Whatever one’s views on the Trayvon Martin controversy and jury verdict, two things are crystal clear. First, the racial divide in America, despite undisputed progress over the last decades, remains deep, wide, and extremely sensitive. Clearly, Americans of different ethnicities often view events through very different prisms.
Second, the controversy exposes the limitations of the legal system in healing American’s racial wounds. While the law can, and should, do many things, it cannot do what matters most: changing hearts and minds.
All Americans of good will should be asking themselves this question: “Where do we go from here and how do we make it better?”
At its most basic level, racism is, and always has been, a spiritual problem. Ultimately, only a spiritual solution can heal the racial wounds that continue to afflict our nation.
The prophet Jeremiah summed it up well many centuries ago when he declared, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).
The fact that racism is at its foundation a spiritual issue and will be vanquished ultimately only by spiritual means, does not mean that legislative and judicial remedies must not be applied to racial discrimination and bigotry. The restraint and punishment of “those that doeth evil” was one major reason God ordained the civil magistrate (Rom. 13:2).
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Racial discrimination furnishes an excellent example of this principle. Legislative and judicial remedies radically altered the status of de jure segregation and legally institutionalized racial discrimination in our society. Our history furnished many painful examples and memories of the grievous situation prior to such legislative and judicial restraint. But what about de facto segregation and discrimination? There you are dealing with attitudes, not actions. When you enter the realm of the mind and the heart you are moving beyond the power of legal restraint. If elimination, not restraint, of racial prejudice and bigotry is the goal – and for Christians it must be – then you must move beyond legislative and judicial answers to spiritual ones. We must always remember that the salt of the law can change actions, behaviors, and habits. Only the light of the Gospel can change attitudes, beliefs, and hearts.
The Apostle Peter was taught by the Holy Spirit “that God is no respecter of persons” (Act. 10:34), and Peter was delivered form his ethnic prejudices against Gentiles.
Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” It is noteworthy that He said this in response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus related the parable of “The Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus uses the Samaritan, the most despised ethnic group in His society, as the “hero” of the story to underscore that everyone is our neighbor, regardless of racial, national, economic, political, or sexual differences.
Our heavenly Father has called all Christians not only to love our neighbors as ourselves, but to be ambassadors of spiritual reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-21).
If America is going to be healed of its racial traumas, the church must lead the way. Christians of all ethnicities must reach out and establish dialogue, relationship, and friendship where we know each other as people and friends who have been transformed by the power of the Gospel.
Everyone is victimized by racism, perpetrator and victim alike. Lillian Smith, in her 1949 book, Killers of the Dream, wrote evocatively of the spiritual corrosiveness of the rigid segregation of her rural Georgia childhood and adolescence. She wrote of how whites and blacks “learned the dance that cripples the human spirit.” In despair, she described the deformation of the human spirit, perpetrated by racism:
Something was wrong with a world that tells you that love is good and people are important and then forces you to deny love and to humiliate people. . . . in trying to shut the Negro race from us, we have shut ourselves away from so many good, creative, honest, deeply human things in life. . . . the warped, distorted form we have put around every Negro child from birth is around every white child also. Each is on a different side of the frame, but each is pinioned there. . . . what cruelly shapes and cripples the personality of one is as cruelly shaping and crippling the personality of the other.
Lillian Smith is right that everyone is victimized when bigotry and racism occur. Sadly, Lillian Smith despaired of the victims’ ever overcoming such formative experiences. Even when they summon the strength and knowledge to escape the frame, she viewed them, and herself, as “stunted and warped and in our lifetime cannot grow straight again.” Joyously, the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that Lillian Smith is wrong and that with His help we can be healed and liberated from our past (Col. 2:13-15; 1 John 1:9). Victimizer and victim alike can experience liberation from their victimization in Jesus Christ.
Change can happen. Change must happen. Change will happen.
As Dr. King wrote in his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” the early Church “was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principals of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” The church must once again become the thermostat that sets the spiritual temperature rather than merely a thermometer that reflects the spiritual temperature of our society.
