Monday, March 12, 2012
Where Have All the Bold Pastors Gone?
During this election season, the issue of religion has come up on many occasions. But for the most part, we haven't heard from many pastors---except, for example, from the brave priest from Indiana, with his denunciation against the Obama administration's move to force Catholic agencies to fund contraceptives and abortifacients against their consciences.
Another outspoken minister has been Dr. Robert Jeffress of Dallas, who was castigated about half a year ago for stating he preferred a Christian politician to a Mormon one. He was simply quoting founding father John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, who said, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers" (October 12, 1816). First Chief Justice or not, one of only three authors of The Federalist Papers or no---that's too politically correct to say nowadays.
Many of the controversial issues of our day, such as abortion and marriage, have become political. But in reality, they are simply moral issues that have changed into political ones.
I think part of the reason we don't hear much from pastors these days is because of a misunderstanding of the law. Some fear---wrongly---that if they say anything viewed as a political statement, then they might lose their tax exempt status. I plan on addressing this point in a subsequent article.
In any event, we should remember that some biblical figures, like Moses and John the Baptist, spoke out against the rulers at the time and paid a price for it. Historically, being faithful to their God sometimes had a high price to it, as seen by those brave Christians fed to the lions in the arena rather than renounce their faith.
There's a great painting at the Art Institute of Chicago showing St. Ambrose rebuking Roman Emperor Theodosius (around the end of the 4th century) for an imperial massacre in Thessalonica. The bishop took his life in his hands by making such a pronouncement against the lord of the whole empire. Thankfully, Theodosius repented.
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Thomas More wasn't so fortunate in his stance in refusing to give into King Henry VIII's demand for divine sanction for his divorce. More was beheaded for his courage to go against the king.
The price a bold pastor has to pay in our culture is generally a much smaller one than those sometimes demanded in the past---or even today in some of the world's hot spots, such as in the Middle East. There's an Iranian pastor on death row right now for having converted from Islam.
Historically, in the American context, pastors and the church have often led the way in societal reforms---some of which had political implications. Two-thirds of the members of the abolition society in 1835 were ministers of the gospel. Also, the anti-slavery Underground Railroad was run by churches.
For good or bad, there's no doubt that prohibition was led by ministers, churches, and laywomen.
The civil rights movement was essentially born in the basement of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, led by their minister, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on December 1, 1955, the night Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus after a hard day's work. Watch raw tapes of the civil rights marches, and you'll see many different Christian groups participating.
VIDEO: Panetta & Gen Dempsey Say "Intl Permission" Needed First NOT Congress to Decide on Military Action
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey indicated that "international permission," rather than Congressional approval, provided a 'legal basis' for military action by the United States.
Obama impeachment bill now in Congress
Let the president be duly warned.
Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C., has introduced a resolution declaring that should the president use offensive military force without authorization of an act of Congress, “it is the sense of Congress” that such an act would be “an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor.”
Specifically, Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution reserves for Congress alone the power to declare war, a restriction that has been sorely tested in recent years, including Obama’s authorization of military force in Libya.
In an exclusive WND column, former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo claims that Jones introduced his House Concurrent Resolution 107 in response to startling recent comments from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
“This week it was Secretary of Defense Panetta’s declaration before the Senate Armed Services Committee that he and President Obama look not to the Congress for authorization to bomb Syria but to NATO and the United Nations,” Tancredo writes. “This led to Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., introducing an official resolution calling for impeachment should Obama take offensive action based on Panetta’s policy statement, because it would violate the Constitution.”
SAY WHAT!? MISTRIAL in L.A. Fetish Film Producer of Beastiality & Scat films!
A mistrial has been declared in the federal obscenity trial of Los Angeles fetish film producer and distributor Ira Isaacs after jurors deadlocked on charges that he produced, sold and transported obscene material.
The panel deliberated for about a day after watching four films created or distributed by Isaacs, whose Internet-based business specialized in a niche of the pornography industry that included scatology and bestiality. The films, two of which Isaacs directed and appeared in, made up the bulk of the three-day trial last week.
