East Central University cross chapel tear down

After Pressure from Around the Country, East Central University Backs Off Tearing Down Cross on 60 yr old Chapel

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East Central University — a public institution in Ada, Okla. — has found itself immersed in a fight over a fake argument and misinterpretation of “separation of church and state” The clause Jefferson used ONLY to assure that no Government would MANDATE a religion. Liberals have been using this argument for years to tear God out of the public eye. Leftists and progressives have distorted the meaning of separation of church and state to meet their own evil intentions of rid God from society.


In July, after receiving a bogus complaint from the religious hate group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the university agreed to remove various religious symbols on permanent display in a Christian chapel on campus. Which makes no sense at all. Shortly after the decision, East Central University administrators when faced with strong criticism from citizens nationwide, politicians and religious leaders reversed their decision. Which is a great example that Conservatives and Christians need to start to be more aggressive, as the Left is, towards institutions and organizations who wish to wipe God out of our society.

For now, the university has stopped plans to remove the religious symbols, pending a further review of the issues. You can bet your bottom dollar that this is not over. leftists are persistent. Evil never lets up!

“While it is legal for a public university to have a space that can be used by students for religious worship so long as that space is not dedicated solely to that purpose, it is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to display religious iconography on government property,” said the letter from Americans United for Separation of Church and State to the university. “Please remove or cover the religious displays and items.”

Specifically, the letter from the religious Hate Group cites the display of a Latin Cross and other crosses that are on permanent display in a way that the letter said “communicate[s] religious endorsement to members of the public by displaying religious items or messages.” The letter cited numerous court decisions about such displays.

Initially, the university said it would respond by removing the crosses. But then religious leaders started to speak out, saying it was fine for a public university to display crosses.

Randall Christy, founder of the Gospel Station Network, told The Tulsa World,

“It’s time for Christian people to take a stand for our history and heritage. The idea that the cross excludes people is not true — it’s the opposite. The cross represents that all are welcome, that people of all walks of life are loved by God.”

The university announced it was reversing course.

“We moved too quickly,” said a statement from Katricia Pierson, the university’s president. “We regret not taking time to pause and thoughtfully consider the request and the results of our actions on all of the students, faculty and community members who we serve … This requires a more thoughtful and deliberate approach to the request. That will be our next step.”

Via email, Ian Smith, a lawyer for Americans United, said, “The university has said that they will be taking a closer look and thinking about things. That’s fine — we gave them 30 days to respond, and the letter only went out on the 20th. Ultimately, though, we expect that they will make the same decision since the law is definitively on our side.”

A spokesman for the organization said many public colleges have chapels in which various student religious groups put up crosses and other religious objects during religious services or events. Americans United has no objections to such displays, the spokesman said.

jesus painting-hate-crime-islamic-center-hillside

A Painting Of Jesus, Who Optimizes Love, Deemed a ‘Hate Crime’ If Left Near a Mosque

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jesus painting hate crime Islamic centerA large painting of Jesus on the cross was left at a Long Island, NY Islamic center. Was it a sign of LOVE or Hate? Well, it’s likely Liberals got a hold of the story and have pressured police to investigate the innocent gesture as a hate crime. The Jesus painting was found Friday on a fence of the Islamic Center in North New Hyde Park, Nassau County police said. On Friday, a painting of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross was left on a fence outside the Hillside Islamic Center in Long Island, New York. Now, the Nassau County Police Dept. is investigating the incident as a “hate crime.”

“A worker there had found this lovely painting of Christ on a cross on the property,” reported an anchor for NBC 4. The Liberal News anchor went on to say that “The anti-Muslim message was found hanging from a fence, deemed to be a hate crime obviously because it was a mosque.” But this leaves one to ask, “Muslims believe Jesus as a great teacher of God” considered a Prophet in Islam. Also no one argues that Jesus was the epitome of Love, so then how can this be a hate crime? The answer is, Because Liberals NEED a victim!

But to be sure, “Nassau County police said they are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.” Yes, the world has gone crazy. Rather, Liberals are crazy and their heads explode when they see such a gesture of Love.

The so -called “anti-Muslim message,” as the NBC 4 anchor labeled it, was a green and white painting of Jesus’ silhouette hanging on the cross.

