Dropping the Ball

From our friends at Americans for Limited Government.

Now the Abortion Industry Wants In On The Action

As reported by OneNewsNow:

Abortion industry asks Obama for billions in funding
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 12/29/2008 3:30:00 AM

A major abortion provider wants taxpayers to fork over more money, even while the economy is down.

Over 50 pro-abortion groups have submitted a 55-page wish list called "Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration" to the incoming Obama administration. Jim Sedlak of American Life League's (ALL) Stop Planned Parenthood, or Stopp International, has tallied the cost.

'They want unfettered abortion. They want the government paying for all of its programs,' he contends. 'In fact, [if] you total up everything that they've asked Obama for, Planned Parenthood and their friends want the taxpayers to give them $4.6 billion next year.'

And why not? Everyone else is clawing for a place at the public teats. Besides, the abortion industry has never had such opportunity as now with the election of a socialist president and congress.

Financial Collapse Compared to Fall of the Berlin Wall

Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post

By Jenna Lyle
Christian Today Reporter
Tue, Dec. 23 2008 09:45 AM EST

The collapse of major banks and financial institutions may have as great an impact on the world as the fall of the Berlin Wall, says the Bishop of Gibraltar.

Bishop Geoffrey Rowell was speaking in an address during the installation of the new dean of Gibraltar’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, the Rev. Dr. John Paddock.

Reflecting on the present economic downturn, he said the dean had a role to play in speaking into the challenges of the day.

“Jeremiah was assured that the Lord had put his words into his mouth – there was a gift of speaking to the collapsing world of the Jewish people in Jeremiah’s own day,” he said.

"Our world today is a world of collapsing confidence, where a recession has come with the suddenness of a tsunami caused by the shaking of foundations beneath the sea.”

He predicted that the impact of the financial crisis would be far-reaching.

“The fall of Wall Street may be as significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall in changing the world, the Europe, in which we live,” he said. “The financial situation will certainly have an impact on the many to whom we minister in the diocese and therefore on the diocese itself.”

Paddock’s installation in the cathedral in Gibraltar was attended by representatives of the diocese and the community of Gibraltar, as well as the Governor of Gibraltar, who read a lesson, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Gibraltar.

Rowell said that the dean, as senior priest in the diocese, had to be a voice of support as well as challenge for the diocese, and offer encouragement and care to the cathedral's congregation.

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

White House Blasts NYT Selective Memory

The "mainstream" New York Times certainly has a selective memory in placing sole blame for the mortgage meltdown at the feet of President Bush.

In doing so, they have to step over the reality that Democrats pushed to give Fannie and Freddie--government creations--a free-wheeling hand while Republicans pushed for more oversight of these government lenders backed by taxpayer money.

Blaming "deregulation" sounds good to shallow ears, but as usual the "mainstream" liberal press has bad aim.

Deregulation of private industry is usually a good thing; private industry tends to thrive with minimal government interference and is usually checked from recklessness by the knowledge that they'll have to live wit the consequences.

Oversight is needed--demanded--for government institutions which should be accountable to the taxpayers (after all, Americanism dictates the government exists to serve the people, not that the people exist to serve government). Giving cronies a free-wheeling hand at Freddie and Fannie as Democrats have demanded for their buddies has been largely responsible for this mess.

As usual, liberals place blind trust in government institutions while viewing private industry with suspicion and knee-jerk assumptions of guilt.

No wonder socialist societies are destined for mediocrity.

Helping With Recession during the Christmas Season

Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post

By Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
Mon, Dec. 22 2008 10:29 AM EST

The holiday season is in full swing and along with the joy often times comes unwanted stress, especially this year with the economic recession.

A ministry working to support needy children and families around the world offers five pieces of advice to Americans on alternatives to gift giving when money is tighter than ever.

For shoppers looking for easy, affordable and meaningful ways to give gifts to friends and families this year, World Vision suggests that the best way to do so is to select a charitable organization that one would like to support and make a donation online.

Donating to charities in the names of friends and family is meaningful and also avoids the chaos at malls around Christmas season.

The second best way to give affordable, meaningful gifts is to consider a do-it-yourself gift that you can make with your children.

Other ways to cope with the holiday recession include helping a neighbor shut-in by snow by shoveling their sidewalk or delivering hot chocolate to neighbors; giving the gift of time to volunteer as a family at a local charity; and buying gift certificates for friends to do family-friendly activities like going to the movies or ice-skating.

