Christian Action Commission

Pro-Lifers cave, secure health care reform

All eyes were on Capitol Hill on Sunday. Late that evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, bucking the will of the American people, cobbled together a slim majority of House votes to send a trillion-dollar health care reform package to President Obama, who signed the overhaul into law today. To pro-lifers’ dismay, a flawed concession on the prominent issue that had threatened reform for months, abortion, proved to be a deciding factor in its passage.

Just hours before the House vote, the White House struck a deal with Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and a handful of other Democratic holdouts by agreeing to an executive order to supposedly block funding of elective abortion under the bill. That was enough to propel the bill past the necessary 216 mark for passage with a final vote of 219-212.

Yet Rep. Stupak and his band of colleagues, who had …

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Silencing Christians: Homosexual protection & Hate Crime Bill

WASHINGTON (BP and local reports) — Despite objections that it would infringe on the religious liberty of pastors and other faith leaders, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a defense bill October 8 that includes historic hate crimes protections for homosexuals.

The 2010 defense authorization bill, which passed 281-146, has little if anything to do with hate crimes but is being used as a vehicle to pass hate crimes legislation. The defense bill (H.R. 2647) now goes to the U.S. Senate, where a similar version already passed earlier this year.

Mississippi Representatives Travis Childers, Bennie Thompson, and Gene Taylor — all Democrats — voted yes on the bill. Republican Representative Gregg Harper voted no.

Lobbyists for homosexual organizations for years have supported expanding the hate crimes law but failed, either because Republicans controlled Congress …

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Land: Christians must battle barbarism

NEW ORLEANS (BP and local reports) — Civilization stands at a fork in the road and will either ascend to greater heights or tumble into barbarism unless Christians reassert the value of all human life and absolute moral truth, Richard Land told a Founder’s Day audience October 6 at New Orleans Seminary.

Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, said the future of civilization turns on two fundamental questions: Is moral truth real and knowable or is it merely a preference? A question of human value follows: Is mankind of value because of the essence of mankind, or only for what mankind can do?

These questions are at the heart of policy debates over abortion, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and health care reform, said Land, who is scheduled to speak October 26 at …

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Gay divorce would undermine marriage

Homosexual activists, fighting to attain legal same-sex “marriage,” are creating an unlikely battleground: divorce courts. In the latest skirmish, a Dallas judge, Tena Callahan, has ruled that her court has jurisdiction to hear the “divorce” case of two men “married” in Massachusetts in 2006 and now living in Texas.

The decision caused quite a stir in the state where, in 2005, 75 percent of voters passed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union between one man and one woman. Everybody thought that meant: NO GAY MARRIAGES. Period. End of story.

But homosexual groups are trying to figure out how to force same-sex “marriage” on states where voters are clearly and overwhelmingly against it. This attempt to get the courts to grant divorces to gay couples is one way they’re going about it. Jennifer Pizer, marriage project director for the gay advocacy group Lambda Legal, …

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The World is Hungry!

The pastor began his sermon with this statement, “The world is hungry!” He paused and stood silently to allow the words to rumble around in the minds of his congregation. Then he asked, “How many of you are wondering why they are hungry and for what are they hungry?” Over half raised their hands. 

The simple truth is that the world is hungry for food, not peace, not universal health care, nor more money, just basic food.  It is fairly safe to assume that you, like me, know very little about malnutrition and hunger.  But many in our world face a crisis every day—no food.  The United Nations reported in June 2009 that approximately 1.02 billion people are acutely hungry every day.

The world’s population is estimated to be around 6.788 billion as of Sept. 30, 2009.  Approximately 1 billion live in developed or industrialized nations …

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The trouble with hate crimes legislation

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1913) is an irresponsible piece of legislation. Its most notable flaws are its determination to prosecute people for their beliefs about homosexuality and its creation of a special protected class for homosexuals. How do you prosecute someone for prejudice? You determine what that person believes about a particular issue and then you surmise that his actions were a result of that belief. Most Christians, as well as many other religious groups, believe that homosexuality and homosexual behavior are contrary to God’s design for humanity. Consequently, this bill puts Christians and many other religious groups in the government’s crosshairs.

Under this law, one’s religious belief about homosexuality can be sufficient reason to prosecute him for a hate crime if he engages in an act of violence against a homosexual. While we should never condone acts of violence against people merely …

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The Public Health Plan: A Pro-Life Non-Starter

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has posted on its Web site the health care reform bill they have been working on. It’s called the “Affordable Health Choices Act.” As promised, it contains a public health care option. The impact on other health insurance providers is reason enough to oppose a public health plan, but an even greater reason is the way it is going to undermine pro-life values.

