You Are Invited: This Saturday Afternoon

St. Thomas More: "I die the king's good servant, but God's first."

Why Americans Must Defend the First Amendment

Saturday, June 30, 2012

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Nash Auditorium, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Virginia

Speakers

What Is the First Amendment?

Mr. Vincent Terreri, founder, Annunication Academy 

Religious Freedom and Democracy

Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, founder, Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe

 Legal Fronts in the Fight for the First Amendment

James Cottone, former Grand Knight, St. Francis de Sales parish  Knights of Columbus Council 1136, Purcellville, Virginia

A virtuous citizenry committed to transcendent moral truths is the bedrock of American democracy.  In his famous examination of early American culture, Alexis de Tocqueville made note of the influential role of religion. He wrote, “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America. America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Freedom of religion—including a robust presence of religiously informed moral truths in public life—is an indispensable foundation for freedom.  If we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile. If our obligations and duties to God are impeded, or even worse, forbidden by the state, then we can no longer claim to be the land of the free, for we will not be free. Democracy is not a machine that can run by itself.  It must be built on a firm cultural foundation rooted in the virtues of the people. When those virtues and the moral truths that shape them are banished from the public square, the foundations of the house of freedom are weakened. 

The remedy is for the people to educate themselves and work together to demand that the state respect their exercise of freedom of religion.   Please join us in doing just that.

Free and open to the public.

You Are Invited: This Saturday Afternoon

St. Thomas More: "I die the king's good servant, but God's first."

Why Americans Must Defend the First Amendment

Saturday, June 30, 2012

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Nash Auditorium, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Virginia

Speakers

What Is the First Amendment?

Mr. Vincent Terreri, founder, Annunication Academy 

Religious Freedom and Democracy

Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, founder, Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe

 Legal Fronts in the Fight for the First Amendment

James Cottone, former Grand Knight, St. Francis de Sales parish  Knights of Columbus Council 1136, Purcellville, Virginia

A virtuous citizenry committed to transcendent moral truths is the bedrock of American democracy.  In his famous examination of early American culture, Alexis de Tocqueville made note of the influential role of religion. He wrote, “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America. America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Freedom of religion—including a robust presence of religiously informed moral truths in public life—is an indispensable foundation for freedom.  If we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile. If our obligations and duties to God are impeded, or even worse, forbidden by the state, then we can no longer claim to be the land of the free, for we will not be free. Democracy is not a machine that can run by itself.  It must be built on a firm cultural foundation rooted in the virtues of the people. When those virtues and the moral truths that shape them are banished from the public square, the foundations of the house of freedom are weakened. 

The remedy is for the people to educate themselves and work together to demand that the state respect their exercise of freedom of religion.   Please join us in doing just that.

Free and open to the public.

Police Chaplains Banned From Using “In Jesus’ Name” During Prayer

(bilerico.com)
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has banned chaplains from praying “in Jesus’ name” during public events.
It’s offensive.
The Blaze reported:

Volunteer chaplains in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have been banned from using Jesus’ name during prayers that are uttered during public events.
Rather than serving as a discriminatory practice, the new policy is intended — at least according to Major John Diggs who oversees the chaplain program — as an effort to respect people of all faiths.
“[It's a] matter of respecting that people may have different faiths and that it is not aimed at any one religion or denomination,” Diggs told WSOC-TV.

Police Chaplains Banned From Using “In Jesus’ Name” During Prayer

(bilerico.com)
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has banned chaplains from praying “in Jesus’ name” during public events.
It’s offensive.
The Blaze reported:

Volunteer chaplains in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have been banned from using Jesus’ name during prayers that are uttered during public events.
Rather than serving as a discriminatory practice, the new policy is intended — at least according to Major John Diggs who oversees the chaplain program — as an effort to respect people of all faiths.
“[It's a] matter of respecting that people may have different faiths and that it is not aimed at any one religion or denomination,” Diggs told WSOC-TV.

Garvey: Six Proofs that Our Religious Liberty Is Threatened

HHS asserts that Catholic organizations must provide abortions, sterilizations, and contraceptives to victims in order to participate in federal programs to combat human trafficking.

Thanks to the Cardinal Newman Society for the following report.

The Catholic University of America President John Garvey addressed the General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Atlanta, Ga., last week and offered six reasons to believe that religious liberty is under attack.
Garvey compared the current situation with regard to religious liberty in the U.S. to that of Tudor England, a time and place synonymous with religious persecution. “We are not the kind of violent and intolerant society Tudor England was,” he said. “But in recent years the landscape of religious freedom has changed. Its purview has narrowed considerably. Let me give six examples.”

