AFA
ACTIVISM
NBC’s ‘Daniel’ should be fed to lions
After prescreening the pilot episode for NBC’s The Book
of Daniel, AFA said its apprehension about the drama, which centers
on the life of an Episcopal minister and his family, was justified.
"This show is poorly written and formulaic, and has a definite
sleaze factor that would offend most Christians," said AFA
spokesman Ed Vitagliano, who screened the program with a small group
of clergy at NBC’s Memphis affiliate WMC-TV5.
The Book of Daniel gets its moniker from the main character,
pill-popping Episcopal priest Daniel Webster, who is struggling
to keep himself and his family together as it begins to unravel.
His wife struggles with an alcohol problem after the death of a
child due to leukemia, while his 16-year-old daughter is arrested
for selling drugs to raise money for her fledgling comic strip career.
Meanwhile, his 16-year-old adopted son is having sex with the bishop’s
daughter, and his brother-in-law has run off after stealing more
than $3 million in diocese funds.
The one possibility for a redeeming aspect for The Book of Daniel
is the drama’s gimmick: Daniel regularly gets visits from Jesus,
who offers His advice to the struggling minister.
"However, for Christians, the appearances of Jesus may be
the most offensive part of this show, since He is little else than
a well-meaning therapist," Vitagliano said. "While Scripture
certainly portrays Christ as compassionate, there is no sign of
His Lordship in these appearances. There is no talk of repentance
or sanctification."
It would be hard to imagine any other type of "Jesus"
being written into the program, Vitagliano said, given the fact
that the show’s creator and writer, Jack Kenny, is not a Christian.
"In interviews Kenny describes himself as a ‘recovering
Catholic’ who is interested in Buddhism," he said. "What
made NBC think this man could write in a manner that accurately
reflected Jesus Christ?"
Also problematic for AFA is The Book of Daniel’s strong
homosexual subtext. Daniel’s oldest son is a proud homosexual,
and in one scene the mother is shown encouraging the 23-year-old
that soon he will find the right guy and settle down.
In the premier episode, Daniel’s brother-in-law Charlie runs
off with Jesse, his secretary. Later, viewers find out that she
is also having a lesbian affair with Charlie’s wife.
"We absolutely encourage Christians to stay away from NBC’s
version of The Book of Daniel and ask the network to pull
this show from its line-up," Vitagliano said. "And we’ll
be watching to see which advertisers feel good about sponsoring
a program that will offend many Christians."
‘Christmas
season’ to begin early in 2006
AFA will begin in June 2006 reminding national retailers
that the word ‘Christmas’ is not a four-letter word for
most Americans, and it deserves to be included in store promotions
and greetings in November and December.
"We will start this summer, to give retailers plenty of time
to include the simple sentiment of ‘Merry Christmas’ in
their promotional activity," said AFA Chairman Don Wildmon.
AFA and other pro-family groups, as well as conservative radio
and TV personalities, raised the issue over the Christmas holidays
in 2005, when it became obvious that many retailers had removed
the word from their promotions.
"Christians are growing tired of being ignored except when
stores want their money," Wildmon said. "The outpouring
of frustration over the banning of the word Christmas was amazing."
For example, AFA ended its boycott of Target after that company
changed its policy and announced that it would include Christmas
in advertising and in-store promotions. Nearly 700,000 people had
signed up to join the Target boycott at AFA’s Web site, www.afa.net.
Other stores also made changes after being deluged by complaints
from AFA supporters. Lowe’s, for example, announced that it
was going to "avoid confusion" and sell "Christmas
trees" instead of "holiday trees."
Walgreens, Sears, Kroger and Wal-Mart are among companies which
responded positively.
"This was dramatic evidence of the simple but effective power
of consumers communicating their concerns to the businesses where
they shop," Wildmon said.
Ministry
to hurricane victims beyond founder’s dreams
Eighty-four Katrina-ravaged homes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
received Christmas gifts through a ministry called 8
Days of Hope. The homes had repairs done by 693 volunteers from
37 states and a few foreign countries.
"When 8 Days of Hope started, the thought was to bring a handful
of people to the Coast and try to help a family or two after Hurricane
Katrina," said Steve Tybor III of Tupelo, Mississippi. It would
be a little personal ministry of Tybor and his father, Steve Jr.,
of Buffalo, New York.