“The holiday season can be a stressful time of year,” says World Vision’s Devin Hermanson, in a statement. “There are gifts to purchase and wrap, cookies to bake, and family to visit but as the economy struggles, let’s remember our friends and neighbors in need.”

According to a recent World Vision gift-giving survey, four out of five U.S. adults prefer to receive a meaningful gift this holiday season. More than seven out of ten Americans plan to spend less on gifts but almost half of those surveyed say that given the current economic climate, they’re now more likely to give a “charitable gift,” something that helps other people instead of a traditional gift like clothing or home electronics.

World Vision has a Gift Catalog where givers can purchase in the name of a friend, family member, or business associate. The catalog includes a goat or cow for a needy family in Africa, and contributing to building a well in Africa, among other charitable gifts. World Vision sends special cards to those individuals, describing the gifts and their impact.

Last year, the ministry’s Gift Catalog raised $21 million and provided assistance to more than 500,000 people worldwide.

The Gift Catalog launched in 1996 and the goat ($75) has been the ministry’s number one seller, although there are many affordable items for less than $35.

World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty.

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

This Christmas, let's remember who we are

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

"Tis the season to be jolly."

But this year it's going to be a challenge for many Americans. A Washington Post survey this week reported two thirds saying they were being impacted by the current recession. In another poll, 57 percent said they'd be cutting back on their Christmas spending.

Nothing unsettles the human heart and mind more than the unknown. I think our general discomfort is compounded by a feeling of not knowing exactly what is causing this economic tsunami and how and when we'll recover.

Maybe as we consider all this, and particularly at a time of the year when we think about the blessings we do have to count, we might ponder what produced all the prosperity we have to begin with. What's behind this great economic miracle -- the greatest of all time -- the United States of America?

If we listen to the news and our politicians, you would conclude it's all kind of a big machine. Like with a stalled car, they're all under the hood trying to figure out what went wrong. A busted hose? Distributor? Spark plugs? What needs to get fixed or installed to get the thing running again?

Or, alternatively, you'd think that we're like a bunch of white laboratory mice running around in a cage. The policy makers stand over us in white coats trying to figure out, "Well, do we need to give them a food pellet or an electric shock to get them to do what we want?"

Are we so lost today that we have forgotten that our great miracle has been produced by free people living in a free country?

Yet, now we hear from politicians that the problem is we're too free. We need more government, more regulations, more bureaucrats planning our lives and telling us what to do. Who is asking, given what made us great to begin with, if the problem is not exactly the opposite?

Consider that on the other side of the world the Chinese are now celebrating the 30th anniversary of the economic reforms that introduced private ownership and free markets into their communist country. Sure, China is still run by their communist party. But 30 years ago one hundred percent of their companies were government run. Today half have been privatized.

China has been growing at double-digit rates since they opened the door to economic freedom. Income per person is ten times higher today than thirty years ago. And 250 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty.

Now I read that another miracle is occurring in China alongside of the new prosperity which freedom has enabled.

The Economist magazine recently reported about what it called "China's fastest growing non-governmental organization." Christianity.

According to the report, there may be now 130 million Chinese Christians - some 10 percent of the population. It's estimated that maybe one percent of the Chinese population was Christian when communist China was founded in 1949.

It's particularly compelling to consider that this explosive growth of Chinese Christianity is occurring in a country that is still officially atheist and where the government remains hostile and opposed to religion. And that, according to this estimate, the number of Chinese Christians is now almost double the number of Chinese members of the Communist Party.

So why, when the Chinese are discovering both freedom and faith, is America abandoning both?

Why do we now think we need to turn to commissars in Washington to plan our economy and our lives to save our country? Is this really where we should be turning to be saved?

Let's remember, particularly now, that freedom is what made America great and that for that freedom, in the words of our first president George Washington, "religion and morality are indispensable."

This Christmas, let's remember who we really are and that the formula for American success is freedom, faith, family, and friends. Merry Christmas to all.

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.

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas, Slackers!

Industry slackers are praying the government-god or Santa Claus will bring big taxpayer-funded gifts this Christmas season.

Exercising fiscal irresponsibility and then expecting the taxpayers to rescue you isn't capitalism, guys.


From our friends at Americans for Limited Government.

Fred Thompson: Ask What You Can Spend for Your Country

Fred Thompson tells us the government's plan to fix the economy: spend our way to success.

While the economy does need us to continue spending on the necessities we usually purchase, we don't need to make any special efforts to "spend our way to prosperity."