1) EEOC – The Ministerial Exemption

Garvey pointed to a Supreme Court case called Hosanna-Tabor Church v. EEOC.
Hosanna Tabor is the name of an Evangelical Lutheran church.
The question in Hosanna-Tabor was whether a minister or teacher can sue a church under discrimination laws–the so-called “ministerial exception” that prevents courts from interfering in churches’ relationships with employees who are responsible for religious activities. The plaintiff and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) thought so.
“It’s hard to imagine the government telling Lutherans whom they can hire as pastors. Could the EEOC order the Catholic Church to ordain women?” asked Garvey.
While the Supreme Court sided with Hosanna Tabor, Garvey said it is still “disappointing” that the executive branch “took such a dim view of the church’s right. We might expect that the EEOC would side with the employee. But the Solicitor General of the United States argued that churches had no more rights in cases like this than would a labor union or a social club.”

2) NLRB – Collective Bargaining Exemption

Garvey pointed to two recent cases in which National Labor Relations Board Regional Directors have held that Manhattan College in New York and St. Xavier University in Chicago are not Catholic institutions when it comes to exemption from the Wagner Act. The Board therefore allowed the adjunct faculty at each school to hold an election about forming a union. The colleges have both appealed to the full Board. (In fact, just yesterday, a similar decision was handed down from a regional NRLB office concerning Duquesne University.)
Garvey pointed out that the Supreme Court has previously held that the Wagner Act does not apply to lay teachers in Catholic high schools because it’s their job to instruct students in the faith.
“Should we have a different rule for colleges? ” Garvey asked. “The Board thinks we should, and its view is very much like the EEOC’s.” The Board maintains that Catholic teachers are exempt only if they engage in “indoctrination” and “proselytizing.” College teachers and students live in an environment of academic freedom. Students don’t have to attend mass. Schools may hire non-Catholic faculty. Boards of trustees are dominated by lay people, not clergy and members of religious orders. This openness “means (to the NLRB) that these institutions should be subject to regulation.
Garvey said the NLRB’s view on this issue “shows a disappointing ignorance of, or disregard for, the way faith is communicated among intelligent adults. Faith is not an unthinking adherence that we come to only if we are forced, or swept along by a wave of mindless enthusiasm. Nor are the things we believe formulae we commit to memory, as fourth graders learn the catechism or ninth graders the axioms of geometry. Catholic universities bring their students and faculty to a better knowledge and love of God by appeals to the intellect and examples of virtue. These can’t be persuasive unless they occur in an atmosphere of academic freedom. The government should not make a rule that exempts only those colleges that conform to its (fairly ill-informed) view of how religion should be taught. Better to leave that to the Church.”

3) The HHS Mandate

The mandate would, of course, force Catholic colleges and universities to provide coverage for surgical sterilizations and all FDA approved contraceptives (including those that may induce abortions early in pregnancy).
Garvey has been one of the most outstanding advocates of religious freedom, and CUA filed a lawsuit  against the HHS mandate.
Garvey took on the Administration’s narrow definition of what defines a religious institution. “At Catholic University we promote religious values in nearly everything we do,” he said. “But we also teach physics, mechanical engineering, finance, and the literature of francophone Africa. Offering courses in those subjects, it seems, would disqualify us.”

4) Conscience Protections

In 2008 HHS issued a rule to protect doctors and hospitals that counsel pregnant women from being sued for not presenting abortion as a medical alternative. Last spring HHS repealed the regulation putting doctors at risk for not counseling abortions.

5) HHS – Human Trafficking

The National Human Trafficking Victim Assistance Program now asks participating organizations to provide the “full range of reproductive services” to trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors in its cooperative agreements and government contracts, thus ruling out the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services.
Migration and Refugee Services is free not to apply for grants. But the new arrangement is a departure from the more liberal approach we have traditionally taken in this area, where religious groups living the gospel have been welcome to help, Garvey noted. “Now, they will have to violate their own conscientious obligations in order to take part.”

6) D.C. City Council – Gay “Marriage”

When the District of Columbia began considering a same-sex “marriage” law in November 2009, the Archdiocese of Washington asked for an exemption from rules that would force it to support gay “marriage” by doing such things as paying spousal insurance benefits and placing foster children with same-sex couples. The City Council refused.
“One Council member referred to the Church as ‘childish.’ Another said he would rather end the city’s relationship with the Church than give in to its request,” said Garvey. “When the law went into effect the Archdiocese had to close its 80-year-old foster care program. And it announced that it would have to stop providing spousal insurance benefits to all new employees, gay and straight.”
Religious liberty these days is given a lot less scope than in the past. It protects priests but not teachers, Loyola but not St. Xavier, religious orders but not hospitals. Religious organizations like schools, hospitals, and Catholic Charities provide the public with valuable services. The government lets them do this work, but it is blind to their religious dimension. The problem with this way of parsing the work of religious institutions is that they do their work because of their religious beliefs. Catholic Charities does adoptions because the gospel tells us to care for the weak and vulnerable. Catholic universities exist because the gospel tells us to teach all nations. Migration and Refugee Services lives out the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 25. This is the heart of the Christian religion. Serving others – not just Catholics; all others – is not just a recommendation. It’s a requirement.

