“Religious Freedom Day” – not so much!

Peanut Gallery: “Words mean things.” And President Obama choses his words very carefully. That’s why his substitution of the word worship for freedom in his Religious Freedom Day proclamation (Jan 16) was important – and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty called him on it.

Perhaps this mismatch between words and deeds can be explained by the phrase “freedom of worship,” which the President uses in the first sentence of his proclamation. Religious freedom certainly includes worship, but it extends beyond the four walls of a church. If it is not to be an empty promise, religious freedom must also include acting on one’s deepest religious beliefs when one is feeding the poor, caring for the sick, educating the young, or running a business.

The Becket Fund focused on the HHS mandate affecting churches and religious institutions but the word switch (worship for religion) would also limit evengelism beyond the four walls of a church.

So what is he up to? Maybe he thinks if he says it often enough and long enough people will accept the change… and stay in their place? Out of sight and out of mind.

I don’t think God is going to go for that.
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The report from Christianity Today is found below –

Becket Fund Pushes Back on Obama’s ‘Religious Freedom Day’ Proclamation

by Jeremy Weber, blog.christianitytoday.com

Today (Wed, Jan 16), President Barack Obama continued the tradition of observing Religious Freedom Day with a presidential proclamation. But this year, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty critiqued his use of “freedom of worship” rhetoric—a debate that first arose in 2010.

“Foremost among the rights Americans hold sacred is the freedom to worship as we choose,” begins Obama’s proclamation (full text at bottom), which later asserts “religious liberty … is a universal human right to be protected here at home and across the globe. This freedom is an essential part of human dignity, and without it our world cannot know lasting peace.”

Becket challenged the president’s statement in light of the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, which currently faces 43 legal challenges (many led by Becket) based on religious freedom concerns. Continue reading ““Religious Freedom Day” – not so much!” →

“What’s the Matter with Kids Tody?” – public education (re-blog)

Peanut Gallery: A new blog – Ooobie on Everything – has been brought to my attention and it’s well worth a read. The re-blog here speaks to the issue of how America got into our current mess – public education hijacked by leftists.

What’s the solution? Think homeschooling, or private schooling… yes, it’s that bad.

Here’s a sample of what Ooobie has to say about it –

The leftist infiltration of education as a primary means of spreading the faith has been underway for many generations, but it really went into high gear following the radicalization of the 60s generation. While most of that generation went on to pursue more lucrative fields, the real activists went into the classrooms. They knew that by indoctrinating today’s youth they controlled tomorrow’s politics. They could change the country fundamentally without ever setting off another bomb. And it worked perfectly, as propaganda always does when political debate is stifled and a compliant media endlessly amplifies the message. Such an environment puts the brain to sleep and supplants independent thought with militant slogans and threats of destruction to the old order. The teachers worked hand-in-glove with the union bosses, silencing, ostracizing and even punishing dissenters among the pedagogical ranks. The left took over curricula, faculty and administration. Opposing viewpoints need not apply. Our schools today are the enemies of intellectual discourse and the invigorating clash of ideas. Instead they toil to churn out mindless zombies, zealots of the left, masters of propaganda but ignorant of the reality of what they advocate.

I hope that quote encourages you to read the entire post here – and check out her most recent posts here. I particularly enjoyed her personal story recounted in her post “A Tale of Two Cities.” I’m looking forward to reading more.

Special thanks to Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook and NEO at nebraskaenergyobserver for bringing Ooobie to our attention. Please check out their blogs as well… there’s a lot of interesting reads… and plenty to think about.

1st Family of South Carolina making us proud – Nikki Haley’s husband departs for Afghan mission

Nikki Haley’s husband departs for Afghan mission
Posted by Natalie Jennings on January 10, 2013

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, left, comforts her son, Nalin, 10, and her daughter, Rena, 14, as her husband, Capt. Michael Haley, right, gets ready for a deployment ceremony. (Rainier Ehrhardt/Associated Press)

Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) and her two children said an emotional goodbye to her husband, Capt. Michael Haley, on Thursday in Fort Jackson, S.C., as he departed for training and a year-long mission to Afghanistan.

It will be the first deployment for Capt. Haley, a businessman who joined the National Guard in 2006. He will be in training for a month in Indiana and will not return to South Carolina before his tour begins.

“We are a proud military family who understands the sacrifices any family goes through when a loved one is serving his or her country,” Gov. Haley said in a Facebook post. ”This is what our men and women in uniform sign up for, and although Michael, like his brothers and sisters, is looking forward to his mission, we will miss him while he’s away. Rena, Nalin and I are proud of Michael and will pray for his — and all others’ — safe return.”

The AP has more details on their public sendoff.

Unlovley America – “Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question” – Re-blog (Crisis Magazine)

Peanut Gallery: I am in crisis… I do not recognize the country I have loved and lived in all my life. I do not understand today’s prevailing “culture.” I put the word in quotes because it looks more like a cess pool to me – catering to our basest nature (gangsta rap)… rather than encouraging us to soar to the heights of our God-given nature (flash mob).

We are so caught up in ourselves… in our own frantic activities… running to what, or from what… that we can no longer hear the music.

And now, the issue of legalizing/sanctifying gay marriage is at the forefront of the “culture wars.” Among the political/educational elite, there is no longer any room for civil discussion or debate. The lunatics are running the asylum… as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia discovered.

Justice Scalia at Princeton:

Digging his heels in, [Scalia] put to the students the following question, which goes right to the heart of the matter: “If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality,” he pointedly asked, “can we have them against murder? Can we have it against other things?”

Where is all this leading us? Regis Martin reflects on this very question in his important article re-posted below –

If a nation to be loved, as Burke once said, must be lovely, where does that leave those of us who look upon same sex marriage with abhorrence? At what point does cultural approval, followed by juridical vindication from the highest court in the land, so diminish the loveliness of our country that to withdraw one’s love and loyalty from it becomes the only tenable course to take?

These are serious times and Christians are facing serious issues. Please read Martin’s original article here, posted here at Crisis Magazine.

Special thanks to servus fidelis for bringing this important post to our attention.
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Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question

by Regis Martin

When does it become impermissable for a self-governing people to pass laws that will ensure the survival of the things they love? When they no longer command a majority of the electorate? Is that the standard? Certainly among people of democratic disposition, it is a constitutional given that any time a plurality of voters take charge, they are more or less at liberty to set aside whatever arrangements were in place before they assumed control.

In other words, that massive tectonic shift in the culture we’ve been witnessing over these past fifty years, is about to be given formal and official sanction from the political process. All the awfulness of the culture, as it were, will sooner or later be codified into law.
Continue reading “Unlovley America – “Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question” – Re-blog (Crisis Magazine)” →