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AFA ACTIVISM
AFA
Action co-sponsors ‘values voter’ conference
This fall
American Family Association Action, AFA’s political action
committee, will be co-sponsoring a critical conference designed
to help Christians become more effectively involved on the cultural
battlefields.
The Washington Briefing:
Values Voter Summit 2006 will be held September 22-24, 2006,
at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
"I am pleased to
announce an event of national significance that American Family
Association Action is co-sponsoring this fall," said AFA Chairman
Don Wildmon. "As Christians we know how important it is that
we effectively communicate our issues and widen the influence of
pro-family values voters in the 2006 and 2008 elections."
AFA Action will be joined
in this new event by three key co-sponsors: Family Research Council
Action, Focus on the Family Action and Americans United to Preserve
Marriage.
The briefing will be
aimed at the grassroots values voter, Wildmon said. The goal is
to bring together as many values voters as possible to inform and
organize for maximum impact.
"As we face increasing,
well-funded assaults on the family, the need to inform, educate
and motivate the values voter has never been greater," he said.
"The values voter was the determining factor in the
2004 presidential election and, as we move toward 2008, this voter
is likely to be that determining factor again."
National pro-family
leaders, policy makers and well-known conservative political figures
will be addressing attendees.
Topics to be addressed
will include marriage, cloning and other life issues, the entertainment
industry, activist judges, grass-roots political involvement and
much more.
The briefing begins
Friday morning and ends Sunday morning. Affordable room and registration
fees will be offered. Registration will open March 15 at www.afaaction.net.
UPDATE:
Allstate settles case with Barber
The Allstate Insurance Company has agreed to a publicly unspecified
settlement with a Christian who contends he was fired from the company
for expressing his opposition to the homosexual agenda on his own
time.
The employee, Matt Barber,
sued Allstate. (See
AFA
Journal, 9/05.)
In February the company
settled with Barber. He told AFA Journal that although he
couldn’t specifically address the settlement, "I can say
that my family is very pleased that we are now in a position where
we are equipped to move forward with our lives."
AFA supporters sent
Allstate well over 250,000 e-mails complaining of the firing and
asked the company to reconsider the decision to terminate Barber.
Focus
on the Family dumps Wells Fargo
Focus on the Family announced that it is ending its banking
relationship with Wells Fargo due to that company’s aggressive
efforts to promote the gay rights movement.
Over the years, the
pro-family organization had become aware of other pro-gay efforts
by the company. But what finally tipped the scales was the decision
by Wells Fargo to support the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
(GLAAD) with company money.
"Earlier this year
we learned that Wells Fargo gave a matching gift to a pro-homosexual
group to enable it to raise more money to fight organizations like
our own," Focus said in a December press release. "As
one of Wells Fargo’s customers, we objected, and we received
no satisfactory resolution from the bank’s corporate office."
In fact, Focus noted
that a statement on GLAAD’s Web site was filled with praise
for the company’s support: "Incredible news: Wells Fargo
has offered to help support GLAAD’s fight for equality against
the Anti-Gay industry by matching your tax-deductible contribution
dollar for dollar."
Focus said it realized
that it could not limit its business relationships only to companies
that were explicitly Christian. "That said, when our bank allows
proceeds from our business to be used to impede our work, we must
object, even if it inconveniences us in our professional relationships."
www.family.org, 12/1/05
Same-sex
marriage vote expected soon
The date for a vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA)
by the U.S. Senate has been scheduled for the week of June 5, and
AFA is asking supporters to let their senators know where they stand.
The MPA would amend
the U.S. Constitution to ensure that marriage remains only between
one man and one woman.
"It is time for
Christians to get involved in this fight, or sometime soon, somewhere
in our nation, some activist federal judge will make same-sex marriage
legal," said AFA Chairman Don Wildmon. "You can bet that
those pushing for homosexual marriage are taking a few moments to
contact their senators."
Wildmon said supporters
who want to get involved can go to www.afa.net and access
an Internet petition. At press time some 300,000 people had already
sent an e-mail to the Senate in support of the MPA.
