Miricle of the Birth by Keith Davis
Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6, from 600 years before.
(Isaiah 53 tells of Jesus’ last days in great detail)
It’s not just about the family going there and Jesus being born in a humble manger.
That’s often the extent of discussion of the birth of Jesus.
The Hand of God was at work in many ways, not always discussed.
First, Joseph and Mary, expecting the birth, could have stayed in their home or town, Nazareth, in the
comfort of their family, friends and those who could help with the birth.
But the Governor, under orders from Caesar Augustus, decreed for the very first time that a census be
taken and people had to travel to the town from where they were born and be registered in that’s
town’s census.
The family traveled there, and being so close to the time of birth, probably knew the burden that might
impose. But to Bethlehem they went.
Upon arriving, they went to ‘the Inn,’ indicating there was probably only 1 inn in the town, and possibly
because of the decree or holiday, many people might have traveled there, so no rooms were available.
It might have been suggested that one of many mangers might be available as a place for them to stay.
We sometimes envision a manger and a small building in a large field. (The shepherds traveled into
Bethlehem as told by the Angels) But, the family was in town and looked for a manger in the area. In
those days, the homes were on crowded, narrow streets. And it was common to have a 2 story house
where people lived, often on the second floor. Because space was limited, the second floor often
overhung the street a bit to give the second floor a little more room.
In some cases, the family owned animals, possibly a donkey, a sheep or goat, and the first floor was used
as a crib for the animals. This served to supply the warmth of the animal to help keep the second floor
warm on cold nights.
Those who had these cribs (or mangers) might have commonly let people stay in the manger, letting
people stay for free or for a fee. It was a humble setting, for sure. So Joseph and Mary probably found a
place available somewhere in the town. Jesus was then born in a manger.
Now, to put everything in perspective and looking at the bigger picture:
Jesus had to be born in a manger. A manger was the birthplace of lambs and goats where one of
perfection would be selected and used as a sacrifice for atonement of sins. That was critical, because
He was to be the perfect Lamb of sacrifice.
If the Holy Spirit had not moved upon Caesar and if the Governor had not decreed the census requiring
people to return to their home towns, Joseph and Mary would not have gone, and, if the Inn had a
room, then the family would not have looked for other arrangements, that of being offered the manger.
And Jesus wouldn’t have been born in a manger as would the perfect sacrificial lamb.
And. Bethlehem – what does that mean? Town of Bread! The very object Jesus tells us to partake of in
remembrance of His suffering and offer of salvation
Blessing to all, Keith
The Real Meaning of Christmas
I have mostly pleasant memories of CHRISTmas past- though some are in “baby fog”. It is special to me though it may be hard for some to which I am compassionate.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
The true meaning of Christmas is this: God took on the form of a human to die in our place, paying for our sins, so that humans who receive Him might be forgiven and be with Him forever.
You are free to reject that message and the One who delivered it, but what you are not free to do is to redefine or change the message into something that fits your own beliefs and choices.
As the carol says, “Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.”
The world today is a sad place, and those who love freedom sometimes feel we are shoveling against the tide. But for just a moment, at this time of year, we should pause and remember an event that occurred about 2,000 years ago in the Middle East.
The world then was a far worse place, yet a light seared through the darkness. A baby was born in a cave. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The baby came into the world so that we might have life and live it abundantly. The baby came into the world so that we would be set free from our own sins, free from the temptations of the world and free from the governments that seek to control us.
The baby was the Son of God and the Prince of Peace and the Savior of the world. This week we celebrate His birthday.
Merry CHRISTmas.
(This article was originally published in 2015 and written by our late friend and mentor Pastor Garrett Lear, “The Patriot Pastor who would often say “We have no king by King Jesus” and ended his presentations with “Someone has stolen my country and I want her back now.”
Camp Constitution wishes all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Garrett Lear “The Patriot Pastor” 1948-2021
The Weekly Sam: Sex Education and How It Got Into the Schools By Samuel L. Blumenfeld
The idea that people needed to be educated about sex probably began with the founding of the birth control movement by Margaret Sanger, who launched a crusade early in the 20th Century to provide women with birth control information. It was Sanger’s work as a visiting nurse that turned her interest to sex education and women’s health. Influenced by anarchist Emma Goldman, she began to advocate the need for family limitation as a means by which working-class women could liberate themselves from the burden of unwanted pregnancy. In 1914, Sanger published the first issue of The Woman Rebel, which advocated militant feminism and the right to practice birth control. She also wrote a 16-page pamphlet, Family Limitation, which provided explicit instructions on the use of contraceptive methods.