My life was changed as a 16-year-old boy when I heard Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” on August 28, 1963. Those eloquent words still challenge us today: a dream of a color-blind society where all Americans will be “not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
As Dr. King said, “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, ‘My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims’ pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'”
I refuse to abandon the dream. I urge my fellow Christians to join with me in pledging to reach out as His ambassadors of reconciliation and model before our fellow countrymen what true reconciliation looks like and how the resulting racial and ethnic mosaic will behave.
Hobby Lobby prez: Standing firm against ObamaCare mandate
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by News RoomThe president of Hobby Lobby says he has received a lot of support when it comes to his family’s legal battle with the federal government. At issue is the government’s requirement in the new healthcare law for employers to cover contraceptives for employees.
Speaking Thursday on American Family Radio, Steve Green explained that the mandate violates his family’s religious freedoms.
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“Their argument is that it is best for women, in a very general sense, to provide all 20 contraceptives that are mandated – and of course, we’re talking about four of the 20,” he shares. “We offer the 16 – so it’s not the contraceptive piece, it is the abortive piece that is problematic for us.”
Green said following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, it was clear what path he and his family had to take.
“The Supreme Court made the ruling that it [the mandate] was a tax,” he recalled. “It was after that point that our legal counsel came and let us know what the ramifications of that were for our family with the 20 contraceptions that are mandated, four of those being abortive in nature, which he knew was something that would violate our own conscience. So that’s when we realized that we had no other option but to file suit.”
In the aftermath of the high court’s ruling and the Hobby Lobby lawsuit, Green has witnessed an outpouring of support for his family’s cause.
“Everywhere I go, if I’m out speaking somewhere or at an event of some sort, there has been a lot of support,” he told AFR. “A lot of people are in this same position in the business community and they’re kind of watching our case because they just don’t feel like they can take this battle on themselves and are supporting us. We’ve had a lot of people saying they’re praying for us.”
The lawsuit has been sent back and forth in federal court, but Hobby Lobby was just recently given a temporary injunction from the requirement. The federal government, meanwhile, has until October 1 to consider filing an appeal with the Supreme Court. In the meantime, Hobby Lobby is not subject to fines, as called for by the federal government for employers who do not comply.
In Hobby Lobby’s case, those fines – if applied to every employee – could amount to more than a million dollars a day.
“There is a calculation that is $100 per day per affected employee,” he explained. “If we were to take all of the employees and lives that are on our health plan – some employees don’t take our health plan, some of them do, and they’ve got dependents who are covered as well – there are about 13,000 [employees]. When you take the $100 per day, if you applied it to all 13,000, you’re at $1.3 million a day.”
Congress to Investigate Planned Parenthood Abortion Business
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by News RoomThe Government Accountability Office’s (GAO), a Congressional agency, has indicated it will conduct an investigation of the Planned Parenthood abortion, business, which was recently busted for millions of dollars of Medicaid fraud in Texas.
The abortion giant has engaged in at least $12.5 million in fraud over multiple states — that has become public knowledge so far.
Representatives Diane Black (R-TN), Pete Olson (R-TX), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator David Vitter (R-LA) issued states late Monday saying they are grateful the agency will look into the abortion corporation and its financial dealings.
“The federal government providing funding to abortion providers is a serious problem in our nation,” Rep. Black said.
She added: “I am pleased with the decision from GAO to investigate the use of taxpayer money designated to any abortion provider, particularly Planned Parenthood. This independent study of how much and for what purpose these dollars are allocated to all abortion providers is necessary for Congress to ensure accountability and oversight. I look forward to reviewing the results and ultimately, mobilizing the support needed to stop federal funding of abortion providers once and for all.”
Senator David Vitter added: “Planned Parenthood performed a record 333,964 abortions last year – almost 1 million in the past three years. At the same time, they also received more federal taxpayer dollars than ever before – a record $542 million, an 11 percent increase over the past two years. Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide abortions clearly benefit from Uncle Sam, but there’s no accounting to prove how they actually use that money. This GAO report would shine a light on how our tax dollars are being spent.”
“I’m thrilled that GAO has agreed to again investigate the amount of taxpayer funding that has been allocated to Planned Parenthood and similar groups that perform or promote abortions,” Rep. Pete Olson said.