"Ask your friends
and family to also get involved. Ask members of your Sunday School
class and church to send an e-mail," he said. "The time
for silence and apathy on yet another critical cultural issue is
over."
Town
backs down in free speech case
Officials in one Pennsylvania town have backed down in a dispute
with a Christian who wanted to address an open meeting before town
council members.
In July of 2004, Michael
Marcavage, head of the Philadelphia-based group Repent America,
was prevented from reading from the Bible during a public comment
segment of a Lansdowne Borough Council meeting.
Marcavage intended to
reply to comments made by a council member to the Philadelphia Gay
News. According to a press release on Repent America’s Web
site, "Although he had not exceeded any set time limits, Norman
Council, the then council president, told Mr. Marcavage that his
time was up and that he would not be permitted to read from the
Bible as it would be tantamount to engaging in hate speech."
When he refused to be
silent, the council unanimously adjourned the meeting, and Marcavage
was forcibly removed from the council gathering and charged with
disrupting a meeting and disorderly conduct. The criminal charges
against him were eventually dropped, however, and the Christian
activist filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the council’s
actions.
The town agreed to settle
the lawsuit by affirming that it had acted in an unconstitutional
manner by infringing on the First Amendment rights of Marcavage.
Lansdowne Borough officials also agreed to pay his attorney fees.
AgapePress, 2/21/06
CULTURE
‘Evolution
wars’ take bizarre turn
Within the
space of one week’s time, thousands of church leaders revealed
their positions on evolution, while more than 500 scientists did
the same. Except it probably didn’t go the way most people
would have expected.
In February thousands
of mainline church leaders and pastors signed a letter rejecting
a literal interpretation of the Creation story in the Bible’s
Book of Genesis. The "Clergy Letter Project" signatories
are urging local public school board members to "preserve the
integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of
the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge."
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
administrator Michael Zimmerman, who founded the project, said the
letter has been signed by more than 10,000 clergy members in every
state and territory of the United States. The signatures from leaders
of Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian and other mainline churches
represent a "groundswell of support for the compatibility of
science and religion," he insisted.
"These 10,000 members
are saying that intelligent design, creation science, is not only
bad science as defined by the world scientific community,"
Zimmerman said, "but that it is also bad religion. It is not
consistent with their view of their faith."
Meanwhile more than
500 scientists signed "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism,"
a statement expressing their doubts about the credibility of Darwinian
evolution.
The Seattle-based Discovery
Institute, which sponsors the online letter, started the effort
five years ago, when Darwinists claimed there were virtually no
reputable scientists who disagreed with the theory of evolution.
Originally published
in 2001, the list carries the names of scientific scholars and researchers
from prestigious universities and research centers throughout the
U.S. and the world.
www.discovery.org, 2/20/06; AgapePress,
2/17/06, 2/24/06
EDUCATION
Preschooler
can now share his faith
Zachariah,
a four-year-old child in Baker City, Oregon, was ordered by a teacher
to stop talking about God at the Head Start program he attends.
The teacher reportedly
overheard the boy’s conversation with a friend during non-instructional
time, but imposed the ban anyway.
The grandmother of Zachariah
contacted the AFA Center for Law and Policy (CLP) and requested
advice as she prepared for a conference with a teacher at the Head
Start preschool program.
CLP Chief Counsel Stephen
Crampton said, "The teacher was basically insinuating herself
into a private conversation between Zachariah and one of his classmates
… trying to protect the school. But, in fact, she was interfering
with Zachariah’s own constitutional rights."
Crampton wrote to the
grandmother and explained: "The school is wrong. As the U.S.
Supreme Court has observed, ‘There is a crucial difference
between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment
Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion.’"
Once the facts were
conveyed to the school, Crampton said the matter was quickly resolved.
School officials apologized for the error and acknowledged students’
rights to talk about their faith.
AgapePress, 2/20/06
ENTERTAINMENT
Family
films fare well
The public’s
picks for favorite films of 2005 differ greatly from those selected
by awards shows and critics’ associations, according to the
findings of an authoritative study conducted by the Christian Film
& Television Commission and presented as the Annual Report to
the Entertainment Industry.
