Atheist Still Trying to Get “Under God” Out of Pledge Of Allegiance

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

At least 40 members of Congress and more than 80,000 Americans are urging a federal appeals court to uphold the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance, including the phrase "under God," according to a constitutional law group.

The American Center for Law and Justice, or ACLJ, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit today. According to the group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is appealing a lower-court decision that the pledge shouldn't be removed from New Hampshire schools because it embraces patriotism, not religion.

"There is absolutely no legal reason to strike the words 'under God' from the pledge and reject this time-honored tradition," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, which filed an amicus brief in the initial case in federal district court. "Once again this is nothing more than another futile attempt to rewrite history – a legal challenge that has no merit and should be rejected by the appeals court."

The ACLJ filed the amicus brief on behalf of 42 members of Congress: Sens. Sam Brownback and James Inhofe and 40 members of the U.S. House of Representatives: Reps. Robert Aderholt, Todd Akin, Rodney Alexander, Gresham Barrett, Roscoe Bartlett, Rob Bishop, Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, Ken Calvert, Tom Cole, John Abney Culberson, Mario Diaz-Balart, Jeff Flake, Randy Forbes, Trent Franks, Scott Garrett, Phil Gingrey, Jeb Hensarling, Wally Herger, Peter Hoekstra, Walter Jones, Steve King, Jack Kingston, John Kline, Frank Lucas, John McHugh, Donald Manzullo, Jim Marshall, Gary Miller, Jeff Miller, Sue Wilkins Myrick, Mike Pence, Joseph Pitts, Pete Sessions, John Shadegg, John Shimkus, Mark Souder, John Sullivan, Lee Terry and Joe Wilson.

More than 80,000 Americans have signed on to the ACLJ's Committee to Protect "Under God" – including parents of children who attend public schools and wish to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in its entirety.

click to read full article from World Net Daily

Yemen: Child Bride Dies of Internal Bleeding 3 Days After Marriage

click to read original article from CNN

(CNN) -- A 12-year-old Yemeni bride died of internal bleeding following intercourse three days after she was married off to an older man, the United Nations Children's Fund said.

The girl was married to a man at least twice her age, said Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Her death is "a painful reminder of the risks girls face when they are married too soon," Kaag said Thursday.

Amal Basha, chairwoman of the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights, a Yemeni human rights group, identified the girl Friday as Elham Mahdi.

"Elham was married on March 29th and died three days later" and lived in Yemen's Hajjah province, Basha said.

The death is the latest in a series of child marriage cases in Yemen, where the minimum age to tie the knot is still under debate.

In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni girl forced into marriage died during childbirth. Her baby also died, according to the Seyaj Organization for the Protection of Children.

Fawziya Ammodi was in labor for three days before she died of severe bleeding, said Ahmed al-Qureshi, president of the organization.

"Although the cause of her death was lack of medical care, the real case was the lack of education in Yemen and the fact that child marriages keep happening," al-Qureshi said.

Child brides are common in Yemen, where the United Nations estimates that one in three girls are married before age 18. Most are married off to older men with more than one wife, according to a study by Sanaa University.

For the girl's parents, marriage means the daughters are no longer a financial or moral burden. Most times, parents get a promise from the husband to wait until the girl is older to consummate the marriage.

"Early marriage places girls at increased risk of dropping out of school, being exposed to violence, abuse and exploitation, and even losing their lives from pregnancy, childbirth and other complications," UNICEF said.

The issue of Yemeni child brides made headlines in 2008 when 10-year-old Nujood Ali was pulled out of school and married. Her husband beat and raped her within weeks of the ceremony.

To escape, Nujood hailed a taxi -- the first time in her life -- to get to the central courthouse where she sat on a bench and demanded to see a judge.

After a well-publicized trial, she was granted a divorce.

