Thursday, March 29, 2012

Governor John Kasich: Signing Executive Order on Creation of the Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force


Ohio
2,879 domestic Ohio youth are at-risk for sex trafficking because of their vulnerable status as runaways or homelessness. Another 1,078 youth have already been trafficked into the sex trade.
Toledo is currently the 4th worst city for trafficking in the United States.


Governor Kasich signs and discusses an Executive Order to establish the Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force to combat human trafficking. Governor’s Courage Award Winner and human trafficking survivor, Theresa Flores, introduces a public service announcement to enhance awareness of human trafficking in Ohio.                  

Two Christians Prosecuted for Reading the Bible in Public

Advocates for Faith and Freedom Press Release March 29, 2012    
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Two Christians Prosecuted for Reading the Bible in Public

Murrieta, CA.  Yesterday, a trial court in Riverside County, California, heard arguments why the prosecution's case should be dismissed in the case of People v. Brett Coronado.  Advocates for Faith & Freedom are defending Pastor Brett Coronado and Mark Mackey on misdemeanor charges after they were arrested in front of a California DMV while Mr. Mackey was reading the Bible out loud. The incident took place on February 2, 2011, in front of a group waiting for the DMV to open for business.  

This case has generated national news, such as the story that ran on Fox News Channel today.  View the Fox News video and article here. Additionally, a YouTube video of the incident and arrest can be viewed here. Both men have been spit on and threatened at other locations in the past when engaging in similar activities.  As a result, it is their practice to video their evangelism to protect them from false accusations - just as appears to be occurring in this case.

Initially, when Mr. Mackey was arrested, the CHP officer stated that it was illegal to "preach to a captive audience." After the defendants were placed in jail and upon learning that no such penal code prohibits preaching to a "captive audience,"  the officer issued a citation for "impeding an open business" with threats or intimidation under Penal Code Section 602.1(b). However, the district attorney again changed the charges claiming trespass after the government realized the business was not actually open and, presumably, saw the video showing no threats or intimidation.

Unfortunately, the trial judge declined to dismiss the case.  Advocates vows to appeal the decision because the trespass law the CHP is currently relying on is  unconstitutional.  In fact, other federal courts that have reviewed the same statutory language used in the California Penal Code have been declared unconstitutional. A copy of our brief can be found [here].

“This is an abuse of power on the part of the CHP,” said Robert Tyler, Associate General Counsel for Advocates for Faith & Freedom.  “The arresting officer could find no appropriate penal/ code to use when arresting these men.  The purpose of the arrests appears to have been to censor them.”

Advocates for Faith & Freedom has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of these three men for violation of their right to free speech and for unlawful arrest, but that case has been stayed pending the resolution of the state court prosecution.  A copy of our federal complaint can be found [here]. Also, join us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up-to-date on our progress in this case and others.

Contact:  Lori Sanada  (951) 304-7583 weekdays,
(951) 500-7854 weekends and evenings
   

Woman Rushed to Hospital due to a Botched Abortion in Cincinnati suburb


A woman was rushed to a local hospital in the Cincinnati suburb of Sharonville, Ohio after appearing to have suffered from a botched abortion at the facility run by the abortion practitioner credited with promoting partial-birth abortions.
Dr. Steven Brinn, a pediatrician whose offices are next door to the Women’s Med Center abortion facility, commented on the incident.
“Today, March 28, paramedics with ambulance and police were called to Haskell’s Abortion Clinic in Sharonville and this was witnessed by many,” Brinn said. “”A young woman was seen being carried out on a stretcher by paramedics who were bagging the woman (giving life support). It is assumed that the woman suffered some kind of complication in the clinic while she was there for treatment. Police were also at the scene and closed down the clinic for a time.”
“Some of us in the SHD [Sharonville Health Department] and in the Medical community have worried about the care being unsafe at the Haskell Abortion Clinic and have heard of many other examples of 911 calls and ambulance calls,” Brinn added.
Paula Westwood, Executive Director of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati, commented on the potential failed abortion.
“The Women’s Medical Center is one of several abortion facilities owned by abortionist Martin Haskell, who has championed the gruesome late-term partial birth abortion procedure,” she said. “The WMC remains open despite the fact that Haskell could not comply with a regulation requiring an Ambulatory Surgical Facility (ASF) to have a transfer agreement with an area hospital to handle complications from his procedures.”

READ MORE 

RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES AT RISK




RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES AT RISK
by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
The federal government’s intrusion into faith and conscience continues to be the most significant threat to our religious liberties. Christians need to be aware of the pending threats and what they can do to help turn back the tide.
Jesus taught us, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21b). This controversy over religious liberty will decide whether Caesar will have the power to trample conscience, religious liberty, and the things of God, or whether the constitutional restraints of the Founding Fathers will be respected and observed.

