Commentary

President Prepares to Restore Religious Liberty

Posted on by David Ripley

Various media outlets have obtained a draft of a proposed Executive Order being prepared for President Trump’s signature. Liberals in the media, Abortion Industry and homosexual agitators are, predictably, “outraged”.  They claim he is on some dangerous, radical mission to persecute them.  But the simple truth, as with so much of the Trump agenda, is to restore a respect for fundamental American principles, law and culture.

Reportedly, the draft EO insists that the federal government and its agencies adhere to Supreme Court decisions and statutes which safeguard the religious liberties of American citizens. The only thing radical about this action is the focus it puts on the Obama government, which waged all-out war on the First Amendment and the religious beliefs of many millions.

For example, it was the Obama Administration which repeatedly forced Little Sisters of the Poor to mortgage its very existence by waging expensive lawsuits to defend its right not to pay for, or otherwise subsidize, abortion through bizarre ObamaCare regulations. And, in fact, Trump’s Executive Order specifically instructs the Departments of Labor, Treasury and Health & Human Services to provide proper relief to this order of Christian nuns.

The Order would further order all federal agencies to protect the religious liberties of federal employees, and would stop the government from discriminating against private Christian charities because they uphold traditional beliefs in the sanctity of Life and Marriage.

News reports suggest that Trump’s action will provide comprehensive protections to religious practice and restore much of what Obama tried to destroy. It is a moment to be celebrated, not only because of it marks a recovery of religious freedom, but a recovery of Constitutional government.

But be prepared for more protests, car burnings and frivolous lawsuits.

Democrat Assault on the Constitution

Posted on by David Ripley

The U.S. House voted on Friday night to disapprove a new law adopted by the D.C. city council that would require pro-Life groups operating within the city to hire persons who support abortion rights.

It will probably take a moment for our readers to get their mind around the basic problem, because it is so bizarre. 

Under the rubric of “non-discrimination”, the DC City Council has approved an ordinance called the “Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act”. It prevents employers from discriminating on the basis of a potential employee’s “reproductive health decision-making”.

Since our founding, the powers of the local government in the nation’s capitol are proscribed in order to protect the national government from being hampered by the decisions of ward bosses. Thus, Congress has the ability to review and veto any ordinance adopted by the DC city government. This particular law provides a tremendous lesson in why the Founder’s were profoundly correct in limiting the powers of the DC government.

While Obama and his Democrat comrades point to language in the DC law which would exempt “religious entities” from its provisions – there are many organizations operating in the DC area who fight for preborn children on a daily basis but who will not qualify for the exemption. Among those groups: American Life League, Right to Life, Family Research Council.  While religiously-motivated, these organizations are not strictly “religious” in nature.  You may be sure that Obama and his Planned Parenthood advisors are quite aware of the problem the DC ordinance presents for organizations like ALL.

Obama issued a veto threat of HJR 43 earlier on Friday, which the House brushed aside on a largely partisan basis. 225 Republicans supported the defense of the First Amendment, while 179 Democrats voted to impose draconian restrictions on pro-Life groups operating the nation’s capitol.

In supporting the measure, House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement Friday night:

                “America was founded on the principle of religious freedom, and faith-based employers deserve the ability to hire people who share their beliefs. The measure passed by the DC Council, however, discriminates against religious and pro-Life Americans, violates their conscience rights, and runs completely counter to the ‘free exercise’ clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. As a proud pro-Life Catholic, I condemn this form of discrimination and urge the president to reconsider his veto threat of our joint resolution.”

We are in a dark period of American history, where the core principles which gave rise to the nation are being discarded, ignored and even attacked by one of the major political parties in an organized attempt to impose their political/social agenda on a resistant population. The despicable actions by the political hacks in D.C. are part of a much larger pattern, and the Silent Majority must roust itself soon to defend America and our Constitution.

