MANSFIELD — A Christian legal firm based in Orlando has launched a “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign” as a tool to assist shoppers in the midst of the culture war. As Christians face censorship and boycott nationwide, the holiday campaign includes encouragement, education-and if necessary, litigation to guard the rights of Christians to publicly celebrate Christmas.
Each year Liberty Counsel publishes a Naughty and Nice List of retailers who either censor or celebrate Christmas. The Christian ministry encourages customers to give the gift of Christmas back to companies who support Christmas. If retailers choose to profit from Christmas while pretending it does not exist, shoppers are encouraged to politely explain why and then patronize their competitors.
The ministry also provides a one-page version of the retailer list.
Liberty Counsel has been engaged on a number of Christmas related issues. The ministry has published a legal memorandum detailing how courts and our Constitution preserve the freedom to celebrate Christmas.
As a matter of fact, the legal team at Liberty Counsel has addressed and overturned hundreds of censorship attempts including: restoring nativity scenes banned from public property, returning Christmas carols to nursing homes, and correcting school officials who rewrote religious words out of Christmas carols.
In the above situations—and hundreds more—Liberty Counsel has educated and successfully reversed this anti-Christmas censorship.
The legal team at Liberty Counsel has addressed and overturned hundreds of censorship attempts including: restoring Nativity scenes banned from public property, returning Christmas carols to nursing homes, and correcting school officials who rewrote religious words out of Christmas carols.
Some retailers on the list are showcased for promoting Christmas.
Menard’s sells merchandise with “say Merry Christmas.” There are also quite a few Nativity items. When searching specifically for “Christmas” items, three large categories clearly label a Christmas pop up – “Indoor Christmas, Outdoor Christmas, and Christmas Lights.”
Lowe’s also is on the good side of the list. When searching for “Christmas,” several different categories pop up. All of Lowe’s holiday decorations are labeled as “Christmas” decorations and there is also a specific section for “Christmas supplies.”
Hobby Lobby stays true to their Christian values. Their homepage prominently advertises Christmas products and they carry many products printed with “Merry Christmas.” Many other items are actually labeled as “Christmas” decorations and there is a large selection of Nativity scenes.
The “Naughty or Nice” list also includes unreputable retailers. Besides supporting same-sex restrooms and the sale of pornography, Target and Barnes & Noble also refuse to acknowledge Christmas.
Where are the real journalists? Certainly not in Pennsylvania, where one of the most jaw-dropping hearings in state history just took place. Most Americans haven’t heard a word about it, which is no great mystery since the media is doing everything it can to make the election results look squeaky clean. The reality, Paul Kengor warns, is anything but. And a 570,000 ballot dump is a major reason why.
Tony Perkins (Photo courtesy of FRC)
The audience, Kengor points out, gasped when they heard it. In Gettysburg, where legislators were pouring over numbers and looking at all of the claims of voting manipulation, one particular bombshell took the room’s breath away. An expert, testifying to the Pennsylvania Senate, took to his chair and started talking about “spike anomalies,” or, certain points in the vote processing where a huge number of ballots are processed in “a time period that is not feasible or mechanically possible under the circumstances.”
Pulling out a chart, Ret. Col. Phil Waldren points to a 90-minute period on Election Day where 604,000 votes were counted in 90 minutes. But here’s the astonishing part: 570,000 of those votes were for Biden and 3,200 were for Trump.
In other words, Kengor does the math, “Biden scooped up this enormous batch by 99.4 percent. Incredible. Impossible. Scandalous.” And he wasn’t the only one who thought so. The room was audibly shocked (1:28:00 of video below).
“If this is true, then this episode alone might well constitute a smoking gun affirming a fraudulent election in Pennsylvania. This electoral bombshell has been completely ignored by the mainstream press.”
Paul Kengor, political scientist at Grove City College
“If what Waldren alleges here is true,” Kengor argues, “then this would constitute one of the most insidious examples of documented voter fraud in the history of American presidential politics. This one spike alone would have erased Donald Trump’s 600,000-vote lead over Joe Biden late Tuesday night, November 3. Biden has reportedly won Pennsylvania by about 70,000 votes.
“If this is true, then this episode alone might well constitute a smoking gun affirming a fraudulent election in Pennsylvania.” And yet, Kengor fumes, “this electoral bombshell has been completely ignored by the mainstream press.”
Another interesting piece of this, Kengor explained on “Washington Watch” Tuesday is that of the 3.1 million mail-in ballots were sent to Pennsylvania voters (these are updated figures from the secretary of state’s office), there was an extraordinarily high mail-in return rate. According to state election officials, almost 90 percent of voters sent in a completed ballot. That’s almost unheard of, Kengor says. And “what it would have taken for Joe Biden to [surpass] Donald Trump’s 700,000 vote lead in Pennsylvania seems statistically impossible.”
And, oddly enough, a majority of those late mail-in ballots only had Joe Biden’s name circled. “I don’t know how common that is to have only the President checked off and nobody else. But I find that too curious, especially given the opportunities for fraud, the lack of verification in the mail-in balloting process.”
The press, meanwhile, is completely missing in action — even though these are legitimate issues that have the power to sway the election of the most powerful leader in the free world. “Trump’s critics,” Kengor understands, “will want to dismiss the hearings as a partisan spectacle hosted by Pennsylvania Republican legislators. You can’t do that. A real journalist would see enough here to at least merit making some phone calls or sending a few emails…”
“Look, Kengor says, “whether you like Donald Trump or not, whether you voted for him or not, this should concern every American. If this were Joe Biden being victimized, I would likewise protest. The media sure as heck would. This is not right.”
Listen to the interview on the radio broadcast below of “Washington Watch” with Tony Perkins.
Tony Perkins is President of Family Research Council and host of the radio broadcast “Washington Watch,” which discusses current issues and frequently conducts interviews with members of Congress and prominent pro-family leaders from across the nation.
CLEVELAND — When it came to enforcing a controversial law against a wedding officiant, Cuyahoga County got cold feet. Last month it was decided an evangelical Christian officiant in Ohio will not be forced to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies against her will. Her ministry can continue overseeing ‘marriages made in heaven.’
Kristi Stokes, owner of Covenant Weddings, sued Cuyahoga County this year over a law barring places of public accommodation from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).
Pictured: Kristi Stokes, owner of Covenant Weddings (Photo courtesy of ADF)
In a October proposed judgment entry, both parties agreed the law would not apply to Stokes and her company, as they would not be identified as a place of public accommodation.
The agreement stated, “Because Kristi does not have a physical storefront, Cuyahoga County decided Stokes does not qualify as a ‘public accommodation’ and therefore she has the right to use her talents to promote and celebrate the events that are consistent with her beliefs. The county also acknowledged that it can’t force her to solemnize weddings or write scripts even if she did have a physical storefront.”
Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented Stokes, released a statement after Stokes’ big day in court celebrating the agreement between the two parties.
“No one should be forced to officiate ceremonies that conflict with their religious beliefs,” the ADF Legal Counsel said. “Cuyahoga County’s law made Kristi face an impossible choice: disobey the law, defy her own faith, or ditch her business. She no longer faces that choice. No matter one’s views on marriage, we all lose when the government can force citizens to participate in religious ceremonies they oppose.”
“Cuyahoga County’s law made Kristi face an impossible choice: disobey the law, defy her own faith, or ditch her business. She no longer faces that choice. No matter one’s views on marriage, we all lose when the government can force citizens to participate in religious ceremonies they oppose.”
Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, ADF Legal Counsel
Stokes originally filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio over an anti-discrimination law known as Cuyahoga County Code § 1501.02(C). The local ordinance prohibits places of public accommodation from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“My religious beliefs influence every aspect of my life, and I can’t simply put my religious identity into separate personal and professional boxes,” Stokes stated. “If you’re looking for someone to officiate your wedding, and you’re hoping to incorporate a cannabis theme or write prayers to celebrate an open marriage, I’m not your girl.”
This is not the first time local governments in the U.S. District Court of Northern Ohio have pulled back on costly local SOGI ordinances leading to litigation.
In 2018, the city of South Euclid, Ohio passed a SOGI law. The law could have required the Catholic school, Lyceum, to hire those who disagreed with its core beliefs on marriage and sexuality or risk fines and jail time. With the help of ADF, Lyceum challenged the law in court, and in May 2019, the city officially clarified that the law would not apply to the school.
View the video below produced by Alliance Defending Freedom on the story of Lyceum’s victory.
Thanksgiving is not only a time to express gratefulness to God for His provision but also a time to teach others about America’s true heritage. Public acknowledgements of the providence of God have been part of the history and traditions of this nation–from the Pilgrims, to the Founding Era, to the Civil War, and today–and it is important to share the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
In fact, George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation reveals important information about the meaning of the First Amendment.
Mat Staver (Photo courtesy of Liberty Counsel)
On Friday, September 25, 1789, the Bill of Rights was ratified by the Senate. The First Amendment was approved by Congress and sent out to the states for final approval. However, after the Framers completed the Bill of Rights, Elias Boudinot, a member of the House of Representatives, said he could not think of letting the session pass without offering an opportunity to all U.S. citizens to return thanks to God for His many blessings. That same day, the U.S. House passed the following resolution:
“Resolved, that a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States, to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States, a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed, by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of Government for their safety and happiness.”
On Saturday, October 3, 1789, President George Washington declared November 26, 1789, a national day of Thanksgiving to thank God for the Constitution and our new American government:
George Washington
“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
That same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which President Washington was a member, announced that the first Thursday in November would become the regular day for giving thanks, “unless another day be appointed by the civil authorities.” In fact, by 1815, the various state governments had issued at least 1,400 official prayer proclamations, almost half for times of thanksgiving and prayer and the other half for times of fasting and prayer.
The Thanksgiving proclamation called Americans to prayer with optimism and genuine thankfulness, noting that: “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God…”
Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, deserves much of the credit for the adoption of Thanksgiving as an annual national holiday. For two decades, Hale contacted presidents trying to promote the idea. Finally, during the darkest days of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln responded in 1863. Lincoln issued a formal proclamation, passed by an act of Congress, that set aside the last Thursday of that November as the first annual National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.
The Thanksgiving proclamation called Americans to prayer with optimism and genuine thankfulness, noting that: “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, Who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy…”
Abraham Lincoln
Three months earlier, the Battle of Gettysburg had occurred, resulting in the loss of approximately 60,000 American lives. And while President Lincoln walked among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg, Lincoln committed his life to Jesus Christ.
Lincoln said, “When I left Springfield [to assume the presidency], I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.”
It is important that we know and teach others about America’s heritage and biblical foundation in order to reflect upon the true meaning of Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for in America, and the Founders wanted to make sure future generations never forget the blessings of freedom.
Mat Staver serves as Senior Pastor, Founder, and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. Mat has over 300 published legal opinions. Mat has also filed numerous briefs and argued cases in many federal and state courts, including several landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases.Mat is host and producer of Faith and Freedom podcast/radio program and Freedom’s Callradio program.
COLUMBUS – School choice programs with as few strings attached, can ensure private Christian schools do not have to compromise their operating principles in order to enroll in state-sponsored scholarships. After a recent vote, families are thankful the government will not be pulling one more string.
This week, Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 89. Sponsored by Senator Matt Huffman, this new law will allow more families to access to EdChoice Scholarships, with approximately fifty-percent of Ohio students eligible for a scholarship upon enactment.
Aaron Baer (Photo courtesy of CCV)
“As government schools across Ohio refuse to open to serve children, the Ohio General Assembly and Governor DeWine have taken a significant step to provide more families with more educational options by enacting SB 89,” says Aaron Baer, President of Citizens for Community Values (CCV).
“No student should be stuck in a school that does not meet their needs. SB 89 will ensure more families can access a wide array of educational opportunities.”
Despite more choices for families, the Ohio Education Association opposed the measure.
“School Choice is a winning issue in Ohio. It’s something that benefits all Ohioans across racial, religious, and economic lines. Children throughout the Buckeye State will have a brighter future. SB 89 is another step in the right direction.”
Aaron Baer, President of Citizens for Community Values
“School Choice is a winning issue in Ohio. It’s something that benefits all Ohioans across racial, religious, and economic lines. Children throughout the Buckeye State will have a brighter future. As we work towards a day where every family can access a scholarship to attend the school of their choice, SB 89 is another step in the right direction.”
With the passage of SB 89, an EdChoice district will be determined by the number of students who reside in the district and generate Title I funds. If a public school district has at least 20% of students who generate Title I funds, then all students residing in that district will be eligible with one exception: If the school they attend is in the top 80% of the Performance Index in the last two years, then that school building will be exempted from EdChoice.
The bill also grandfathers in K-12 students who were eligible in the 19-20 school year, but for whatever reason did not take a scholarship. In addition, EdChoice Expansion is increased from 200% to 250% of the Federal Poverty Level. Below are the Federal Poverty guidelines for gross household income.
Under this bill, the application window will move from February 1st to March 1st to be in line with the statutory bill effective date.
In the 2019-2020 school year, more than twelve thousand students in Ohio participated in the Income-based Scholarship Program. Nearly five hundred schools in Ohio participate in the program, with the average scholarship amount over $4,200.
