Category Archives: Religion

Circuit Court Blocks Kentucky Governor’s Limit on Church Services

Sunday, 03 May 2020 16:52

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Sunday, May 3, 2020:

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Saturday, prohibiting Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear from enforcing his edict banning attendance at church services:

Orders prohibiting religious gatherings, enforced by police officers telling congregants they violated a criminal law and by officers taking down license plate numbers, amount to a significant burden on worship gatherings….

The breadth of [his] ban on religious services … should give pause to anyone who prizes religious freedom.

Two days before Easter, Governor Beshear announced that Kentucky police would record the license-plate numbers of all vehicles near mass gatherings, including church services, and transmit that information to various health departments, who would then enforce a mandatory 14-day quarantine for the violators.

Said Beshear:

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Coming Economic Rebound to Reverse Present Negative Business, Consumer Sentiment Readings

Wednesday, 08 April 2020 13:57

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, April 8, 2020:

Consumers and small business owners who are also Bible believers often open Psalms 31 in times like these, to read: “My hope is in the LORD … Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.”

Those who aren’t are telling pollsters that things are bad and likely to get worse.

Polls taken by the Conference Board, the University of Michigan, the New York Federal Reserve and the National Federation of Business (NFIB) are consistent: consumer and business sentiment is taking a dreadful hit thanks to the “social distancing” and “sheltering at home” protocols put in place last month to fight the virus.

With 250 million Americans affected, or about 75 percent of the country’s population, the results, although widely anticipated, were worse than expected.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported on Monday that

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Holy Week or Pearl Harbor Week?

Monday, 06 April 2020 10:53

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, April 6, 2020:

The timing could not be more propitious. Bookended by Palm Sunday yesterday and Easter Sunday next Sunday, believers are celebrating the “death of death” with the resurrection of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Surgeon General of the United States, on the other hand, is calling the week ahead our “Pearl Harbor” week, or our “9/11” week, in remembrance of the surprise attacks on our country by its enemies.

He expects that the coming peak in coronavirus deaths, expected either this week or next, to be “the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives.” He told Fox News on Sunday:

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It’s Been a Long Five Years for Coach Kennedy

Wednesday, 11 March 2020 12:33

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, March 11, 2020:

For Joe Kennedy, the former coach of Washington’s Bremerton High Junior Varsity football team, it’s been a long five years. He coached the team from 2008 until his contract wasn’t renewed in 2015. For those seven years, after every game, he would take 15 seconds to go out to the 50-yard line and pray for his players.

And for seven years nobody minded. Nobody said anything. Nobody sued. Nobody even threatened to sue.

But when a school administrator paid a public compliment for how the coach was positively impacting the lives of his players, the school board told Kennedy to stop. When he didn’t, the board decided not to renew his contract.

Kennedy enlisted the help of First Liberty, a non-profit public interest law firm that specializes in such First Amendment cases. Together they sued the board, claiming it violated his First Amendment rights. And they lost.

So they appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. And they lost again. So they appealed to the Supreme Court. And lost. But with a disclaimer: there were enough loose ends to the case that needed to be resolved at the lower court’s level to keep the court from reviewing Kennedy’s claim.

In the Supreme Court’s denial in January 2019, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh added a statement to the public record, explaining that “important unresolved factual questions would make it very difficult if not impossible at this stage to decide the free speech question that [Kennedy] asks us to review.”

The justices then excoriated the Ninth Circuit Court’s reasoning: “The Ninth Circuit’s opinion applies our decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos to public school teachers and coaches in a high tendentious [i.e., biased] way.”

That decision ruled that statements made by public employees in the normal conduct of their official duties are not protected by the First Amendment. It ruled that public employees are not speaking as citizens when they are speaking to fulfill a responsibility of their job. It held that the First Amendment does not prevent employees from being disciplined for making statements that are made “pursuant” to their professional duties.

