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THE
ELECTION This
entire edition of the William J.
Murray Report was authored and printed prior to our national elections
held on November 7th. As a result I have not included any commentaries
on the results of the election. In
the December edition I plan to go in depth on issues related to the
election regardless of who wins. During the three month period prior to the election, the Religious Freedom Coalition mailed hundreds of thousands of letters to Christians in the hope of educating them about important issues that would be resolved in the election. Foremost among these was the issue of the appointment of Supreme Court justices. In addition to doing the mailings, I talked about this issue when I appeared on radio and TV throughout the nation. On numerous talk shows that aired in the battleground states of the Midwest and in Florida, I pushed the issue of pro-abortion versus pro-life justices being appointed. As you can see in the next story, the Supreme Court is ever so important in matters related to the Christian community. New
York state has been problematic for Christians for the last several
decades. Towns have refused to allow churches to expand or build because
the use of land for "nonprofit purposes" harmed the tax base.
Some churches and private schools have been "zoned" out of
entire townships. The
town of Milford, NY is taking the concept of "separation of church
and state" to a new level. In 1996 school officials at the Milford
Central School refused to allow a community-based Christian youth group
called the Good News Club to allow meetings at the school. The
Milford Central School is the only school building in the township and
houses kindergarten through 12th grade. Since 1992 the school has
observed a policy which allowed any group in the community to use the
school for "social,
civic and recreational meetings and entertainment events and other uses
pertaining to the welfare of the community." The only stipulation
was that the use had to be outside school hours. Apparently
school officials do not believe a Christian club meeting is
"...pertaining to the welfare of the community." In 1996 they
refused to allow the Good News Club to use the school building after
school hours. School officials said that they could not allow the use of
their building because the Good News Club would be "...equivalent
to religious worship." Two
judges in New York have sided with school officials against the Good
News Club. Apparently it is all right for the Boy Scouts or the 4H Club
to give secular instruction at club meetings, but any club wanting to
use the building for religious instruction can be banned. However,
in Missouri another Good News Club won a similar lawsuit to use the
school facilities in Ladue. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court ruled that the
Ladue, Missouri school officials had violated the club's free speech
rights by refusing to let it use the school facilities while allowing
other clubs to use those same facilities. Because one court had said the
club could use school facilities and another judge denied the use, the
case is now headed to the Supreme Court. In
their appeal to the Supreme Court, attorneys for the New York Good News
Club said that the Milford, NY school had created "...a marketplace
for community groups to promote the moral and spiritual development of
children" and then barred the club from that same marketplace. Nine states are backing the Good News Club against the state of New York. The states of Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia have filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the position of the Good News Club. YET
ANOTHER CASE In
1996, children in the first grade at a Medford Township, New Jersey
school were reading their favorite stories out loud. When it was Zachary
Hood's turn he began reading the story of Jacob and Esau from the
Beginner's Bible. The teacher stopped him. The
Hoods sued the school district for violating little Zachary's free
speech rights, and the case has been in court ever since. This
was not the first time Zachary had been in trouble with the school
because of his faith. In kindergarten, a Thanksgiving poster he had
drawn was taken down because it "depicted" thankfulness to
Jesus. Presumably if it had given thanks to the gods of government in
Washington everything would have been fine. At
first, the case was won by Zachary's school. Then, on appeal, a
twelve-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals split evenly in
their opinion. This year, the case wound up in the federal appeals court
in Philadelphia. That court ruled that the school didn't violate
Zachary's free speech rights. His parents say they will appeal to the
Supreme Court. Children
in elementary schools can bring in books about witches, goblins and
monsters to read aloud and are protected by "free speech
rights". Television pornographers are protected by "free
speech rights". What about Zachary's "free speech
rights"? We need a Supreme Court that accords Christians the same rights as secularists and we do not have that today. SCHOOL
PRAYER AND THE COURT Early
this year the Supreme Court said that kids could not pray before high
school football games. Since 1962 the Court's rulings have been, with
rare exceptions, hostile to expressions of faith: In
1962, the Court said officially sponsored prayers or religious
statements in public schools violate the First Amendment's ban on
''establishment of religion.'' In
1963, the Court banned state-sponsored reciting of the Lord's Prayer and
reading of the Bible as part of devotional exercises in public schools. In
1980, the Court outlawed the posting of the Ten Commandments on
classroom walls in public schools. In
1985, the Court outlawed daily moments of silence if public school
students are encouraged, as they were in an Alabama law, to pray during
that time. In
1990, the Court ruled that public schools generally must allow student
prayer groups to meet and worship if other student clubs are permitted
at school. In
1992, the Court prohibited clergy-led prayers at public school
graduation ceremonies. Despite thirty years of mostly anti-Christian rulings the general public still supports school prayer. In June of this year 78% of Americans said they supported the use of the Bible in school classes according to USA Today. COURTS
AGAINST THE FAMILY Judge
Nancy Gould of the Suffolk County Probate Court has permanently changed
the definition of "family" and "parents" in America.
