Jeb Bush on Religious Freedom

Former Florida Governor and inchoate 2016 Republican Presidential candidate Jeb Bush (R-FL) made a staunch defense of Religious Liberty during his commencement address at Liberty University. 

Hlilary Clinton: Woman, Myth or Deity?

Aside from making headlines by stopping at Chipotle in the Scooby Mystery Machine en route to structured campaign stops in Iowa, former Secretary of State Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) made headlines with her first campaign speech at the Women of the World Summit in New York.

 A candidate's maiden campaign speech can be fraught with symbolism and meaning.  Mrs. Clinton's address was an homage to feminism.  But what really made an impression is when Hillary suggested that in order to ensure full access to womens' "reproductive health" (read abortion), we could have to change our laws, morals and religious beliefs.

“Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed. As I have said and as I believe, the advancement of the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of their societies is the great unfinished business of the 21st century and not just for women but for everyone — and not just in far away countries but right here in the United States.”

 This proposed progressive pogrom did not play well among Pro Lifers here and abroad.  The Bishop of Oyo, Nigeria Emmanuel Badejo analyzed why the Democrat candidate thought she should say such things.  

Barack Obama Questions Christian Love at White House Easter Breakfast

As Christians continued to celebrate the miracle of the Resurrection at a Tuesday Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House, President Barack Obama could not resist poking at the Nazarene's faithful. While Mr. Obama's remarks does echo some of the Paschal message, he flippantly questioned some perceived deficiencies in Christian Love (presumably an oblique reference to Indiana's RFRA law controversy).



It seems rather rude for the President to turn a prayer breakfast of the most important holiday into a partisan punch line.  Unfortunately, this is not uncharacteristic of the Obama Administration. Last year, President Obama "spontaneously" called on the controversial gay Episcopal Bishop Vichy "Gene" Robinson for a closing prayer.

What was striking about President Obama's 2015 Easter Prayer Breakfast remarks is that he failed to acknowledge the massacre and martyrdom of 148 Christians at Garissa University College in eastern Kenya on Maudy Thursday by Islamist terrorists.  Of  course, when Mr. Obama did address the latest Kenyan atrocity, the President failed to mention the faith of both the "folks" who were slaughtered as well as the creed which inspired the dastardly deed.  In addition, when President Obama spoke about the bloody beheadings of 21 people in Libya by ISIS he referred to them as "Egyptian citizens" rather than as Coptic Christians which prompted their martyrdom.

Icon of the "New Martyrs" by Tony Rezk.  Coptic Pope Tawadros II declared Feb. 15th their feast day  

Of course, clearly identifying victims of the contemporary jihad by radical would wreck the impression that Christianity is about the Crusades and the Inquisition as President Obama alluded in his 2015 National Prayer Breakfast remarks.

Tammy Bruce on the New (In)Tolerance

  

 Tammy Bruce is a media pundit with an iconoclastic experience.  Bruce is a lesbian who was the former head of the Los Angeles chapter of the  National Organization for Women (NOW).  But her journey to being Out, Proud and Conservative began as she discerned that she could be herself, and make choices which are best for herself (without necessarily agreeing with everyone) and not fear retribution on the right.  Whereas, Bruce concluded that:

"I found that sexism, racism and homophobia are staples in the liberal world. The huge irony is liberals spend every ounce of energy promoting the notion that they are the banner carriers of individualism and personal freedom, yet the hammer comes down on anyone who dares not to conform to, or who dissents even in part from, the liberal agenda."

This liberal intolerance is also exemplified by the gay lobby rabble rousing over Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).



The tactics which same-sex marriage proponents have applied to civilly crucify those who might have religious objections to participating in such a ceremony strikes Bruce as intolerant at the least and may be deemed as gay fascism.

However such former advocates of tolerance, free speech, and the patriotism of dissent would probably cheer the Federal District Court ruling that a Gay Bakery could refuse to bake cakes with scriptural messages condemning homosexuality.  Yet when Memories Pizza in Elkhorn, Indiana considering the hypothetical of not catering a same-sex wedding due to religious objections, the family restaurant was civilly crucified.

So much for the new civil (in)tolerance (sic).

