Churches Scramble to Meet FCC Rules on Wireless Mics

American churches have less than two weeks to change their wireless microphone equipment or face more than $100,000 in fines.

In January, the Federal Communications Commission mandated that anyone using wireless microphones on the 700 MHz band must stop by June 12 in order to make room for use by police, fire and emergency services.

An unlicensed person or business—which includes churches—using microphones on frequencies between 698 and 806 MHz must stop or face action by the FCC. Violators could face up to $112,500 in fines or imprisonment for continued violation, according to the FCC. Violations will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Since December 2008, Shure Inc., a Niles, Ill.-based audio-visual company, has worked with churches to replace their audio equipment.

“It’s like being told that you got to replace your dishwasher even though it’s working just fine,” said Chris Lyons, manager of educational and technical communication at Shure.

“It affects any church that has any number of microphones that work in the 700 MHz band. For the last several years, that has been one of the very popular parts of the band. So there is a big installed base of wireless life there.”

The Village Church of Gurnee in Gurnee, Ill. uses its 24 wireless devices for drama productions, music, preaching and children’s ministry. Because of the cost, the church only replaced half of its devices.

“If we were to replace every single channel and piece of equipment we have … it’s gonna cost us about $50,000 total,” said Jason Carter, the Village Church’s pastor of worship ministries. “We’re really having to rethink how we’re going to do some of those events … It really is changing the dynamic of how we do ministry here on Sunday mornings.”

At Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, the country’s largest church, technical director Reid Hall spent $26,000 to replace 35 of its wireless systems.

“It was a long, strategic plan” Hall said. “There are many churches in similar situations that just can’t run out and plop down three or four thousand for new wireless systems. … For them it’s a huge burden.”

The burden has been felt at North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hill, Minn., where chief audio engineer Keith Bufis has replaced 30 wireless microphone systems at a cost of about $25,000.

“We’ve had to tighten our belts,” Bufis said. “We really did not have a budget to cover it all.”

Lakewood Church, Village Church, North Heights and 76 other houses of worship have petitioned Congress to pass the Wireless Microphone Users Interference Protection Act. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., would allow places like churches, educational facilities, recording studios and museums to register their spots on the television airwaves, or “white spaces,” that their wireless microphones operate on.

“The white space is sort of this open area right now,” Carter said. “It’s kind of like, you go to the beach … you just find an empty spot and sit down. But, if you get up and go to the concession stand … and come back, somebody else is in your spot. There is no legal recourse for you to get your piece of sand back.”

In his letter to Congress, Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen said churches “must have the right `tools’ and the tools must operate properly and without interference.”

Mark Brunner, senior director of global brand management at Shure, said the problem was, in many ways, unanticipated in a rapidly changing technological landscape.

“Licenses were not on the radar of the FCC until they recognized, that in order to share this spectrum with new broadband devices, we’re going to need to know where these mic’s are,” Brunner said. “And if they don’t know where they are, they can’t run air traffic control.”

Copyright © 2010 Christianity Today

Courtesy of

Tinseltown’s War on Christianity: Christophobia is the Fashionable Bigotry of Our Time

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Anti-Christian bigotry is rearing its ugly head again. Comedy Central is developing a new animated series called “JC.” Its premise is that Jesus Christ, alienated from his aloof and bored father, God, goes to New York City and has adventures in the Big Apple. Christ will be shown as a deracinated, cynical city slicker who partakes of the temptations and weirdness of modern urban life. He will hang out with prostitutes and drug dealers. He will be shown experimenting with marijuana and gay sex. He will slaughter gangbangers in street fights, preferably using a machete. Christ meets “Pulp Fiction” – but in a cartoon. This is what Hollywood considers to be “entertainment.”

Yet, this is religious bigotry. Christians – and people of all faiths – should demand that it end. The show is a deliberate attempt to mock and smear the essence of Christianity: the divine nature of Christ. Its goal is to degrade Jesus into a modern-day sex-crazed, permissive and violent action figure. It is not just blasphemous, but morally repugnant and culturally perverse. It vilifies and completely distorts Christ – all for a few cheap laughs.

It is not the first time Comedy Central has depicted Jesus in a sick, twisted manner. The show “South Park” has repeatedly shown Christ in the vilest of ways: gawking at Internet pornography; slicing his own neck as blood profusely flows everywhere; acting as a ninja assassin who throws a dagger at the pope, splitting him in half; and defecating on former President George W. Bush and the American flag. For “South Park,” it is open season on Christianity.

However, when it comes to Islam, Comedy Central is silent. It has never openly mocked the Prophet Muhammad or caricatured him for shock value. In fact, it practices self-censorship for fear of offending Muslims. For example, for the 200th episode of “South Park,” the show’s producers sought to make fun of Muhammad in a bear suit. The outcry from Muslim rights groups forced the show to delete the offensive scene.

There is a blatant double standard. Islam cannot be ridiculed or attacked, but Christianity can – often and egregiously. Hollywood’s hypocrites understand that Muhammad is off-limits for one reason: the fear of a fatwa, an Islamic religious decree authorizing the murder of anyone defaming the image of the Muslim prophet. Hollywood liberals are cowards who pick on Jesus because they know Christians will do nothing. They often passively stand by and allow their Savior to be crucified culturally.

Our progressive elites keep saying – ad nauseam – that Islam is a “religion of peace.” The fact that there are millions of Islamic extremists who embrace jihad and terror, using the Koran as the theological basis for a holy war against the West, is irrelevant to most secular liberals. Their dogma – multiculturalism – demands that they deny this fundamental reality. They prefer to adhere to an ideological fantasy.

The true religion of peace, however, is Christianity. There are no Catholic nuns hijacking planes and slamming them into buildings. There are no Protestant pastors strapping dynamite on their chests and blowing up innocent Muslim men, women and children. There are no Orthodox Christian bishops waxing eloquent about how the Bible justifies the slaughter of non-Christians. In short, Christianity does not seek to impose a world empire through the sword. Radical Islam does.

It is precisely, however, the Christian emphasis on nonviolence and peaceful religious co-existence that Hollywood has been exploiting. The producers at Comedy Central know one seminal fact: They can mock Jesus all they want – no Christian jihadist is going to blow them up. It is easy – and safe – to take pathetic potshots at Christ.

