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The Ten Commandments represent God’s law. We no longer live according to the law, for according to Romans 6:14, we ” are not under law but under grace”. However, this law still represents the structure that God presented as a means to keep His people from harm and wholly devoted to Him. This article represents a much deeper issue that is affecting religious freedom of people of faith across America.
A second constitutional challenge to an Ohio judge’s display of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom is making its way through the court system.
At issue is whether a new, self-designed and framed poster put up by Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese in his Mansfield courtroom is constitutional. He says it is. Advocates for church-state separation say it isn’t.
The judge hung the poster in 2006. That was after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 let stand previous lower-court rulings that his first poster, which he hung in 2000, violated the constitutional separation between church and state.
On Tuesday, Americans United for Separation of Church and State joined Hindu, Jewish and other groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the judge’s display is an unconstitutional governmental endorsement of religion. The brief was filed in the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
DeWeese is appealing an October ruling by a federal district court that found his new display unconstitutionally endorsed particular religious views over others. The court ruled in a complaint filed in 2008 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.
Attorneys for DeWeese argue in a brief filed to the appeals court last month that the new poster is “markedly different” from the 2000 display in which he hung separate posters of the Ten Commandments and the Bill of Rights.
The new poster is titled “Philosophies of Law in Conflict,” and shows two columns. On the left are the Ten Commandments, labeled “moral absolutes.” On the right are seven of what the judge called “humanist precepts,” which he labeled “moral relatives.”
Humanism rejects religious beliefs and holds that humans control their own actions.
The poster includes a commentary by the judge. DeWeese wrote that he sees a conflict of legal philosophies in the United States. It is moral absolutism versus moral relativism or, as examples, the Ten Commandments and the humanist precepts, he wrote. He added that he believes legal philosophy must be grounded on fixed moral standards and not on moral relativism.
No matter, replied the advocates for church-state separation in their court filing. They argue that DeWeese’s new poster is an attempt to “dress a religious display in secular clothing.”
It is unknown when the appeals court will rule. DeWeese did not return a message seeking comment.
Read More: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/27/poster-with-10-commandments-puts-judge-back-in-spotlight.html?sid=101
The creator of this prayer is a great leader. The words are true. Let’s pray it together now.
‘Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.
We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good, but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!’
Recently, our nation’s motto, “In God We Trust” was inscribed and unveiled in the Capitol Visitor Center.This nation was birthed out of the wisdom of El Shaddai, and ultimately was and is dedicated to Him. God loves America, and as we Trust God Again, there will be more victories ahead.
Individuals across the country who were willing to stand up on behalf of our nation’s religious heritage saw a major victory. After more than one year of fighting to restore references to our nation’s spiritual history stripped from the newly-constructed $621-million Capitol Visitor Center, the engraving of our national motto “In God We Trust” was unveiled in the Center.
When I along with several other Members of the Prayer Caucus first toured the newly constructed Capitol Visitor Center, we were troubled to learn that the Center was stripped of all references to America’s religious heritage and it contained a number of factual inaccuracies, including incorrectly stating that our national motto was “E Pluribus Unum” and inaccurately representing Capitol church services.
In July 2008, I led 108 Members of Congress in signing a letter to the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) expressing our concerns with the incomplete historical religious content in the Capitol Visitor Center. In October 2008, the Committee on House Administration and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee agreed to correct the inaccuracy of “E Pluribus Unum,” engrave in stone in the Center “In God We Trust” and the Pledge of Allegiance, and create a permanent religious history display. We worked to ensure those changes were agreed to before legislation was passed directing the opening of the Capitol Visitor Center. H.R. 5159 was signed into law in October, and the Capitol Visitor Center opened in December 2008. H.Con.Res.131 passed the House and Senate in July 2009, directing the AOC to engrave the national motto and Pledge of Allegiance in the Capitol Visitor Center.
The “In God We Trust” engraving was completed and unveiled this week and the Pledge of Allegiance is scheduled to be completed in the coming weeks.
This was accomplished due to the efforts of so many individuals in Congress and across the country who were willing to stand up on behalf of our nation’s religious heritage. Thousands of visitors will walk through the center each day. The efforts of the individuals that have joined in this issue have enabled those visitors to experience a more accurate depiction of our nation’s heritage written in stone.
This win should serve as an example to Americans all across the country that because we believe, we stand, and because we stand, we can make a difference.
