PERSECU ION International Christian Concern | February 2014
The Storm Approaches... Court cases swirl around us like papers blown about by the wind but Christians are too busy scurrying around to look up and see the obvious. A religious freedom hurricane is just off-shore.
IN THIS ISSUE:
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A STORM APPROACHES There is a cold war against the American Church. Learn where it’s coming from.
13 TYPES OF LEGAL ATTACKS 23 FURTHER STUDY Sample cases that challenge Learn more about the rise of religious freedom of anti-Christian sentiment in Christians. America.
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RISING HOSTILITY See a representation of America’s secular societal shift.
15 MEDIA BIAS Studies show that the media consistently has an antireligious bias.
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ICC INTERVIEWS THREE CONGRESSMEN ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM What do those on the Hill think of religious freedom?
17 THE PROPAGANDA BLITZKRIEG Christians are under a propaganda blitzkrieg that is not accidental.
11 THE FIRST AMENDMENT 21 THE RULES OF A look at the balance PROPAGANDA between free exercise and no The strategy used by the establishment. majority to bring down a minority.
25 YDAW Learn how your dollars are at work in Pakistan and Syria!
OVERVIEW The clouds are gathering and the winds have begun to blow, but we are only just beginning to feel the early sprinkles of rain. The full storm is still off-shore and has yet to arrive. Court cases swirl around us like papers blown about by the wind and Hollywood’s anti-Christian hate has soaked the landscape. Consequently, the roads and walkways are beginning to get slippery. Most Christians, though, are too busy scurrying around to look up to see the obvious: a dangerous storm—a religious freedom hurricane—is just off-shore and will land in time. Christians look back in time and have no history or frame of reference for large “storms” like this hitting our shores. Like most victims of a proverbial 100-year storm, they naturally conclude, “it could never happen here.” The reality is that just as we had hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, we could very soon live under unprecedented religious restrictions and persecution. In fact, it’s quite normal and historical for Christians to experience persecution around the world. Remember, Jesus told us plainly that it would come: “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first…if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” John 15:18, 20 NIV The comedian and cultural icon Bill Maher is a small representation of the danger we face. His hatred of Christianity is clear. The problem is that he’s really funny, likeable, and clever. This makes his messaging all the more dangerous because what he’s espousing is incredibly poisonous and hateful in its implications: “The plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having key decisions made by religious people. Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don’t have all the answers to think that they do. This is why rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves.” I have good news for Bill and others who are fueled by irrational fear and hatred of religious people: Your vision of a political utopia uncluttered by “religionists” has already arrived. It came last century...1917 to be exact. And oh, what a glorious time it was. Marxist leaders, freed from dangerous religious illusions and notions of an afterlife (where they would answer for their evil), tortured and killed mankind on a scale unseen in human history (read the amazing work “Gulag Archipelago” by Solzhenitsyn for an education and a soul awakening).
JEFF KING ICC President In Russia, the rational, anti-religionist Marxists came to power and killed 60 million of their own people while their comrades in China killed up to 70 million people of their own…all in the name of equality and done for the good of the masses. Lenin did explain that you have to “break a few eggs to make an omelet.” The truth is that Marxists, radical leftists, atheists, or even “religionists,” are not the problem with our culture and our planet. The problem is more insidious and can be found in the mirror of your bathroom! The problem is that human beings are all insecure, tribal, cruel, and willing to oppress those who are different from themselves. When our power is concentrated in groups, whether political, military, religious, or governmental, we become really dangerous and oppressive. The Founders of the U.S. knew this well. They purposefully limited the power of our government and made it somewhat unweidly via the three branches of government to protect us from ourselves. They also enshrined religious freedom as of prime importance and even made it the First Amendment since it’s so foundational to freedom. It must be respected, cherished, and fought for. If we don’t, the dark clouds, light rain, and not-so-distant lightning will soon be overhead and wash away the main pillar of freedom for all people: religious freedom.
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OVERVIEW
A STORM Approaches... BY RYAN MORGAN THE PERMIT LAW I watched Pastor Palti cry as he described the scene: hundreds of screaming Muslims hurling rocks, dirt, and even bags filled with urine at his congregation as the police stood by and watched. Signs read, “Jesus is a dog” and “kill the Christians.” They claimed Pastor Palti hadn’t obtained permits to operate his church and the local government agreed, sealing the building and prohibiting the pastor and his congregation from ever returning. The truth is, there was no way the church could get the required permits. It’s a Catch-22; a legal strategy to strangle the Church. In 2012, ICC recorded over 50 churches in Indonesia that were closed using the same zoning laws. Ten thousand miles away, Opulent Life Church in Holly Springs, Mississippi was facing a scarily similar ordinance. The city of Holly Springs demanded that the growing church get permission from 60 percent of local property owners and the town mayor before it would be allowed to rent a space downtown. The zoning restriction did not apply to any other type of organization—just to churches—exactly the same as the law in Indonesia. In March of 2012, the same month Pastor Palti’s church was being attacked in Indonesia, Opulent Life Church took its case to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The church would eventually win the right to permanently move into Holly Springs, but only after a taxing and expensive 15-month long legal battle.
A COLD WAR AGAINST THE CHURCH The legal battle of Opulent Life Church in Mississippi last year is representative of a much wider battle being waged to capture and change America. For nearly two decades, ICC has raised awareness and provided assistance to persecuted believers around the world, all the while monitoring the trend of rising hostility towards
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Christianity here at home. The persecution faced by the body of Christ overseas is far greater in scale, proportion, and intensity, than anything seen in America today. Yet, across the United States, a historical shift has taken place. Last year, for the first time since such surveys began in 1930, the Pew Forum found that one-fifth of the U.S. do not identify with any religion. The rate of unbelief is highest among the young, with a full one-third of U.S. adults under 30 “religiously unaffiliated.” This trend of increasing secularism is worrying enough, but much more alarming is the rise of anti-Christian hostility. In 2013, the Family Research Council and Liberty Institute released “Survey of Hostility to Religion in America.” It documents 1,200 cases of hostility towards religion, the vast majority of which are directed towards Christians occurring in the past ten years. The Pew Forum has also noted the trend in its most recent report on government restrictions and social hostility towards religion around the globe, causing Pew to move the U.S. from the “low” to “moderate” category for the first time in the four years the survey has been conducted. Social hostility towards religion also rose.