At its core, modern secular liberalism is based on a hatred of Christianity. For decades, militant liberals have sought to eradicate our Judeo-Christian heritage from the public square. Banning prayer in public schools, prohibiting the display of the Ten Commandments in courtrooms (the very foundations of Western ethics and law), sanctioning the mass murder of nearly 50 million unborn children through abortion, seeking to end the official celebrations of Christmas and Easter, pushing to make homosexual behavior morally acceptable and legalizing same-sex marriage – all of this constitutes a cultural war on Middle America and its traditional Christian faith.

Christophobia is the fashionable bigotry of our time. The bastion of this anti-Christianity is Hollywood. Take films such as “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons.” Their premise: The Catholic Church is a primitive, sinister and superstitious institution centered on a massive conspiracy at the heart of Christianity – the cover-up of the fact that Jesus was not celibate but married and was the father of numerous children. There is not a shred of evidence for this outrageous smear. But in Hollywood, this passes for courageous “art.”

Christians must vigorously defend their faith. If Comedy Central wants to make a series depicting Christ as a street hoodlum, that is its right. But it is also the right of Christians to be offended and to express their outrage. Freedom of speech cuts both ways. Christians should let it be known that they will boycott not just all of Comedy Central’s programs, but more important, all of its advertisers. Corporations that advertise on Comedy Central are either directly or indirectly sponsoring anti-Christian bigotry.

This will no longer be tolerated. Christians will be silent no more.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute, a Washington think tank. He is the daily host of “The Kuhner Show” on WTNT 570-AM (www.talk570.com) from 5 to 7 p.m.

© Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC. 

Courtesy of http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/3/tinseltowns-war-on-christianity/

Abortion Foes Claim Victories at State Level

By: Dan Weil

It’s not just in the halls of Congress where abortion opponents are advancing their agendas.

At least 11 states have passed laws this year regulating or restricting abortions, and bills have passed at least one house of the legislature in four others, The New York Times reports.

Arizona has banned reimbursement for abortions in the state employees’ health plan, while Nebraska has banned all abortions after 20 weeks, arguing that at that point, the fetus can feel pain.

Just last week, Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour Mississippi signed a bill forbidding insurers from covering abortion in the new insurance exchanges created by the healthcare reform law.

And the Oklahoma legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Brad Henry’s veto of a bill making doctors who perform abortions answer 38 questions about each procedure, including the women’s reasons for having an abortion.

“Ninety percent of pro-life legislation happens at the states,” Daniel McConchie, vice president for government affairs at anti-abortion group Americans United for Life, told The New York Times.

“While Congress is the main focus of attention for so many people in the country, state legislatures have greatest impact on daily lives, and life-related legislation is no exception.”

Much of this year’s activity stems from the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a federal ban on partial-birth abortions, which gave the states more room to curtail abortion.

About 370 state bills regulating abortion were introduced in 2010, compared with about 350 in each of the previous five years, and 250 a year in the early 1990s, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

At least 24 of this year’s bills have passed, and the final total may reach the 2005 peak of 34, Elizabeth Nash, a public policy associate at the institute, told The Times.

“The right-to-life folks are seeing just how far they can push things,” Joseph Dellapenna, an abortion expert at Villanova University law school, told the paper.

It’s “almost a certainty” that the Supreme Court will ultimately review one of the new laws, he says.

“It could turn out they can push things a lot farther than people think, or, it could not.”

The anti abortion cause may gain ground in Congress too. A bipartisan bill has been introduced to eliminate any chance of federal funding for abortion under the new healthcare law.

Courtesy of
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Abortion-Foes-Victories-State/2010/06/03/id/360941

© Newsmax.

What Does the Bible Say About War?

FAQ: I know some Christians who say they are “pacifists,” and that war is always wrong. Some go so far as to say they would not defend themselves even if someone tried to kill them. One called me a “militant” Christian because I said I would. What does the Bible say about war?

While there are verses that some have interpreted in a pacifist way, we assert that the belief that a person should not defend himself, his family, his society, or his nation comes from a misinterpretation of the Bible. Even a cursory reading of Scripture will show that if one were to put a sub-title on Genesis 3:7 – Revelation 20:10, it would be “God at war.” With whom is He at war? And what are they fighting about?

God is at war with the spirit being we know as the Devil, Satan, or Lucifer, who rebelled against Him, and then twisted the hearts of Adam and Eve to get them to disobey Him. Satan is the same one who has since wreaked havoc on mankind, stealing, killing, and destroying everything and everyone he can (John 10:10). As the antithesis of God, who is love, Satan is pure hate.

What God and the Devil are fighting over is people. Knowing that his doom is certain because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, the Devil’s goal is to hurt God as badly as he can. He does so by trying to keep people from hearing the truth of God’s Word about Jesus Christ and thus getting saved. If people get saved, he still does all he can to make their lives miserable and to kill them. This relentlessly cruel being, who disguises himself as an angel of light, is in reality a liar, a deceiver, a murderer, and the personification of evil. If you give him a millimeter, he will take a light year.

God and the Lord Jesus are the epitome of love, and they will one day bring peace on earth, but they know that the wicked stand in the way of peace, and must be dealt with. When it comes to the pure evil that Satan embodies, the only way to have peace is by war, including eventually destroying him and all his allies. In the battle between good and evil, on the side of good there is God and his armies, both angels and human. On the side of evil is the Devil, his demons, and the people who knowingly or unknowingly side with him. Although it will not always be this way, the background of the spiritual and physical universe we are living in today is conflict. That is why the Bible says that God is a warrior. “The LORD is a man of war” (Exod. 15:3, KJV).

If the pacifist position were correct, it would seem logical that throughout history God would either prevent war, or at least not take sides in human conflicts, but that is not the case. God is certainly no pacifist, and the acts of our warrior-God fighting on behalf of His people, often via his angels, are seen all through the Bible. Some pertinent examples are: God removed the wheels of Egypt’s chariots as they pursued Israel, and drowned them in the sea (Exod. 14:25, 28); He threw hailstones down on the Canaanite army (Josh. 10:11); He rained down fire from heaven and burned up the enemy soldiers who came to get Elijah (2 King 1:9-15); He killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers who were attacking Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35); He blinded the false prophet Bar-Jesus, who stood against the teaching of Paul (Acts 13:9-11). In the future, He will throw huge hailstones, weighing about 100 pounds each, upon his enemies (Rev. 16:21).