They planned to recruit a few friends to help, but Tybor said,
"I learned that my plan is not always God’s plan!"
They focused on homes where families had been able to return but
had no insurance or financing for repairs.
From December 10 to 18, the volunteers installed 2,210 pieces of
sheetrock, 610 squares of roofing shingles and 320 rolls of insulation.
Countless minor carpentry projects were completed and electrical
work was done on 35 homes. Two semi-truckloads of furniture were
distributed, and 5,000 brand new Christmas toys were delivered along
with Christmas trees or poinsettias the day the volunteers departed.
"It was all for God’s glory," said Tybor. At press
time, Tybor and other organizers of the project were prayerfully
considering a spring edition of 8 Days of Hope.
AFA
CLP to fight public school porn
The AFA Center for Law and Policy (CLP) is preparing
to sue the Fayetteville (Arkansas) School Board over pornographic
books in the district’s elementary and middle school libraries.
A group of Fayetteville parents is asking that children’s
access to the sexually explicit books, which contain depictions
of teenage sex and promotion of homosexuality, be restricted. The
school board claims compliance with such a request would constitute
censorship.
In addition, Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe said such a decision
regarding a school district’s circulation of sexually explicit
materials is best left at the discretion of "a court or properly
instructed jury."
Therefore, the concerned parents sought legal representation from
the CLP, prompting Chief Counsel Steve Crampton to prepare a lawsuit
against the Fayetteville County School Board and Superintendent
Bobby New. The purpose of the legal action is to get the books placed
under limited access where parental consent is required.
"All they’re asking for is that some reasonable controls
be placed on access to these explicit materials," Crampton
explained. "That’s the same sort of thing that we do in
bookstores all over the country. Why those rules should go out the
window just because you’re in a public school where the law
requires that our kids attend is beyond me."
AgapePress, 11/23/05
ENTERTAINMENT
NBC
drama is gay agenda soap box, knocks Catholicism
NBC’s drama series Law & Order: Special Victims
Unit used its December 6 episode to champion same-sex parenthood
while heaping disrespect and shame on the Catholic faith.
Detectives Stabler and Benson (series stars) get the case of Shawn
Hammil, a 12-year-old St. Victor’s Catholic School sixth- grader,
who is dumped from a speeding car near the hospital. He has been
stabbed in the back.
Stabler and Benson charge into the school office demanding to know
why Father Justin dumped Shawn from his car at the hospital. (It
turns out that someone else took Father Justin’s car.) Nonetheless,
the officers are arrogant and rude to the Catholic school officials
from the outset without cause or provocation.
Shawn had been harassing Emma, an eight-year-old schoolmate. When
the school officer explains to the detectives that Emma is the daughter
of two lesbians, Det. Benson sneers and retorts, "So what’s
the big deal? Same-sex couples raise children all the time."
Zoe (the birth mother’s lesbian partner) tells cops, "Our
faith is important to us. We want Emma to have a Catholic education."
Shawn finally confesses he cut Emma’s long pony tail, and
Emma confesses to stabbing Shawn in retaliation. Zoe’s attorney
shows up saying Emma’s confession is not permissible in court
because her mother was not present when she confessed. Zoe was present,
but the birth mother is dying in the hospital.
Emma’s Catholic grandparents seek temporary custody of her
but fail in court. After seeing photos of Emma and Zoe naked on
the bed together, the grandparents charged Zoe with sexually abusing
Emma.
Emma tells the cops she felt that it was a sin for Zoe to touch
her "all over." But Dr. Huang (apparently a police psychiatrist)
declares that Emma’s two moms taking naked photos and touching
her "all over" do not constitute abuse.
Instead, the bigoted, moralistic grandparents abused Emma emotionally
by leading her to think those things were wrong. The grandparents
are thus charged with a hate crime and arrested for abusing Emma.
To prove that lesbian parenting is good for kids, the district
attorney cites research from the American Sociological Association,
the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics
and the National Association of Social Workers.
The defeated grandparents accept a deal (to get charges against
them dropped) to testify against their attorney. Zoe rejects the
grandparents’ apology, then she and Emma stride arrogantly
out of the room, presumably to "live happily ever after."
