Rick Warren is no Billy Graham

BY STAR PARKER
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
COALITION ON URBAN RENEWAL & EDUCATION

Last August I wrote a column critical of Rick Warren's decision to host a presidential candidate forum at his Saddleback Church.

My reasoning then was that America's crisis is moral ambiguity. I argued that Pastor Warren would only contribute to this ambiguity by hosting candidates with opposing views on issues such as abortion and homosexuality and presenting himself as a neutral moderator.

Only Barack Obama would gain, I felt, being showcased as an acceptable candidate by one of the nation's best known evangelical pastors. If John McCain had wanted to clarify his social conservative credentials, he didn't need to go to Rick Warren's church with Barack Obama to do it.

Evangelicals and other Christians listened as Rick Warren called Obama and McCain "friends" and "patriots" and watched as Warren winced no more than would have Larry King when Sen. Obama said it was above his "pay grade" to consider if and when an unborn child has human rights.

Evangelicals had already been hearing from Warren, and left-leaning pastors like Jim Wallis, that they should broaden their primary concerns beyond sex and abortion.

In retrospect, I cannot prove that I was right. But I think the evidence powerfully supports my claim.

Barack Obama picked up five percentage points of the evangelical vote over what John Kerry received in 2004. Those five percentage points amounted to about a third of Obama's winning vote margin over John McCain.

Sure, the Saddleback Forum alone does not explain this shift. But the legitimacy Obama gained that night certainly didn't hurt.

The largest shift was among 18-29 year old evangelicals. Obama got 32 percent of their vote -- double what John Kerry had gotten.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal after the forum, Warren was oblivious to the vulnerability of this group. The Journal reported, "... as for the notion that younger evangelicals are ready for rebellion against their parents' ideals, Mr. Warren cites polls showing that the younger evangelical generation is even more concerned about abortion than the older one." True. But this was only one part of the picture.

In 2007 the Pew Research Center reported that Republican identification among 18-29 year old white evangelicals had dropped from 55 percent in 2005 to 40 percent.

A survey done by Greenburg Quinlan Rosner Research showed that 26 percent of 18-29 year old evangelicals, compared to 9 percent of those over 30, support same-sex marriage.

Now President-elect Obama has invited Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural. The NY Times calls this an "olive branch to conservative Christian evangelicals" and many now call Warren this era's Billy Graham.

An olive branch? Rick Warren helped get Obama elected and our President-Elect understands that there is still evangelical gold to be mined in the pastor from Saddleback Church.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright can explain how Barack Obama uses pastors. Obama sat in his church for 20 years and used his words for the title of his best-selling book, then discarded him when he became a political liability.

Regarding the Billy Graham comparison, it challenges even the most creative imagination to picture the Rev. Graham's ever hosting a forum for political candidates.

In an interview, Barack Obama recalled a previous invitation to Saddleback Church. "...I was invited to Rick Warren's church to speak, despite his awareness that I held views that were entirely contrary to his when it came to gay and lesbian rights, when it came to issues like abortion." I doubt that Billy Graham would see this in the spirit of his own calling to bring the gospel to all who would listen.

Nor would I see the Rev. Graham signing onto the Evangelical Climate Initiative, as has Rick Warren. This gives Christian cover to the left to raise our energy costs to address still-unsubstantiated environmental claims.

But on global warming, Rick Warren and Barack Obama are on the same page. Perhaps these will be the first post-inaugural chips that our new president will call in.

Star Parker is president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education and author of the new book White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.

Prior to her involvement in social activism, Star Parker was a single welfare mother in Los Angeles, California. After receiving Christ, Star returned to college, received a BS degree in marketing and launched an urban Christian magazine. The 1992 Los Angeles riots destroyed her business, yet served as a springboard for her focus on faith and market-based alternatives to empower the lives of the poor.

Blagojevich and the Shape of Scandals to Come

By Marie Jon'

It's only five weeks before Obama's inauguration, and already we have a big scandal. Are you curious at all to see if the drive-by-media will have the same bloodlust for David Axelrod as they did for poor Scooter Libby?

It won't be surprising if Axelrod is thrown under the bus like the rest of Obama's minions. It's the same-old same-old when Barack is caught in a lie. "I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening concerning any possible dealing about Blagojevich's appointment of a successor."

It again seems strange how disconnected Obama appears to be. Actually, it's unbelievable. He never remembers or knows a thing about the people he has dealings with, especially when they are found in compromising positions.

David Axelrod was asked if Obama had contact with Governor Blagojevich's office. Did they talk about his replacement in the Senate? Unfortunately, Obama's adviser appeared on Fox News on November 23 and said something very different than he now says. Axelrod's statement puts doubt in the mind of many Americans. What did Obama know and when did he know it?

Ironically, another statement was issued by Axelrod saying, "I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject."

Surely Obama understood what Blagojevich was capable of doing. As it turned out, he had the gall to try to sell Illinois' U.S. senate seat to the highest bidder, while also trying to shake down others for money and political favors. Obama is a Chicago politician with friends that no one I know would associate with.

This week, Rev Jeremiah Wright was back in the news. That piece of information should send up more red flags. Get used to seeing Rev. Bigoted involved once again in Obama's life. It's a sure bet that he really never left. Everything we observed was a sheer facade for the election cycle.

Rahm Emanuel is another questionable character. He sends dead fish to his political enemies. He is well known for his profane, debasing language. He calls himself a practicing Jew. However, he does not seem to be concerned how others might perceive such a religious contradiction. Unfortunately, he is just one more thug known for being a vicious attack dog for the incoming president.

