What is at Stake this November

Catholics: Get Out and Vote!

Action Works!

Republicans to reclaim marriage and life issues on their agenda!
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Great news!

So many of you emailed the Republican House leader's office last week urging the party not to backtrack on its commitment to life, liberty and marriage that you brought the email servers down. We have just been informed that the Republican leadership WILL now include references to marriage and federal funding of abortion in their election agenda.

Thank you for acting so promptly! Before your action this was a dead issue -- you helped turn attitudes around, a great victory.

But now we must keep the momentum, so we're asking you to do two things today:
1. Commit to participate in the PRAY and ACT campaign for forty days of prayer and fasting (if possible) beginning today, September 20 through October 30. CLICK HERE to download a Pray and ACT guide to get you started.

2. Provide your personal financial support to help fuel this Manhattan Declaration movement. This is a very low overhead operation with no staff. But we need funds to keep the website operating. Our resources are very low at the moment and we very much need your help. Visit the Manhattan Declaration website to make a donation.

Help us encourage a growing, vibrant movement of Christians from across denominational and confessional lines, to impact our society with Christian truth.

Thank you and God Bless you,

Timothy George
Chuck Colson
Robby George

Manhattan Declaration Statement on Republicans and the Nov Election

Tell Republican leaders to back life, marriage, and liberty
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To all those who have signed Manhattan Declaration:

We are writing you because we need you to act.

We have just learned that the Republican congressional leadership--feeling supremely confident that they can win back Congress campaigning only on economic issues--seems poised to promote a mid-term election agenda that does not even mention the party's historical commitment to life, marriage, and religious liberty.

The Manhattan declaration is a non-partisan movement of Christians from all denominations and political persuasions. Our fidelity to Scripture, however, compels us to speak on public issues which affect our most fundamental moral commitments--as well as the common good of our nation.

We long for the day when both of our great political parties embrace a culture of life, a defense of the traditional family, and a commitment to religious liberty. For the one party which has in recent years officially supported these issues to now retreat would be a dreadful and highly symbolic act.

So we urge you in the strongest terms possible to talk to or e-mail your congressmen and senators, Democrat and Republican alike, urging them to support the Manhattan Declaration.

We also ask you to e-mail the offices of Republican House leader John Boehner and Republican Whip Eric Cantor urging them not to backtrack on the Republican Party's commitment to life, liberty, and traditional marriage. Or you can call Rep. Boehner's office at (202) 225-4000, or Rep. Cantor's office at (202) 225-0197.

Some high-profile conservative leaders have in recent weeks weakened their support of traditional marriage. We know the supporters of so-called gay "marriage" are well-financed and aggressive. But this struggle within the Republican Party tells us we've got to do a better job of making our case.

Use the arguments so well articulated in the Manhattan Declaration. And remember, your job is not just to sign a statement or even get others to do so, important as that is; it is for you to become an advocate.

This alarming news has been verified to be true. But if you act right now, we believe there is a good chance that the Republican Party will stand by its principled positions.

God bless you, and continue to follow the Manhattan Declaration website for reports on this issue and other resources.


Respectfully,

Chuck Colson
Dr. Robert George
Dr. Timothy George



The Manhattan Declaration is a non-partisan statement of conscience in defense of human life, traditional marriage and religious freedom. Visit us at ManhattanDeclaration.org

Congressional Candidates Try to Silence Pro-life Critics

Congressional Candidates Try to Silence Pro-life Critics
Written by Michael Tennant
Friday, 08 October 2010 09:40
0According to the Associated Press, Americans United for Life, a pro-life organization, is running ad campaigns against 12 Democrats, nearly all incumbents, who voted for — or support — ObamaCare. AUL argues that these candidates should be defeated on the grounds that the healthcare law fails to prevent taxpayer funds from being spent on abortions. The group points out, for example, that while the House of Representatives had passed an amendment to the bill banning federal funding of abortion under ObamaCare, the amendment was not in the final version, yet these allegedly pro-life Democrats voted in favor of the bill anyway.

“Democrats have argued that an executive order signed by President Barack Obama is added insurance that federal money won’t pay for abortions under the reformed health care system,” says the AP. “[AUL] said Obama’s order could be appealed or overruled by courts — and was necessary only because the law didn’t clearly ban federally funded abortions in the first place.” Furthermore, the AP reports, “AUL says the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found that ‘abortion restrictions ... would not appear to apply to using federal money in pre-existing condition insurance plans that states must create as part of the reforms.”