WHERE IS THIS COMING FROM? The forces driving this trend of rising hostility are complex but often share a common foundation in atheistic, agnostic, or humanist philosophy. Perhaps one of the most well-known and hostile forces in the 20th century is Marxism, a political philosophy that framed religion as evil: “[Religion] is the opiate of the masses. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness.” Marxism would be rejected by most Americans today, but is embraced by some (often without knowing it) in the United States. Some espouse the same enmity towards all things religious and Christian. Radical atheist organizations have also become far more active in recent years. Groups such as the American Atheists and the Freedom from Religion Foundation have launched countless legal battles to remove all references of Christianity from the public sphere. In 2010,
American Atheists successfully sued the Utah Highway Patrol Association, stopping them from erecting crosses bearing their logo in memory of fallen patrolmen. In 2011, the same group launched an attack to stop the placement of the World Trade Center cross, a cross made of two steel girders that emerged from the wreckage of the World Trade Centers and was to be placed at the 9/11 memorial. The Freedom from Religion Foundation has also led the way in trying to remove “In God we Trust” from the Pledge of Allegiance and the national motto.
lain withdrew and another was dismissed from a pastoral training program run by the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) in San Diego because they refused to stop quoting Scripture. Both were also told by the instructor that it was VA policy that they “should not pray in Jesus’ name.”
These small legal challenges and more dangerous ones (far too many to list here), are only one of the mechanisms through which Christianity is being restricted.
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In 2011, Angela Hildebrand, a Texas high school senior, was sued for planning to say a Christian prayer during her graduation speech as class valedictorian. A federal district court ordered Hildebrand to give a prayer without using “Lord”, “in Jesus’ name” and “amen” in her speech.
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In 2013, a student at Sonoma State University made headlines when she was ordered twice by her supervisor at a student orientation fair to either remove or hide her cross necklace because she “might offend others.”
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In September 2013, a school counselor at a middle school in Kansas City publicly ordered a 7th grade student to stop posting fliers for a “See You at the Pole” prayer event because the fliers contained Bible verses. The school took down and destroyed the fliers.
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Finally, in 2011, two California pastors were arrested for preaching in public.
U.S. EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM The U.S. education system has also become a focal point for the battle to remove religion from the public sphere.
CHRISTIANS NEED TO GET ANGRY AND SPEAK UP AT BEING DEPICTED AS EVIL AND DEGENERATE BY HOLLYWOOD, AND BY BEING MARGINALIZED BY THEIR EMPLOYERS AND THE COURTS WHEN ACTIONS GO BEYOND THE FOUNDING FATHERS’ INTENT.
PROPAGANDA BLITZKRIEG The most potent source of general anti-Christian sentiment in the U.S. is how Christians are portrayed by Hollywood, much of the music industry, and the media. They have portrayed Christians in an overwhelmingly negative light. The fringe hate group, Westboro Baptist Church, is constantly held up as a straw man in media to represent Christianity, despite the fact that 99.99 percent of Christianity looks nothing like these people. They are used to frame and define Christianity. Hollywood is the prime source, though. While Christians used to be portrayed favorably by Hollywood, Christians are now portrayed in the most vile way (see “The Propaganda Blitzkrieg” on page 17).
MILITARY TO CHAPLAINS: “STOP QUOTING SCRIPTURE” Christians have also come under tremendous pressure in the U.S. military. Incredibly, in 2013, one military chap-
THE CANARY’S SILENCE In 2014, the “cultural cold war” against Christianity being waged in the United States will continue. The canary in the proverbial religious freedom coal mine is not dead by any means, but it has stopped singing and ominously, the Church is not shouting “DANGER!” Christians need to get angry and speak up at being depicted as evil and degenerate by Hollywood, and by being marginalized by their employers and the courts when actions go beyond the Founding Fathers’ intent. Failure to protest antiChristian bigotry ultimately means not only the loss of our freedoms here in the United States, but the extinguishing of a beacon of hope for countless millions of persecuted Christians around the world.
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RISING Hostility WHERE IS IT COMING FROM AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT US?
ACTIVE SECULARIZATION: SOURCES SEEKING TO MARGINALIZE OR DESTROY CHRISTIANITY
PASSIVE SOURCES: HUGE SECULAR DRIFT •
Materialism
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Social Cycle
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Hostile Secular Schools: our kids are educated
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Extreme Left
(their minds are formed) by a hostile secular state.
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Radical Atheists
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Sexual Revolution
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Radical Gay Lobby
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Delay of Marriage: marriage and parenting cause
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Extreme Elements of Hollywood
people to become more spiritually-minded and interested in preserving and bettering the world they will leave to their children.
HOSTILITY OR INDIFFERENCE TOWARDS CHURCH WORKED The Arts/Pop Culture
Academia
The Press
Anti-Christian propaganda blitzkrieg in movies, TV, music, theater writing, etc.
Christian professors must not raise Christian views to be credentialed. They are muzzled and not promoted if they are vocal.
Academic studies consistently reveal an anti-Christian/non-religious bias. Press hostility shapes the viewpoints of the masses.
See Page 17 “Propaganda Blitzkrieg”
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See Page 15 “Media Bias”
THE CHURCH NEEDS TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR AS WELL •
Is the Western Church a Laodicean Church in desperate need of revival?
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Catholic pedophilia scandal and political backlash from the 1980s Moral Majority movement.
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Mainline churches are heretical and dying; they look no different than the world.
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Beginning in the 1800s, and intensifying post-Scopes trial (1920s), U.S. Christianity began to split on what the Church should focus on. Liberals focused on the body (social needs), while conservatives focused on the spirit (salvation and the spread of the Gospel). Jesus touched the body and saved the spirit. His ministry was, and is, holistic. The Church’s should be as well. When it’s not, we lose influence in the world.