Olson continued: “Federal tax dollars are legally prohibited from being used for abortions. Under the U.S. constitution, the Obama Administration has a duty to enforce these laws. And under that same constitution, Congress has a duty to ensure that the executive branch follows the law of the land. I look forward to seeing the report and following up on behalf of all American taxpayers.”
“Despite the best and slickest market branding money can buy, the stubborn fact remains that Planned Parenthood clinics are among the most dangerous places on Earth for a child. It is deeply troubling that despite the fact that Planned Parenthood claims direct responsibility for killing over 6 million unborn babies, including a record 333,964 abortions in 2011 alone, they still receive taxpayer money—since Obama’s election, U.S. subsidies to the abortion industry at home and abroad, have significantly increased,” Olson added.
These members of Congress led a group of more than 50 members of Congress requesting a report from the GAO on how taxpayer funding is specifically used by Planned Parenthood and other federally funded organizations that perform or promote abortion. Black and Vitter are the lead sponsors of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 217/S. 135), legislation to block any Title X federal funding from going to organizations that perform abortions, such as Planned Parenthood.
Congressman Chris Smith concluded: “It’s time for Americans and especially Congress to take a second look and defund Planned Parenthood. I’m pleased that the GAO will be investigating how much taxpayer money the abortion industry is receiving. Hopefully this will help us finally put an end U.S. taxpayer support, funding and complicity with this violence against children.”
More Than 1 Million Bible App Users Complete American Bible Society's Reading Plans
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by News RoomThe American Bible Society has announced that more than 1 million of its reading plans have been downloaded on LifeChurch.tv’s YouVersion Bible App, which just marked a major milestone of 100 million downloads by mobile users.
According to the American Bible Society, founded in 1816 and located in New York City, its reading plans are among the most popular options on the YouVersion Bible App, which boasts a nearly solid 5-star rating on Apple’s iTunes store and on Android’s Google Play store.
“With so many sinking trends for the Bible, it’s great to see God’s Word break out here in the opposite direction on YouVersion,” Geoffrey Morin, chief communications officer of American Bible Society, said in a press release. “We’re thrilled to play our part in helping the world’s best-selling book become one of the most-downloaded apps of all time.”
Bobby Gruenewal, co-founder of YouVersion and a pastor at LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma, credited the American Bible Society with helping the popular Bible App break its current record.
“YouVersion’s 100 million installs wouldn’t be possible without partners like American Bible Society. This is not a story about an app as much as a global mission to share the Bible. YouVersion has grown to become a coalition of publishers, pastors, churches and Bible societies who have joined forces to help this world engage with God’s Word.”
The YouVersion Bible App, launched in 2008, provides users with more than 600 versions of the Bible in over 350 languages for free. The app has become so popular that many ministries have recently signed on to be a part of the tech giant’s movement. The Billy Graham Evangelical Association announced last month that a new daily, one-year reading plan based on Graham’s sermons and writings would be made available through the YouVersion Bible App.
Paul Ryan Against Using Shutdown Threat to Repeal Obamacare
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by News RoomRepublican congressman Paul Ryan on Sunday showed a resolve to repeal “Obamacare,” but stressed that efforts to remove President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law should not use the threat of a government shutdown.
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the GOP should make efforts to get rid of Obamacare, but not by blocking government funding bills that includes money for the program. A shutdown, he explained, would affect only budgets for government agencies, and not entitlement programs.
“Look – we all, Republicans, want to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Ryan, a former vice presidential candidate, said. “With the government shutdown, so to speak, we’re talking about discretionary spending, government agency budgets, but it doesn’t affect entitlements. Obamacare is an entitlement, you know, like Medicare and Social Security is. And so, the entitlement continues on, even under a government shutdown scenario. So it’s just not that simple and easy.”
The Wisconsin congressman went on to say that rather than “sort of swinging for the fences and trying to take this entire law out with discretionary spending, I think there are more effective ways of achieving that goal.” Republicans “we can do better by delaying this law. We’ve already had votes to delay other parts of it,” said Ryan, a possible Republican presidential candidate for 2016. “Democrats have supported us in that.”
The Obamacare is scheduled for implementation in October, and some Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, want the party to use the shutdown threat to kill it.