It's almost humorous when Democrats point to others while trying to blacken the eye of the Republican Party. The Speaker of the House continually refers to the GOP as the party of corruption. One might say Pelosi doth protest too much. Nothing can be more obnoxious than the Democrat Party's own corruptive faux pas. They have perfected the art of being bad to the bone.

Jesse Jackson, Jr., has been implicated in the Blagojevich scandal. In spite of his denials, he is probably lying through his teeth, just like his father. You'd have to be totally naive not to understand that Barack Obama, Rohm Emanuel, Jesse Jackson, Jr., and Blagojevich are political cronies. They are part of the notoriously tainted Chicago-Daley political machine.

Excerpts from The Associated Press: Ill. governor arrested in corruption scandal

"CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges he brazenly conspired to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder as part of what federal prosecutors called a 'political corruption crime spree.' A federal judge later ordered Blagojevich released on his own recognizance.

"Prosecutors did not accuse Obama himself of any wrong doing.

"Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in an attempt to strong-arm the newspaper into firing editorial writers who had criticized him.

"The 51-year-old Democrat was also accused of engaging in pay-to-play politics — that is, doling out jobs, contracts and appointments in return for campaign contributions.

"'We were in the middle of a corruption crime spree, and we wanted to stop it,' U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, calling the charges against Blagojevich 'a truly new low.' He added: 'The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.

'"Federal investigators bugged the governor's campaign offices and tapped his home phone, capturing conversations laced with profanity and tough-guy talk from the governor. Chicago FBI chief Robert Grant said even seasoned investigators were stunned by what they heard, particularly since the governor had known for three years he was under investigation for alleged hiring fraud." Full Article

For those who voted for the president elect, another scandal will not matter. They are full-blown ideologue Democrats who want big government handouts. Spreading the wealth around suits them just fine. Just as long as the Obamanites are kept happy, nothing will sway them from cheering as our country slumps deeper into a recession.

America will be torn asunder inside out, politically and socially. And to top it all off Pres, Barack Obama will hand us the egregious gift of Marxist-Socialism and a "corrupt regime."

Gov. Blagojevich, Rev. Wright, Father Plager, Tony Rezko, William Ayers, and Bernadine Dorne are just some of the people who are found knee-deep in Obama's cult of deception. Who else will we find there, after he is sworn into office?

It will be a disturbing full four years led by Pres. Obama. However, instead of throwing our hands up in the air, feeling helpless, it's time to pray and become politically pro-active. Please sign the petition on ResistNow.com

God instructs Christians to give intercession prayer for our leaders (2 Chronicles 7:14). In these troubling times, we will be blessed when we turn to The Almighty.

Related Readings:
Blagojevich, Fitzgerald, and real political corruption
Gov.In Land of $Tinkin: Wiretap's catch cussing and plotting
Lawmakers at Odds Over How to Fill Obama's Senate Seat

Marie Jon' is a political/religious-based writer and founder of www.DrawingClose.org and www.PeoplePoliticallyRight.com — sister websites to RenewAmerica. Marie extends her hand of welcome; visit DrawingClose and receive your free gift of salvation by taking an online Bible study.

Marie's writings have appeared on many sites, including The New Media Journal, ChronWatch, and ABCNews, to name a few. Marie brings a refreshing and spirited point of view that is reflected in her writings. Marie is a nurse, a lay student of the Bible, and a patriot. She is an advocate for American troops serving abroad, as well as the Blue and Gold Star Mothers of America and their families. Marie enjoys Townhall.com radio, Rush Limbaugh, Bruce Elliott Saturdays 5AM-9AM EST and her friend Larry Elder.

Obama Popularity May Tank When Americans See His Liberal Policies

Polls show most people like the way President-elect Barack Obama is handling the transition, but that popularity could go away when Americans start seeing just how liberal Obama really is.

He plans to push the Freedom of Choice Act which would reverse practically every abortion restriction in the country--including the ban on the barbaric partial birth abortion procedure.

Obama also wants to get rid of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that protects the states from having the concept of homosexual "marriage" imposed on them by other states via the activist court system.

Did voters pay more attention to style than substance? Bet on it.

A poll shows most Americans are conservative on issues such as abortion and the courts, but will the new administration's policies mirror those sentiments?

Pro-Homosexual Ad Counters Another Ad Condemning Prop. 8 Violence

Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post

By Katherine T. Phan
Christian Post Reporter
Fri, Dec. 12 2008 08:29 AM EST

A pro-gay rights group published a full-page ad in The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday to respond to an earlier ad by a religious liberty group that condemned the mob "violence and intimidation" directed against the Mormon church and other Proposition 8 supporters.

Truth Wins Out, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., ran a counter ad, entitled "Lies in the name of the Lord," stating: "Noting could be further from the truth. Those demonstrations across the country were remarkably peaceful and were a vivid example of Americans exercising their free speech rights, and we think it's inexcusable for anyone to misrepresent these protests for political gain."

The pro-gay ad was in response to a full-page ad by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty that ran in The New York Times last Friday. The ad, entitled "No Mob Violence," deplored the violent protests that have ensued following the passage of a California ban on same-sex marriage.

It was signed by over a dozen over religious leaders, lawyers and theologians, who decried "the violence and intimidation being directed against the LDS (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) or 'Mormon' church, and other religious organizations - and even against individual believers - simply because they supported Proposition 8."

In the concluding paragraph of the Becket Fund ad, the group acknowledged although there were "fundamental disagreements" among them, they were willing to unite across faith lines to commit "to exposing and publicly shaming anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry - against any faith, on any side of any cause, for any reason."