Hillary Assumes Pontifical Powers

Posted on by David Ripley

Candidate Hillary Clinton, terminally corrupted by privilege and ambition, delivered a speech to the “Women in the World” summit recently. It was her first official campaign speech since declaring the continuation of her interrupted campaign for the presidency, and it was no accident that her central message was “Death to preborn Children!”

We have known for some time that abortion would be Hillary’s primary campaign message.

What made this particular speech unique was Hillary’s bold declaration that God needed to get His act together on this whole abortion thing. It was past time to update the Ten Commandments.

Clinton proclaimed that “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed” if women were to come into full possession of their right to kill preborn children.

Now, of course, most of those “religious beliefs” are based upon clear teachings within Scripture that teach us to hold children precious, to sacrifice ourselves for others – and, above all, not to kill the innocent. What Clinton and her comrades on the Left do not seem to understand is that our religious beliefs are not a matter of personal opinion, but, rather, one of submission to our Creator.

Clinton is not the first self-proclaimed leader to shake a fist at the Almighty. One can presume that He is not particularly impressed; though His heart is undoubtedly grieved.

And we can all be grieved that a person of such arrogance stands a chance of becoming president over this great nation.

Pro-Lifers need to be in earnest prayer that the Lord will not allow that to happen. We can ask Him to soften her heart and illuminate her understanding. We can ask Him to protect His little ones from her ambition and wrath.

Obama Seeks to Circumvent Supreme Court

Posted on by David Ripley

As pro-Lifers and constitutionalists were celebrating the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, Obama’s lawyers were figuring out a way to forestall defeat.

The Department of Health & Human Services has just issued “new” regulations for private employers and non-profits who believe killing preborn children in the womb with chemicals is wrong. While appearing to make accommodations for religious and moral objections, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) argues that President Obama is just finding new ways to impose his agenda: 

“Here he goes again. This new ‘notification option’ is really just another highly coercive regulation – a direct, obnoxious, unprecedented government attack on the conscience rights of religious entities and anyone else who for moral reasons cannot and will not include potentially abortion-causing drugs – such as Ella – or contraception and sterilization procedures in their private insurance plans.”

Smith argues that the new and “improved” regulations could cripple Christian colleges and businesses by imposing a $100 per employee/ per day penalty on private organizations who fail to comply with the Obama contraception mandate.

Obama’s cynicism and contempt for the Constitution is difficult to overstate. By modifying the regulations following his defeat at the Supreme Court, Obama is calculating that businesses like Hobby Lobby will be forced to launch new lawsuits – all the while accruing fines worth $36,500 per employee per year of litigation.

There are other lawsuits out there in the federal system by Christian entities like Little Sisters of the Poor and Wheaton College which may provide the vehicle for blocking Obama’s latest maneuver to impose his values on America. Much will depend on the skill of the lawyers involved and the integrity of the judges they’re dealing with.

But, ultimately, America must turn out this corrupt man from office if we are to restore constitutional government. Perhaps a first step in that direction will take place this fall in the battle to oust Democrats from the U.S. Senate.

Obama Slams Religious Liberty to the Mat

Posted on by icl_20134566
This August, Obama and his courtiers intend to impose the full weight of his imperial will upon Christian employers, churches and religious organizations. They will be forced to provide “free” abortifacients and sterilizations to employees or face horrendous penalties and police action from the IRS.A detailed review of this scandalous attack on the First Amendment was recently published by Ashley McGuire at the Weekly Standard. (“This Won’t Turn Out Well: The IRS prepares to Enforce ObamaCare’s Contraception Mandate”).

Ms. McGuire reports that employees who fail to submit to Obama will face fines of $100 per employee – per day. In the case of a company like Hobby Lobby, those fines will mean something like $1.3 million each business day (!) for non-compliance.

But it is not simply private employers who face brutal treatment. Religious organizations must also comply – unless they certified as excused by the IRS. And in order to receive that dispensation, religious organizations must already be excused from filing IRS Form 990. That means virtually all non-profits will have to provide abortifacients regardless of whether the entity is affiliated with a church or religious community.

