Abortion Clinic Sit-in Underway in Pennsylvania
April 7, 2007
8:30 AM: 30 activists risk arrest in ‘Good Friday Rescue’ (abortion clinic sit-in)
WARMINSTER, Penn., Apr. 6 /Standard Newswire/ — At 7:05 AM today, approximately 30 participants in “Survivors United” began a sit-in in front of the doors to Planned Parenthood’s abortion chamber at 610 Louis Drive in Warminster, Bucks County, Pa. Abortionist Powell usually commits approximately 20 abortions on a “typical Friday morning.”
“We are taking this action, even at the risk of arrest and prosecution, in an effort to save the lives of some of the children and women who are scheduled to be killed or harmed at this location,” explained Mark Houck, who is the 32 year old director of Survivors United.
Mark also explained, “We are acting in a spirit of repentance. We are asking God to forgive us, our nation and the Church for our apathy and cowardice that has allowed our nation’s Abortion Holocaust to continue for at least 34 years.”
Mark concluded, “Medical science clearly shows that the child in the womb is a separate and unique human being - our neighbor. As Christians, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. Finally, state law allows trespassing to save human life. So, we look forward to our actions being vindicated in court.”
“With the new Democratic leadership and pro-life effort being stalled in Washington DC, I expect to see a new move of peaceful pro-life activism like what is happening here in Pennsylvania to spread all across the country. One could expect a majority of future pro- life efforts to be initiated on a local level,” said Rev. Patrick Mahoney on site at this morning’s Rescue (sit- in). Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington, DC based Christian Defense Coalition is also available for comment via cell phone 540-538-4741
This Good Friday Rescue is the first one at this location since abortions began there in January 2000.
CARROLLTON, Texas, Apr. 2 /Christian Newswire/ — Despite an official ceasefire, Sri Lanka’s lengthy internal conflict has intensified. In the last two weeks, 136,000 people fled their homes to seek protection in refugee camps. Among those displaced were eight Gospel for Asia missionaries and at least 83 of their church families.
Over the last 15 months, 4,000 people have died in the conflict between Sri Lanka’s government and the insurgent group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Civilians are continually caught in the middle of this conflict, as suicide bombers, mines and mortar bombs are common and indiscriminate forms of attack.
“Having been to this part of the country, my heart aches for these innocent suffering people,” said GFA President K.P. Yohannan.
The escalating situation saw the LTTE, for the first time, launch an aerial strike against the government airport on March 26, killing three airmen and wounding 16 others.
The prospects for a peaceful resolution to this situation seem unlikely. The BBC quoted Sri Lanka’s official government military spokesman, Brigadier Prasad Samarasing, as saying, “We are left with no option but to intensify our operations to silence their guns.”
In the past six months, the government has cleared out several Tamil Tiger strongholds in Batticaloa in the east. The fighting has forced thousands to leave their crops, schooling and homes to find shelter in government-run areas. However, there is not enough sanitation, housing or food for the displaced, which some estimate to be as many as 160,000.
The Sri Lankan people are still recovering from the massive tsunami that wiped out huge areas of East Sri Lanka in December 2004. For many of them, the life they rebuilt was left behind again when they fled.
GFA’s Sri Lanka leader, Lal Vanderwall, says the 83 families and eight pastors who were displaced see this as an opportunity to share the hope they have in Christ with their fellow refugees. While they face the same dangers and discomforts as the others, they are trusting the Lord to work through the nightmarish situation.
“Let us pray for them and the workers serving among them at this time,” Yohannan said. “We will also be praying for the Lord to protect the lives of all the refugees and that the missionaries and believers in the group would be able to bring the hope of the Gospel in the midst of this desperate situation.”
Gospel for Asia is a mission organization involved in evangelism and church planting in Asia’s unreached regions. Currently Gospel for Asia supports more than 16,000 church planters in 10 countries of South Asia. On average, these missionaries establish approximately 10 fellowships every day among unreached villages and people groups. Gospel for Asia is also committed to training native missionaries. The organization’s 54 Bible colleges are preparing nearly 9,000 students to become full-time church planters.
NJ School Mocks Christians with Columbine-Style ‘Mock Hostage Drill’ - Offends Students and Parents
April 3, 2007
TRENTON, NJ, Apr. 2 /Christian Newswire/ — Bob Pawson, National Coordinator of the Scriptures in Schools Project, responds to reports that Burlington Township High School in NJ staged a mock school shooting and hostage drama — complete with anti-Christian bigotry. After school was dismissed, scores of Christian students went home and informed their parents of this vile outrage.
The mock terrorist attack was carried out by police detectives portraying two angry Christian men armed with handguns. They invaded the school’s front door; pretended to gun down several students in the hallways; and then took ten students hostage while barricading themselves in the school’s media center.
The fake gunmen were described as “members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the ‘New Crusaders’ who don’t believe in separation of church and state.” The mock-Christian terrorists “went to the school seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class.”
Before the Thursday, March 22, 2007 exercise, Superintendent Chris Manno said, “We need to practice under conditions as real as possible…”
“So what allegedly real condition was imagineered?” asks Pawson, a Trenton public school teacher. “A grotesque scenario saturated with Christian-bashing prejudice and bigotry; a scenario which could never possibly occur.”
“Why could it never happen?” Pawson said. “Because, as all Burlington school officials know full well: It is perfectly legal for any student or staff member to pray in a public school. They know that no student can ever be expelled for praying before class. Hence, the contrived reason for the mock attack is bogus.”
US Department of Education guidelines state: “The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment requires public school officials to be neutral in their treatment of religion, showing neither favoritism toward nor hostility against religious expression — such as prayer.”
The No Child Left Behind Act penalizes any school district which “prevents, or otherwise denies participation in, constitutionally protected prayer in public elementary and secondary schools.
The Supreme Court has ruled that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” (Tinker v Des Moines Indep. School Dist)
According to the Burlington County Times, “The purpose of the drill was to test the reactions of police, faculty and administration.”
“This denigrating drill is also a test of the reactions and responses of New Jersey’s Christians, along with all other fair-minded citizens of any faith, to such a blatant example of anti-Christian animosity,” said Pawson. “A public apology is in order. The citizens of Burlington County could rightly demand the resignation or termination of school officials who dreamed up and approved this reprehensible scenario.”
Pawson said, “I also recommend that the churches of Burlington County encourage all of their students to pray before class daily; each and every day. Individually and in small peer-support groups. Follow through by bringing their Bibles to schools on a routine basis and using Bible references to complete some of their assignments each week all year long.”
Pawson points out that Christian legal advocacy groups such as the Alliance Defense Fund, the American Center for Law & Justice, and Liberty Counsel, have full info about the rights of public school students and employees.
Links to original press reports:
Hostage drill prepares school for crisis (phillyBurbs.com) Burlington County Times
Hostage drill prepares school for crisis
