By Elizabeth O’Brien

NAMUR, Belgium, June 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bishop André-Mutien Léonard of Namur has been accused of an offence against the Belgian anti-racism act for allegedly calling homosexuals “abnormal”.

During an April 3 interview with the weekly magazine Télé Moustique, Leonard said that his position on homosexuality agreed with Freud’s theory of blocked psychological development. Reported in the Belgium news agency Le Soir, the bishop referred to homosexuality, saying, “It is an imperfectly developed stage of human sexuality which contradicts its interior logic.”

According to the interviewer, he continued, "Homosexuals have encountered a block in their normal psychological development, which makes them abnormal.”

Le Soir reports that the bishop admitted he does not think his point of view to be retrograde. Rather, he considered the culture to be backwards. He stated, “The promotion of homosexuality through gay prides signifies the return to Gréco-Roman antiquity. To glorify homosexuality is a recession of twenty centuries.”

When asked about homosexual marriage, news agency 7Sur7 reports, Mgr Léonard stated that "Marriage is, by definition, the stable union between a man and a woman.” He recommended that when describing homosexual unions, another name be used: “anything you want but not marriage,” he exclaimed.

Religious Formation Agency CathBel published the Bishop’s clarification on the Télé Moustique interview. In this statement, the bishop said that he did not think that he used the term abnormal (which he avoids systematically) and asked the interviewer to provide him confirmation that he did use that term. The interviewer refused to do so. The bishop confirmed his opinion, however, that a “marriage” between two men or two women is not truly a marriage and that it is contrary to the family cell.
(see http://www.catho.be/newsletter/e-news_detail.asp?id_n=12386&...)

The accusation against the bishop was used this April in a European Parliament motion for a final resolution regarding “homophobia”. Calling for the “worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality,” the motion specifically referred to the bishop’s words, saying, “homosexuals are routinely targeted by religious leaders with discriminating language, such as that of the Bishop of Namur who on 4 April this year described homosexuality as ‘abnormal’ and stated that ‘homosexuality is an imperfectly developed stage of human sexuality.” The motion called for an end to discrimination against homosexuals.
(see http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&am...).

According to the Belgian Anti-Discrimination Act of 2003, criminal “discrimination” can refer to, “gender, so-called race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, sexual preference, marital status, birth, wealth, age, religion or philosophy, present or future state of health, handicap or physical characteristic.” In addition, the complainant does not have to prove the act of discrimination, but rather, it is the responsibility of the accused to prove his innocence (see http://www.flemishrepublic.org/act.htm).

Similar accusations were made in 2004 against Swedish Pastor Ake Green. During one of his sermons, Green said, “What these people need, who live under the slavery of sexual immorality, is an abundant grace. It exists. Therefore we will encourage those who live in this manner to look at the grace of Jesus Christ. We cannot condemn these people. Jesus never belittled anyone. He offered them grace.” He was sentenced to one month in jail, but acquitted of the charges the following year.

See French-language coverage of the Bishop’s response to the accusation:

http://www.catho.be/newsletter/e-news_detail.asp?id_n=12386&...

See other French-language coverage:

http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/belgique/2007/04/04/article_l...

http://www.7sur7.be/hlns/cache/fr/det/art_424639.html?wt.bro...

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Homosexual Hate Crime Trial of Swedish Pastor an Opportunity for Evangelization
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05111504.html

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Goodbye, Fourth of July
A Veteran of Iwo Jima Remembers America

by Tom Engelhardt
by Tom Engelhardt

        
DIGG THIS

Iraq by the Numbers: Surging Past the Gates of Hell

Sometimes, numbers can strip human beings of just about everything that makes us what we are. Numbers can silence pain, erase love, obliterate emotion, and blur individuality. But sometimes numbers can also tell a necessary story in ways nothing else can.

This January, President Bush announced his "surge" plan for Iraq, which he called his "new way forward." It was, when you think about it, all about numbers. Since then, 28,500 new American troops have surged into that country, mostly in and around Baghdad; and, according to the Washington Post, there has also been a hidden surge of private armed contractors – hired guns, if you will – who free up troops by taking over many mundane military positions from guarding convoys to guarding envoys. In the meantime, other telltale numbers in Iraq have surged as well.