Given the recent revelations about the religious persecution driving IRS officials, this is reason for grave concern over the future of religious liberty in America.

The situation has drawn public commentary from many church leaders, including the Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput. He recently published a column which included this chilling call to action:

“The day when Americans could take the Founders’ understanding of religious freedom as a given is over. We need to wake up.”

Unfortunately, we are not presently blessed by courageous leadership from the Idaho Legislature.

During last session’s debate over Gov. Otter’s plan to partner with the Obama Administration in imposing ObamaCare upon the families and employers of Idaho, we begged the Legislature to at least take a stand in defense of the First Amendment and our rights under the Constitution to religious liberty. We offered an amendment stating that Idaho’s Insurance Exchange would not force any employer or religious organization to provide free abortion-causing drugs to employees. Idaho Chooses Life did not even insist that the amendment prohibit such benefits – only that Idaho would not cooperate with Obama in violating the religious convictions of employers.

Tragically, we were rebuffed.

We reprint below the vote of your legislator on that amendment. Given the monstrous developments of the past month or so, this vote takes on increasing importance.

Here is the Senate vote on our Religious Liberty Amendment (Nuxoll/Fulcher):

Voting to Amend the bill: (the pro-Life position): Sens. Cliff Bayer (R-Boise), Branden Durst (D-Boise), Russ Fulcher (R-Meridian), Dan Johnson (R-Lewiston), Curt McKenzie (R-Nampa), Dean Mortimer (R-Idaho Falls), Bob Nonini (R-Coeur d’Alene), Sheryl Nuxoll (R-Cottonwood), Monty Pearce (R-New Plymouth), Steven Thayn (R-Emmett), Steve Vick (R-Dalton Gardens).

Voting Against the Religious Liberty Amendment: Sens. Steve Bair (R-Blackfoot), Les Bock (D-Boise), Dean Cameron (R-Rupert), Bart Davis (R-Idaho Falls), John Goedde (R-Coeur d’Alene), Jim Guthrie (R-McCammon), Marv Hagedorn (R-Meridian), Lee Heider (R-Twin Falls), Brent Hill (R-Rexburg), Shawn Keough (R-Sandpoint), Roy Lacey (D-Pocatello), Todd Lakey (R-Nampa), Patti Anne Lodge (R-Nampa), Fred Martin (R-Boise), Jim Patrick (R-Twin Falls), Jim Rice (R-Caldwell), Dan Schmidt (D-Moscow), Jeff Siddoway (R-Terreton), Michelle Stennett (D-Ketchum), John Tippets (R-Montpelier), Elliot Werk (D-Boise), Chuck Winder (R-Boise).

Here is how the House voted on our Religious Liberty Amendment (Barbieri/ Boyle), which failed on a 32-38 vote:

Voting Yes (the pro-Life position): Reps. Agidius, Andrus, Barbieri, Barrett, Bateman, Batt, Boyle, Collins, Crane, Dayley, DeMordaunt, Denney, Gestrin, Harris, Hartgen, Holtzclaw, Loertscher, Luker, McMillan, Mendive, Monks, Moyle, Nielsen, Palmer, Patterson, Shepherd, Sims, Stevenson, Thompson, Trujillo, Vander Woude, andWood(35).

Voting No: Reps. Anderson(01), Anderson(31), Anderst, Bedke, Bell, Bolz, Burgoyne, Chew, Clow, Erpelding, Eskridge, Gannon, Gibbs, Hancey, Henderson, Hixon, Horman, Kauffman, King, Kloc, Malek, Meline, Miller, Morse, Packer, Pence, Perry, Raybould, Ringo, Romrell, Rusche, Smith, VanOrden, Ward-Engelking, Wills, Wood(27), Woodings, and Youngblood

(13 Democrats + 25 Republicans)