The Erosion of Liberty in America

We can see it all the time: when evil is allowed to grow, irony abounds. Take what happened recently on the streets of Philadelphia immediately outside the Liberty Bell display. Inscribed on the bell reads these words: “PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF.” This comes from an Old Testament verse found in Leviticus 25:10. As shown in the video below, law enforcement officers on duty outside this sacred historical site took away to jail a guy who was actually putting into practice what the inscription on the bell implored any noble American to do: proclaim liberty! (By the way, can anyone proclaim liberty any better than proclaiming the Good News of Jesus?) Apparently, these officers, whose duty it is to defend and preserve such inalienable rights as the freedom of speech, the freedom to assemble, and the freedom of religion, must have all been sick from school the day those First Amendment Rights were taught.

The officers argued that what was unacceptable was for someone to preach immediately in front of the entrance where people were waiting in line to see the bell. Again, the second part of that verse inscribed on the bell reads: “unto all the inhabitants thereof.” Someone should ask the officers if it would be reasonable for one to conclude that those waiting to see for themselves the inscription should be included as part of “all the inhabitants”.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Well, I don’t think there was much freedom going on around those “law enforcement officers” that day! Oh, the irony! I think the crack in the Liberty Bell, just got bigger.

Library shuts out Christians -- and everybody else

OneNewsNow reports:

An Ohio county public library has closed its meeting rooms to the public rather than allow them to be used by a Christian group.

George and Cathy Vandergriff wanted to host a Crown Financial Ministries "Financial Freedom" workshop in a public meeting room at the Clermont County, Ohio, public library. Tim Chandler, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says the couple was told that, because the class would be quoting from the Bible, they could not hold it at the library. "The Supreme Court said, more than 25 years ago, that once you've opened up meeting space, you can't exclude anyone just because they're engaging in religious speech. And, here we are, we're still fighting this battle," Chandler contends.

Read more.

Watch what you say in Canada

What’s the number one new baby boy’s name in Great Britain? Answer: Muhammad. Now, if I lived in Canada and reported such facts, I would be in jeopardy of facing charges before British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal for violating recently enacted “hate crimes” laws. That’s exactly what happened to conservative columnist and pundit, Mark Steyn. He, along with the Canadian magazine Maclean's, are currently on trial for inciting “hate” after reporting these and similar findings from Steyn’s book, America Alone in an article entitled, “The Future Belongs to Islam.”

U.S. Marine on trial for evangelism

OneNewsNow.com reports:

An organization is taking up a battle in favor of a U.S. Marine who was sent home from an assignment in Iraq because he handed out coins with a Christian message to Muslims in Iraq.

The organization is Christian Freedom International whose president, Jim Jacobson, says the Marine distributed coins with the words of John 3:16 on one side. The other side asked, in Arabic, the question: "Where will you spend eternity?" The soldier is now on home turf awaiting further word on possible punishment.

Read more.

“Human Rights” in Canada--and New Mexico

A “human rights commission” in Alberta, Canada, has ruled that a Christian pastor, Rev. Stephen Boission, has no right to say anything “disparaging” about homosexuality. Here’s Ezra Levant’s summary:

A Christian pastor has been given a lifetime ban against uttering anything "disparaging" about gays. Not against anything "hateful", let alone something legally defined as "hate speech". Just anything negative.

So a pastor cannot give a sermon.

But he must give a false sermon; he is positively ordered to renounce his deeply held religious beliefs, and apologize to his tormentor for having those views.

And then that pastor is ordered to declare to his entire city that he has renounced his religious views, even though he has not.

That's Alberta's human rights commission.

If you follow the links and read the ruling, you’ll see that the basic issue was an anti-gay-marriage letter to the editor by the pastor, published in the local paper. Frankly, the letter was pretty harsh, and the language in it was probably not the way that I would try to persuade someone of my views about homosexuality. It isn’t exactly a prime example of Christian love. But, Rev. Boisson’s views are certainly based in Biblical passages about homosexuality.

Canada doesn’t have identical free speech protections as our first amendment, but it does have a similar passage in its founding charter. Nevertheless, a government commission (not even a real court) has ruled that Christians don’t have the right to express a religious belief.

It’s easy to say well, that’s Canada, it can’t happen here. And it’s true that we have stronger free speech protections than our neighbors to the north, but at least one state, New Mexico, has its own human rights commission similar to the Canadian system.

From Eugene Volokh, Photographers Denied the Freedom To Choose What They Photograph:

Elaine Huguenin co-owns Elane Photography with her husband… Elane refused to photograph Vanessa Willock's same-sex commitment ceremonies, and just today the New Mexico Human Rights Commission held that this violated state antidiscrimination law. Elane has been ordered to pay over $6600 in attorney's fees and costs.

One blogger summarized the issue this way:

The Huguenins have the right to refuse to photograph any number of things they regard as moral issues, whether it’s a photo shoot at Planned Parenthood, a poster for the Ku Klux Klan, or a keepsake album for participants in a baby seal hunt. The Constitution may offend the politically correct crowd, but it is quite clear that Americans should not be forced to promote a private message that violates their conscience.

High School Students Counter Pro-Gay Day

The Alliance Defense Fund reports that The Day of Truth (April 28th, 2008) will be designed to counter the pro-gay event known as “The Day of Silence” (April 25th, 2008).

Watch a short video about it here.

To learn more, go to: www.dayoftruth.org.

Your ability to speak out may become limited.

As reported by Citizenlink.org this week:

There have been persistent indications that liberals in Congress want to take legislative action to stifle conservative talk radio.

One suggested route would be to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine on radio and TV stations. It would demand that when programs express a particular point of view, stations would have to seek out an opposing point of view.

For example, if a station aired a conservative talk show or a Focus on the Family broadcast that offers opinions on what Congress is doing, it would have to find and air someone to present an opposing point of view. Historically, when the Fairness Doctrine was in effect, many stations chose to avoid issues programming altogether. That means many popular conservative talk radio shows would simply vanish, and many Christian radio stations would face the choice of either dropping issues-oriented programming or giving up airtime to groups such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

"There is nothing fair about the Fairness Doctrine," one lawmaker said this week. "Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine would amount to government control over political views expressed on the public airwaves. It is a dangerous proposal to suggest the government should be in the business of rationing free speech."

Family Research Council adds:

Issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1949 and repealed in 1985, the Fairness Doctrine ordered broadcasters to give equal time to both sides of controversial issue. Rather than risk enforcement actions and wade through bureaucratic red tape, many broadcasters opted to air non-controversial material, which essentially killed healthy debate and discussion.

To preempt liberals from resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) has introduced the "Broadcaster Freedom Act." The bill strips the FCC of its authority to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, effectively codifying the status quo and protecting free speech.

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville distinguished democracy from socialism very succinctly when he said, "Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it... Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." If the left wants equal time to express its views on the radio or television, they have the liberty to do so by starting their own programs and shows. In fact, in the larger media world including broadcast TV, public broadcasting, and print, the left predominates. The challenge for them is getting people to listen. To seek parity in talk radio by restraining the freedom of others is neither free, nor equal, nor fair.

Citizenlink.org urges Christians to take action:

Please call your U.S. representative immediately and ask him or her to reject any attempt to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine and to support the Pence Amendment and the Broadcasters Freedom Act. You can find contact information for your representative in the CitizenLink Action Center .