Charles Barkley on Discrimination

Barkley wonders why the media has not featured many homosexual activists on camera opining about the Indiana RFRA law.  Such a comment makes one wonder what media he has been watching.  But accepting Barkley's contention pro argumento, it may be that the outrage was not aimed at advancing the same sex marriage campaign as much as a progressive power grab to limit opposition to the liberal agenda. Anyone adhering to traditional religious views who holds contrary views suffers a contemporary civil crucifixion as a homophobe, which today inspires as much recrimination as being charged as a racist.

 Plus there is the added bonus of "Sir" Charles weighing in about "religious nut jobs" and southern rednecks who always hide behind the bible to shield their bigotry.

Perhaps awkward is le mot juste for just about every public policy pronouncement which emanates from the emeritus Round Mound of Rebound.

Contemporary Civil Crucifixions?

As the Christian faithful commemorate the Triduum, when their blameless Lord was persecuted and crucified for their sins, we can contemplate contemporary crucifixions.

Sadly, we live in a world in which ISIS Islamists actually crucify and martyr "Nazarenes" for their faith.  Yet we do not have to look abroad to see contemporary civil crucifixions.

Consider how masses have been riled up and incited to violence over lies emanating from the chief priest of liberal secular humanism in social justice circles and the media. Ferguson, Missouri brought forth the meme "Hands Up, Don't Shoot", which inspired rioting both in the Show Me State as well as civil intimidation in Brooklyn.  Yet the Ferguson Grand Jury Decision showed that the "Hands Up Don't Shoot" manta was  all based on lies.

Then there was the Rolling Stone gang rape story which was meant to peddle the war on women wedge issue especially college fraternities.  Once again a fabrications yet the fraternity at the University of Virginia was forced to close until police reports showed that the accusation was based on a tissue of lies.

Lately, the focus has been on Indiana, as the Hoosier State passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  Progressives painted a rainbow smear claiming that RFRA would allow businesses to discriminate against homosexual customers.  In reality, Indiana's  RFRA was modeled after a 1993 Federal Law (which President Bill Clinton signed)  and 19 other states (including Illinois which State Senator Barack Obama voted for), with updates to reflect the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling.

Rather than being a weapon for business owners to pursue discrimination, RFRA is a shield which allows those with a strongly held religious belief to simply have their day in court.  The masses where whipped up into a frenzy under the rainbow banner to stop bigotry.

One enterprising jo-whore-nalist from ABC 57 in South Bend, sought out a pizzaria in Elkhorn, Indiana supposedly to get a small town perspective on the Hoosier RFRA law. Reporter Alyssa Marino  "randomly" chose Memories Pizza, which just so happened to be a Christian establishment. They  entertained a hypothetical of catering a same-sex wedding and concluded that participating in that ceremony would be against their religious beliefs.

This naive admission set off a firestorm of protest against the small town pizza parlor.  Rush Limbaugh suspects this was a set up for a Christian business and was being magnified by a small group of progressive activists who spin a cyber chimera of being an internet army. How else could a UHF TV station in South Bend generate thousands of social media protests in less than ten minutes?  

The hype over Memories Pizza got so severe that a high school teacher tweeted seeking comrades to help burn the place down. Memories Pizza was forced to close with all of the crank calls and calls to violence

   

After her suspension is lifted, she should stick to instructing girls' golf rather than teaching hatred and inciting violence on the internet.

Fortunately, like the miracle of the resurrection after the public crucifixion, there is a happy ending for Memories Pizza.  BlazeTV personal Dana Loesch organized a crowdfunding effort to help the O'Connor family with their Memories Pizza business.  In a couple of days, 30,000 people contributed over $850,000. This will allow Memories Pizza to weather the RFRA firestorm and to expand.  

Yet progressives still sought to punish Memories Pizza.  Some conspiracy minded liberals implied that the O'Connors intentionally created the media frenzy for online donations.  These are the same type of people who obsess over Loose Change  Another internet activist, who co-incidentally is a social media employee of WTVR-TV CBS6 in Richmond, Virginia, implied that the crowdfunding was fraudulent to discourage contributions.  

While during Holy Week it is facile to focus on crowds being whipped into a frenzy to be the cat's paw for leaders.  But it is also worth considering why the Romans resorted to crucifixions in their empire.  These brutal crucifixions served as examples not to challenge the orthodoxy of the powers that be. 