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Post-Scopes trial, Biblical Christians withdrew from the public sphere (politics [“government is evil”], film, music, etc.). Our sole focus became evangelism to the point that today, Christians consider pastoring and/or missionary work as the only “Christian” professions. The evangelical Church has lost influence in the world because we stopped serving the world and only “shout” at the world.
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Megachurches and “seeker services” create a Church a mile wide and an inch deep that has a glaring lack of Biblical knowledge, holiness, and lack of focus on evangelism and discipleship.
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The Church is silent in the face of increasing legal/social attacks. It is not shouting.
OUT VIA SOCIETAL POWER & INFLUENCE STRUCTURES Government Legislature
Military
Education
Judicial/Law
TYPES OF LEGAL ATTACKS • • •
Public Speech & • Expression • Separation of Church and State • School House
Public Invocation Church/Ministry Rights Businesses
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ICC INTERVIEWS THREE CONGRESSMEN ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
ICC sat down with with three key leaders in Congress who offered their thoughts on the state of religious freedom in America. Their insights, drawn from a combined experience of more than sixty years working in our nation’s capital, offer a unique perspective on the direction our nation is heading. BY RYAN MORGAN
Frank Wolf Sixteen-term Congressman Frank Wolf is perhaps the leading U.S. legislator advocating for international religious freedom today. As co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Congressman Wolf regularly chairs hearings on the rights of religious groups and has long called for the Church in America to speak out on behalf of suffering believers around the world. ICC: Over your years in Congress, have you seen the climate, and the attitude towards religion, and specifically Christianity, change at all? Rep. Wolf: Oh absolutely. You almost have to be out of it
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not to understand [what has happened]. You can see the shift; it has happened gradually, but now, with the marriage issue, and with regards to prayer and many other cases… you are finding religious freedom is under siege in the U.S. and it’s [getting worse]. The strange thing is that the Church in the West is pretty silent. I mean, it has been very silent about persecution abroad, but it also really doesn’t speak out very much [domestically]. It seems like the Church is on the defensive. I sent a letter out seven or eight months ago to a lot of prominent people asking them to speak out on the issue of [traditional] marriage. With it we had a Billy Graham advertisement [in support of traditional marriage] but the response we got was terrible. So yes, we see [growing hostility towards religion and Christianity]. There needs to be legislation passed to protect religious freedom here in the U.S. If the Church doesn’t push back I think it will continue. Why hasn’t the Church spoken out? ICC: What can Christians do specifically? Rep. Wolf: You remember Charles Finney (the great evangelist)? He said that everything flows downstream from the pulpit. Do you think that your congressional or governmental authorities are going to speak out if the Church doesn’t speak out? I mean if someone is picking on you and your mom and dad and you aren’t going to speak out about it, do you think other people are going to speak out about it? You’ve got to shout! The Church really has to shout!
EVERYTHING FLOWS DOWNSTREAM FROM THE PULPIT. DO YOU THINK THAT YOUR CONGRESSIONAL OR GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES ARE GOING TO SPEAK OUT IF THE CHURCH DOES NOT SPEAK OUT? YOU’VE GOT TO SHOUT! THE CHURCH REALLY HAS TO SHOUT!
Ministers are accused of hate speech, etc., so I think ministers and priests are afraid to speak out as well as being afraid of losing their tax exemption. I recently gave up at Gordon Conwell [theological seminary]. I quoted American Cardinal Francis George from Chicago, who said, “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.” Have you ever read Eric Metaxas’ book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer? I mean, the Church [in Nazi Germany] acquiesced. There was an element, the confessing Church, [that did not] but there was an element that cooperated with Hitler. I am not suggesting that we are there now. Yet, there is a great quote by Martin Niemoller [protestant pastor imprisoned in Nazi Germany], that ends with, “then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” The Church has to speak up. I think the Church could learn a lot from Martin Luther King’s Birmingham jail speech [calling on churches to speak up on injustice]. ICC: My last question is: Is there hope for a brighter future? Rep. Wolf: Of course there is hope, there is always hope, but I think it will require people in the pulpit to speak out… where are the Bonhoeffers and where are the Martin Luther Kings?
Randy Forbes Six-term Congressman Forbes founded the Congressional Prayer Caucus, a bipartisan group that today consists of 100 members of Congress “dedicated to protecting religious liberty and recognizing our nations’ rich, spiritual history.”
-CONGRESSMAN WOLF I have seen [the attitude in Congress] change fairly dramatically as well and the pulpit is very, very silent and they are probably silent because ministers are afraid. You know there are lawsuits in Canada against ministers for speaking from the pulpit on [these kinds] of issues.
ICC: Have you seen, over your years in Congress, the climate and the attitude toward religion or Christianity change? Rep. Forbes: I think it has changed, but I think it’s changed for not just Christians, but for religious freedom and reli-
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gious liberty as a whole. We see over and over again that (some) people see those of us trying to defend religious freedom as somehow trying to impose religion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our founding fathers understood that we [can’t be] arrogant and say which [denomination, religion or faith] is right or wrong. What’s important to realize is, if you [secularize society], then people will fill the god-shaped void in their hearts with something that is not very good. That’s why [the Founders] decided to protect religious belief and not just religious thought. I think what [many people believe today is that] you’ve got the right to think whatever you want to think, as long as you are cloistered in a room somewhere where nobody gets to see what you are doing. John Kennedy talked about the fact that religious beliefs without religious convictions were meaningless. So the importance of religious belief today is not just my ability to be in a room somewhere and think a religious thought, but it’s my ability to say what that thought is. It’s my ability to spend my money on things supportive of that religious belief, and not be forced to spend my money on things that are contrary to that religious belief. What I have seen happening over the last decade even in the U.S., is a major shift, to where for the first time we are actually forcing people to make statements and forcing people to spend their money in ways that is contrary to their core Christian beliefs. And I think we have to be very careful as a nation about that because, if we lose those religious freedoms and religious liberties, we will be generations getting them back, and the price tag we will have to pay will be enormous. ICC: So what can people in America do to help stem this tide, this change? Is there anything we can do? Rep. Forbes: First, recognize what is going on and then start embracing political leaders on a state level, a local level, and a federal level, who recognize the importance of religious freedom and religious liberty and are willing to pay the price and stand up for it. You know, Charles Krauthammer just wrote a book entitled, “Things That Matter,” and [said] that no matter how good the society is, if we get the politics wrong, none of the rest of it matters because it all gets kind of washed away. And I think people need to realize today that we can no longer sit in our homes or drive in our cars alone and expect that religious liberty and religious freedom is going to be protected.