Jurors were deadlocked 10-2 in favor of finding him guilty, Isaacs said. Both of the jurors who voted against conviction were women, including a 75-year-old who in court last week wore a Christmas-themed sweater with snowmen, according to the filmmaker.
That juror, number nine, told him after the trial that her late husband was a maker of horror films and that she found artistic value in the movies, Isaacs said. During the screening of one of the films last week, a Japanese movie involving bestiality, that juror appeared focused on the screen even as others looked away or shaded their eyes.
For material to be found criminally obscene, it must lack serious artistic, scientific or political value in addition to appealing to prurient interests and being patently offensive. Isaacs took the stand last week to testify that he was a “shock artist,” drawing inspiration from artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
JMC Live: Women's History Month
JMC Live: Women's History Month, Govt using "Pink Slime" Meat For School Lunches, Movie Theatre No Longer Allowing Children In "R" Rated Films Even If Accompanied By A Parent & more!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Children Found Living In Abandoned School Bus While Parents Serve Time In Prison
The imprisoned father of two Texas children found living in an abandoned school bus is claiming the home was only meant to be temporary.
Mark Shorten said he planned to build a house on a wooded lot near Houston before he and his wife were arrested for embezzlement in 2010. Child welfare officials took custody of his children earlier this week after the siblings -- a 5-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl -- were found living in the dilapidated bus at the end of a muddy, one-lane road in Splendora, home to one of the poorest school districts in the state.
Fox affiliate KRIV-TV reported Thursday that no charges have been filed yet in the case. The children's parents are in federal prison for stealing money from victims of Hurricane Ike, which struck in 2008, according to the station.
The postal carrier saw the kids Wednesday near Houston, and the two were swiftly placed in foster care while authorities investigate.
"The little girl's hair was just matted, like a stray dog's," Vanessa Picazo said.
The father of the pair said he never intended for the bus to be a permanent home. He said the family had planned to build a house at the site, which was now strewn with reeking trash.
"The house is normally clean. If me or my wife were there, it would not be in that shape, I assure you," Shorten said. "Our house would be completed or almost completed."
Randal McCann, a Louisiana attorney who represented the children's mother prior to her imprisonment, said an aunt had been taking care of the kids since the case against the parents was launched more than a year ago. The kids were not enrolled in school.
"It was believed by everybody involved in this case that (the aunt) was properly tending to those children. What I saw in the newspaper this morning was shocking," McCann said, referring to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
McCann said the aunt would often contact him but only to discuss the criminal case and not the children.
"But there was no indication that the living conditions were as bad as those photographs," McCann said.
It was not clear how long the children had been living in the bus and whether the aunt lived with them or simply made visits. KRIV reported that the woman lived on the bus but held a full-time job, often leaving the children alone for 12 hours a day.
A spokesman for Child Protective Services said authorities were less concerned about the bus itself than with children's overall well-being.
Shorten and his wife, Sherrie, were convicted of embezzling money from victims of Hurricane Ike. The mother was arrested in December 2010, the father in March 2011.
In a phone interview with The Associated Press from an Oklahoma City federal prison, Mark Shorten said he had not slept since his children were taken Wednesday.
Shorten said an aunt who was asked to watch the kids couldn't keep up, and he blamed the garbage blanketing his property on neighbors dumping their trash there.
Sherrie Shorten is scheduled to be released next month.
"I'm coming home in 30 days to be able to take care of my kids," she said from a separate federal prison in Lake Charles, La.
An Associated Press reporter visited the site Thursday. The bus appeared to have electricity, and outside there was a small propane tank and homemade grill.
A woman who was in the bus declined to identify herself and told the reporter to leave.
The Shortens said the bus also has hot and cold running water, including a shower and flush toilets, as well as heat and closets.
Picazo said her latest visit to the bus was not the first time she was worried about the children. Once when she needed a signature for a package, the 11-year-old girl volunteered. But when Picazo handed her the signature slip, the girl confessed she didn't know how to sign her name.
That was a "red flag that she wasn't being schooled. But she was a bright child," Picazo said.
New Study Shows Alcohol Depiction In Movies Influences Teens To Binge Drink
Christian Post--Alcohol depiction in movies directly influences actual alcohol intake and binge drinking in teens, a new study reveals.
Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, recently published the report investigating alcohol consumption in movies and adolescent binge drinking in six European countries, discovering a significant correlation between movie alcohol use exposure and lifetime binge drinking.
European adolescents who were exposed to the most images of alcohol through popular movies were most likely to have engaged in at least one episode of binge drinking – consuming more than five drinks on one occasion.
"Our findings raise concern about the role popular movies may play in Europe and beyond in the early experimentation patterns of alcohol consumption in adolescents," the authors shared. "These patterns have the potential to have a detrimental influence on individual health and future drinking trajectories and to be costly at a societal level."
Six research centers in Germany, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, and Scotland conducted the study, surveying 16,551 students in total from 114 state-funded public schools. The participants were between the ages of 10 to 19.
Students in each country received a random selection of 50 movies from a country-specific list of 250 box-office hits, and were asked to indicate how often they had seen each movie. Researchers reviewed each of the movies and counted the number of times alcohol appeared on the screen, i.e. whenever a major or minor character handled or used alcohol in a scene or when alcohol use was shown in the background. Eighty-six percent of the total 655 movies included at least one alcohol scene.
Using their tallies, the total number of drinking scenes viewed by each student was calculated. Participants were also asked how often they had five or more drinks of alcohol on one occasion.
A number of covariates that could affect the relationship between exposure to alcohol consumption in movies and binge drinking were also included, i.e. sociodemographic circumstances, behavioral and personality traits, television viewing, and drinking of peers, parents and siblings.
The results showed the lowest exposures occurred among Dutch and German students, and the highest from Italy and Iceland.
In each of the countries, the most highly exposed teens had seen an overwhelming 10,000 alcohol depictions from his or her country-specific sample of popular movies.
Overall, the study noted that in all countries youth who were exposed to alcohol use in movies were significantly more likely to have engaged in binge drinking even after controlling for age, gender, family affluence, school performance, television screen time, sensation seeking and rebelliousness, and frequency of drinking of peers, parents, and siblings.
Police Officers Forced To Take Constitution 101 Class After Wrongfully Arresting Pro-Life Group
State police will no longer illegally arrest and silence pro-life advocates in Maryland. What's more, police will participate in training on constitutionally protected rights. It's all part of a settlement the state has reached with with a group of pro-life advocates.
The Maryland Board of Public Works voted Wednesday to settle a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys on behalf of pro-life advocates who had been censored and arrested for peacefully sharing their message on public property in Harford County in 2008.
“Pro-life advocates shouldn’t be silenced and arrested for peacefully speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves,” says ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “The state is doing the right thing in agreeing to respect their constitutionally protected rights and to make sure officers fully understand these important freedoms. Pro-life speech cannot be censored through unwarranted arrests and illegal orders to disperse.”
Most of the 18 people arrested were jailed overnight, and several teenage girls in the group were strip-searched by county detention officers. Harford County settled its part of the lawsuit in March of last year, agreeing to a policy change to ensure that peaceful protesters will be protected from undergoing such searches at the county detention center.
Under the terms of the settlement, Maryland State Police cannot issue countywide dispersal orders against peaceful pro-life speakers, cannot illegally arrest pro-life speakers who are exercising their constitutionally protected free speech and assembly rights, must provide acceptable reasons for asking any speakers to move, must provide speakers with the opportunity to move before threatening anyone with arrest, cannot censor constitutionally protected messages and images on signs, and must participate in training on rights protected by the First and Fourth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The settlement also requires the state to pay for the pro-life advocates’ attorneys’ fees.
The case began in 2008 when at least 12 state and municipal police officers handcuffed 18 participants in Defend Life’s annual “Face the Truth” Pro-Life Tour. The participants started their peaceful event along a public road in Harford County. Later, however, the group relocated several miles away to public property in the town of Bel Air, near where they had been several times in past tours. They moved because state troopers ordered them to leave the county for not having a county permit to engage in free speech activities, even though the county does not have any such permit requirement. Despite that, the officers later arrested the participants in Bel Air for failing to obey the countywide order to disperse.