Religious liberty is under threat because of the federal government mandate in the new health care law.
Unfortunately, under the new health care reform law, the Obama Administration is mandating religious employers -- such as Christian schools, hospitals, soup kitchens, and other ministries -- to pay for insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, like the morning-after pill and the week-after drug (ella).
This anti-conscience Federal mandate would even force crisis pregnancy centers’ health care plans to cover such abortion drugs. This tramples upon the constitutionally guaranteed free exercise of religion.
This controversy is about whether the government can force Americans to violate their religious beliefs, and it represents one of the single greatest intrusions on religious liberty in American history.

The religious exemption under the Administration’s mandate is the narrowest ever, covering only houses of worship. The Administration has decided that only groups which employ and serve people of their own faith should be exempt. According to this logic, most religious based institutions -- including disaster relief agencies and faith-based non-profits ministering to anyone in need --do not qualify as religious.
Under this line of thinking, not even the ministry of Jesus and his disciples would be considered religious enough to qualify!

Washington D.C. dictates what insurers must offer, employers must cover, and individuals must buy. There is no way out.


With this Federal government mandate, religious groups that serve the poor, elderly, sick, orphaned,
and unborn will be forced to violate their conscience or face heavy fines from the government.
Of course, some Christian groups will not be able to pay these fines… and could be forced to close.
Christian business owners and individuals are alarmed because the mandate also applies to their insurance plans. Under this health care reform law, the government in Washington D.C. dictates what insurers must offer, employers must cover, and individuals must buy. There is no way out. Our religious liberty is an early casualty of the Federal government’s take over of our health care system.

Americans need and want better health care reform that respects religious liberty. All employers and individuals should be free to provide and purchase health plans consistent with their religious and moral beliefs and not be forced by the government to pay for plans that violate their conscience. All Americans should continue to enjoy the religious liberty guaranteed in the Constitution, which we have had throughout our history and stand to lose under this government enforced mandate.

Yet America’s Founding Fathers viewed religious freedom as our “first freedom.” That’s why they placed it at the top of the list of the Bill of Rights. It is now the responsibility of people of faith to defend this precious right we have taken for granted for over 200 years, or run the risk of having it lost for future generations.


Traditional Values Coalition is an inter-denominational public policy organization speaking on behalf of 43,000 churches.
For more information, call (202) 547-8570 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (202) 547-8570      end_of_the_skype_highlighting. TVC 139 C Street, SE., Washington, DC 20003. www.traditionalvalues.org



OHIO Passes “The Founding of America Documents Bill” S.B. 165



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                     March 28, 2012
Founding of America Documents Bill Passes Ohio House and Senate in a Concurrence Vote and is Sent to Governor Kasich for His Signature
The Ohio Christian Alliance celebrates the passage of S.B. 165 in the Ohio House and Ohio Senate today. This legislation entitled “The Founding of America Documents Bill” will strengthen the language currently in the Ohio Revised Code pertaining to the American History and Government curriculum to include The Declaration of Independence, The Northwest Ordinance, The Constitution of the United States with emphasis on The Bill of Rights, The Ohio Constitution, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers.
OCA President Chris Long stated, “This legislation is overdue. It was that great founding patriot, John Adams, who warned his generation that, ‘A Constitution of Government once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.’"
“It was Thomas Jefferson who stated, ‘If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.’ This legislation will highlight those documents of freedom and enumerated rights so that the next generation can carry the torch of liberty that these documents represent. OCA commends Former State Senator Tim Grendell, State Senator Larry Obhof, and State Representative John Adams for sponsoring this important legislation.”
The American History and Government standards in Ohio schools will be strengthened with S.B. 165, The Founding of America Documents Bill. In recent years, the classroom has crowded out the instruction of these documents in civics courses and social studies. This legislation will properly emphasize the instruction of our founding documents. Ohio's school children will benefit from the classroom time dedicated to the instruction of these documents. It is our hope that future Ohioans will be better educated members of this Republic as a result.
For more information contact Chris Long 330-887-1922


http://ohioca.org/



  Ohio Christian Alliance is a non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting Judeo-Christian values in American government. Ohio Christian Alliance does not endorse any particular candidate or political party. OCA provides educational materials, including voter guides and scorecards.s.s.

‘In God We Trust’ Banners Removed From Classroom After Supreme Court Declines His Case!

With President Barack Obama’s health care legislation dominating judicial chatter, an important free speech case went relatively unnoticed earlier this week.

Last year, California school teacher Bradley Johnson vowed to take his battle over patriotic and religious banners to the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately for Johnson, the nation’s most power justices declined to hear his case (Johnson vs. Poway Unified School District), solidifying a lower court ruling against the presence of the banners he had placed in his classrooms for decades.


