad who are seeking peace and rights in the midst of uncertainty and unrest.

“I invite all citizens of our Nation, as their own faith or conscience directs them, to join me in giving thanks for the many blessings we enjoy, and I ask all people of faith to join me in asking God for guidance, mercy, and protection for our Nation.”

This year marks the 60th National Day of Prayer. On Thursday, Christians across the country will observe the day under the theme “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

Courtesy of http://www.christianpost.com/news/obama-issues-national-day-of-prayer-proclamation-50050/

Judge paves way for ‘leaving Islam’

By Drew Zahn
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

A federal judge in Michigan has ordered a Detroit-area transportation authority  to allow, for the time being, display of paid advertisements on buses that offer help for those wanting to leave Islam.

As WND reported, the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, or SMART, had permitted an ad from an atheist and humanist organization touting “Don’t believe in God? You’re not alone” but had refused to sell advertising space for the message “Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!”

The ads direct people to a website, RefugeFromIslam.com. 

Ads initially rejected by Detroit’s Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation

But with the help of the Thomas More Law Center, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the ad’s sponsors. The lawsuit asked the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division, to issue a preliminary injunction to permit the ad to run pending the final outcome of the litigation.

Earlier this week, Judge Denise Page Hood granted the injunction, clearing the way for the ads to begin appearing on Detroit-area buses.

TMLC Senior Trial Counsel Rob Muise commented, “In this environment of political correctness, it is encouraging to see decisions such as this one that uphold our basic constitutional freedoms.”

The ad was sponsored by the Freedom Defensive Initiative, or FDI, through the work of Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.

Richard Thompson, president of TMLC, commented, “Senior Trial Lawyer Rob Muise and David Yerushalmi have successfully represented FDI in several cases. Judge Hood’s instant decision represents a victory for free speech, but the battle is not over. Other battles loom on the horizon.”

WND reported a similar case in which the Miami-Dade Transit pulled down similar ads on its buses because of complaints from activist Muslims.

The Miami ads, however, which are also the work of Geller and Spencer, were restored later.

Thompson earlier said about the Detroit dispute, “Muslim apologists rely on the fact that most Americans are ill-informed about Islam. So they easily get away with portraying Islam as a religion of peace.

“Americans have a right to know the truth – Islam is a religion of intolerance and violence. Traditional Islamic law prescribes the penalty of death if a Muslim leaves his or her religion,” Thompson said.

And when a city authority rejects ads offering help to Muslims while accepting those promoting atheism, Thompson’s organization argued in court documents, it violates the free speech and equal protection clauses of the Constitution.

Pro-Islam bus ads

In the Florida dispute, the ads already had appeared on the Miami-Dade buses when officials with the South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations pressured the transit authority to pull them.

A protest to the county attorney’s office resulted in an agreement the ads should not have been pulled and a promise of fulfillment of the original contract.

Pro-Islamic ads have appeared on buses in other cities declaring Islam is “submission to God” and “the way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, & Muhammad.”

Spencer cited the different standards.

“So Muslims can run bus ads all across America inviting the clueless to convert to Islam, but we cannot make information available to Muslims who want to leave Islam,” Spencer wrote of the original dispute in Florida.

On his JihadWatch website, Spencer responded to a comment that the ads be “toned down.”

“What is offensive about our ad? What is wrong with its tone? Apostates are threatened and killed all over the world. We offered them help. What would you suggest we tone down? What would you suggest we not say in order to please them? Why must we always play this game, instead of speaking the truth without fear? There is nothing objectively wrong or offensive about our ad. You’re falling into their trap, allowing them to define what is offensive and what isn’t. I refuse to do so,” he said.

“And even if our ad were offensive to someone, so what? I am offended by all sorts of things. I wouldn’t dream of trying to get them suppressed because they offend me, and no one would take me seriously if I did. But Muslims are already a de facto privileged class, even in America – if I’m offended, no one gives two hoots and no one should, but if Muslims are offended, watch out! Heaven and earth will move!”

Read more: Judge paves way for ‘leaving Islam’ http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=282073#ixzz1ImSRBERT

 

Now government wants to control tidiness of churches

By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

Destiny Christian Church, formerly Liberty

A New Hampshire city official has taken the old saying “cleanliness is next to godliness” one step too far in a battle now raging over the tax status of a church building, determining that cleanliness is godliness, according to a legal team in the midst of the fight.