We also don't need the government to waste more of our money for us.

"My favorite stimulus idea is to give everybody who needs a job a shovel. We put half the people to work digging holes. We’ll get the other half to fill 'em up. Everybody gets a check and the unemployment problem is solved. And there’s no limit to the number of holes we can get Americans to dig and fill."

Rome is Burning – And We’re Having a National Fiddling Convention

BY PAUL E. SCATES

While politicians of both parties are fiddling away, mostly in squabbles about who has the most power, the issues that affect the daily lives of all Americans are being ignored. And if politicians aren’t yammering on endlessly about them, then to the distinguished members of the Fourth Estate don’t recognize those issues as newsworthy.

In my life I’ve heard people ask about how the ordinary German people could have simply stood by quietly while Hitler ascended to power, how the Russians allowed the Bolsheviks to seize control of the government, or how the Jews in Europe meekly acquiesced to the horrors of the Nazi-imposed holocaust, et al. In fifty years or so, people will be asking the same question about the demise of the United States as a world power, or even as a nation. So we need not ask ‘Why?’ or ‘How?’ others succumbed to their fates so meekly; all we have to do is examine what’s happening today in our own nation.

For example, how about our dependency on foreign oil? Oh, sure, the gasoline prices are down right now, so that issue is no longer important, even though we were paying over $4 a gallon just weeks ago. Even though OPEC has and plans to again cut production to bolster oil prices. The Iraqi oil minister just proclaimed that $80 a barrel (which equates to around $3 a gallon for gasoline) is a “reasonable” price. (No good deed goes unpunished.)

Our own politicians – you know, those who so unctuously pledge to “serve” their constituents’ interests – have steadfastly refused to harvest the oil we have in our own country in order to give us time to develop practical and affordable alternatives to the oil that gives our enemies such power over us. No, it’s not a long-term solution, but neither is paying over $700 billion a year to those who hate us, while leaving our own oil – estimated to be several times more than Saudi reserves – untouched. If you think oil-per-barrel prices won’t again skyrocket, sending gasoline to $4 or $5 dollars a gallon (or more), you’re hopelessly ignorant of world politics. Our politicians are not supposed to be that ignorant, yet they insist on maintaining our status as helpless prey to socialist wackos (Chavez in Venezuela) and filthy rich oil sheiks who support Islamic terrorists with the money we pay them.

How about debt? If any one of us owed money in the proportion that our nation owes, we would have long-since been bankrupt, penniless and homeless. The second-most powerful nation in history (the USSR) no longer exists, yet it wasn’t defeated militarily. It collapsed economically (in no small part due to the arms race with the U.S.). We owe more money to China that any of us could calculate, and more to Saudi Arabia and the other oil-producing nations, yet our politicians tell us that the “crisis” of the financial industry (and the auto industry, and whoever else decides they ‘need’ a bailout) requires us to allocate them money that we have to borrow! Try that in your own finances and see how long you keep the wolves from the door…yet our nation can do it indefinitely?

Now we have a president who is much a socialist as Hugo Chavez, who apparently hates this country that provided him such amazing opportunities, and who will oversee a Democrat-controlled administration for at least four years. Do you think we’ll begin drilling our own oil (which, by the way, would provide a huge economic benefit in equipment sales, thousands of jobs, etc.)? When the supposedly fiscally conservative Republicans increased our debt, do you think Obama and the Democrats, who are known for tax-and-spend and never met a government program that costs billions they didn’t like, will reduce it? No, even though we’re at a critical point in our history, facing the real threat of economic collapse and dependence on nations that hate us, it won’t happen. Why?

Because you and I allow our politicians to so cavalierly ignore these and other critical issues, while they busy themselves with who gets what party post, or who gets the most pork for their district.

I feel like I’m watching one of those nature shows on Discovery channel, where the slowest wildebeast in the herd is systematically cut off and surrounded by lions, then brought down and eaten, even while it’s still alive and aware of what’s happening. Our politicians are the cameramen; they see what’s happening, but they have other priorities, so the animal is savagely killed and eaten. Do you honestly think that the Saudis and other Middle Eastern nations care about what fate befalls us? Or China? Come to think of it, do you think any of our politicians, of either party, honestly care? Their arrogance and persistent non-action prove otherwise.

But then…so does our own unwillingness to demand that our representatives support our Constitution and act in the best interests of this nation. Don’t ask how Hitler or the Bolsheviks took power, or how the Jews so meekly succumbed to their fate. We’re showing exactly how it happened. Fiddle music, anyone?

