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AFA/ACTIVISM
Eleven Christians were arrested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for
peacefully protesting at a homosexual event. They face charges under
the city’s hate crime law that could land them in prison for
up to 47 years.
The AFA Center for Law and Policy (CLP) is defending Michael Marcavage
and 10 other believers who were arrested October 10 while exercising
their First Amendment rights at a homosexual event called Outfest.
The event was held on the public streets and sidewalks of Philadelphia
and was open to the public.
Just two days prior to the event, the CLP had filed a lawsuit on
behalf of Marcavage against the city for other incidents. Marcavage,
founder of Repent America, a Christian organization that calls sinners
to repentance, alleges in the suit that city officials had a policy
and practice of continually denying him his constitutionally protected
rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. In the past,
Marcavage asserts, the city has threatened, intimidated and even
arrested him merely for proclaiming the Gospel on public property.
While preaching at Outfest, as well as handing out Gospel literature
and carrying banners with Biblical messages, Marcavage and the other
Christians were surrounded by a group of radical homosexual activists
dubbed the Pink Angels. A videotape of the incident shows the Pink
Angels interfering with the Christians’ movement on the street,
holding up large pink symbols of angels to cover up the Chistian
messages, and blowing high pitched whistles to drown out their preaching.
Rather than arrest the Pink Angels, however, the Philadelphia police
arrested and jailed the Christians. They were charged with eight
crimes – including three felonies – all rooted in the
city’s hate crime law, which includes “sexual orientation.”
The Christians were charged with criminal conspiracy, possession
of instruments of crime, reckless endangerment, ethnic intimidation,
riot, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct, and obstructing highways.
Joe Murray, CLP staff attorney, said, “For too long, the city
of Philadelphia has operated under the false pretense that they
arbitrarily can write their own rules and force Michael Marcavage
to live by them. It is high time the City of Brotherly Love learned
that the Liberty Bell rings for Christians, too.”
Photo caption: Homosexual activists confronted, encircled and harassed
Michael Marcavage (in cap) and other Christians as they preached
the Gospel, held up signs and handed out Christian literature at
a public event promoting the "gay" lifestyle.
AFA attorneys win equal access public school
case
A victory by the AFA Center for Law and Policy (CLP) on behalf of
a Baptist church should aid Christians in the public school system.
The issue began when Anthony Shepherd, children’s pastor of
First Baptist Church of Cabot, Arkansas, attempted to hand out fliers
in local schools informing students about an after-school basketball
program. But Shepherd was told by school officials that he could
not distribute the brochures due to the “separation of Church
and State.”
Since the district permits a variety of secular, non-student groups
to distribute literature at the schools, CLP senior trial attorney
Brian Fahling wrote a letter to the district, outlining the church’s
rights under the First Amendment. The school reversed its position
when it understood the law.
Fahling said, “This is just a generic equal access principle.
… It’s just a very simple thing: what other groups are
permitted to do, Christians are permitted to do.”
Georgia man stands against trash radio, beats
indecency
One person really can make a difference as evident from the actions
of a Georgia man who objected to indecent material broadcast on
99X, an Atlanta radio station.
After Jim Sligar heard 99X run spots for a “hot lingerie and
singles pajama party” called Naughty Night to be held at an
area nightclub, he decided to do something about such blatant indecency.
Sligar began contacting sponsors of the event with hopes of convincing
them to withdraw their support.
It worked. In fact, some of the businesses he contacted admitted
they did not even realize their money was being used to promote
something that could be found offensive by so many people.
When it comes to doubting whether an individual can make a difference,
“I’ve got news for you, you absolutely can,” Sligar
said. “[But] the effort was God-inspired, because I couldn’t
have done this by myself.”
However, Randy Sharp, a spokesman for AFA, believes Sligar deserves
to be commended for his efforts.
“In the city of Atlanta, with millions of people, one person
has effectively turned a radio station upside down and caused it
to comply with local community standards,” Sharp said.
AgapePress, 8/26/04
EDUCATION
Public school teachers vote with their actions
The results of a new study from an education-reform group uncovered
a revealing and sobering fact: public school teachers are much more
likely to send their own children to a private school than are the
average parents.
In fact, almost twice as likely, according to the Thomas B. Fordham
Institute. In Rochester, New York, for example, while nearly 15%
of all families have a child in a private school, almost 38% of
public school teachers do.
The reason, according to an editorial in USA Today, is that public
school teachers believe that religious and private schools provide
stricter discipline and achieve higher academic standards than public
schools.
“For good investment tips, you might ask a financial planner
where he puts his own money. If he bails out of a fund, you might
want to do the same,” the editorial said. “Likewise, how
better to learn about the quality of a public school system than
by asking the teachers where they send their own children?”