Now, Americans are theoretically waiting for the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, to "report" to Congress in September on the "progress" of the President's surge strategy. But there really is no reason to wait for September. An interim report – "Iraq by the numbers" – can be prepared now (as it could have been prepared last month, or last year). The trajectory of horror in Iraq has long been clear; the fact that the U.S. military is a motor driving the Iraqi cataclysm has been no less clear for years now. So here is my own early version of the "September Report."

A caveat about numbers: In the bloody chaos that is Iraq, as tens of thousands die or are wounded, as millions uproot themselves or are uprooted, and as the influence of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's national government remains largely confined to the four-square-mile fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, numbers, even as they pour out of that hemorrhaging land, are eternally up for grabs. There is no way most of them can be accurate. They are, at best, a set of approximate notations in a nightmare that is beyond measurement.

Here, nonetheless, is an attempt to tell a little of the Iraqi story by those numbers:

Iraq is now widely considered # 1 – when it comes to being the ideal jihadist training ground on the planet. "If Afghanistan was a Pandora's Box which when opened created problems in many countries, Iraq is a much bigger box, and what's inside much more dangerous," comments Mohammed al-Masri, a researcher at Amman's Centre for Strategic Studies. CIA analysts predicted just this in a May 2005 report leaked to the press. ("A new classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Qaeda's early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.")

Iraq is # 2: It now ranks as the world's second most unstable country, ahead of war-ravaged or poverty-stricken nations like Somalia, Zimbabwe, the Congo, and North Korea, according to the 2007 Failed States Index, issued recently by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine. (Afghanistan, the site of our other little war, ranked 8th.) Last year and the year before Iraq held 4th place on the list. Next year, it could surge to number #1.

Number of American troops in Iraq, June 2007: Approximately 156,000.

Number of American troops in Iraq, May 1, 2003, the day President Bush declared "major combat operations" in that country "ended": Approximately 130,000.

Number of Sunni insurgents in Iraq, May 2007: At least 100,000, according to Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar on his most recent visit to the country.

American military dead in the surge months, February 1–June 26, 2007: 481.

American military dead, February–June 2006: 292.

Number of contractors killed in the first three months of 2007: At least 146, a significant surge over previous years. (Contractor deaths sometimes go unreported and so these figures are likely to be incomplete.)

Number of American troops Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and other Pentagon civilian strategists were convinced would be stationed in Iraq in August 2003, four months after Baghdad fell: 30,000–40,000, according to Washington Post reporter Tom Ricks in his bestselling book Fiasco.

Number of armed "private contractors" now in Iraq: at least 20,000–30,000, according to the Washington Post. (Jeremy Scahill, author of the bestseller Blackwater, puts the figure for all private contractors in Iraq at 126,000.)

Number of attacks on U.S. troops and allied Iraqi forces, April 2007: 4,900.

Percentage of U.S. deaths from roadside bombs (IEDs): 70.9% in May 2007; 35% in February 2007 as the surge was beginning.

Percentage of registered U.S. supply convoys (guarded by private contractors) attacked: 14.7% in 2007 (through May 10); 9.1% in 2006; 5.4% in 2005.

Percentage of Baghdad not controlled by U.S. (and Iraqi) security forces more than four months into the surge: 60%, according to the U.S. military.

Number of attacks on the Green Zone, the fortified heart of Baghdad where the new $600 million American embassy is rising and the Iraqi government largely resides: More than 80 between March and the beginning of June, 2007, according to a UN report. (These attacks, by mortar or rocket, from "pacified" Red-Zone Baghdad, are on the rise and now occur nearly daily.)

Size of U.S. embassy staff in Baghdad: More than 1,000 Americans and 4,000 third-country nationals.

Staff U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker considers appropriate to the "diplomatic" job: The ambassador recently sent "an urgent plea" to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for more personnel. "The people here are heroic," he wrote. "I need more people, and that's the thing, not that the people who are here shouldn't be here or couldn't do it." According to the Washington Post, the Baghdad embassy, previously assigned 15 political officers, now will get 11 more; the economic staff will go from 9 to 21. This may involve "direct assignments" to Baghdad in which, against precedent, State Department officers, some reputedly against the war, will simply be ordered to take up "unaccompanied posts" (too dangerous for families to go along).

