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.

ahok blashphemy indonesia muslims

Governor of Jakarta On Trial for Being a Christian, Muslims Call For His Execution

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By JOE COCHRANEDEC. 13, 2016

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Christian governor of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, tearfully denied on Tuesday that he had intended to insult Islam as his trial on blasphemy charges began.

Some analysts have said the trial is a plot to keep the governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, from being elected to the office, which he inherited when his predecessor won the presidency in 2014. Others say that his comments are being exploited in an effort to incite ethnic and religious hatred against Mr. Basuki, who is ethnic Chinese and the first Christian in nearly 50 years to govern Jakarta.

A demonstration against Mr. Basuki in Jakarta on Dec. 2 drew more than 200,000 people but remained peaceful, unlike a previous protest. Credit Achmad Ibrahim/Associated Press

A demonstration against Mr. Basuki in Jakarta on Dec. 2 drew more than 200,000 people but remained peaceful, unlike a previous protest. Credit Achmad Ibrahim/Associated Press

Mr. Basuki, known as Ahok, is charged with violating blasphemy laws during a speech to fishermen in September.

In that address, Mr. Basuki lightheartedly cited a verse of the Quran that warns Muslims against taking Christians and Jews as allies. He said at the time that given Indonesia’s transition to democracy in 1999, it was perfectly acceptable for Muslim voters to choose a Christian in the election for governor in February.

The remark was directed at “unscrupulous politicians who don’t want to compete fairly in the election,” Mr. Basuki, 50, told the three judges at the trial. If found guilty, he faces up to five years in jail.

After decades of authoritarian rule, Indonesia has come to be seen as a relatively stable, tolerant democracy. Suharto, the army leader who became president and ruled Indonesia for 32 years after seizing power in the late 1960s, signed a decree about three decades ago banning provocative political discourse on ethnicity, race and religion in an effort to maintain public order, and racial and religious harmony.

The practice of avoiding those sensitive topics appears to have been broken in the pending election for the governorship of Jakarta, the most powerful provincial post in the country and one that President Joko Widodo, a longtime ally of Mr. Basuki’s, used as a springboard to the presidency.

“The manipulation of race and religion, such as the blasphemy charge against Ahok, in a political campaign to crush an opponent, breaks the long-held taboo against using these issues brazenly to gain political advantage,” said Douglas Ramage, a political analyst based in Jakarta.

There was a heavy security presence outside the Jakarta court on Tuesday. Hard-line Muslim groups want Mr. Basuki jailed, and some have even called for him to be lynched. Credit Mast Irham/European Pressphoto Agency

There was a heavy security presence outside the Jakarta court on Tuesday. Hard-line Muslim groups want Mr. Basuki jailed, and some have even called for him to be lynched. Credit Mast Irham/European Pressphoto Agency

The United States and other Western nations have long held up Indonesia, which has more than 190 million Muslims but also influential Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities, as a model for religious pluralism and democracy in the region. The case may threaten that reputation.

“Economics, religion, ethnicity and wealth inequality are all mixed in Indonesia in a volatile way. So a moment like this, the Ahok trial, is potentially explosive,” said Jeffrey A. Winters, a professor of politics at Northwestern University who is a longtime observer of Indonesian affairs.

Supporters of Mr. Basuki, as well as many independent analysts, have said that opposition parties fielding candidates in the coming election have used the governor’s comments to elicit ethnic and religious hatred against him.

“In Indonesia’s democratic reform era, people like Ahok are being added” to the political elite, said Yenny Wahid, co-chairwoman of the Indonesia-U.S. Council on Religion and Pluralism, an independent advocacy group.

“But some people are saying, ‘Chinese dominate the economic sphere in Indonesia. Now you want to dominate politics?’ It creates fear,” added Ms. Wahid, the daughter of former President Abdurrahman Wahid, a revered Islamic cleric who fought for religious pluralism in Indonesia.

Mr. Basuki has also been attacked for his Chinese ancestry on social media in recent months.

Common slurs leveled against Mr. Basuki have suggested that he “hates Islam” and should “go back to China.” Mr. Joko, whose governing party supports Mr. Basuki’s bid for the governorship, has also been the subject of attacks.