In August 1914, Sanger was indicted for violating postal obscenity laws. She jumped bail in October and set sail for England. In England she became acquainted with a number of British radicals, feminists, and neo Malthusians whose social and economic theories helped her develop broader scientific and social justifications for birth control. She was also deeply influenced by psychologist Havelock Ellis and his theories on female sexuality and free love. In 1915, Sanger returned to the United States. The government’s case against her was dropped. In 1916, she opened the nation’s first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. After nine days of operation, the clinic was raided, and Sanger and staff were arrested. She spent 30 days in jail. However, the publicity surrounding the clinic provided Sanger with a base of wealthy supporters from which she began to build an organized birth control movement.
In 1917, Sanger published a new monthly, the Birth Control Review, and in 1921 she embarked on a campaign to win mainstream support for birth control by founding the American Birth Control League, the forerunner of Planned Parenthood. She focused her efforts on gaining support from the medical profession, social workers, and the liberal wing of the eugenics movement. Havelock Ellis had converted her to the eugenics creed. She saw birth control as a means of reducing genetically transmitted mental or physical defects, and supported sterilization for the mentally incompetent. She advocated “more children for the fit, less from the unfit-that is the chief issue of birth control.”
In 1922, Sanger married oil magnate James Noah H. Slee, thus insuring her financial independence. Slee, who died in 1943, became the main funder of the birth control movement. By connecting with the eugenics movement, Sanger was able to gain the backing of some of America’s wealthiest people. In 1930, Sanger opened a family planning clinic in Harlem with the approval of the Negro leadership, including communist W.E.B. DuBois. Beginning in 1939, DuBois also served on the advisory council for Sanger’s ”Negro Project.” The financial support of Albert and Mary Lasker made the project possible. In 1966, the year Sanger died, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger’s early efforts.” From the end of World War II to the present, Planned Parenthood has become the world’s largest enterprise promoting birth control and abortion.
In 1960, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of the birth control pill. In 1961 President Kennedy defined population growth as a “staggering” problem and formerly endorsed reproductive research to make new knowledge and methods available worldwide. In 1961, a Conference on Religion and the Family brought together the medical director of Planned Parenthood, the director of the National Council of Churches of Christ, and the leader of the marriage counseling movement in the United States. Out of that meeting came the idea for creating SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. It was Dr. Mary Calderone, one of the founders, who introduced the concept of sexuality in 1964. It encompassed much more than the biological meaning of sex.
Thus, sexuality education replaced the term sex education to emphasize its more comprehensive scope. A SIECUS Report (Vol. 27, No.4) states: “In February 1999, SIECUS conducted a public poll on our Internet site to ask the general public who had the greatest impact in bringing about a positive change in the way America understands and affirms sexuality. The top ten, chosen from a list of 100, were Judy Blume, Mary Calderone, Ellen DeGeneres, Joycelyn Elders, Hugh Hefner, Anita Hill, Magic Johnson, Madonna, Gloria Steinhem, and Ruth Westheirner. They represent diverse perspectives and views, and each has helped American think about sexuality in a new and different way.” Getting back to our chronology, in 1963, the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution on population growth and economic development. In that same year, the U.S. government established the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Part of its mandate was to support and oversee research in reproductive science and contraceptive development. In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut ruled that Connecticut’s law prohibiting the use of contraceptives by married couples violated a newly defined right of marital privacy. As a result, ten states liberalized their family planning laws and began to provide family planning services with tax funds. In 1969 the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws, now known as the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, was founded. In 1970, Congress enacted Title X of the Public Health Services Act, which provided support and funding for family planning services and educational programs and for biomedical and behavioral research in reproduction and contraceptive development. Title X also authorized funding for a Center for Population Research within NICHD. This marked the fust time Congress had ever voted for a separate authorization of family planning services. In that same year, New York state enacted the most progressive abortion law in the nation, and Planned Parenthood of Syracuse, New York, became the fust affiliate to offer abortion services.