The dispute concerns Liberty Assembly of God, now called Destiny Christian Church, over its decision to use its building to feed the hungry and help the needy, and the resulting impact on its building.

It appears a city official didn’t like clutter, and concluded the church couldn’t be religious with it there.

It was several years ago that the foundations of the problem were set in place, when Concord, N.H., officials decided that if the church used its building to house the homeless and meet missionaries’ needs, it would no longer be a church because those weren’t “religious” purposes.

Find out what’s going on here, in “CRIMINALIZING CHRISTIANITY”

A subsequent room-by-room inspection of the facility was conducted by city officials, and their determination was that such activities were not religious, so the legal experts with the Alliance Defense Fund jumped into action. They now have pending a tax appeal for the church’s 2008 taxes as well as a lawsuit over the 2009 taxes.

A ruling in the 2008 case could be coming any day, but it’s uncertain whether that will resolve the complications that arose following comments from Kathryn Temchack, the city’s director of real estate assessments, who said the church must be stripped of its full tax exemption because its rooms were not clean.

According to the Alliance Defense Fund, among Temchack’s statements from her deposition:

• She said although the storage of a desk and a keyboard could serve a religious purpose, the actual storage by the church of such equipment did not qualify “because of all the other junk that’s sitting around it.”
• Responding to a query about whether a religious purpose is impacted by the orderliness of storage, she said, “It could be. I think there would be some kind of order to it if it was being used for a religious purpose, that you would expect to see tables, chairs, religious posters, a cross, an altar, something of that magnitude here that would say that there’s something religious happening. Bibles. I see just a bunch of stuff sitting in a room.”
• Asked about storing a box for a projector used during worship, she said, “I think it’s the condition of this room. If it’s being used for storage, it’s like how would you know? I don’t know how anyone would know where anything was in this room or how you would find anything in this room. It’s the condition of what’s in the room … It’s just a bunch of stuff.”

In a blog on the ADF website, ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster said the city has it backwards.

“We believe that a church does not cease being a church when it opens its doors to help out the less fortunate,” he wrote. “Rather, by so doing, the church is being faithful to its biblical calling. A New Jersey court recently noted, ‘The concept of sanctuary has been a strong element of religious tradition from Moses to the New Testament. Sheltering the homeless and caring for the poor has consistently been a church function, carried out for centuries by religious persons.’”

The old saying, while attributed by some to the Bible, actually is not contained as such in the Old or New Testaments.

According to the Worldofquotes, John Wesley included in one of his sermons, “Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. ‘Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.’”

Further back, the Talmud states, “The doctrines of religion are resolved into carefulness; carefulness into vigorousness; vigorousness into guiltlessness; guiltlessness into abstemiousness; abstemiousness into cleanliness; cleanliness into godliness.”

Even the Quran is credited with adopting the idea, with its, “God loveth the clean.”

Officials with the city of Concord as well as a law firm working on the dispute on behalf of the city declined to respond to WND’s requests for comment.

But the ADF said the trouble started because the church “treats seriously the God-given call to help the poor and disadvantaged…”

“So this church opened its facilities to help those in need with food and a place to stay. On several occasions, this church opened its doors to people who lost their home, were currently homeless, or otherwise unable to find a place to live. This church provided food for those who were hungry. It had a closet where it kept food to give away to those in need. In essence, this church decided that merely talking about doing God’s will was not going to cut it. It put its faith in action and actually used its facilities to carry out God’s command to care for the needy,” the organization confirmed.

“The city also made such illogical conclusions that while using a church room to talk about caring for the homeless would serve a religious purpose, actually caring for the homeless in that room would not serve a religious purpose,” the ADF said.

In its tax appeal for 2008, the ADF argues the church is entitled to the full benefit of tax exemptions for churches.

“A ‘house of public worship’ does not have to prove that every square foot of its building is used for a religious purpose in order to receive a full tax exemption,” the ADF argued. “The assumption is that as long as the church is active and offering worship services, then it is being used for a religious purpose and the entire building is tax exempt.

