1) Supreme Court to Hear Partial Birth Abortion Case 2) Congressman Tom DeLay to Speak About his Faith at War On Christians Conference 3) Whatever Happened to Free Speech in America
Current Survey
Take Action
Financial Support
Each week's edition of this Report brings new evidence of the radical left assault on people of faith and our shared vaules. We need your financial support to keep up our work in Washington and across the country.
The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006
Vision America presents an important conference in our nation's capitol with featured speakers including:
Senator Sam Brownback, Senator John Cornyn, Congressman Tom DeLay, Congressman Todd Akin, Congressman Louis Gohmert, Rod Parsley, Ron Luce, Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, Phyllis Schlafly, Laurence White, and Janet Folger
You will also enjoy challenging panel discussions, prime accommodations, special packages, legislative briefings, and more.
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Partial Birth Abortion Case
The United States Supreme Court has agreed today to hear an appeal in a Nebraska case that struck down the Federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The case, known as Gonzales v. Carhart, will be the first test of an abortion case under the new Supreme Court with its newest member, Justice Samuel Alito.
In 2001, the Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska law that banned the grisly late-term abortion procedure with a 5-4 vote. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor cast the swing vote in that case. Now, with Alito on the bench in her place, we have every right to hope and pray that this barbaric practice of killing full-term babies will end.
This issue, like no other, illustrates how outside the mainstream our courts have moved. While Americans debate the right of a woman to have an abortion early in her pregnancy, there is almost universal abhorrence for the practice of sucking the brains out of babies just days before natural delivery would occur. Yet, federal judges have twice blocked legislation banning such practice, though it passed with wide bi-partisan approval and overwhelming public support.
Nothing in American jurisprudence is a slam dunk, and therefore Vision America calls on Christians around the country to pray that our Justices will rule justly this time. We have far too much blood of innocent lives on our hands already. It is time for a landslide of decisions that will ultimately overturn abortion to begin.
Congressman Tom DeLay to speak about his faith at the War on Christians Conference March 27-28
I know of no single contemporary political figure that has done more for preserving conservative values than Tom DeLay. I have watched him faithfully and courageously stand for values of faith, family, and life during his twenty years in Congress. For twelve years I pastored a church in Congressman DeLay’s Congressional District on the Southeast side of Houston, where I came to respect and appreciate the quality of representation that we had under his leadership. I have witnessed his many acts of kindness and fairness in assisting his constituents who often went to his office only after exhausting all other remedies. Time and again, Tom DeLay proved that people were his chief concern.
As a religious leader, I have witnessed first hand, the genuine faith of this good man. Because he has courageously stood on the front line of the culture war and been willing to face the evil of the left, he has been pilloried and lampooned by the elite media and their allies in academia and government. Now he has been indicted by a partisan prosecutor in the only county in Texas that voted for gay marriage, and before having his day in Court, he has been tried and condemned in the media, and unfortunately, many Christians have already decided his fate without hearing his defense.
Vision America believes a man is innocent until proven guilty. We are proud to have Congressman Tom DeLay as a keynote for our upcoming War on Christians and Values Voters Conference, March 27-28. There you will be given a chance to hear from the man rather than about the man. Scripture says…"be swift to hear and slow to speak.” And on another occasion it states...“A fool judges a matter before he hears both sides.” Come to Washington and hear what our former Majority Leader has to say about the War on Christians and his personal journey.
Several months back, Pastor Tom Crouse, in Worchester, Massachusetts, decided he'd had enough. He’d endured years of depraved public "gay pride" parades, gay exhibits, gay banquets, and gay programs in the schools. Then he read about a "Mr. Gay International" event being held out in San Diego, and he decided it was time for a little equality and tolerance.
So Pastor Crouse started putting things together, making arrangements, etc, for his "Mr. Hetero" contests. According to reports from those who attended the event on Saturday evening, February 18th, it turned out to be a lot of good, clean fun, along with a dose of the Gospel. The theme of the event was "A celebration of God's design of heterosexuality." In addition to contestants, he also invited a former homosexual to speak during the event on how Jesus Christ freed him from that spiritual and physical path to self-destruction.
Outside the hall where the event took place, things were quite different. Approximately 100 pro-homosexual activists illegally stood in the streets outside of historic Mechanics Hall in Worcester, attempting to intimidate and frighten the 250 attendees of a Christian event inside, featuring Biblical teachings on homosexuality. According to a local website with official statements from the city's "Human Rights Commission," the Mayor of Worcester, a City Councilor, and a School Committee member participated in the demonstrations.
The demonstrations and protests outside the building culminated weeks of intense pressure from various homosexual groups and local left-wing churches attempting to force the event to be cancelled. This included several death threats sent to Pastor Tom Crouse, the organizer of the event, and various threatening communications with people providing the venues. A local hotel was forced to refuse them, and the manager of Mechanics Hall reportedly received threatening phone calls at home.
However, the police demanded that Pastor Crouse pay them $6200.00 up front, to "protect" them from the expected demonstrators, or else the event would not be allowed to take place. The money paid for a detail of police, rented equipment to search the attendees, and training for the security staff to use the equipment.
The Worcester police blatantly allowed the protesters to illegally congregate in the street outside the hall. And in fact, the police blocked traffic to make it easier for them to do it! Police officials admitted that no one had been issued a permit to demonstrate, or to stand in the street, etc. In addition, even though the protesters had identified themselves many days beforehand and announced their intention to be outside the event, they were not required to obtain any permits for demonstrating. On the other hand, attendees inside were forced to endure airport-style security searches.
Friends, Christians in America need to wake up to the fact that we no longer can assume we are able to freely teach what the Scriptures teach about many sacred and traditional without being harassed and threatened. This is simply this week’s proof. The only reason you don’t hear more of this sort of persecution is that many Pastors are avoiding the subjects that are no longer politically correct. Thank God for the growing army of Patriot Pastors that does stand up and speak up and refuse to give up.
That’s why our upcoming conference, The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006 Conference in Washington is so important.