Signers of the letter included Kevin J. “Seamus” Hasson of the Becket Fund of Religious Liberty, Richard Cizik of National Association of Evangelicals, Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship and William Donohue of The Catholic League.

The Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund concurrently launched NoMobVeto.org, a website where readers could endorse the ad and take a stand for the right of religious people to participate in the electoral process without fear and intimidation from anti-religious bigotry.

In weeks following the passage of Proposition 8, opponents of the measure held numerous protests targeting supporters of the ban. While many of the protests were peaceful, some evidenced hate and intimidation.

Over 2,000 Proposition 8 opponents protested outside the Mormon temple in Los Angeles, chanting "Mormon scum." Another group picketed at megachurch Saddleback Church, holding signs reading "Purpose-Driven Hate," a play on Pastor Rick Warren’s book, Purpose Driven Life. Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills was spray painted and the members' cars were vandalized.

"There was not just one instance of vandalism," Brian Brown, executive director of National Organization for Marriage, told the Salt Lake Tribune.

"I was there in Westwood, [Calif. at the LDS temple protest]. I saw signs saying, 'Mormon scum,' and others encouraging the sort of hatred and violence we condemned. There have been fairly widespread attempts at intimidation, like calling Proposition 8 supporters at 2 a.m. and screaming into the phone."

The Mormon church has been a target by gay rights protesters because its members have donated tens of millions of dollars toward the Yes on 8 campaign.

The Becket Fund has maintained that their ad doesn't denounce "peaceful" demonstrations.

"Some folks claim we’ve attacked legitimate protests. Not true," the group said Thursday on the NoMobVeto.org blog site. "Our ad is about violence and intimidation, which is what mobs commit. It explicitly condemns violence against 'believers, gay people, or anyone else.'"

Gay rights advocates have been charged with running an intimidation campaign against individuals who donated toward the measure's passage.

Scott Eckern, artistic director of the California Musical Theater in Sacramento, was blacklisted by the gay community in Hollywood after his $1,000 donation to the Yes on 8 campaign was disclosed.

"Hairspray" composer Marc Shaiman pledged to never allow anything he wrote to play at the theater again. Protest from Shaiman, who recently created a Web video satire entitled "Prop 8: The Musical" that mocks Christians as hatemongers and Jesus as a Bible critic, and other gay rights activists pressed Eckern to resign in November.

Los Angeles Film Festival Director Richard Raddon, a Mormon, was also pressed to resign after his $1,500 donation to the Yes on 8 campaign was disclosed.

The latest "blacklist" example was noted on Thursday by Greg Gutfeld of Fox News' "Red Eye" program. Margie Christoffersen, who fills pitchers at El Coyote restaurant in Los Angeles, was forced to resign after gay rights advocates picketed outside her workplace, Gutfeld reported. Although a supporter of gay marriage, Gutfeld chided the protesters for their treatment of Proposition 8 supporters.

Pacific Justice Institute, a Sacramento based Christian law firm, has offered to defend those threatened because of their support behind the California marriage amendment.

"Californians have been shocked by the aggressiveness of radical homosexual activists who have ousted several individuals from their jobs and livelihoods based solely on their support for traditional marriage," PJI president Brad Dacus stated this week. "These tactics of fear and intimidation in retaliation for supporting a lawful ballot measure are completely unacceptable."

Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Joe the Plumber Was Appalled by McCain

You might recall Joe the Plumber aka Joe Wurzelbacher, the outstanding American who brought Barack Obama's Marxist leanings out into the opens with the "spread your wealth" comment he incited from Obama.

You might also recall that Joe didn't engage on the McCain bandwagon for a long time, and when he did, it seemed rather limited. Joe did speak up admirably on his own but he always seemed a little stand-offish toward the McCain campaign.

Now we know why. Joe said he felt "dirty" after hitting the campaign trail with McCain and was "appalled" by some of McCain's positions, especially on the $700 billion bailout.

From Fox News:

"When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans did not want that to happen," Wurzelbacher told Beck. "I asked him some pretty direct questions. Some of the answers you guys are gonna receive they appalled me, absolutely. I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him."

According to the Fox News piece, the only reason Joe rode the trail with McCain was that the idea of Obama as president scared him even more.

See folks, smarmy, mealy-mouthed, middle-of-the-road, finger-in-the-wind, "moderate" Republicanism just doesn't impress average Americans.

Joe did have good words for someone in the McCain campaign, however:

"Sarah Palin is absolutely the real deal," he said.

Looks like Joe was the real deal, himself. Not impressed by smarmy politicians (and I say "politicians" in the worst sense of the word) on either side of the aisle. More concerned about Americanism and what's good for the country than feathering his own nest or building smarmy alliances.

On the Sidelines No More

VoteYesForLife.com published an email today from someone who regrets their disengaged attitude during the election:

Dear Respecter of Life,

I was one of those who were dreadfully naive about the vote last month on measure 11. I assumed it would pass and was shocked when it didn’t.

My personal reasons and excuses for not becoming aware of the battle on behalf of the unborn and not doing all I could to educate people along with Yes For Life…well, those reasons and excuses meant nothing when the measure was voted down.

I have mourned the ignorance of our state, and I’m ready to help in whatever ways I can. Would you please add me to your email list for notifications and opportunities to volunteer?

May you be blessed in this season of celebrating the most unplanned of all pregnancies - Jesus Christ.

It takes a big person to admit when they've been wrong, so I appreciate this statement from this person, regrettable as the outcome is.