By Congressman Randy Forbes:
http://forbes.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=147350
Following is a story of a man that was arrested and charged with “defiant tresspassing” for sharing the gospel on a school campus. Read more below:
EDISON, N.J. — A court has issued an order dismissing criminal charges against a New Jersey man whom police arrested after he shared the Gospel on a sidewalk outside a public high school after the end of the school day. At the request of the principal of Edison High School, Robert Parker was taken into custody after his toe touched the grass on the school’s side of the sidewalk. He was charged with trespass and disorderly conduct.
In May 2009, Parker began sharing the Gospel from a public sidewalk outside Edison High School after students were dismissed for the day, at which time the principal told him to leave. Parker explained that the First Amendment protected his free speech and free exercise of religion rights, but the principal took no heed and called police.
The police instructed students not to go near Parker, and the principal insisted that he be arrested. While speaking with officers, Parker’s toe brushed against the grass along the school side of the sidewalk. The officers arrested him and issued him a summons for “defiant trespassing.” The events leading to the arrest were recorded on video.
Full Story: http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/3667
In America, people of faith are being arrested for sharing the gospel in a public area. It seems instances such as these are becoming more and more frequent. Read more about these true accounts below.
Hampton, NH:
Recently, two Christians were arrested for sharing their faith and singing worship songs on a public sidewalk in the Hampton Beach area. Police arrested the two men, charging them under a state law against “unreasonable or loud” noise, but the la
w has not been used against other much louder activities in the very busy beach district, including bands sponsored by the village precinct to increase business in the area.
A year earlier, Mark Frost, Jayson Gardner, and Craig Gardner were preaching to pedestrians on Ocean Boulevard in Hampton Beach. Because of the loud noise emanating from a rock concert at the beach boardwalk, the men rolled up a piece of paper to speak through so they could be heard. They were then approached by a police officer who informed them that they were in violation of a town noise ordinance, even though the men were preaching in an extremely noisy area and were told to stay quiet and stop using their paper “megaphone.”
The men complied with the request and moved to a different location two blocks away, where they preached without the rolled up paper and sang the Christian song “He Set Me Free.” The same officer reappeared and arrested Frost and Jayson Gardner for being too loud. While in custody, the police asked the men, “Where is your God now? There’s no God behind these walls.”
The men were subsequently charged with disorderly conduct under state law instead of being cited under the town’s noise ordinance. The Hampton District Court dismissed the charges, but as a result of the arrest, Frost and Gardner have not exercised their constitutional right to free speech on public sidewalks in Hampton for fear of arrest because of the arbitrary enforcement of the state law.
Full Story: http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=5088
The following story outlines a very real and unbelievable account that took place in an elementary school classroom in America. As a result of a parent reading the Bible in the classroom, there is now a actual ban of Bible reading in schools in the area.What’s more, they encouraged the mother to read from a book about witches instead. Read more below.
A lower court’s “hostility” towards Christianity will stand after the U.S. Supreme Court today refused to intervene in a school district’s censorship of a kindergartener’s choice of literature for a class reading. 
“By refusing to hear Mrs. Busch’s case, the U.S. Supreme Court has endorsed the kind of hostility toward religion that should never be found in an American public school,” said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which took on the Newtown Square, Pa., case.
As WND reported, Donna Busch accepted an invitation to visit her son Wesley’s kindergarten classroom at Culbertson Elementary School to read a passage of Wesley’s favorite book to his classmates in October 2004. Wesley’s teacher had invited Busch because the boy was the featured student of “All About Me,” a school event to feature a particular student and emphasize the student’s personal characteristics, preferences and personality in classroom activities.
During the “All About Me” activity, a child’s parent may read aloud from the student’s favorite book. In this case, Wesley, a Christian, chose the Bible. His mother planned to read from Psalm 118.
But when Donna Busch prepared to read from the Bible, Wesley’s teacher instructed her not to do so until Principal Thomas Cook could determine whether it would be acceptable.
According to the Rutherford Institute, the principal “informed Mrs. Busch that she could not read from the Bible in the classroom because it was against the law and that the reading would violate the ‘separation of church and state.’”
Then school administrators offered Wesley’s mother an opportunity to read from a book about witches, witchcraft and Halloween. She declined the invitation.
A 2005 decision in U.S. District Court sided with the school’s decision to ban the Bible reading. Officials with the Marple Newtown School District had defended their actions as reasonable, and the trial court judge agreed.
A Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision upheld the lower court’s ruling that the school officials’ decision did not violate the Busch family’s First Amendment rights.