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We have got to come alongside other like-minded people and make sure that we protect religious freedom and religious liberty in this country.
Pete Hoekstra Congressman Pete Hoekstra represented the second district of Michigan for nearly 18 years. During his tenure, he served in a pivotal role as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee from 2004 to 2007. Since leaving Congress in 2011, Representative Hoekstra has actively pursued involvement on international religious freedom issues, a topic of lifelong interest to the Congressman.
ICC: Congressman Hoekstra, over your years in Congress, and even now, have you noticed or seen a trend in culture or in government of increased hostility towards people of faith? Rep. Hoekstra: Well I think I’ve seen the increase in hostility in culture and in government, but much more in government than in culture. The change is in government and parts of culture, but [the change in culture is] facilitated by government and by the courts. You especially see in the last few years that almost all of government has been hostile to people of faith. Rather than allowing people and communities to express their faith, way too often people of faith are forced to “bow to the altar of tolerance.” And that has become the ultimate measure. And I think it’s a huge problem. You know for people of faith to express their views, [they risk being told] “hey you’re intolerant,” and you know that’s about the nicest thing that some people say about it. ICC: Why is that? Especially in government, in your opinion what is behind that? Is it coming from the top? Rep. Hoekstra: From my perspective, it clearly comes from the top. Bureaucracies reflect their leadership. [This
is especially the case] when you see the dramatic change that you’ve seen in the military. Again, when I first visited military installations and those types of things, and met with military families, it was like, wow, these are organizations that embrace [classic values] of faith, family, and freedom. Now, in many cases, the military has become a social experiment and hostile to faith. It was in the last 12-14 months [before closure] that there was kind of a mandate going through Walter Reed hospital saying, “Hey, we don’t want any religious things, we don’t want Bibles, etc.” Excuse me? I mean, this is a policy? Where did this come from? And I believe that the people that implemented that believed that this was “politically correct” or appropriate behavior that the military leadership has been trying to push down through the military. So, I am very concerned about what’s happening and very, very disappointed by what’s happening. I worked at a building [the Capitol Building] and I worked at an organization [Congress] that I think does set the tone, and should set the tone, for how government behaves. The House of Representatives opens every day with prayer; behind the speaker it says “In God We Trust,” and above the door where the president walks in when he gives the State of the Union address, above that door is a full frontal carving of the face of Moses, the greatest lawgiver ever. Just try doing that now in a public space anywhere else in America. Yet when the Capitol and House chambers were built in the 1860s, it was clear that this was what our Founding Fathers wanted. They wanted a place and recognition of God in America. When did that change? It’s hard to put your finger on it, but clearly [we are in a different place today]. The government would never have allowed for the House of Representatives to be built the way that it was. Not just the House of Reps, the whole Capitol.
RECOGNIZE WHAT IS GOING ON AND THEN START EMBRACING POLITICAL LEADERS ON A STATE LEVEL, A LOCAL LEVEL, AND A FEDERAL LEVEL, WHO RECOGNIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND ARE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE AND STAND UP FOR IT. -CONGRESSMAN FORBES
ICC: Where are things going over the next ten years and what can Christians do to change things? Rep. Hoekstra: The trend is going to be very hard to reverse. But [Christianity] is being removed from the public square. Individuals in the Church must fill that gap. They must talk about our faith-based values, our faith in God, and why it is so absolutely essential and critical to support those in public service who will articulate faith-based values.
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THE
First
AMENDMENT Free Exercise vs. No Establishment
The intent of the U.S. Founding Fathers was to ensure religious freedom and to ensure government does not favor one denomination or religion over another (and also to allow for citizens’ non-belief). It was never their intent to banish religion from the public square. The Founders made religious freedom the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights because to have religious freedom means you must have many other core freedoms. The problem is that in the First Amendment there is a natural tension between two key clauses.
The First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law...
“...respecting an establishment of religion”
“...prohibiting the free exercise of religion or restricting speech.”
or
Free Exercise Clause Government must not restrict the people from exercising their religious tenets and must not control what they say or do not say.
No Establishment Clause Government must not favor one denomination or religion over another. Tilt too far this way and you have a government hostile towards religion and its free exercise as opposed to being neutral. You end up with a religious-free public square and the rights of the religious restricted.
Religious Freedom is the Foundational Freedom
Speech
Thought
Assembly
Conscience
The Founders made religious freedom the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights because to have religious freedom means you must have many other core freedoms, like speech, thought, assembly and conscience. Religious freedom requires governments to acknowledge and allow their citizens to have an allegiance to an authority greater than themselves.
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One of the most common phrases in the debate over religious freedom is “the separation of Church and State.” The phrase comes from a letter from Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist association. It was referred to by the Supreme Court as a phrase which explains the “scope and effect” of the First Amendment. Anti-religious groups have successfully framed this phrase to mean that government must remove religion from the public square. If you actually read the letter and Thomas Jefferson’s response, you will clearly see that the context is concern about government restricting religion, not endorsing it.