I hope that many more good people will (a) recognize their own inaction, (b) the cost and the damage of that inaction, and (c) resolve not to stand on the sidelines anymore.

I believe it was Edmund Burke who said:

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Wright, Ayers Crawl Out of their Hole

Now that the election has passed, I see that Barack Obama's racist anti-American pastor Jeremiah Wright and his anti-American terrorist associate Bill Ayers have crawled out of whatever hole they were kept in to keep them quiet.

In the Fox News story below, it is said that Wright claims the "media" tried to use him against Obama. What a joke!

Ayers is also engaging in some serious historical revision, making himself sound oh-so-innocent. His idols Lenin and Stalin would be proud!

The "mainstream" media tried to keep both of these nuts buried and quiet; they only reason word got out at all on Obama's radical, America-hating friends at all was because the new media created such a buzz about it, and some of the coverage that Fox News gave it.

Perhaps that's what Wright means, because most of the others (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, et al) didn't do a whole lot of coverage.

A couple of notable exceptions were that CNN did actually do an expose on Ayers.

Fox News reporter Jesse Waters attempted to interview the Marxist Bill Ayers, but Ayers wouldn't talk to him and called the police (you know, the police Ayers bombed back in his active terrorist days) to get the reporter off his front doorstep (I didn't think Marxists liked private property rights).

And I'll give kudos for ABC also giving it one unsuccessful shot.

But the issue of Obama's associations with people who viscerally hate the United States certainly didn't get a fraction of the attention it deserved.

The proof of this was found post-election when we saw John Ziegler's video and the Zogby poll results. We found that while many Obama voters knew all the inaccurate slander on John McCain and especially Sarah Palin, they were almost entirely ignorant of the very real and accurate dirt on Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

But the damage is done, now. We have elected a man who associates with a domestic terrorist who bombed numerous buildings and remains unrepentant for his anti-American acts. We have elected a man who sat under the preaching for 20 years of a man who holds pure disdain for non-blacks and loathes America.

We will soon begin to find out what we have done to our country.

Homosexual Legislators Introduce Resolutions Opposing Prop. 8

Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post

By Lawrence Jones
Christian Post Reporter
Thu, Dec. 04 2008 08:19 AM EST

Two California lawmakers and openly gay members of the Legislature have introduced measures supporting the repeal of Proposition 8.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Mark Leno and state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, both Democratic lawmakers from San Francisco, introduced concurrent resolutions that seek to put the California Legislature on record opposing Proposition 8, the state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage approved by 52 percent of voters last month.

The bills argue that the measure, which amended the California Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman, was an illegal "constitutional revision" that should have been passed by two-thirds vote by both houses of the legislature before being submitted before voters.

But backers of the controversial measure contend it was an amendment that was legally enacted through the state's initiative process.

The non-binding resolution would put the state's lawmakers on record in support of arguments made in the lawsuits challenging Proposition 8.

Legal experts have said the resolution will unlikely affect the ruling by the California Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear the case in Spring 2009.

"This is the court's decision, not the Legislature's, just as whether you balance the budget is the Legislature's decision and not the court's," said Jesse Choper, the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at UC Berkeley's School of Law, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

Supporters of Proposition 8 accused the lawmakers of “grandstanding for the cameras.”

“You’d think that these legislators would be focused on resolving the budget deficit or improving the economy," said Ron Prentice, chairman of ProtectMarriage.com, which headed the Yes on 8 campaign. "Instead, they seem more interested in grandstanding for the cameras and thumbing their noses at voters who enacted Proposition 8 by a nearly 600,000 vote margin."

A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that the measure received its strongest support from evangelical Christians (85 percent) and Republicans (77 percent).

Andrew Pugno, general counsel of ProtectMarriage.com, said he was confident Proposition 8 will be upheld.

"The Court is not swayed by meaningless legislative resolutions that have no bearing on the outcome of the court challenges," said Pugno. “This resolution adds nothing to the debate about the validity of Proposition 8."

The bills introducing the resolutions were supported by the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Legislative Caucus and several gay rights groups including Equality California, which is behind one of the three lawsuits challenging the measure.

Forty-four state lawmakers have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of lawsuits seeking to overturn Proposition 8. The three individual cases are Strauss v. Horton, Tyler v. Horton, and San Francisco v. Horton.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown and lawyers for the Yes on 8 campaign have until December 19 to submit arguments to the state Supreme Court explaining why the measure should be upheld.

In May, the California Supreme Court overturned a 2000 state law banning same-sex marriage. The passage of Proposition 8 reversed the court's ruling.

In addition to determining the validity of Proposition 8, the court is also expected to decide the fate of some 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place in the state.

Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Chambliss: Governor Palin 'Allowed Us to Peak'

Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss giving credit where credit is due.

New Poll: McCain Voters Knew More About Candidates Than Obama Voters

You might remember that a few weeks ago a video put together by John Zielger at HowObamaGotElected.com came out which set the liberals howling with rage.

The video showed interviews with 12 people who were existing the polls after having voted for Barack Obama. In the video, we sadly see that the Obama voters knew all the media spin on Sarah Palin (none of which was accurate), but new none of the very real detractors about Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The point Zielger was illustrating wasn't so much the ignorance of the average Obama voter, but that the "mainstream" media had fed Americans a truck-load of propaganda making the McCain-Palin ticket look bad while sanitizing coverage of Obama and Biden of anything negative.

The polling firm Zogby International also released a poll commissioned by Ziegler which found similar results.

Now, as you see in the video below, Ziegler has done what many wounded liberals howled that he should do: check out the McCain voters.

While the knowledge of the average McCain voter was woefully inadequate also...it was still far better than the Obama voters.