The public plan’s immediate and long-term threat to pro-life values is what makes it a non-starter. The plan’s immediate threat to pro-life values is evident from its failure to provide any pro-life protections. There is no protection for health care providers who, due to their faith convictions, cannot provide abortion or abortion referrals. There is no protection for pharmacy owners or workers who cannot in good conscience dispense abortion drugs. There is no restriction on abortion, …

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The ‘Cap-and-Tax’ Fiasco

Basic economic principles teach that achieving sound economic policy requires careful consideration of two expected outcomes: costs and benefits. A majority in Congress has just opted to disregard both.

In a narrow 219-212 vote, the House of Representatives has approved what many call the largest tax increase in American history—all in what many experts view as a futile attempt to control the world’s thermostat. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, which restricts industries to specified amounts of greenhouse gases and other carbon emissions they can discharge, garnered support from 211 Democrats and eight Republicans. The damage was done Friday night, just before the House broke for a weeklong July 4 recess.

At its core, the nearly 1,500-page bill is a monstrosity, threatening to make every American who turns on a light switch a loser. First, there is the exorbitant cost. Such a plan amounts to a national energy …

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A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming

Jul 27, 2006

Preamble

As evangelicals, we commend those who signed the Evangelical Climate Initiative’s “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action” for speaking out on a public issue of ethical concern. We share the same Biblical world view, theology, and ethics. We are motivated by the same deep and genuine concern they express for the poor not only of our own nation but of the world. That very concern compels us to express our disagreement with their “Call to Action” and to offer an alternative that would improve the lot of the poor more surely and effectively.

It is important to speak directly to the issue of motive. We do not question the motive of those who produced or signed the ECI’s “Call to Action.” We assume that they acted out of genuine concern for the world’s poor and others and considered their action justified …

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Analysis: ‘Cap and Tax’ Schemers Are Cutting Deals

As the nation tries to pull itself out of financial hard times, some legislators in Washington are eagerly pushing a plan destined to further escalate the economic downturn. Their proposal: reining in carbon emissions with a sweeping global warming bill that would create a tremendous tax burden for businesses, large and small, and every American who turns on a light switch or consumes any product.

Following weeks of negotiations, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) cut a deal Friday with several colleagues on a bill to ration energy use with a cap-and-trade system. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454), as it is titled, is the centerpiece of debate this week in Rep. Waxman’s House Energy and Commerce Committee. The congressman is making every effort to reach committee passage of the bill this week.

Under the 932-page measure, industries would …

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Got Bread? Give to World Hunger

“Obesity costs Mississippi millions” was one of the featured articles in the June 4th edition of The Clarion Ledger.  The adult obesity rate for Mississippi in 1991 was more than 15 percent.  Now it is 30.6 percent. That is the highest in America.  The article suggested obesity cost Mississippi taxpayers $221 million per year.  The national medical bill for obesity is approximately $93 billion annually.

These figures are staggering and startling, but do not let them deceive you into believing that hunger and malnutrition are non existent, especially in Mississippi and the rest of the world.  The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 200,000 Mississippi households live with hunger or the threat of hunger on a regular basis.

The leading cause of hunger is poverty and it is here that Mississippi leads all states.  The Food Stamps Program, the first line of defense against hunger, …

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Who shall prevail—the judges or the people?

May 22, 2008

This column originally published at Casting Stones, a blog hosted by Beliefnet.com.

The California Supreme Court has ruled (by a 4-3 vote) in its supposedly “infinite” wisdom that the California state constitution requires that same-sex couples must have the same right to get married as heterosexual couples do. The California Supreme Court did this in spite of the fact that the people of California voted in a referendum in 2000 that marriage was only to be a man and a woman, thus ruling out not only same-sex marriage, but also polygamy.

Californians voted by a 61 to 39 percent margin to define marriage in this exclusive and specific way. When one examined the referendum votes more closely, marriage “as only between a man and a woman” carried every county in the state, including San Francisco. It also carried …

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Nashville Declaration on “Same-sex Marriage”

Mar 9, 2005

Across the country the American people have spoken loudly, clearly repudiating attempts to redefine marriage. In every state in which citizens have been given the opportunity, they have voted to reaffirm the historic definition of marriage as only the union of one man and one woman. Yet activist judges are still in a position to force so-called “same-sex marriage” on the American people, and have already shown a willingness to do so in a number of states. In response to the serious challenge to the traditional biblical definition of marriage, we are compelled to make the following declaration:

1. We affirm the biblical teaching that God designed marriage as a lifetime union of one man and one woman. We deny that the God-ordained institution of marriage is subject to redefinition as merely a civil institution or simply a private matter.

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