ONTARIO — Last month a group of clergy sent a correspondence to Israeli officials and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declaring their support for Israel. Within weeks of the clergy letter, Mr. Pompeo made a historic visit to Israel echoing the same positions on Israel sovereignty and the BDS Movement. It’s almost as if America’s top diplomat was….reading their mail.
Pictured: Rabbi William Hallbrook, Pastor Jody Odom, & Pastor Anthony Cooper. (Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
Mike Pompeo became the first United States Secretary of State to visit a Jewish community in Israel’s biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria. During his visit, Pompeo declared that going forward, products produced in the disputed region will now be labeled “Made in Israel.” He also said the U.S. would cut support to any groups participating in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) Movement against Israel.
Just one month prior to the state visit, thirty-three clergymen from the Buckeye Bible Belt sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ambassador Freidman, and Secretary of State Pompeo announcing their staunch support.
“We are declaring our commitment to the Jewish State by personally purchasing Israel bonds,” the clergy letter wrote. “We want to formally express our support for Israel and to demonstrate our approval of construction and expansion of Jewish settlements in its sovereign territories.”
“The Trump administration has the strongest record of any U.S. President for support of Israel. It’s been said for every letter sent to elected officials, that voice represents countless other voices. We put the clergy letter together so it would align with Scripture. I would like to think our small faith community has made an international impact and perhaps even a prophetic impact.”
Rabbi William Hallbrook, Sar Shalom Center
Co-signers of the clergy letter believe Biblical prophecy is being fulfilled with Israel. Absent for nearly two millennium, the Jewish State is now taking ownership of the land promised to their forefathers. One of the clergy elaborates.
“The Trump administration has the strongest record of any U.S. President for support of Israel,” mentions Rabbi William Hallbrook of Sar Shalom Center. “It’s been said for every letter sent to elected officials, that voice represents countless other voices. We put the clergy letter together so it would align with Scripture. I would like to think our small faith community has made an international impact and perhaps even a prophetic impact.”
When asked if he believes that purchasing Israel bonds can influence foreign policy, the Rabbi made a point.
“We have seen the clergy commitment to invest in Israeli bonds influence local officials on a micro level. Who is to say that it could not impact national policy on a macro level?”
Pictured: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during November 19thmeeting. (Photo courtesy of Secretary of State/Twitter)
County Treasurer Bart Hamilton first purchased $200,000 in Israel bonds at the request of forty local clergy. Mr. Hamilton has now invested an additional one million dollars in Israel bonds the same month of the clergy letter. He joins a number of other County Treasurers and the State of Ohio, which has bought more Israel bonds than any state in the nation.
Another co-signer agrees with the Rabbi. “I think purchasing Israel bonds could have possibly influenced the Secretary of State; that is our hope,” says Pastor Anthony Cooper of Shelby Life Church. “I also believe GOD is working in these last hours and prophecy is unfolding before our very eyes. A tiny speck in the desert is now blooming with new life.”
View the two minute video below produced by CBN News reporting on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit last week to Binyamin and the Golan Heights.
“Who has seen such a thing, who has heard such a thing? Can a land be born in one day? As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her sons and her daughters.” Isaiah 66:8
COLUMBUS — Last week the Ohio House Civil Justice Committee announced there would be a hearing on House Bill 369. The hasty announcement allowed opponents of the controversial sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) bill a chance to stand up and be counted. For pastors hailing from the Buckeye Bible Belt, there was no ‘sitting on the fence’ for this issue.
Pastor Robert Kurtz (Photo courtesy of Temple Baptist)
“The Bible lays parameters and boundaries for how we are to best live our life,” says Pastor Robert Kurtz, one of the clergy who testified at the Statehouse. “We would do well to follow GOD’S standard.”
In written testimony, a band of clergymen representing one hundred congregations from North Central Ohio drove home the point there is no justification to add special privileges to one group while emasculating the First Amendment.
According to the clergy, LGBT persons have no traits of a discriminated class of people and pointed out there is no Ohio law permitting discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.
The clergy wrote, “Every human being is made in the image of GOD, male and female He made them. Not only are we unified by Biblical Truth telling us man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, we are also unified in our opposition to House Bill 369.”
According to family policy group Citizens for Community Values, HB 369 would require men and boys to be allowed in women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers if they claim to identify as women. The bill would also require boys be allowed to compete in girls’ sports in public schools if they claim to identify as women, and allow the government to remove children from parents’ custody if they do not consent to dangerous conversion/hormone therapy.
“It is our corporate belief the dubious legacy of HB 369 would be a nightmare for Ohioans, turning the First Amendment upside down, and decimating religious freedom as we know it,” the clergy wrote. “If passed, HB 369 will leave women, children, and persons of religious conviction as second-class citizens. There is no tweaking this disastrous bill.”
“It is our corporate belief the dubious legacy of HB 369 would be a nightmare for Ohioans, turning the First Amendment upside down, and decimating religious freedom as we know it. If passed, HB 369 will leave women, children, and persons of religious conviction as second-class citizens. There is no tweaking this disastrous bill.”
North Central Ohio clergymen written testimony on HB 369
Pastor Kurtz told the House Committee, “Mankind is corrupt, we are all sinners. There is no ‘new sin.’ As a state legislature, we should not be condoning sin, nor setting laws to encourage sinful behavior.”
The clergy contend if passed, HB 369 will force individuals to take part in events or adopt ideas that violate their faith. They also say HB 369 will limit access to needed social services by effectively driving out faith-based providers.
The written testimony continues a trend in the Ohio heartland. In 2016, over one hundred pastors from Richland County, Ohio told public school superintendents inside the county to ignore the Obama restroom mandate.
Co-signers of the written statement included clergy from: Richland County (73), Ashland County (8), Crawford County (8), Wayne County (3), Morrow County (3),Knox County (2), Huron County (1), Medina County (1), and Stark County (1).
COLUMBUS– Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is stepping into the 2020 Presidential Election fray and asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse an eleventh hour decision. Yost filed a brief Monday to protect the authority of elected State Legislatures to discard post-election day ballots that are showing up out of thin air.
Attorney General Dave Yost (Photo courtesy of Ohio AG site)
“Ohio is interested in this case because reversal is crucial to protecting the Constitution’s division of authority over state election laws,” says Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. “The U.S. Constitution says ‘each State shall appoint electors in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.’ To ensure that other courts in future elections do not follow the lower court’s lead, this Supreme Court must reverse its decision.”
For comparison, Ohio’s Legislature authorized counting absentee ballots received within ten days of Election Day as long as those ballots are postmarked by the day before Election Day. On the other hand, Pennsylvania’s Legislature mandated absentee ballots counted only if received by 8PM Election Night.