A man was caught on camera hanging the painting on the outside of the Islamic Center’s fence. The police department instructed anyone in the community with additional knowledge of the incident to contact a 1-800 tips number.

A reporter from News 12 stated “Members of this North New Hyde mosque feel someone tried to attack their religion Friday,” “The reaction was kind of surprised, that in this community, we’ve been here since 2002, this is the first time it has happened,” said a member of the Hillsdale Mosque.

Another member of the congregation said that, although Jesus is considered a prophet in Islam, “that’s not what he meant” when the man hung the painting on the center’s fence. Apparently the member is also a mind-reader and psychic. If a Christian left the same painting on ANYONE else’s fence it most likely would mean, “we believe He died for ALL of us” Hardly a message of hate when you are of the belief that Jesus made the greatest LOVE sacrifice known to man, he died on teh cross of ALL of us!

“He meant something else, you know. We don’t believe in image. We don’t have image for Jesus, you know. We don’t have image for Muhammad.” So they don’t believe a painting that illustrates the image of someone who walked and talked with man 2000 years ago as legitimate.

News 12 Long Island finished its coverage of the story by reporting that the Islamic Center will host an “interfaith barbecue” on July 21 in “hopes of building trust and understanding in the community” and urging viewers to call the tip hotline if they have any more information. But although Christians are invited to the barbecue, keep your beliefs and messages of hope and love to yourself… it might be misconstrued as a hate crime when you are at a Muslim barbecue.

pesecola cross taken down judge court florida cross bay view

Liberals Attack Christians Again: Pensacola Cross Ordered To Be Taken Down after 48 Years Standing – Due to 2 People

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The minority of Liberals win again.  Only 4 people complained that the cross was offensive.  What about the millions of heterosexuals offended by Gay Pride flags flying in every major city and paid for by tax payers?   Well, that is considered HATEFUL!  Liberals are liars. How can such a thing be ordered because only 2 people felt overwhelmed with offense due to the cross. A cross that has stood in Bayview Park near Pensacola, FL for the last 48 years must be removed within 30 days, a federal judge has ruled.

Even though thousands upon thousands of people have been blessed by the cross in Bayview Park for over 75 years, because just four people complained (two of whom we’re told have since moved to Canada), a federal judge has ruled that this 34-foot tall cross on public property in Pensacola, FL, has to come down. We have organizations like the American Humanist Association and the Freedom From Religion Foundation to thank for ridiculous changes like this. The Bible tells us that the cross is an offense. That’s because it represents the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the grave after three days to redeem us from the penalty of our sins. I agree with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee—they could donate that spot and the cross there to an independent organization to keep it up. Or—Christians and churches in Pensacola could multiply that cross by 100x across that city and others. Even better yet, we could multiply the message of the cross by sharing the Gospel with everyone we know “for it is the power of God unto salvation.”

U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson ruled Monday that the cross in the city park violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution and must be removed within 30 days.

The American Humanist Association, a group that works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists and other non-religious Americans, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit in 2016 on behalf of four Escambia County residents who said the cross at Bayview Park violated the separation of church and state.

Attorneys for the city of Pensacola and the American Humanist Association presented their oral arguments to Vinson on Wednesday.

Vernon Stewart, spokesman for the city of Pensacola, said on Monday that the city had received a copy of the order.

“We are currently in the process of reviewing this with our legal counsel,” Stewart said. “However, Mayor Hayward is traveling, and he will be the one to ultimately decide how to proceed.”

Monica Miller, senior counsel with the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center, said in a press release that she was pleased with court’s ruling.

“The cross was totally unavoidable to park patrons, and to have citizens foot the bill for such a religious symbol is both unfair and unconstitutional,” Miller said.

Arguments in the case came down to the “lemon test,” a three-part legal test established in the 1971 Supreme Court case Lemon v. Kurtzman.

The test states that a religious display on government-owned property must meet all three parts of the test to be constitutional. There must be a secular purpose for the display, the display cannot advance or inhibit religion and the display must not excessively entangle government with religion.

A cross has been in Bayview Park in one form or another since 1941. The Pensacola Jaycees, a civics organization for young men, built the current cross in 1969, and it has been maintained by the city ever since, according to court documents.

Judge Vinson, who said he was a member of the Jaycees in the 1970s, ruled that the “lemon test” did indeed apply in this case.