“[The church] pretends to be nothing but a church. It is not a camping ground. It is not a bookstore. It is simply a church. The state has decided that a house of public worship is totally exempt,” the ADF said.

“The fact that the church makes some of its rooms available to be used by missionaries on furlough, or by the homeless on a temporary basis, does not negate that the building is a house of public worship…” the filing said.

Among Temchack’s other comments were that discussing the Bible’s commands of helping the needy is a legitimate exercise of religion, but “that actually fulfilling the Bible’s commands by offering shelter for the homeless does not serve a religious purpose,” according to the ADF.

The 2008 dispute is pending before the state’s Board of Tax and Land Appeals. The 2009 arguments are pending in New Hampshire Superior Court for Merrimack County, where a complaint was filed over the circumstances.

It alleges violations of the state and federal Constitutions, including the right to the free exercise of religion, due process and equal protection under the law.

It argues, “No compelling, or even rational, government interest exists which could justify the city requiring petitioners to pay this discriminatory tax while other similar organizations are exempt.”

Read more: Now government wants to control tidiness of churches http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=269337#ixzz1FSlhygDl

 

Courtesy of http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=269337

School Reopens Bible Distribution, Overturning Ban on Religious Freedom Day

Fort Myers, FL – A federal judge has entered a Consent Decree that overturns the decision of the Collier County School Board, which banned voluntary distribution of Bibles to high school students on Religious Freedom Day. This Decree is the culmination of litigation brought by Liberty Counsel to vindicate the constitutional rights of World Changers, the local group denied equal access by the school board.

For years, the school board allowed World Changers to provide free Bibles to interested students by placing them on tables where students could voluntarily pick one up during noninstructional time. However, on Religious Freedom Day in 2009, school officials banned the Bible distribution, claiming that Bibles do not provide any educational benefit to the students and violate the so-called separation of church and state. The Collier County School District policy specifically allows the distribution of literature by nonprofit organizations, and no other groups were similarly banned. The district censored World Changers’ message simply because it included the Bible, while other private groups remained free to distribute their private literature.

Liberty Counsel made repeated attempts to educate the school board and correct its misunderstanding of the Establishment Clause, which does not prohibit private religious speech or literature. When those efforts failed, Liberty Counsel filed suit in federal court to vindicate the constitutional rights of World Changers. Seeing the writing on the wall, the school board has now decided to reverse course, allow the Bible distribution, and reimburse Liberty Counsel for the substantial legal fees and costs necessitated by the lawsuit. The Consent Decree provides all of this relief.

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “The Collier County School District learned an unnecessarily expensive lesson. The First Amendment does not tolerate discrimination against private religious viewpoints because of a mythical wall of separation between church and state. Equal access means equal access for all viewpoints, including religious viewpoints.”

ACLU sues South Carolina Jail Over Bible Policy

(AP) – A South Carolina jail was sued Wednesday over its policy barring inmates from having any reading materials except the Bible.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the policy on behalf of Prison Legal News, a monthly journal on prison law. The 16-page complaint says officials at the Berkeley County jail in Moncks Corner, about 100 miles southeast of Columbia, are violating several of the magazine’s and inmates’ constitutional rights including free speech, freedom of religion and right to due process.

Since 2008, the publishers of Prison Legal News have tried to send magazines, letters and self-help books about prison life to several inmates at the jail, the complaint says. Some were sent back, and in July a jail official wrote an e-mail to the publishers referencing the jail’s policy.

“Our inmates are only allowed to receive soft back bibles in the mail directly from the publisher,” First Sergeant K. Habersham noted in the e-mail. “They are not allowed to have magazines, newspapers, or any other type of books.”

The jail confirmed Wednesday that it doesn’t have a library and that the only reading materials inmates are allowed are paperback Bibles. A spokesman for Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

“Not only does it prevent communication and clearly violate free speech rights, it also violates the establishment clause because it discriminates on the basis of religion,” said David Shapiro, an attorney for the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “The information that’s being blocked and censored is information about prisoners’ basic legal rights.”

In addition to unspecified punitive damages, the lawsuit also asks a federal judge to order the Bible-only policy halted and to let a jury hear the case.

