Columnist.
You didn't have to be in Lynchburg, Virginia to hear the starting gun of the 2016 presidential race. The first out of the gate was Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who distanced himself from the competition by announcing his campaign *for* liberty *at* Liberty. Anxious to get a lead on the crowded GOP field, Senator Cruz picked the largest Christian university in America to announce his candidacy. Senator Cruz's presence on campus [Monday] morning followed a long line of presidential candidates who have fanned the flames of conservatism on Liberty's campus. Still, [Tuesday's] speech was significant in that it not only signaled the start of the effort to win the support of evangelical voters (which made up almost 50% of the primary vote in the 2012 presidential cycle), but it once again flies in the face of the pundits who are eager to eulogize social conservatives or the "Religious Right."
A pair of Ohio videographers are getting a close-up of religious intolerance, thanks to a clash with local activists. Like a growing number of Americans, Courtney Schmackers is finding out firsthand what's really behind the redefinition of marriage. Last month, the owner of Next Door Stories got what most Christian wedding vendors are starting to dread: an inquiry from a same-sex couple. The email asked if they could schedule an appointment to talk with the videographers about filming their upcoming same-sex "wedding." In a scene that's played out all across the country, Courtney sent a polite response suggesting that they try another production company. "Thank you for reaching out about wedding videography... Unfortunately at this time, I do not offer services for same-sex weddings, but thank you for your inquiry!"
Is it possible to be *too Catholic* to teach at Catholic school? New Jersey's Immaculata High School thinks so. In a story that would be shocking even for a public school, Immaculata suspended a long-time teacher for defending what its own church espouses about marriage! Patricia Jannuzzi didn't make the comments in class -- or even during school time. But when she used her personal Facebook to express her personal views, the attack quickly turned personal too. Like Dr. Ben Carson (and science!), Patricia believes homosexual behavior is a choice. So when the popular Republican came under fire for saying as much, Jannuzzi backed him up in a post. "They (advocates of same-sex marriage)," she wrote, "want to reengineer western civ into a slow extinction. We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity!" Furious that Dan Savage lived up to his name with another disgusting tweet, Patricia shared an article about his rant (so vile we can't repeat it) against Carson.
President Obama wasn't running against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- but it certainly felt like it at times. And while it may have been Isaac Herzog who went down in defeat, it is President Obama who was left looking like the loser. In a stunning eleventh-hour push, the four-time Prime Minister rocketed to a victory that seemed improbable just a week before. Few could have predicted (and based on the polling, few did) the surge of Israel's long-time leader, who, when all was said and done, picked up a five-seat advantage in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) for his Likud party. With the weight of the world literally on his shoulders, Netanyahu is still the person the Israeli people trust to lead in a crisis with Iran and ISIS. Americans got a glimpse of that leadership earlier this month when the Prime Minister came to the United States and showed the resolve we have yet to see from our own President.
Two weeks ago, President Obama said he didn't want to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu because he didn't want to influence Israel's elections. But sources close to the administration are accusing him of doing exactly that -- and with taxpayer dollars! Senators from both parties are digging deeper on possible State Department ties to the Prime Minister's opposition -- a bombshell accusation that could put the White House in even more of a precarious situation with our most important ally in the Middle East. A Senate committee of Republicans and Democrats officially launched an investigation into the DOS's involvement in efforts to oust Netanyahu and what knowledge or involvement the President may have had. Fox News broke the story that the administration may have been quietly interfering in the elections, which take place [today] across Israel.
Apparently, Senate Democrats would rather yield to human trafficking than put a stop to taxpayer-funded abortion! Two weeks after passing a unanimously out of committee, Democrats are suddenly picking a fight on language that's been in the measure since day one. This time, Rep. Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) party didn't pass the bill to find out what's in it -- but they got close. Obviously, a number of Democrats still think reading legislation is overrated, even at a manageable 68 pages. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who like a growing number of leaders, wants to end one of the greatest human rights crises of our time, was stunned earlier [last] week when his colleagues on the other side of the aisle suddenly -- and vehemently -- objected to the proposal's text.
Texas is known for a lot of things -- but pushovers aren't one of them. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) learned that the hard way when it picked a fight with White Oak High School. Using its small-town playbook, the atheist activists fired off a warning to the district complaining about a principal that reads a scripture as part of his morning announcements. Dan Noll's "Thoughts of the Day" had never been controversial before, so when a student recorded the audio and sent it to the Left's attack dogs, it caused quite a stir. But if FFRF thought a little letter would scare Superintendent Michael Gilbert, they had another thing coming. In a response that should bring a smile to the face of every Christian conservative in America, Gilbert took it to the Left's bullies with this fiery response.
