BMAT Moral Action Committee Watchman Report #9 12/12/2004

Texas Court to Hear Landmark Religious Liberties Case (Kelly Shackelford, Free Market Foundation)

The Texas Supreme Court just decided to hear the landmark HEB Ministries case, which will determine whether seminaries in Texas will be regulated by the state. The case, which originated when Tyndale Seminary was fined $173,000 by the state for using the word "seminary" and issuing theological degrees without receiving government approval, will be heard before the Supreme Court on Jan. 5, 2005. Under current law, no seminary is allowed to exist in Texas unless the state approves its board, curriculum and professors. On average, the Texas Supreme Court only agrees to hear ten percent of the cases proposed, making this an especially significant opportunity. Free Market's legal division filed suit against the state for violating the U.S. and state constitutions. The suit, on behalf of Tyndale Seminary as well as other seminaries across the state, argues that government attempts to control the religious training of seminaries are unconstitutional. "The outcome will forever determine the way the future leaders of our churches are trained. If the state controls the religious training and education of church leaders, it is able to control all of our churches and religious organizations."

(Prophecy News Watch) A researcher has revealed some disturbing trends regarding the sets of beliefs Christian students in public schools have about the most important issues in life. Dan Smithwick is the founder and president of the Nehemiah Institute, a group that provides a biblical worldview testing and training service to Christian educators. He is the developer of what is called the "PEERS test," a tool to assess the worldviews of young people, and says the majority of public school students from evangelical Christian homes consistently score in the "socialist" category on the test. According to Smithwick, this outcome should come as no surprise, considering the fact that secular humanists are currently shaping America. He notes that socialism, a political and economic philosophy that commonly emphasizes government control and redistribution of wealth over personal responsibility and private ownership, often goes hand in hand with secularist attitudes and a generally non-biblical worldview.

Salvation Army "Targeted" http://www.voicesheard.org

What could possibly explain the bizarre decision by Target Stores to ban the Salvation Army from setting up their red kettles in front of Target Stores this Christmas season? Has the CEO of Target Stores suddenly turned into the "Grinch?" Has one of the nation's largest retailers decided that offending millions of Christians during the Christmas shopping season is a good marketing plan? Are politics involved in this sudden change of heart? The Dayton family owns Target, with U.S. Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) being a major stockholder. Is the ambitious senator eying a possible Presidential run in 2008 or 2012 and wanting to sever any ties to "religious groups" that might hurt him with the secular democrats who wield so much power in his party? Only time will tell but we will keep a close eye on the senator in the coming years. Target’s CEO Robert Ulrich Takes A $31.8 Million Christmas Present this Year-------That may be better than visions of sugar plums, and might make bah-humbug easier to say. (Howard Wilson)

Believe it or not (Fox-News) There are more than 100,000 Americans missing today. They come from all walks of life and the circumstances surrounding their disappearances are vastly different.

Effective Science And Good Morals Go hand in hand After All (Family Research Council)

World AIDS Day, (last Week) many voices provide different views on how to deal with the HIV/AIDS virus. Science continues to confirm that abstinence and fidelity are the only certain ways to combat the virus. The behavior that makes stronger families, happier marriages, and healthier people can also protect entire populations from the suffering brought on by HIV/AIDS.

Kentucky Parents And Students Refuse Gay Workshop (The Washington Times) Despite the school district's policy that students attend a mandatory anti-harassment workshop designed to advocate for homosexuals, hundreds of students in Kentucky's Ashland-Boyd County either refused the training or simply didn't show up. Now!!!! -------------------------(See Next Article)----------------------------------------

This time the object of their ire are the middle school and high school students in the Ashland-Boyd County school district. It seems the students in this pretty little Kentucky river town half way between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh did not really want to be indoctrinated into the gay lifestyle. (Christian Voices) School’s Ban On Declaration Of Independence update (Christian Voices Heard)God bless all of you who helped to create a firestorm since we first noted that Stevens Creek Elementary School in Cupertino, CA. had banned the Declaration of Independent from its impressionable 5th graders because it mentioned "God". The school and school board have been absolutely buried in bad press.

CA Minors Can Leave School To Have Abortions without Parental Notification (The Sacramento Union) California state courts have long upheld statutes allowing minors to keep their health decisions private. State law allows minors to receive AIDS testing, abortions, drug treatment, psychological analysis, and medical therapy without having to inform their guardians.

Radical civil libertarians are alarmed that religious references are still cropping up in public-school celebrations of the national secular winter holiday otherwise known as Christmas. A case in point is New Jersey's South Orange/Maplewood School District, which thought it had successfully exorcised any religious content from its holiday concert. Alas, while no spoken references to the Christ Child were permitted, it was discovered that a number of instrumental renditions of traditional carols had somehow slipped past the censors. That oversight has now been rectified, and this year the audience will no longer hear the familiar refrains of carols celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus. The district school superintendent explained that "rather than try to respond to all the various religions and try to balance them, it's best to stay away from that and simply have a nonreligious tone."

With the Christmas season upon us, the importance of understanding your constitutional rights during this time is highly important. The topic of Free Market's weekly radio program, Texas Family Focus, is keeping Christ in Christmas. We want to encourage you not to be intimidated and to remember the reason for the season. There is no basis for censoring Christ out of Christmas. "Censoring Christmas is not what the Constitution says, not what the law says and not even what the Supreme Court has said. You can even study the Bible in public schools as an appropriate subject of literature or history," said Kelly Shackelford, president, Free Market Foundation. Americans, including students in public schools, have the right to live out their faith as part of the free exercise clause in the Constitution. So, this holiday season, say "Merry Christmas" all you want and stand up for your religious freedoms. If you experience any problems with your rights this Christmas season, please call our legal division at (972) 423-3131. To listen to the radio program, go to: http://www.freemarket.org/portal/audio/11-30-04.mp3

FCC OKs Sexually Graphic Content for Families, But Newspapers Reject it As "Too Explicit" (ParentsTelevision Council) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved television content that is so offensive that virtually every major newspaper in America has rejected the same content for their adult readership.---------------

QUOTEWORTHY: ---------------------------------------------- "If we fail now, then we will have forgotten in abundance what we learned in hardship: that democracy rests on faith, freedom asks more than it gives, and the judgment of God is harshest on those who are most favored." -- President Lyndon B. Johnson

PEST Control Issues in Florida? A post-election group therapy session for those suffering from Post Election Selection Trauma (PEST) met for the first time Thursday to lament their distress over the conservative victory Nov. 2, BocaNews.com reported. The American Health Association (AHA) in Boca Raton, Fla., has designated PEST a real condition. "It's no joke," said Robert Gordon of AHA. "People with PEST were traumatized by the election. If you even mention religion, their faces turn blister-red as they shout at Bush." Conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh recently offered to hold their own therapy sessions at no charge.

Gay Organization Gains Federal Funding (by Josh Montez-CitizenLink)

Why should your tax dollars go to support efforts that undermine marriage? Congress is giving $80,000 to a homosexual organization that family advocates suspect will use it to fight efforts to pass a federal marriage amendment. The money for the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center was hidden away in the massive appropriations bill approved last month —and Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America, is outraged. "(The community center) provides some services, but, on the whole, it's in the business to promote homosexuality," Knight said. "Federal taxpayers shouldn't have to be complicit in their campaign to do that." "The request was made by Rep. Susan Davis—a Democrat from California—but her office said that she didn't insert the language itself into the bill," her spokesman was blaming the Republican Congress for putting it in there."

Howard Wilson hwilson@texasmoralaction.org