In 1973, Humanist Manifesto II was published. It advocated a doctrine of sexual freedom that clearly clashed with traditional views of sex. The Manifesto states: “In the area of sexuality, we believe that intolerant attitudes, often cultivated by orthodox religions and puritanical cultures, unduly repress sexual conduct. The right to birth control, abortion, and divorce should be recognized. While we do not approve of exploitive, denigrating forms of sexual expression, neither do we wish to prohibit, by law or social sanction, sexual behavior between consenting adults. The many varieties of sexual exploration should not in themselves be considered ‘evil.’ Without countenancing mindless permissiveness or unbridled promiscuity, a civilized society should be a tolerant one. Short of harming others or compelling them to do likewise, individuals should be permitted to express their sexual proclivities and pursue their life-styles as they desire …. Moral education for children and adults is an important way of developing awareness and sexual maturity.” Among the signers of the Manifesto was Alan F. Guttmacher, President of Planned Parenthood.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the constitutional right of privacy extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion, thereby legalizing abortion throughout the United States. In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth struck down state requirements for parental and spousal consent for abortion and set aside a state prohibition against saline abortions. In 1976, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, named after Planned Parenthood’s president, published 11 Million Teenagers, the fust nationally distributed document to focus attention on the problem of teen pregnancy and childbearing in the United States. In 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court found the Massachusetts statute restricting minors’ access to abortion unconstitutional. It ruled that if states required minors to obtain parental consent for an abortion, they must also give minors the alternative of obtaining the consent of a judge, in confidential proceedings and without first notifying their parents.
In 1981, the Alan Guttmacher Institute published Teenage Pregnancy: The Problem that Hasn’t Gone Away, an analysis of teen sexuality, contraceptive knowledge and use, and pregnancy experience. It emphasizes the need for making confidential contraceptive services accessible to sexually active teens. In 1982, Planned Parenthood published “Sexuality Alphabet,” as tool for sex education. George Grant, in his book, Grand illusions, writes of this publication: “Planned Parenthood’s sex education programs and materials are brazenly perverse. They are frequently accentuated with crudely obscene four-letter words and illustrated by explicitly ribald nudity. They openly endorse aberrant behavior-homosexuality, masturbation, fornication, incest, and even bestiality-and then they describe that behavior in excruciating detail.”
In 1953, staffer Lena Levine wrote in Planned Parenthood News: “Our goal is to be ready as educators and parents to help young people obtain sex satisfaction before marriage. By sanctioning sex before marriage, we will prevent fear and guilt.” In 1985, the Alan Guttmacher Institute published its report on Teen Pregnancy in Industrialized Countries, indicating that the U.S. teen pregnancy rate of 96 per 1,000 is the highest in the developed world. A two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences agreed with the AGI study and concluded that “prevention of adolescent pregnancy should have the highest priority,” and “making contraceptive methods available and accessible to those who are sexually active and encouraging them to diligently use these methods is the surest major strategy for pregnancy prevention.” In 1970, fewer than half of the nation’s school districts offered sex education curricula and none had school-based birth control clinics. In 1998, more than seventy-five percent of the districts teach sex education and there are more than one hundred clinics in operation. Yet the percentage of illegitimate births has only increased during that time, from a mere fifteen percent to an astonishing fifty-one percent. In California, the public schools have required sex education for more than thirty years, and yet the state has maintained one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the nation. (Grant, p. 128) Meanwhile, the AIDS epidemic, which began with eleven cases in 1979, had grown to 24,000 cases in 1986. In 1993, the number of cases was up to 339,250. By 1987, Planned Parenthood had become the world’s largest non-government provider of family planning services. It had also become politically active, joining more than 250 civil rights, civil liberties, religious, labor, education, legal, environmental, health, and feminist groups that opposed the appointment of conservative Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The above article came from the Sam Blumenfeld Article: http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm
The Blumenfeld Archives
Providence, the Brown University Shooting, and the Democrats We Used to Have by Alex Destino
Providence longs for its former mayor, Vincent “Buddy” Cianci. If he were mayor today, the Brown University shooter would not still be at large.