President Obama would like nothing better than to shake himself of that pesky institution known as the U.S. Congress. And for six years, he's done an admirable job -- shirking their authority on everything from health care to immigration. But when a matter of national security -- or, in this case, national survival -- hangs in the balance, conservatives refuse to sit on their hands and watch the White House negotiate away America's future with Iran. To the Left's outrage, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a member of the Armed Services Committee and veteran, is demanding some accountability from the President in his talks with one of the world's largest state sponsors of terrorism. In a letter with 46 other GOP senators, Sen. Cotton fired off a rare letter to Iranian leaders explaining that the Senate will have to approve any deal the President strikes with their country.
If you think chaplains have some of the safest jobs in the military, think again. Men of the cloth are under some of the heaviest fire -- and it's coming from their own side! In the Navy, the message is clear: get on board with political correctness or lose your job. Like most Christians, Lt. Commander Wes Modder knew the military was changing. But he didn't know how much until the battle landed on his doorstep. For years, Modder had served some of the most elite fighting forces in the military: Navy SEALs. I say "had," because the 19-year veteran has been stripped of his duties for sharing the good news he was hired to share. In a stunning turn of events, the chaplain was sabotaged by one of his own men, who secretly gathered enough information on Modder's beliefs and private counseling sessions to file a formal complaint. Believe it or not, he was targeted by his own assistant -- who Modder didn't realize was gay. Looking back, the chaplain says the young officer asked a lot of questions about homosexuality, which Modder answered as most would expect: in accordance with the Bible's teachings.
At Planet Fitness, Yvette Cormier wanted to shape up -- and instead, she got shipped out! The customer of a Michigan branch found out the hard way that if she wants to exercise her rights to privacy and free speech, she'll have to find another gym. In a story that sums up the opposition to the Left's infamous bathroom ordinances, Yvette came face to face with the consequences of giving gender identity a special place in local laws. Imagine her surprise, Yvette told gym management, when she walked into the women's locker room and saw "a man" standing there. "Freaked out," she complained to the branch, who said the man identifies as a woman and had every right to use the facility of his choice. Stunned, Cormier contacted Planet Fitness's corporate office -- where she heard more of the same. According to the company's PR director, "Planet Fitness is committed to creating a non-intimidating, welcoming environment for our members. Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use all facilities based on their sincere self-reported gender identity."
A month after winning their fourth Super Bowl title, the New England Patriots are stepping onto another turf: the marriage debate. [Last] week, the NFL powerhouse -- along with Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays and World Series-winning San Francisco Giants -- went on the offensive in the heavy-weight battle for marriage at the U.S. Supreme Court. In a brief signed by 370 other businesses, the Patriots, Rays, and Giants went on the record with their radical views, insisting that "allowing same-sex couples to marry improves employee morale and productivity, reduces uncertainty, and removes the wasteful administrative burdens imposed by the current disparity of state law treatment." They argue that state laws "that prohibit or decline to recognize marriages between same-sex couples hamper employer efforts to recruit and retain the most talented workforce possible in those states."
Is it possible to be "too Christian" to care for kids? Some liberals think so. Instead of welcoming the help that charities offer with the adoption and foster parent system, some intolerant states seem intent on walling off their support. While the government struggles to keep up with the demand, faith-based groups have picked up the slack with decades of work connecting needy kids with loving homes. Unfortunately, that partnership has been a rocky one of late, as some states decide that their beliefs about homosexuality disqualify them as service providers. A few years ago Catholic Charities in D.C. was forced to close its doors on a popular foster care program after an ugly confrontation with the City Council about its decision not to place children with same-sex couples. When the nonprofit refused to change its policy, city officials issued an ultimatum: ignore the Church's core teachings or wave goodbye to $2 million in foster care funding. Susan Gibbs, a spokesman for the group, explained that Catholic Charities really had no choice. "The city (said) that in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem."
[Tuesday's] House session felt like a tale of two Congresses. After one of the greatest foreign policy speeches in a generation, members got back to business. But the same defiance and resolve that filled the chamber just hours earlier seemed to exit the chamber when Benjamin Netanyahu did. Instead of building on that momentum, House leaders let it slip away in a familiar -- but staggering -- show of capitulation on an issue that could be the defining one in 2016. After months of promises and saber rattling over the President's illegal amnesty order, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) raised what is becoming his trademark white flag and gave President Obama the funds to continue running the Department of Homeland Security, illegal actions and all. Proving the Establishment is more focused on the media than their employers -- voters -- Boehner decided to throw away the political leverage he had in the illegal immigration debate and bring up a "clean" Homeland Security funding bill for a vote.