Formerly a liberal and an atheist, Paul E. Scates served as a Marine in Vietnam and is a lifelong student of American history, politics and culture. A former contributor to national website TooGoodReports.com, he writes his staunchly independent Conservative and informed Christian commentary for his fellow ordinary, working Americans, the “we, the people” who are ultimately responsible for preserving our Constitutional liberties.

Blowing the Horn of Plenty

From our friends at Americans for Limited Government.

Parker: We fail to learn from history

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

How can you not feel that emptiness in the pit of your stomach as you watch our financial markets spin downward? The broad stock market indices are down well over 40 percent since the beginning of the year. Losses are somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 trillion.

The real economic realities behind these numbers are starting to show up. The only question at this point is how severe the recession we are now entering will be.

Maybe, when everyone is depressed I am supposed to write cheery things to encourage folks. But I can't, because I care about our country and what I see is not encouraging.

We just had a presidential election that in some circles produced a lot of euphoria. But I believe that at some point -- I hope sooner rather than later -- many Americans are going to wake up and realize that this election was not a cure for our problems but a symptom of the disease.

I think this is what our crashing financial markets are telling us.

There is a well-known quote from a less well-known philosopher -- George Santayana -- that those who don't remember history will repeat it.

The failure of communism and socialism is not that far behind us. Yet Americans cannot seem to recall that it happened -- and why it happened.

What characterizes these systems? Government control. Central planning. And Godlessness.

Let's consider the sad and pathetic state of our American automobile companies.

As the chairmen of GM, Ford, and Chrysler sat in Washington begging for public money to survive, Honda was celebrating the opening of a new non-union plant in Greensburg, Ind., which will produce 200,000 vehicles annually.

The starting hourly wage at this plant will be $18.41 per hour -- about $10 less than at the American companies. There were 33,000 applicants for 900 job openings.

Americans want to work, can work, and can compete with anyone. They just need to be free to do it.

In 1970, GM had 50 percent of the U.S. auto market. Today it has 20 percent. What happened?

The world changed in 1973. We were hit with the oil shock. The oil producing countries' cartel, OPEC, discovered its power, and drove up energy prices.

The power of a free country and free markets is that people, when left alone, will adjust to change and do what they need to do. In fact, that's what happened in businesses that were left alone. Changes and adjustments were made and overall the country is about twice as energy efficient today as it was in 1970.

But in our high profile auto industry that's not what happened. Our politicians, with cooperation from our auto industry executives, decided that the auto companies could not be left to their own resources to adjust to new realities.

First, we enacted import quotas on Japanese cars. Second, we enacted fuel standards to dictate to our car companies what kind of cars to make. And, of course, third, the power of the union was left intact.

Now look where we are. We have a destroyed industry that is the product not of Americans not being able to compete, but of allowing itself to become dependent on government.

This is why our auto companies have failed. This is why communist and socialist countries have failed.

A few days ago Rahm Emanuel, who Barack Obama has picked to be his chief of staff, spoke to a gathering of CEOs at a Wall Street Journal conference in Washington.

He went through the agenda to expect from the Obama administration. He sounded like a commissar from the Soviet Union. Government control and planning in health care, energy, the economy, and financial markets.

Why are our financial markets so pessimistic? They are bracing. The market sees the sad news that Americans have not learned from history. And it looks like we are about to relive its hard lessons.

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.

Bailout Syndrome

From our friends at Americans for Limited Government.

Parker: Does Cathy define America?

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

I retrieve and open a large envelope from today's pile of mail.

Inside is a press release announcing "Chik-fil-A Founder to Receive 2008 William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership."

I discover that Chik-fil-A founder is 87-year-old Atlanta businessman S. Truett Cathy. Reading about Cathy, amidst today's headlines, I am wondering if his story is what America is about, or was about.

Cathy built, and today is owner/operator, of the privately held Chik-fil-A fast food chain, with more than 1400 locations and sales of over $2.6 billion dollars. He's from humble roots in rural Georgia and opened the first Chik-fil-A store in Atlanta in 1967.

In contrast to stereotypes equating business, particularly big business, to greed, Cathy's life and work has been defined by service and Christian charity. The corporate mission statement of Chik-fil-A is "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chik-fil-A."

Chil-fil-A stores are closed on Sunday to allow employees to devote the day to faith and family.