More than three days after the Brown University shooting, Providence has no suspect in custody, little public clarity, and growing uncertainty—despite a campus saturated with cameras, security infrastructure, and institutional resources. Under Mayor Brett Smiley, the response has felt hesitant and unfocused, raising serious questions about leadership, priorities, and how profoundly both the city—and the Democratic Party—have changed. To understand that shift, it helps to look backward. Vincent “Buddy” Cianci Jr. was the former mayor of Providence and the first Italian-American ever elected to lead the city. He won office in 1974 at just 33 years old, emerging from a hard-edged, working-class political culture. Cianci was a classic urban populist. His governing priority was simple and unapologetic: keep the city clean, orderly, and safe. Cianci famously argued there wasn’t a political way to run a city—just the right way to run a city. He regularly pointed to Providence’s standing among America’s safest cities during his tenure as proof that results, not ideology, mattered most. One couldn’t help but respect how remarkably non-partisan he was in practice. Cianci shunned the “D” label during his first term despite it being the surest path to victory in Rhode Island. He governed as a true independent and made a point of earning the respect of people across political lines. He led with a distinctly masculine, command-driven style. Police were empowered and highly visible. Disorder was not tolerated. Everyone knew who was in charge. Working-class citizens loved him because they felt protected—and because City Hall worked for neighborhoods, not elites. Cianci also operated comfortably in Providence’s political gray zones, including relationships with power brokers tied to organized crime. Yes, he was deeply flawed and ultimately corrupt. But his governing philosophy was unmistakable: a city cannot function if people do not feel safe. Cianci was not an outlier. He was part of a governing tradition. Old-school, working-class Democratic mayors like Frank Rizzo in Philadelphia, Richard J. Daley in Chicago, Kevin White and Ray Flynn in Boston, William Donald Schaefer in Baltimore, and Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco believed the same thing: cities survive only when order is enforced. The most successful modern practitioner of that model was a Republican—Rudy Giuliani. He didn’t invent the approach; he inherited it, applying those same principles to produce historic crime reductions in New York City. That governing tradition didn’t fade gradually. It was deliberately replaced. Providence today is led by a very different kind of Democrat. Mayor Brett Smiley represents a post-Obama Democratic Party shaped by elite institutions, academic culture, activist priorities, and identity politics. His public-safety agenda emphasizes inclusivity and the clarification of police roles through executive actions like “A Safe Providence for All,” but stops short of the blunt law-and-order posture that once defined Democratic urban governance. Public safety is now treated as one concern among many—balanced against messaging, optics, and coalition sensitivities. That shift is now impossible to ignore. More than 3½ days after the Brown University murders, the shooter remains at large and armed, with no known location—yet city leaders continue to insist the public is not in danger. This, on a campus saturated with surveillance, where the only video released so far has come not from the university’s security system but from nearby residents. The expectation that government would act decisively, communicate clearly, and answer first to the public no longer exists. That alone reveals how Providence—and the Democratic Party that governs it—have changed: from a party rooted in working-class accountability to one oriented toward institutional power, lobbyists, NGOs, and money—no longer answering first to the citizens, the sovereign they are meant to serve. |
Christmas mangers should bring joy not debate by Lou Murray
How very sad that a Dedham Catholic parish has used a Christmas manger scene to attack law enforcement and promote open borders and illegal immigration. The teachings of past Boston Cardinals and the Universal Church have much more in common with President Donald Trump’s America First policies than with the angry social justice warriors who have effectively desecrated a church.
In a famous post-World War II sermon at the Boston Cathedral of the Holy Cross to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Cardinal Cushing summed up real Catholic teaching very well: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The same law which calls us to love all, even enemies, binds us to love more intensely those who are nearer to us in kinship or in association. Hence, the love of our fellow citizens and of a civil society which they have organized for their common good — which society we call our country — is a derivative of the Divine law of charity itself.”
Further, Saint Thomas Aquinas made a philosophical study of immigration and clearly reasoned that “if foreigners were allowed to meddle with the affairs of a nation as soon as they settled down in its midst, many dangers might occur, since the foreigners, not yet having the common good firmly at heart, might attempt something hurtful to the people.”