“Some school officials, teachers, and parents assume that religious expression of any type is inappropriate or forbidden altogether in schools; however, nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones.” Bill Clinton, 42nd President “Silence in the face of evil is evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer “Experience has shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson “Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.” Edmund Burke
“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” Plato “Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when government’s purposes are beneficent. [Free men] naturally repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis “The men American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try and tell them the truth.” H. L. Mencken
Google These for Further Reading on Religious Freedom: Is Religious Freedom Necessary for Other Freedoms to Flourish? By Thomas Farr http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/rfp/essays/is-religious-freedom-necessary-for-other-freedoms-to-flourish “On college campuses, zoning out free speech” By Charles Haynes, Director of the Religious Freedom Education Center Religious Freedom Lesson Plans By The First Amendment Center http://1forall.us/teach-the-first-amendment/ A Delicate Balance: The free exercise clause and the Supreme Court By the Pew Forum http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Religion_in_public_life/free-exercise-1.pdf Why International Religious Liberty Is Vital to American National Security By Thomas Farr
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Legal Attacks TYPES
OF
Sample cases that challenge religious freedom of Christians
Public Speech, Expression and Public Invocations Attacks on Public Speech and Expression: • Rainey v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs A Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cemetery informed a pastor he cannot pray “in Jesus’ name” at a private funeral. It was discovered that the VA had a national policy that funerals held at national cemeteries could not include religious content or reference God. The rule was struck down. • Barton v. City of Balch Springs Senior citizens in Balch Springs, TX, were told by city officials not to pray before meals, listen to religious messages, or sing religious songs in public buildings because religion is banned in public buildings. The senior citizens filed a lawsuit and the officials then told them that if they won, their meals would be taken away. • Barrow v. Greenville A school district would not promote Karen Barrow to assistant principal because she refused to remove her children from a private Christian school. Court found in favor of the teacher.
Public Invocations: • •
Galloway v. Town of Greece Atheists of Florida, Inc. v. City of Lakeland, Florida
The above cases are ongoing attacks against legislatures and city councils that open in prayer. The Founding Fathers opened congressional sessions in prayer even while they drafted the First Amendment. Court has ruled “yes” and “no” on these invocations.
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School House • Pounds v. Katy I.S.D. A Houston-area school district banned their students from passing Christmas and Valentine’s Day cards that contained religious content. When one student was asked what Easter meant to her, she was told that she could not say, “Jesus.” A federal court held that the school district violated the students’ constitutional rights because of its hostility to religion. • Schultz v. Medina Valley I.S.D. A valedictorian planned to pray during her graduation ceremony. A fellow student from an agnostic family filed a suit to prevent her. A lower-court judge issued an order prohibiting her from using words like “Lord,” “in Jesus’ name,” and “amen.” A higher court reversed the ruling. • Elementary School Student “Caught” Praying Elementary school student Raymond Raines was “caught” praying over his meal at his elementary school. He was lifted from his seat and reprimanded in front of the other students, then taken to the principal who ordered him to cease praying in school. • Morgan, et al., v. Plano I.S.D. A third-grade boy was told by school officials that he could not include a religious message in the goodie bags he was bringing to the “Winter Party” to share with his classmates. Other children were told they could not hand out pencils with “God” on them and students writing letters to soldiers in Iraq were prohibited from writing “Merry Christmas.” A lawsuit was filed against the school district to defend the students’ rights. While a federal judge issued an immediate Temporary Restraining Order to allow students to bring religious items to the “Winter Party,” the district is still opposing the students in federal court.
Church and Ministry Rights City Uses “Church Only” Restrictions and Tests in Zoning, Refuses to Grant Permit for Church, Opulent Life Church v. City of Holly Springs, MS Holly Springs, MS, refused to grant a permit to a church wanting to move to a larger facility until they get permission from 60 percent of surrounding property owners—a requirement that applied only to churches and to no other type of facility or business. Court found in favor of the church.
Public Arena and Business Rights
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Lower courts have ruled in favor of the companies, but these companies are seeking to argue the case in front of the Supreme Court to set a strong precedent.
City Bans Christian Ministry to Released Prisoners in City Limits Sinton, TX, completely banned Pastor Barr’s Christian organization from existing anywhere within its city limits. In a landmark decision, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ministry. •
Texas Attempts to Force Seminaries to Get Approval for their Curricula, Board Members, and Professors Texas fined Tyndale Seminary $173,000 for issuing theological degrees without government approval. The ministry filed a suit to prohibit the government’s attempts to control religious training. Lower courts upheld the law but after nine years of suffering and losses, the seminary received a ruling from the Texas Supreme Court that the law violated the First Amendment and the Texas Constitution. U.S. Supreme Court Decides Most Important Religious Liberty Case in 20 Years; Government Sued in a Church Employment Case, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. EEOC The government lost 9-0 as the Court unanimously rejected the government’s extremely narrow understanding of the constitutional protection for religious liberty, stating: “We cannot accept the remarkable view that the Religion Clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization’s freedom to select its own ministers.”
Health & Human Services (HHS) Attempting to Force Businesses to Provide Abortion Drugs in Their Health Coverage Hobby Lobby et. al. are suing HHS etc. over being forced to provide to pay for/support abortion via mandated health care. No decision yet.
Attacks on Veterans Memorials • • •
Salazar v. Buono Trunk v. City of San Diego Hewett v. City of King, North Carolina
These cases each represent a lawsuit demanding that a veterans memorial be torn down because it includes a cross. Rulings for and against.
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Information from “UnDeniable : The Survey of Hostility Towards Religion” and “Religious Hostility In America” (Liberty Institute & Family Research Council).
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MEDIA BIAS Most Christians feel there is a strong anti-Christian bias in the media but are unaware of the studies that have shown a strong bias and lack of religious viewpoint in the media for decades. The media’s distrust/antipathy of religion influences the masses.
Media Bias Studies 1981 Lichter/Rothman Study The groundbreaking survey by George Washington University of 240 journalists at the most influential national media outlets (released as book, “The Media Elite”)
1982 Cal St. LA Survey of Major Newspaper Reporters 1995 Poll of White House Reporters 1996 Washington Bureau Chiefs & Correspondents Survey 2004 Survey of Campaign Journalists 2005 University of Connecticut Study of 300 TV and Print Journalists
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Lichter/Rothman Study of Media Elites Findings: -89% of media elites never (or seldom) attended church. -98% of media elites were white males. - Only 17% described themselves as politically conservative. -50% of journalists were agnostic or atheist. -Media elites are the children of privileged upbringings and social endowment. - Of the television elite: 66% believed that television should promote social reform. -Television elites are not in media “just for the money.” Sixty-six percent believed that television should promote their vision of social reform. They seek to move their audience toward their own vision of society.