Ryan also differs with some of his colleagues in the party who believe a lack of effort towards immigration reform could harm the GOP politically. “I disagree that we should approach this issue based on what’s right for us politically. We should approach this issue on what we think is the right thing to do, the right policy,” he said.
“…Right now, people come to this country based on family relations, not based on skills,” Ryan added. “Most other countries have a legal immigration system that’s good for their economy – we should do the same. And when it comes to the undocumented, the people who came here illegally, we want to give people a chance to get right with the law while respect the rule of law and that means not doing an amnesty.”
Obamacare’s Pro-Abortion HHS Mandate Marks One Year Anniversary
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by News RoomThe pro-abortion mandate that is a part of Obamacare marks its one-year anniversary today — forcing religious groups to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions. Enforcement of the mandate is expected to begin in January.
The mandate went into effect last year on August 1 and the very minimal religious protections were set to go into effect today, but they will be implemented and enforcement will take place starting on January 1.
Matt Smith, President of Catholic Advocate, lamented the anniversary of the mandate in an email to LifeNews.
“This is more than unacceptable; it’s un-American. But Congress failed to act when we lobbied them to institute conscience protections legislation and only President Obama can prevent this destructive mandate from going into effect…but we both know that will never happen,” he said.
“We owe it to ourselves and our fellow Americans of faith to do whatever we can do try to reverse this historic attack on religious liberty. And more importantly, we owe it to future generations to make sure an attack like this can never happen again by passing conscience protections legislation immediately,” he said.
Kristan Hawkins, the head of Students for Life of America, also condemned today’s anniversary.
“Today, August 1st, is the Obama administration’s original deadline to force all religious employers to comply with their abortion-drug (HHS) mandate,” she said.
Hawkins said “many folks don’t know what’s happening today and that has been done on purpose. Over the past two years, President Obama and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have purposely made everything about the abortion-drug (HHS) mandate and $1 abortion surcharge mandate confusing.”
“When Obamacare was passed, it gave the Department of Health and Human Services, led by an extreme abortion supporter – Kathleen Sebelius – the ability to decide what services and prescriptions must be covered by all insurance companies across America. They labeled pregnancy as a “preventable disease” therefore requiring that chemical contraception be covered by all insurance carriers,” she explained. “This decision went against many American’s pro-life and religious beliefs because we know chemical contraception can cause early abortions (especially drugs like the morning after pill, Plan B) and has been proven to cause breast cancer, and has been labeled as a Type 1 carcinogen (just like cigarettes) by the World Health Organization.”
“Immediately, religious employers like Catholic hospitals and schools and private businesses led by Christians, opposed this abortion-drug (HHS) mandate. President Obama and his administration have fought these employers every step of the way declaring that providing abortion-causing drugs to female employees and the daughters of employees does not violate an employer’s conscience,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins concluded: “This June, President Obama’s administration said that they would “compromise” by delaying, for the second-time, the August 1, 2013 enforcement of this abortion-drug mandate until January 1, 2014. Incidentally, this is the same day that many Americans will start paying (without a choice) $1 a month from their insurance premiums to go into an abortion slush fund – remember this was the Obama administration’s “compromise” to pass Obamacare that abortion didn’t have to be in every insurance plan, just that insurance carriers had to pay $1 per person, out of their collected revenues from you and I, enrolled in their exchange plans each month into an abortion fund.”
Earlier this month, a federal court granted Hobby Lobby a preliminary injunction against the HHS abortion-drug mandate. The injunction prevents the Obama administration from enforcing the mandate against the Christian company, which does not want to be compelled to pay for birth control or drugs that may cause abortions.
“The tide has turned against the HHS mandate,” said Kyle Duncan, General Counsel with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and lead attorney for Hobby Lobby. “This is a major victory for not only Hobby Lobby, but the religious liberty of all for-profit businesses.”
Duncan says there are now 63 separate lawsuits challenging the HHS mandate. The Becket Fund led the charge against the unconstitutional HHS mandate. The Becket Fund currently represents: Hobby Lobby, Wheaton College, East Texas Baptist University, Houston Baptist University, Colorado Christian University, the Eternal Word Television Network, Ave Maria University, and Belmont Abbey College.