U.S. air strikes in Iraq during the surge months: Air Force planes are dropping bombs at more than twice the rate of a year ago, according to the Associated Press. "Close support missions" are up 30–40%. And this surge of air power seems, from recent news reports, still to be on the rise. In the early stages of the recent surge operation against the city of Baquba in Diyala province, for instance, Michael R. Gordon of the New York Times reported that "American forces.... fired more than 20 satellite-guided rockets into western Baquba," while Apache helicopters attacked "enemy fighters." ABC News recently reported that the Air Force has brought B-1 bombers in for missions on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Number of years Gen. Petraeus, commander of the surge operation, predicts that the U.S. will have to be engaged in counterinsurgency operations in Iraq to have hopes of achieving success: 9–10 years. ("In fact, typically, I think historically, counterinsurgency operations have gone at least nine or 10 years.")

Number of years administration officials are now suggesting that 30,000–40,000 American troops might have to remain garrisoned at U.S. bases in Iraq: 54, according to the "Korea model" now being considered for that country. (American troops have garrisoned South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953.)

Number of Iraqi police, trained by Americans, who were not on duty as of January 2007, just before the surge plan was put into operation: Approximately 32,000 out of a force of 188,000, according to the Associated Press. About one in six Iraqi policemen has been killed, wounded, deserted, or just disappeared. About 5,000 probably have deserted; and 7,000–8,000 are simply "unaccounted for." (Recall here the President's old jingle of 2005: "As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.")

Number of years before the Iraqi security forces are capable of taking charge of their country's security: "A couple of years," according to U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraq Assistance Group.

Amount of "reconstruction" money invested in the CIA's key asset in the new Iraq, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service: $3 billion, according to Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar.

Number of Iraqi "Kit Carson scouts" being trained in the just-captured western part of Baquba: More than 100. (There were thousands of "Kit Carsons" in the Vietnam War – former enemy fighters employed by U.S. forces.) In fact, Vietnam-era plans, ranging from Strategic Hamlets (dubbed, in the Iraqi urban context, "gated communities") to the "oil spot" counterinsurgency strategy, have been recycled for use in Iraq, as has an American penchant for applying names from our Indian Wars to counterinsurgency situations abroad, including, for instance, dubbing an embattled supply depot near Abu Ghraib, "Fort Apache."

Number of Iraqis who have fled their country since 2003: Estimated to be between 2 million and 2.2 million, or nearly one in ten Iraqis. According to independent reporter Dahr Jamail, at least 50,000 more refugees are fleeing the country every month.

Number of Iraqi refugees who have been accepted by the United States: Fewer than 500, according to Bob Woodruff of ABC News; 701, according to Agence France Presse. (Under international and congressional pressure, the Bush administration has finally agreed to admit another 7,000 Iraqis by year's end.)

Number of Iraqis who are now internal refugees in Iraq, largely due to sectarian violence since 2003: At least 1.9 million, according to the UN. (A recent Red Crescent Society report, based on a survey taken in Iraq, indicates that internal refugees have quadrupled since January 2007, and are up eight-fold since June 2006.)

Percentage of refugees, internal and external, under 12: 55%, according to the President of the Red Crescent Society.

Percentage of Baghdadi children, 3 to 10, exposed to a major traumatic event in the last two years: 47%, according to a World Health Organization survey of 600 children. 14% of them showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In another study of 1,090 adolescents in Mosul, that figure reached 30%.

Number of Iraqi doctors who have fled the country since 2003: An estimated 12,000 of the country's 34,000 registered doctors since 2003, according to the Iraqi Medical Association. The Association reports that another 2,000 doctors have been slain in those years.

Number of Iraqi refugees created since UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon declared a "humanitarian crisis" for Iraq in January 2007: An estimated 250,000.

Percentage of Iraqis now living on less than $1 a day, according to the UN: 54%.

Iraq's per-capita annual income: $3,600 in 1980; $860 in 2001 (after a decade of UN sanctions); $530 at the end of 2003, according to Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar, who estimates that the number may now have fallen below $400. Unemployment in Iraq is at around 60%.

Percentage of Iraqis who do not have regular access to clean water: 70%, according to the World Health Organization. (80% "lack effective sanitation.")