Based on data compiled
by Nielsen EDI, the majority of last year’s box office hits
proved to be family-friendly fare that contained traditional values
and non-controversial themes.
Of the 10 most popular
movies, 80% had "strong or very strong moral content and acceptability
ratings." Of those top 10, only one was rated R, while only
three of the top 25 had an R rating. In addition, 70% of these top
10 films contained either "no sexual content" or "only
light or implied sexual references."
"The Report to
the Entertainment Industry shows that movies with no or very few
incidences of nudity, foul language and violence earned an average
of $45,001,733 per movie, which was nearly $18 million more per
movie, or 65% better than movies that contained those elements,"
according to a press release from MovieGuide, a publication of the
Christian Film & Television Commission.
"Every year, our
financial analysis proves that good guys always finish first,"
said Dr. Ted Baehr, president of the Commission. "Movies with
traditional Judeo-Christian values and heroic virtues always do
best at the box office."
MovieGuide, 2/6/06
FAMILY
Apparently
true love doesn’t always wait
Although signing
a formal purity pledge seems to prolong abstinence outside marriage,
the findings of a new survey of Baptist newlyweds reveal that true
love doesn’t always wait — even among Christians.
Byron Weathersbee, interim
chaplain at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, conducted a study
on the effects of sexual-purity pledges and sex education on abstinence
before marriage in a Christian context. Baylor is affiliated with
the Southern Baptist Convention.
As part of his research,
Weathersbee surveyed young married couples of less than five years
in Texas Baptist churches to determine the impact churches made
on their sexual behavior.
The majority of the
couples surveyed admitted to having sexual intercourse prior to
marriage. However, the study was consistent with previous findings
in its suggestion that Baptist couples were more likely to save
sex for their wedding night if they took a formal abstinence pledge.
Specifically, of the
young Christians surveyed, 6 out of 10 who made purity commitments
did not have sexual intercourse until marriage, while only 3 of
10 who did not pledge purity remained abstinent.
Additional findings:
•
100% professed faith in Christ
•
99% attended church
•
84% grew up in church
•
87% grew up in a two-parent home
•
62% of males had premarital sex
•
65% of females had premarital sex
"To a large degree,
we’re missing it," Weathersbee said. "The young people
are receiving the data, but they’re not translating it into
values that result in a lifestyle of purity and holiness."
www.biblicalrecorder.org, 2/8/06
PRO-LIFE
Pro-lifers
win big at Supreme Court
In February
the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of pro-lifers who had been
charged under federal racketeering laws for protesting in front
of an abortion clinic.
The protracted litigation
began almost 20 years ago when Joseph Scheidler and other pro-life
demonstrators were charged under federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations Act) statutes. RICO was drafted by Congress
in the 1970s as a weapon to be used against organized crime, especially
as related to extortion and other forms of economic blackmail.
But pro-abortion activists
wanted to use it against pro-lifers whose protests in front of abortion
clinics sometimes resulted in women changing their minds about killing
their unborn babies.
In the case of NOW
v. Scheidler, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in an 8-0 high court
decision that RICO and other related federal laws required a robbery
or extortion component that was not present in the actions of the
pro-life demonstrators.
"This case has
dragged on for too long, and it is high time the Supreme Court put
an end to this baseless harassment of pro-lifers seeking only to
exercise their First Amendment rights," said Stephen Crampton,
chief counsel for the AFA Center for Law and Policy (CLP), which
represents pro-life demonstrators across the country. "Joe
Scheidler is to be commended for never giving in to these persistent
attempts to silence his message of life and hope to hurting women."
Brian Fahling, senior
trial attorney for the CLP, said, "The cause of protecting
the unborn has been rejuvenated since the new [Chief Justice John]
Roberts Court convened. This is yet another nail in the coffin of
the grisly business of abortion."
Having not been on the
Court when the matter was argued in November, Justice Samuel Alito
did not participate in the case.
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