The most recent polling data from December 2012 shows Americans support a religious exemption to the mandate.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article indicated the mandate went into effect today, rather than saying the mandate was marking its anniversary today.
Pa. Governor Corbett Properly Moves to Halt Public Official from Violating Pa. Marriage Law
/0 Comments/in Release /by News RoomPHILADELPHIA – Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network (PPN, www.papastors.net) is encouraged that the Corbett administration has taken action in Commonwealth Court to halt the official breaking of Pennsylvania state law, that recognizes marriage law between one man and one woman, by the Montgomery County register of wills who was issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Since mid-July, when Attorney General Kathleen Kane called the state’s law banning homosexual marriage unconstitutional, Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes has illegally issued 34 licenses to homosexual couples.
Sam Rohrer, President of the Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network says, “I am encouraged by Governor Corbett’s decision to use his authority to stop the intentional breaking of law by a local elected official. As I and others stated in our July 17 press conference at the Pennsylvania State Capitol, Attorney General Kane’s public refusal to uphold her oath of office and defend the State’s Marriage Law would encourage greater lawlessness. The actions of Register of Wills, Hanes is but the first example. Governor Corbett is justified to use his authority to seek the compliance with the law as the Constitution demands and he is appropriately and lawfully also defending natural marriage between one man and one woman.
“Pennsylvania’s DOMA clearly states that marriage in Pennsylvania is the union of one man and one woman. When two elected officials (Kane and Hanes) or any other, think that they can act above the law, demonstrate political tyranny and encourage lawlessness, it is critical that the citizens know that they will be held accountable to the law by others in elected office who share the responsibility to ensure that law is upheld by all in public office. We are encouraging all elected officials to heed the example, in this instance that Governor Corbett has displayed. The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network urges pastors to earnestly preach the Absolute Truth of God’s Word and to teach that civil freedom can only survive when people self-govern their own actions according to the Commands of God.”
The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a group of biblically faithful clergy and church liaisons whose objective is to build a permanent infrastructure of like-minded clergy who affirm the authority of Scripture, take seriously Jesus’ command to be the “salt and light” to the culture, encourage informed Christian thinking about contemporary social issues; examine public policy issues without politicizing their pulpits and engage their congregations in taking part in our political process on a non-partisan basis.
The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network website continues to offer a wealth of resources to pastors to help them equip their congregations to live a Christian life, from sermon notes to corporate prayers for our nation, to resources for laypeople, covering everything from preparation to finances.
The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a state chapter affiliate of the American Pastors’ Network. The American Pastors’ Network is a Ministry Program Affiliate of Capstone Legacy Foundation (a 501 C3 non-profit organization). To contact them visit. www.papastors.net or call 610-584.1225.
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To schedule interviews with Sam Rohrer, President of the PA Pastors’ Network, contact Deborah Hamilton at dhamilton@hamiltonstrategies.com, 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096.
Texas Planned Parenthood’s Fraud Was $4.3 Million, Three Times More Than Announced
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by News RoomTexas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced on July 24 that his office had obtained a $1.4 million settlement against Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast for Medicaid fraud, with the settlement to be split between the state of Texas, the federal government, and the whistleblower (former PPGC employee Karen Reynolds).
It turns out the AG was apparently only announcing his state’s cut. The total settlement is actually $4.3 million – almost $3 million more than previously known. From the Houston Chronicle today:
Planned Parenthood’s Houston-based affiliate clarified Tuesday that it settled for $4.3 million, three times the $1.4 million that Abbott reported a week ago.
His spokesman tried to explain the discrepancy, indicating Abbott intended to announce the smaller amount, which represents the “state’s designation.” But it’s unclear why Abbott wouldn’t have announced the whole amount.
The attorney general also jumped the gun with his press release, announcing the settlement before it had been finalized. (It has since been signed by all parties.)
When I called the AG’s press office to help me understand the discrepancy I was greeted by a surprisingly rude man who wouldn’t even give me his name. His response before hanging up, “It means the investigation is not over.” Ok. Still don’t understand, but there you go.