When states began rolling out their high-risk insurance plans this summer, it quickly became clear that some of them could indeed cover abortions, forcing the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a statement saying that “in all … states, abortions will not be covered in the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) except in the cases of rape or incest, or where the life of the woman would be endangered.”

While to the casual observer this might appear to settle the matter, it demonstrates just how fragile the ban on federal funding of abortions under ObamaCare really is. Without statutory language mandating such a ban, it is entirely at the discretion of the executive branch. Executive orders and department regulations can be changed in the blink of an eye and, as AUL noted, executive orders in particular may not even be enforceable in court. Thus, legislators who claim to be pro-life yet favor ObamaCare are placing their professed pro-life principles at the mercy of the President and other executive-branch personnel — reason enough to suspect that politics trump principle for such persons and that they should therefore be defeated.

Two of the candidates targeted by such ads — one by AUL ads, the other by similar ads sponsored by the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List — are fighting back. However, they are not defending themselves by offering up an alternative view of their votes for ObamaCare or otherwise trumpeting their pro-life votes. Instead, in the time-honored tradition of politicians, they are attempting to silence the opposition.

In Pennsylvania, attorneys for the campaign of Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, the target of an AUL radio ad, sent letters to four Erie-area radio stations asking them to stop broadcasting the ad because it is “slanderous, inaccurate and falsifies ... Dahlkemper’s stance on abortion.” They also not-so-subtly threatened the stations with the loss of their broadcasting licenses: “We’re hopeful that the radio stations won’t air the ads and be responsible and honor their (Federal Communications Commission) licenses,” Erie attorney Philip Friedman told the AP.

The AP explains that “Stations can’t censor or pull ads paid for by a specific candidate, but they can be held responsible for the content of third-party ads, according to FCC regulations. Stations don’t have to absolutely confirm third-party ads, but should investigate any claims brought to their attention to rule out blatant falsehoods.” That, in a nutshell, is the prime reason not to put the government in charge of deciding who gets to broadcast and who doesn’t: A station can broadcast government propaganda all day long and call it news; but let that same station air an issue ad whose veracity is to some degree a matter of opinion, and the target of the ad can browbeat the station into pulling it with the threat of having its FCC license revoked.

Ohio Rep. Steve Driehaus, likewise, is using legal threats to prevent the SBA List from posting billboards claiming that by voting for ObamaCare he voted for taxpayer-funded abortion. Politico reports that Driehaus has filed a criminal complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission alleging that the billboards are illegal because the law forbids anyone to “post, publish, circulate, distribute, or otherwise disseminate a false statement concerning a candidate, either knowing the same to be false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” (One wonders how many whoppers Driehaus has told in his decade-plus career in politics.)

The commission will hold a hearing on October 14, after which it will decide if the complaint has merit. “If it agrees to move forward,” says Politico, “a second hearing will decide whether to send the complaint to a prosecutor or to issue a letter of reprimand. The commission doesn’t have the power to order the billboards taken down.”

In fact, the billboards have not even been erected yet; Lamar Advertising, hired to erect them, has agreed to wait for the commission’s ruling before proceeding. Of course, with fewer than three weeks separating the first hearing from Election Day, even a favorable ruling for the SBA List wouldn’t leave much time for the billboards to be posted before the polls open; and if the case were to go to trial, it is virtually certain that the election would have long since passed by the time a verdict came down.

Both Dahlkemper and Driehaus are trailing significantly in the polls, Dahlkemper by 13 percentage points in an October 6 poll by The Hill and Driehaus by 12 points in a late-September poll by SurveyUSA, which may explain their desperation. That does not, however, excuse their unconscionable attempts to muzzle their critics in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution they have both sworn to uphold as members of Congress. For that, if for nothing else, they deserve to go down in defeat.

Photo: Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Pa., during a mock swearing-in photo shoot on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 6, 2009: AP Images

Tamara Lowe: Worth the two minutes!!!

Fr. Ricardo: Pentacost

Fr. Ricardo: Ascension

HAVE A BLESSED TRIDUUM AND A HAPPY EASTER

JIM

HOLD THE LINE ON THE SO CALLED HEALTH BILL: STAND WITH STUPAK

Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic Leaders have gone back on their word. They refuse to remove abortion subsidies from the healthcare bill.

Rep. Bart Stupak has steadfastly opposed these attempts to hijack healthcare reform with big bailouts for the abortion industry.

Stupak is standing strong on principle and refuses to roll over.