Some of the results posted at HowObamaGotElected.com:

Wilson Research Poll

The 12 "Zogby" questions were duplicated, one on the Keating scandal was added for extra balance. The results from Obama voters were virtually IDENTICAL in both polls.

Here are the highlights:

35 % of McCain voters got 10 or more of 13 questions correct.

18% of Obama voters got 10 or more of 13 questions correct.

McCain voters knew which party controls congress by a 63-27 margin.

Obama voters got the “congressional control” question wrong by 43-41.

Those that got "congressional control" correct voted 56-43 for McCain.

Those that got "congressional control" wrong voted 65-35 for Obama.

The results also show more information about the knowledge level of the voters based on what news sources they relied on for information during the election.

Our right to vote is of profound importance and should be exercised with the greatest of responsibility. That means each voter should take the time to learn about the candidates and the issues on both sides in order to cast their vote responsibly.

In aggregate, our vote affects the whole country, along with our safety, welfare, and the moral fiber of our nation. Voting should never be done lightly, casually, or ignorantly. Too much is riding on it.

We'll soon begin finding out what a vote based on profound ignorance has wrought the people of the United States.

Proposition 8 Melee: Who's Being Intolerant?

This is the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) video put together of some of the outrageous behavior from homosexual activists after Californians voted for Proposition 8 to return marriage to the normal, natural definition: between a man and a woman.

Notice the "tolerance" from these homosexual activists as they rip a cross from an old woman's hands and stomp on it. Notice how they shout at her and prevent even the news reporter from interviewing her.

Notice too, the venom displayed by the homosexual activists in San Francisco toward a group of praying Christians they ran off the street. The Christians had to be escorted from the area by police for their safety. The police even had to push back homosexual activists on at least one occasion with their night sticks when they tried to get at the Christians.

This is what tolerance looks like? Somehow I doubt homosexual activists would like a dose of the "tolerance" they so often demand from others.

America, don't be intimidated by this hate and venom, and don't be seduced by the smarmy, hypocritical talk of "tolerance" (which really means, "Do things my way or we'll demonize you").

Marriage and family are too important to surrender on the altar of political correctness and intimidation.

After the passage of proposition 8 in California, advocates of homosexual behavior went on the offensive demanding that their agenda be imposed on everyone.

Video Reveals the Intolerance of the Tolerant

CitizenLink has put together a video examining a few of the examples of intolerance from the primary source of the gospel of tolerance: the homosexual community.

The homosexual community, especially in California, was beyond outraged when the voters of that state exercised their right to vote and chose to retain the definition of marriage humans have known for thousands of years, really the only definition for marriage: a man and a woman.

Homosexual activists have worked hard for nearly 20 years to put their best face forward and hide the unpleasant truths about themselves and their agenda. But when the people of California rose up and retook their government from the black-robed oligarchs who decreed the concept of homosexual "marriage" in May 2008, the mask came off.

Take a good look before they regain their composure and put the mask back on, America. This is what we're up against: a militant, hateful agenda that cares nothing about our republican form of government, about democracy, about the welfare of our society, or about the institutions of marriage and family that would be undermined by the counterfeiting of marriage.

The Alliance Defense Fund has put together a video showing some of the worst moments from the uprising against Prop. 8 in California.

Senator Saxby Chambliss Wins Runoff in Georgia

The media is now reporting that Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss has won the runoff election in Georgia against Democrat Jim Martin, putting a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate for Democrats out of reach.

With more than 70% of precincts reporting, the vote is 60%-40% in the incumbent Chambliss' favor.

The runoff became necessary when the three-way race on Nov. 4 between Republican Chambliss, Democrat Martin and Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley resulted in none of them getting at least 50% of the vote.

One other race remains undecided: in Minnesota, comedian Al Franken and incumbent Republican Norm Coleman are undergoing a recount to decide their race.

Alaska Governor and former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin came to Georgia to campaign for Chambliss, and many believe she made a difference for Chambliss. While the "mainstream" media continues to malign and disparage Palin, conservatives continue be excited about Palin and are already at work laying the ground for a 2012 run for president for Palin.

Palin continues to captivate conservatives in the Republican Party, and by helping Chambliss win and prevent a filibuster-proof senate majority, she has helped weaken the hopes for unimpaired passage of president-elect Barack Obama's radical liberal agenda.

It will be interesting to see what the next four years hold in wait for us.

A Call to Repent for Obama Vote by Another Catholic Priest

A Catholic priest in Modesto, CA, Rev. Joseph Illo, sent his parishioners at St. Joseph's Catholic Church a letter telling them they should confess if they voted for Barack Obama because Obama supports abortion.

This is the second priest we've heard about recently who has said something like this.

It is heartening to see many leaders in the Catholic Church starting to take a strong stand in holding elected officials who claim to be Catholic accountable for their public policy stances. And now we're seeing Catholic leaders starting to hold average parishioners accountable for how they exercise their vote.

It's too bad it's taken this long, but it's great to see those who confess Christ taking a stand of accountability to Christ's teachings. While some in the Protestant world are doing this, many more should follow the example of courageous leaders like Rev. Illo.

Abortion not only destroys human life created in the image of God, it destroys human life, period. The unborn child has from the moment of conception human DNA. That human DNA is unique from all other people on earth, making the child not a part of its mother's body she is free to discard, but a separate and unique human being.

The only scientific difference between the unborn child and the child outside the womb is a matter of development. If the lesser-developed child inside the womb has less innate value than the one outside the womb, then it should follow that the toddler has less value--and less human dignity--than the fully-developed adult. Do we accept this contention?