“Each Defendant’s conduct was motivated by evil motive or intent, involved reckless or callous indifference to the federally protected rights of Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit says.
(Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Courtesy of http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/aclu-sues-sc-jail-over-bible-policy

Teen Banned from Libraries Over Ignoring Requests to Quit Proselytizing

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A 16-year-old boy has been banned from all branches of the Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library system for six months for proselytizing.

According to a letter from Kirsten Edwards, acting manager of the North Columbus Public Library, Caleb Hanson repeatedly asked patrons “about their religious faith and to offer biblical advice.”

Caleb received the letter through his parents, Tim and Elizabeth Hanson, who are in Columbus on furlough from mission work.

He said he was given several warnings, since June, from the library on Britt David Road.

“At first (library employees) warned me not to do it,” he said. “Then they took me into an office and told me not to do it.”

He said he then began talking to people outside the library, and patrons continued to complain.

Claudya Muller, the director of the Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library system, said the ban “had nothing to do with what he was saying, but he was warned multiple times. … As people came in, he would approach them. He prevented people from simply using the library.”

In addition to the North Columbus branch, the system includes the Columbus, South Columbus, Mildred L. Terry, Cusseta-Chattahoochee, Lumpkin, Marion County and Parks Memorial public libraries. The ban was effective Aug. 28.

Caleb’s parents are ministers outside the United States. They are living with Elizabeth’s parents, Raymond and Janet Jacobs, who are retired missionaries.

Caleb is home-schooled and attends First Assembly of God in Phenix City, where he’s active in the youth group. He is the youngest of four children.

Last year, “he had a real encounter with the Lord and he wanted to witness for the Lord,” his mother said.

Ordinarily her son is shy, she said, but he began asking to be dropped off at stores and other locations to share his faith.

The letter from Edwards says Caleb’s library card has been blocked, and that if he returns before Feb. 28, he’ll be criminally trespassing.

Michael Broyde, professor of law and the academic director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University in Atlanta, said the library’s decision seems appropriate. “My intuition is that this is reasonable,” Broyde said Monday. “It falls under the time, place and manner restriction.”

According to material from The First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn.: “Time, place and manner considerations are those that could act as restrictions on what would ordinarily be First Amendment-protected expression. For example, people have the right to march in protest, but not with noisy bullhorns at 4 a.m. in a residential neighborhood.”

Broyde said the restriction could apply to libraries. “In a place like a library, where silence is generally accepted, they can restrict unneeded pestering,” he said.

Elizabeth Hanson said she has contacted the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian advocacy center in Washington, D.C., but has not gotten a response.

For his part, Caleb said he’s taking the library’s letter in stride.

“I don’t feel offended by it,” he said. “We’re still praying about what to do.”

Courtesy of http://www.eagletribune.com/worldnational/x1327127547/Teen-banned-from-libraries-over-ignoring-requests-to-quit-proselytizing

Doctor’s contract cancelled for praying with inmates

CHIPLEY — A doctor working under contract at the Northwest Florida Reception Center in Greenhead had that contract cancelled recently after he was told not to pray with inmates.

Dr. Douglas Collins was under contract to Maxim Medical Services working at Greenhead when he was told that a complaint had been made about his praying with inmates. Collins, a lifelong Christian, said he was surprised at the complaint.

“I’ve always prayed with my patients,” he said. “I always ask permission of them first.”

Collins said he was informed by Warden John Whitfield that while there was no set policy against such activity, “that as warden he set the policy” and said that it was the responsibility of the chaplain to tend to spiritual matters and for medical personnel to tend to medical matters.

Greta Plessinger of the Florida Department of Corrections said the doctor was working at Santa Rosa Corrections Institution and at Greenhead and had been warned at both locations about praying with inmates.

“This was mostly for security reasons,’ Plessinger said. “He was alone holding hands with the inmates while they were praying.

“Plus, not all the inmates are Christians, and we don’t want an inmate not wanting to go to a doctor for religious reasons.

“Dr. Collins was hired to do medicine. He could always have volunteered in his off hours to help with the chaplain’s service.”