Rate of chronic child malnutrition: 21%, according to the World Health Organization. (Rates of child malnutrition had already nearly doubled by 2004, only 20 months after the U.S. invasion.) According to UNICEF, "about one in 10 children under five in Iraq are underweight."

Number of Iraqis held in American prisons in their own country: 17,000 by March 2007, almost 20,000 by May 2007 and surging.

Number of Iraqis detained in Baquba alone in one week in June in Operation Phantom Thunder: more than 700.

Average number of Iraqis who died violently each day in 2006: 100 – and this is undoubtedly an underestimate, since not all deaths are reported.

Number of Iraqis who have died violently (based on the above average) since Ban Ki-Moon declared a "humanitarian crisis" for Iraq in January 2007: 15,000 – again certainly an undercount.

Number of Iraqis who died (in what Juan Cole terms Iraq's "everyday apocalypse") during the week of June 17–23, 2007, according to the careful daily tally from media reports offered at the website Antiwar.com: 763 or an average of 109 media-reported deaths a day. (June 17: 74; June 18: 149; June 19: 169; June 20: 116; June 21: 58; June 22: 122; June 23: 75.)

Percentage of seriously wounded who don't survive in emergency rooms and intensive-care units, due to lack of drugs, equipment, and staff: Nearly 70%, according to the World Health Organization.

Number of university professors who have been killed since the invasion of 2003: More than 200, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education.

The value of an Iraqi life: A maximum of $2,500 in "consolation" or "solatia" payments made by the American military to Iraqi civilians who died "as a result of U.S. and coalition forces' actions during combat," according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. These payments imply no legal responsibility for the killings. For rare "extraordinary cases" (and let's not even imagine what these might be), payments of up to $10,000 were approved last year, with the authorization of a division commander. According to Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, " e are not talking big condolence payouts thus far. In 2005, the sums distributed in Iraq reached $21.5 million and – with violence on the upswing – dropped to $7.3 million last year, the GAO reported."

The value of an Iraqi car, destroyed by American forces: $2,500 would not be unusual, and conceivably the full value of the car, according to the same GAO report. A former Army judge advocate, who served in Iraq, has commented: " he full market value may be paid for a Toyota run over by a tank in the course of a non-combat related accident, but only $2,500 may be paid for the death of a child shot in the crossfire."

Percentage of Americans who approve of the President's actions in Iraq: 23%, according to the latest post-surge Newsweek poll. The President's overall approval rating stood at 26% in this poll, just three points above those of only one president, Richard Nixon at his Watergate worst, and Bush's polling figures are threatening to head into that territory. In the latest, now two-week old NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 10% of Americans think the "surge" has made things better in Iraq, 54% worse.

The question is: What word best describes the situation these Iraqi numbers hint at? The answer would probably be: No such word exists. "Genocide" has been beaten into the ground and doesn't apply. "Civil war," which shifts all blame to the Iraqis (withdrawing Americans from a country its troops have not yet begun to leave), doesn't faintly cover the matter.

If anything catches the carnage and mayhem that was once the nation of Iraq, it might be a comment by the head of the Arab League, Amr Mussa, in 2004. He warned: "The gates of hell are open in Iraq." At the very least, the "gates of hell" should now officially be considered miles behind us on the half-destroyed, well-mined highway of Iraqi life. Who knows what IEDs lie ahead? We are, after all, in the underworld.

June 28, 2007

Tom Engelhardt [send him mail] is editor of TomDispatch.com, a project of the Nation Institute. He is the author of several books, including The Last Days of Publishing: A Novel, The End of Victory Culture, and most recently, Mission Unaccomplished (Nation Books), the first collection of Tomdispatch interviews. His new blog is The Notion.

Copyright © 2007 Tom Engelhardt

BORDER AGENTS STILL LEFT BEHIND BARS WHILE BUSH COMMUTES LIBBY'S SENTENCE!
FAXDC.COM

The president's decision to commute the prison sentence of Scooter Libby is
sparking outrage among supporters of imprisoned border patrol agents Ramos and
Compean.

Take advantage of this opportunity and FAX hammer Congress and the White House
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While President Bush's showed mercy for Scooter Libby with a Presidential
commutation patriots and Minutemen across America are renewing calls for
presidential action in the case of former border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and
Jose Compean. Those agents were given prison sentences for shooting and wounding
an illegal alien drug smuggler from Mexico. FAXDC.com is demanding a full
presidential pardon tonight!