Garvey: Six Proofs that Our Religious Liberty Is Threatened

HHS asserts that Catholic organizations must provide abortions, sterilizations, and contraceptives to victims in order to participate in federal programs to combat human trafficking.

Thanks to the Cardinal Newman Society for the following report.

The Catholic University of America President John Garvey addressed the General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Atlanta, Ga., last week and offered six reasons to believe that religious liberty is under attack.
Garvey compared the current situation with regard to religious liberty in the U.S. to that of Tudor England, a time and place synonymous with religious persecution. “We are not the kind of violent and intolerant society Tudor England was,” he said. “But in recent years the landscape of religious freedom has changed. Its purview has narrowed considerably. Let me give six examples.”

1) EEOC – The Ministerial Exemption

Garvey pointed to a Supreme Court case called Hosanna-Tabor Church v. EEOC.
Hosanna Tabor is the name of an Evangelical Lutheran church.
The question in Hosanna-Tabor was whether a minister or teacher can sue a church under discrimination laws–the so-called “ministerial exception” that prevents courts from interfering in churches’ relationships with employees who are responsible for religious activities. The plaintiff and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) thought so.
“It’s hard to imagine the government telling Lutherans whom they can hire as pastors. Could the EEOC order the Catholic Church to ordain women?” asked Garvey.
While the Supreme Court sided with Hosanna Tabor, Garvey said it is still “disappointing” that the executive branch “took such a dim view of the church’s right. We might expect that the EEOC would side with the employee. But the Solicitor General of the United States argued that churches had no more rights in cases like this than would a labor union or a social club.”

2) NLRB – Collective Bargaining Exemption

Garvey pointed to two recent cases in which National Labor Relations Board Regional Directors have held that Manhattan College in New York and St. Xavier University in Chicago are not Catholic institutions when it comes to exemption from the Wagner Act. The Board therefore allowed the adjunct faculty at each school to hold an election about forming a union. The colleges have both appealed to the full Board. (In fact, just yesterday, a similar decision was handed down from a regional NRLB office concerning Duquesne University.)
Garvey pointed out that the Supreme Court has previously held that the Wagner Act does not apply to lay teachers in Catholic high schools because it’s their job to instruct students in the faith.
“Should we have a different rule for colleges? ” Garvey asked. “The Board thinks we should, and its view is very much like the EEOC’s.” The Board maintains that Catholic teachers are exempt only if they engage in “indoctrination” and “proselytizing.” College teachers and students live in an environment of academic freedom. Students don’t have to attend mass. Schools may hire non-Catholic faculty. Boards of trustees are dominated by lay people, not clergy and members of religious orders. This openness “means (to the NLRB) that these institutions should be subject to regulation.
Garvey said the NLRB’s view on this issue “shows a disappointing ignorance of, or disregard for, the way faith is communicated among intelligent adults. Faith is not an unthinking adherence that we come to only if we are forced, or swept along by a wave of mindless enthusiasm. Nor are the things we believe formulae we commit to memory, as fourth graders learn the catechism or ninth graders the axioms of geometry. Catholic universities bring their students and faculty to a better knowledge and love of God by appeals to the intellect and examples of virtue. These can’t be persuasive unless they occur in an atmosphere of academic freedom. The government should not make a rule that exempts only those colleges that conform to its (fairly ill-informed) view of how religion should be taught. Better to leave that to the Church.”

3) The HHS Mandate

The mandate would, of course, force Catholic colleges and universities to provide coverage for surgical sterilizations and all FDA approved contraceptives (including those that may induce abortions early in pregnancy).
Garvey has been one of the most outstanding advocates of religious freedom, and CUA filed a lawsuit  against the HHS mandate.
Garvey took on the Administration’s narrow definition of what defines a religious institution. “At Catholic University we promote religious values in nearly everything we do,” he said. “But we also teach physics, mechanical engineering, finance, and the literature of francophone Africa. Offering courses in those subjects, it seems, would disqualify us.”

4) Conscience Protections

In 2008 HHS issued a rule to protect doctors and hospitals that counsel pregnant women from being sued for not presenting abortion as a medical alternative. Last spring HHS repealed the regulation putting doctors at risk for not counseling abortions.

5) HHS – Human Trafficking

The National Human Trafficking Victim Assistance Program now asks participating organizations to provide the “full range of reproductive services” to trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors in its cooperative agreements and government contracts, thus ruling out the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services.
Migration and Refugee Services is free not to apply for grants. But the new arrangement is a departure from the more liberal approach we have traditionally taken in this area, where religious groups living the gospel have been welcome to help, Garvey noted. “Now, they will have to violate their own conscientious obligations in order to take part.”