Cathy established a scholarship fund in 1973 for Chik-fil-A employees and to date around 23,000 have received more than $24 million in scholarship funds. In 1984 he established the WinShape Foundation which last year alone spent $18 million supporting a network of foster homes, camps, scholarships, and marriage counseling programs.

The Simon Prize, which Cathy has just received, is awarded by the William E. Simon Foundation, established by Simon, who was the 63rd Treasury Secretary of the United States.

Like Cathy, Simon believed in America, in freedom and free enterprise, and was a man of faith. The giving themes of his foundation, as noted on the foundation's website, are in the areas of "education, faith, and family."

Unlike Cathy, Simon built his wealth in the area which is now quintessentially associated with greed -- finance. Before becoming Treasury Secretary in 1974, he was a Wall Street bond trader at Salomon Brothers. After, he set up firms dealing in mergers and acquisitions, financial services, and banking.

As Wall Street executives are dragged to hearings, to be mocked, blamed, and threatened by Democratic Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, it's worth quoting Simon, who passed away in 2000, as his creed appears on his foundation's website:

"The free enterprise system has blessed the United States of America with the greatest prosperity, the highest standards of living, and, most important, the greatest individual freedom known to man. If we can preserve this system, and our freedom, we can look forward to turning over to our children, and our children's children, an America that is more productive, prosperous, and stronger economically, financially, morally, and spiritually, than the one we inherited."

How, from this, did we become a nation of blame, bailouts, and entitlement?

Wal-Mart has just released its quarterly report showing sales and earnings up 7.5 percent and 9.8 percent respectively. Wal-Mart, founded and built by one of America's great entrepreneurs, has been under endless attack from the political left. Now, in tough times, Americans are happy to have a source of low priced, high quality merchandise.

Average nationwide retail gasoline prices this week are $1.95 less a gallon compared to July -- a drop of almost 50 percent. In a Gallup poll done last year, most Americans attributed high gasoline prices to oil company greed. Are they going down now because oil companies are becoming generous?

No doubt, these are hard times.

Here's my prediction. The more Americans believe that our future depends on politicians, political fixes, and bailouts, the bleaker our future will be.

If we see America as a country defined by men like S. Truett Cathy, Bill Simon, and Sam Walton, we'll re-establish firm footing on American principles and re-build our country, our prosperity, and our leadership.

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.

Banned SNL Skit on Financial Crisis Now Online

You need to see the banned Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit on the subprime meltdown. It was taken off YouTube--it was probably WAY over the line of honesty and candor allowed by liberal YouTube--but someone managed to bring it back to the internet.

HT to my fellow Red County blogger Dr. Richard Swier for pointing out this truth-telling and funny video.

Go here to see this great video at Pat Dollard.

You'll seldom see this much truth and accuracy in a skit produced by a pop-culture entity.

Among the many truths illustrated in this, it also points out they utter hypocrisy of the "bipartisan" drivel spouted by the Democrats...all the while they are backstabbing and bashing President Bush, who has done more than anyone in decades to promote good relations between the parties.

Go watch it NOW.

For Christians, Far More Than the Economy is at Stake in the Election

By Marie Jon'

Christians founded this nation, and they will either save it or let fall into the hands of a Socialist-Marxist and his minions. By refusing to vote for Sen. John McCain, Christians will bear a huge portion of responsibility for abandoning their nation in its time of greatest need.

Only a massive turnout of every devout believer in Christ can turn this election around. We most certainly have the numbers to do the job. God fearing Christians who are willing to vote their faith can overturn the attempted theft of this election by the enemy.

The Democrats have let it be known that if and when they gain control of all three branches of government, they will do so for generations to come, by force if necessary.

I am positive that Socialist-Marxists will not let go without causing great social unrest once they have been in control for a time. The far left will take over our country and destroy it. Be prepared to do what is right before it's too late. Don't be overwhelmed by what appears to be an Obama victory. Act now. Put an end to this ominous threat.

The outcome of this election will say many things. One of the most profound is what it will say about the state of Christianity in this country. Specifically, the compromise of Christian beliefs will give rise to paganism, socialism, multiculturalism and various other -isms.

We are on the proverbial "thin edge of the wedge.

"We have witnessed the most aggressive litigations which have attacked our faith for years, yet not many Christians have been stirred up enough to do a thing about the eroding of our religious freedoms.

Open your eyes, Christian America. You've been undermined and lulled to sleep within your cloisters of Christian fellowship. Your lack of wisdom regarding political effects on matters of faith is stunningly appalling. As a result, we have been weakened.