"Clearly if Scooter Libby deserves a commutation, I would hope that the White
House on this July 4th, would fully pardon Compean and Ramos. Ramos has already
been beaten up in prison by some of the inmates who recognized him as a border
patrol agent. I think they have been punished enough." - REP. DUNCAN HUNTER, (R)
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

FAXDC.com Wants YOU to FAX and EMAIL Congress for just pennies with
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Free our border agents!

While the president has declared the 30-month sentence of a former aide
excessive, he has let stand long prison sentences for the agents. The pardon is
an exclusive power of the executive branch and scores of lawmakers have demanded
Bush add the convicted agents to the list. Bush has pardoned at least 10
convicted drug offenders, in addition to counterfeiters, embezzlers, tax evaders
and moon shiners. President Clinton pardoned 396 criminals most famously,
fugitive financier Mark Rich and his own brother. This president's father
pardoned only 74, but Reagan pardoned 393, among the 382 Ford pardoned, one was
for his predecessor Richard Nixon.

TELL Congress that Prosecutors LIED:

1. Prosecutors LIED about Ramos and Compean confessing to knowingly
shooting at an unarmed suspect;

2. Prosecutors LIED about Ramos and Compean stating to interrogators
they did not believe the suspect was a threat to them at the time of
the shooting;

3. Prosecutors LIED about Ramos and Compean stating that they "wanted
to shoot a Mexican";

4. Prosecutors LIED that Ramos and Compean were belligerent to
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5. Prosecutors LIED about Ramos and Compean destroying evidence and
misleading investigators.

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IS JULY 4 A CHRISTIAN HOLIDAY?

By Doug Newman

July 5, 2007

Posted at Old Right Pundits.

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America, we hear time and time again, was founded on Christian principles. However, we almost never stop to examine what this means.

Another July 4 has come and gone. Like most holidays, it is not a time for philosophical reflection. Rather, it is for fireworks, trips to the beach or to the mountains, cookouts, baseball games and sales at the mall. Oh sure, your pastor may say something thanking God for the liberty we Americans enjoy. But this is about as far as it goes.

231 years ago in Philadelphia, 56 men signed their names to a declaration, not only of independence from Britain, but of a set of philosophical propositions for human government. While the Declaration of Independence is not ostensibly a Christian document, God’s Fingerprints are all over it.

How so?

Consider this passage from the Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

This passage presupposes the following:

1. There is a God.
2. He gives us rights.
3. The duty of government is to secure these rights that God has given us, and that is all. It is not to give us some sort of optimal Christian society, let alone a perfect society, but to establish a framework wherein our God-given rights are secure.

In addition to this passage, the Declaration of Independence refers to God three other times. The first paragraph speaks of “Nature’s God”. The last paragraph speaks of “the Supreme Judge of the World” and “the Protection of Divine Providence.” Some of the Founders were Christian and some were not. Some of them had beliefs that were downright zooey. However, they were far more Christian in their views on government than most of today’s “Christian conservatives.” Indeed, I would rather be governed by Thomas Jefferson and 1300 of his philosophical soul mates than by James Dobson and his 1300 staff members at Focus on the Family.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” have their roots in Scripture. Genesis 2:7 says that God gave us life. Galatians 5:1 says that Christ made us free and that we shall no longer be yoked into bondage – period. Ecclesiastes 3:13 exhorts us to pursue happiness.

The idea that we are created equal has profound biblical underpinnings. Time and again in Scripture, we see that the high and the mighty have no special position in God’s Eyes. King Solomon had more wealth than Bill Gates, more wisdom than Socrates and more women than Mick Jagger, and yet he concluded that it was all vanity. Jesus, The King of the Universe, never held an office, never commanded an army, never wrote a book, never invented anything, never broke a record and never had a dime. However, He lived the most amazing life in human history. God may give us various gifts and talents, and He rebukes those who waste them -- Matthew 25:14-30. However, none of our worldly achievements sets us above anyone else in God’s Eyes.