"America and Israel share a common destiny." And it is that destiny that drove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the lectern of a joint session of Congress in what history may describe as one of the most important speeches of a generation. It took a foreign leader, standing in the halls of American power, to remind us who we are and where our nation's roots reside: in the biblical faith of his ancient land. From his first mention of Esther to the closing message from Moses, our Judeo-Christian heritage was more prominent today than it has been in the last six years. "Tomorrow night, on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we'll read the Book of Esther," the Prime Minister said. "We'll read of a powerful Persian viceroy named Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish people some 2,500 years ago. But a courageous Jewish woman, Queen Esther, exposed the plot and gave for the Jewish people the right to defend themselves against their enemies." While the President tries to erase our identity as a Christian nation, the Jewish people look to their rich history as a source of meaning and guidance. Israel was under attack then, as it is now.
[Today's] message by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Capitol Hill may be one of the most important speeches in modern times. For the first time in more than six years, a leader standing before a joint session of Congress will speak with clarity about the threats in the Middle East and beyond. At the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Prime Minister Netanyahu will argue against a possible nuclear agreement with Iran -- a top priority of the Obama administration and source of enormous tension between the two nations. The Prime Minister, who, as Quin Hillyer points out, spent more of his formative years on the U.S. mainland than Obama, seems to understand the crisis this President is so eager to ignore. "Yet Obama not only begrudges the Prime Minister the opportunity to make his case against this existential threat to his nation, but he conducts a diplomatic and political assault against Netanyahu of a ferocity rarely seen in the annals of American foreign policy... (The Prime Minister)... has spoken eloquently for decades in praise of the Western heritage of freedom and human rights. He also speaks and acts, quite obviously, to preserve security -- for Israel, of course, but more broadly for the civilized world."
It's the stuff of Old Testament times: God's people taken into captivity, sold into slavery, or worse -- slaughtered in cold blood. Their villages conquered, their people taxed, the thousands of Assyrian Christians suffering in the Middle East today share more than a language with the people of Jesus's time. They also share the deep pain of an ancient war now ripping through Syria and northern Iraq. While U.S. warplanes rain down strikes from above, reports suggest that an estimated 300 Christian hostages sit frightened in an unknown location, prisoners of a primitive hatred. After just two days, their numbers are already dwindling, as Islam's terrorists are said to have viciously executed another 15 innocents. For its part, the Obama administration finally acknowledged the Christian faith that ISIS is targeting in a statement from his National Security Council, insisting that the world's leaders stands "united and undeterred" in its resolve to bring an end to the terrorists' "depravity." But the same officials still refuse to label what ISIS is doing in Iraq as what it is: genocide.
At the Salt Lake Police Department, the only thing officers are handcuffing is freedom. Like most Americans, Eric Moutsos never dreamed that his faith would cost him his job. But that's exactly what happened last summer after the long-time policeman asked for a different post at the city's gay pride event. He was asked, along with other members of the team, to lead the motorcycle brigade at the very front of the parade. Moutsos said he "felt uncomfortable doing what he considered celebratory circles with other motorcycles leading the parade because of his religious views" and asked to be placed somewhere else at the event. "It is unquestionably my duty as a police officer to protect everyone's right to hold a parade or other event, but is it also my duty to celebrate everyone's parade?" For that particular assignment, he explained, "It looks like we and I are in support of this parade. I said I would feel the same way if this was an abortion parade. I would feel the same way if it was a marijuana parade."
They may be in the same party, but Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) are on different pages when it comes to immigration strategy. The plan had been to use Homeland Security's funding -- which runs out in two days -- to back the White House into a corner on its decision to ignore the law and wave five million illegal immigrants into the country. Neither party really wants to deal with the optics of DHS shutting down, but they also know that (apart from the media's narrative), it would really have no meaningful effect on American security -- not when 85% of the Department's employees would still be working as "essential" personnel. But unlike his House counterpart, Sen. McConnell is apparently too antsy about the public's perception of a DHS slowdown to hold his ground.
How much is your religious liberty worth? Try $2,001. That's the going rate in Washington state, according to its attorney general. If Barronelle Stutzman wants to exercise the freedom already guaranteed to her by the First Amendment, she'll have to fork over a couple thousand dollars (which she doesn't plan on doing any time soon). The Christian owner of Arlene's Flowers is standing by her beliefs, no matter what it costs her. "You are asking me to walk in the way of a well-known betrayer, one who sold something of infinite worth for 30 pieces of silver. That is something I will not do." When she turned down a same-sex "wedding" job, Barronelle says she didn't "relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important."
Over the weekend, the ISIS debate stretched from the shopping mall to the National Mall. While the President is busy finding the terrorists better jobs, most Americans wish he would just do his own -- and confront the threat he refuses to verbalize. The Obama administration, which seems to contract laryngitis whenever the subject of radical Islam is broached, is becoming a punch line to the very extremists it hopes to appease. "If you can't admit the problem, you can't fix the problem," wrote a frustrated Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.). "We demand a leader who is going to spend less time criticizing America and more time hunting terrorists down and killing them." As the White House hides behind a foolish strategy of political correctness, an unchecked ISIS is growing bolder and more audacious by the day.