At the last minute, the Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court rewrote state law, ordering election officials to count ballots including ballots with no postmarks or illegible postmarks received within three days after Election Day. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision and to no one’s surprise, the verdict has opened up Pandora’s Box.
A Pennsylvania mail carrier has said in a sworn affidavit that he was ordered by supervisors to collect and submit late ballots, which he said supervisors then backdated so that they appeared to have been mailed in time.
Predictably, as Republicans were locked out of the ballot counting center in Philadelphia, Joe Biden came from a 700,000 vote deficit on Election Night and with the help of over one million new votes overtook President Donald Trump three days following the election.
“The U.S. Constitution says ‘each State shall appoint electors in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.’ To ensure that other courts in future elections do not follow the lower court’s lead, this Supreme Court must reverse its decision.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost
One system glitch shown on CNN showed 20,000 votes subtracted from President Trump and added to Joe Biden in a 40,000 vote swing. Another glitch had President Trump losing 32,615 Votes in Pennsylvania in one hour despite the percentage reporting dropping from 89% to 87%.
While Joe Biden has created an “Office of the President-Elect,” nothing legally has actually taken place. The Electoral College meets on December 12th to vote on the Presidency, and none of the state elections have been certified.
Last night President Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging “creation and implementation of illegal ‘two-tiered’ voting system for the election.”
Today Pennsylvania House GOP members will be calling for a legislative-led audit of the 2020 election and demand election results not be certified, nor electors be seated, until the audit is complete.” according to a press release.
WASHINGTON D.C. — On November 7th President Donald Trump made a proclamation recognizing the victims of communism. As America’s Constitutional Republic faces threats from both international and domestic forces, President Trump declared the following:
Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)
“On National Day for the Victims of Communism, we solemnly remember the more than 100 million lives claimed by communism in the 20th century. We commit ourselves to stopping the spread of this oppressive ideology that, without fail, leaves in its wake misery, destruction, and death. As proud Americans who cherish the blessings of freedom and democracy, we promise to support the more than one billion people currently captive within communist regimes and denied their unalienable rights to life and liberty.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the decisive Polish victory against Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks in the Battle of Warsaw. Known as the Miracle on the Vistula, the Polish heroes of this battle halted the spread of communism in Europe for decades. Sadly, the Soviet Union erected an Iron Curtain around Poland and spread communism to neighboring countries and around the world. Since then, the United States and the free world have borne witness to the horrors of communism, including Chinese prison camps and Soviet gulags. Over the last century, communist regimes from Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge to Ethiopia’s Derg have confirmed the soul-crushing oppression inherent in Karl Marx’s philosophy.
Still today, we observe the irony of “People’s Republics” that belong not to the people, but to one-party and that exist only for the benefit of a select few. Over and over, communism and socialism have proven to be irreconcilable with the unalienable and fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While Marxism promises equality, peace, and happiness, in practice it results only in inequality, violence, and despair.
On this National Day for the Victims of Communism, we commit to standing against this insidious ideology, and pledge with great pride that the United States will never be a socialist nation. We memorialize all those who have lost their lives to communism and recommit to promoting freedom so that future generations can flourish.”
View the video below produced by Prager University about one of communism’s foremost thinkers Karl Marx. Learn more about his destructive ideas that led to the murder of over one hundred million people.
NORTH CENTRAL OHIO — The State of Ohio has successfully picked the President for the past sixty years. While oddsmakers believe Joe Biden will become the nation’s next President, several clergy from the bellwether state say ‘don’t bet on it.”
Pastor J.C. Church (Photo courtesy of VITM)
“The road to the White House goes thru Ohio,” says Pastor J.C. Church. “It was a forlorn conclusion this election would be determined in the U.S. Supreme Court. Historically, where Ohio goes, so the nation has gone. “
Both Pastor Church and Reverend El Akuchie led efforts in the Buckeye Bible Belt thanking President Trump for his policies in supporting Biblical values. Their joint- letter was signed by over one hundred lead clergymen.
Reverend Akuchie believes there is at least one eye-popping voting irregularity.
“Clearly after the election, the nation has moved to the right on both the federal and state levels. For the country to turn to the right for down-ballot candidates and then elect a Socialist for President is very puzzling. While things look ominous now, I believe President Trump will be vindicated in court; GOD will get the glory. As our state motto says, ‘With God all things are possible.”
Ohioans overwhelmingly elected conservatives in the 2020 election cycle. Republicans increased their super majorities in both bodies of the State Legislature. And despite national polling projections, President Trump won the state by a whopping eight points.
“King David defeated the lion, bear, and giant as a rehearsal to trials he would face as King of Israel. Likewise, President Trump has faced a constant barrage of attacks to undermine his Presidency. But just like the government surveillance of his campaign, just like the Russian collusion hoax, and just like the global pandemic, during this election President Trump will come forth like gold.”
Pastor J.C. Church
The legitimacy of the election outcome is in strong doubt with reports of systemic voter fraud.
In a Detroit precinct, one hundred thousand ballots, all for Joe Biden, were dropped off after hours. In Milwaukee, where Joe Biden carried ninety percent of the vote, there were more recorded votes than registered voters. In Atlanta and Philadelphia, Republican monitors were disallowed from observing absentee ballots being counted.
Both clergy are encouraging people to contact their Congressmen and Senators and express their concern over the integrity of the elections. They are also promoting the hashtag: #ValidateTheVoteByCounty.
Reverend El Akuchie (Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
Pastor Church comments, “King David defeated the lion, bear, and giant as a rehearsal to the trials he would face as King of Israel. Likewise, President Trump has faced a constant barrage of attacks to undermine his Presidency. But just like the government surveillance of his campaign, just like the Russian collusion hoax, and just like the global pandemic, I believe during this election President Trump will come forth like gold.”
“We are not a people without hope,” says Reverend Akuchie. “The winner of the 2020 Presidential election will still be chosen by Ohio.”
Ohioans will officially be deciding Tuesday, November 3rd who the next President of the United States will be. For several weeks of absentee and in-person voting, citizens across the nation have had ample opportunity to confirm their support of a constitutional republic or to take a chance on a social progressive agenda. The editorial board of Frontlines Ohio is convinced in which direction the country should take.
Corruption is in the air and Big Tech censorship is demonstrating its animus towards conservatives. After allegations proved false in the impeachment attempt by Democrats, it has been discovered by the Inspector General federal officials were spying on the Trump Campaign in 2016.
While the part Joe Biden played in the Deep State surveillance of the Trump campaign is not fully known, Biden’s support for higher taxes, banning guns, and advocacy for gender transition of children is clearly known.
His Democrat Party’s devotion to infanticide, defunding the police, and war on faith is evidence of his disdain for America which will ultimately doom his campaign. For this reason, Joe Biden will be relying on what he says is the “the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in history of American politics.”