6) D.C. City Council – Gay “Marriage”

When the District of Columbia began considering a same-sex “marriage” law in November 2009, the Archdiocese of Washington asked for an exemption from rules that would force it to support gay “marriage” by doing such things as paying spousal insurance benefits and placing foster children with same-sex couples. The City Council refused.
“One Council member referred to the Church as ‘childish.’ Another said he would rather end the city’s relationship with the Church than give in to its request,” said Garvey. “When the law went into effect the Archdiocese had to close its 80-year-old foster care program. And it announced that it would have to stop providing spousal insurance benefits to all new employees, gay and straight.”
Religious liberty these days is given a lot less scope than in the past. It protects priests but not teachers, Loyola but not St. Xavier, religious orders but not hospitals. Religious organizations like schools, hospitals, and Catholic Charities provide the public with valuable services. The government lets them do this work, but it is blind to their religious dimension. The problem with this way of parsing the work of religious institutions is that they do their work because of their religious beliefs. Catholic Charities does adoptions because the gospel tells us to care for the weak and vulnerable. Catholic universities exist because the gospel tells us to teach all nations. Migration and Refugee Services lives out the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 25. This is the heart of the Christian religion. Serving others – not just Catholics; all others – is not just a recommendation. It’s a requirement.

Bishops Affirm Stance Against HHS Mandate

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reaffirmed by a unanimous voice vote at its Atlanta, Georgia meeting Wednesday a recent statement of the USCCB Administrative Committee regarding the federal government mandate that would require religious employers to provide free insurance coverage for abortifacients, sterilization and contraception.

Earlier in the week, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the bishops' committee on religious liberty, told the national media that resistance to the mandate "is not a partisan issue" in this election year, but a question of religious freedom that concerns every American.

At the end of their hour-long discussion of religious freedom in the United States, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of USCCB, asked the body of bishops if it would be willing to declare its approval of “United for Religious Freedom,” the unanimous statement of the Administrative Committee issued on March 14. Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, seconded Cardinal Dolan's motion, which was put to the body by a voice vote and unanimously affirmed.

The document identifies three basic problems with the mandate: “an unwarranted government definition of religion,” “a mandate to act against our teachings,” and “a violation of personal civil rights.”
“United for Religious Freedom” is available on the USCCB Web site at: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/march-14-statement-on-religious-freedom-and-hhs-mandate.cfm

Bishops Affirm Stance Against HHS Mandate

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reaffirmed by a unanimous voice vote at its Atlanta, Georgia meeting Wednesday a recent statement of the USCCB Administrative Committee regarding the federal government mandate that would require religious employers to provide free insurance coverage for abortifacients, sterilization and contraception.

Earlier in the week, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the bishops' committee on religious liberty, told the national media that resistance to the mandate "is not a partisan issue" in this election year, but a question of religious freedom that concerns every American.

At the end of their hour-long discussion of religious freedom in the United States, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of USCCB, asked the body of bishops if it would be willing to declare its approval of “United for Religious Freedom,” the unanimous statement of the Administrative Committee issued on March 14. Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, seconded Cardinal Dolan's motion, which was put to the body by a voice vote and unanimously affirmed.

The document identifies three basic problems with the mandate: “an unwarranted government definition of religion,” “a mandate to act against our teachings,” and “a violation of personal civil rights.”
“United for Religious Freedom” is available on the USCCB Web site at: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/march-14-statement-on-religious-freedom-and-hhs-mandate.cfm

Your Tax Dollars Used to Force Chinese Women to Abort Their Babies

Chinese population police escort a pregnant woman to an abortion clinic.

China’s forced abortion program is aided heavily by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The Obama Administration is funding this UN group by the tune of $50 million per year. Chinese family planning officials use an army of "family planning" officials to persuade  women to abort their babies.

LifeSite News reported:

In the video below, a “family planning” official with the government of Changsha City, in the Chinese province of Hunan, explains how she uses her friendly lieutenants to “persuade” women to have abortions when they exceed the country’s one-child limit. The interview with the official was done last Friday by Bob Fu of the Evangelical Protestant organization China Aid.
The case Mr. Fu is calling about is that of Cao Ruyi, 37, and her husband Li Fu. The two already have a six year old daughter, and now Mrs. Cao is being told she must allow doctors to kill her “illegal baby” (yes, those are the words used by the official) or pay a fine equivalent to $24,000 (four years of wages for the couple) in order to spare his life. She is currently imprisoned at a hospital, where she is surrounded at all times by 10-20 men whose job it is to “persuade” her to have a “voluntary” abortion.