Russia to put Freeze on Adoptions After U.S woman Returns Adopted Son

Click To Read Full Article From Fox News

MOSCOW  -- A top Russian official demanded that all child adoptions by U.S. families be frozen Friday after a woman from Tennessee shipped her 7-year-old adopted Russian grandson on a one-way flight back to Moscow all alone.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother, Nancy Hansen of Shelbyville, "the last straw" in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children had died in the United States. The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign adoption failures are reported with gusto.

The Russian education ministry immediately suspended the license of the group involved in the adoption -- the World Association for Children and Parents, a Renton, Washington-based agency -- for the duration of an investigation. In Tennessee, authorities were investigating the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen.

Any possible freeze could affect hundreds of American families. Last year, nearly 1,600 Russian children were adopted in the United States.

The boy, Artyom Savelyev, arrived unaccompanied in Moscow on a United Airlines flight on Thursday from Washington. Social workers sent him to a Moscow hospital on Friday for a health checkup and criticized his adoptive mother for abandoning him.

The Kremlin children's rights office said the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother saying she was returning him due to severe psychological problems.

"This child is mentally unstable. He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues," the letter said. "I was lied to and misled by the Russian Orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability and other issues. ...

"After giving my best to this child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends, and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child."

The boy was adopted last September from the town of Partizansk in Russia's Far East.

Nancy Hansen, the grandmother, told The Associated Press that she and the boy flew to Washington and she put the child on the plane with the note from her daughter. She vehemently rejected assertions of child abandonment by Russian authorities, saying he was watched over by a United Airlines stewardess and the family paid a man $200 to pick the boy up at the Moscow airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry.

Speaking from the home in Shelbyville that she shares with her daughter, Nancy Hansen said a social worker checked on the boy in January and reported to Russian authorities that there were no problems. But after that, the grandmother said incidents of hitting, kicking, spitting began to escalate, along with threats.

"He drew a picture of our house burning down and he'll tell anybody that he's going to burn our house down with us in it," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible."

Nancy Hansen said she and her daughter, a single mother, went to Russia together to adopt the boy, and she believes information about his behavioral problems was withheld from her daughter.

"The Russian orphanage officials completed lied to her because they wanted to get rid of him," Nancy Hansen said.

She also said the boy was very skinny when they picked him up, and he told them he had been beaten with a broom handle at the orphanage.

Russian state television on Friday showed the child in a yellow jacket holding the hands of two chaperones as he left a police precinct and entered a van bound for a Moscow medical clinic.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, said he was "deeply shocked by the news" and "very angry that any family would act so callously toward a child that they had legally adopted."

Anna Orlova, a spokeswoman for Kremlin's Children Rights Commissioner, told The Associated Press that she visited the boy on Friday and he told her that his mother was "bad," "did not love him," and used to pull his hair.

Russian officials said he turned up at the door of the Russian Education and Science Ministry on Thursday afternoon accompanied by a Russian man who handed over the boy and his documents, then left, officials said. The child holds a Russian passport with a U.S. visa that expired April 4, Russian officials said.

Rob Johnson, a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, said the agency is looking into Friday's allegations, although it does not handle international adoptions.

Bedford County Sheriff Randall Boyce also said Torry Hansen is under investigation although no charges have been filed. Officers were expected to interview her Friday afternoon.

Lavrov said his ministry would recommend that the U.S. and Russia hammer out an agreement before any new adoptions are allowed.

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JMC Ministries Response

So if you don’t like the child you adopted then you just put a “Return To Sender” sign on them and put them on a plane back to their home countries? 

Unbelievable!

When you adopt a child or even have a child of your own, you don’t know what kind of personality, health problems etc this child is going to have or even if they may have mental problems. This is the risk you take bringing a child into this world. We are human and humans are not perfect! If this woman wants a perfect child she will never find one.

Obviously if this child has mental problems as this woman is saying the little boy has. Putting him on a plane back to Russia by himself and abandoning him definitely is not going to help matters.

Now Russia is trying to put a stop on all adoptions outside of the country because of this one woman's choice. And thousands of little boys and girls will continue to live in orphanages and foster homes because of this one woman who didn’t want this little boy because she claims he has mental problems.