The evil of 9/11 and the Boston Marathon Bombing bear out the wisdom of Aquinas. The Tsarnaev brothers travelled back to Chechnya, a country they had sought “fake” refuge from for jihadi training. The 9/11 Commission concluded that 15 of the 19 hijackers were vulnerable to potential foil by authorities because of their immigration status. That commission also concluded that targeting travel is at least as powerful a terrorism fighting weapon as targeting terrorist funding.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states clearly in section 2241: “Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various judicial conditions (laws), especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”
There are so many ways that illegal aliens do not obey our laws. However, the greatest evil that illegal aliens have brought to South Boston, Brighton, Dorchester, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Dedham, and Roslindale is the drug and fentanyl trade.
The key ingredients of fentanyl and methamphetamine are smuggled by Mexican drug cartels, who also profit from smuggling people into the United States. The Boston Police Department leaked their regional Drug Trafficking Report in 2016, it said, “In 59% of the cases where the suspect listed Puerto Rico as their place of birth, there were signs of identity fraud or use of aliases. This would suggest that heroin trafficking in Boston is largely controlled by Dominican drug organizations.”
Many great families in and around that misguided parish in Dedham will be yearning for a missing loved one this Christmas. A loved one who was caught up in the ugly spider’s web of addiction, incarceration, and death that springs from the opioid trade.
Organized crime is alive and well in Greater Boston. These mafioso are illegal alien drug traffickers. Their crimes are being propped up by the ACLU, social justice warriors, progressive judges, liberal politicians, liberal churches, and liberal clergy who champion illegal immigration and demonize law enforcement.
Sadly, ideologues like the pastor of Saint Susanna’s Church in Dedham are even willing to obscure the joy of our Savior’s birth with anti-ICE rhetoric. Maybe the best way to answer Father Feelgood and his ilk this Christmas is to make a special visit to the infant Jesus in the creche at your local church and say a prayer for the brave men and women of ICE … and the Border Patrol.
Louis Murray is a friend of Camp Constitution, Bostonian and a Roman Catholic. He tweets on the social media platform X. Follow him @LouisLMurrayJr1.
‘No disruption. Just ministry’: Christian gets handcuffed for preaching Jesus at major U.S. city bus station
A premier legal team focusing on religious and other rights across America is warning the Houston bus authority that it is violating the U.S. Constitution with its scheme to censor the speech of a Christian.
It is the American Center for Law and Justice that confirmed it has sent a warning letter to the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County
For nearly two years he “has ministered at an outdoor Houston bus terminal. His ministry is simple: preach, pray with people, hand out bottled water and food, offer encouragement, and share the hope of Christ with anyone who wants to hear it. No fees. No obstruction. No disruption. Just ministry.”
Then came Sept. 19. Officials dispatched authority police to order him to get a “permit.”
“When he questioned why he needed government permission to share his faith in a public space, the officers declared the bus terminal ‘private property.’ Moments later, they handcuffed him, detained him, and issued a criminal trespass warning. They told him that if he ever came back to preach the Gospel again, he would be arrested. They never cited a single rule he violated. They never gave him a written citation. And to this day, the trespass warning remains in effect,” the ACLJ explained.
The legal team’s new demand letter insists that METRO retract the unconstitutional trespass warning and restore Camp’s First Amendment rights.
Explains the letter, “Mr. Camp has already suffered irreparable injury as a result of METRO’s unconstitutional actions, and he continues to suffer ongoing harm so long as the trespass warning remains in effect. ‘The loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.’ Mr. Camp has been effectively banished from a public forum where he has a constitutional right to speak. He has been threatened with arrest and criminal prosecution if he returns to exercise his rights. This chilling effect on his speech is a direct and ongoing violation of the First Amendment.”
The ACLJ noted that the Constitution doesn’t simply vanish if someone steps onto government-owned transit property.
“Public sidewalks, streets, and outdoor terminals are places where Americans have always been free to speak, hand out literature, and share their faith. Religious speech lies at the very heart of what the First Amendment protects,” the legal team explained.
And METRO cannot simply call the terminal “private property.”
“Even if METRO wanted to regulate sound amplification, it must do so through clear, content-neutral rules – not by allowing officers to silence disfavored speech whenever they please. METRO has no such rule for outdoor areas. This was not policy enforcement. It was censorship,” the report charged.