Such is China’s ruthless population control program, a program that is aided heavily by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency that the Obama administration is funding to the tune of $50 million per year despite U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s statement in 2002 that “UNFPA’s support of, and involvement in, China’s population-planning activities allows the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion.”
The UNFPA has always supported China’s bloody “one child policy” since its inception, providing millions of dollars in aid for various programs that support the policy and enable its baby-killing bureaucrats to do their dirty work. The agency has repeatedly deceived the public over the decades of its involvement, first by denying that forced abortions were happening, then claiming that it was mitigating the severity of the program through its soothing presence.
After the coercive nature of the one-child policy was firmly established as public knowledge, the UNFPA temporarily abandoned the program in 1994. But four years later it was back, claiming that it had an agreement with the Chinese government that no coercive tactics would be used in areas of the country where the UNFPA was involved. Investigations by the U.S. State Department and the Population Research Institute in 2002 determined that the UNFPA was again acting deceptively, providing backup support for the one-child-policy and even sharing offices with the same officials who were carrying it out.

Your Tax Dollars Used to Force Chinese Women to Abort Their Babies

Chinese population police escort a pregnant woman to an abortion clinic.

China’s forced abortion program is aided heavily by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The Obama Administration is funding this UN group by the tune of $50 million per year. Chinese family planning officials use an army of "family planning" officials to persuade  women to abort their babies.

LifeSite News reported:

In the video below, a “family planning” official with the government of Changsha City, in the Chinese province of Hunan, explains how she uses her friendly lieutenants to “persuade” women to have abortions when they exceed the country’s one-child limit. The interview with the official was done last Friday by Bob Fu of the Evangelical Protestant organization China Aid.
The case Mr. Fu is calling about is that of Cao Ruyi, 37, and her husband Li Fu. The two already have a six year old daughter, and now Mrs. Cao is being told she must allow doctors to kill her “illegal baby” (yes, those are the words used by the official) or pay a fine equivalent to $24,000 (four years of wages for the couple) in order to spare his life. She is currently imprisoned at a hospital, where she is surrounded at all times by 10-20 men whose job it is to “persuade” her to have a “voluntary” abortion.

Such is China’s ruthless population control program, a program that is aided heavily by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency that the Obama administration is funding to the tune of $50 million per year despite U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s statement in 2002 that “UNFPA’s support of, and involvement in, China’s population-planning activities allows the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion.”
The UNFPA has always supported China’s bloody “one child policy” since its inception, providing millions of dollars in aid for various programs that support the policy and enable its baby-killing bureaucrats to do their dirty work. The agency has repeatedly deceived the public over the decades of its involvement, first by denying that forced abortions were happening, then claiming that it was mitigating the severity of the program through its soothing presence.
After the coercive nature of the one-child policy was firmly established as public knowledge, the UNFPA temporarily abandoned the program in 1994. But four years later it was back, claiming that it had an agreement with the Chinese government that no coercive tactics would be used in areas of the country where the UNFPA was involved. Investigations by the U.S. State Department and the Population Research Institute in 2002 determined that the UNFPA was again acting deceptively, providing backup support for the one-child-policy and even sharing offices with the same officials who were carrying it out.

You Are Inivited

Why Americans Must Defend the First Amendment

Saturday, June 30, 2012

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Nash Auditorium, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Virginia

Speakers

Classical Foundations of Western Christendom

Mr. Criton Zoakos, Leto Research

 

The Cultural Continuity of the West: Aristotle at Mont Saint-Michel

Ms. Vivian Freyre Zoakos, Leto Research

The Post-Secular Solution to the Crisis of Our Culture

Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, founder, Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe

 Legal Fronts in the Fight for the First Amendment

James Cottone, former Grand Knight, St. Francis de Sales parish  Knights of Columbus Council 1136, Purcellville, Virginia

A virtuous citizenry committed to transcendent moral truths is the bedrock of American democracy.  In his famous examination of early American culture, Alexis de Tocqueville made note of the influential role of religion. He wrote, “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America. America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Freedom of religion—including a robust presence of religiously informed moral truths in public life—is an indispensable foundation for freedom.  If we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile. If our obligations and duties to God are impeded, or even worse, forbidden by the state, then we can no longer claim to be the land of the free, for we will not be free. Democracy is not a machine that can run by itself.  It must be built on a firm cultural foundation rooted in the virtues of the people. When those virtues and the moral truths that shape them are banished from the public square, the foundations of the house of freedom are weakened. 

The remedy is for the people to educate themselves and work together to demand that the state respect their exercise of freedom of religion.   Please join us in doing just that.

Free and open to the public.