USA Today, 10/5/04
Study: vouchers work
A new study promises to fuel the fire of debate between those who
want more choices when it comes to educating their children and
those who want to avoid any radical changes to the current system
of public education.
Findings from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research revealed
a large gap between the graduation rates of students in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin’s, private school voucher program and students attending
the city’s public schools. According to the study, 64% of students
who participated in the Choice Program graduated in 2003, while
only 36% graduated from the city’s government school system.
Even academically selective public schools in Milwaukee were found
to have a combined graduation rate of only 41%.
Dr. Jay Greene, the study’s author, said the graduation rate
for voucher recipients might have been even higher if it were not
for limitations placed on the school choice program in Wisconsin.
He noted that the private schools in the program received only about
half of the per-pupil funding that the Milwaukee public schools
do.
“We might want to increase the size of the voucher to be more
comparable to that found in the public schools,” Greene said,
“and that might improve their graduation rates, test scores,
and other academic outcomes.”
AgapePress, 10/5/04
ENTERTAINMENT
Parents want tighter controls on TV content
The continuing assault on decency standards through the medium of
television is causing frustrated parents to want solutions, and
according to a new study, those parents increasingly are looking
to the federal government.
Researchers at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found
that almost two-thirds of parents (63%) said they would like to
see federal limits placed on sexual and violent content during the
early hours of network prime-time television when kids might be
watching.
The study, called Parents, Media, and Public Policy, also
found that 52% of parents would like to see cable channels treated
in the same manner as the networks with regard to content.
While 53% of parents said they were very concerned with violent
content on TV, a larger majority (60%) said they were very concerned
about sex on the tube.
Vicky Rideout, vice president and director of the KFF Program for
the Study of Entertainment Media and Health, said, “What concerns
parents most is not isolated incidents, but the sex and violence
they believe their kids are exposed to every day in the shows they
regularly watch.”
www.kff.org, 9/23/04
TV sex encourages teen experimentation
When it comes to sex on TV, parents are right to worry. A study
published in the September issue of Pediatrics found that
watching sex on television primes teenagers for earlier sexual experimentation.
The study, conducted by psychologist Rebecca Collins of the RAND
Corporation, said, “Watching sex on TV predicts and may hasten
adolescent sexual initiation.”
The data showed that teens who watched the most sexual content had
a nearly doubled risk of earlier sexual involvement compared to
kids who watched the least amount.
“It’s social learning: ‘monkey see, monkey do,’”
Collins told USA Today. “If everyone’s talking about sex
or having it, and something bad hardly ever comes out of it, because
it doesn’t on TV, then they think, ‘Hey, the whole world’s
doing it, and I need to.’”
The research also found that the type of sexual content was not
necessarily relevant in predicting risk. “Exposure to TV that
included only talk about sex was associated with the same risks
as exposure to TV that depicted sexual behavior,” the study
said.
As possible solutions, the study recommended reducing the amount
of sexual content on TV, reducing how much sexual content teens
watch, and more frequently including the possible negative consequences
of sexual activity. Also suggested: more parental involvement when
it comes to what is watched, and more open discussions between parents
and teens about what parents believe is appropriate behavior.
www.pediatrics.org, 9/04; USA Today,
9/7/04
Play spoofs ‘Hell House’
What’s funnier than people dying and going to hell, to suffer
for all eternity? Nothing, apparently. That’s the message being
sent by a play that ran in Los Angeles from August through Halloween.
According to the Associated Press, the new stage production, Hollywood
Hell House, was a tongue-in-cheek version of the Hell House
dramatic plays that churches have been producing around the country
since 1995. The original presentations, based on a script created
by Rev. Keenan Roberts, typically attempt to portray the eternal
destinies of people who know Christ and those who do not. Roberts
said some 550 churches around the world have produced Hell House
dramas using the script.
Bill Maher, who hosted the irreverent ABC nighttime talk show Politically
Incorrect before it was canceled, played Satan in the production,
while comedic actor Andy Richter starred in the role of Jesus. Some
120 actors, comedians and other volunteers flocked to the Hollywood
version in order to take part, according to The Advocate,
a homosexual magazine.
The show’s producer, Maggie Rowe, who was raised Southern Baptist,
said the spoof of the original Hell House script was meant
“to lampoon [Christian] fundamentalist beliefs about hell.”
The Advocate, 10/12/04; AP, 8/17/04
PRO-LIFE
Group warns against PPF products
A group dedicated to shutting down Planned Parenthood Federation
of America (PPF) said the abortion provider will stop at nothing
to promote sexual activity to children, and then abortion to the
ones who get pregnant.