What if Jesus would do that to us? What if he would look at us and say, well you are too messed up to be in my family and you won’t be living with me in heaven. I’m sending you back where you came from.

How horrible would that be? But Jesus didn’t say that he said, “come just as you are” He died on the cross for the remission of our sins because we cannot be perfect enough for God in our own power with out the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

Only through the blood of Jesus and you asking him for forgiveness of your sins and allowing him to come into your heart that we are made perfect in his sight.

Maybe this woman needs to remember that Jesus didn’t throw us away because we weren’t perfect and loved us anyway and never left us or abandoned us.

 

School Bullying Enticing children To Commit Suicide

Written By: Miranda Caverley

As many know The recent Suicide of Phoebe Prince From Massachusetts has been one of the main stories being covered by newspapers, and News TV all over the country. It is an on going story because of the arrest that have been made by some of the students accused of bullying Phoebe, and even raping her.

Today girls from Phoebe’s School have been  charged with civil rights violations resulting in bodily injury, criminal harassment and disturbing a school assembly. Two also are charged with stalking, and the other is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.  They pleaded NOT Guilty.

But still there are more students who will be facing a judge and many more charges even Statutory Rape.

This young beautiful girl Phoebe Prince not too long ago had moved to the U.S from Ireland and this is the kind of welcome she received from her fellow class mates!

People in the school even some teachers knew that Phoebe was being bullied and harassed but no one helped her. And she became so desperate to escape this abuse that she took her own life by hanging herself in her parents home.

Phoebe’s story is just one of many that we have heard about through the years of children as young as 6 or 7 hanging themselves and committing suicide due to bullying.

When are parents, schools and communities going to stand up and say this has got to stop? When are we going to put discipline and morale values back in to the homes and teach children how to respect one another?  How Many more Children have to commit suicide because they can’t stand the bullying and the abuse any longer and feel this is their only way to escape it before YOU Say NO MORE?!!

When children are sent to school Monday-Friday They are not being sent always to a safe happy place where they will get an education. Most of the time children are being sent into a WAR ZONE where violence, bullying, harassment, even death threats are happening. And then we wonder why the U.S is so far behind other countries with our education. How can we expect Children who are living in a war zone when they go to school and sometimes even when they go home to get straight A’s all the time and be able to concentrate in class when they are worrying what might happen to them when that bell rings?

We have to start listening to the children and notice their behaviors. Notice the changes in them and see the warning signs that something is wrong. There are always warning signs it’s just that you have to pay attention.

Schools have got to stop looking at their students as just another number in their books and start realizing these are human beings and they have a responsibility while in their care to protect them from harm.

Please pray for the Children who are suffering from bullying and abuse and reach out to those you may see are being bullied or abused. Help Stop this Cancer of Abuse that is spreading like wild fire. With every child that is murdered or commits suicide we are losing part of a generation help Stop it NOW.

UK: Govt Tells Nurse She Can’t Wear Cross Necklace

Click to read original article from World Net Daily

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Shirley Chaplin (Christian Legal Centre photo)

A government tribunal in the United Kingdom has ruled that the National Health Service has a right to ban its nurse employees from wearing Christian crosses as a symbol of their faith.

The ruling was reported yesterday by the Christian Legal Centre, which announced Exeter nurse Shirley Chaplin has promised to continue the fight over her necklace.

"The decision shows a worrying lack of common sense," center director Andrea Williams said. "No evidence supported the Trust's 'health and safety' position, yet the tribunal considered removing Mrs. Chaplin's cross as a proportionate response to a 'health and safety' risk that was never established."

WND has reported on similar cases, most notably of Nadia Eweida, 58, from southwest London, who took on British Airways over its banishment of her small cross necklace.

The center's report said a government employment tribunal ruled Chaplin, who is banned from working on hospital wards with her necklace, did not suffer discrimination because all staff members were treated equally – none was allowed to wear a cross. Staffers were, however, allowed to wear the Muslim hijab, the report said.