Islamist groups, including organizations that have long demanded that the secular government be replaced by an Islamic state, have continually protested Mr. Basuki’s tenure. They have appealed to Muslim residents in the city not to vote for him. If he wins, he would be the first ethnic Chinese Christian directly elected to the office.

ahok blashphemy indonesia muslimsIn recent weeks, hard-line Muslim groups have staged three mass protests in Jakarta against Mr. Basuki that drew hundreds of thousands of people — most from outside the capital — to demand that the governor be jailed for blasphemy. Some called for him to be lynched.

One march in early November ended in riots that killed one person and injured more than 200, but a protest this month that drew more than 200,000 ended peacefully.

Neither Mr. Basuki nor Mr. Joko has directly accused opposition parties of being behind the protests. But the president has said that “political actors” had taken advantage of Islamist anger to incite violence. Both opposition parties, the Great Indonesia Movement Party, also known as Gerindra, and the Democratic Party, have denied being involved in planning the protests, but they have supported the goal of jailing Mr. Basuki for blasphemy and have sought to link Mr. Joko to that controversy.

Before a large demonstration against Mr. Basuki this month, the Indonesian police arrested 11 people on charges including treason against Mr. Joko’s government.

One of Mr. Basuki’s opponents in the election is Anies Baswedan, a former minister of higher education. He is backed by Gerindra, which is led by Prabowo Subianto, a former general who lost the bitterly fought 2014 presidential election to Mr. Joko.

The other candidate is Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono of the Democratic Party, a former army officer and the son of Mr. Joko’s predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Follow Joe Cochrane on Twitter @datelinejakarta.

Muhammad Rusmadi contributed reporting.

Pope Francis Issues Many Decrees and Remarks with Marxist, Progressive Overtones

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By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Four conservative Roman Catholic cardinals on Monday made a rare public challenge to Pope Francis over some of his teachings in a major document on the family, accusing him of sowing confusion on important moral issues.

The cardinals – two Germans, an Italian, and an American – said they had gone public with their letter to the pope because he had not responded.

The pope has clashed before with conservatives who worry he is weakening Roman Catholic rules on moral issues such as homosexuality and divorce while focusing on social problems such as climate change and economic inequality.

In another slam of the Pope, Judge Andrew Napolitano, a devout Roman Catholic, delivered a scorching rebuke of Pope Francis, labeling him as a “false prophet” for promoting “the political agenda of the atheistic left,” and for “leading his flock to a dangerous place,” a place “where there is more central planning and less personal liberty,” instead of focusing on matters of spirituality and morality — conditions of the heart.

At issue are some of the teachings in a 260-page treatise called “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love), a cornerstone document of Francis’ attempt to make the 1.2 billion-member Church more inclusive and less condemning.

In the document, issued in April, he called for a Church that was less strict and more compassionate towards any “imperfect” members, such as those who divorced and remarried, saying “no one can be condemned forever”.

Most critics have focused on what the pope’s letter said about the full re-integration into the Church of members who divorce and remarry in civil ceremonies.

Under Church law they cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the Church and therefore they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin.

In the document the pope appeared to side with progressives who had proposed an “internal forum” in which a priest or bishop decide jointly with the individual on a case-by-case basis if he or she can be fully re-integrated and receive communion.

Conservatives have contested this and, in their cover letter, the four cardinals asked the pope to “resolve those doubts which are the cause of disorientation and confusion”.

In the letter, sent to several news organizations, they said even bishops were offering “contrasting interpretations” of the rules regarding divorced and remarried Catholics.

The cardinals are Raymond Leo Burke, an American who was demoted from a senior Vatican position in 2014 and who has often criticized the pope, Germans Walter Brandmuller and Joachim Meisner, and Italian Carlo Caffarra.

In their letter, they officially asked the pope to take a stand on five “doubts” they have about some of the pronouncements in his document and declare whether those supersede rulings by previous popes.

The Church has taught for 400 years that abortion is murder. Because the victim of an abortion is always innocent, helpless and uniquely under the control of the mother, abortion removes the participants from access to the sacraments. Until now. Last week, Pope Francis, without consulting his fellow bishops, ordered that any priest may return those who have killed a baby in a womb to the communion of the faithful. He said he did this because he was moved by the anguished cries of mothers contemplating the murder of their babies.