“A certain type of person becomes a Washington, D.C. or New York reporter. (They’ve) never worked a minimum-wage job outside of high school, never experienced poverty, they’re not evangelical Christians.” -Jake Tapper, CNN Host
“To the extent that journalists do not grasp the religious dimensions of events, they are sometimes incapable of describing what is happening.” -Paul Marshall, author of Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion
“Back in the 1960s, liberals went after the English departments and conservatives went after the White House...by 1980, the conservatives had the White House and the liberals had the English departments. Now liberals have both the White House and the English departments. Politics is downstream from culture and storytelling is a key part of our culture.” -Warren Cole Smith, co-author of Prodigal Press
“I worked for the New York Times for 25 years. I could probably count on one hand, in the Washington bureau, people who would describe themselves as people of faith...” -Steve Roberts, Former New York Times reporter and now a journalism professor at George Washington University,
Further Reading on Media Bias The Lichter-Rothman Study On Media Attitudes The Media Elite: America’s New Power Broker by Robert Lichter Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News by Bernard Goldberg Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind by Dr. Tim Groseclose How to Identify, Expose and Correct Liberal Media Bias http://archive.mrc.org/books/identifybias.asp
“Is the New York Times Biased? Of course it is! The issues are gay rights, gun control, abortion and environmental regulation, etc. If you think [we are unbiased], you’ve been reading the paper with your eyes closed.” -Daniel Okrent, New York Times Public Editor
Landmark Study on Bias In The Media by UCLA Quarterly Journal of Economics http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/files/groseclose.pdf
“Where I work at ABC, people say ‘conservative’ the way people say ‘child molester.’” -John Stossel, ABC 20/20 co-anchor
Prodigal Press: Confronting the Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media by Marvin Olasky and Warren Cole Smith
Media Bias Basics http://archive.mrc.org/biasbasics/printer/ biasbasics3.asp#The Media Elite
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THE
Propaganda
BLITZKRIEG
The movie and TV industry is perhaps the most responsible for the massive secular shift and, more importantly, the rise in hatred of Christians. That probably sounds pretty conspiratorial and perhaps a bit “tin-foil hat,” but we would urge you to pay attention to how Christians are portrayed in the media. Hollywood used to portray Christians in a very positive light but we are now under a propaganda blitzkrieg from Hollywood that is very akin to what the Jews endured under pre-holocaust Germany. It is strategic, purposeful, and meant to isolate Christians and cause society to hate them. In our opinion, it is the single greatest cause of the rising hatred of Christians. Here’s just a smattering of anti-Christian films and characters. Start watching TV and film critically and you’ll be amazed at how Christians are portrayed and how hateful, intolerant, and bigoted Hollywood actually is. “A serious war is being waged against [Christians and] I’m certain that if we lose this war, the consequences for American civilization will be dire. Phase 1 of this war. . .is a propaganda blitzkrieg that is eerily reminiscent of how effectively the Goebbels propaganda machine softened up the German people for what was to come. There is no better term than ‘propaganda blitzkrieg’ to describe what has been unleashed against Christian conservatives recently.” - Daniel Lapin, an orthodox Jewish rabbi
Carrie (1976) Brian De Palma A horror film depicting the mother of a tormented high school student as a maniacal Christian who abuses her daughter and punishes her perceived “sins” (like having her first menstrual cycle) by locking her in a closet for days at a time.
Agnes of God (1985) Norman Jewison A drama about a young nun who fornicates, gets pregnant, and then,
after the baby’s birth, kills it and attempts to flush it down a toilet.
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) Brian Gibson Features a cadaverous, demonic, hymn-singing preacher, Henry Kane, who leads a psychotic band of Bible-beating spirits who want to drag a nice, suburban family down to Hell. The only person who can possibly save them from these awful “Christians” is a heroic Native American medicine man who uses his pagan religion to defeat and humiliate Kane and his “Christians.”
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The Handmaid’s Tale(1990) Volker Schlöndorff
Judas: “Where’s your pride?” Jesus: “I don’t have any. I disobey the Commandments.” Judas: “Who will pay for your sins?” Jesus: “With my life. I don’t have anything else. I don’t A romantic drama that simultaneknow. I’m struggling.” ously ridicules religion and promotes abortion. This propaganda film stars After he retreats into the desert, “Jesus” says: Robert Duvall, and describes the “I’m a liar, a hypocrite, I’m afraid of everything. I don’t horrors of a totalitarian fundamenever tell the truth; I don’t have the courage. I don’t steal talist regime called Gilead, where ferand kill, not because I don’t want to, but because I’m tile women are forced into “mandatory motherhood” afraid. My god is fear, look inside me and that’s all you’ll for the good of the State. find. Lucifer is inside me.”
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Frank Darabont The main villian is a Bible-quoting prison warden who pretends to be pious but is, in reality, an embezzler and a murderer.
Pulp Fiction (1994) Quentin Tarantino
Cape Fear (1991) Martin Scorsese A released convict sets out to take revenge on his former defense attorney. Scorsese turns this character into a demonic pentecostal Christian with a giant cross tattoo on his back and Bible verses tattooed on both arms. As he prepares to rape the attorney’s wife, he says, “Are you ready to be born again? After just one hour with me, you’ll be talking in tongues.”
Samuel Jackson’s character, Jules, announces that he recites Scripture each time he kills someone.
V for Vendetta (2005) James McTeigue
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Martin Scorsese
This film makes no qualms about its hatred for Christianity. Not suprising, since it is based on a graphic novel made by a Satanist. MovieGuide actually subtitled its review of the film, “P for Propaganda.”
Jesus is portrayed as a sado-masochist, a voyeur, and a bigamist. A conversation with Judas (the hero of the film) goes as follows:
Future Britain is controlled by a fascist dictator, Chancellor Sutler, portrayed as a conservative Christian who takes a special interest in persecuting homosexuals and Muslims. The scenario is laughable considering that in reality, Muslim-controlled states actually persecute homosexuals and Christians, and ban the Bible.
Synopses of movies found on: https://www.ewtn.com/library/PROLENC/ENCYC125.HTM You can help today! 800-ICC-5441
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Ironically, the film suggests that Sutler manipulates and controls society via a massive propaganda campaign. The chancellor makes use of a vast television network to constantly deliver speeches that combine his own political agenda with warnings of God’s impending judgment.