But the Ninth Circuit stretched that ruling out of all recognition, according to the justices:

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Football Coach Fired for Praying Likely To Get Case Reviewed by Supreme Court

Tuesday, 10 March 2020 17:14

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, March 10, 2020:

U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton ruled against Bremerton High School’s football coach Joe Kennedy last week, saying that “although the Court is sympathetic to Kennedy’s desire to follow his beliefs, the former must give way to the latter in this case.” The “latter” to which Leighton referred is the right of Bremerton High School to fire the coach when he took 15 seconds at the end of a football game to pray for his players on the 50-yard line.

Kennedy coached the school’s JV football team for seven years, and for seven years he took time after each game to pray for his players. And for seven years nobody minded. Nobody said anything. Nobody sued. Nobody even threatened to sue.

But when a school administrator paid a public compliment for how the coach was positively impacting the lives of his players, the school board told Kennedy to stop. When he didn’t, the board decided not to renew his contract.

Kennedy enlisted the help of First Liberty, a non-profit public-interest law firm that specializes in such First Amendment cases. Together they sued the board, claiming it violated his First Amendment-protected rights. And they lost.

So they appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. And they lost again. So they appealed to the Supreme Court. And lost, but with a caveat: There were enough loose ends to the case that needed to be resolved at the lower court’s level to keep the court from reviewing Kennedy’s claim.

In the Supreme Court’s denial in January 2019, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh added a statement to the public record, explaining that

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How My Fight for Student-Led Prayer Took Me to the White House

Friday, 07 February 2020 15:52

This article was first published at The Daily Signal on January 29, 2020. It was written by Chase Windebank, a high school student attending Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs.

How does a young man find himself standing behind the president of the United States in the Oval Office of the White House?

I invited a friend to pray with me.

Actually, I invited several friends during my freshman year at Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We had a free period in the middle of the school day. A lot of my classmates used the time to just hang out, or to text or talk about their plans for the weekend.

I thought it might be a good time to find an empty room and a few good friends who would enjoy praying together and encouraging one another in our shared faith.

We did that for three years. Gradually, word got around, and more and more young people joined us.

By the time I was a senior, some 90 other students were in that room twice a week. We enjoyed a strong sense of community as we met to pray for each other, our teachers and school, and even our nation.

During my senior year, however, something changed.

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Trump’s Apologies During Victory Celebrations Largely Ignored

Friday, 07 February 2020 10:25

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, February 7, 2020:

During his victory celebrations following the Senate’s vote to acquit him of wrongdoing, President Donald Trump apologized: first for his own shortcomings, second to the American people, and finally, to his family. These apologies revealed a side of the president the mainstream media rarely presents.

Near the end of his remarks at Thursday’s Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton, Trump said, “I’m sorry. I apologize. I’m trying to learn. It’s not easy. When they impeach you for nothing and then you’re supposed to like them, it’s not easy, folks. I do my best.”

This is where the president presently is on his journey of faith. He is referring to Jesus’ demand in His Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew, Chapter 5, where the Savior said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” Jesus didn’t say it would be easy, just that it should be done.

Later that same day,

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Why Is Religion so Important to the Health and Strength of the American Republic?

Monday, 20 January 2020 17:20

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, January 20, 2020:

The answer was missing last Thursday when Trump celebrated National Religious Freedom Day by confirming and expanding those freedoms for American citizens.

The guidance issued by nine of his executive branch agencies was certainly welcome. It addressed the issue frontally, declaring that there is war against religion in the United States, and that it has, until recently, been going badly for people of faith.

The president said:

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On National Religious Freedom Day, Trump Expands Religious Freedom

Saturday, 18 January 2020 08:35

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, January 17, 2020:

President Trump chose Thursday — National Religious Freedom Day — to announce a flurry of guidance from nine Executive Branch agencies that not only confirms Americans’ freedom to worship under the First Amendment but rolls back incursions on that freedom that occurred under previous administrations.

The guidance empowered students who want to pray at school by reaffirming their right to do so, including reading religious materials or praying during non-class periods, organizing prayer groups, and expressing their religious beliefs in their school assignments. It warned state governments not to discriminate against religious organizations and affirmed that the granting of federal funds by Executive Branch agencies likewise will not discriminate against them.

