A Note To The Scuzzies

Scuzzies are those internet trolls who don’t have the cajones to sign their name, but make all sorts of threats, or leave objectionable, explicit comments. I’m sad to say that we here at ahmedsalib.com have come across yet more of these things. I have attempted to get rid of the ones that stuck out to me, please accept my apologies, dear and decent readers. Many prayers for your safety, serenity and salvation. Salaam.
–Salib

California State Senate Passes Transsexual-Bisexual-Homosexual Curriculum Bill

I would have loved to come across the first sentence here while I was just a boy. (Uncle Sam teaching teenage guys about their fave subject, at the taxpayers expense. Gotta love that.) California: Where the “new reasons to love our state” list grows by the week.
–Salib

SB 777 turns “every government school into a sexual indoctrination center”SACRAMENTO, May 24 /Christian Newswire/ — Radical legislation mandating that schoolchildren as young as kindergarten learn about and support transsexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality has passed the California State Senate.

SB 777 requires textbooks, instructional materials, and school-sponsored activities to positively portray cross-dressing, sex-change operations, homosexual “marriages,” and all aspects of homosexuality and bisexuality, including so- called “gay history.” Silence on these sexual lifestyles will not be allowed.

Today’s vote was on a party line — Democrats for, Republicans against. Sadly, no Republican senator rose to speak against SB 777. After this non-debate, the school sexual indoctrination bill passed the Democrat-controlled Senate by three votes, 23 to 13. Republican Tom Harman abstained and Republican Jim Battin was absent; Democrat Dean Florez abstained, while Democrat Alan Lowenthal was absent.

“Parents are angry at the Democrats for passing this school sexual indoctrination bill and frustrated that Republicans did little to fight it,” said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading California-based pro-family organization. “We call on Arnold Schwarzenegger to pledge that he will respect parents, protect children, and veto this bad bill, just like he did last year.”

“The notion of forcing children to support controversial sexual lifestyles is shocking and appalling to millions of fathers and mothers,” Thomasson said. “Parents don’t want their children taught to become homosexual or bisexual or to wonder whether they need a sex-change operation. SB 777 will shatter the academic purpose of education by turning every government school into a sexual indoctrination center.”

Authored by lesbian Senator Sheila Kuehl, SB 777 adds an unnatural definition of “gender” to the Education Code: “Gender” means sex, and includes a person’s gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.

SB 777 also deletes the true definition of “sex” from the Education Code, which currently reads: “Sex” means the biological condition or quality of being a male or female human being. And because of the bill’s wide-open definition of “sexual orientation,” homosexual “marriages” and all aspects of homosexuality and bisexuality would be positively portrayed to children as young as kindergarten. SB 777 will teach these highly-controversial sexual subjects without parental permission. The new mandate would be enforced by the attorneys of the California Department of Education, which would sue school districts that don’t comply.

Reporters: Visit www.savecalifornia.com for CCF’s detailed analysis of SB 777
TV Producers: Visit www.savecalifornia.com for streaming video of classroom indoctrination

CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (CCF) is a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families in California and America. CCF stands for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.

Missionary Threatened With Death

UTTAR PRADESH, India, June 1 /Christian Newswire/ — Anti-Christian extremists in Uttar Pradesh, India, have threatened to kill Gospel for Asia missionary Daya Marandi if he does not leave the area where he is currently ministering. The extremists have also made unspecified threats to harm about 60 people who worship at a GFA-affiliated church where Daya serves as pastor. The extremists are demanding that believers in the church denounce Christianity and return to their former religions.

GFA President Dr. K.P. Yohannan asks Christians around the world to pray earnestly for Daya and for the area in which he ministers.

“Please pray for this entire state of Uttar Pradesh. It has a population of about 150 million people and it is one of the most unreached states in all of India,” Dr. Yohannan explained.

This incident leading to the death threat began when extremists learned that Daya was purchasing land on which to construct a church. The extremists tried to get the landowner to back out of the sale. They even tried to buy the land themselves so that Daya could not purchase it.

When their attempts to halt the land purchase failed, the extremists became angry and the situation escalated. They approached the pastor and demanded that everyone in his congregation turn away from Christianity and return to their former religions. At this same time, a local newspaper published an unflattering article about Daya.

Seeing that the pastor and the members of his church refused to budge, the extremists escalated their threats and told Daya they would kill him if he continued to minister in Uttar Pradesh.