The court held that “educators may appropriately restrict forms of expression in elementary school classrooms” even when speakers have been invited into the classroom.
Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman issued a strong dissent, noting that the reading of a passage from Psalms to Wesley’s class was within the subject matter of the “All About Me” unit, which was to highlight things of interest and importance to Wesley. The judge said the exclusion constituted viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment because it was based solely upon its religious character.
The Supreme Court decision not to hear the case creates unwelcome precedents, Whitehead said.
“If these acts of censorship and discrimination are allowed to continue, there will be absolutely no freedom for religious people in public schools in this country,” he said.
The case had highlighted the fact that while Busch was not allowed to read from the Bible, another parent was allowed to read a book about Judaism and teach the class a dreidel game.
Read more:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=122478
In the Bible belt of our nation, teachers and administrators are being sued for praying and distributing Bibles. This nation was built on a Biblical foundation; One Nation Under God. It is our National Motto, it is inscribed on our money; the God of the Bible is interwoven through the very fabric of this nation. However, some would say that praying to this God or distributing Bibles describing Him is illegal…
ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. — In Cheatham County, the school board is strategizing with its lawyers on how to respond to a lawsuit over student rights.The American Civil Liberties Union said teachers and administrators illegally promoted religion through required prayer at band and sporting events and distribution of Bibles in the building.
Read more: http://www.wsmv.com/news/22273728/detail.html
Trijicon was started by a devout Christian man that died in a plane crash in 2003. He started the practice of inscribing scripture on the military weapons that his company produces. What a great idea right? Well, some don’ think so.
Read more below:
Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical co
des to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions “have always been there” and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is “not Christian.”
Full Story: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-military-weapons-inscribed-secret-jesus-bible-codes/story?id=9575794
Below is a letter sent by the ACLU in regard to opening prayer at board meetings. People of faith often wonder how we got to this critical point in our nation….we have allowed our religious and individual freedom to erode away little by little by the persistence of people and organizations with opposing beliefs and values. Below is another example:
“…Specifically, the ACLU of Virginia urges you to adopt either a moment of silence in lieu of prayer, or a policy ensuring that prayers be nonsectarian.
As Mr. Haynes noted, a moment of silence is a good option because it allows every individual to pray, or not pray, as he chooses. It allows the widest freedom of choice for participants, and ensures that the Board is not seen to take sides on religious issues.
… And when the government speaks, it cannot play favorites among religions: “The clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.” Larson v. Valente, 456 U.S. 228, 244 (1982).
This basic principle – that government may not prefer one religious faith over another – holds true in the case of legislative prayer. “The legislative prayers involved in Marsh did not violate this principle because the particular chaplain had ‘removed all references to Christ.’” Id. at 603.
If this were not clear enough, the Fourth Circuit has expressly held that a town council’s practice of opening meetings with explicitly Christian prayers violated the First Amendment. Wynne v. Town Council of Great Falls, 376 F.3d 292 (4th Cir. 2004):
In sum, prayers at school board meetings must be nonsectarian. The prayers at the last two school board meetings, which, according to the Free Lance-Star, were said “in Jesus Christ’s name,” violate that principle. The School Board should therefore have a clear policy mandating nonsectarian prayers, and should ensure that those who are invited to give invocations understand the policy. Of course, all of this could be avoiding by returning to the moment of silence option.”
Full Full Article: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=54&p=1263576679
ADF, hospital work together to remove barriers preventing chaplain from visiting patients
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IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. — Hospital officials at Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center have agreed to allow the chaplain of two veterans’ organizations access to patients. Previously, hospital officials denied Martin Colburn, a Christian Colburn, a retired veteran who serves as a chaplain for the American Legion and Disabled American Veterans organizations and had been volunteering his time for over four years, was informed by the hospital’s chief of voluntary services that he would no longer have access to the hospital due to the “religious content” of his activities. Colburn provided brief prayers and Bible reading only to patients who had either given him permission or had requested his services in advance.
The hospital once again permitted Colburn to visit the hospital. However, officials later rescinded his access, citing a “Visiting Clergy” policy which only allows clergy to visit members of their local congregation and only after scheduling visits with the Chaplain Service office. The hospital also suggested that Colburn’s religious credentials would need to be evaluated to determine whether he was “qualified.”
After receiving a second letter from ADF, along with correspondence from Wis. Congressman and doctor Steve Kagen, the hospital agreed to allow Colburn to resume visiting patients with whom he already had relationships or who specifically requested his visitation.
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=5062
Victory!