God’s angels are warriors also, and are in His army. In fact, God is called, “LORD of hosts” more than 200 times in the Bible (cp. 1 Chron. 11:9; Ps. 46:7-11; Isa. 13:4; Jer. 11:22; 51:33; Nahum 2:13; Haggai 2:6). Unfortunately, the average Christian does not know what the phrase means, and it has even been translated out of some versions, such as the NIV, which uses the phrase “LORD Almighty” instead of “LORD of hosts.” This change greatly dilutes our understanding of the spiritual battle. The Hebrew word translated “hosts” means “armies” (as does the Greek word in Luke 2:13). The angels are a major part of the army of God, and the Bible reveals that angels join God in His fight against evil, as the following verse shows:

Revelation 12:7
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon [the Devil], and the dragon and his angels fought back.

If God is a warrior, and His angels are also warriors and fight with Him, what about Jesus Christ? Scripture reveals that he also is a warrior. The warfare he waged while completing his earthly ministry was spiritual and mental. He cast out evil spirits, stood against the evil rulers of his day, and helped people in every way he could. His ministry was short, and its purpose did not involve going to war on earth to defend God’s people. However, when Jesus comes back, he will show himself to be the consummate warrior, something that is foretold in the Old Testament and portrayed in Revelation. Consider the following prophetic verses from Isaiah about the Lord’s return to conquer the earth from the grip of evil, and how he is pictured with his robes spattered with blood.

Isaiah 63:1-4, and 6
(1) Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? “It is I [the Messiah], speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.”
(2) Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress?
(3) “I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing.
(4) For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come.
(6) I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground.”

The book of Revelation, which is still future, also shows Jesus coming from heaven and fighting against evil.

Revelation 19:11, 13-15a
(11) I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider [Jesus Christ] is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war.
(13) He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.
(14) The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.
(15) Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.”

After Jesus defeats the enemies that now threaten the earth and sets up his 1000 year kingdom (Rev. 20:4-6), he will not rely on the “good nature” of people to keep order in society. Scripture is clear that he will keep order by wielding a “rod of iron” (Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15 KJV). Although this may seem cruel and harsh, it is not, because no one has to be a criminal, and being harsh on criminals protects the innocent. Christians and civil authorities should take note: if Jesus will rule his kingdom with a rod of iron to keep order and protect the innocent, why would we think our society should be ruled differently? Our lenient laws have caused our unsafe society, and we and our children will not be safe until we decide to be as harsh on the guilty as Jesus will be. [For further study read, The Death Penalty: Godly or Ungodly?.]

Jesus is clearly a warrior, and the fact that there is no verse in the Gospels showing him protecting his family or society does not mean that he would not have done so. Likewise, nothing in the Word says that Jesus did not support the punishments prescribed by the Mosaic Law, including the execution of criminals. We saw that he will certainly execute his enemies in the future.

We have seen that God is a warrior, so are His angels and so is Jesus. But what about Christians? First, we must remember that throughout the Old Testament, the people of God were, like God, warriors. Moses, Joshua, the Judges, David, and the kings of Judah all led armies, and God helped them win their battles when they stood with Him. Examples of God helping His people win battles include His telling Joshua how to conquer Jericho (Josh. 6:2-5); telling him that an ambush was the way to destroy Ai (Josh. 8:1,2); telling David how to attack the Philistines (2 Sam. 5:22-25; 1 Chron. 14:14-16); and telling Israel how to attack the Syrian army (1 Kings 20:13,14). The faithful of the Old Testament understood that there were occasions when fighting and war were necessary, and they relied upon God, their weapons, and their training during those times.

Psalm 18:34 and 35
(34) He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
(35) You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.

Psalm 144:1 and 2
(1) Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
(2) He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

Did all that change when Jesus came to earth? Did God stop asking His people to fight evil, and did He stop helping them in battle? We assert that God still wants people to fight evil, and still helps them win. To understand Scripture, we must realize that unless God clearly changes a commandment He has given, it is still to be believed and obeyed. And we see no revision of God’s commands to protect oneself, participate in the protection of society, or go to war to protect one’s nation.

Some people may disagree, saying that Jesus taught us to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44), turn the other cheek (Matt. 5:39), and warned us that, “all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matt. 26:52). But these verses do not refer to protecting one’s life, family, or nation. Jesus loved his enemies too, but he loved them by giving them every conceivable chance to turn from evil; he did not “love” them by letting them harm the innocent, for that would not be love. We saw above that when evil people refuse to take advantage of the loving opportunities they are given to turn from their wicked ways, Jesus will one day kill them to protect society. God loves His enemies too, and even gives them blessings, knowing that it is His kindness that might lead them to repentance (Rom. 2:4). But when the wicked do not respond to His love, and are a danger to the innocent, God will fight against them just as He has in the past, and the final end of the wicked and unrepentant will be His throwing them into the fires of Gehenna (Rev. 21:8).

It is important to remember that just a few hours before Jesus was arrested, he said to all his apostles, “If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one” (Luke 22:36), but then told Peter while he was being arrested, “all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matt. 26:52). Jesus would never tell his followers to buy swords and then say it was wrong to use them. Why did Jesus make that statement to Peter? The answer is that although the priests and soldiers who arrested Jesus were immoral, what they did was not illegal, because they had the governmental right to arrest Jesus. Thus, Peter, although he thought he was doing the right thing in defending Jesus with his sword, was actually breaking the law. Had Jesus’ trial been fair and unbiased, he would have been released soon after his arrest. Many innocent people are falsely accused, arrested and jailed, but then released at trial. By using his sword, Peter was breaking the law, and neither God nor Jesus give us the right to do that.

On the other hand, we do have the legal right to defend ourselves and our society against evil, and Jesus knew that, so he told his followers to buy swords. Evil people are a danger to those around them, which is why self protection, and the outgrowths thereof, (such as the protection of one’s family, society, and nation) is vital to survival. Since Jesus told his followers to buy swords the night of his arrest, and never modified that command after his resurrection, there is no reason to believe that things should be different today. We need to be willing and able to protect ourselves and our society.

More evidence that God expects us to fight for what is right in today’s world is that, both in Philippians 2:25 and Philemon 2, Paul refers to another Christian as a “fellow soldier.” He also writes to Timothy, his young protégé in the faith:

2 Timothy 2:3 and 4
(3) Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
(4) No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.

We assert that the term “soldier” goes beyond just spiritual warfare, and, if necessary, also includes the physical warfare that all too often is a part of life.

