I must tell you that I began to read the article with some degree of skepticism -- given the source.
Of course they quoted Herbert A. Hauptman, a Nobel laureate who shared the chemistry prize in 1985 and is well-known for his anti-God statements. Predictably he said, "Belief in the supernatural, especially belief in God, is not only incompatible with good science, [but] this kind of belief is damaging to the well-being of the human race."
However, a number of other scientists who embrace religious faith and are equally qualified were quoted and are being heard in ever widening circles.
Dr. Noah Efron of Bar-Ilan University in Israel said, "The idea that fact can be separated from values and meaning jibes poorly with what we know of the history of science."
Dr. Francis S. Collins, a highly regarded scientist and a Christian was quoted, including his testimony of his Christian conversion following his reading of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
The September 5 issue of Newsweek Magazine will feature, "Spirituality in America."
So what's this all about? What's happening?
Clearly there is a heightened awareness and interest in spiritual matters in America.
A President who professes a personal faith in Jesus Christ and millions of people of faith now voting their values and expressing their support for elected officials who uphold Judeo-Christian, traditional values are beginning to be heard and are beginning to make a difference.
A couple of thoughts ...
First, we as people of faith have an unprecedented opportunity to reverse the damaging trends that a minority of secularists have imposed on America. If we are vigilant and sustain our commitments to Judeo-Christian values, we can break this stronghold and see healing in our land.
Secondly, with so much conversation regarding spiritual matters, there is a momentous opportunity to share one's personal Christian faith to a receptive public.
And finally, people lacking personal Christian core values and beliefs will read the polls and articles and rush to identify with the 159 million people (poll of 50,000 people conducted by City University of New York) in America who say they practice Christian religions simply for the sake of winning an election.
While we are instructed to "judge not that ye be not judged," we are also instructed to practice wisdom and discernment.
Our greatest days are just ahead.
________________ Gary Randall President Faith and Freedom Network
The California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that both members of a lesbian couple who plan for and raise a child born to either of them should be considered the child's mothers even after their relationship ends.
Both women will now be listed as parents on the child's birth certificate.
In handing down their ruling, the California Supreme Court said, "We perceive no reason why both parents of a child cannot be women."
While the gay community celebrated, others took pause.
Joan Hollinger, who teaches adoption law at Berkeley said, "It is unprecedented to have a states highest court recognize that in the absence of an adoption, and even in the absence in some intances of a domestic partnership agreement, that two men or two women could be the full legal parents of a child born through assisted reproduction."
Unprecedented, indeed.
This is yet another step in undermining and unraveling the family.
This decision inflicts harm on both the children and the judicial system itself.
This decision discriminates against heterosexual men who donate their sperm because they are not given the same rights that under this ruling women who donate an egg are given.
Under law, it inappropriately confers rights and imposes disabilities on persons because of their sexual orientation, therefore, it may well violate the "equal protection" laws.
But, then who cares; tolerance, diversity, anti-discrimination and equal rights are always a one-way street. And it usually doesn't lead toward Judeo-Christian or traditional values.
And what about the kids? I spent a good number of years working with kids as a youth minister, including several years in Los Angeles. Our children do not need two mommys or two daddys.
The Biblical plan for the human race creates the highest degree of FREEDOM and the most productive and nurturing environment possible.
K.M., who provided an egg to her lesbian partner and prevailed in this case said, "Next to the day my daughters were born, this is the happiest day of my life."
There is a chilling reference to this lifestyle and those who approve it in Romans chapter one, verses 26 through 32.
This again points out why we must be vigilant and must sustain that vigilance. We at Faith and Freedom Network are committed. Thank you for standing with us.
______________________ Gary Randall President Faith and Freedom Network
Most of the major newspapers are running a story this weekend which carries the headline: Religious Leaders Fault Evangelical Rally ... or something close to that.
The newspapers are, of course, pointing out that not everyone thinks the nationally televised Justice Sunday II rally held in Nashville this Sunday, is a good idea.
In quoting the few nay-saying religious leaders, the newspapers are actually pointing out an even more telling fact. Those religious leaders and others who desperately try to consumately separate the church from the state are not only out of step with most people faith, but also with the guys who started this country, our Founding Fathers.
Reverend C. Welton Gaddy, President of Interfaith Alliance is quoted, "Those in public office must never make religion the lens through which Constitutional matters are decided."
Yet the Constitution was written in the context of a Christian consensus among those who drafted and approved it. How else could it be truly understood?
Patrick Henry said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."
Daniel Webster said, "Let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our Father's were brought here by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They ought to incorporate its principles with elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary."
So, the message of the secularists must be, "Now that we have become a great nation, let us quickly abandon those things that made us great."
I can predict that these same newspapers will, by Sunday afternoon, criticize Tom DeLay for being one of the speakers. But then why should we care what the newspapers say? Thomas Jefferson didn't. He said, "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."
Enjoy the "questionable" rally this weekend. I think the Founding Fathers would be smiling.
___________________ Gary Randall President Faith and Freedom Network
I never cease to be amazed at the fluid position the secularists take. Things never mean what you think they mean.
The secularist believes in tolerance, except toward those people with whom he disagrees.
Pro-choice means they will lay it on the line to protect abortions, but deny others the right to "choose" in regard to issues in which they disagree.
A Lexington, Mass. man has been charged with trespassing after he expressed his "choice" regarding his son at Estabrook Elementary School.