Call these pro-life Democrats. Tell them Stupak is standing up for the little guy. Tell them to “Stand With Stupak.”

Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.)
D.C. Office: (202) 225-3611
Flint Office: (810) 239-1437

Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.)
D.C. Office: (202) 225-6211
Duluth: (218) 727-7474

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio)
D.C. Office: (202) 225-4146
Toledo: (419) 259-7500

Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.)
D.C. Office: (202) 225-4636
Evansville: (812) 465-6484

Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-Ohio)
D.C. Office: (202) 225-5705
Marietta: (740) 376-0868

Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio)
D.C. Office: (202) 225-2216
Cincinnati: (513) 684-2723

http://www.paramountcommunication.com/newsletters/catholicvote/petition/standwithstupak.aspx

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION? CNN VIDEO

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/02/18/chance.iran.nuclear.iaea.report.cnn

"The United States and its allies fear that Iran aims to develop the capacity to build a nuclear bomb. Iran denies it, saying its nuclear program is designed for civilian energy and medical use."

"The report highlighted concerns about rising tensions in the Middle East, particularly between Iran and Israel. Israel has often been the object of rhetoric by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said the Jewish state "must be wiped off the map" politically. The United States has had to assure Israel that its interests will be protected to keep its military on the sidelines."

you be the judge

FROM CATHOLICVOTE.ORG ON THE TEBOW SUPERBOWL AD

http://www.catholicvote.org

Pro-aborts writhe as Tebow stands strong, and what you can do to stand strong for him
By Joshua Mercer on Friday, January 29 2010 at 11:01am

Here's a post from Thomas Peters over at the American Papist blog (now located at CatholicVoteAction.org). I'm reprinting here to give context as to why this Tim Tebow petition is so important:

It still amazes me how vicious pro-abortion advocates can be, especially when they don’t get their way, or sense that their “cause” is being threatened in a serious way.

For all their talk about respect of mothers, of choice, and of differences of opinions, none of those things apply to actual pro-life people. Or in this case, the mother of Tim Tebow (I explained the background to this story earlier in the week here).

I’ll just excerpt one example. I think it’s important for us to read this and realize the level of anger we are facing. This from Tommy Craggs at DeadSpin:

I’m guessing the Tebows’ ad, for spanky Jim Dobson’s Focus on the Family, will extol the glories of family and motherhood and the value of children and other seemingly innocuous fare; it will also be 30 seconds of anti-abortion dog-whistling to the Christian right on a frequency somewhere beyond the range of only CBS executives. The moral, implicit or otherwise, will be: don’t terminate your pregnancy; that blastocyst might turn into Tim Tebow.

Now, the Tebows are entitled to their own God, and James Dobson to his tax write-offs, and I suppose CBS can bend its own rules and behave as cravenly as it wishes. But the Tebows’ message should be called for what it is, and what it is is outright quackery that doesn’t differ appreciably from my going on television with a toy stethoscope and urging America to start treating itself with leeches.

Breathtaking, isn’t it? And this sort of vitriol is not even limited to individuals. As Matt Archibold points out, the Center for Reproductive Rights, in a letter to CBS, is flat-out claiming Tebow’s mom is a liar.

The wider audience however – those who are not passionately pro-life or pro-abortion – are seeing both sides of this issue for who they are, and that’s always a good thing for pro-lifers. In fact, online and Facebook support for Tim Tebow are extremely strong, as social-media-watching blog Mashable notes.

Here at CatholicVote, we believe in supporting Tim Tebow, the brave choice of his mother, and the smart decision made by the CBS executives.

http://www.catholicvote.org

Update on the Manhattan Declaration

(FORWARDED FROM)

manhattandeclaration.org

Dear colleague,

Thank you for your support of the Manhattan Declaration.

It is off to an amazing start - over 370,000 signers and growing. And it is indeed historic: Evangelicals, Catholics, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox Christians uniting to give common witness to the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage, and religious liberty for all persons.

But we need your help: our goal is one million signatures.

The marketing pros tell us we will never get to a million signatures without expensive advertising. But we want to prove them wrong. And we can: just think if each person who has signed the Declaration were to get just two others to sign. That would be one million people standing arm in arm in defense of the most vital moral truths in our society.

Remember, too, we are not just collecting signatures; we seek a movement of people defending the truth in the public square. We are already witnessing signs of this: Christians in Mobile, Alabama called us 13 days before Christmas to tell us they were planning a large ecumenical gathering for the 23rd of December. I (Chuck Colson) agreed to speak. At 6:00 AM on December 23, 2,000 citizens, led by clergy from all over the city, gathered in a packed hall in the Convention Center for a rousing rally. Seldom have I seen so much excitement in one room - and all of this was accomplished just by word of mouth with only 11 days to organize!