I doubt he will defend these decisions before Congress. He will, instead, assault the free market, which he blames for poverty, pollution and the mass migrations into Europe away from worn-torn areas in the Middle East.

school prayer banned dunmore football atheists

Atheists Attack Christians Again – Complaint Filed Banning Prayer by Coach Before High School Football Games

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DUNMORE, Pa. — A high school football coach in Pennsylvania is now no longer leading prayers with his team following the receipt of a complaint from a prominent professing atheist organization.

For years, Dunmore’s football players have gathered with Coach Jack Henzes before every game for a short prayer. And, obviously, it works, as the Bucks have one of the most successful football programs in our area.

But an out-of-state group is weighing in, an out of state group who has no business complaining as they themselves are not affected. But that is how Atheists and the Liberal Left work. Trump rallies had protesters and rioters bused in by George Soros and other Leftist operatives to make it appear like local organic grass roots protests. Now, because Atheists hate God, n0t that they dont believe in Him, but HATE Him, it’s now against the law for the coach to lead the players in prayer.

According to reports, Dunmore High School Head Coach Jack Henzes has led his team in prayer before each game for years.

“We pray to the good Lord hoping none of our players, or the other players, are hurt because we know how hard they work,” Henzes told local television station WBRE.

But in June, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter to the Dunmore School District to assert that Henzes’ longstanding practice was unconstitutional. The organization said that it had been contacted by a local resident about the matter.

“When a public school employee acting in an official capacity organizes, leads or participates in team prayer, he effectively endorses religion on the district’s behalf,” the letter read.

It asked that Henzes consequently be prohibited from leading students in prayer.

Five months later, Dunmore Superintendent John Marichak has now responded with notification that he has instructed Henzes to discontinue leading the prayers.

“We directed Coach Henzes to be sure that he should not partake in any such behavior,” Marichak wrote to FFRF on Oct. 31. “We also covered this with all of our personnel to be consistent and exhaustive in the upholding of the law.”

FFRF is now satisfied that its request has been fulfilled.

“We’re happy with what the school district has done and, hopefully, the constitutional boundaries will be respected going forward,” attorney Elizabeth Cavell told the Scranton Times-Tribune.

However, some residents state that they didn’t think that the matter was a big deal. Dunmore is a significantly Roman Catholic area.

“I don’t understand how people have this much time on their hands to protest issues like this when there are so many major issues out there—where whether or not a coach leads his football team in prayer ahead of the game is that important to them,” resident Beth Ann Zero told local television station WNEP.

“It’s just something you’re accustomed to doing every day, and Coach Henzes doesn’t just teach football, he teaches life lessons, and this is a life lesson I’m sure he’ll teach the Bucks,” also remarked alumnus Sal Marchese.

The team plans to continue to pray without Henzes’ leadership.

“We have a good close-knit team with the older guys and younger guys and we’ll definitely carry on the tradition,” running back Colin Holmes stated.

Noah Webster, known as the Father of American Scholarship and Education, is stated to have once said, “The foundation of all free government and all social order must be laid in families and in the discipline of youth. Young persons must not only be furnished with knowledge, but they must be accustomed to subordination and subjected to the authority and influence of good principles.”

“It will avail little that youths are made to understand truth and correct principles, unless they are accustomed to submit to be governed by them,” he declared. “And any system of education … which limits instruction to the arts and sciences, and rejects the aids of religion in forming the character of citizens, is essentially defective.”

Webster is known for writing the nation’s first dictionary, as well as the renowned 1824 Blue Back Speller.

Franklin Graham: ‘Everything Related to God’ Is Under Attack’

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America is not only “blatantly defying God’s laws,” it’s trying to erase them from public view, evangelist preacher Franklin Graham charges in a blistering condemnation of an Oklahoma court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument.

The president of the foundation named after his famed father Billy Graham and leader of the global charity Samaritan’s Purse writes in a Facebook post that “everything related to God and His Word” is lately coming under fire.
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Graham has most recently made use of social media to unsuccessfully urge the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

“When I went to school, the Ten Commandments were posted in the classroom, and the teacher led us in the Lord’s Prayer before we went to lunch,” he writes. “There was respect throughout society for the Word of God. How times have changed! ”

These days, he continues, “everything related to God and His Word is coming under fire in our nation.”