Whether it is defending the nation from the threats of Communist China abroad or totalitarian threats from the federal bureaucracy at home, the Trump Train will help our country stay on track.
Conversely, law and order appear to be one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities. His Administration’s policies protecting faith, family, and freedom drew high praises from over one hundred clergy in North Central Ohio this past fall.
Donald Trump’s protection of religious freedom and the rights of the unborn are having a ripple effect both nationally and internationally.
His nomination of strict originalists will help the federal judiciary to abide by the original intent of the Constitution for generations to come. His construction of four hundred miles of border wall is helping choke off human trafficking and illicit drug trade, revitalizing a burgeoning post-pandemic economy.
Without a doubt, no President in modern history has endured the hostility President Trump has had to endure during his first term.
All things considered, Frontlines Ohio believes the United States of America and even the world will be in better hands with the incumbent Donald J. Trump re-elected as the forty-sixth President of the United States. Whether it is defending the nation from the threats of Communist China abroad or totalitarian threats from the federal bureaucracy at home, the Trump Train will help our country stay on track.
COLUMBUS – When additional school scholarships were placed on hold by the State Legislature, parents and private schools led by a public policy family group took state officials to court. Unfortunately they were met with deaf ears.
Recently the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed Citizens for Community Values (CCV) v DeWine, a legal challenge to legislation freezing EdChoice scholarship enrollment passed in January 2020.
CCV PresidentAaron Baer (Photo courtesy of CCV)
“The Ohio Supreme Court should be ashamed of their blatant disregard of the law and well-being of children, ” says Aaron Baer, President of CCV. “The audacity of the Justices to sit eight months on an emergency motion, then blame the “passage of time” for rendering a case moot is the epitome of arrogance.”
In the aftermath of a state school report card, the EdChoice voucher program for kids in failing schools was supposed to increase from 517 school buildings to 1200, but a COVID-19 relief bill last March froze the current EdChoice school list to 517.
Ironically members of the General Assembly acknowledged they were voting for the relief bill that was unconstitutional. In response, CCV sued the State officials .
“Under the leadership of former Speaker Larry Householder, the General Assembly rammed the relief bill through and Governor DeWine signed this unconstitutional bill stripping tens of thousands of families access to EdChoice vouchers,” Baer explained.
“Because the State Supreme Court dragged their feet and would not stand up for the law, families are left scrambling trying to figure out how to educate their children. With the bailing out of former Speaker Householder’s unconstitutional maneuver, it can be said “justice delayed is justice denied.”
Aaron Baer, CCV President
“Because the State Supreme Court dragged their feet and would not stand up for the law, families are left scrambling trying to figure out how to educate their children. With the bailing out of former Speaker Householder’s unconstitutional maneuver, it can be said “justice delayed is justice denied.”
Baer is part of a network of family and private school syndicates called the Ohio Christian Education Network, which endeavors to see Ohio offer “true-choice” to families. The network supports initiatives promoting school choice programs ensuring private Christian schools do not have to compromise their operating principles.
“As COVID has shown, it is essential for families to have educational options. Citizens for Community Values and the OCEN will continue to fight for families and schools. Ohio children and families should know we hear their voices, even if the seven justices on the court are ignoring them.”
In 2020, 32 lead clergy invest in Israel bonds & persuade county governments to do same. (Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
NORTH CENTRAL OHIO — The connection between the Holy Land and the Buckeye Bible Belt just got a little more tighter. Not only did Richland County recently increase its investment in Israel Bonds, local clergy are putting their money where there mouth is.
This week area clergy sent a correspondence to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing support of the Jewish State and its sovereignty.
Pictured L to R: Pastor Anthony Cooper, Rabbi William Hallbrook, & Pastor Jody Odom (Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
“As clergy from thirty-three congregations in North Central Ohio, we are declaring our commitment to the Jewish State by personally purchasing Israel bonds,” the letter stated. “We want to formally express our support for Israel and to demonstrate our approval of construction and expansion of Jewish settlements in its sovereign territories.”
This is welcome news to Thomas Lockshin, Executive Director of Israeli Bonds in Ohio and Kentucky. The Executive Director reports that Richland County Treasurer Bart Hamilton purchased additional Israel bonds just several days after the clergy made their commitment.
“Ohio has a long history with Israel bonds,” says Lockshin. “Currently Ohio holds $220 million, the largest of any state in the U.S. thanks to recent purchases by Treasurer Robert Sprague. This Fall eight new Ohio counties purchased Israel bonds for a total of fifteen. This includes Richland County, which now holds a total of $1,250,000.
“It brings me great satisfaction to know that thirty-three Christian congregations in North Central Ohio actively support the State of Israel. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father.” These Ohio clergy are leading the way for advocacy of Israel Bonds. They are an inspiration to clergy everywhere. I am truly thankful for their dedication, fortitude and faith.”
Thomas Lockshin, Executive Director of Israel Bonds OH & KY
“It brings me great satisfaction to know that thirty-three Christian congregations in North Central Ohio actively support the State of Israel. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father.” These Ohio clergy are leading the way for advocacy of Israel Bonds. They are an inspiration to clergy everywhere. I am truly thankful for their dedication, fortitude and faith.”
Pastor Anthony Cooper of Shelby Life Church believes purchasing Israel bonds is not only a good investment, it also establishes a personal connection with the Jewish people.
“It is an honor to partner with other area clergy and go on record supporting Israel. Our prayers are for the peace of Israel and for GOD’s favor over her. By investing in Israel bonds, we get to be a part of this prayer. According to Genesis 12:3, GOD says ‘I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the Earth be blessed.'”
Twelve local congregations were represented in a service observing the closing of Yom Kippur at Sar Shalom Center September 28th. The service concluded a local ten-day prayer initiative hosted by various churches inspired by Jonathan Cahn’s “The Return.” in Washington D.C. (Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
The clergy letter also repudiated the position of the World Council of Churches (WCC) which opposes Jewish construction and settlements in East Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. “We want to assure you Mr. Prime Minister, the World Council of Churches does not represent our local congregations nor does its unorthodox view on Israel carry any authority,” the letter asserted.
The WCC claims it is not associated with the BDS Movement but publicly admits its longstanding position favoring the boycotting of goods and services from Jewish settlements it considers “illegal” in Israeli lands.
Clergy in the region have gone on record supporting U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and supporting Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights, Judea, and Samaria. Congregations associated with the letter are located in the counties of Richland, Ashland, Crawford, Morrow, and Wayne.
“It is not unusual for numerous clergymen in our area to band together,” says Rabbi William Hallbrook of Sar Shalom Center. “It might be unusual in another part of the country, but for us it is quite common. We tend to stand together in our faith no matter what denomination.”