Jim Sedlak, executive director of the American Life League’s
STOPP International, which monitors and opposes the activities of
PPF, said the abortion provider’s latest foray into preteen
sexual indoctrination is its distribution of a six-inch ruler that
poses the suggestive question: “Does size matter?”
The ruler is just one item offered through PPF’s online store
on a Web site that Sedlak said is filled with sexual content. He
said what PPF is doing with such items and content is “trying
to get people to visit Planned Parenthood’s Web site so that
they will eventually be able to sell them products.”
PPF is also selling a T-shirt with the words “I had an abortion”
in bold letters across the front. “Basically it is someone
wearing a sign on their front saying ‘I killed my child,’”
Sedlak said.
“No sensible organization would put this kind of a shirt out
to the public. It shows the depths to which Planned Parenthood has
sunk, and it shows how much Planned Parenthood looks for any opportunity
it can to make money.”
The pro-life advocate points out that the shirts sell for $15 each
on Planned Parenthood’s Web site. “It is making money
off of women who have had abortions – and we think it is absolutely
atrocious,” he said.
Sedlak believes many Planned Parenthood supporters are unaware of
the group’s true agenda, which he says is primarily abortion-for-profit.
AgapePress, 7/29/04, 8/13/04
RELIGION
Christianity does not reduce divorce
risk
While one would hope that the lives of Christians would be distinct
from the lives of the unsaved, there is at least one critical area
where there is no difference: divorce.
A new study released by the Barna Group, which examines religious
trends in the church and the wider culture, found that 35% of married
Christians have experienced divorce – the same rate as married
adults who are not born again.
George Barna, the group’s founder, said, “The data suggest
that relatively few divorced Christians experience their divorce
before accepting Christ as their Savior.”
Conversly, he said there are indications that a surprising number
of born again believers experienced both pre- and post-conversion
divorces.
Although Christian churches discourage divorce, the survey found
that 52% of born-again adults disagreed with the statement, “When
a couple gets divorced without one of them having committed adultery,
they are committing a sin.”
www.barna.org, 9/8/04
Lawsuit prompts university to change discriminatory
policy
A discrimination lawsuit recently filed by two students resulted
in the University of Oklahoma changing its policy on how student
organizations are funded.
In February, Ricky Thomas and James Wickett filed a federal lawsuit
against the university claiming the institution violated their constitutional
rights by refusing to fully fund their Christian newspaper, Beacon
OU. The Christian publication was allocated only $150 while another
student newspaper, The Undercurrent, received $4,750 in funding.
“The university agreed to change their policy that prohibited
them from funding newspapers like Beacon OU, and also changed several
other policies which were discriminatory toward religious students
and paid our attorneys’ fees,” said Kevin Theriot, Alliance
Defense Fund attorney who represented Thomas and Wickett.
AgapePress, 8/4/04
UNC demonstrating anti-Christian bigotry
Believers claim they are facing anti-Christian bigotry at the University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC), after the school froze funds
once allotted for the Alpha Iota Omega (AIO) Christian fraternity.
Problems surfaced after AIO, which limits its membership to Christians,
refused to sign the university’s anti-discrimination pledge.
The university claims the group’s desire to include only Christians
constitutes discrimination, and on that basis decided it must freeze
funding.
This is not the first time UNC has attracted attention for alleged
anti-Christian bigotry. In December 2002, UNC refused to officially
recognize InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVF) because the organization
required its leaders to be Christians.
The group challenged the university’s policy, and the university
was forced to relent. The university responded with a requirement
that all student organizations have open membership rules.
AgapePress, 8/13/04; CitizenLink, 8/16/04
Court cases protect Christians’ rights
in public schools
Recent rulings suggest that courts are beginning to understand that
Christians in public schools are due the same freedoms as other
groups.
A decision made by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paved the
way for a South Dakota public school teacher to take part in an
after-school Christian club for elementary students.
The case stemmed from an initial decision by the Sioux Falls School
District to bar teacher Barbara Wigg from involvement in the Good
News Club, arguing it was “an unconstitutional establishment
of religion.”
The court viewed the school district’s decision as a violation
of Wigg’s right to “engage in private religious speech
on her own time.”
In Ohio, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Toledo
district judge’s ruling prohibiting teachers from distributing
religious groups’ fliers through placement in elementary students’
mailboxes, even though other groups’ fliers were readily placed
there.
In Arizona, a federal judge ruled that the Paradise Valley Unified
School District in Phoenix was in violation of free speech and equal
protection rights when it censored the religious message of two
students’ parents as part of a school fundraiser.
Paul and Ann Seidman were barred from including the word “God”
in a publicly posted message to their children, when other parents
were free to post messages of their choice.
AgapePress, 8/4/04; 8/13/04; 9/7/04;
9/30/04
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