The judge has allowed the names of two lesbians to be listed on the
original birth certificate of a child. Previous to this, Massachusetts
had allowed amended birth certificates to be issued listing the names of
two people of the same sex as the parents. This is the first instance of
an original birth certificate being issued in such a manner.
Massachusetts allows homosexual and lesbian "couples" to adopt
children. Judge
Gould, by approving the same sex birth certificate at the time of
"marriage" for two women, has in essence said that fathers are
unnecessary. The
story of how the child was conceived is even more convoluted than the
judge's order. The lesbian who went through labor and gave delivery is
in no way related to the child. The child is the product of her lesbian
lover's ovum and the use of sperm from an anonymous male donor. I thought this entire story rather strange until I remembered that Congressman Barney Frank is from Massachusetts; then it all made sense to me. HOW
LONG DO LESBIAN RELATIONSHIPS
LAST? There
are very few long term lesbian or homosexual relationships.
Homosexuality is a disease of promiscuity. The most often heard term in
homosexual circles until the AIDS epidemic became widespread was,
"So many men, so little time." Even
high profile relationships that the liberal press point to seem not to
work out. Take the fabled "permanent" relationship between
Anne Heche and comedian Ellen DeGeneres. Because the two had been living
together for a "full" three years, the liberal press
constantly pointed to them as the ideal lesbian "couple". In
August of this year when the two "separated" Heche was 31 and
DeGeneres 42. Heche was not DeGeneres' first live-in lover. As
I said, homosexuality and promiscuity are part of the same disorder.
Before being a permanent lesbian, Heche dated actors Steve Martin and
Richard Burgi. The press also placed her in an affair with actor Vince
Vaughn in 1998 while living with DeGeneres. Up
until they broke up the two lesbians did stand up comedy acts together.
In April of this year the two lesbians starred in an HBO special,
"If These Walls Could Talk 2" about a lesbian couple trying to
have a baby. The story was supposed to mirror the relationship of Heche
and DeGeneres. By the grace of God, these two weirdos never managed to
get their hands on a baby. Back to the lesbian parents in the previous story: the relationship will not last; they never do. And yet another confused and alienated child will be loosed upon the society with a birth certificate listing two mothers. How sad. OUR
PAGAN ROOTS? Don't
think for a minute that witchcraft is not alive and well in America.
There are thousands of Internet sites about witchcraft. In 1998,
according to the New York Times, when a school district in Wisconsin
tried to stop kids at school from accessing witchcraft, their efforts
were stymied because of "religious freedom". Hmmm! The main
pagan religion, Wicca, claims to have between 150,000 and 600,000
adherents. Wicca has numerous Internet sites to attract kids, as do
other forms of pagan and devil worship. One
such site is the OTO or Ordo Templi Orientis. I have written numerous
times about this organization which actually has a university in, where
else, San Francisco. The OTO was founded by Alister Crowley who referred
to himself as "The Beast". He authored the Law of Thelema
which is the basis for most modern covens. His entire life work boiled
down to the one theme that witches, pagans and atheists have in common,
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." By
1992, the number of Pagan and Wiccan sites on the Internet was already
double the number of Christian sites according to available records. The
Pagan Educational Network has tax-exempt status, as does the OTO.
"We've all been in the broom closet because we used to be separated
into clusters of small groups," said Fritz Jung, cofounder of
Witchvox.com. "The Net has changed that completely, offering us the
ability to come together into one global community and empowering us
with the ability to find millions of others with common beliefs." And exactly what kind of person is a witch? Please see the next story for a good example A
VERY STRANGE WITCH STORY Although
we maintain a Washington, DC office, our national headquarters is
located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Fredericksburg is located on the
Rappahannock River and was founded in 1728. Our office is located on the
side of the hill where the epic Civil War battle, the Battle of
Fredericksburg, was fought. Is this a place for a story about
witchcraft? Yes. Early
this year a jury found Paul Powell guilty of the gruesome rape and
murder of a Mannasas teenager and sentenced him to death. Powell had
stabbed to death 16-year-old Stacie Reed at her Manassas home after
school in January of 1999. He plunged a 7-inch survival knife in her
heart twice. He then waited calmly for her 14-year-old sister to come
home from school. He took Kristie Reed to the basement of the family
home, raped her, choked her unconscious, slashed her throat, slit her
wrist and stabbed her in the stomach. Somehow she survived and
identified him. The
jury foreman was Jennifer Day of Fredericksburg. The jury undoubtedly
selected Mrs. Day because she was a legal secretary. They did not know
that Mrs. Day was a witch. Two
months later there was a sentencing hearing before Judge Herman A.
Whisenant, Jr. The purpose of the hearing was to determine the validity
of the recommendation of the jury for the death sentence. At
the hearing the former jury foreman, Mrs. Day, took up most of the day
pleading for the life of this brutal killer to be saved. She was now in
love with him, she said, and wanted to have conjugal visits with him in
the state prison. During
her testimony to save the life of this brutal and vicious killer Mrs.