Progressives say racism is everywhere in the criminal-justice system, but they don’t provide many specifics.
I worked in the criminal-justice system for a quarter century. It is run, day-to-day, by the crème de la crème of graduates from America’s top law schools. Those institutions wear their progressive bona fides on their sleeves and proclaim it for all the world to hear.
Andy McCarthy (Photo courtesy of The Federalist Society)
In their offhand rhetoric — insouciant, because they know their bien pensant allies in politics and media will never call them on it — legal elites will tell you that the administration of justice in America is systemically racist. But they are the system. The judges, the top prosecutors, the defense bar, the experts who craft the sentencing guidelines and the standards of confinement — overwhelmingly, they are political progressives.
That’s fine. I’m a lawyer from New York City. I’ve not only lived in and around this world for decades, I have affection for lots of its denizens. Most of them are proud of being on the left. I don’t agree with them politically, but the routine handling of criminal cases is not political. It is clinical: professionals doing the best they can.
And that’s just the point: They do the best they can. That is the antithesis of racism.
These professionals strive to do justice for individual defendants. The concrete experience of routine cases in the justice system is fairness to a fault. The enforcement authorities, defense counsel, and the court frequently bend over backwards to plead cases out to softer versions of the criminal conduct’s harsh reality. They do so precisely to rationalize the avoidance or reduction of jail time.
They will tell you there is endemic racism in the system. If pressed on the matter, though, they would not be able to describe for you any racist things that they themselves have actually done, nor any racist things done by colleagues. Nor can the earnest lawyers who represent the purported victims of racism point you to stacks on stacks of motions they’ve filed claiming the police arrested their felonious clients because of skin color. The crimes, it turns out, are not only supported by abundant proof; they have victims, who are disproportionately black and Latino. The lawyers are at a loss to point to cases in which they’ve shown that prosecutors charged their clients due to racial animus rather than evidence. They can’t cite cases where clients were sabotaged by the racism of the presiding judge. In a system that was pervasively racist, such cases would abound. Not in this one, though.
Still, the legal elites will insist there is systemic racism. There must be, even though no one can put a finger on where it happened, because the outcomes the system produces are not “equal” — equality being a utopia in which the racial composition of those arrested, convicted and sentenced aligns perfectly with the proportion of that race in the overall population, as if all racial and ethnic groups committed crimes at exactly the same rates.
Nor is the problem confined to the justice system. Racism “happens in our residence halls and in our classrooms, at the tables of our dining halls and in our locker rooms, on our sidewalks, within the offices where we work, and in our town.” So maintains Middlebury College president Laurie Patton. Among the doyens of higher education, Patton is the rule, not the exception, in spreading this gospel across the campus. With characteristic clarity, Heather Mac Donald rolled off example after example in a recent City Journal essay. It is not just the administrators, the battalions of diversity coordinators, and the social scientists. According to academics, “structural racism” even “pervades” mathematics, geology, astronomy, you name it — to the point, Mac Donald observes, that the journal Nature claims “the mission of science should be to ‘amplify marginalized voices’ in atonement for science’s complicity in ‘systemic racism.’”
Okay, if they say so . . . but where are the concrete examples?
Legal elites will tell you that the administration of justice in America is systemically racist. But they are the system. The judges, the top prosecutors, the defense bar, the experts who craft the sentencing guidelines and the standards of confinement — overwhelmingly, they are political progressives.
Andrew McCarthy
Mac Donald discerns that the rote self-abasement of academic institutions is detached from lived life. She pointedly asks the questions we should all be asking: What are the specifics of the indictment: “Which faculty members do not treat black students fairly? If that unjust treatment is so obvious, why weren’t those professors already removed?” How have we tolerated an admissions process that apparently lets in thousands of student bigots? Of course, regardless of what they may say, college administrators do not act as if they’re trapped in a racist dystopia. As Mac Donald observes, there is no better proof of this than these same administrators: when not preening about systemic racism, they are gushing about the sensitivity, accomplishments, and integrity of their faculty, students, and alumni.
That is to say: The “institutional racism” prattle would melt if it were ever subjected to the enlightened rationalism that is supposed to be the university’s reason for being. But that is Western culture, and out leaders don’t do Western culture anymore.
What do they do? Marxism and voodoo, mainly. When you cannot cite hard evidence for the cosmic propositions you swear by, it can only be because we’re beset by “false consciousness” that prevents us from perceiving how whiteness and West-ness have corrupted us. All we can say for sure is what “disparate impact” theory tells us: We don’t have equality of outcomes, so that must mean we don’t have equality of opportunity, right? Because, you know, every one of us is a Mozart, an Einstein, a Jane Austen, a Bobby Fischer, or a LeBron just waiting to happen, if only there were a level playing field. Right.
Being a human society, ours is inevitably an imperfect society. It is a great society, however, because of its capacity for continual improvement. America frees individuals to achieve, but it teaches them that, individually and collectively, we all make mistakes. We need to check our premises because even the best among us are, from time to time, wrong about fundamental things. We strive for a more perfect union not only by learning from past errors but by remembering we are just as human, just as prone to error, as the forebears we presume to judge.
It is a lot to ask black Americans to concede redemption in a society that abided race-based slavery for over 200 years, and then — even after eliminating it in a bloody civil war — tolerated de jure racism for another century, and de facto racism even after Jim Crow ended. The last half-century has been marked by increasingly determined efforts — many of them more well-meaning than beneficial — to stamp out the vestiges of racism. Yet in light of our history, it is only natural for black people to be suspicious of racism in law enforcement and our institutions.
We nevertheless need law enforcement and strong institutions if everyone, including black Americans, is to enjoy the opportunities for prosperity in a free country. The imperative is to improve the pillars of our society. To condemn, defund, and banish them would not be “Change!” It would be suicide.
The best we can do is what we are trying to do: Operate our justice system, our educational institutions, our government, businesses, and society in a manner sufficiently sensitive to racism that concrete examples of it are few and far between. The regnant ideology never cites real-world examples. Its disciples would have us believe our society and its institutions — the very society and institutions that have promoted our elites to their lofty heights — are irredeemable. They’re for perfect equality, in which they remain perfect and everyone else is equally miserable
Steve Brennemen (center) served as Morrow County Sheriff 2005-2016 before becoming a Pastor at a Mount Gilead church. (Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
NORTH CENTRAL OHIO– This month clergy across the Buckeye Bible Belt have been recognized in a Congressional resolution by Rep. Troy Balderson (R-12th District). A new video also puts a spotlight on their efforts in a tribute for Clergy Appreciation Month.