Anti-Christian extremists also recently assaulted two other GFA missionaries working in Uttar Pradesh. The missionaries were able to escape from the extremists unharmed. Dr. Yohannan asks you to pray for these two men and that many people who heard the Gospel message that day will come to know Christ in spite of the opposition.

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 16,500 church planters in 10 countries. These missionaries have established about 30,000 churches among unreached villages and people groups. Gospel for Asia is also committed to training native missionaries. The organization’s 54 Bible colleges are preparing thousands of students to become full-time church planters.

California Spanking Ban Going, Going, Gone

AB 755 would have biased authorities against good parents
SACRAMENTO, June 1 /Christian Newswire/ — California’s spanking bill, which lumped good parents who use traditional methods of child discipline together with bad parents who are hateful, harmful child abusers, has died in committee. AB 755, by Democrat Assemblywoman Sally Lieber of San Jose, was “shelved” Thursday, May 31 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

“This is a relief for the tens of thousands of parents and grandparents who called and emailed Sacramento to protest this home-invasion bill,” said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading pro-family organization in California that fought against AB 755. “Thank God for small favors in the liberal California Legislature. Apparently, the Democrat leaders decided it was becoming politically harmful for them to be viewed as the party that sent good parents to jail.”

How AB 755 targeted parents who spank with a switch, a paddle, a stick, or a slipper:

Specific inclusion of examples of legitimate spanking methods mixed with clear examples of child abuse would have biased authorities against loving parents. Because AB 755 made specific changes to the Penal Code, all mandatory reporters, including teachers, police officers, social workers, counselors and clergy would have been trained to regard parents who spank with an implement as potential child abusers.

The inclusion of a “nonviolent parental education class” further demonstrated that AB 755 targeted loving parents who occasionally spank with a switch, a paddle, a stick, or other traditional child-rearing methods. Existing law already allows judges to order convicted child abusers into “a child abuser’s treatment counseling program.” There was no reason for a “nonviolent parental education class” if AB 755 didn’t expand the definition of child abuse to include certain types of spanking. The “nonviolent parental education class” provision was obviously created for nonviolent parents who use an implement to spank, but cannot legally be ordered into existing counseling for child abusers, which is indeed violent.

By focusing juries on a switch, a stick, a belt, or a slipper, AB 755 attempted to create bias against good parents who occasionally use these traditional spanking implements. This instruction was completely unnecessary to convict bad parents who physically injure their children. Juries already have broad authority to convict parents who cause a child great bodily harm, suffering, or unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering by any means.

American Teens Find Christian Persecution in Vietnam

Video release prior to visit of Vietnamese President shows Christian persecution is real
BARTLESVILLE, Okla., June 20 /Christian Newswire/ — As Vietnam’s president, Nguyen Minh Triet, comes to the United States this week, his focus will be on advancing trade and technology between his country and the U.S. Nguyen will try to avoid discussing human rights and religious freedom in his country.

But eight teens–six Americans and two Australians– discovered that persecution in Vietnam is real for Christians. The teens interviewed a pastor whose house church has been repeatedly torn down by the police. They were forced to flee from a Christian youth camp when police suddenly arrived.

Their adventure–Underground Reality: Vietnam–was captured on film last year and is now available on DVD from The Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry dedicated to helping persecuted Christians in nations like Vietnam.
“The president of Vietnam calls evangelical Christians law-breakers and says they should be punished,” says Todd Nettleton, spokesperson for VOM. “But the reality is these are simply Christians who want the freedom to worship God according to their conscience. They love their country; they pray for their government leaders. These aren’t trouble-makers or rebels, yet they are arrested, beaten and imprisoned. We’ve received a list of more than 100 Christians currently held in Vietnamese prisons.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) listed Vietnam in its May, 2007, report as a “Country of Particular Concern” in regards to religious freedom.

Underground Reality: Vietnam, which was released on DVD this month, documents first hand the reality of persecution in Vietnam as it was encountered by the teens. One teen interviewed a young girl who had been abused by Vietnamese police. The group met with the children of a Vietnamese pastor who has spent years under house arrest because of his Christian activities. A face-to-face interview with a formerly-imprisoned pastor was a highlight for some of the teens.

“We talk a lot today about reality TV,” says Nettleton. “Well, this is the ultimate reality; the reality of life and death for Christians in Vietnam. The reality of how much they are willing to pay in order to live out their convictions and serve God in the way they feel called to serve Him. What could be more real?”