Day, who is married, admitted to talking with the murderer for 10 hours
the previous six days. She told of sending him sexually explicit jokes
and money orders for $70 to buy personal items. She also testified that
she talked to him about her Wiccan religion which she defined as a
"white-magic" form of witchcraft. In
his wisdom Judge Whisenant discarded Mrs. Day's testimony and ordered
the monster to be executed. Just
a few decades ago, a citizen had to swear an oath to God to serve on a
jury. This disqualified most God haters, witches and devil worshipers
from being a part of the process. The Supreme Court in all its wisdom
decided that the oath to God violated the rights of kooks like Mrs. Day.
Now we have the likes of her as a jury foreman. Thank you Supreme Court! ER
AND ABORTION I
don't watch much TV other than the news.
However, I was alerted that the new season premier of ER would be
the ultimate in political correctness, so I watched it. The
three main themes of the program were as follows:
The
third theme of the show was the most insidious and was a direct attack
on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act which I have been working on in
Congress. The scene was of a woman prematurely going into labor who
desperately wanted her baby. She was at 22 weeks, about five and a half
months. The baby was delivered alive and then sat to one side with no
aid given. The parents were simply told, Sorry, nothing can be done. The
baby was not even given water. According to the show the baby took nine
hours to die. The message was clear: Abortion is OK because no baby is
really all that important.
Steve
Kelley of the San Diego Union Tribune is a political cartoonist. He sees
abortion a bit differently from the show ER which appears on ABC, the
Disney-owned network. I was so struck by his cartoon depiction of
"pro-choice" that I purchased the rights to reproduce it in
this month's issue of the William J. Murray Report. THE
BATTLE OVER STEM CELL RESEARCH The
debate continues in Washington on whether scientific researchers may use
living human embryos for
experimentation. Congress
had already passed laws making it illegal to injure or destroy embryos
for the purpose of research, but President Clinton devised an executive
order recently which overturned that prohibition.
Congress has not yet been able to pass another law to defend life
in its earliest stages. Researchers
are clamoring for stem cells which are found in embryos and which they
believe hold the key to curing diseases such as Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's. These same
cells are found in abundance in the bone marrow of adults, but it is all
a question of money. Embryos
are cheaper, since fertility clinics have lots of
"discards." One
of the main reasons public opinion has shifted so that most people
oppose abortion has been the invention of new technology which lets us
view the embryo inside the womb. People
can actually see that from very early on the unborn baby looks
unmistakably human. Babies
in the womb can be seen moving about, yawning, sucking their thumbs, and
jumping at sudden loud noises. Watching
babies react to bright light outside the mother's body, startled at
noises and try to get away from intrusive medical instruments,
researchers have proved that these babies do have awareness of their
surroundings and do feel pain. The
awful abortion procedures, which involve cutting the babies to pieces or
burning their skin off with salt solutions, began to seem horrible to
all but the most radical abortion proponents. It
is much harder though, and perhaps impossible, to get public sympathy
for embryos in the earliest days of life, when the new human being is
only a mass of cells. It is
true that this "mass of cells" contains the entire genetic
blueprint for a human being, and even for untold generations to
come--the children he or she may one day have, and for their children.
This concept though, has little meaning for those who do not
honor God as creator of life or believe that human beings have an
immortal soul. They see only what the human eye can see.
The
New York Times describes the tiny embryo as "a blob inside a hollow
sphere." Television
actress Mary Tyler Moore in her testimony before the Senate added,
"The embryos that are being discussed, according to science, bear
as much resemblance to a human being as a goldfish." Where
this is all leading may be seen in the case of little Adam Nash, born in
August of this year. Adam
was conceived for the express purpose of providing a "cord blood
transplant" (from the umbilical cord which is rich in stem cells)
to his older sister who suffers from a rare genetic defect.
It's nice that little Adam was able to be a donor for his big
sister. But his happy
parents, whom I watched on TV, seemed completely untroubled by the
events surrounding his conception. What
happened was that doctors gave Mrs. Nash a drug to make her body release
15 or more eggs (instead of the normal one each month).
They fertilized all 15 eggs with Mr. Nash's sperm and examined
the resulting embryos to see which one would be most likely to be
healthy. That one was
implanted and the other 14 or more were discarded.
This had to be repeated four times, with a total of about 60
embryos involved, before one, which turned out to be Adam, was
successfully implanted. At
least 59 of his less fortunate siblings were dumped down the drain or
sent to labs for further experiments. Obviously, the day is almost here when people can demand "designer" babies, rejecting in embryo those which are not the right sex or the right height or color or intelligence. They can weed out those with even minor defects. Engineering a perfect society by human logic, where only the fit and the strong, only the "right" people are entitled to life, has already been tried. In that society, human experimentation was justified because it would lead to the "greater good" of medical knowledge. It did not lead to paradise on earth. It led to Dachau and Auschwitz. |