The reporter in the video below has a lot of gall, asking "if it's morally wrong to use the pulpit to preach politics."

When the pastor is addressing clear moral issues, this is akin to asking, "Is it morally wrong to speak against immoral issues from the pulpit?" Think about that for a second...

READ MORE...

State of Calif. Investigating Mormon Church Support for Proposition 8

Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post

By Eric Young
Christian Post Reporter
Sun, Nov. 30 2008 06:13 PM EST

The government body that enforces political campaign, lobbying, and conflict of interest laws in the state of California will be conducting an investigation of the Mormon church and its role in the campaign to ban gay marriage in the state.

The California Fair Political Practices Commission said this past week that it would investigate whether the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accurately described its role in the campaign to pass Proposition 8 in response to a complaint by a gay rights group.

Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, accuses the religious body of failing to report the value of work it did to support Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment passed earlier this month by California voters that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

“We are very pleased that the FPPC has agreed to launch an investigation based on our complaint,” expressed Karger, who filed a four-page complaint on Nov. 13, in a statement. “We’re hopeful the Mormon Church will fully cooperate with the investigation, and that we will find out the full extent of their involvement in the Yes on 8 campaign.”

Since the passage of Prop. 8 by a 52-to-48 percent vote, the Mormon church has been among the largest targets of outraged activists who want same-sex unions to be recognized as marriages.

“The Mormons played a vital role in the Prop 8 battle, and traditional marriage would have lost had it not been for their support,” explained Donald E. Wildmon, founder and chairman of the American Family Association, in an e-mail alert to supporters last Wednesday.

“While other churches were also involved in the battle to protect marriage – including Catholics and evangelicals – the homosexuals have singled out the Mormons as their target of anger,” he added.

In the months leading up to the Nov. 4 elections, the Mormon church had encouraged its members to work to pass California's Prop. 8 by volunteering their time and money for the campaign. Thousands of Mormons worked as grassroots volunteers and gave tens of millions of dollars to the campaign.

Following the passing of Prop. 8, protests erupted outside Mormon temples, Facebook groups formed telling people to boycott Mormon-affiliated companies, and Web sites such as mormonsstoleourrights.com began popping up, calling for an end to the religious group’s tax-exempt status.

Letters containing white powder - found later by the FBI to be nontoxic - were sent to the Salt Lake City headquarters of the religious group and to a temple in Los Angeles.

Utah's growing tourism industry and the star-studded Sundance Film Festival have also been targeted for a boycott by bloggers, gay rights activists and others seeking to punish the Mormon church for its aggressive promotion of California's ban on gay marriage.

"People of faith have been intimidated for simply exercising their democratic rights," Mormon church president Thomas S. Monson said in a statement.

"Attacks on churches and intimidation of people of faith have no place in civil discourse over controversial issues," he added. "People of faith have a democratic right to express their views in the public square without fear of reprisal. Efforts to force citizens out of public discussion should be deplored by people of goodwill everywhere."

Though Mormons and Christians often clash over theology, believers have been rallying together in support of the Mormon church, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has offered "prayerful support and steadfast solidarity" to the Mormon church for its efforts on behalf of Prop. 8.

An online petition is circulating on the worldwide web to thank the Mormon church for its efforts and to “express ... outrage at the vile and indecent attacks directed specifically and uniquely at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members because of [their] courage in standing up for marriage.”

“It is deeply unfair, and contrary to the best American traditions, that any faith community, much less a minority one, should be singled out and attacked in this way by powerful, well-funded political forces determined to ‘make them pay’ for participating in the normal political processes of democracy,” reads the statement signed by over 4,600 individuals, including prominent evangelicals Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

“We, the undersigned, utterly condemn and reject the ongoing unprecedented efforts to incite religious hatred and bigotry towards members of the LDS Church because, as American citizens, you have courageously exercised your core civil rights to speak, to vote, and to donate to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” the statement added.

In the past, the Mormon church was regarded by evangelicals as a Christian cult over diverging beliefs and is still regarded as such among some circles. Many, however, have come to view Mormons as members of another religious group, similar to Judaism or Islam. Mormonism was formally listed under “cults and sects” by the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant body in America, but has since been categorized among “newly developed religions” on the North American Mission Board apologetics page.

Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Zogby Releases Poll, Statement on How Obama Got Elected

Yesterday quite a few Barack Obama voters--the more cognizant ones, that is--were upset to hear about the video made by John Ziegler of questions being asked of clueless Obama voters after they had come out of the voting booth.

While almost every one could answer questions about the slurs the media and other liberals made against Sarah Palin, almost none could answer correctly concerning genuine gaffes made by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. They also could not answer basic facts concerning the candidates they had just voted for.

A quick summary of results from a Zogby poll which found stunning levels of ignorance on the part of Obama voters was also released.

This display of numbing ignorance was of course met with howls of disapproval and quick efforts to obfuscate and undermine credibility by liberals. In fact, the Daily Kos (the place where many liberals receive their daily talking papers) hit this one quickly and got out the standard denial-track overnight Monday night.

So it was that yesterday liberals parroted the "push polling, push polling" mantra fed to them by the Daily Kos.

It didn't matter how many times you explained to them why this the video and the Zogby poll were not push polling (primarily that it was done after the election where it could not do what push polls are designed to do: push the voter toward voting for a particular candidate based on negative information or insinuation). These liberals had been fed the "push polling" line, that was all they had, and they were going to use it like brave little soldiers.

