“Woe to those who call Evil good and Good evil, who put Darkness for light and Light for darkness, and who put Bitter for sweet and Sweet for bitter. … Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and who justify the wicked for reward, … who have cast away the fear of the Lord and who despise His Holy Word.” (Isaiah 5:20-24)
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.” (President George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796)
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Good vs. Evil: A War of Values
In the blowout and pushback over the pro-abortion bills now being advanced by Democratic legislators in Richmond, all we can ask is “How can this be happening in America?” What is happening to the Judeo-Christian values and Constitutional principles on which our nation was founded and has prospered?
How have we come so far and so fast from adding “Under God” to our Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and adopting “In God We Trust” as our national motto in 1956, to banning prayer (1962) and Bible reading (1963) in our public schools, and to “legalizing” abortion in 1973 and same-sex “marriage” in 2015?
What has happened to our respect for the Sanctity of Human Life, for God’s design for Marriage between only one man and one woman, and for the free Exercise of Religion that is firmly enshrined in our Constitution?
What has happened to the genius of our Founders’ design for limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, state sovereignty, individual liberties, and respect for the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land?
All of that brings us to our Crossroads program this week. Who is behind these efforts to subvert the indispensable supports of “religion and morality” that George Washington referred to above and to remove God from our culture and from the public square?
This is a repeat of an earlier program in which we expose several of the dark forces that are taking America further away from God and closer to social chaos and government tyranny.
An Enemy of Freedom: ACLU
We’ll begin with the American Civil Liberties Union, founded nearly 100 years ago by Roger Baldwin, an avowed atheist and socialist. It claims to have more than 500,000 members and supporters with affiliate offices in nearly every state to handle thousands of court cases every year.
Although they claim to be “our nation’s guardian of liberty for traditional American values”, the reality is often quite the opposite. In fact, they often take the lead in attacking those very liberties and “traditional values” which they purport to defend.
For example, their top priorities have been to defend abortion, promote same-sex “marriage”, and help advance the LGBT agenda, including support for gender-neutral bathrooms in public schools.
They also work to undermine parental authority, overturn voter ID laws, resist higher health and safety standards for abortion clinics, and oppose Bible reading and prayer in our public schools.
In other words, they promote much of what is evil while opposing much of what is good.
How do they do this? Primarily by threats and intimidation, hoping that their targets of attack – like Christian florists, bakers, photographers, and even churches — will surrender without a fight. If they don’t, the ACLU and its allies will persecute and prosecute them until they break or are broken.
For more information, please refer to The ACLU vs. America by Alan Sears and Craig Osten.
Enemies of Christian Religion: AU, FFRF, PFAW, and MRFF
1. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State was founded in 1947 to oppose government aid to private Christian schools. Like the ACLU, it works to stifle efforts by churches and other religious groups to influence issues in the public square.
— It helped lead the effort to ban prayer and Bible reading from public schools in the early 1960’s, and regards the “religious right” as the greatest threat to their misguided interpretation of the establishment clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
— It also opposes religious programs in publicly funded prisons, the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools, and any school voucher or tax credit plans that would help promote school choice.
2. The Freedom from Religion Foundation was founded in 1978 as a voice for “free thought” — atheism, agnosticism, and skepticism. It works to remove and to ban religious monuments like the cross on publicly owned property, including war memorials, nativity scenes, and displays of the Ten Commandments, as well as to prohibit public prayer at government-sponsored meetings and events.
3. People for the American Way was founded in 1981 by Norman Lear, a strong advocate for the advancement of “secularism”. Therefore, like the ACLU, the AU, and the FFRF, it too opposes any expression of religion in politics. It also works to ban references in school textbooks to our Judeo-Christian heritage and opposes vouchers for private or home-school instruction.
4. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation was launched in 2005 by Mikey Weinstein to purge all religious literature, displays, speakers, and language from military offices, property, and ceremonies.
Enemies of Life: PPFA and NARAL
1. Planned Parenthood Federation of America traces its roots back to eugenicist and racist Margaret Sanger, who opened America’s first birth control clinic in 1916. It now claims to manage over 650 “health centers” nationwide, many of which also perform abortions.