“We are pleased that Vietnam’s president will be visiting the United States,” says Nettleton. “We call on leaders within the U.S. government to ask President Nguyen hard questions about religious freedom and the way our Christian brothers and sisters are being treated in Vietnam. Good trade relations, and high profits, aren’t enough to ignore the mistreatment of people of faith in Vietnam

Inclusion Run Amok: A Muslim/Episcopal Priest

NOTE BY SALIB:
If she can reconcile the required Episcopalean belief that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior with the required Moslem belief that “allah” is only one person and Jesus is “just a prophet” (albeit the best one, never mind the fact that the Bible says nothing about alleged prophet mohammed) then I’m all for it.

WASHINGTON, June 20 /Christian Newswire/ — An Episcopal priest in Washington state recently announced that she is both a Christian and a Muslim. The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding of Seattle made her profession of faith in Islam in March 2006. Episcopal Church Center employees told the Seattle Times that a person of dual faiths can serve as Episcopal clergy at the diocesan bishop’s discretion. The Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, bishop of the Diocese of Olympia, reportedly accepts Redding’s dual faiths; consequently, she remains a priest in good standing within the diocese.

Ralph Webb, Director of the IRD’s Anglican Action program, commented:

“The Episcopal Church continues to find new, creative ways to allow for heterodox faith variations at the local level. First, there was a ‘local option’ for same-sex blessings in the Episcopal Church. Now there’s apparently an unofficial ‘local option’ for clergy who profess dual faiths.

“Rev. Redding certainly is free to pursue a spiritual path of her own choosing. But when she was ordained as an Episcopal priest, she accepted a charge to ‘boldly proclaim the gospel of salvation; and rightly administer the sacraments of the New Covenant.’ How can she ‘boldly proclaim the gospel’ of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for the sins of the world and subsequent resurrection when Islam denies both events? How can she ‘rightly administer the sacraments of [a] … covenant’ antithetical to Muslim beliefs, which see Jesus only as a prophet, not the savior of the world? Rev. Redding, Bishop Warner, and the Episcopal Church need to take such questions seriously.

“Even the Episcopal Church’s baptismal service asks all Christians to ‘[c]onfess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.’ The idea that a person can become a Muslim while remaining an Episcopal priest in good standing trivializes both faiths.

“The blurring of Christian distinctives is evidence of a spiritual confusion that can only harm Episcopalians. And while it’s been said that ‘all politics are local,’ Bishop Warner’s acceptance of Rev. Redding’s syncretism compromises the whole church. The Episcopal Church’s unofficial acceptance of clergy with dual faiths represents inclusion run amok. It clearly illustrates the overwhelming gap in faith and practice between the Episcopal Church and the majority of the Anglican Communion-not to mention the universal Christian Church.”

Same-Sex Marriage Amicus

Judicial Watch Files Amicus Curiae Brief in California State Supreme Court in Support of Law Banning “Same-Sex Marriage”
“…The judiciary should not innovate social policy.”

WASHINGTON, June 26 /Standard Newswire/ — Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and promotes fidelity to the rule of law, announced today that it filed an amicus curiae brief on June 19, 2007 in the California Supreme Court in support of a California state law banning same-sex marriage.

The California Supreme Court agreed to consider the issue of same-sex marriage after a state appellate court overturned a 2005 decision by California Superior Court Judge Richard A. Kramer, who ruled that same-sex couples had a constitutional right to marry. Judge Kramer’s decision invalidated a law approved by California voters in 2000 declaring that “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

“…The Court of Appeals prudently exercised judicial restraint and refused to usurp the power of the legislative by redefining or otherwise expanding by judicial fiat the concept of marriage to include the idea of same-sex marriage which has been rejected directly by the people of California…,” Judicial Watch argued in its brief.

According to the California State Constitution, “The Legislature is charged, among other things, with ‘making law…by statute.’” The role of the judiciary is too limited “to resolving specific controversies between parties.” As noted by the Court of Appeals, “judges are not free to rewrite statues to say what they would like, or what they believe to be better social policy.” The Judicial Watch brief also presents strong general arguments encouraging the California high court to exercise judicial restraint, asserting that the “judiciary should not innovate social policy.”

The California Supreme Court is considering a total of six cases on the issue of same-sex marriage. Legal representation for the same-sex couples is being provided by Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The courts should not create new rights that suit the personal or political agendas of individual judges,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judges should not improperly usurp the power of legislatures and voters, especially on as issue as fundamental as the definition of marriage.”

To read Judicial Watch’s amicus curiae brief, please visit www.judicialwatch.org.