“Lemon is routinely criticized, but it is still the law of the land and I am not free to ignore it,” Vinson wrote in his 23-page opinion.

Vinson said there wouldn’t be an issue with people worshiping at the park using a temporary cross.

 

“However, after about 75 years, the Bayview Cross can no longer stand as a permanent fixture on city-owned property,” Vinson said. “I am aware that there is a lot of support in Pensacola to keep the cross as is, and I understand and respect that point of view. But, the law is the law.”

In addition to ordering the city to remove the cross, Vinson awarded $1 in damages to the plaintiffs — two of whom, Amanda and Andreiy Kondrat’yev, have moved to Canada  — since the case began. The other two plaintiffs are Andre Ryland and David Suhor.

In his ruling, Vinson cited several legal scholars who have criticized the current state of federal case law on the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

“Count me among those who hope the Supreme Court will one day revisit and reconsider its Establishment Clause jurisprudence, but my duty is to enforce the law as it now stands,” Vinson said

seth clark graduation speech

8th Grader Seth Clark Banned from Reciting Graduation Speech Referencing God

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Todd Starnes, Fox News / Dave Urbanski, The Blaze

The small town of Akin, Illinois is the heartbeat of the heartland. It’s a place where the crops are bountiful and so are the patriots.
hey don’t even have a post office in Akin – but they do have a church. And around this part of the country, church is what folks do.
So you can understand the concern among townsfolk when the salutatorian at Akin Grade School was told he could not deliver his graduation speech because it was too religious.

Seth Clark, 13, was mighty proud of that speech. He referenced God and quoted from the Bible and even mentioned his Christian faith.
But just hours before graduation, Seth was told that he would not be permitted to deliver his remarks.

“As a public school, it is our duty to educate students, regardless of how different they or their beliefs may be,” a statement from Akin Superintendent and Principal Kelly Clark to the paper reads. “While students are welcome to pray or pursue their faith without disrupting school or infringing upon the rights of others, the United States Constitution prohibits the school district from incorporating such activities as part of school-sponsoakin graduation seth clark christian speechred events, and when the context causes a captive audience to listen or compels other students to participate.”

Enter Rickey Karroll — a friend of Seth’s family — who told WSIL-TV he offered his property across the street from the school so Seth could give his speech.

And that’s exactly what happened.

Right after the May 16 ceremony, Seth — still dressed in his cap and gown — marched across the road along with classmates and dozens of supporters, the station said.

He then stood on the front porch of the house on Karroll’s property and read his speech.

 

religion under attack

Trump Signs New Executive Order on Religious Liberty – Liberals are Furious

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Free Exercise Clause. Free Exercise Clause refers to the section of the First Amendment italicized here: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… Historically, the Supreme Court has been inconsistent in dealing with this problem.The executive order President Trump is expected to sign Thursday will be focused on the Johnson Amendment and allow non-profit organizations to deny certain health coverage for religious reasons, administration sources told Fox News Wednesday.

The three main points of the executive order, according to a senior White House official, will declare “that it is the policy of the administration to protect and vigorously promote religious liberty,” direct the IRS “to exercise maxim enforcement of discretion to alleviate the burden of the Johnson Amendment,” and provide “regulatory relief for religious objectors to Obamacare’s burdensome preventive services mandate.”

The timing and contents of the order, which would come on the National Day of Prayer, are still “very fluid” and there are still several drafts, according to a senior administration official.

The Johnson Amendment, named for then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and enacted into law in 1954, essentially regulates tax-exempt organizations such as churches, and religious groups from being too politically involved.

Trump previously campaigned against the amendment, and in February said he would “destroy” the amendment that conservative groups claim restricted political speech by tax-exempt churches.

“I think how the president feels about Johnson amendment is that politicians and unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t have the power to shut up their critics just because they are church leaders or charities,” a senior White House official told Fox News.

In addition, sources tell Fox News the executive order will also allow non-profit organizations, hospitals, educational institutions, and businesses to deny certain health coverage for religious reasons,. That would entail protecting Christian groups like Little Sisters of the Poor from being forced to pay for abortion services.

An early draft of the order, leaked in February, would have established broad exemptions for people and groups to claim religious objections under strong language. Vice President Pence has been a proponent of the plan, and his office has been reportedly pushing for it for months.