“If it can ban Howard Camp from a public bus terminal because it doesn’t like what he’s saying, then any citizen – Christian or not – can be silenced the moment their message becomes inconvenient. That is not how the First Amendment works,” the ACLJ said.
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NY Forces Christian Businesses to Close
The following is a news release from Liberty Council http://www.lc.org
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul forced businesses to close because of their Christian faith
Liberty Counsel is holding Hochul accountable to the U.S. Supreme Court.
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul believes that she has the power to REVOKE the religious freedom rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution and protected by federal law any time she wants.
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul forced a Christian nursing home out of business, specifically because of the home’s Christian mission.
Liberty Counsel has teed up Hochul’s unlawful order to the U.S. Supreme Court. This coming Friday, the High Court will conference on this case again to determine if they will take up this case this term. This is the SEVENTH time the Justices have conferenced on this case, and I believe it to be a good sign that they will put this case on the calendar for oral arguments soon. We need your prayers and direct financial support to win!
Religious freedom is on the line! Will you help? Donate today and a special Year-End Challenge Grant will DOUBLE the impact!
For 50 years, Pinecrest Home for Adults provided round-the-clock skilled medical care to the patients in their Christian nursing home. Patients and staff alike chose Pinecrest specifically for its Christian environment, and they became like family, daily serving and worshipping the Lord together.
If we lose this case, the consequences will be staggering — not just for New York, but for every American.
The Case: Does v. Hochul
Peter Hanan, a faithful Christian who ran a small senior living center in New York, was told he and his staff must violate their religious convictions or lose their jobs and business licenses. Despite clear federal protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, NY Gov. Hochul ordered employers like Pinecrest to deny ALL religious exemptions to the COVID shot — or face daily fines, license revocation, and forced closure.
She ran them out of business over their faith…
Peter and the Pinecrest board of directors refused to force their employees to violate their Christian convictions against taking an untested, abortion-linked, and now-proven-dangerous shot. Not only would such an action be in violation of federal Title VII religious freedom law, but it also went against everything this Christian business stood for over 50 years.
Don’t let woke governors run Christians out of business!
Pinecrest was facing fines of 1,000 dollars per day per employee for honoring their Christian convictions. Peter met with the board of directors for guidance. They could not afford to pay the fines. They could not violate clear federal law. Most of all, they could not violate their consciences and Christian beliefs.
Pinecrest was forced to close the nursing home and scramble to help families find places for their elderly parents and grandparents to live. Many of the patients were “memory care” patients, which made moving even more tragic.
Hochul’s actions were a direct violation of federal law, and it’s not just affecting Peter and Pinecrest employees. Thousands of health care workers were fired for refusing the shot on religious grounds. Hochul allowed medical exemptions — but unlawfully banned religious exemptions.
Another one of our plaintiffs in this case had received a religious exemption from vaccines, including COVID, for each of the last 10 years. But despite working remotely from home, his exemption was revoked during COVID and he lost his job, thanks to Hochul’s abuses.
Five years after the COVID crisis, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is still trampling religious freedom. She refuses to accept clear federal law and enumerated constitutional rights that guarantee religious freedom. This is not just about COVID anymore. It’s about whether any state can override federal law and force citizens to violate their deeply held religious beliefs.
If Hochul’s actions go unchecked, any state could revoke federal and constitutional religious freedom rights at will.
We cannot allow that to happen. Help us stop NY Gov. Kathy Hochul — and all other abusers of religious freedom — in their tracks.
Liberty Counsel never charges clients for legal representation. We rely on generous supporters like you to defend religious liberty — and right now, a special Challenge Grant will DOUBLE the impact of every donation.
Please give today and stand with us in this critical battle.
Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel
TAKE ACTION
Pray for our case before the Supreme Court. And don’t forget — every donation today will be DOUBLED by the Challenge Grant!