EDUCATION
Intelligent Design ruled unconstitutional
Calling intelligent design (ID) "religion in disguise,"
U.S. District Court Judge John Jones recently ruled in the landmark
case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District that it has no
place in public school science.
The case was a test to see if ID could be mentioned as an alternative
to evolution. As defined by CitizenLink, ID is "the idea that
some aspects of biology are too complicated to attribute to random
chance."
Jones concluded that informing public school students about ID
was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
of the Constitution. "We have concluded that ID cannot uncouple
itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedent,"
Jones wrote.
In addition to the ruling, Judge Jones also made wide-ranging as
well as angry comments that denounced ID and praised Darwinian evolution.
"Most unfortunately, this case underscores what was obvious
from the beginning — that any theory challenging Darwinism
is hysterically opposed by the left as an unconstitutional establishment
of religion," argued Tom Minnery, senior vice president of
government and public policy at Focus on the Family Action.
"The Dover decision is an attempt by an activist federal judge
to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism
of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather
than open debate, and it won’t work," added Dr. John West,
associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the
Discovery Institute, which promotes the concept of intelligent design.
A recent poll suggested that most Americans disagree with Jones,
even to the point of going beyond teaching ID and teaching creationism.
Conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew
Research Center for the People and the Press, the findings revealed
that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe both creationism and
evolution should be taught in public schools. More specifically:
42% — hold strict creationist views
48% — believe humans evolved over time
64% — are open to teaching creationism in addition to evolution
38% — favor replacing evolution with creationism
www.nytimes.com, 8/31/05; www.discovery.org,
12/20/05; www.family.org, 12/20/05
MEDIA
Liberal
media bias still strong
According to recent reports, when the majority of the
nation’s news outlets are considered, the U.S. media continue
to show their leftist colors.
The findings are based on a study led by University of California
at Los Angeles (UCLA) political scientist Tim Groseclose and co-authored
by Jeffrey Milyo, a University of Missouri economist and public
policy scholar.
Eighteen of the twenty major media outlets examined in the UCLA-led
study scored left of center, positioning CBS’ Evening News,
The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times as second, third and
fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal.
Fox News’ Special Report With Brit Hume and The Washington
Times were the only two major outlets to score to the right of the
average U.S. voter.
"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left
because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat
than Republican," Groseclose said. "But I was surprised
at just how pronounced the distinctions are."
"Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared
to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and
significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left,"
Milyo added.
The American public is noticing the bias as evident from the findings
of a new Gallup survey. A three-to-one ratio of those polled believed
the media to be "too liberal" rather than "too conservative."
"When asked about the news media’s political slant, Americans
are much more likely to say they are too liberal (46%) than they
are to say they are about right (37%) or too conservative (16%),"
according to the survey.
These views remain consistent with Gallup measurements since 2001
and are virtually unchanged since September 2004.
www.lifesite.net, 12/19/05; www.mrc.org,
9/29/05
PORNOGRAPHY
Views
on pornography differ among sexes
According to survey findings recently released by Harris Interactive
Inc., men and women differ in their views about the effects and
possible regulation of pornography.
A Harris Poll in September 2004 revealed women to be much more
critical of pornography, in general, than men. At the same time,
a slightly larger number of women over men favor government regulation
of online pornography, if such were possible.
Specifically, 57% of women believe "pornography is demeaning
towards women" as compared to 38% of men. In addition, 47%
of women and 33% of men believe pornography "harms relationships
between men and women."
While there was no unanimity regarding the impact of pornography
on children, both men and women agreed the effects were mostly negative.
Only 2% said "it helps kids better understand sexuality."
Males and females share a similar view regarding the regulation
of Internet pornography for the sake of children, although there
is still an obvious difference among the sexes. For example, 42%
of those polled believe the government should "regulate Internet
pornography specifically so that children cannot access X-rated
material online." Broken down by sexes, 53% of women and 30%
of men prefer such a policy.
Harris Interactive, 10/7/05
RELIGION
ACLU
argument rejected by court
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently hammered
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) by upholding the decision
of a lower court which allowed the inclusion of the Ten Commandments
in a Kentucky Courthouse display.