The president said:

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Gallup Says Millennials Have Lost Their Way; Louie Giglio Says No

Friday, 03 January 2020 10:05

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, January 3, 2020:

Gallup reported last October that Millennials (born 1980-2000) have lost their way. Twenty years ago 62 percent of them belonged to a church. Today that number has dropped to 42 percent. This was part of Gallup’s revelation that barely two thirds of all American adults describe themselves as Christian, down 12 percentage points in the last 10 years.

But Glenn Stanton, director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, say that such polls prove nothing; that instead the church of “real believers” has never been stronger:

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65,000 College Students Celebrate Jesus and New Year at Passion Conference in Atlanta

Thursday, 02 January 2020 18:02

What were 65,000 college students from all 50 states and 81 foreign countries doing at the Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta this week? This twitter from the Passion Conference explains:

We [are saying] goodbye to 2019 and hello to 2020. Imagine what God will do through you in the new decade; what opportunities will He lead you to, what challenges will He overcome on your behalf?

The 20s are overflowing with possibilities, and we are ready and willing, full of expectation.

Since its founding in 1997 by Louie Giglio, pastor at Passion City Church in Atlanta, more than a million college students age 18 to 25 have been lifted up at his conferences. Giglio says his purpose is clear:

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In Hoc Anno Domini

Wednesday, 25 December 2019 05:11

The Wall Street Journal publishes this piece penned by the late Vermont Royster in 1949 every Christmas:

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter’s star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

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The American Bar Association Just Exposed Its Bias Against Believers

Friday, 01 November 2019 17:10

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, November 1, 2019:

Despite its claim to be unbiased, the ABA exposed the canard by declaring an eminently qualified nominee as “not qualified” for a seat on the Ninth Circuit Court.

The group claimed to be unbiased in its letter to Senate leaders on Tuesday concerning Lawrence VanDyke, a Trump nominee to the Ninth Circuit: “The Committee’s work is based solely on a review of integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament.” Nevertheless, despite VanDyke’s impressive CV, “a majority of the Committee has determined that Mr. VanDyke is “Not Qualified” … to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.”

How is such a conclusion possible?

It didn’t matter that

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ABA Declares Trump’s 9th Circuit Court Nominee “Not Qualified”

Thursday, 31 October 2019 13:50

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, October 31, 2019:

The American Bar Association (ABA) sent a letter to Democratic Senate leaders on Tuesday declaring President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Ninth Circuit Court, Lawrence VanDyke, “not qualified” despite his evident qualifications for the position. Said the letter:

Mr. VanDyke is a highly educated lawyer with nearly 14 years of experience in appellate law, including one year as a law clerk, an associate in a law firm, and as a Solicitor General for over five-plus years, first in Montana and then Nevada, two states in the Ninth Circuit where he would serve if confirmed…

Mr. VanDyke’s accomplishments are offset by the assessments of interviewees that Mr. VanDyke is arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-today practice including procedural rules. There was a theme that the nominee lacks humility, has an “entitlement” temperament, does not have an open mind, and does not always have a commitment to being candid and truthful.

Accordingly, “a substantial majority of the Committee [charged with vetting nominees for the Senate] has determined that Mr. VanDyke is ‘not qualified’ … to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.”

And just who are those “interviewees” on which the committee based its conclusion? The letter doesn’t say.

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Shouldn’t the Catholic Church Excommunicate Joe Biden Over His Support for Abortion?

Wednesday, 30 October 2019 12:54

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, October 20, 2019:

The Vatican has made its position on abortion crystal clear:

Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion.

This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.

Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves.

Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.

