RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AMENDMENT LIVES ON!
New Yorkers To Bring Hundreds Of Thousands Of Petitions To Washington

HISPANIC LEADERS TO MEET SPEAKER GINGRICH
SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH TO ATTEND NEWS CONFERENCE!

On September 16, 1998 the buses will roll from New York City to Washington, DC carrying hundreds of thousands of pro-school prayer petitions and concerned citizens. In a phone conversation on August 12, 1998 Rev. Ruben Diaz of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization told RFC chairman William J. Murray that more than 100,000 petitions had already been signed by residents of the Bronx and Brooklyn. He expects to have twice that many by the time the petitions are presented to Congress in September!

Rev. Dr. Melvin Walker of the Gospel Blessing Church in New York is also collecting petitions to deliver to Congress in favor of the Religious Freedom Amendment. He has informed our office that more than 50,000 petitions have already been signed and he expects tens of thousands more to be ready for delivery to Congress on September 16th.

New Yorkers have looked on for decades as their religious liberties have been taken away from them by a government that has become more and more secular. The firing of school teacher Mildred Rosario has changed the attitudes of New Yorkers. Mrs. Rosario was fired from her job as a Bronx school teacher for telling students that a class mate who had drowned had gone to heaven. (See July/August RFC Update) She was not preaching, but merely responding to questions from her students. They had asked her, "Mrs. Rosario, did Christopher Lee go to heaven?" She was fired because she shared her faith with them that little Christopher was in the arms of God.

The treatment of Mrs. Rosario has outraged the Christian community in New York.

Most congressmen from New York state voted against the Religious Freedom Amendment in June of this year. Every congressman from the Bronx and Brooklyn voted against the Religious Freedom Amendment. (See List) Now the people of New York are awake and aware of the religious discrimination in their own schools. They are tired of the violence in the schools. They are tired of their kids being given condoms and birth control pills. They want God and His authority and good order returned to the schools. On September 16th they will convey that message to Congress.

The petitions will be presented to Congressional leaders at the Capitol Building at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, September 16, 1998. The actual presentation will take place in the "grassy triangle" reserved for media events. For more information call the Religious Freedom Coalition office at (202) 554-2358.

(Rev. Melvin Walker represents the African-American community. He plans on at least one bus of African-American pastors.) (Rev. Diaz represents the Hispanic community. His son is a State Representative in New York from the Bronx.)

Additional information on the Religious Freedom Amendment:
Religious Freedom Coalition (contact: William J. Murray, 202-554-2358)
Congressman Istook (contact: Tamar Metjian, 202-225-2132)