American Minute with Bill Federer Veterans Day “The Soldier is required to practice the greatest act of religious training–Sacrifice” -General Douglas MacArthur
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The Weekly Sam: Christianity Versus Islam By Samuel L. Blumenfeld
Because we live in such a highly secularized society, we cannot believe that America could ever become
involved in a religious war in this day and age. Yet ferocious religious wars have been going on all over the
place: in Northern Ireland, in Israel, in the Balkans, in Sudan, in India, in Kashmir, and in Russia. But
history is a very harsh taskmaster and refuses to let us Americans escape into our secular fantasies and
liberal hot houses for long. Thus, it is vitally important for us to reconnect with the human race’s never
ending history of religious struggle. That a group of Islamic terrorists, trained in a remote war-torn, famine
ridden, hell-hole in Asia, could organize the kind of mind-boggling attack against America that took place on
September 11, 2001, means that America is not only not exempt from history, but has been dragged
kicking and screaming back into the middle of it.
Back in 1588, Christopher Marlowe, master of historical drama, wrote his famous Tamburlaine 2. In it there
is a fascinating scene in which the Christian King Sigismund of Hungary and Orcanes, the Muslim King of
Natolia, both former enemies, decide to establish peace between them in order to join forces to defeat
Tamberlaine the Great, the cruel, pagan conqueror of Asia.
Both men confirm their commitment with an oath. King Sigismund vows:
By Him that made the world and sav’d my soul,
The Son of God and issue of a maid,
Sweet Jesus Christ, I solemnly protest
And vow to keep this peace inviolable!
King Orcanes vows:
By sacred Mohamet, the friend of God,
Whose holy Alcoran remains with us,
Whose Glorious body, when he left the world,
Clos’d in a coffin mounted up the air,
And hung on stately Mecca’s temple-roof,
I swear to keep this truce inviolable!
But as the story goes, it was King Sigismund who later broke the truce and was defeated and killed by the
Muslims.
While the history of the struggle between Christians and Muslims for control of Europe was for a time
settled after the Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492, and driven back from the gates of Vienna to
Asia and Africa, the Islamic enclaves that remained in the Balkans led to the recent wars in Bosnia and
Kosovo. The Serbs had considered themselves as the Christian bulwark against further Islamic incursions
in Europe, and therefore could not understand why they were being bombed by fellow Europeans and
Americans.
You had to know history to understand what Bosnia and Kosovo were all about and what bin Laden’s men
were doing in the Balkans. That conflict proved that the war between Christianity and Islam has never
ended. Over the ages, it simply took on different forms. The rise of European power put a lid on Islamic
ambitions and the Muslim world became the backwater of history until the discovery of oil in the twentieth
century. But in the nineteenth century, the Islamic Barbary states of North Africa could still make trouble for
the Infidel. They took possession of American and European commercial vessels, held their crews for
ransom, and enslaved other Christians. Our first war after independence was fought during the Jefferson
administration against the Muslim pirates and kidnappers of Tripolitania. It is known in the history books as
the Barbary War, in which U.S. Marines staged their first invasion of foreign soil. Hence, the Marine
anthem: “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.”
In order to finally put an end to the piracy and barbarism coming out of North Africa, France decided to take
over Algeria. During the 1830s and 1840s, the French imposed their rule over the territory, encouraging
Europeans to settle there. The result was a flourishing French colony and an end to Barbary piracy. France
maintained order in North Africa until the end of World War II, when the anti-colonialist movement got
underway. Both liberals and communists joined in forcing the European powers to give up their colonies.
In Algeria, however, over a million Europeans had settled in the territory and the coastal departements
were considered an integral part of France. However, when Charles de Gaulle gained power at the height
of the Algerian uprising, he decided that France should quit Algeria because the Moslems could never
become true Frenchmen. And so France abandoned Algeria, and a million Europeans took to the boats.
Today, the invasion has been reversed. Five million Muslims, mostly Algerians, live in France. They make
up ten percent of the population and are part of the resurgent Islamic power in Europe. Christianity is now
so weak in France that one wonders if it is capable of resisting the assumption of Islamic power.
We have been told by our leaders and the media that we are not at war against the Islamic religion. We
are at war against terrorism. But what they all prefer not to recognize is that the spiritual power behind that
terrorism, the power that drives otherwise intelligent human beings to undertake suicidal missions against
the infidel is the religion of Islam. Of course, there are millions of Muslims who just want to lead normal
lives. Unfortunately, after September 11, 2001, nothing is “normal” anymore.