You Are Inivited

Why Americans Must Defend the First Amendment

Saturday, June 30, 2012

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Nash Auditorium, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Virginia

Speakers

Classical Foundations of Western Christendom

Mr. Criton Zoakos, Leto Research

 

The Cultural Continuity of the West: Aristotle at Mont Saint-Michel

Ms. Vivian Freyre Zoakos, Leto Research

The Post-Secular Solution to the Crisis of Our Culture

Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, founder, Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe

 Legal Fronts in the Fight for the First Amendment

James Cottone, former Grand Knight, St. Francis de Sales parish  Knights of Columbus Council 1136, Purcellville, Virginia

A virtuous citizenry committed to transcendent moral truths is the bedrock of American democracy.  In his famous examination of early American culture, Alexis de Tocqueville made note of the influential role of religion. He wrote, “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America. America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Freedom of religion—including a robust presence of religiously informed moral truths in public life—is an indispensable foundation for freedom.  If we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile. If our obligations and duties to God are impeded, or even worse, forbidden by the state, then we can no longer claim to be the land of the free, for we will not be free. Democracy is not a machine that can run by itself.  It must be built on a firm cultural foundation rooted in the virtues of the people. When those virtues and the moral truths that shape them are banished from the public square, the foundations of the house of freedom are weakened. 

The remedy is for the people to educate themselves and work together to demand that the state respect their exercise of freedom of religion.   Please join us in doing just that.

Free and open to the public.

Pro-life Soccer in Argentina

Here is a picture of a soccer team Atlético Tucumán which rallied behind a pro-life banner before its regular season soccer match in Argentina before its game on June 3.

The president of the club Mario Alberto Leito led the initiative, which was sponsored by the pro-life organization “Dejame Nacer” (Let Me Be Born).

Pro-life Soccer in Argentina

Here is a picture of a soccer team Atlético Tucumán which rallied behind a pro-life banner before its regular season soccer match in Argentina before its game on June 3.

The president of the club Mario Alberto Leito led the initiative, which was sponsored by the pro-life organization “Dejame Nacer” (Let Me Be Born).

California Rally for Religious Freedom: This Is Not a Matter of Partisan Politics

Civil Rights activist Walter Hoye, organizer of the June 8 Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally in San Francisco

 
Walter Hoye, President of the California Civil Rights Foundation, keynoted  San Francisco's "Stand Up For Religious Freedom" rally, one of 150 held across the nation June 8.

"Not since the 1960's has a cause so righteous and so just demanded the Body of Christ, in the power of our Lord's Priesthood, to rise together in the Public Square to let our voices be heard. The lines have been drawn. The battle is already raging. Choose you this day, whom you will serve,"  Hoye told the assembled crowd.

Hoye continued, "We agree with the Catholic Bishops. This is not about access to contraception, universal health care, religious freedom of Catholics only or a matter of partisan politics. This is about the federal government forcing the Church to act against Her teachings."

Hoye is an outspoken opponent of abortion, who notes its toll on America's African-American population.

Other speakers  included Father Joseph Illo (St. Joseph's Catholic Church); Kevin McGary (Frederick Douglass Foundation of California); Marie Conway Stroughter (African-American Conservatives); Eva Muntean (San Francisco Walk for Life West Coast); Chris Pareja (Chris Pareja for Congress); Rochelle Conner (God And Government); Victoria Evans (Respect Life, Archdiocese of San Francisco); Jennifer Halbleib, Ph.D. (The Becket Fund); Father Jeffrey R. Keyes (St. Edward Catholic Parish); Ana Benderas (Live Action); Gwen Patrick (Frederick Douglass Foundation of California) and Antoine Lamar Miller (Pastor, Rehoboth Christian Fellowship Church) and Dana Cody (Life Legal Defense Foundation).

California Rally for Religious Freedom: This Is Not a Matter of Partisan Politics

Civil Rights activist Walter Hoye, organizer of the June 8 Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally in San Francisco

 
Walter Hoye, President of the California Civil Rights Foundation, keynoted  San Francisco's "Stand Up For Religious Freedom" rally, one of 150 held across the nation June 8.

"Not since the 1960's has a cause so righteous and so just demanded the Body of Christ, in the power of our Lord's Priesthood, to rise together in the Public Square to let our voices be heard. The lines have been drawn. The battle is already raging. Choose you this day, whom you will serve,"  Hoye told the assembled crowd.

Hoye continued, "We agree with the Catholic Bishops. This is not about access to contraception, universal health care, religious freedom of Catholics only or a matter of partisan politics. This is about the federal government forcing the Church to act against Her teachings."

Hoye is an outspoken opponent of abortion, who notes its toll on America's African-American population.

Other speakers  included Father Joseph Illo (St. Joseph's Catholic Church); Kevin McGary (Frederick Douglass Foundation of California); Marie Conway Stroughter (African-American Conservatives); Eva Muntean (San Francisco Walk for Life West Coast); Chris Pareja (Chris Pareja for Congress); Rochelle Conner (God And Government); Victoria Evans (Respect Life, Archdiocese of San Francisco); Jennifer Halbleib, Ph.D. (The Becket Fund); Father Jeffrey R. Keyes (St. Edward Catholic Parish); Ana Benderas (Live Action); Gwen Patrick (Frederick Douglass Foundation of California) and Antoine Lamar Miller (Pastor, Rehoboth Christian Fellowship Church) and Dana Cody (Life Legal Defense Foundation).