There is still more biblical evidence that a person in the military is not out of favor with God due to his chosen profession. The first Gentiles recorded as becoming Christians were a Roman soldier, Cornelius, and his family and friends. Cornelius was guided by an angel to hear the Good News from Peter himself (Acts 10). With so many non-military people in Palestine, the fact that God chose a soldier as the first Gentile to get born again speaks volumes about His acceptance of the military.

Still another, though non-biblical, reason for believing that God supports Christians in war are the firsthand accounts of God helping Christians in battles. While early records are understandably scarce, thousands of accounts from the Revolutionary War to this present day clearly show that God still supports godly troops.

Along with the physical battles that we fight against evil, the spiritual battle continues to rage around us. It started in Genesis and will not end until Revelation, so every Christian must be a spiritual warrior. Ephesians 6:12 tells us that in this administration of the Sacred Secret we fight against spiritual forces, demons, that work in people to obstruct God’s purposes.

If and when the spiritual battle escalates in the physical realm to the point that an evil person (or a nation of them) is going to harm us, the message of Scripture is clear: With God’s help, fight back and prevail! We know that when Noah came off the Ark after the Flood, God instituted civil government as the means to keep order on earth. This meant that mankind was responsible to execute people who murdered others (Gen. 9:5 and 6). Wicked people may not fear God, but they do fear other people (government officials) who have the power to execute them. God has made it our responsibility to keep evil at bay.

As a point of interest pertinent to this topic, Exodus 20:13, properly translated, reads: “You shall not murder.” All murder is killing, but not all killing is murder. Throughout Scripture God defines and encourages three kinds of killing that are justified and often necessary: 1) self-defense; 2) society-defense (execution of criminals); 3) national self-defense, which we call war.

Some Christians say that it is not their place to determine who lives or dies, so they would not defend themselves if someone tried to kill them. Not only is that contrary to God’s command to dispense out justice in our society, it lets the murderer decide who lives and who dies. What sense does that make? It is easy to see why Satan promotes the lie that war, either individually or nationally, is always wrong—it’s a good way to get some of God’s people to give up their lives.

Certainly, no government is the ultimate standard for when war is godly. As per Acts 5:29, we must obey God rather than man, so if or when a government edict contradicts what God tells us to do, we obey Him. We may not always know which wars precipitated by governments are the right thing to do, but the Bible makes it very clear that for the sake of God and the purposes He desires to accomplish by way of us, we must take up arms if we are threatened with destruction. Thus, in God’s view, there is a time for war.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 8
(1) There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…
(8) …a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

As Christians, we are guaranteed the everlasting victory, but until the Lord Jesus comes for us, we must trust and obey God in order to stand against our mortal enemy, Satan, and against those wicked people in whom he works. If and when evil threatens us, we are foolish and irresponsible if we do not defend ourselves to whatever degree is necessary to stop those who would destroy us. Jesus gave his life—and it provided deliverance from sin for all mankind. If we needlessly or foolishly give up our lives, it does not provide deliverance for anyone, it just means there is one less righteous person to help and bless people. Jesus won by giving his life. We win by fighting for God and His people, defeating evil whenever we can by whatever godly and legal means are available, and staying alive to bless and serve God’s people.

Courtesy of http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1054

Don’t the Bible and science oppose each other?

The Bible is not a science textbook. Nevertheless, it is accurate when it mentions facts within the realm of science. Furthermore, the Bible contains physical knowledge about the world that was not generally known when the writers recorded the words of God. God created the heavens and the earth, and He intimately knows all about His creation. He simply told His prophets about the nature of earth and the universe, and they wrote down the scientific information He gave them.

One of the chief arguments against the Bible is that evolution, not creation, is responsible for the origin of animals and man. Spirit & Truth Fellowship International joins its voice with thousands of other educated Christians in categorically denying that evolution is true and that men and women are the product of millions of years of unplanned and random changes. The evidence from all branches of science is confirming that God did create the heavens and the earth, just as the Bible says. We have material on the subject, and the reader is also referred to the many books, articles, and scholarly monographs on the subject done by The Institute for Creation Research, The Creation Evidences Museum, and Answers in Genesis, some of the organizations that specialize in teaching the truths about Creation. [For a full list please read Creation / Evolution References.]

Unfortunately, many bookstores do not have books written from a creationist point of view, so it is easy for the average person to assume that there are only a few “religious fanatics ” who still deny evolution. In fact, there are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of books written by competent and credible scientists that explain why creation, not evolution, is the most logical choice for the origin of the universe and of mankind. Why is it that a theory that has never been proven is so widely believed? Schools and museums and the media all discuss evolution as if it were fact. Often they call what does not qualify as evolution, “evolution,” attempting to make the theory easier to believe.

Before we go on, it is important to understand that when “evolution” is mentioned in this book, I am referring to “macroevolution,” which is actual evolutionary development including change of phylum, class, order, family, and genus. This should be distinguished from “evolution in the species,” which is not actually evolution at all. Within each species there is genetic room for change, and it is sad that this change within the species is often called “evolution.” For example, when dogs are bred to produce larger dogs, smaller dogs, blacker dogs, whiter dogs, etc., that is not evolution. It is change, yes, but technically it is “speciation,” not “evolution,” as the term is used in the creation/evolution debate. God, thankfully, created genetic room for change within species. That is why we humans can recognize each other—we are all a little different, yet all the same species. If tall people meet, marry, and have children, eventually (perhaps several generations later) the kids will be taller than average. This is change, but not evolution. It is development within the species. These developments can be quite stark, as we see among dogs, or not quite as stark but very noticeable, as we see among humans. Although we all came from Adam and Eve, there are many differences between the humans on planet earth. These variations within a species in no way confirms the theory of evolution, which requires that life develop from non-living material, and then that living material constantly organizes itself by random changes into increasingly complex organisms. [For further study read Creation or Evolution, What’s the Big Deal?]

Though not widely publicized, the theory of evolution is under attack from every angle. Darwin on Trial shows that evolution is not actually “science” in the accurate sense of the word. [14] Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! shows that the fossil record supports creation, not evolution. [15] If evolution had occurred, the fossil record would be one continuous plastic flow (i.e., in a state of flux or transition) with genera and species being mostly indistinct and always in transition. After years of digging up fossils and petrified remains, the “missing link” has yet to be discovered in any animal or plant form. Instead, what paleontologists find are distinct plants and animals at every level of the fossil record. This is exactly what you would expect to find if creation occurred as recorded in the Bible, because each genus was created by God.