Perhaps they'll believe Zogby International itself (there I go, getting optimistic again). John Zogby of Zogby International is himself a Democrat, so there are no reasonable (notice I said "reasonable") grounds for charges of Right-wing bias here).

Zogby has not only released the full results of the poll, but has also placed a statement on their website specifically to answer these mindless charges of "push polling."

Zogby says

"We stand by the results our survey work on behalf of John Ziegler, as we stand by all of our work. We reject the notion that this was a push poll because it very simply wasn't. It was a legitimate effort to test the knowledge of voters who cast ballots for Barack Obama in the Nov. 4 election. Push polls are a malicious effort to sway public opinion one way or the other, while message and knowledge testing is quite another effort of public opinion research that is legitimate inquiry and has value in the public square. In this case, the respondents were given a full range of responses and were not pressured or influenced to respond in one way or another. This poll was not designed to hurt anyone, which is obvious as it was conducted after the election. The client is free to draw his own conclusions about the research, as are bloggers and other members of society. But Zogby International is a neutral party in this matter. We were hired to test public opinion on a particular subject and with no ax to grind, that's exactly what we did. We don't have to agree or disagree with the questions, we simply ask them and provide the client with a fair and accurate set of data reflecting public opinion." - John Zogby

Here are some of the results of the poll:

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

As I told one persistent liberal yesterday, even if it had been a push poll, that does not alter the most important aspects of the exercise: that these facts about Barack Obama and Joe Biden were true, and that Obama voters were utterly clueless about the facts.

I admitted up front yesterday that not all Obama voters are clueless. Many are sincere, dedicated socialists who knew exactly the kind of un-American candidate they were supporting (un-American in that Obama espouses values antithetical to Americanism and how America was designed to work).

But a large number of average Obama voters--as evidenced by this video and the Zogby poll--simply knew very little about the candidates. They had swallowed the propaganda fed them by the "mainstream" media. As evidenced by the video, that propaganda said that John McCain was a mean old guy, Sarah Palin was a mean idiot, and that there was nothing negative about Obama or Biden.

First and foremost, it is every person's responsibility to educate and inform themselves. Our right to vote is a sacred and very important thing; it should not be exercised indiscriminately and without good information.

But our journalistic corps' job is to provide objective facts, not spin and propaganda which favors the candidate they favor (and polls also show that the "mainstream" media overwhelmingly supported Obama and other Democrats). Our media bills itself as being "unbiased" an "objective." Those things are essential to the health of a representative democracy.

But we do not have "truth in advertising" from our "mainstream" media. We have snake oil. And the deleterious of that poison the media sells was evidenced in this video.

I strongly suspect that on election day, ignorance carried the day.

Obama Associate Bill Ayers: We Ought to Abolish Prisons

Barack Obama's terrorist associate Bill Ayers says some interesting things in this short video.

He regrets dedicating his terrorist manifesto Prairie Fire to Robert F. Kennedy-assassin Sirhan Sirhan...but denies doing it even though he regrets it.

He also says, "We ought to abolish the prisons."

I guess there are no bad people in Ayers world (except rich people and capitalists).

If we follow his advice, we should ship every one of the ex-prisoners to Ayers neighborhood and let them live next to him.

Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected

The "How Obama Got Elected" Zombie Voters video has gone viral. I posted it late last evening and it burned up the internet overnight.

Hannity and Colmes also talked to the man, John Ziegler, who commissioned the Zogby poll and did the documentary video last night (see below).

John Ziegler said he would bet Alan Colmes the money he spent on this video and poll, which was about $13,0000, and said if they got the same poll results or worse, he'd pay double their expenses.

Ziegler said the people in this video were not chosen by him, but were chosen by a black female.

Ziegler blamed the "mainstream" media more than these ignorant voters. He is right that the media deserves plenty of blame, because they put themselves forward as being "objective" and "unbiased"...and their behavior during this election made a mockery of that claim like never before.

However, it is every person's responsibility to ensure for themselves that they are knowledgeable and informed about the candidates and issues. In this day and age where an abundance of information and news sources are available, it is inexcusable for an American to be anywhere near this uninformed about the candidates and issues.

Ball games, the latest Britney Spears CD, new cell phone ring tones, and Survivor: Third Moon of Jupiter are not more important than our civic duty to be informed voters.

Sean Hannity said these interviews mirrored the results he gets when he does "man on the street" interviews his radio show; I've heard a number of these interviews, and they are truly pathetic.

Some of the Zogby results:

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

If I was Barack Obama and knew that this was my voter base, I would be profoundly ashamed.

"The media coverage of this campaign was so scandalous, so beyond bias into the realm of media malpractice."

How Obama Got Elected: Zombie Voters

Now I know that our liberal bloggers in South Dakota are more informed than the folks in this video (our lib bloggers at least know who most of the players are), so don't think I'm poking fun at you, liberal bloggers.

But you know as well as I do that this is almost certainly all-too-typical of the Obama voter profile.

The website How Obama Got Elected put together this video and their website features some interesting information gathered by Zogby polling on Obama voters:

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

You might recall that I wrote a few weeks ago about the Case Against Clueless Voting. You probably thought I was being mean and unfair. This video proves I was not; I was probably being overly gracious.

A vote is a sacred thing, not to be exercised lightly. It is also a potentially dangerous thing when used indiscriminately, and in concert with other indiscriminate and poorly-aimed votes.

Note where most of these mindless zombies got their vast ocean of political information: NPR, PBS, CNN, Bill Maher, New York Times, BBC (which, incidentally, for you fellow zombies out there, is the liberal British Broadcasting Company), MSNBC, Jon Stewart. All Leftist propaganda mouthpieces, most of which try to pass themselves off as "objective." However, I think the only folks they're fooling into believing that are the type in this video.