Just ten days ago, Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia, Archbishop Wuerl of Washington, DC, Archbishop Dolan of New York and Archbishop Kurtz of Louisville reached out to all of their brother Catholic bishops asking them to spread this document throughout their dioceses and encourage their clergy and faithful to study it and join as signatories.

The Archbishop of Detroit has planned a grassroots effort throughout his archdiocese. The Bishop of Phoenix has already organized a grassroots effort there.

We are also receiving many reports of evangelical gatherings in a number of areas - and many evangelical pastors referring to the Manhattan Declaration in their sermons.

This bold and exciting movement needs to reach 100 or 200 cities in America. Why not? Can you help? We are urging you to encourage your pastors and community leaders to do what these other cities are doing. Organize ecumenical meetings organized around the Manhattan Declaration; get other concerned citizens to join the effort. Get on the internet or phone and ask friends to join you. If you let us know you want to organize something we can help link you up with others in your area.

As with any grassroots movement, the strength and energy has to come from the people. We have no staff and limited budget. We're people who care passionately and deeply about life, marriage, and liberty. So here's what we are asking you to do.


Pray fervently. Great movements of faith have always spread on the wings of prayer.
Know the issues. If you study this Declaration - and a study guide is available on our website - then you can winsomely explain and defend it to your neighbors and friends. The document itself makes a great apologetic defense for these moral truths.
Look for resources on this website as we're able to post them, and search the websites of the Christian organizations that offer resources in these three areas. You can see the names of the various leaders who have signed the Declaration and then visit their websites.
Of utmost importance, get your own church involved. As pastors preach, the movement will spread. Prayer meetings and Bible studies on the Declaration are being conducted in many churches, which is a great step.
Make full use of Facebook, Twitter, and all the devices available today for social networking. Or just go to gatherings in your own community and speak out on this issue. Cultures are changed over the backyard fence, the barbeque grill, and in hair salons - always from the bottom up. Do everything you can possibly do to educate others.
Organize local gatherings like the one in Mobile. If you want an audio or video of Chuck Colson's talk at the event, you will be able to see it on the website in the next few days. You can also read a firsthand report on how they did this.
If you are a pastor or ministry leader let us know if you would like to be added to the Additional Signers list on the website.
Just think what might happen in our land if one million courageous Christians declared their uncompromising allegiance to Jesus Christ and to biblical faithfulness on some of the most urgent moral issues of our day.

May God give us the strength to do what He is so clearly calling us to do. From our perspective, this is a cause worth giving every last ounce of effort and energy we have.

Dr. Robert George
Dr. Timothy George
Chuck Colson

ManhattanDeclaration.org

A New Message from the AUL: Join the Virtual March for Life

(FORWARDED TO YOU FROM THE AMERICANS UNITED FOR LIFE WEB SITE)

Dear Friends,

On January 22, 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down their Roe v. Wade decision. Every year since, on the anniversary of this tragedy, Americans have gathered in Washington, DC for the annual March for Life. This remarkable showing of support for life has literally brought millions of people to our nation's Capital over the years, but millions more have been unable to take part and stand for life. Until today.

AUL Action is excited to announce the first ever, Virtual March for Life! If you are unable to join fellow Americans in Washington, DC you can still stand and be counted by going to VirtualMarchforLife.com now.

It's very easy to do and will only take seconds. Go to this website, choose an avatar for yourself and then we will place “you” in front of the U.S. Capitol building alongside other Americans marching online.

With a health care bill that includes taxpayer funding for abortion hanging in the balance, this is an important, historic opportunity to get the attention of politicians in Washington. In this critical moment, every American must be heard regardless of where you are. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are coming to Washington, DC to join the most important March for Life in history, and you can be there through the Virtual March for Life!

Please go to VirtualMarchforLife.com now to show your support for life, then forward this email to your friends and family and ask them to stand for life today. VirtualMarchforLife.com also has one click tools so you can share this important event with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

So much is at stake in this moment. How many more lives will be lost if the Congressional majority rolls back existing law that protects life and protects us from having our tax dollars used to fund abortion? Please stand and be counted among those who are marching for life and please ask everyone you know that doesn’t want their tax dollars to fund abortion to join us at VirtualMarchforLife.com now.

For Life,



Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Americans United for Life