— As such, it is the nation’s leading abortion provider with 345,672 abortions reported in 2018, just over more than one-third of all abortions performed in America. It resists all efforts to place legal limits on abortion, even right up until actual birth.
— It also opposes the teaching of abstinence in public schools in favor of a “comprehensive sex education” program that can and often does lead to unplanned pregnancies and thus to profit-driven abortions.
— Most recently, it was exposed for selling aborted baby body parts. As a result, many states have cut off funding for PPFA. However, its most recent annual report issued in 2019 shows that it continued to receive over $616 million in federal grants and reimbursements. That represents over 37% of its total revenue.
2. The National Abortion Rights Action League (now known as “NARAL: Pro-Choice America”) was founded in 1969 and actively campaigns to elect pro-abortion legislators and to appoint pro-abortion judges.
It also works to shut down crisis pregnancy centers and, like Planned Parenthood, opposes funding for “abstinence-only” education programs in favor of funding for “comprehensive sex education” programs. In Virginia, it is working to weaken and overturn the much stronger abortion clinic health and safety standards that were approved by the General Assembly in 2011.
An Enemy of Sexual Virtue and Morality: HRC
The Human Rights Campaign was founded in 1980 and is the largest and strongest advocate for the LGBT agenda with a grassroots network of some 1.5 million members and supporters.
— It has led the fight to legalize same-sex “marriage”, which resulted in the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling to legalize such unions. Most recently, it has also led the charge to allow boys to use girls’ restrooms, locker rooms, and showers in public schools with strong support from the Obama administration.
The Hateful Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC publicly classifies people or organizations as “hate groups” if they have moral convictions that are different from their own.
In doing so, they encourage businesses and government agencies to avoid offering any support to or endorsement of such groups and even inflame their own hate-inspired readers to physically attack such groups. In effect, they are hostage to the idea that commitment to truth and morality is the same thing as “hatred”. It is not!
An Enemy of “Religion, Morality, and Freedom”: The Democrat Party
Sadly, and perhaps most disturbingly, the Democrat Party has been a strong supporter of all the groups mentioned above, and an active leader on many of the issues that they champion. That is shockingly and unapologetically on full display in the ongoing Virginia General Assembly.
— These include support for abortion, for same-sex “marriage”, and for favoring LGBT “rights” over religious beliefs and practices.
— More generally, it is for “progressive” judges who “legislate” their ideology rather than on the basis of the Constitution, and who rubber stamp the unconstitutional abuse of executive power that we saw during the Obama administration to achieve goals it could not achieve legislatively.
— Collectively, they are determined to transform America from a predominately Christian nation into one that is totally secular and which does not acknowledge any transcendent authority over our lives or over the governance of our nation.
An Enemy of America: Radical Islam
Finally, Radical Islamic Jihadists have also clearly identified themselves as Enemies of America, both here and abroad, who are committed to defeating the “infidels” and achieving world domination under Sharia law.
— To that end, they often engage in infiltration and deception (taqiyya), masquerading as people of peace until they reach their objective.
— Once Sharia law is in place and they have gained power, our Constitution and its attendant Bill of Rights – including religious and political freedoms – will be quickly cast aside.
— They then use intimidation, persecution, and terror to maintain control over everyone within their areas of domination.
Crossroads: Where Faith and Culture Collide
For more on all of this, please join Rita and me this weekend on any of the following Valley stations: WBTX (1470 AM and 102.1 FM) today (Saturday) at 4:00 p.m. and again on Sunday at 7:30 a.m., followed by WSVA (550 AM and 92.1 FM) at 8:30, ESPN (1360 AM and 106.9 FM) at 9:00, and on WNLR (1150) at 11:30.
You can also listen online by clicking on the Crossroad’s menu shown on our home page at www.valleyfamilyforum.org.
Crossroads is entirely listener supported, and we are so grateful for your prayers, your encouragement, and your generous financial support. If you would like to help, please send your check to Crossroads at PO Box 881, Harrisonburg, 22803. All donations are tax-deductible.
Thank you, for Life, Faith, Family, and Freedom,
Dean