Despite the confusion this would all seem to be good news, although the original charge was that PPGC “submitted more than $30 million in fraudulent bills between 2003 and 2009,” according to the Houston Chronicle, July 30.
“If the original claim that PP defrauded the taxpayer of $30 million is near accurate, it means that PP settled for 15 cents on the dollar,” wrote American Life League’s Jim Sedlak to me in an email. “No incentive there to stop committing Medicaid fraud.”
Abby Johnson’s lawsuit against the same Planned Parenthood affiliate is still not settled. Abby alleges PPGC committed “over $5.7 million in fraud,” according to her legal representation, Alliance Defending Freedom.
LifeNews.com Note: Jill Stanek fought to stop “live birth abortions” after witnessing one as an RN at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. That led to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act legislation, signed by President Bush, that would ensure that proper medical care be given to unborn children who survive botched abortion attempts.
'Obamacare' mandate delay will cost $12 billion, affect 1 million workers
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by News RoomPresident Barack Obama’s decision to delay implementation of part of his healthcare reform law will cost $12 billion and leave a million fewer Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance in 2014, congressional researchers said Tuesday.
The report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is the first authoritative estimate of the human and fiscal cost from the administration’s unexpected one-year delay announced July 2 of the employer mandate – a requirement for larger businesses to provide health coverage for their workers or pay a penalty.
The analysts said the delay will add to the cost of “Obamacare’s” insurance-coverage provisions over the next 10 years. Penalties paid by employers would be lower and more individuals who otherwise might have had employer coverage will need federal insurance subsidies.
“Of those who would otherwise have obtained employment-based coverage, roughly half will be uninsured (in 2014),” CBO said in a July 30 letter to Representative Paul Ryan, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.
Under Obama’s healthcare reform law, employers with 50 or more full-time workers were supposed to provide healthcare coverage or incur penalties beginning January 1. But the requirement will now begin in 2015.
The delay intensified doubts about the administration’s ability to implement Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement and stirred Republican calls for a similar delay in another Obamacare mandate that requires most individuals to have health insurance in 2014.
The Republican-controlled House followed up the administration’s decision by voting on July 17 for its own measures to delay the employer and individual mandates. Neither piece of legislation is expected to succeed in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
State and federal officials are racing to set up new online health insurance exchanges, where lower-to-moderate income families that lack health insurance will be able to sign up for federally subsidized coverage beginning on October 1. The poor will also be able to sign up for Medicaid coverage in 23 states that have opted to expand the program.
Most large employers already offer health insurance and CBO said few are expected to drop coverage because of the delay.
But the change will still result in a $10 billion reduction in penalty payments that some employers would have made in 2015 for failing to provide coverage next year, CBO said.
The change also means another $3 billion in added costs for exchange subsidies. That is because about half of the 1 million workers who would have gained employer-sponsored coverage next year will now obtain insurance through the exchanges or via public programs including Medicaid, CBO said.
Other changes, including an increase in taxable compensation resulting from fewer people enrolling in employment-based coverage, will offset those factors by about $1 billion.
CBO now puts the net cost of Obamacare’s insurance coverage provisions at around $1.38 trillion over the next 10 years, vs. its May baseline projection of $1.36 trillion.
Elected Officials Breaking the Law Encourages Rampant Lawlessness
/0 Comments/in Release /by News RoomPHILADELPHIA – Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network (PPN, www.papastors.net) is urging pastors across Pennsylvania to speak out against the increasing tendency among executive and judicial branches of government, both state and federal, to ignore Constitutionally enacted laws, instead imposing their own will upon the people who elected them. It has already happened twice in Pennsylvania in the last two weeks.
The Montgomery County register of wills, D. Bruce Hanes, is following state Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s actions, who has refused to defend the state law against a federal lawsuit, and the Obama administration, which declined to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Hanes has decided to violate the Pennsylvania law that bans same-sex marriages across the Commonwealth.
According to Philly.com, Hanes’ decision could have statewide implications, bringing gay and lesbian Pennsylvanians to Norristown for licenses that could then be used for weddings anywhere in the state.
The legality of those licenses would remain in question, however. Under Pennsylvania law, the recognition of marriage is restricted to one man and one woman.