While governor of Indiana, Pence signed a similar state law on religious liberty that stirred up controversy across the country, but was seen as a legislative win and rallying cry for social conservatives.

Progressive critics have argued the executive order would allow discrimination against the LGBT community at the federal level.

“The ACLU fights every day to defend religious freedom, but religious freedom does not mean the right to discriminate against or harm others,” Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement Wednesday. “If President Trump signs an executive order that attempts to provide a license to discriminate against women or LGBT people, we will see him in court.”

A senior White House official however pushed back on the criticism saying the order “is not about discrimination.”

‘We don’t have any plans to discriminate, we’re about not discriminating against religious organizations,” the official said.

“Everything that is legal stays legal, everything that is illegal stays illegal,” the official added.

Fox News’ John Roberts and Serafin Gomez contributed to this report.

isis calls for christian genocide

Isis Calls for Christian Genocide, VP Mike Pence calls them out at World Summit

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Originally Published on NewsBusters.org

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence condemned as “genocide” the horrifying atrocities committed against Christians “under siege” worldwide by “radical Islamic terrorists.” But will the broadcast networks report his comments – and, if so, will they finally use the word “genocide” themselves?

Representing the Trump administration, the vice president spoke at the first-ever World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians hosted by The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Washington, D.C. Pence’s audience consisted more than 600 Christian delegates from roughly 130 countries and territories.

“I’m here on behalf of the president as a tangible sign of his commitment,” Pence began, “[to] defending Christians and frankly all who suffer for their beliefs across the wider world.”

Addressing those in the crowd who had personally faced persecution, Pence offered words of encouragement. “We’re with you. We stand with you. And we are here at this world summit because of you.”

“Across the wider world,” he continued, “the Christian faith is under siege. Throughout the world, no people of faith today face greater hostility or hatred than followers of Christ.”

After listing the horrors that Middle Eastern Christians have faced, Pence affirmed the U.S. government’s solidarity with the suffering. “Know today with assurance that President Trump sees these crimes for what they are — vile acts of persecution, animated by hatred, hatred of the gospel of Christ. And so too does the President know those who perpetrate these crimes. They are the embodiment of evil in our time. He calls them by name: radical Islamic terrorists.”

Among these, the vice president singled out ISIS “barbarians.”

“Their brutal regime shows a savagery frankly unseen in the Middle East since the middle ages,” he declared, before stressing the gravity of their crimes. “I believe that ISIS is guilty of nothing short of genocide against people of the Christian faith. It is time the world called it by name.”

He pointed to tangible signs of persecution:

In Egypt, just recently, we saw bombs explode in churches during events of the celebration of Palm Sunday. A day of hope was transformed into tragedy… In Iraq at the hands of extremists, we’ve actually seen monasteries demolished, priests and monks beheaded, and the 2 millennia-old Christian tradition in Mosul virtually extinguished overnight. In Syria, we see ancient communities burned to the ground and we see believers tortured for confessing Christ, and women and children sold into the most terrible form of human slavery.

He isn’t alone in his concerns. Research groups have called attention to additional statistics concerning Christian genocide. Last month, a study by the Center for Studies on New Religions found that Christians are the “most persecuted group in the world” with “as many as 600 million” who were “prevented from practicing their faith” in 2016.

According to Open Doors USA, on average per month 322 Christians are martyred for their faith, 214 “churches and Christian properties are destroyed” and 772 “forms of violence are committed against Christians (e.g., beatings, abductions, rapes, arrests and forced marriages).”

Network History of Terming Persecution by ISIS ‘Genocide’

If only the broadcast network news shows from ABC, CBS and NBC would heed the vice president’s advice on genocide and “called it by name.”

Earlier this year, the networks covered the Egypt Palm Sunday bombings, for which ISIS claimed responsibility, nine times – without using the word “genocide” once. Similarly, last year, the networks refrained from using “genocide” following an Easter bombing in Pakistan targeting Christians – as well as in other reports of Christian persecution.

Last August, the MRC found that, in the past two-and-half years, the evening news shows reported on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia only 60 times. And of those 60 reports, just six used the word “genocide.”

All this as even the U.S. government acknowledges a genocide by ISIS.

Last year, Secretary of State John Kerry declared that, “in my judgment, Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims.”

According to a 1948 United Nations document, genocide “means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” including killing, causing serious physical or mental harm, preventing births and kidnapping children.