Rep. Troy Balderson of the Ohio 12th District. (Photo courtesy of Rep. Balderson)
“Clergy members have certainly made an impact on our community,” said Rep. Balderson. “In an effort to commemorate years of dedicated work, on behalf of the citizens of Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, I am recognizing the month of October as ‘Clergy Appreciation Month.”
Reverend Blevins has been in the ministry for thirty-four years and serves in leadership for the Ohio North First Jurisdiction of the COGIC. Reverend Brenneman formerly served as the Morrow County Sheriff for twelve years before serving in the pastorate. Reverend Schag is bi-vocational, serving as both Senior Pastor and Mayor of Shelby.
Pastors remain one of the integral firewalls in civilized society.
“Clergy members have certainly made an impact on our community. In an effort to commemorate years of dedicated work, on behalf of the citizens of Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, I am recognizing the month of October as ‘Clergy Appreciation Month.”
Congressman Troy Balderson (R-12th District)
According to Rep. Balderson, “Local clergy have led the community to prayer during times of great tragedy and have provided hope to those around them. Clergy members make sure we celebrate life in all of its glory. The resilience of clergy members is demonstrated by their strength of devotion and steadfast conviction in a world that is ever-changing.”
This past March, clergymen from one hundred twenty congregations called the community to prayer during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between April 5th- April 16th, state health officials dramatically changed their projections from a peak of ten thousand new cases in Ohio per day to a significantly lower one thousand-six hundred cases.
Pastors pictured: Louis Blevins, Steve Brenneman, & Steve Schag. (Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
In addition, one hundred and fifty clergymen declared 2019 as the “Year of the Bible.”
As a tribute to area efforts, Frontlines Ohio Media has produced a nine-minute video chronicling a number of corporate clergy collaborations impacting the region over the past several years. View the video below.
Of all the ways identity politics is used as a tool to sow hatred among people where there should be the potential for friendship, “critical race theory” is one of the gravest offenders. Every person of goodwill should know that judging people based on their physical characteristics is cruel and wrong.
Stella Morabito (Photo courtesy of Stella Morabito)
This is not the nature of critical race theory, however. Rather, the insidious ideology is being used to promote estrangement rather than friendship, and hostility rather than goodwill. Indeed, the tactics used by proponents of critical race theory share many parallels with old tactics used by the Bolsheviks.
As such, federal employees and those who work for corporations that do business with the federal government sucked into the poisonous vortex of critical race theory can thank President Trump for ordering a stop to the promulgation of critical race theory. Thanks should also be sent to scholar Christopher Rufo, whose diligence brought the critical race theory venom to the forefront of Trump’s attention, and Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is working to root out members of the administrative state who defy that order.
It’s important to remember that because very few of its activists have shown much sincere desire to end racism, critical race theory should not be taken entirely at face value. If a majority of its supporters were sincere, they would be willing to have fruitful discussions in a civil society that supports civil discourse. Rather, critical race theory’s agitators are committed to tearing down civil society on the pretense that it is an incubator for “systemic racism.”
If you’ve any doubt about that, consider the Smithsonian display on “whiteness” that condemned all elements of civil society, including politeness, hard work, self-reliance, logic, planning, and family cohesion. None of those are “white” values, but critical race theory frames them just so. This sort of animus proves that critical race theory “arguments” are non-starters and merely serve as convenient pretexts for power grabs.
Doused with critical race theory, the Black Lives Matter organization and its related Antifa-infused mobs are organized for the same purposes as all cult recruits: to recruit more people and to implement the desire to divide and conquer. The phenomenon can be seen as they surround people in vehicles or restaurants, demanding their victims raise a fist and recite slogans under the intense intimidation and implications of violence.
Indeed, agitators who deploy critical race theory have zero interest in ending racism. Instead, they’ve made essentially the same point over and over again: Racism is an unsolvable problem. If you’ve been tainted as “white,” there’s nothing you can do about it. You are eternally a racist, especially if you don’t believe you are.
Robin D’Angelo explains it all in her best-selling book “White Fragility.” Your only option is the cultist’s option: submit to your critical race theory overlords, then recruit others to do the same. If, however, you’re a black person who disagrees with all of this, well, then, “You ain’t black.”
As with all forms of identity politics and intersectionality, critical race theory stokes divisions between people where few or none existed before. It’s all about relational aggression and predatory alienation.
Let’s look at a perfect example of this process, a parallel case from Soviet history. As peasant farmers tended to be overwhelmingly religious, traditional, and family-oriented, the Bolshevik government hated them with a fiery passion. Increasing the acrimony further, the peasants resisted giving up their family-run farms—a roadblock to the Soviet leadership’s desire to exercise complete control over the nation’s food supply.
To collectivize agriculture, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin devised a plan to stir up hostilities among the peasants where resentments had never existed before. As would be the case later with Mao’s Red Guard (and today’s radical statue-toppling, Molotov-cocktail-throwing radicals), the Soviets used mobs of youth to do the dirty work.
The communist youth league, known as the Komsomol, went into villages to propagandize and incite divisions, turning formerly peaceful neighbors against one another. In his book “The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia,” Orlando Figes describes the situation:
The villagers had never heard such propaganda in the past, and many were impressed by the long words used by the leaders of the Komsomol. At these meetings, the villagers were told that they belonged to three mutually hostile classes: the poor peasants, who were the allies of the proletariat, the middle peasants, who were neutral, and the rich or ‘kulak’ peasants, who were its enemies. The names of all the peasants in these different classes were listed on a board outside the village school.
This process is eerily similar to the way critical race theory — and all identity politics — has been applied in America. You can see the same three divisions: victims, oppressors, and those who might save themselves by becoming “allies” of the victims.
Note the reference to the Komsomol using impressive “long words.” Today our miseducated youth are easily impressed by new terms such as “systemic racism,” “intersectionality,” and “white fragility.” Finally, the wokesters identify and condemn those marked as oppressors — doxing and canceling them by name — in a written list of names posted in the village. Today such work is helped along by media and Big Tech.
The whole idea is to sow chaos where there was peace — or, at least progress. It is to disrupt and destroy any sense of community a person may have. Figes continued: “These divisions were entirely generated by the Komsomol. The villagers had no previous conception of themselves in terms of social class. They had always thought of themselves as one ‘peasant family.’”
They then use those newly established identities to “rub resentments raw.” In “Rules for Radicals,” agitator Saul Alinsky described the process:
The organizer must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; fan the latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expression . . . an organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent; provide a channel into which people can angrily pour their frustrations . . . your function — to agitate to the point of conflict.
Conjuring up such hostilities is also the essence of what Karl Marx was aiming for in his call for “class consciousness.” The problem, as he saw it, was that people were busy with life and willing to live and let live. Or, to put it in modern terminology, they were “insufficiently woke.” All power elites likewise see social contentment as an impediment to their power.