Many Mainstream Media Outlets Ignore Religious Freedom Rallies on June 8

Life Site News reports that tens of thousands of citizens attended more than 150 rallies for religious freedom across the country on June 8--a second wave of demonstrations that filled courthouse squares, federal buildings, and university centers from New York to Los Angeles with the Founding Fathers’ views of liberty and conscience.

Early reports showed hundreds of people attended each major rally, holding yellow balloons that say “Religious Liberty” and waving signs that read, “Stop the HHS Mandate.” But many of the nation's media outlets chose to ignore this outpouring of public sentiment in favor of First Amendment rights.

Scores of rallies across the nation occurred on this date, because it marked the 223rd anniversary of James Madison’s introduction of the Bill of Rights. Constitutional limits on government power figured heavily in the observance.

In Washington, D.C., Michele Bachmann and Lila Rose expounded upon the Constitutional liberties enshrined in the First Amendment. Jill Stanek spoke in Chicago. The San Francisco rally was emceed by Dana Cody of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. In Montana, a crowd gathered outside the officers of U.S. Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat who supports the mandate.

Attendees in Miami heard Archbishop Thomas Wenski say the HHS accommodation is no compromise, because “compromises are not usually arrived at unilaterally.” He said a fundamental principle of health care is that it “shouldn’t kill anybody.” 

LifeSiteNews.com U.S. Bureau Chief Ben Johnson told a crowd of hundreds he was “astounded” as a journalist when he saw that “the best and brightest minds of Washington” decided “the most important aspect of the health care bill…was that every American, including post-menopausal women and gay men, needed access to birth control.”

Citing the history of Eastern Europe he said “light and transient offenses against our religious liberty never remain light and transient offenses,” but are usually the opening salvos of a greater war “to deny all our religious liberties. “It’s a test of our strength and our resolve, an attempt to set a binding precedent, and it’s an attempt to weaken our resources against the more serious assaults that are to come,” he said.
“We know that nature abhors a vacuum and that every inch that is yielded by the Church will be filled by a rushing, virulent secularism.” Quoting Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech, he said, “We must fight, I repeat it sir, we must fight!”

Nick Thomm, the proprietor of StopHHS.com and an organizer of the local rally in Ann Arbor, noted the media blackout. “We cannot rely on the secular media to keep this issue alive before the American people in a way we would recognize as fair and accurate,” he said.

Many Mainstream Media Outlets Ignore Religious Freedom Rallies on June 8

Life Site News reports that tens of thousands of citizens attended more than 150 rallies for religious freedom across the country on June 8--a second wave of demonstrations that filled courthouse squares, federal buildings, and university centers from New York to Los Angeles with the Founding Fathers’ views of liberty and conscience.

Early reports showed hundreds of people attended each major rally, holding yellow balloons that say “Religious Liberty” and waving signs that read, “Stop the HHS Mandate.” But many of the nation's media outlets chose to ignore this outpouring of public sentiment in favor of First Amendment rights.

Scores of rallies across the nation occurred on this date, because it marked the 223rd anniversary of James Madison’s introduction of the Bill of Rights. Constitutional limits on government power figured heavily in the observance.

In Washington, D.C., Michele Bachmann and Lila Rose expounded upon the Constitutional liberties enshrined in the First Amendment. Jill Stanek spoke in Chicago. The San Francisco rally was emceed by Dana Cody of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. In Montana, a crowd gathered outside the officers of U.S. Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat who supports the mandate.

Attendees in Miami heard Archbishop Thomas Wenski say the HHS accommodation is no compromise, because “compromises are not usually arrived at unilaterally.” He said a fundamental principle of health care is that it “shouldn’t kill anybody.” 

LifeSiteNews.com U.S. Bureau Chief Ben Johnson told a crowd of hundreds he was “astounded” as a journalist when he saw that “the best and brightest minds of Washington” decided “the most important aspect of the health care bill…was that every American, including post-menopausal women and gay men, needed access to birth control.”

Citing the history of Eastern Europe he said “light and transient offenses against our religious liberty never remain light and transient offenses,” but are usually the opening salvos of a greater war “to deny all our religious liberties. “It’s a test of our strength and our resolve, an attempt to set a binding precedent, and it’s an attempt to weaken our resources against the more serious assaults that are to come,” he said.
“We know that nature abhors a vacuum and that every inch that is yielded by the Church will be filled by a rushing, virulent secularism.” Quoting Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech, he said, “We must fight, I repeat it sir, we must fight!”

Nick Thomm, the proprietor of StopHHS.com and an organizer of the local rally in Ann Arbor, noted the media blackout. “We cannot rely on the secular media to keep this issue alive before the American people in a way we would recognize as fair and accurate,” he said.

Another Bombing Kills 15 Nigerian Christians

The remains of a car parked outside the Living Faith Church in Bauchi State Nigeria, following the Sunday, June 10 suicide bombing that killed 15 and wounded 42 worshipers.