Sam Rohrer, President of the Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network says, “I am greatly concerned for the very pillars of law underpinning our Republic. I see a dangerously developing trend when in just the past four years, most notably when the California State Executive Branch , the U.S. Supreme Court, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kane, and now, Montgomery County Register of Wills, D. Bruce Hanes, arbitrarily decide to simply ignore or override the will of the people in regard to their Constitutional obligations. It is likely not coincidental that this move into lawlessness is tied directly, in these examples, to a direct attack on the family and religious freedom in America. A defiance of Constitutionally-passed civil law starts with a defiance of God’s Moral Laws.”
According to Rohrer, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kathleen Kane acted unconstitutionally when she openly refused to uphold her oath of office to defend Pennsylvania state law. Just recently, Kane, who is an open supporter of homosexual rights activists, stated that she could not and would not defend Pennsylvania’s Defense of marriage Act, which was enacted by large margins in the state legislature in 1996.
Rohrer adds, “When elected officials, whether state or federal, are no longer held accountable to the respective Constitutions to which they are sworn, and under which their very offices are created, then political anarchy and lawlessness are assured. We are encouraging pastors everywhere to earnestly preach the Absolute Truth of God’s Word and to teach that civil freedom can only survive when people do as William Penn made clear right here in Pennsylvania – self govern their own actions according to the Commands of God. Obedience to the law with accountability to the people and to God is essential for limited government to survive. The answers to our problems are not political. They are in every way spiritual and that starts with recognizing the Absolute Truth of God’s Word. When the law and oaths of office are cavalierly discarded for passing considerations, all of our guaranteed rights are threatened.”
In her statement, Kane claimed ethical reasons for refusing to uphold her sworn duties. Hanes also expressed his personal ethics and his conflict with not issuing same-sex marriage licenses to those who now request them.
Rohrer points out, “If one cannot ethically defend the Biblical and historical definition of Natural Marriage as being between one man and one woman, then it is legitimate to question the source these ‘ethics.’ Kane’s definition of ethics stands in clear and direct contrast to a Biblical standard of right and wrong. Kane’s view reflects that of popular culture, which states that there is no absolute truth, that right and wrong are relative, that there is no moral compass and therefore no God to whom we will give an account. What is right today is wrong tomorrow, and vice versa. It is this Post-Modern view that is in conflict with, and is undermining, the Rule of law, our Constitution, self-government and our very freedoms. It is this view that empowered Bruce Hanes to act out of order.”
Rohrer concludes, “I believe that unless this distinction is acknowledged and there is a return to the concept of ethics and morality as defined by God in His Word, which provides an absolute, universal standard by which to judge right and wrong, we will lose the freedoms we have so long enjoyed and which are reflected in our Declaration of Independence and our PA and US Constitutions.”
The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a group of biblically faithful clergy and church liaisons whose objective is to build a permanent infrastructure of like-minded clergy who affirm the authority of Scripture, take seriously Jesus’ command to be the “salt and light” to the culture, encourage informed Christian thinking about contemporary social issues; examine public policy issues without politicizing their pulpits and engage their congregations in taking part in our political process on a non-partisan basis.
The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network website continues to offer a wealth of resources to pastors to help them equip their congregations to live a Christian life, from sermon notes to corporate prayers for our nation, to resources for laypeople, covering everything from preparation to finances.
The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a state chapter affiliate of the American Pastors’ Network. The American Pastors’ Network is a Ministry Program Affiliate of Capstone Legacy Foundation (a 501 C3 non-profit). To contact them visit. www.papastors.net or call 610-584.1225.
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To schedule interviews with Sam Rohrer, President of the PA Pastors’ Network, contact Deborah Hamilton at dhamilton@hamiltonstrategies.com, 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096.
The Trayvon Martin Controversy: Where Do We Go From Here?
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by News RoomWhatever one’s views on the Trayvon Martin controversy and jury verdict, two things are crystal clear. First, the racial divide in America, despite undisputed progress over the last decades, remains deep, wide, and extremely sensitive. Clearly, Americans of different ethnicities often view events through very different prisms.