The Vatican goes further: anyone who “cooperates” in the performance of an abortion is excommunicated: “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”

Biden should consider himself lucky that all he got was a slap on the wrist last Sunday when a Catholic priest denied him communion. While on a political junket in South Carolina over the weekend, Biden stopped by the St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence on Sunday morning to attend mass. The Rev. Robert E. Morey refused to serve communion to the former vice president, explaining:

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Biden Denied Communion for His Pro-abortion Stance

Tuesday, 29 October 2019 16:00

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, October 29, 2019:

While on a political junket in South Carolina over the weekend, Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden stopped by the St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence on Sunday morning for Mass. The Reverend Robert E. Morey refused to serve communion to the former vice president, explaining:

Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden. Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself … outside of Church teaching.

But Biden claims he agrees with the church’s teaching. He just doesn’t want to impose his views on anyone else. Said Biden in an interview in 2015: “I’m prepared to accept that at the moment of conception there’s human life and being, but I’m not prepared to say that to other God-fearing [and] non-God-fearing people [who] have a different view.”

He also believes that not only is Roe v. Wade the law of the land despite the faux “right to privacy” conjured in that Supreme Court decision, he also

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Prayers for the President Continue in Washington and the White House

Wednesday, 23 October 2019 13:42

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, October 23, 2019:

From the beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump has encouraged prayers for himself and for the country. The TV evangelist who brought Trump to faith in Jesus Christ, Paula White, played a key role during his inauguration and then again during the president’s reelection rally in Orlando last June.

She was God’s tool in bringing Trump to faith, she explained:

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Could this Obscure Survey Be the Tipping Point in the Abortion Debate?

Tuesday, 23 July 2019 06:17

This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, July 22, 2019:

Steven Andrew Jacobs, working on his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago last summer, published a survey that answered Associate Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun’s query about when life begins. Wrote Blackmun in the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade in 1973:

We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, in this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.

Thanks to Ph.D. candidate Jacobs, Blackmun (now deceased) and his majority on the Supreme Court have their answer. According to Jacobs, 95 percent of 5,500 biologists – with specialties in such various fields as anatomy, biochemistry, cellular biology, genetics, and physiology – believe that “a human’s life begins at fertilization.”

More remarkable is that 89 to 97 percent of them believe it despite describing themselves as “very pro-choice,” “very liberal,” and “strong Democrats.”

What if Blackmun and his majority were given a “mulligan” – a do-over – about abortion?

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Decline in U.S. Birth Rates, Church Attendance Portends Societal Change

Tuesday, 25 June 2019 15:25

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, June 25, 2019:

There has been much hand-wringing of late over declining birth rates and church attendance (especially among young people).

Gerald Seib is one of those wringing his hands. Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Monday Seib said these two trend lines have “social and economic significance,” and he explained why.

First, according to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, just 29 percent of Americans say they attend religious services at least once a week, down from 41 percent in 2000. The group who say they never attend church has, over the same period, risen to 26 percent, up from 14 percent two decades ago. Seib noted that “the share of … younger Americans who never attend religious services has more than doubled, to 36 percent.”

Seib also lamented the decline in America’s birthrate, reporting that

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Jesus’ Name Lifted Up at Trump’s Reelection Rally; Media All but Silent

Wednesday, 19 June 2019 13:59

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, June 19, 2019:

The chair of President Trump’s evangelical advisory board, Pastor Paula White, lifted up the name of Jesus in her opening prayer at the president’s reelection rally in Orlando on Tuesday. After asking the crowd, estimated to be 20,000 supporters, to hold hands, she prayed:

So right now, let every demonic network that has aligned itself against the purpose, against the calling of President Trump, let it be broken, let it be torn down in the name of Jesus….

I declare that President Trump will overcome every strategy from hell and every strategy from the enemy….

I secure his calling, I secure his purpose, I secure his family, and we secure victory in the name which is above every name — the name of Jesus Christ….

I declare that no weapon formed against him, his family, his calling, his purpose, this counsel, will be able to be formed.

Those “demonic networks” were all but silent. And the only one that responded claimed ignorance. Meghan Flynn, writing for the Washington Post, said that “White didn’t say what demonic networks and enemies Trump was up against.”

Instead Flynn took advantage of the opportunity to slander White by bringing up long-dead issues concerning the president’s chief spiritual advisor:

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