In an alarming article in the November issue of Commentary magazine, Daniel Pipes contends that
Islamist militants are serious about their plan to conquer America. He writes:
“The first missionaries for militant Islam, or Islamism, who arrived here from abroad in the
1920’s, unblushingly declared, “Our plan is, we are going to conquer America.” The
audacity of such statements hardly went unnoticed at the time, including by Christians who
cherished their own missionizing hopes. As a 1922 newspaper commentary put it:
To the millions of American Christians who have so long looked eagerly
forward to the time the cross shall be supreme in every land and the people
of the whole world shall have become the followers of Christ, the plan to win
the continent to the path of the “infidel Turk” will seem a thing unbelievable.
But there is no doubt about its being pressed with all the fanatical zeal for
which the Mohammedans are noted.
Pipes writes further:
“As a teacher at an Islamic school in Jersey City, near New York, explains, the “short-term
goal is to introduce Islam. In the long term, we must save American society.” Step by step,
writes a Pakistan-born professor of economics, by offering “an alternative model” to
Americans, Muslims can transform what Ismail Al-Faruqi referred to as “the unfortunate
realities of North America” into something acceptable in God’s eyes.
The irony in all of this is stunning. For years the Christian right has been trying to get Americans to live
godly lives, but with very limited success. The fact that 85% of American parents put their children in pagan
public schools is an indication of how strong our liberal secular culture is. It controls the curriculum in our
schools and universities. It controls most of the print media, the electronic media, and most of what comes
out of Hollywood. And American schools are now teaching American children all about Islam. While the
Bible has been eliminated from the classroom, apparently the Koran hasn’t. How else can you teach about
Islam?
Recently, the Reverend Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief agency, called
Islam “wicked and violent.” He said, “I don’t believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion. When you read
the Koran and you read the verses from the Koran, it instructs the killing of the infidel, for those that are
non-Muslim.”
As the son of Billy Graham, Franklin is the designated successor to his father’s longtime evangelical
ministry. He delivered the benediction at Bush’s inauguration. But now he’s in trouble with the White
House, which sponsored a Ramadan dinner for 50 ambassadors from Islamic countries with a traditional
meal and prayer. Also, the Muslim chaplain of Georgetown University recently officiated at the opening
prayers of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill.
The moral seems to be that if Islamist terrorists bomb the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and kill
5,000 Americans, other Islamists get invited to the White House for a special dinner prepared to their
specifications: no pork. Now that Americans are being invited to be kind to Muslims, where will all of this
lead?
Graham said, “It wasn’t Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn’t Lutherans. It was an attack on this
country by people of the Islamic faith.” And that’s why the latter are now favored guests at the White
House! Of course, the President is doing this to keep the Islamic states in line while we war against the
terrorists which these states harbor.
But if we are being encouraged by our born-again President to be kind to our Muslim neighbors, shouldn’t
Christians see this as a missionary opportunity? Why not introduce Muslims to the loving grace of Jesus
Christ? One of the reasons why Americans find it difficult to become friendly with Muslims is because
sooner or later their rabid hatred of Israel will surface. Americans in general don’t like to hate anybody, and
they are uncomfortable with people who are haters.
Christianity preaches love. Islam preaches hate. That is why hatred of Israel fills the psyche of so many
Muslims. Abnormal, pathological hatred is not healthy. It requires constant energy to be sustained at the
level it exists among Muslims. And that is why life is so miserable in many Islamic countries. And that is
why Palestinian refugees have preferred to remain in refugee camps for 50 years rather than do something
constructive with their lives. They prefer to live with festering, enduring hatred, and teach it to their
children, rather than accept forgiveness and peace. No true Christian could ever waste his life that way.
Yet, the United Nations aid agency accepts these refugee camps as perfectly normal for the Arab Muslims.
After World War II, millions of displaced persons found new constructive lives in countries all over the
world. But in the Middle East, Palestinian hatred is used to torment the world about Israel.
It is to be hoped that one of the first things the new government of Afghanistan might do is recognize Israel
and establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. It would signal a dramatic change in the attitude of
Muslims toward Israel.
Indeed, let us be loving and concerned with the well being of our Muslim citizens, and let us convey to
them that Jesus will save them from their sickening hatred and grant them life renewed.
(This article came from the Sam Blumenfeld Archives: The Blumenfeld Archive
The Blumenfeld Archives
“Squanto … was a special instrument sent of God American Minute with Bill Federer
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