Malcolm Muggeridge, the late British author, journalist and Christian apologist had this to say about equality: “Only as children of God are we equal; all other claims to equality -- social, economic, racial, intellectual, sexual -- only serve in practice to intensify inequality.” Consider “equality” in a communist country: one percent of the people are equalizers, while the other 99 percent are equalizees.

Since we are all created equal, no man should have too much power over another. Modern mega-government – with its endless laws, regulations, taxes, courts, fines, licenses, permits, police, prohibitions, mandates, numbering, surveillance, raids, prisons, labor camps, forced migrations, pogroms, gulags and holocausts – is not of God. It renders to Caesar not merely what is Caesar's, but everything Caesar demands -- Matthew 22:21, Luke 20:25. (1) Christians are to be servants of others – Matthew 20:25-26 – and not their masters. While God ordains civil government – Romans 13 – Christians are never to be other people’s slaves – I Corinthians 7:23 – or slave masters – I Timothy 1:10.

This idea that if we just elect enough Christians and they just pass enough laws we will arrive at some sort of optimal Christian society has no biblical basis. Christianity cannot be imposed – Revelation 3:20. Oh sure, we can pass laws that sound Christian until the cows come home. However, these laws are superficial at best and they do not restrain our sinful appetites – Colossians 2:20-23.

Let us now consider the example of the Life of Jesus Christ. He only initiates force one time, i.e. when He drives the moneychangers out of the Temple -- Matthew 21:12. However, He is within His rights to do this as they are defiling His Father’s House. Other than this He never initiates force. He has no political agenda. He never joins a party of a faction. He never puts a sword at anyone’s throat and says, “Follow Me!” If the King of the Universe never implements force in the conduct of His Ministry, where do modern day followers of Christ get off supporting the initiation of force both domestically and overseas and calling it “Christian”?

So why do we never learn about this in the schools? Many Christians decry the supreme Court’s 1962 decision removing prayer from the schools. While this was a bad thing, a far worse thing was when Christians acquiesced in the gradual federal takeover of education in this country. Government schools have no basis either in the Bible or in any of America’s Founding documents. State education is, however, a policy prescription of the Communist Manifesto.

I am very thankful for the dedicated Christians who teach in government schools. However, no matter how many Christians are involved in government education, it has no basis in Scripture. It cannot be Christianized. Notre Dame is run by the Catholic Church, so therefore it glorifies Catholicism; BYU is run by the Mormon Church, so therefore it glorifies Mormonism; government schools are run by the state, so therefore they glorify statism. As government expands, liberty contracts and the church and the family become increasingly irrelevant.

This is happening incrementally in America. Why? Because we have disregarded our Founding principles. Christians, who have a huge stake in sustaining these principles, have by and large rejected the Kingdom of God and embraced the kingdom of man. (2) We have exchanged God's gift of liberty for the false promises of the modern superstate. Is it any wonder so many of us are so frustrated? We have lost our Christian worldview.

Before he went to bed on July 4, 1776, King George III made the following entry in his diary: “Nothing important happened today.” In all fairness to the deranged monarch, telecommunications did not yet exist, so he had no way of knowing of the day’s events in Philadelphia. The implications of what happened that day were profound, not only historically and politically, but also biblically.

Let us remember the biblical roots of our liberty every July 4. Better yet, let us remember the biblical roots of our liberty every day.

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(1) Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution delegates 18 powers to the federal government. The Tenth Amendment forbids Uncle Sam from engaging in anything not specifically authorized here.

(2) For a wonderful examination of the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of man, listen to these sermons by Pastor Gregory Boyd of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. His thesis is that, while God ordains civil government, the more Christians immerse themselves in the kingdoms of the world, they become worldly in the worst way.

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If you wish to post this or publish this, please include my e-mail and this URL.

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Freely Speaking: Essays by Doug Newman

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This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page.

 

Dear Americans,

 

The U.S. Senate attempted to deceive the public with its “failed” immigration reform bill by toting it as a rational solution to the chaotic and reckless disregard for U.S. immigration laws.  The consequences of ever passing such a bill would be catastrophic. 

 

Of course this bill was not “amnesty.”  It was worse! 

 

The bill aimlessly bantered about in the U.S. Senate would have been more appropriately titled the “Colonization Act of 2007”.