Chaplin's conflict arose with the Royal Devon and Exeter National Health Service Trust, which said its uniform could be modified only by "mandatory" religious symbols.

The center report also said Chaplin had found a second worker concerned about wearing a Christian cross, since in the Eweida case the government said the dispute would have to involve more than one person.

But the tribunal then changed its definition and concluded that a "group" – or more than two people – must be involved in the problem.

"This appears to be another case in which the courts are reluctant to protect the rights of Christians. Instead of using common sense and proportionate measures to secure peaceful outcomes, as evidenced in their attitudes towards the hijab, there was a continual hardening of the trust and tribunal's position regarding the central importance of the symbol of the cross, recognized as the most important symbol of the Christian's faith since Christ's death on a cross 2000 years ago," the Christian Legal Centre report said.

"I am disappointed, but not at all surprised," Chaplin said. "It was obvious from the very start that the trust would use every tactic possible to get itself off the hook."

"I fight to win the right for Christians to live out their faith in Britain today – anything less would be a negation of my Christian duty," she said.

According to a recent report in the London Telegraph, Archbishop of Centerbury Rowan Williams said the case was "one more mark of the curious contemporary belief that Christians are both too unimportant for their convictions to be worth bothering with and too dangerous for them to be allowed to manifest those convictions."

"Is the God we see in the cross, the God who lives through and beyond terrible dereliction and death and still promises mercy, renewal, life – is that God too much of a menace to be mentioned or shown in the public life and the human interactions of society?" he said.

WND reported the Eweida case began in 2006 when she was sent home from work after refusing to remove the cross because airline officials claimed it violated their dress code.

British Airways, her case revealed, permitted adherents of other religious faiths to wear a Sikh bracelet, the Jewish skull cap and the Muslim hijab but not the Christian cross.

WND also reported when a similar situation arose in the United States.

A FedEx employee had been ordered onto an "administrative leave" for wearing a Christian cross to work. She later was told she would be allowed to report for work.

Lisa Graves told WND at the time her case developed in the Springfield, Mo., region where the company has several stores. She said she was approached by her supervisor and given the option of hiding the cross or being placed on leave for a dress code violation.

U.S School Wants to Put Micro Chip in Students Book bags to Track Them

Click to read original article from

Natural News

(NaturalNews) A Rhode Island school district has announced a pilot program to monitor student movements by means of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted in their schoolbags.
The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp., has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children at the Aquidneck School. Each chip would be programmed with a student identification number, and would be read by an external device installed in one of two school buses. The buses would also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices.
Parents or school officials could log onto a school web site to see whether and when specific children had entered or exited which bus, and to look up the bus's current location as provided by the GPS device.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has criticized the plan as an invasion of children's privacy and a potential risk to their safety.
"There's absolutely no need to be tagging children," said Stephen Brown, executive director of the ACLU's Rhode Island chapter. According to Brown, the school district should already know where its students are.
"[This program is] a solution in search of a problem," Brown said.
The school district says that its current plan is no different than other programs already in place for parents to monitor their children's school experience. For example, parents can already check on their children's attendance records and what they have for lunch, said district Superintendent Rosemary Kraeger.
Brown disputed this argument. The school is perfectly entitled to track its buses, he said, but "it's a quantitative leap to monitor children themselves." He raised the question of whether unauthorized individuals could use easily available RFID readers to find out students' private information and monitor their movements.
Because the pilot program is being provided to the school district at no cost, it did not require approval from the Rhode Island ethics commission.