That's right, he attended a meeting at the school to voice his concerns about a diversity bag of materials that had been sent home with his kindergarten son that contained information depicting same-sex parents as one type of family unit. David Parker was upset because he had asked to be notified if topics of sexuality including homosexuality was to be discussed in his son's classroom. And he had not been notified.
When he refused to leave the meeting, he was arrested.
His lawyer Jeffery Denner said, "This is about choice, about the proper relationship between parents and the government."
Yes, choice is a wonderful thing, as long as you make the proper choice.
_________________ Gary Randall President Faith and Freedom
At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged $1 million or more a piece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to lift them out of the miry clay of defeat and set their feet on more solid ground.
According to the Washington Post, they're calling their new organization, The Democracy Alliance.
George Soros, the billionaire who was the largest donor to the liberal causes last year, has become so discouraged that he has quit giving to the America Coming Together organization, the organization that he founded.
I guess we didn't come together as he had anticipated.
The new "Alliance" chairman said regarding the last Presidential election, "It wasn't only the failure to win, it was the question, 'What does it take to win?'"
The liberal secularists believe it takes money to win; and they have raised more than $80 million.
I agree. It takes money.
They also believe, according to The Washington Post, "To be effective in the 21st century in promoting your beliefs, it is necessary to have a financially secure institutional infrastructure that has the capacity to promote consistently and coherently, a set of ideas, policies and messages."
THERE-IN MAY LIE THEIR PROBLEM.
Liberal, so-called progressive secularists, lack continuity in their actual beliefs.
For example, they believe the Constitution is a "living, evolving" document that means something different than what the Founding Fathers actually wrote. It means different things to different people at different times. They portray the Bible and morality in the same relative way.
Their ideas, policies and messages, therefore, are always politically based, because their core beliefs are not rooted in "values," but in winning. The end justifies the means. Their beliefs are shaped by the most recent polls. The result is that their beliefs are constantly shifting and inconsistent.
In striking contrast, conservatives and people of faith believe in universal, natural law. We deeply believe that there is a God who created us and gave us inalienable rights, which government protects, but does not grant. We believe the Ten Commandments are the basis for His moral order. And Christians believe that God further revealed Himself in the form of Jesus Christ, His Son, "God who became flesh and dwelt among us."
Yes, the liberals are asking, "What does it take to win?"
Our Founding Fathers have given them the answer.
"The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty." Thomas Jefferson
"The Bible is the rock on which our republic rests." Andrew Jackson
"Hold fast to the Bible as your sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts on your heart and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this Book we are indebted for the progress made and to this we must look as our guide in the future." Ulysses S. Grant
It's great to be on the "right" side.
____________________ Gary Randall President Faith and Freedom Network
As the Oregon Legislature ended it's second longest session in history at 6:20 a.m., the bill allowing civil unions for homosexuals (SB 1000) died without coming to a vote.
Karen Minnis, Speaker of the House, held her ground and stood with the majority of Oregonians.
She said the issue had been decided last fall when Oregonians voted overwhelmingly to define marriage as "between one man and one woman."
Supporters of Civil Unions, including Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, say they will re-introduce the measure next session.
In an interview with KGW-TV this afternoon, I said, "Faith and Freedom Network supports traditional marriage and rejects civil unions, which is gay marriage by another name."
Newsman, Pat Doris, asked if we would sponsor a referendum next session opposing civil unions. I said if necessary, we would.
I also said that Faith and Freedom Network would have a full-time lobbyist in Salem, as we do in Olympia, WA, by the time the next Oregon session opens.
This news piece will be played tonight and over the weekend.
It really does make a difference when we elect Godly people. Please contact speaker Karen Minnisand simply say, "Thank you."
It is apparent that the cultural war is not won, and it is not going away. That is why Faith and Freedom Network is stepping up the battle. Too much is at stake in our country and right here in the Northwest where we live.
We are anticipating that a ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court regarding marriage is forthcoming any day. We feel they will not rule in favor of traditional marriage.
Please stand with us as we expand this ministry. Stand with us in prayer and financial support.
___________________________ Gary Randall President Faith and Freedom Network
President Bush: Intelligent Design Should Be Taught
Again President Bush has stood firm in his beliefs and told five Texas newspapers today that he felt "intelligent design" should be taught alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.
Many of us in the pro-life movement have been pushing for the teaching of intelligent design in public schools.
Some scientists reject the theory as an attempt to force religion into science education, while some politicians reject the idea that the President of the United States should express his personal religious views.
They, of course, would be terribly out of the mainstream of America's great heritage of faith. President Bush, in his strong faith, joins former Presidents who were not timid in expressing their own personal faith:
"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. Do not anyone claim to be an American if they attempt to remove religion from politics." George Washington
"The highest glory of the American Revolution is this bound together the principals of Christianity and the principles of civil government. America's Constitution was made for moral and religious people, it will not work for any other people." John Adams
"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book." Abraham Lincoln
"Religion is the basis and foundation of government." James Madison
"I believe with all my heart that standing up for America means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land." Ronald Reagan
"I have learned the power of prayer. I pray for guidance. My faith gives me focus and perspective. It teaches humility." George W. Bush
It is indeed an honor to work together with so many of you in "advancing those Judeo-Christian values that made America great."
______________________ Gary Randall President Faith and Freedom Network
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