Supreme Court Upholds Ruling: Teacher Must Remove In God We Trust From Classroom Banners


READ MORE 

500-700,000 Sudan Christians Have Been Told to Leave by April 8 or They’ll be Treated as Foreigners

The Sudanese regime is on its way to becoming the next Iran, regardless of whether President Omar Bashir remains in power or not. The country is moving towards becoming a full-blown Sharia state, comparable to Iran, Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban. Towards that end, 500-700,000 Christians have been told to pack up and leave by April 8 or they’ll be treated as foreigners.
 
The Bashir regime has always been an enemy of the U.S. and those who value human rights but it is now doing everything it can to please its Islamist opposition. The regime knew it would raise the ire of the Islamists when it allowed the mostly-Christian region of South Sudan to become an independent country. In the hopes of staving off a rebellion, Bashir promised to remodel his country based on Sharia Law with Arabic as the only official language. He also promised not to seek another term in 2015.
 
Bashir’s most powerful opponent is a cleric named Hasan al-Turabi, the leader of the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is hard to overstate his impact on the growth of Islamic extremism and terrorism. He has been called "Sudan's Osama" and "The Pope of Terrorism." After helping Bashir come to power, Turabi used his base in Sudan to build close relationships with every virtually single Islamic terrorist group and government. He worked hard to bring together secularists like Saddam Hussein, Sunni radicals like Osama Bin Laden and Shiite radicals like Iran and Hezbollah into a common anti-Western front. Turabi became close with Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, though he today criticizes some of their tactics as being “counterproductive.”
 
After South Sudan seceded, the Islamists demanded that Bashir made good on his word. They formed the Islamic Constitution Front and drafted a Sharia-based constitution. The imam of Khartoum’s Grand Mosque endorsed it and said Bashir must “either rule by Islam or go.” Other members of the group explicitly said they’d revolt if their wishes aren’t granted.
 
Bashir declared that that any person whose great-grandparents were born in the south or is part of a southern ethnic group will no longer be considered a citizen after April 8. That means that the country’s 500-700,000 Christians must get out now or have their rights reduced to that of a foreigner. This is nowhere in the news. Imagine if Israel had issued such an order to 100 Palestinians.
 
The Sudanese Christians are facing increasing persecution. In February, eight bombs were dropped on a Christian college built by Franklin Graham’s charity. Humanitarian aid is being blocked to those in the Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile Provinces, forcing the U.S. to consider an operation to rescue about 500,000 people from imminent famine. Any presence of foreign troops in this area would probably trigger a call to jihad by Islamist clerics and possibly the Bashir regime.

Pastor Calls Church to Repent at Rally For Religious Freedom


FORT LAUDERDALE, March 29, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Speaking at the Rally For Religious Freedom last Friday, pro-life advocate Rev. Jim McGarvey of Church for Life, told the crowd, "...two Biblical mandates...should guide our prayers and response" to the Obama administration's recent Health and Human Services mandate.

"First, the Church must begin by repenting of its own sin." In Peter's words, "It is time for judgment to begin with God's household."

According to a recent report from the National Association of Evangelicals, "Eighty percent of unmarried evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 29 have had sex. That's 4 out of 5...' ("Insight", Spring 2012)

He called the Church to repent of its complicity with abortion. "One study found that 43% of women having abortions identify themselves as Protestant and 27% as Roman Catholic. (AGI 'In Brief' 2008) That's 70% of all abortions."

"The healing of our land depends more on the Church repenting, than anything anyone else can do," he said. "I almost hesitate to cite 2 Chronicles 7:13,14 because it is so often quoted...it could very well be the most under-practiced quoted Scripture in the Bible."

"No mention of the sins of politicians, judges or others in authority," he said, "No, it's, 'if my people' -- that's us. That's where we must begin. Our repentant prayer will unlock the outpouring of God's healing upon our land."

Secondly, based on Paul's words (1 Timothy 2:1-6), "we must involve ourselves in intercession for President Obama and those who govern us." He continued, "Have you ever wondered why the command to pray for those in authority is followed by a clear declaration of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God...Could it be that God wants to change the heart of those who serve Him in government and bring revival to our land -- in response to our humility, repentance, and obedience in prayer?"

"I ask you, to join me in taking a stand for religious freedom. But may it be from a posture of bowing in humility and repentance before God, first of all me, for my sin and you for yours, the sin of the Church and then the sin of our nation."

You can read the full text of Pastor McGarvey's message at www.churchforlife.blogspot.com Church for Life: Serving the Church in its response to America's abortion crisis.


Christian Newswire