Texas Church Offers 4 million dollars in Prizes to Come to Their Easter Service

Click to read original article from KRISTV.com
CORPUS CHRISTI - How would you like to register for $4 million in prizes? One church is making you that offer in exchange for attending Easter Service. It's a big price tag and all the prizes collected came from the Coastal Bend.
Pastor Bil Cornelius spreads his ministry's message each weekend from Bay Area Fellowship on Weber. His message from God extends far beyond the building; his service runs nationally.
With Easter Week upon us, his message is getting an even bigger boost with a big giveaway.
"We've got two BMW's, we have an Audi, an Avalanche, we have a Mitsubishi Eclipse, a Jaguar," said Trish Fraizer, a spokesperson for the church.
From dresser drawers to cars, bedroom sets and even bikes; the total giveaway is valued at $4 million, the goal initially was to give away one million dollars in prizes.
"Our hope is someone that's never been here, that may come for the wrong reasons, comes here and we're able to plant a seed," explains Fraizer. That seed, they hope, will increase membership.
"You get the free gift of Heaven if you just accept Christ," said Pastor and Founder Cornelius.
The church spreads its message to about 7,000 members and every weekend, those members' donations bring in about $100,000 to the megachurch. It's money that goes back out into the community.
"It goes into facility operation, it goes into personnel cost, outreach, church planting, we start other churches we start other locations and community outreach programs as well," said Pastor Paul Schulz.
He tells us the goal is to double members in the next ten years.
This Easter giveaway may just help, either way, members say their only goal is to touch as many people as possible with the message of God.
"The overall goal is to let them hear about the message of Christ, ask him into their heart and leave saved, that's the overall goal," Fraizer said.
Bay Area Fellowship has 5 facilities in the Coastal Bend and one in San Marcos.
_________________________________________

JMC Ministries Response

It just amazes us how churches today will use anything to get people to come to church even when it compromises the Holy Scriptures.

Did Jesus say, come follow me and I will give you a Car, or a laptop, or even a Flatscreen TV? NO! He said He offered what the world could not give, Everlasting Life! He said that He would never leave us nor forsake us. He said he would provide for our needs. A flat-screen TV is definitely not one of those needs or even a luxury automobile.

We ourselves have seen churches here in Ohio giving out money and gift cards to get gas, go to restaurants, and stores. If their members bring so many people to church on Sundays. 

How is this biblical when Jesus seeing people selling things and exchanging money in the church turned over the tables of those selling goods in the synagogue and told them that it is wrong. If Jesus were here in the flesh today He would do the same thing to these churches. 

The 4 million dollars that will be spent to "bribe" people to come to church should be used to help people in need. Think about how many people you could help who are homeless, unemployed, on the verge of losing their homes etc. Thousands Could be helped!

When I read about this church I see no difference between them and a Rent A Center or a Car Sales Man offering prizes to the first few customers through the door. Or How some car dealer ships send you mail saying "if you bring in this key you could win a new car" It is a gimmick.

Jesus and the disciples did not need a gimmick they spoke TRUTH and offered what man and the world could not. This church offers expensive material things that will rot and rust to get you to fill their seats and hopefully see you give your life to God. But honestly What God is this church serving? That is the 4 million dollar Question there.

People will only come to this church if they think they can walk away with a materialistic prize when the Real Prize is being overshadowed....A relationship with Jesus Christ and Everlasting life.

We must pray Brothers and Sisters in Christ that people not be deceived by materialistic things and see the Truth and know that they don't need all that stuff just to want to go to church and worship our Lord. Jesus Didn't need a gimmick and neither do we.

Obama Makes Fun of Those Who Are Against Health Care Reform

 

JMC Ministries Response

To hear Obama riling up the crowd and making fun of those who don’t want his Government Health Care Clearly shows that he does not care what the American People want or think.

Obama’s approval rating is the lowest since he has been in office after he signed the Health Care Reform Bill. His rating is 44%. But hearing this crowd you would not know that.

More Americans are against Obama than for him. This crowd of people applauding. cheering and even booing at those who are against the health care do not make up the majority. They are the minority!

To hear the president make fun of me, my family and friends is very upsetting because it just shows he has no respect for Americans that want FREEDOM and not More BIG Government running everything in our country! We must NOT Let our voices be silenced, we must keep fighting and stand up for our Freedoms and rights that Obama clearly wants to take away.