Courtesy of http://www.chipleypaper.com/news/praying-6198-cancelled-chipley.html

Court of Appeals Denies ACLU’s Request to Remove Ten Commandments Display

Washington, DC – Today, the Sixth District Circuit Court of Appeals denied the ACLU’s request to rehear ACLU v. Grayson County, Kentucky, in which the Court upheld a display including the Ten Commandments in Leitchfield, Kentucky. The display, entitled “Foundations of American Law and Government,” was located on the second floor of Grayson County’s courthouse and includes the Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, Star-Spangled Banner, National Motto, and a picture of Lady Justice, with an explanation of the significance of each. The purpose of the display is educational and is intended to reflect a sampling of documents that played a significant role in the development of the legal and governmental system of the United States. 

Four months ago, the Court ruled in favor of Liberty Counsel’s client, Grayson County. Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, presented the winning oral argument in April 2009. The case began in 2002 when the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Grayson County, and a federal judge ruled against the display. The display is identical to the displays at issue in the ACLU’s lawsuits against McCreary and Pulaski Counties in Kentucky, which Staver argued at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. 

In 2005, this same Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the same Ten Commandments display in Mercer County, Kentucky, which Liberty Counsel also defended. The Sixth Circuit governs Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan. Notwithstanding this identical and controlling precedent, the federal judge entered a permanent injunction against the Grayson County display. In today’s decision, the Sixth Circuit refused the ACLU’s request that the court reconsider its January decision reversing and upholding the display. Since 2005, when Staver argued in favor of the same Foundations Display for McCreary and Pulaski Counties, four federal courts of appeal, including the decision today, have upheld the Ten Commandments. Three of these four involve the same Foundations Display, and the counties have been represented by Liberty Counsel. Since 2005, every federal court of appeals which has addressed Ten Commandments displays has upheld them. The ACLU has not won a Ten Commandments case at the court of appeals level since 2005.

Commenting on the case, Staver said: “The Ten Commandments is as much at home in a display about the foundation of law as stars and stripes are in the American flag. The Ten Commandments are part of the fabric of our country and helped shape the law. It defies common sense to remove a recognized symbol of law from a court of law. The ACLU might not like our history and might run from it, but the fact remains that the Ten Commandments shaped our laws and may be displayed in a court of law. I am sure the ACLU will not ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review this case. The ACLU has been running from the Supreme Court since 2005 and has taken loss after loss on the Ten Commandments.”

Courtesy of http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14100&PRID=940

Liberty Counsel Helps Restore Prayer to Senior Center in Georgia

Port Wentworth, GA – Liberty Counsel’s legal advice led to yesterday’s change of the controversial ban on senior citizens praying over their meal at the Ed Young Senior Citizens Center in Port Wentworth, GA. Senior litigation counselor of Liberty Counsel, David Corry, spoke with Mayor Glenn Jones yesterday on the issue. The Department of Aging Services of the State of Georgia confirmed Liberty Counsel’s advice to the Mayor. The center’s director then reversed the decision of Senior Citizens Inc. based on what he learned, and voluntary prayer was restored. 

In addition, this action has clarified the State of Georgia’s policy on allowing prayer. While originally there was some confusion on the policy, an email recently came from the human resourcing/aging services agency to Senior Citizens Inc., denying the existence of any policy that “would prohibit an individual from praying either publicly or privately, before or after a meal” and establishing a strong foundation for religious expression within the state. 

This controversy began May 7, 2010, when residents of the Ed Young Senior Citizens Center in Port Wentworth, GA were banned from saying prayers before meals. Instead, they were instructed they could only observe a moment of silence before their meal. Seniors taking the meals pay 55 cents and federal money pays for the rest of the bill, said Tim Rutherford, vice president of Senior Citizens. Inc. He said staff had observed residents praying aloud before meals and mistakenly thought that federal funding would trigger the so-called “church-state separation.” After several conversations with Liberty Counsel educating and encouraging local leadership, yesterday they announced a policy reversal allowing senior citizens to practice their freedom of religion. Now the elderly can voluntary say grace without any fear of consequences.

Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “We are pleased that the seniors can once again pray over their meals. But, we are astounded the seniors were told that they could only have a moment of silence. The so-called ‘separation of church and state’ mantra has worn thin. It now conjures up the ridiculous. It is past time to abandon this phrase and return to a common sense historical approach to the Constitution.”