In particular, Graham rails at the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday that ordered the removal of a 6-foot-tall Ten Commandments monument on the capitol grounds.

“Governor Mary Fallin supported the monument and is looking at other legal options to keep it there—I hope she finds some,” Graham writes.

“We’re living in a time when our country is not only blatantly defying God’s laws, but is trying to remove them completely from public view. Just think what a difference it would make if our school children today learned about the Ten Commandments and ?and the God who wrote them.”

The Oklahoma court’s ruling immediately prompted calls by some Republican lawmakers for impeachment of the justices who said the $10,000 monument – paid for privately by a GOP lawmaker – must be removed.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt had argued the monument was nearly identical to a Texas monument ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Oklahoma justices said the local monument violated the state’s constitution.

Pruitt also said his office would ask the court for a rehearing, and also suggested the provision in the Oklahoma Constitution banning the use of public money for religious purposes may need to be repealed.

10 commandments removed Oklahoma ten commandments removed

Oklahoma Supreme Court Orders Removal of Ten Commandments! God Under Attack Again!

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When I went to school, the Ten Commandments were posted in the classroom, and the teacher led us in the Lord’s Prayer before we went to lunch. There was respect throughout society for the Word of God. How times have changed! Today, everything related to God and His Word is coming under fire in our nation. On Tuesday the ?#?Oklahoma? Supreme Court ruled that a 6-foot-tall Ten Commandments monument on the capitol grounds must be removed. Governor Mary Fallin supported the monument and is looking at other legal options to keep it there—I hope she finds some. We’re living in a time when our country is not only blatantly defying God’s laws, but is trying to remove them completely from public view. Just think what a difference it would make if our school children today learned about the ?#?TenCommandments? and the God who wrote them. ~ Franklin Graham

10 commandments removed Oklahoma ten commandments removedThe Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Ten Commandments monument placed on State Capitol grounds must be removed because the Oklahoma Constitution bans the use of state property for the benefit of a religion.

The 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter) stone monument, paid for with private money and supported by lawmakers in the socially conservative state, was installed in 2012, prompting complaints that it violated the U.S. Constitution’s provisions against government establishment of religion, as well as local laws.

In a 7-2 decision, the court said the placement of the monument violated a section in the state’s constitution, which says no public money or property can be used either directly or indirectly for the “benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion.”

The court in its decision said: “As concerns the ‘historic purpose’ justification, the Ten Commandments are obviously religious in nature and are an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths.”

Lawmakers have argued that the monument was not serving a religious purpose but was meant to mark a historical event.

That opened the door for other groups, including Satanists and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, to apply for permission to erect their own monuments on Capitol grounds to mark what they say are historical events.

Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican who supported the monument’s placement, was disappointed with the decision and will consult with the attorney general to look at legal options, her office said.

In March, a U.S. judge dismissed a case filed by an atheist group that was seeking to remove the monument from State Capitol grounds, saying the plaintiffs failed to show standing to bring the suit. (Reporting by Heide Brandes; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott and Eric Beech)

Atheists Win Battle Against Prayer – Pismo Beach, CA

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A small California city has decided to strike both prayer and a volunteer chaplain from public meetings following a lawsuit filed by atheist activists late last year.

The decision to cut invocations from Pismo Beach City Council meetings comes after a complaint was waged in November by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Atheists United San Luis Obispo. The secular activist groups alleged that an unpaid city chaplain and sectarian prayers both posed violations to the California Constitution as well as the state’s civil rights laws.

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

Pismo Beach officials didn’t accept liability, but said that they decided to cut sectarian and nonsectarian prayers, alike, in an effort to save taxpayer dollars on additional legal fees.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation and Atheists United San Luis Obispo also successfully sought the removal of the Rev. Paul Jones from his volunteer chaplaincy post.

Jones, a Pentecostal pastor, had been Pismo Beach’s chaplain since 2005 and the atheist groups charged that he had been leading mostly Christian prayers from 2008-2013.