 

If passed, the Senate’s “comprehensive” immigration reform bill would have blazed the trail for tens of millions more of illegal aliens to migrate into the United States in short order.  

 

WE MUST KEEP THIS BILL STOPPED.  AND WE MUST KEEP IT STALLED THROUGH THE ELECTION CYCLE OF 2008 WHEN WE CAN REPLACE ANY PUBLIC OFFICIAL WHO HAS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS HORRENDOUS INVASION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

 

The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) apprehends about 1.2 million persons annually attempting to illegally cross over the US/Mexico international border.  The Border Patrol claims that these annual 1.2 million apprehensions represent only one of five persons attempting to cross our southern border.  Approximately five million illegal aliens pierce our southern border each year without apprehension and vanish into any of the 48 continental states as well as Alaska.  No one knows who they are, where they are, or what their intentions are.

 

At the current rate of invasion of more than five million illegal aliens invading the United States annually (and increasing), by the year 2025 there will be more illegal aliens occupying U.S. territory than there will be citizen voters.  That is only 18 years away!   

 

With roughly 33 million illegal aliens already residing in the United States, and an estimated 150 to 215 million more to come during the next 18 years as law enforcement effectiveness breaks down, the sheer power of vast numbers of illegal aliens will dictate the course of our nation. 

 

A timid and cowardly Congress will immediately grant amnesty and US citizenship “on demand” in the face of 150 million or more non-citizens threatening to riot in the streets if their demands are not met.  Such is the lesson of history as previous great, powerful nations, long exalted as nations governed under the rule of law, succumbed to “mob rule”.

 

Dual citizenship and dual voting rights will accompany the unconditional granting of US citizenship to former illegal aliens with no allegiance to the United States. 

 

Assume, for example, that 70, 80, or perhaps 120 million of these new citizens are from Mexico and/or Central America.  They will support political candidates in both the US and their Latin American homelands who are running on similar platforms which, of course, will be favorable to the interests of Mexico or Central America and hostile to the United States. 

 

This phenomenal electoral power will change the course of the United States forever.  By 2030, we could see the very first attempt to introduce into Congress an amendment to the U.S Constitution to replace English with Spanish as the language of the land as Spanish becomes widespread in political, business, school, and social environments. 

 

Lacking assimilation, by 2035, the United States of America will be so balkanized and segregated by race, color, creed, language, and culture that our nation will be a land of “mutual acrimony” among the unassimilated multi-cultural populations. 

 

Multiculturalism and diversity are great concepts.  But, without “assimilation” of the common bonds of language, national sovereignty, and heritage to hold a nation together and seamlessly conduct commerce, communication and social interaction, such concepts are counter to their original intentions and ultimately self-destructive to the 231-year-old concept of “United States”.

 

Please help the Minuteman Project to continue this fight for the preservation of our sovereign nation.  We will win this contest, but only with the continued help of millions of American patriots willing to join the mission. 

 

The Minuteman Project offensive is multi-pronged.  While border observation base camps are important to bringing continued awareness to the illegal alien invasion of the United States, it is only one part of many critical efforts on many different fronts. 

 

In addition to supporting border observation activities, the Minuteman Project sponsors public rallies.  Also, our participants speak at city council meetings and get right into the face of those at the bottom rungs of our governing process who have been negligent and incompetent in sustaining our immigration laws.  This is how we drive the issue upward “from the people” and eventually right through the halls of Congress. 

 

As president and founder of the Minuteman Project, I travel around the country to speak before various social clubs, political parties, universities, regional town hall meetings and other venues.  I have co-authored a book on the unimpeded invasion of our nation:  “Minutemen- The Battle to Secure America’s Borders”.  I have appeared on over 2,500 radio, TV, and print media interviews in the past two years in the continuous effort to continue bringing national awareness to the invasion dilemma. 

 

The Minuteman Project helped encourage corrupt Mexican officials to finally apprehend and extradite the murderer of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff David March.  Mexico had provided a safe harbor for the deputy’s killer for almost four years.  The killer was recently sentenced by a US court to a well-deserved life without parole. 

 

The Minuteman Project sponsors a covert information gathering network called “Operation Spotlight,” which receives information from the public about unscrupulous business entrepreneurs, criminal cartels, and others engaged in the 21^st century slave trade and other organized crimes.  These criminals import the impoverished from third world countries to displace higher paid US citizen workers, weaken our nation’s tax-paying middle class, engage in criminal activities, and mock our law enforcement organizations. 