Another suicide bomber blew up a church June 10  in Bauchi State in Nigeria. VOA reported:

Nigerian officials say the bombing of a church in Bauchi State has killed 15 people and wounded 42.
The chairman of the state emergency operations team, Muhammad Inuwa Bello, says a suicide bomber attacked the Living Faith Church outside the state capital Sunday morning, but the agency cannot yet comment on who it thinks was responsible.

Witnesses say the church collapsed after the blast, trapping worshipers, killing civilians and security personnel, and leaving others with gruesome injuries.

Angry local residents say the government is failing to protect the people from attacks and sectarian violence that have ripped through northern Nigeria in the past three years.
In some towns in northern Nigeria, local demographics now resemble the national population, with mostly Muslims in the north and predominately Christians in the south. After Sunday’s bombing, some infuriated residents illustrated increasing sectarian tensions by saying that if the killings do not stop, Christians and Muslims should no longer live together.

Another Bombing Kills 15 Nigerian Christians

The remains of a car parked outside the Living Faith Church in Bauchi State Nigeria, following the Sunday, June 10 suicide bombing that killed 15 and wounded 42 worshipers.

Another suicide bomber blew up a church June 10  in Bauchi State in Nigeria. VOA reported:

Nigerian officials say the bombing of a church in Bauchi State has killed 15 people and wounded 42.
The chairman of the state emergency operations team, Muhammad Inuwa Bello, says a suicide bomber attacked the Living Faith Church outside the state capital Sunday morning, but the agency cannot yet comment on who it thinks was responsible.

Witnesses say the church collapsed after the blast, trapping worshipers, killing civilians and security personnel, and leaving others with gruesome injuries.

Angry local residents say the government is failing to protect the people from attacks and sectarian violence that have ripped through northern Nigeria in the past three years.
In some towns in northern Nigeria, local demographics now resemble the national population, with mostly Muslims in the north and predominately Christians in the south. After Sunday’s bombing, some infuriated residents illustrated increasing sectarian tensions by saying that if the killings do not stop, Christians and Muslims should no longer live together.

Please Join Us!

Why Americans Must Defend the First Amendment

Saturday, June 30, 2012

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Nash Auditorium, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Virginia

Speakers

Classical Foundations of Western Christendom

Mr. Criton Zoakos, Leto Research

 

The Cultural Continuity of the West: Aristotle at Mont Saint-Michel

Ms. Vivian Freyre, Leto Research

The Post-Secular Solution to the Crisis of Our Culture

Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, founder, Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe

 Legal Fronts in the Fight for the First Amendment

James Cottone, Esq. Knights of Columbus Council 1136

A virtuous citizenry committed to transcendent moral truths is the bedrock of American democracy.  In his famous examination of early American culture, Alexis de Tocqueville made note of the influential role of religion. He wrote, “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America. America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Freedom of religion—including a robust presence of religiously informed moral truths in public life—is an indispensable foundation for freedom.  If we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile. If our obligations and duties to God are impeded, or even worse, forbidden by the state, then we can no longer claim to be the land of the free, for we will not be free. Democracy is not a machine that can run by itself.  It must be built on a firm cultural foundation rooted in the virtues of the people. When those virtues and the moral truths that shape them are banished from the public square, the foundations of the house of freedom are weakened. 

The remedy is for the people to educate themselves and work together to demand that the state respect their exercise of freedom of religion.   Please join us in doing just that.

Free and open to the public.

Please Join Us!

Why Americans Must Defend the First Amendment

Saturday, June 30, 2012

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Nash Auditorium, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Virginia

Speakers

Classical Foundations of Western Christendom

Mr. Criton Zoakos, Leto Research

 

The Cultural Continuity of the West: Aristotle at Mont Saint-Michel

Ms. Vivian Freyre, Leto Research

The Post-Secular Solution to the Crisis of Our Culture

Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, founder, Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe

 Legal Fronts in the Fight for the First Amendment

James Cottone, Esq. Knights of Columbus Council 1136

A virtuous citizenry committed to transcendent moral truths is the bedrock of American democracy.  In his famous examination of early American culture, Alexis de Tocqueville made note of the influential role of religion. He wrote, “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America. America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Freedom of religion—including a robust presence of religiously informed moral truths in public life—is an indispensable foundation for freedom.  If we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile. If our obligations and duties to God are impeded, or even worse, forbidden by the state, then we can no longer claim to be the land of the free, for we will not be free. Democracy is not a machine that can run by itself.  It must be built on a firm cultural foundation rooted in the virtues of the people. When those virtues and the moral truths that shape them are banished from the public square, the foundations of the house of freedom are weakened. 

The remedy is for the people to educate themselves and work together to demand that the state respect their exercise of freedom of religion.   Please join us in doing just that.

Free and open to the public.