In Not By Chance, Dr. Lee Spetner (who is not a Christian), writes convincingly that the discipline of information theory shows that random changes cannot lead to large-scale evolutionary changes. [16] Darwin’s Black Box sets forth the biochemical challenge to evolution and shows from biochemistry that random mutations could not have produced the biochemically complex organisms that cover the earth. This is a challenge to the theory of evolution that modern science has only recently become aware of because many of the biochemical processes regulating life had not been understood until recent years. [17] The Troubled Waters of Evolution shows that the theory of evolution, which suggests that “random” processes have led to complex organisms, violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that things naturally go from a state of order to disorder. [18] This is why things that work, break, rather than broken things fixing themselves, and why we humans are always cleaning and straightening. Any mom will testify that things do not get orderly on their own. We blow things up to destroy them, but evolution teaches that an explosion, the “Big Bang,” resulted in higher and higher forms of order. If that were the case, evolution would be the only thing science is aware of that violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. According to the laws of physics, creation, not evolution, accounts for the high order of life forms on earth.

The late Gordon R. Taylor was an Englishman and the chief science advisor for BBC Television in England. He wrote The Great Evolution Mystery, which questions many of the things American evolutionists believe. [19] But was he a creationist? No, he just did not believe in the kind of evolution usually taught in American schools. He believed in a different type of evolution, which brings up a noteworthy point. Although most non-scientists are not aware of it, there are a number of competing theories of evolution. Those who believe in evolution cannot agree among themselves as to which is correct. Because evolution is not really science at all, but actually just a theory, different scientists have posited different theories about evolution, and these theories contradict one another: Darwinianism, Neo-Darwinianism, the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, the Theory of Inherited Characteristics, and the list goes on. All these differ in how they explain the origin of the life forms we see on earth. When the entire picture of life on earth is examined, creation, not evolution, explains it best. [For further study material on Creation/Evolution, click here!]

Although the Bible is not a science textbook, it has some startling scientific information in it—startling primarily because at the time it was written, the information was not known to human beings.

• The hydrologic cycle

The fact that water is drawn up from the earth into the air and later comes down as rain was not known in ancient times. Yet God made it clear in His written Word.

 

Ecclesiastes 1:7
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

^{Job 36:27,28:}

²⁷ “He draws up the drops of water,
       which distill as rain to the streams ;

 ²⁸ the clouds pour down their moisture
       and abundant showers fall on mankind.

How could writers who lived hundreds of years before Christ know scientific information that we have learned about only in the last centuries? God, who created the heavens and the earth, told them.

• The water in clouds

It was not generally known by ancient man that clouds are full of water. The association between clouds and rain was known because it rains only when it is cloudy, but it was definitely not known that even in good weather the fleecy clouds hold literally tons of water, something Job alluded to when he spoke of the “weight” of the clouds.

Job 26:8
He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.

Job 37:11
He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.

Because water is heavier than air, clouds have to be “balanced” in the sky. This is not readily apparent to those of us on the ground. It is generally assumed that clouds float because they are lighter than the air, but actually there is a lot of complex physics behind the clouds floating in the air. God spoke of this “balance” to Job some 4,000 years ago:

Job 37:16
Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge?

Job 37:16 (AMP)
Do you know how the clouds are balanced…?

• The weather patterns

Modern scientists are aware of the circular patterns of the winds. We study them regularly by balloon, airplane, and satellite. Ancient man, however, had no such devices and could not track the patterns of the weather. However, God knew about the circular patterns of the wind currents and told His servants about them.

Ecclesiastes 1:6 (NASB)
Blowing toward the south, Then turning toward the north, The wind continues swirling along; And on its circular courses the wind returns.

^NIV:

⁶ The wind blows to the south
       and turns to the north;
       round and round it goes,
       ever returning on its course.

• The Ocean Currents

Ancient man did not know much about the great currents flowing in the ocean, and it has been only very recently that scientists have discovered there are currents running like great rivers underneath the surface of the ocean at various depths. Ancient man did not know about these underwater pathways. In 1786, Benjamin Franklin published the first modern written account about the great ocean currents, and today we know a lot about the currents that are almost like roads in the ocean, traveling in a circular pattern. God, however, knows all about them, and through the writings of King David, almost a thousand years before Christ, first revealed to mankind about “the paths of the sea.”

Psalm 8:8
The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

• The springs at the bottom of the ocean

It has been only since the invention of the modern submarine and since contemporary undersea exploration began that man has learned some of the facts that God revealed to Job some 4,000 years ago. How could Job have possibly known there were springs at the bottom of the ocean unless God told him? Only in the last century could we finally confirm what readers of Job have known for millennia.

Job 38:16
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

• The earth suspended in space

Long before the Romans taught the earth was being held upon the shoulders of the god, Atlas, or those that believed the earth was held on the back of elephants or a large turtle, God revealed that it was simply suspended in empty space.

Job 26:7
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.

Job 26:7 (NASB)
He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.

God’s Word spoke of scientific facts hundreds and sometimes even thousands of years before mankind in general knew them or had the ability to confirm them. This could be the case only because God, the Creator, knew what He made and how He made it, and revealed information about His creation to man. The fact that the Bible reveals scientific information that was unknown to the people of ancient times is very solid and important evidence proclaiming that God, not man, is the Author of Scripture. There is one more important point that must be made about the Bible and science: not only does the scientific evidence in Scripture reveal God’s authorship, but also there is no truly scientific discovery that contradicts or disproves the Bible.

On occasion I have heard scoffers talk about the Bible as if no thinking person ever believed it. If the Bible is believable, then it makes sense that through the ages there would have been great men and women of science who had studied it and concluded that it was true. There are many such men and women. A few select examples include:

• Johann Kepler (1571-1630). He is considered to be the founder of physical astronomy. He was the first to state that his research was only “thinking God’s thoughts after Him,” a succinct statement, and one later echoed by other believing scientists.

• Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He is considered to be the formulator of what we today call “the scientific method.” He recognized that men learn from both the Bible and the world around them, and wrote: “There are two books laid out before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power.”

• Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). He is one of the founders of hydrodynamics. He was a deeply devoted believer, and wrote religious works as well as scientific ones. To him is attributed the “Wager of Pascal,” the essence of which is that a man cannot lose if he becomes a Christian. If he is right, and God does exist, he will have everlasting life and everlasting joy. If he is wrong, he has enjoyed a wonderful life on earth. However, if someone does not believe and is wrong, he will lose everything.

• Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Famous for the discovery of the law of gravity and the formulation of calculus as a branch of mathematics, he was perhaps the most intelligent man of this millennia. He was a devout Bible believer, fluent in both Greek and Hebrew, and wrote many books on biblical subjects, including Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, a book on the prophecies of Daniel. [20]

• Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Faraday is recognized as one of the greatest physicists of all time. He invented the electric generator, and discovered magnetic lines of force and electromagnetic induction. He had faith in the Bible and prayer, and believed the tenets of his church, one of which was: “The Bible, and it alone, with nothing added to it nor taken away from it by man, is the sole and sufficient guide for each individual, at all time and in all circumstances…”

• Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). He is considered to be the founder of the science of comparative anatomy, and helped forge paleontology into a separate scientific discipline. He was a strong proponent of catastrophism, and believed the Flood of Noah was the last global catastrophe our earth has faced. He strongly supported creation, and defended it in important creation/evolution debates.

• Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) was the leading American geographer of his day. He authored the very first American geography textbook, which was almost universally used in schools and went through 25 editions. He was a strong believer in the six-day creation of the earth and Noah’s Flood, and his textbook included a section about the animals being saved from destruction by Noah’s Ark and their subsequent distribution around the earth. His son, Samuel Morse, invented the telegraph, and was also a strong Christian. The first message sent across telegraph wires (1844) was: “What God hath wrought.” [21]

These few examples could be multiplied by the hundreds and thousands, both yesterday and today. What the Bible says makes sense, and many thinking men and women of science and other academic disciplines have long recognized that fact.

Courtesy of http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=646

Connecticut School Board Bows Out of Graduations at Church Battle

 

The board of education in Enfield, Conn., voted Thursday against appealing a federal judge’s ruling barring two high schools from holding graduations at a church.

In a 5-4 vote, board members decided not to file an appeal. They subsequently voted to hold the ceremonies at the schools later this month.

The decision shocked Vincent McCarthy, the attorney with the American Center for Law and Justice which was representing the Enfield school district in the case. He was looking forward to arguing the case more fully in the court of appeals and said they had a good chance.

“In this case, the court simply got it wrong,” the ACLJ senior counsel said in a statement. “There need not be a constitutional crisis simply because a religious facility is used for a clearly secular purpose.”

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall ruled that Enfield and Fermi High Schools could not use First Cathedral for their graduation ceremonies because it was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

She said the megachurch was “overwrought with religious symbols” and holding graduations there would convey the message that certain religious views are embraced by Enfield Schools and others are not.

A lawsuit had been filed against the school district by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two Enfield High School seniors and three parents.

“Public school students have a right to attend their graduation without feeling like they’re taking part in a religious service,” the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, had argued.

The school board had initially voted in January to hold graduation ceremonies at the respective schools. But in April, board members determined that First Cathedral provided “the best location within the budget.”

Rather than appeal the case, board member Judith Apruzzese-Desroches said she wanted to move on and establish a graduation site.

“We need to get it done. We need to provide something for these students who are graduating,” she said, according to the Hartford Courant.

Board chairman Gregory Stokes, however, felt the board made a mistake by not continuing with the appeal.

Many students and parents who attended the meeting Thursday were also dissatisfied with the vote.

Andrew Silva, this year’s valedictorian at Enrico Fermi High School, told the local Courant that the issue has always been about the number of seats, not religion. Disappointed with the board’s decision, Silva still hopes they can hold the ceremony at an off-campus site.

Courtesy of http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100604/conn-school-board-bows-out-of-graduations-at-church-battle/index.html 

American Secular Gospel

By Kevin Shrum

In a recent article titled, “The Gospel that Is Killing Us,” I used what I thought was a throw-away phrase in the final paragraph – “American secular gospel.” A dear friend of mine immediately called me and said that he thought there was something in that phrase that needed to be fleshed out. His comment to me forced me to think through once again what I had written. What did I mean when I wrote that it is the American secular gospel that is killing us? Let me break
this phrase down.

American – There is no one who loves America as much as I do. This is no slam on other nations or cultures. It is simply a recognition that God has afforded me the privilege of living in what some have called the greatest nation ever to exist in the history of humanity. The freedoms we enjoy and the progress we have made in technology, medicine, education, science, and basic living conditions have been unprecedented. While America has never been a pure theocracy, the framework that has informed our cultural and social morals was shaped and formed by a decidedly Judeo-Christian worldview. If America had any message it was the gospel. So, closely identified has the Judeo-Christian worldview been associated with America that, in fact, some have equated Americanism with the gospel itself. The flag has dangerously wrapped itself around the cross. To preach the gospel was to preach Americanism and vice versa.

But America lost her way along the way and, along with it, the goodness and grace that may have been a result or affect of the gospel. America has disconnected itself from its spiritual moorings. Two devastating consequences have resulted from this disconnect. First, America has been set adrift on the sea of radical individualism where everyone has their own god and everyone is their own priest. Second, the gospel some preach from the pulpits of America’s churches is preached under the delusion that America is still on God’s side and God is still on America’s side. This means that the pulpits of America have lost their prophetic voice to preach the gospel to sinners, to proclaim truth to power, and to bring a message of judgment to a nation that has for the most part abandoned God. In other words, there is no discord between the gospel some preach and the American way of life.

Secular – So, if God is out, what or who is in? The answer: secularism. This much used word simply refers to the fact that we are no longer ruled by eternal principles or vertical considerations. We are now completely horizontal in our perspective. There are no longer any eternal considerations. With the death of the gospel has come the flat-lining of an eternal, spiritual horizon. And if secularism is the new religion, then science and technology are its theology, with scientists and technocrats posing as its theologians. In addition, the ultimate goal of this secular perspective is the heightened awareness of my individual autonomy as my own god and the continuing development of the many creature comforts we so enjoy.

Gospel – The consequence of this spiritual shift in America has been the product I call the American secular gospel. The American secular gospel preaches a message that is more about flag-waving than it is about loyalty to King Jesus; that is less about personal repentance and more about personal fulfillment; that is more about individual success than it is about the Savior; that is more about our creature-comforts than sacrifice; that is more about promoting a particular political party than speaking truth to power; that is more about seeing God’s will as making much of me rather than much of Him. The American secular gospel is a pathetic replacement for the real gospel where Jesus Christ is preeminent in all things.