“In the same fashion, today’s critical race theory agitators call for a form of race consciousness that breeds in themselves the same sort of blind hate. Ironically, they’re like a photographic negative, a mirror image of the segregationists in Jim Crow days.”
Stella Morabito
In the same fashion, today’s critical race theory agitators call for a form of race consciousness that breeds in themselves the same sort of blind hate. Ironically, they’re like a photographic negative, a mirror image of the segregationists in Jim Crow days. We have been assaulted with many other forms of “consciousness” intended to sow hostilities and lawlessness: immigrant status, gender identity, sexual identity, and on and on. We are being overwhelmed.
Saddest of all is how critical race theory exploits the tragedy of racial divisions in America. The tragedy is thus reduced to nothing but a vehicle for a power grab by elitists in the circles of academia, media, and Big Tech. Ironically, those power elites are vastly and disproportionately white and in it for their gain. So, rather than serve as a balm for healing, critical race theory has proven to be poisonous to liberty, true community, and our common humanity.
MANSFIELD — Although he never passed such orders, Governor Mike DeWine has been criticized during the COVID-19 pandemic for discouraging churches from holding in-person services. With many conservatives concerned about future government overreach, Republicans in the Legislature put a bill on the Governor’s desk. As a result, DeWine has signed a bill into law that restricts local and state officials from closing churches or other houses of worship.
Pastor J.C. Church pictured (far left) with area clergy who called for end of pandemic shutdown. (Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
“Restrictions of constitutional rights by the government during crisis must be temporary and the least burdensome approach to achieve a compelling interest,” says Pastor J.C. Church. “We cannot forget that a crisis is never a time to destroy constitutional liberty.”
During the onset of the pandemic, DeWine was quoted as saying “It just seems to me to be a huge mistake for any pastor of any church to bring people together tomorrow or any other day,” DeWine said in late March, according to WCMH. “This is a critical period of time and it’s not just for the safety of the people in your congregation. Frankly, it’s for the safety of their friends, their neighbors and total strangers. So I just can’t imagine that anyone would want to take that risk.”
“Restrictions of constitutional rights by the government during crisis must be temporary and the least burdensome approach to achieve a compelling interest. We cannot forget that a crisis is never a time to destroy constitutional liberty.”
Pastor J.C. Church
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said that the governor agreed to enact the law curbing his own power to close churches because he never even contemplated taking such a step. The law will take effect in mid-December.
Pushed by Republican lawmakers, House Bill 272 prohibits a public official from ordering the closure of all places of worship in a geographic area and changing the time, place, or manner of conducting an election, except in certain circumstances.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, several states encroached on Americans’ First Amendment right of worship and assembly, disregarding it completely by forcing the closure of places of worship and religious institutions the amendment is seen as a preemptive step should Ohioans find themselves in this situation again.
Ohio State Capital (Photo courtesy of Pixabay images)
Several states have restrictions in place on religious gatherings, which have led to legal battles for the religious freedom of churches and other houses of worship. In California, several churches are fighting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 orders banning indoor services.
In an earlier statement, Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver called Newsom’s orders “unconstitutional.” “Governor Newsom supports tens of thousands of protestors, saying ‘God bless you. Keep doing it. This is wrong, and the governor’s unconstitutional hostility and discrimination against religious worship must end,” he said.
The Bottom Line:
The Bible saysin Hebrews 10, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Ashland Mayor dedicates city to Jesus Christ in 2020. (Photo courtesy of screenshot)
ASHLAND — According to Mayor Matt Miller, he was caught off guard by the national headlines he received after dedicating the City of Ashland to Christ during a sacred assembly last month.
“I have to tell you, we thought it was just a local event to try to usher in GOD’s presence into our community,” says Mayor Miller. “It has been very interesting to see how the rest of the world has picked up on some of those comments that were made that day. I do not think any of us ever imagined that anyone outside of Ashland would be paying attention.”
Ashland Mayor dedicates city to Christ August 23, 2020 (Photo courtesy of Ashland County Pictures)
The Mayor describes his city as a devout community.
“We have an active ministerial association composed of different denominations where once a month they meet together and take on a variety of community projects. GOD placed on one of the pastors’ hearts that we should have a sacred assembly at a wide open prominent green space in Ashland. During the evening we spent time seeking GOD’s presence and asking for His forgiveness where needed and praying for His guidance as we move forward.”
Different ministry leaders, elected officials, pastors as well as the President of Ashland University took time to read portions of Scripture that GOD placed on their hearts and then they prayed about whatever related to the Scripture and the community.
Miller admits, “The truth is, I forgot about what my Scripture verse was going to be. I instead asked GOD to give me the words.” Miller told those gathered at the assembly, “To the extent that a mayor can do so, I want to open this city up for His blessing and His protection. I want to make the decisions GOD would make if He were the Mayor of the City of Ashland.”
Miller admits there is no doubt that there are many places in the country that would have a different reaction to his declaration.
“I will tell you the truth, because our community has so many different churches and so many people seeking to do GOD’s will, it (declaration) has not really brought on a lot of fanfare at all. To be honest, I have not heard any negative comments and I know not everyone in this community believes as I do and not everyone in the community loves what I said that night. But the truth is, GOD makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust; the good and the evil.’
“I have to tell you, we thought it (sacred assembly) was a local event to try to usher in GOD’s presence into our community. It has been very interesting to see how the rest of the world has picked up on some of those comments that were made that day. I do not think any of us ever imagined that anyone outside of Ashland would be paying attention.”
Ashland Mayor Matt Miller
Miller believes that if GOD blesses Ashland because of a few people seeking Him, then everyone benefit, those who know Him and those who do not.”
In the past, new construction has been stagnant in the city. The Ashland Mayor gives an exciting forecast ahead.
“GOD has been blessing us. In the last six months alone we have inked deals with developers to have more than four hundred and twenty-five new dwelling units built in our city the next three hundred sixty-five days. Also several businesses have also moved into the area bringing in hundreds of new jobs to the area. At this particular time, for whatever reason, GOD has decided to show us favor.”
Miller says that the blessing of protection will come from GOD when people seek the ways of the LORD.
“There is no reason as believers for us to be afraid. There is no reason to be afraid of political ramifications for standing up for GOD. GOD is our deliverer. Those who feel other than we do are not afraid to go to the mat for what they believe. But for some reason, we grow a little shy about what we are sharing in what we believe. We are on the side of truth.”
The Bottom Line:
The Bible says in Hebrews 13, “So we say with confidence, ‘The LORDismy helper; I will not be afraid.What can mere mortals do to me?”
View the video interview below of Mayor Matt Miller produced by theIndiana-based “The Well in Carmel” ministry.