This election is not just about the economy, but about the fate of our nation as it exists today.

If we are not careful, soon our churches will be forced to compromise the preaching of the full gospel message, as they have been in Canada, Britain and Scandinavia. What God's Word has to say about marriage and homosexuality will be considered hate speech. Christian radio will also be stifled not able to air God's truth on these extremely important topics.

Our churches will lose their tax exemptions because they'll refuse to accommodate and perform same sex marriages. Traditional Churches will close their doors before they are forced to obey the far reaching arms of the ACLU and those who legislate from the bench.

This is a clarion call. Who will be preaching to the multitudes? Denominations that have been radicalized by the far left, such as the National Council of Churches, that's who. Only those whose agenda it is to change our country's political and social mores will be left standing. They have already sown the seeds of deceit.

The United Church of Christ is the very same denomination as "God Damn America" Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He helped form Sen. Barack Obama's world views, both spiritually and politically. Read the handwriting on the wall. See what America will become if Obama is elected.

Excerpts from About.Com: What is the United Church of Christ's Position on Homosexuality?

Question: What is the United Church of Christ's Position on Homosexuality?

Answer:"The United Church of Christ is, by definition, congregational, thus the views of one church may not be forced or taken on by another church. Thus, many views vary among various congregations within the Church of Christ. David Roozen, the director for the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, has stated that the overall pronouncements and polices of the national church is often more liberal than what individual churches uphold.

"The General Synod passed a resolution in 1985 that encouraged congregations to be open and affirming, meaning that the churches should be non-discriminating in areas of employment, volunteer efforts, and membership. In 2005 the General Synod encouraged congregations to adopt equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. Several congregations allow for ordination of non-celibate homosexual clergy, but only 10 percent of UCC congregations actually have an official 'Open and Affirming' statement." Full Article

The Gospel of Christ has been blatantly misrepresented within many ungodly denominations. They have finally reached across the abyss and shook the hands with the powers of darkness. These denominations will have their doors wide open because they will be the status quos of the new laws that will be imposed upon our nation.

Christians, it is your last chance to make a stand for our faith. It is our last opportunity to hold back what is to come.

We must maintain "one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all." Our country's fate is in our hands. Seize it. In a matter of a few days it will be all over. The election is more than just about the economy.

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.

I Care About More

As important as the economy is, I care about more than that.

Do you?

Obama's Tax Plan a Middle Class Slam

When you "stick it to the rich" and hit business with higher taxes, the middle class pays the price.

Why should middle-class folks have to explain this to the man who wants to be president?

Analysis of McCain and Obama Tax Plans

A brief but good analysis of John McCain's tax plan and Barack Obama's tax plan.

If you're into economic growth, McCain's plan is obviously the way to go. If you're into greed and envy, and want to stick it to someone who has more than you, Obama's plan is obviously the way to go.

Rea Hederman, senior policy analyst and assistant director of Heritage's Center for Data Analysis, explains the differences between Barack Obama's and John McCain's tax plans.

Mad Mike on The Engine of the Economy

Mad Mike explains a few things about business, jobs, the economy and taxes that liberals either don't understand or don't want to understand.

Whether it's just that they haven't spent enough time in the real world, or they're too enamored with Karl Marx's writings, or whether envy and greed is just more attractive to them than hard work and accomplishment; either way, liberals just don't understand how America is supposed to work.

Lien, Herseth Sandlin Debate Abortion, Other Issues

Some good coverage from the Rapid City Journal on last night's debate between Republican U.S. House candidate Chris Lien and Democrat incumbent Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

One of the topics discussed was abortion:

Lien said abortion issues should be left to the discretion of states, not the federal government. Adding that he staunchly opposes abortion, Lien said the ballot measure contains precautions that some feel are proper, including exceptions in instances of rape, to prevent serious health problems and to save a woman's life.

Herseth Sandlin said the proposal is ambiguous and should be rejected because it will interfere with women's private decisions, adding that the government should not meddle in medicine.

Unfortunately the government already meddled in medicine when a group of unelected judges in 1973 took it upon themselves to create law--a role reserved to the legislative branch only--and endorse this barbaric practice.

There was something they could both agree on, though:

Herseth Sandlin and Lien both decried the bailout and said tougher oversight must be exercised over the financial sector.

One clarification, though: the tougher oversight needs to be where government is also already meddling in the private financial sector. You know, areas like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government entities that the Democrats insisted be allowed to run free like a fox in a henhouse.