The Golden Compass (2007) Chris Weitz Extremely hateful, thinly veiled messaging on Christianity based on a series of books from a radical atheist that concludes with children killing God. The Church (the Mysterium) is portrayed as a corrupt tyrannical organization and God is portrayed as a senile fake.
multiple times that he is a false prophet and that God is a superstition. The dialogue continues to deteriorate until Plainview finally murders Sunday with intense hatred and brutality. A New York Times’ critic opined: “The film is above all a consummate work of art, one that transcends the historically fraught context of its making, and its pleasures are unapologetically aesthetic.”
“CHRISTIANS ARE THE ONLY GROUP HOLLYWOOD CAN OFFEND WITH IMPUNITY, AND THE ONLY CREED IT GOES OUT OF ITS WAY TO INSULT. CLERICS ARE ROUTINELY REPRESENTED AS HYPOCRITES, HUCKSTERS, SADISTS, AND LECHERS. THE TENETS OF CHRISTIANITY ARE REGULARLY HELD UP TO RIDICULE.” DON FEDER, JEWISH COLUMNIST
There Will Be Blood (2007) Paul Thomas Anderson
3:10 to Yuma (2007) James Mangold In this more recent film, Russell Crowe’s character is a thief and a killer who quotes Scripture.
Religulous (2008) Starring Bill Maher
Comedian Bill Maher, in his documentary, promotes the growing assertion that religion is destructive to society and must be quarantined. His incredibly disturbing prescription for society’s ills comes straight from Marx and Lenin yet is delivered with a straight face and an air of pseudo intellectualism:
The story revolves around two parallel characters: an oil tycoon and a Christian evangelist who are both deeply flawed and controlled by greed and a need to dominate. Eli Sunday, a pastor, uses his position and power to humiliate the oil tycoon, Daniel Plainview. When Plainview agrees to receive Christ, Sunday begins “Religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting to publicly humiliate him by repeatedly slapping him in late to (have) key decisions made by religious people, by irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state the face. not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the enThe movie concludes with a climactic parallel scene trails of a chicken.…Those who preach faith, enable and where Sunday offers Plainview oil rights to his land. elevate it, are intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind Plainview agrees on the condition that Sunday declare in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned so much lunacy and destruction.…
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“If the world does come to an end here, or wherever, or if it limps into the future, decimated by the effects of religioninspired nuclear terrorism, let’s remember what the real problem was. We learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it. That’s it. Grow up or die.” The irony is that he makes Christians out to be the potential deliverers of mass death while he promotes tyrannical Marxist/Leninist social prescriptions (remove the rights of religious people), forgetting that Communism and its followers were responsible for the death of over 120+ million souls in the twentieth century.
Cold Case “That Woman” (2007) Carrie, a murder victim, had a reputation for promiscuity. We learn that Carrie had been invited into a group of four Christian students who had committed to sexual purity and met regularly to encourage one another. Unfortunately, the Christians sleep around and reveal their hidden sins to Carrie. They then start to resent Carrie for what she has learned about them and they lure her into the woods to stone her to death.
Close to Home “Divine Directions” (2005) In 2005, CBS aired an episode of Close to Home entitled, “Divine Directions,” in which a prosecutor interrogates a Christian woman, Cindy, who is covered in blood and manically reciting Scripture. Cindy claims that God not only told her to kill her husband, but that He also guided her hand as she stabbed him to death.
“PEOPLE IN HOLLYWOOD SAY WE DON’T HAVE AN AGENDA; OUR ONLY AGENDA IS MAKING MONEY. WE JUST GIVE THE PUBLIC WHAT IT WANTS. NONSENSE! ANYTIME YOU SEE SOMEONE PRAYING, INVOKING THE NAME OF GOD OR CHRIST, WATCH OUT. . . THEY’RE A BAD GUY.“ MICHAEL MEDVED
Law and Order “Angelgrove” (2008) A woman is found stoned to death. Those involved assume that Muslims were behind the stoning but soon find out that it was actually done by a secret camp of Christians who are indoctrinating children to kill in the name of God. A Christian pastor who is an accomplice, is acquitted because the “racist” jury tragically sides with these hostile Christians after consulting the Bible during their deliberations.
MPAA: Christian-Themed Movies. . .Be Wary Did you know that two Christian films were both rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America due to their Christian content? PG ratings are given for violence, profane language, sexual content, or other things parents find objectionable. The ratings committee said the Christian messages might offend some and that “pre-teenage children should not be exposed to Christianity without their parent’s consent.”
Billy Graham’s “The Prodigal” (1983) and “Facing the Giants” (2006)
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THE RULES OF PROPAGANDA BY JEFF KING
THE NAZIS’ ANTI-SEMITIC PROPAGANDA POSTERS Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Hitler established a propaganda ministry headed by Joseph Goebbels. The aim was to ensure that the Nazis’ messages were filtered to the masses via art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials, and the press. There were several audiences for Nazi propaganda. Germans were reminded of the struggle against foreign enemies and Jewish subversion. Preceding key legislation against Jews and propaganda campaigns created a public atmosphere tolerant of violence against Jews. Propaganda also encouraged passivity and acceptance of the impending measures against Jews, as these appeared to depict the Nazi government as stepping in and “restoring order.” SOURCE: U.S. Holocaust Museum, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005202
Propaganda works around a couple simple rules. It worked wonderfully for the Nazis who were able to move their whole Christian culture towards a hatred of the Jews and a desire to destroy them since they were responsible for all the ills of society. Remember these rules and watch how they are applied today using Christian characters in TV, film, the press and books.
HITLER’S PROPAGANDA RULES 1. Dehumanize your subject. 2. Make them responsible for numerous social problems. 3. Instill the thought that the world would be a better place without them. 4. Visually portray them as ugly, demonic, angry, etc. 5. Portray them as corrupt in character (hateful, racist, bigots, ignorant, backward, etc.). 6. Use repeatedly!!!!!!
Nazi Propaganda Poster 1
Nazi Propaganda Poster 2
“Jews: the scourge of mankind”
“The Jew: inciter and prolonger of war”
CHRISTIANS EQUATED WITH 9/11 TERRORISTS “9/11 awakened the world to the dangers of religious extremism. But most American Christians still find it difficult to believe Christians are capable of such extremism. The Christian Right is not a terrorist group, of course, but we believe it poses a real and present danger to the kind of free and just society that has come to be America. “ Jan Lin, author of “What’s Wrong With The Religious Right”
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Nazi Propaganda Poster 3
Nazi Propaganda Poster 4
Nazi Propaganda Poster 5
“If (the Jews) should succeed in plunging Germany into a world war, the result will be . . .the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe.”
“Behind the enemy powers: THE JEW”
A poster designed to dehumanize Jews. Notice how they are largely unattractive, and posed in distorted, and humiliating positions.
Message: Jews are to blame for the coming world war. This sets up the populace to hate the Jews and be ready to dole out retribution for their perceived evil.
Message: The Jews secretly control the nations and are leading the nations to war to profit off of it.
Message: Jews are different, less human, less pure, and not as good as “the German people.”
ANTI-CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDA BASICS Christians are portrayed as: Mean Hateful Bigoted/Racists Hatemongers Warmongers Hypocrites Greedy Backward
PRINCIPLES OF PROPAGANDA USED BY LENIN 1. The ends justify the means. 2. Control the conversation: Lenin swiftly altered the meanings of words, intellectually disarming opponents. Although his faction won an election by one vote, he then started calling his party “The Bolsheviks” (meaning the majority). 3. Never let a crisis go to waste. 4. Demonization of opponents. 5. Propaganda by example: Public hangings and shootings were used to force Russians into submission. “These swine have to be dealt with so that everyone will remember it for years,” Lenin wrote. 6. Blame your predecessor: Even though Bolshevism was a consummate failure, all failures were blamed on the Czar and Capitalism. You can help today! 800-ICC-5441
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FURTHER STUDY DECLINE OF THE CHURCH: unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons Why Christians Need To Fight for Religious Freedom www.erlc.com/article/event The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America by Gabe Lyons The Rise of the Global South: The Decline of Western Christendom and the Rise of Majority World Christianity by Elijah Kim
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: Is Religious Freedom Necessary for Other Freedoms to Flourish? http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/rfp/ essays/is-religious-freedom-necessary-forother-freedoms-to-flourish On college campuses, zoning out free speech by Charles Haynes Religious Freedom Lesson Plans by The First Amendment Center http://1forall.us/teach-the-first-amendment/ World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty Is Vital to American National Security by Thomas F. Farr
MEDIA BIAS: The Lichter-Rothman Study On Media Attitudes http://www.ewtn.com/library/PROLENC/ ENCYC124.HTM The Media Elite: America’s New Power Broker by Robert Lichter Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News by Bernard Goldberg Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind by Dr. Tim Groseclose How to Identify, Expose and Correct Liberal Media Bias http://archive.mrc.org/books/identifybias. asp Landmark Study on Bias In The Media by UCLA Quarterly Journal of Economics http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/ files/groseclose.pdf
HOLLYWOOD’S ANTI-CHRISTIAN AGENDA: The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian The Criminalization of Christianity by Janet Folger Hollywood vs. America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values by Michael Medved The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today by Alan Sears
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O R D E R Y O U R C O P Y T O D AY !
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YD AW
YOUR DOLLARS AT WORK GRADUATION DAY AT OUR SEWING CENTERS IN PAKISTAN Save Our Sisters
Our graduates holding certificates of course completion.
To protect Christian girls in Pakistan from becoming victims of violence, ICC has opened much-needed Vocational Training Centers that teach Christian girls vocational skills which will allow them to work from home. Currently, ICC has opened four Vocational Training Centers, three of which teach sewing and one that teaches beautician skills. This past December, 23 Christian girls completed the nine-month Save Our Sisters Beauty Salon Training Course and a one-month “Women Business Development Course� offered at the centers. This is the second group of girls to graduate.
A graduate posing with her graduation packet.
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The graduation ceremony began with worship and a message, then a dramatic skit by some of the girls which told their story of suffering and salvation. The girls were each given a graduation certificate and graduation package that contained the necessary supplies for them to open their own shop. Your gifts to this fund have truly given these girls a second chance at life.
PROVIDING WARMTH FOR THE BODY OF CHRIST Community Rebuild
ICC reps delivering blankets during Syria’s winter.
One family receiving a heater.
When we put out a call to support Syrian Christians who had fled the internal violence, ICC’s supporters responded in an incredible way. Among many other projects, your gifts enabled us to provide food to a vulnerable group of Christian refugees in southeastern Turkey. Working with local partners and churches, we provided food for more than 400 Christians. Because gifts continued to pour in, we were able to expand the project and provide a winter package of hundreds of blankets and heaters for these families. As snow was falling and record cold temperatures were moving into the region, ICC’s partners were there distributing these packages. We are so grateful to see the body of Christ respond to care for their brothers and sisters in times of need.
ASSISTANCE TO A SISTER IN NEED Save Our Sisters Anna (name changed for privacy), 19, a young, physically disabled Christian, was kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert to Islam by a Muslim in Pakistan. After her escape, ICC connected her to a counselor, as well as provided food and funding for a small business.
L-R: ICC rep, Anna’s family, and Anna, who received assistance from ICC’s Save Our Sisters fund.
Anna is reportedly doing great. Business is going so well that she is currently training three young women. This is an example of how your funds continue to bless the greater community of believers. You can help today! 800-ICC-5441
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YOU CAN HELP TODAY! SEND DONATIONS TO: ICC PO BOX 8056 SILVER SPRING, MD 20907 OR ONLINE AT WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG OR BY PHONE 800-ICC-5441
GIVING TO ICC VIA YOUR WILL Provide now for a future gift to ICC by including a bequest provision in your will or revocable trust. If you would like more information on giving to ICC in this way, please give us a call at 1-800-ICC-5441.
ICC makes every effort to honor donor wishes in regards to their gifts. Occasionally, a situation will arise where a project is no longer viable. In that case, ICC will redirect those donated project funds to one of our other funds that is most similar to the donor’s original wishes.
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