Judge Rules Against Secret Service Agents for seizing “Million Dollar Bill” Bible Tracts

Click To read full story from World Net Daily

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

A federal judge has ruled the seizure of thousands of Gospel tracts from a Texas ministry by U.S. Secret Service agents not only was illegal, it violated Fourth Amendment protections against an overbearing and intrusive government.

The decision yesterday by Judge Jorge Solis of the Northern District of Texas came in the long-running dispute over a tract deliberately made to look like a $1 million bill.

The Million Dollar Bill tract was created by evangelist Ray Comfort, who also is author of "Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution," and "You Can Lead An Atheist to Evidence, but You Can't Make Him Think."

"The Million Dollar Bill, taken as a whole, poses no reasonable risk of deceiving an honest, sensible, and unsuspecting person," the judge wrote. "First and foremost is the fact that the Million Dollar Bill purports to be worth a million dollars. There is no genuine currency in this amount.

"More importantly, the amount the bill purports to be worth would lead any unsuspecting, honest, and reasonable person to become suspicious of the [bill's] genuineness. Though many people would readily accept a one-hundred dollar bill without thinking there was a need to even give the bill a cursory examination, a reasonable and honest person would suspect that a bill purporting to be worth a million dollars is not genuine."

Further, the judge ruled that the agents who confiscated 83 packets of the Gospel tracts from the Denton, Texas, offices of the Great News Network violated the U.S. Constitution.

Solis noted that the agents went to the office and confronted workers, demanding the tracts. The workers told the agents ministry leader Darrel Rundus was the only person who could give them permission to take the privately owned property. Rundus had said he would cooperate if the agents got a warrant or a court order, which they had chosen not to do.

According to the court's opinion, the agents then threatened arrest if the workers did not cooperate.

"Agent [Mickey] Kennedy was not subtle in the manner by which he implied that he was taking the Million Dollar Bills with him no matter what – even if it meant arresting Mr. [Timothy] Crawford in the process. The facts and circumstances surrounding Agent Kennedy's statements to Mr. Crawford on June 2, 2006, leave no doubt that Mr. Crawford believed he would be arrested if he did not retrieve the Million Dollar Bills from the closed closet in which they were hidden out of the agents' sight," the judge ruled.

"Agent Kennedy's coercive tactics not only resulted in an unconstitutional search and seizure, it also resulted in bringing disrepute to the noble profession of law enforcement," Solis wrote.

Further, the judge concluded that the agents involved in the seizure later "conspired together to cover up the actual events that took place at GNN's office.

"Agents Kennedy and [Erin] Erdman persisted in covering up these events by being untruthful when they took the witness stand during the bench trial for this case," the judge concluded.

WND contacted Secret Service offices in Dallas and in Washington, but no one would comment on the case.

Rundus told WND he was pleased with the outcome, and his attorney, Steve Crampton, said he was pleased with the ruling, given the stonewalling and coverup that appeared to have taken place throughout the government's case.

"Hopefully, they will go back and rethink their big-picture strategy," Rundus said.

The tracts at issue invite a recipient to answer the "million dollar question: Will you go to Heaven?"

The case was brought on behalf of the Great News Network, which was distributing the tracts. Crampton argued the case on behalf of the Florida-based non-profit legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel.

The tracts clearly state they are not legal tender and contain the Gospel message.

They are published by the Living Waters ministry of evangelist and author Ray Comfort, who says he has distributed millions over the years.

Rundus sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for violations of the Constitution's First Amendment right to free speech and the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unlawful search and seizure. The judge wrote that because he decided the tracts are not illegal, he didn't have to reach a conclusion whether the statutory provisions the government alleged were being violated were constitutional.

Rundus has reported the tracts are extremely effective. He uses them to share his faith with others. While the front of the tract has markings similar to paper currency, it states "This bill is not legal tender," "Thou Shalt Not Steal" and "Department of Eternal Affairs."

The judge noted those are among the indicators, along with the biblical quotations, that would tip off a "reasonable" person, along with the fact there is no such bill.

West Virginia Pastor Murdered