The decision was in response to a lawsuit initiated by the ACLU
over a display of historical documents in the Mercer County, Kentucky,
courthouse. The ACLU claimed the display was a violation of the
Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The blow to the ACLU came with the U.S. appeals court’s declaration
that "The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation
between church and state."
According to 6th Circuit Judge Richard Suhrheinrich, the organization’s
"repeated reference ‘to the separation of church and state’
… has grown tiresome. … The ACLU, an organization whose
mission is ‘to ensure that … the government [is kept]
out of the religious business,’ does not embody the reasonable
person."
In other words, the court explained that a reasonable observer
of the Kentucky courthouse display would appreciate "the role
religion has played in our governmental institutions, and [find]
it historically appropriate and traditionally acceptable for a state
to include religious influences, even in the form of sacred texts,
in honoring American traditions." (See related article AFA
Journal, 8/05.)
www.worldnetdaily.com 12/20/05
Superintendent pays for bias against
Christian teacher
A Texas public school superintendent is paying the consequences,
literally, for discriminating against a teacher by denying her a
promotion to assistant principal after she refused to remove her
children from a Christian school.
In March 2005, a federal jury in Dallas found former Greenville
Independent School District Superintendent Herman Smith guilty of
violating Karen Barrows’ constitutional and parental rights.
The jury awarded the teacher more than $15,000 in lost wages.
Since then, a federal judge recently granted a $650,000 award in
attorney’s fees against Smith and the Texas Association of
School Boards, sending a wake-up call to government entities who
feel empowered to take parental rights into their own hands.
"This should send a strong message to every school district
in the country that American children aren’t children of the
state and that this type of discrimination against parents who are
teachers or administrators will not only not be tolerated but it’s
going to cost you a heavy penny," said Barrow’s attorney,
Kelly Shackelford of Liberty Legal Institute.
AgapePress, 12/28/05
Canadian
Anglicans becoming extinct
A new, independent report on the state of the Anglican
Church of Canada shows a staggering decline in membership over the
last 40 years.
Between 1961 and 2001 the Anglican Church of Canada, the Canadian
branch of the worldwide Anglican community, lost 53% of its members,
from 1.36 million to 642,000.
However, the report also ominously stated that the decline is accelerating.
While membership dropped 13% between 1981 and 1991, it fell 20%
between 1991 and 2001.
According to The Church of England Newspaper, the report was prepared
by Keith McKerracher, a retired marketing expert. It was presented
to the House of Bishops.
McKerracher said in subsequent interviews: "My point to the
bishops was, ‘Hey listen, guys, we’re declining much faster
than any other church. We’re losing 12,836 Anglicans a year.
That’s 2% a year. If you draw a line on the graph, there’ll
only be one person left in the [Canadian] Anglican church by 2061.’"
The Anglican Church of Canada, like its sister branch in the U.S.,
the Episcopal Church USA, has been steadily trending liberal over
the last four decades. That is probably the reason for the Canadian
church’s decline, according to Ted Byfield.
Byfield is a long-time observer of Canadian culture. He published
a weekly news magazine in Canada for 30 years and now serves as
general editor of The Christians, a 12-volume history of
Christianity.
In a column for WorldNetDaily, Byfield spoke of the Anglican Church
of Canada’s "consistent departure from traditional Christian
teaching, which has been going on throughout the whole 40-year period
of decline.
It began with the acceptance of serial marriage, progressed to
the ordination of women, then to the funding of terrorist groups
in Africa, and finally to the acceptance of homosexual practice.
The church’s latest foray is its tacit approval of homosexual
marriage, which has seen it virtually disowned by the Anglican churches
of Africa and Asia."
McKerracher did not think the Anglican leadership in Canada would
respond to the new report with any significant changes.
"The church is in real crisis. They can’t carry on like
it’s business as usual. They talk things to death," he
said. "And my impression is that the bishops are not going
to go around telling priests to shape up."
Almost as if to confirm McKerracher’s impression, Canadian
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison told The Church of England Newspaper
that although the report was a "wake-up call," he hoped
a new emphasis on social justice and ecumenical cooperation would
stem the decline.
The Church of England Newspaper, 12/9/05;
www.worldnetdaily, 12/10/05
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