The consequences of the American secular gospel on the church have been devastating. Carpeted, air-conditioned buildings greet neatly dressed consumers who gather to consume a gospel that makes much of them and not much of God. Nice-speaking preachers preach the gospel of fulfillment rather than the gospel of self-abandonment that confronts us in our sins with the radical demands of the gospel. We have forgotten the gospel that declares that true happiness comes hard by our death and self-abandonment as we made truly alive in Jesus Christ.

Is there hope for America? Yes. There is a clue that can be found in the historical record. In 1840 Alexis de Tocqueville traveled to America from France to observe the secret of the success of this new experiment called democracy that had been born out of religious truth and liberty. This is what de Tocqueville wrote in his book, Democracy in America:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Hope for America will be found in the churches of America IF the churches of America rediscover the gospel of Jesus Christ – a gospel that makes much of God and less of us; a gospel that calls us to repentance and commitment to Jesus Christ; a gospel that calls us to serve rather than be served; a gospel that unleashes the creative power of humanity in service to mankind; a gospel that calls for an eternal, long-term perspective; a gospel that declares that humanity is more than a compilation of lucky cells, but a call to true greatness where human abilities are viewed as God-given and are used in service to the glory of God; a gospel that calls for moral and spiritual purity that trumps reckless autonomy; a gospel that calls for responsible freedom and that rejects license. America, God is calling. Are you listening?

Courtesy of http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100603/american-secular-gospel/index.html

The War on Christianity

By Burt Prelutsky

When I read that Americans had responded to the earthquake in Haiti by donating over a billion dollars to relief efforts, I was amazed once again at the generosity of my fellow citizens. Even though they, themselves, are suffering through an economic meltdown, they once again opened their purses, their wallets and their hearts to help out suffering strangers. Even though at least half of the donors were conservatives, those very folks that left-wingers deride as bigots, the recipients were black men, women and children.

Speaking of bigotry, I have no idea if I’ll be supporting Mitt Romney in 2012, but I do wish that everyone could get past his religion. Those people who have a different faith should understand that the tenets, symbols and traditions of every religion appear odd, to say the least, to outsiders. In some cases, they can seem absolutely daffy. But this is America; we’re entitled to be odd or at least appear that way to others. But unless someone is an Islamic fundamentalist or a Satanist – or do I repeat myself? – one’s religion shouldn’t preclude a decent person’s being elected president.

That brings me to the current resident of the White House. I am still somewhat mystified as to how someone who climbed out of the sewer of Chicago politics by standing on the shoulders of Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and Jeremiah Wright ever made it to the Oval Office. Granted, Hillary Clinton was caught flat-footed and John McCain ran such a terrible race that if he’d been a racehorse, they would have had him undergo a urine test.

Still, in what parallel universe would a guy who boasted that the high point of his career was that he’d been a community organizer be elected the leader of the free world? After stating that the trouble with the U.S. Constitution and the civil-rights movement was that they didn’t deal with the redistribution of the nation’s wealth, I wonder how it is he got a thousand votes, let alone 62 million. He was also the chowder-head who, after saying that America was the greatest nation on earth, insisted that it was his mission to radically transform it!

Frankly, I think it was a classic case of Pygmalionism. Americans, thanks in great part to the most rancid media this side of China, were mesmerized by the mantra of Hope and Change. Voters were encouraged to think of politics in terms of a fairy tale, as if Obama was Prince Charming and that empty slogan was code for “And they all lived happily ever after.”

The more Obama talked, the more, it seemed, poor, ugly men were lulled into thinking they’d become rich and handsome, while homely women came away believing they’d become beautiful and be pursued by rich, handsome men.

Pygmalionism, as you probably guessed, is the state of being in love with an object of one’s own making. These days, it’s also known as Obamaism.

The confounding aspect of all this is how so many people who regard religion as a sham, and who have nothing but contempt for Christianity and Judaism, continue to believe that Obama is the messiah.

That brings us to Rev. Franklin Graham, who was first invited to address the Pentagon on the National Day of Prayer, and then was uninvited after a couple of Muslims complained.

I am not a Christian and I have never met Rev. Graham, but I was outraged after hearing about this. Since when does the intolerance of a few nullify the wishes of the many? This is not to suggest that a minority should be deprived of their say, but nowhere is it written that they are entitled to the final say.

From my vantage point, it appears that even after the Pentagon’s cowardly policy of political correctness led directly to the murders of 13 innocent Americans at Fort Hood, the military still hasn’t learned its lesson.

Under Bill Clinton, homosexuals in the service were advised not to tell and the brass was ordered not to ask.

Under Barack Obama, it seems that the policy is still in place, except now it’s being directed at Christians.

Courtesy of  http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=161985

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School District and ACLU Continue Ban on Public and Private Religious Expression

Pensacola, FL /Christian News/ – During the Memorial Day weekend, Liberty Counsel filed in federal court a request for a preliminary injunction against the Santa Rosa County School District (District) and its Superintendent, Timothy S. Wyrosdick.

Liberty Counsel filed a Complaint against the District last month on behalf of 22 individuals representing students, faculty and staff, and members of the community, whose constitutional rights to free speech are being violated by a Consent Decree drafted by the ACLU, agreed to by the District, and entered by a federal court. The motion for preliminary injunction filed over the weekend requests the federal court to block the enforcement of the Consent Decree and set it aside. Under the Consent Decree, a student was told he could not say “God Bless” and had to change it to “Good Luck.” Teachers are not allowed to reply to emails send by parents seeking advice if the parents’ email contains words like “God Bless.” District employees are prohibited from participating in privately sponsored off-campus religious events or baccalaureate. Faculty and staff are required to stop prayers at privately sponsored after-school clubs.

Not only does the Consent Decree violate the free speech rights of faculty, staff, students, and members of the community seeking equal access to school facilities, it should also be set aside as moot, because the ACLU student plaintiffs graduated prior to the Consent Decree becoming a final order. Once they graduated, the court lost jurisdiction and should have dismissed the case.

Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “Freedom fled from Santa Rosa County when the ACLU filed suit. Liberty Counsel intends to restore freedom and end the intimidation. The constitutional violations wrought by the ACLU’s court order are the most outrageous I have seen. The court order directly conflicts with opinions from the United States Supreme Court. It is only a matter of time before the ACLU court order is set aside. Schools are not religious-free zones.”