In sum, they claimed the preacher had delivered 112 of the 126 prayers during council meetings between Jan. 1, 2008 and Oct. 15, 2013. Aside from one invocation, these prayer were purportedly delivered in the name of Christianity.

“We’re getting everything we asked for. I think what it means first and foremost is we have a government that is welcoming to all of its citizens,” Atheists United board member David Leidner told the San Luis Obispo Tribune last week. “And it also means that we have protected the separation between church and state in our county.”

Atheists-win-battle-against-prayerAs part of a settlement, which will need to be approved by a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge, the city will reportedly pay $1 to each of the two plaintiffs as well as $47,500 in the plaintiffs’ legal fees

This development comes as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to weigh in on the unrelated Town of Greece v. Galloway public prayer case, a contentious First Amendment battle that could set major precedent surrounding the issue of invocations at public meetings.

(H/T: Christian Post)

Air Force Kicks GOD Out!

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By Bob Unruh Courtesy of wnd.com
The U.S. military long has honored troops who did not return from their assignments with a permanently set table in military base dining rooms, similar to the missing man formation Air Force jets fly to honor a downed pilot.

The elements of the memorial have special meaning, including the round table, the white cloth, a single red rose, a slice of lemon and a Bible.

According to the POW-MIA Families organization, the Bible “represents the strength gained through faith in our country, founded as one nation under God, to sustain those lost from our midst.”

But not at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida.

There, officials removed the honor table because the Bible “ignited controversy and division.”

Florida Today reported base commanders issued a statement that there was a problem with the presence of the Bible on the table.

“The 45th Space Wing deeply desires to honor America’s Prisoners of War (POW) and Missing in Action (MIA) personnel,” they said. “Unfortunately, the Bible’s presence or absence on the table at the Riverside Dining Facility ignited controversy and division, distracting from the table’s primary purpose of honoring POWs/MIAs.”

Consequently, they said, “we temporarily replaced the table with the POW/MIA flag in an effort to show our continued support of these heroes while seeking an acceptable solution to the controversy.”

They said they expect eventually to restore the table “in a manner inclusive of all POWs/MIAs as well as Americans everywhere.”

Base officials could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Some stunned veterans have protested by boycotting the dining hall.

Other recent controversies in the military over religious faith have included confrontations with Christian chaplains who don’t support same-sex marriage because of their beliefs, the teaching of anti-Christian themes at security training seminars and an incident in which a Bible verse on an Air Force Academy cadet’s personal whiteboard was ordered erased.

The Family Research Council said of the move by Patrick AFB: “Of particular irony is the fact that this reversal of a long history of including such memorials in dining halls occurred at the same installation where the Department of Defense’s equal opportunity agency – the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute – is housed.”

The Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, FRC pointed out, is tasked “with training military Equal Opportunity advisers on how to instill respect and tolerance for diverse viewpoints in service members.”

“Apparently, that respect and tolerance isn’t supposed to extend to religious speech or the ability of an organization to recognize the role religious faith has played in the lives of many service members,” FRC said.

The group said that position “not only contradicts Supreme Court precedent that condemns the restriction of speech solely because of its message, it also does a disservice to our ability to remember the stories of American war heroes.”

“One such service member is former Alabama Senator and Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton, Jr., a naval aviator who spent seven years in captivity in Vietnam and who spoke frequently of the role a deep Catholic faith played in carrying him through unspeakable prison camp horrors.”

Americans know Denton, who died last week, as the Vietnam captive who blinked T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code while a prisoner, allowing American intelligence officers to confirm that Americans were being tortured.

It happened in a rare appearance on television for American prisoners of war in 196 and can be seen in the video here:

“Faith played a part in his story,” FRC noted, “and the story of many other captives. Requiring organizations and individuals to ignore that reality not only violates legal precedent, it hollows out the heritage of many of our war heroes.”

Denton later wrote about his time in captivity in “When Hell Was in Session.”

The tradition of the missing man table calls for a table for six representing those missing from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and civilians.

The round table represents everlasting concern, the white cloth represents the purity of their motives, the single red rose “reminds us of the lives of these Americans,” the red ribbon symbolizes “our continued determination to account for them,” a slice of lemon recalls the bitter fate of those captured, a pinch of salt recalls the tears for the missing, the lighted candle represents hope, the glasses are inverted because the missing cannot share a toast, the chairs are empty, and the Bible “represents the strength gained through faith in our country, founded as one nation under God, to sustain those lost from our midst.”