 

Operation Spotlight has resulted in ICE busting at least one slave-trading employer in a meat processing plant and the apprehension of over 400 illegal aliens in that bust.  Also, a child rapist on the run from Mexico and hiding in California was exposed by information provided to the Minuteman Project through “Operation Spotlight.”  All information is provided to appropriate law enforcement organizations. 

 

The Minuteman Project does not engage in law enforcement.  We strictly operate within the law to support enforcement of the law.  We are a gigantic neighborhood watch/activist group with volunteers from every race, color, creed, vocation, economic status, etc.  Our commonality:  We love our country, communities, and families, and we believe that a nation that preserves its rule of law will preserve its stature as a civilized nation.

 

The Minuteman Project is “on mission,” Americans, but we also need your help to keep us moving the message if we are to stop and reverse the most unprecedented invasion of the United States of America in its 231-year history.

 

To date, the tasks and accomplishments of the Minuteman Project are unequaled.  In only two years the Minuteman Project has brought more national awareness to the illegal alien invasion crisis than a dozen other organizations combined have been able to do in 20 years with $20 million of aggregate donations.  The Minuteman Project accomplished its goals with only a $400,000 budget of donations in two years.

 

Please help us continue on mission.  With your help we can stall the Senate’s Colonization Act of 2007 and then begin a course of action to replace an uncountable number of politicians from all levels of government during the upcoming 2008 election cycle. 

 

Come on Americans!  “ Let’s roll! ”

 

CAUTION: 

A gang of hijackers is fraudulently posing as the Minuteman Project, illegally using both my identity and the Minuteman Project logos to deceive the public, in an apparent effort to simultaneously draw financial donations from the public and destroy the reputation of Jim Gilchrist, his consultants and Minuteman Project participants. 

 

The ONLY valid web site for the Minuteman Project is: www.minutemanproject.com   

 

Any similarly named web site is a fraud. 

 

Please forward any fraudulent web sites or email broadcasts to me at the Minuteman Project and/or report it to the Dept. of Justice or FBI.  Do not contact these imposters through their web site as they will seize your email information and exploit it for sinister purposes.  Currently, they are stealing the email identities of those who contact them and broadcasting erroneous interstate emails under the unsuspecting victims email identity. 

 

These hijackers are very clever at defrauding the public, financial institutions, Federal and State agencies, and law enforcement.  They use the computer as their favorite weapon.  Let the DOJ and/or the FBI handle this, but please keep us informed of your findings.  Thank you.

 

If you would like to contact the Minuteman Project to help us move this cause, you may do so using the official Minuteman Project web site at ONLY the URL above.  Otherwise, use our secure mailing address listed below.

 

 

Cheers,

Jim Gilchrist, Founder and President - The Minuteman Project

    

    - A multi-ethnic, immigration law enforcement advocacy group.                                                                       

    - Operating within the law to support enforcement of the law.

 

MAILING ADDRESS FOR LETTERS AND DONATIONS: 

 

THE MINUTEMAN PROJECT

JIM GILCHRIST, PRESIDENT

P.O. BOX 3944

LAGUNA HILLS, CA.  92654-3944

 

 

Visit us at:    www.MinuteManProject.com 

[ beware of fraudulent web sites with a similar web address.  Make sure you enter the web site URL “exactly” as you see it here ]

 

 

Also visit my personal web site at:

www.JimGilchrist.com

 

 [ beware of fraudulent web sites with a similar web address.  Make sure you enter the web site URL “exactly” as you see it here ]

 

PRESS RELEASE:

Declaration of Independents

Survey Shows Voters Calling Themselves “Independents”

Now Outnumber Republicans

 

 

Lancaster, PA: A cross section of nationally known political and economic analysts will gather in Las Vegas during Independence week at Freedom Fest to consider a variety of issues including illegal immigration and the future of party politics.

 

The Constitution Party the third largest party based on voter registrations (Ballot Access News) will be represented at the event; significant in light of recent poll data suggesting more Americans have ‘declared independence’ from their previous political affiliations and are contributing to growth in third parties.