Crucifixion (even the civil kind)?  No, I would rather choose religious freedom. 

But like Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), it is best to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

H/T: A.F. Branco

   

Franklin Graham on Religious Freedom

Naghmeh Abedini on Religious Freedom

 Naghmeh Abedini spoke at CPAC to testify about the importance of Religious Liberty.  Abedini is the wife of Saheed Abedini, the Christian pastor who has been imprisoned since the summer of 2012 by the Islamic Republic of Iran for his religious beliefs and apostasy from Shia Islam.

 

 Mrs. Abedini's speech comes as the Obama Administration has been contorting itself to achieve any nuclear deal with the government in Tehran, thus forsaking any leverage to achieve a good will gesture of freeing this pastor who is an American citizen. Mrs. Abedini's testimony of why she is proud to be an American stands against many of the moves of the Obama Administration to minimize our First Amendment Freedom of Religion (e.g. Obamacare's Contraception Mandate, imposing Same-Sex marriage, considering traditional believers as prospective terror groups etc.).

Her testimony is an inspiration to Be Heard.

On the Lack of Religious Liberty in the Middle East

Sister Hatune Dogan is a Universal Syrian Orthodox nun who does field work through "A Helping Hand to the Poor" dedicated to aid persecuted Christians, especially in Syria and Iraq.  

Sister Dogan has been outspoken not only in calling out Muslims for their religious intolerance but also for Western complicity in not helping persecuted Christians.  Sister Dogan's perspective from living in Syria noted that 95% of what was reported in the West about the Free Syrian Army (from which ISIS sprang) was wrong.  

At the Defense of Christians Inaugural Summit in September, Sister Hatune decried the mainstream media's blindness to the slaughter, raping, ransoming, crucifying and killing of Christians in the Middle East. 

Among the "thousands of stories" of Christian persecution, Sister Hatune recounted:

“I met an Iraqi girl, five-and-a-half-years maybe, and they kidnapped her. I met her at seven-and-a-half-years. Until today, she [will not] say, no one knows, what happened to her, because she was misused. They [were] paid $30,000 dollars to release her. They released her, but under that condition. I am sorry for her. That was the youngest girl that I met. She was misused.”

Paying a ransom is no guarantee of being freed from a hell on Earth. A 21 year old Jordanian woman was abducted and repeatedly raped her.  When these savages were not satisfied the ransom money, they cut her face in different ways.  Sister Hatune saw with her own eyes 280 girls who were kidnapped and misused by Muslim men and then had their breasts and "other sensitive areas" cut. Sadly, these stories of horrific brutality were ignored in the American Mainstream Media  to instead focus on the Ray Rice NFL reinstatement saga. 

Moreover, Sister Hatune inveighed against the open immigration policies in Sweden favored Muslims rather than the persecuted Christians from the Middle East. 

As we reflect upon the year that has past and make new year's resolutions, we ought to contemplate the lack of religious liberty and our collective lack of reaction to such deplorable deprivations in the Middle East and to a lesser extent at home in the West. 

h/t: Media Research Center 

Billy Graham on Religious Freedom

Dr. Ben Carson on America as a Judeo-Christian Nation

Prince Charles on the Persecution of Christians

Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, recently wrote Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Raphael Sako of Baghdad in order to show support for Christians and members of other faiths suffering  barbaric persecution at the hands of Caliphate Jihadists operating under the banner of ISIS, ISIL or the "Islamic State".  

But this was not the first time that the Crown Prince of the United Kingdom has spoken out against the persecution of Christians by Islamists in the Middle East.  He spoke out about the dwindling number of Christians in the birthplace of Christianity in December, 2013.

In May 2014, Prince Charles authored an opinion piece for the pan-Arabic publication  Asharq Alawsat  in which the Prince of Wales urged:

Now is the time to re-double our joint efforts to stress what binds the three Abrahamic faiths together and, as Christians, Jews and Muslims, to express outrage at what tears us asunder.  In doing this, it is important to remind ourselves that an emphasis on love of neighbour and doing to others as we would have them do to us are the ultimate foundations of truth, justice, compassion and human rights...

Alas, ISIS rampage in Iraq against Christians, Yazidis and even Shiite Muslims who do not believe the same way that these radical Islamists see the world  have created enormous turmoil and suffering.