WND columnist Chuck Norris recently commented about the Air Force Academy decision to order the erasure of the Bible verse.

“Outside the Academy, a new billboard has recently been posted near the entrance to the Air Force training school by the Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition, according to WND. The billboard contains a picture of the presidential faces on Mount Rushmore – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt – with the question and statement on it addressing ‘Air Force Cadets’: ‘Are you free to say so help me God? They did,’” he wrote.

“Even according to the Air Force’s own culture standards document, religious freedom and expression should be protected by U.S. Air Force leadership among subordinates,” he continued. And he listed a sample of what has been a string of incidents involving the military:

The Air Force Academy apologized for merely announcing Operation Christmas Child – a Christian-based charity and relief program designed to send Christmas gifts to impoverished children around the world.

Air Force officials stripped religious curriculum from a 20-year-old course on “just war theory.”

Yet, as reported in the Los Angeles Times, as of November 2011, the Air Force is building an $80,000 Stonehenge-like worship site for “earth-based” religions, including “pagans, Wiccans, druids, witches, and followers of Native American faiths.”‘

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center drafted a policy that prohibited individuals from using or distributing religious items during visits to the hospital.

Three-star Army general and Delta Force war hero Lt. Gen. William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin couldn’t speak at West Point because of his Christian faith.

The Marine Corps considered tearing down a Camp Pendleton cross meant to honor fallen heroes.

The Navy relocated a live nativity at a base in Bahrain to the chapel area.

The Department of Veterans Affairs censored references to God and Jesus during prayers at Houston National Cemetery.

The Pentagon released new regulations forcing chaplains to perform same-sex weddings despite their religious objections, and members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus worked tirelessly to ensure that the final version of the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law in January (2013) and included key religious freedom protections for service members generally and chaplains specifically (Section 533).

The Pentagon revoked approval to use the logo of each service branch on the covers of Bibles sold in military exchange stores.

Santa Monica Judge Advocates Hate Speech As War On Christians Continue

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A coalition of church groups that has erected Nativity scenes in Santa Monica for more than 50 years is pondering its next steps after a federal judge ruled the city has the right to bar seasonal public displays.

William J. Becker, an attorney for the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, said he would consult with his “brain trust” to determine what steps the coalition would take if Judge Audrey B. Collins grants the city’s motion to dismiss the church group’s case at a hearing next month.

Since 1953, the coalition each December has erected a tableau of scenes depicting the birth of Jesus in Palisades Park.

A few years ago, the tradition offended Damon Vix, an atheist, who applied to put up a booth next to the Nativity story. Last year, he encouraged other atheists to flood the city with applications, including a satirical homage to the “Pastafarian religion” featuring a representation of the “Flying Spaghetti Monster.”

To keep things fair and legal, the city held a lottery to parcel out slots. Atheists won 18 of 21 spaces. A Jewish group won another. The Nativity story that traditionally took up 14 displays was jammed into two.

A flap ensued. Vandals ripped down a banner the Freedom From Religion Foundation had hung at the park. The banner began: “At this season of the winter solstice, may reason prevail.”

Last June, concerned that the lottery would become increasingly costly because of the rising tensions, the City Council voted to ban all private, unattended displays in city parks. The city cited other reasons for the prohibition, including damage to the park’s turf and some residents’ statements that they would prefer unobstructed ocean views to seasonal displays.

Council members and the city attorney’s office said groups wishing to celebrate the Nativity, the winter solstice or Hanukkah had alternatives. They could, for example, erect displays on private property or station a representative at any display on public ground.

In October, the coalition filed suit, seeking to restore the tradition. At the time, Becker said it was “not the government’s function to avoid controversy at the cost of fundamental rights.”

Collins’ tentative ruling in the city’s favor Monday left both sides suspecting she might also be inclined to dismiss the coalition’s case.

Speaking outside the federal courthouse, Becker said he and his clients might consider an appeal, perhaps next year or at some future time when the city government pendulum “would swing back and we’d be back in a sane society where people are tolerant and respect each other for their religious views.”