Second, the controversy exposes the limitations of the legal system in healing American’s racial wounds. While the law can, and should, do many things, it cannot do what matters most: changing hearts and minds.
All Americans of good will should be asking themselves this question: “Where do we go from here and how do we make it better?”
At its most basic level, racism is, and always has been, a spiritual problem. Ultimately, only a spiritual solution can heal the racial wounds that continue to afflict our nation.
The prophet Jeremiah summed it up well many centuries ago when he declared, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).
The fact that racism is at its foundation a spiritual issue and will be vanquished ultimately only by spiritual means, does not mean that legislative and judicial remedies must not be applied to racial discrimination and bigotry. The restraint and punishment of “those that doeth evil” was one major reason God ordained the civil magistrate (Rom. 13:2).
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Racial discrimination furnishes an excellent example of this principle. Legislative and judicial remedies radically altered the status of de jure segregation and legally institutionalized racial discrimination in our society. Our history furnished many painful examples and memories of the grievous situation prior to such legislative and judicial restraint. But what about de facto segregation and discrimination? There you are dealing with attitudes, not actions. When you enter the realm of the mind and the heart you are moving beyond the power of legal restraint. If elimination, not restraint, of racial prejudice and bigotry is the goal – and for Christians it must be – then you must move beyond legislative and judicial answers to spiritual ones. We must always remember that the salt of the law can change actions, behaviors, and habits. Only the light of the Gospel can change attitudes, beliefs, and hearts.
The Apostle Peter was taught by the Holy Spirit “that God is no respecter of persons” (Act. 10:34), and Peter was delivered form his ethnic prejudices against Gentiles.
Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” It is noteworthy that He said this in response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus related the parable of “The Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus uses the Samaritan, the most despised ethnic group in His society, as the “hero” of the story to underscore that everyone is our neighbor, regardless of racial, national, economic, political, or sexual differences.
Our heavenly Father has called all Christians not only to love our neighbors as ourselves, but to be ambassadors of spiritual reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-21).
If America is going to be healed of its racial traumas, the church must lead the way. Christians of all ethnicities must reach out and establish dialogue, relationship, and friendship where we know each other as people and friends who have been transformed by the power of the Gospel.
Everyone is victimized by racism, perpetrator and victim alike. Lillian Smith, in her 1949 book, Killers of the Dream, wrote evocatively of the spiritual corrosiveness of the rigid segregation of her rural Georgia childhood and adolescence. She wrote of how whites and blacks “learned the dance that cripples the human spirit.” In despair, she described the deformation of the human spirit, perpetrated by racism:
Something was wrong with a world that tells you that love is good and people are important and then forces you to deny love and to humiliate people. . . . in trying to shut the Negro race from us, we have shut ourselves away from so many good, creative, honest, deeply human things in life. . . . the warped, distorted form we have put around every Negro child from birth is around every white child also. Each is on a different side of the frame, but each is pinioned there. . . . what cruelly shapes and cripples the personality of one is as cruelly shaping and crippling the personality of the other.
Lillian Smith is right that everyone is victimized when bigotry and racism occur. Sadly, Lillian Smith despaired of the victims’ ever overcoming such formative experiences. Even when they summon the strength and knowledge to escape the frame, she viewed them, and herself, as “stunted and warped and in our lifetime cannot grow straight again.” Joyously, the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that Lillian Smith is wrong and that with His help we can be healed and liberated from our past (Col. 2:13-15; 1 John 1:9). Victimizer and victim alike can experience liberation from their victimization in Jesus Christ.
Change can happen. Change must happen. Change will happen.
As Dr. King wrote in his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” the early Church “was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principals of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” The church must once again become the thermostat that sets the spiritual temperature rather than merely a thermometer that reflects the spiritual temperature of our society.
My life was changed as a 16-year-old boy when I heard Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” on August 28, 1963. Those eloquent words still challenge us today: a dream of a color-blind society where all Americans will be “not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
As Dr. King said, “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, ‘My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims’ pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'”
I refuse to abandon the dream. I urge my fellow Christians to join with me in pledging to reach out as His ambassadors of reconciliation and model before our fellow countrymen what true reconciliation looks like and how the resulting racial and ethnic mosaic will behave.