Courtesy of http://www.freechristianpress.com/legal/school-district-and-aclu-continue-ban-on-public-and-private-religious-expression/

Conservatives: Beware of the Military Funeral Case

The obnoxious family that calls itself the Westboro Baptist Church is an example of how it is sometimes difficult to take the long view of freedom. Patriotic, constitutional conservatives, however, should be cautioned about the WBC military funeral case now in the news. It has potential for mischief against conservative activists.

WBC has made a name for itself protesting at military funerals and is in the middle of a Supreme Court battle with the father of a slain Marine over whether WBC’s public relations ploys crossed the line and constituted a legal wrong. The Fourth Circuit reversed a U.S. District Court judgment awarding the father, Albert Snyder, millions of dollars in tort damages. The Supreme Court then agreed to hear Mr. Snyder’s case.

WBC has managed to offend nearly everyone. They abuse biblical verses identifying conduct God hates to state that God hates individuals. WBC has a website (godhatesfags.com), relentlessly bashes the Catholic Church, and, in highly visible protests, its pitifully few members carry signs near military funerals with messages such as “Thank God for dead soldiers,” “God Hates the USA,” “Pope in hell,” and others designed to provoke attention and rage.

Mr. Snyder did not see the signs at his son’s funeral until later that day, when footage was shown on television. Mr. Snyder then followed up by reviewing WBC’s offensive internet rants naming his son. Understandably outraged, he filed suit against WBC alleging various torts.

However, what WBC wrote about Mr. Snyder’s son, Matthew, was obviously gleaned from his obituary, and none of it was private information. WBC’s internet rant could have been about nearly anyone. Matthew, God rest his soul, happened to be a convenient means for WBC’s twisted methods. (And if you want examples of speaking ill of the dead, check out the left-wing blogosphere after a conservative dies.)

Even though I consider myself a First Amendment purist, I nonetheless rooted for Mr. Snyder, believing there must be some overriding protection of the sanctity of a funeral, especially a military one.

Tactically, however, WBC has already won. Respected law professors and commentators Eugene Volokh, Jonathan Turley, and others have sided with WBC on the First Amendment and other legal issues. The lawsuit has garnered more publicity than WBC could purchase, and publicity is their primary goal.

On the issue of the First Amendment protection of protests, conservatives should read Justice Scalia’s dissent in the 2000 6-3 decision in Hill v. Colorado. That case upheld Colorado’s eight-foot barrier on “unwelcome” speech outside the building of an abortion clinic. Scalia’s dissent helped change my mind about Mr. Snyder’s case. “Suffice it to say that if protecting people from unwelcome communications,” Scalia wrote, “is a compelling state interest, the First Amendment is a dead letter.”

Justice Scalia noted, correctly in my opinion, that even content-neutral restrictions that operate on messages of protest or education pose the risk of censoring the content of the messages themselves. That’s a method frequently employed by those who design to censor. Regulating certain conduct can have the tendency to regulate speech. Scalia also criticized the majority opinion’s concocting a right “to be let alone.”

If you want proof that the WBC case has potential for mischief, Harry Reid, “call-me-Senator” Barbara Boxer, Chuck Schumer, and other politicians have filed amicus curiae briefs in the case. Yes, the same politicians who, daily now, seek to destroy the First Amendment weighed in.

An amicus brief filed by 48 state attorneys general, including Richard Blumenthal, Martha Coakley, Jerry Brown, and Barack Obama’s favorite state attorney general, Lisa Madigan, is fraught with politics. It is so flawed legally and constitutionally that first-year law students might even react with “tsk, tsk.”

The Fourth Circuit in the WBC case reversed the award to Mr. Snyder based in part on the legal interpretation that the facts did not meet the standards for the torts under which he sued, including the tort of intrusion upon seclusion.

Two of the three judges then noted that states and localities may “place reasonable and content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions on activities that are otherwise constitutionally protected.” Virginia, where I live, has a statute making it unlawful to disrupt funerals and memorial services. Disruption differs from protest, albeit perhaps not in the eyes of the loved ones of slain soldiers.

The brief filed by the attorneys general claims that a compelling state interest is at stake in this litigation between private plaintiffs, which raised my Scalia First Amendment antenna.

The brief of the attorneys general, unfortunately, goes beyond attacking protests at funerals to “targeted picketing” and internet postings. Besides mixing and confusing the standards for the various torts under which Mr. Snyder sued, the attorneys general would also give more First Amendment protection to the “media” than to “non-media” speakers. I’ll refer to the latter as “we, the riffraff.”

Besides botching the law and legal standards, the attorneys general make unsubstantiated factual claims, such as that the WBC’s funeral protests are unprecedented in American history. I certainly don’t condone chaos at funerals, but the AGs’ brief is wrong. Sam Adams used the funeral of a small boy killed in the Boston Massacre as a political rally. Colonists in Cambridge, Massachusetts stormed and disrupted the funeral of an occupying British soldier.

In 1953, AFL cemetery workers in Chicago picketed the funeral of an AFL official. A picketer was quoted saying the official “wouldn’t have had it any other way.” Using funerals as the situs of protest is wrong, but it is done precisely because that draws attention to the message. It’s the shock value.

In a period of increasing civilian protest by constitutional conservatives, and with a government eagerly passing laws eroding First Amendment freedoms such as hate crimes legislation, left-wing citizens and groups will become government surrogates to harass and silence protest through civil litigation.

This is to say that the politicians who filed amicus briefs are up to more than wrapping themselves in the American flag. They know First Amendment court decisions are often fickle. If the WBC case goes their way, it will be used by left-wing statists to file lawsuits against conservative protesters in other settings — particularly those who use shock, rhetoric, and even biblical verses to gain attention to their message — as a means to harass, intimidate, and silence them. Change.org is already waiting.

WBC abused the Old Testament to make a statement. They are wrong. Where I grew up, this wouldn’t have reached litigation. WBC is aware of that type of reaction and got police protection. A better reaction to WBC, however, comes from the New Testament, which is to turn the other cheek and ignore them.

My heart goes out to Mr. Snyder, but my head tells me his litigation won’t result in the solution he seeks. The long-term solution for our fallen soldiers and their families appears to be content-neutral funeral anti-disruption ordinances that pass the Scalia test.

Courtesy of http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/conservatives_beware_of_the_mi.html