I wish they had asked these Obama voters their number one reason for voting for Obama. Given the level of ignorance here, I think it would be a pretty safe bet to guess it would be something like "Because he's gonna stick it to the rich!" or maybe "He'll pay for my health care" or some such envy-driven drivel.

You know, if I ran for office and had this many complete ignoramuses vote for me, I think there's a good chance my sense of integrity would compel me to step down for the good of the country.

By the way, I suppose these Obama voters at least deserve credit for recognizing there are not 58 states in the United States (as Obama said).

www.HowObamaGotElected.com looks at how media coverage of the 2008 election impacted what Obama voters knew (or thought they knew) about the campaign.

Under California Constitution, Proposition 8 Should Stand

SACRAMENTO, California, November 17 /Standard Newswire/ -- With their vote under attack by liberal county governments, homosexual activists and the ACLU, many Californians are wondering whether they've lost the right to amend the constitution. The answer is no, according to the constitution itself and the legislative and legal history regarding the difference between an "amendment" and a "revision."

"An amendment is when the voters make changes to one or more of the provisions of the constitution," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California pro-family organization. "In contrast, a revision is when the legislature and the voters both agree to make numerous, sophisticated changes to the entire constitution. If the constitution were a house, a revision would be an extensive remodel where you knock down all the inside walls and repaint everything; an amendment would be a minor change, like replacing a lamp or a chair in the family room."

Proposition 8, approved by the voters, added Article 1, Section 7.5 to the California Constitution, reading, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

The City of San Francisco alleges Prop. 8 was a constitutional revision requiring two-thirds legislative approval. Yet in July, the California Supreme Court refused to hear these same arguments when the City of San Francisco urged the court to strip Prop. 8 from the ballot. "This summer, the Supreme Court unanimously refused to hear the claim that Proposition 8 was a revision," said Thomasson, who is seeking to intervene in the Prop. 8 lawsuits on behalf of the voters. "The Court disagreed that Prop. 8 is 'a substantial alteration of the entire constitution.'"

"The Supreme Court knows the difference between a single-subject, voter-initiated amendment and a multi-issue, legislature-initiated, whole-scale revision that alters many sections of the state constitution," said Thomasson. "The first clue is revisions always require a two-thirds legislative vote, but voter-initiated amendments such as Prop. 8 are directly added to the constitution by the people. Thank God that the state constitution tells us 'all political power is inherent in the people,' that 'they have the right to alter or reform it when the public good may require'" (California Constitution, Article II, Section 1).

In 1978, the California Supreme Court distinguished between a revision of the constitution and a mere amendment of the constitution, stating that a revision referred to a "substantial alteration of the entire constitution, rather than to a less extensive change in one or more of its provisions" (Amador Valley Joint Union High School District v. State Board of Equalization, 22 Cal.3d 208).

The California Supreme Court last ruled on this issue in 1991, rejecting similar arguments that the City of San Francisco is using now. The Court ruled that Prop. 140 was not a revision:

"As previously noted, petitioners contend that the combined effects of the foregoing term and budgetary limitations on California's 'basic governmental plan' will be as devastating and far reaching as those involved in the provision of Proposition 115 invalidated by us in Raven v. Deukmejian, supra, 52 Cal.3d 336, 276 Cal.Rptr. 326, 801 P.2d 1077. They thus assert that Proposition 140 has achieved a qualitative revision of the Constitution. We disagree.

"Raven invalidated a portion of Proposition 115 because it deprived the state judiciary of its foundational power to decide cases by independently interpreting provisions of the state Constitution, and delegated that power to the United States Supreme Court. (Ibid.) By contrast, Proposition 140 on its face does not affect either the structure or the foundational powers of the Legislature, which remains free to enact whatever laws it deems appropriate. The challenged measure alters neither the content of those laws nor the process by which they are adopted. No legislative power is diminished or delegated to other persons or agencies." (Legislature v. Eu 54 Cal.3d 492)

The California Constitution itself states that the people may amend the Constitution by the initiative process, where they collect signatures, qualify an amendment to the Constitution, and pass it. No legislative "permission" is required for voter-initiated amendments such as Proposition 8. "The electors may amend the Constitution by initiative" (Article 18, Sec. 3).

Explaining the clear distinction between an amendment and a revision is University of California, Berkeley Department of Public Science Chairman Emeritus Dr. Eugene C. Lee, who, in 1991, wrote:

"Specific changes to the California constitution may be proposed by amendment. Substantial changes may be proposed by a constitutional convention or by the legislature as constitutional revisions. Regardless of their origin, all changes must be approved by a majority of the electorate voting on the issue. Legislative amendments, the method most commonly used, require a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature. Initiative amendments may be placed on the ballot by a petition of registered voters equal in number to 8 percent of the total vote cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. By explicit language in the constitution concerning initiatives and by court interpretation with respect to measures arising in the legislature, amendments are required to be limited in scope. As far back as 1894, the California Supreme Court distinguished between a revision of the constitution and a mere amendment thereof (Livermore v. Waite, 102 Cal. 113). As reiterated in 1978, the court held that a revision referred to a 'substantial alteration of the entire constitution, rather than to a less extensive change in one or more of its provisions' (Amador Valley Joint Union High School District v. State Board of Equalization, 22 Cal.3d 208)." -- Eugene C. Lee, "The Revision of California's Constitution," April 1991, commissioned by the California Policy Seminar, UC Berkeley

CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (CCF) is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families. CCF stands for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious