[Active-seattle-l] [Active-l] (NEWS) Today's Cultural Warfare Update

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

||| SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS MUST BE DELETED BEFORE FORWARDING, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY STATED OTHERWISE. Given that, all messages are forwardable unless otherwise stated. BUT THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS MUST BE REMOVED BEFORE SENDING. |||

---- actual message starts here ----
Massachusetts Episcopal Bishop Thomas Shaw presides over nuptial mass  
for gay couple; condemned by all kinds of people;

Fundamentalist Target boycott ended over so-called "War on Christmas";

New York State appeals court rules against marriage as an equal  
protection issue, says marriage is for children;

Focus on the Family condemns _Brokeback Mountain_; quoted as "twisted,"  
"neo-Marxist homosexual propoganda," and "a high ick factor";

"Justice Sunday III" set for January 8th; Greater Exodus Baptist Church  
of Philadelphia to host; usual suspects to show up and speak;

FCC pledges more indecency prosecutions in broadcast;

Concerned Women for America continues its "Merry Christmas ONLY!"  
demands on retailers, listing by those who use only "Christmas"  
references, and explicitly docking those who use both "Merry Christmas"  
and "Happy Holidays"; oddly, White House and Bill O'Reilly not on list;

Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's run to the social right is tripped  
up: hospitals _must_ provide emergency contraception if rape victims  
request it; this is a reversal of his previous position, and is in  
response to a new law;

Walgreens does not allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs they  
dislike on religious grounds; some pharmacists decided to do so anyway  
(emergency contraception, in this case), and were put on unpaid leave;  
they're now suing Walgreens for religious discrimination;

Ted Stevens may have scrapped a follow-up panel on broadcast  
"indecency";

LifeNews.com action item against Planned Parenthood's Christmas cards -  
yes, really;

CWA endorses government-mandated al la carte cable channel plans;

Family Research Council joins "War on Christmas" paranoia bandwagon;

FRC ACTION ITEM against marriage rights, for anti-marriage amendment to  
Pennsylvania constitution;

FRC press release for Justice Sunday III;

Exodus International condemns _Brokeback Mountain_;

Agape Press: 70% of Alabama residents think creationism and intelligent  
design should be taught at science; fewer think evolutionary theory  
should be; happy religion professor credits conservative Baptist  
churches for the poll result;

TownHall.com: The War on Christmas is a plot of the Jews, and no, I'm  
not making that up - well, it's the Jews, and the ACLU, but the ACLU  
(says the column) is run by Jews, so there you are.


----- 1 -----
Bay State ECUSA Bishop Draws Conservative Anglican Condemnation
Canon Decries Massachusetts Cleric's Involvement in Same-Sex 'Wedding'  
Celebration
By Jim Brown
December 6, 2005

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/12/afa/62005d.asp

(AgapePress) - A conservative Anglican theologian is denouncing the  
Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts, Bishop Thomas Shaw, for presiding  
over a so-called "nuptial mass" for a homosexual couple immediately  
after their "wedding." Shaw recently celebrated the Eucharist, the  
Episcopal rite of Holy Communion, at the same-sex wedding of two men  
who, reportedly, had their first date in a monastery.

According to Anglican insider David Virtue, Bishop Shaw is "a leading  
contender to replace Frank Griswold as Presiding Bishop of the  
Episcopal Church." But Anglican theologian Dr. Kendall Harmon says the  
Massachusetts church leader has chosen to ignore a document addressing  
the crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion, the "Windsor Report,"  
which calls on the Episcopal Church to stop blessing same-sex unions.

"The Bishop of Massachusetts, by doing this, is again showing  
tremendous disrespect for the rest of the Anglican Communion, who have  
been pleading for restraint on the part of the Episcopal Church,"  
Harmon says. "It's just another example of the Western arrogance that  
is underneath so much of the Episcopal Church's actions, and they're  
making a bad situation much worse."

[More at URL]


----- 2 -----
TARGET BOYCOTT ENDS
After hearing from hundreds of thousands of customers, a major retailer  
blinks.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
by Pete Winn, associate editor

http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0038888.cfm

The American Family Association (AFA) has ended its
boycott against Target -- a boycott that began because the
retailer failed to include any mention of Christmas in its
advertising and in-store promotions.

Why did it end? Because the corporation blinked.

In an official statement, Target said: "Over the course of
the next few weeks, our advertising, marketing and
merchandising will become more specific to the holiday
that is approaching -- referring directly to holidays like
Christmas and Hanukkah. For example, you will see
reference to Christmas in select television commercials,
circulars and in-store advertising."

The Minneapolis-based company's statement went on to say:
"We do not have a policy or intention of excluding the
word 'Christmas' from our holiday advertising or
marketing. Christmas images and themes have been used in
our advertising and marketing in the past and you will
continue to see these images and themes in the future."

[More at URL]


----- 3 -----
Court Affirms Marriage in the Empire State
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
December 9, 2005
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor

SUMMARY: A New York appeals court ruled gay marriage has
no constitutional basis, but the fight isn't over.

http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0038885.cfm

A New York intermediate appeals court on Thursday rejected
a challenge to the state's marriage law brought by five
same-sex couples and affirmed marriage in the process.

A panel ruled 4-to-1 that a lower-court decision in favor
of redefining marriage to include same-sex couples was not
lawful, and stated the law clearly "sets up heterosexual
marriage as the cultural, social and legal ideal."

The gay couples had argued that marriage laws deny them
the right of equal protection and due process as
guaranteed by the state constitution.

Last February, Justice Doris Ling-Cohan declared that
homosexuals should have the right to marry.

[...]

The ruling also addressed the obligation to society to
protect the institution of marriage as a social construct.

"The U.S. Supreme Court recognizes traditional,
heterosexual marriage as a fundamental right," the court
explained. Marriage is the ideal to "encourage sufficient
marital childbearing to sustain the population and
society; the entire society, even those who do not marry,
depend on a healthy marriage culture for this latter,
critical, but presently undervalued, benefit. Marriage
laws are not primarily about adult needs for official
recognition and support, but about the well-being of
children and society.

[More at URL]


----- 4 -----
REVIEWERS CALL 'BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN' TWISTED
Gay love story carries a high "ick" factor.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
December 8, 2005
by Pete Winn, associate editor

http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0038874.cfm

"Brokeback Mountain" is a cowboy movie where neither of
the leading men gets the girl -- they get each other.

The "gay Western love story" that will premiere Friday has
won film-festival awards and is drawing lots of media
attention. Reviewers have called it a "landmark."

Focus on the Family Action Analyst Caleb H. Price said
Hollywood is doing all it can to get people interested in
a film that they know most moviegoers will not want to
see. Set in Wyoming in the 1960s, the R-rated love affair
between two cowboys culminates in explicit gay sexuality.

"If you read what Hollywood is saying about it, they're
calling it 'an achingly beautiful love story,' " Price
said.

"But I don't see it that way at all. You see two
characters obsessed with a type of bondage that they don't
know what to do with. They don't know where it came from,
and they don't know how to resolve it. And they both end
up experiencing tragic consequences in their lives."

Youth could easily be led astray, he said, into thinking
that gay sexuality is perfectly normal -- a message that
homosexual activist groups have been harping about for
years.

[...]

"If you're not looking at this through the eyes of someone
caught up in the 'love affair' between these two men,"
Baehr said, "then the movie appears to be twisted,
laughable, frustrating and boring Neo-Marxist homosexual
propaganda."

[More at URL]


----- 5 -----
Justice Sunday III Scheduled for January
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
December 8, 2005

[Received in email; no URL]

The Family Research Council (FRC) will bring its third
nationwide broadcast aimed at educating citizens about the
attempts by activist judges to remove all mention of God
from the public square.

Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pa., will
host the "Justice Sunday III - Proclaim Liberty Throughout
the Land" on Jan. 8. It will be beamed by satellite to
churches and to individuals via the Internet. Hundreds of
radio stations will also carry the broadcast.

Speakers include Tony Perkins, president of FRC, Dr. James
Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family
Action, and Herbert Lusk, pastor of Greater Exodus Baptist
Church.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:  Learn more about Justice Sunday III
by visiting its Web site. It includes information on how
your church may participate.

http://www.justicesunday.com/


----- 6 -----
Broadcast Indecency Has Gone Unpunished So Far This Year
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
December 8, 2005

[Received in email; no URL]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has received
more than 189,000 complaints about indecency on the
airwaves this year, but with just three weeks left in 2005
has yet to issue any fines.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said last month that at least 50
reported incidents would receive fines, expressing a
desire to streamline the way complaints are handled.

"We are working very hard to address the backlog of
complaints before us, which is fairly substantial," Martin
said in November. "In clearing out this backlog, we are
trying to act in a consistent and comprehensive manner."

FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said the commissioners
have not seen a package of proposed indecency fines for
sign-off, but expects them to be issued before the end of
the year. If no action is taken in 2005, it will be the
first time since 1993 that no fines were proposed.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:  The FCC has made it even easier to
file complaints about indecency and obscenity on the
airwaves. Please see CitizenLink for more information.

http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0038520.cfm


----- 7 -----
CWA: He’s Making a List and Checking it Twice, Gonna Find Out who’s  
Naughty or Nice
Concerned Women for America
12/9/2005

http://www.cwfa.org/articles/9657/MEDIA/family/index.htm

Washington, D.C.—Concerned Women for America (CWA) presents our first  
Christmas list showing which businesses are honoring the Reason for the  
Season (the birth of Jesus), which ones are not, and which have mixed  
records.

Macy’s joins the NICE list because it has returned the explicit mention  
of Christmas and Merry Christmas to its stores and its ads. L.L. Bean,  
on the other hand, just barely escapes the Grinch list and gets a  
middle rating because, while its first seasonal catalog says Christmas  
2005, all subsequent catalogs say Holiday 2005, culminating in the Best  
of Holiday 2005 (surrounded by Christmas items).

“More and more retailers are realizing, too late, that Christian  
consumers now understand that the constant use of ‘happy holidays’ and  
‘holiday’ is grating and insulting,” said Robert Knight, director of  
CWA’s Culture & Family Institute. “It’s an act of cultural cowardice  
and even an overt attack on Christmas and ultimately the Christian  
faith.

[More at URL]


----- 8 -----
Romney says no hospitals are exempt from pill law
He reverses stand on Plan B
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff  |  December 9, 2005

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/09/ 
romney_says_no_hospitals_are_exempt_from_pill_law/?page=1

Governor Mitt Romney reversed course on the state's new emergency  
contraception law yesterday, saying that all hospitals in the state  
will be obligated to provide the morning-after pill to rape victims.

The decision overturns a ruling made public this week by the state  
Department of Public Health that privately run hospitals could opt out  
of the requirement if they objected on moral or religious grounds.

Romney had initially supported that interpretation, but he said  
yesterday that he had changed direction after his legal counsel, Mark  
D. Nielsen, concluded Wednesday that the new law supersedes a  
preexisting statute that says private hospitals cannot be forced to  
provide abortions or contraception.

''And on that basis, I have instructed the Department of Public Health  
to follow the conclusion of my own legal counsel and to adopt that  
sounder view," Romney said at the State House after signing a bill on  
capital gains taxes.

[More at URL]


----- 9 -----
Walgreens Pharmacists File Discrimination Complaint Over Plan B Firings
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 8, 2005

http://www.lifenews.com/state1317.html

St. Louis, MO (LifeNews.com) -- Four Walgreens pharmacists who were  
fired from their jobs in southern Illinois have filed a complaint with  
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying they were  
discriminated against because of their religious views on dispensing  
the morning after pill.

The pharmacists said they were "effectively fired" from their jobs when  
Walgreens put them on unpaid leave last week because they wouldn't  
follow a directive from Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, mandating that  
all pharmacists in the state fill all prescriptions for legal drugs.

That order, which has been challenged in court, would force pharmacists  
to dispense the Plan B drugs, which can sometimes cause an abortion.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a pro-life law firm, filed the  
complaint on the pharmacists' behalf.

"Since the pharmacists believe that human life begins at conception,  
they conclude that dispensing such drugs would require them to  
participate in the moral equivalent of abortion," ACLJ said in a  
statement.

[More at URL]


----- 10 -----
CongressDaily
Senate Panel May Scrap 'Decency' Forum Followup
By David Hatch
National Journal

http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb- 
WFMV1133989996803.html

(Wednesday, December 7) The Senate Commerce Committee is considering  
scrapping its plan for a followup next Monday to its forum on indecency  
issues held last month.

The Nov. 29 forum explored legislative and industry initiatives  
designed to safeguard viewers from explicit content on television.  
Senate Commerce Committee staffers acknowledged that next week's  
meeting, which it emphasized was never officially scheduled, is now  
uncertain.

A committee spokeswoman cited several reasons -- including scheduling  
pressures and a new industry initiative on television ratings -- for  
the possible change in plans.

Word that the second meeting might be sidelined did not sit well with  
at least one group monitoring the issue.

"The fact that it may not go forward is just another indication that  
[Commerce Chairman] Stevens is allowing this issue to stall in his  
committee. It's unfortunate and it's unfair to American families," said  
Lanier Swann, director of government relations for Concerned Women for  
America -- a group that supports higher broadcast indecency fines and  
tougher content restrictions for cable.

[More at URL]


----- 11 -----
Planned Parenthood Brings Back Pro-Abortion "Choice on Earth" Christmas  
Cards
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 8, 2005

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood has brought back  
its offensive Choice on Earth Christmas cards, turning a holiday  
celebrating Jesus' birth into a fundraising opportunity to support  
abortion.
In an email Thursday encouraging its members to "send a holiday gift  
with real meaning" Planned Parenthood tells potential donors they can  
choose from one of five "Choice on Earth" Christmas cards.

The abortion business hopes donors will make a contribution in honor of  
a friend or relative and send them a pro-abortion Christmas card as an  
acknowledgment.

The cards come in five varieties this year and four feature the message  
"Choice on Earth." On even includes the Christian dove symbolizing  
peace and another extols the virtues of "hope, justice, and  
empowerment."

Wendy Wright, the executive vice president of Concerned Women for  
America, told LifeNews.com "Planned Parenthood revels in offending  
others."

"Its mockery of Jesus Christ's birthday is intended to stick it to  
Christians," Wright explained.

"But in its attempt to hijack Christmas from a celebration of Jesus’  
birth to reveling in the killing of innocent babies, its commemoration  
hearkens to another event that occurred over 2000 years ago – Herod’s  
order to kill all the Hebrew baby boys," she told LifeNews.com.

"But even the Grinches at Planned Parenthood can't steal the joy of  
Christmas," Wright said.

"Its distasteful cards are a reminder of a timeless struggle, that evil  
never relents in its pursuit to pervert and destroy what is good, and  
how even powerful and rich leaders cannot prevail over God."

ACTION: Send a note to Planned Parenthood telling them about their  
offensive Christma cards at: communications at ppfa.org. You can also call  
them at 212/541-7800 or send a fax to 212/245-1845.

Related web sites:
Concerned Women for America - http://www.cwfa.org
Planned Parenthood's Christmas cards -  
http://www.ppaction.org/network/cardviews.html


----- 12 -----
CWA Urges Support for Legally Mandated Cable Choice
By Bill Fancher and Jenni Parker
AgapePress
December 8, 2005

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/12/82005e.asp

(AgapePress) - The pro-family group Concerned Women for America has  
commended the Federal Communications Commission for standing up for  
family values by announcing the agency's support for cable companies  
offering customers cable choice options instead of forcing them to  
purchase pre-packaged channel bundles. Now CWA is calling on Congress  
and a reluctant cable industry to give U.S. families "channel choice."

CWA president Beverly LaHaye notes that cable television has long been  
offered to the American public on a "take it or leave it" basis, since  
consumers have few viable competitors to turn to when fed up with their  
cable providers. As a result, she says, pro-family consumers have  
rallied around "the only option open to them -- a la carte pricing,  
which offers consumers choice of which channels they want to pay for."

Lanier Swann, CWA's director of government relations, says cable choice  
is the logical solution to the growing problem of negative influences  
coming into American families' lives through cable programming. A  
growing number of people feel consumers should be allowed to choose the  
television networks they want to allow into their homes and should not  
be forced to pay for those they find offensive or inappropriate.

The effort by a groundswell of pro-family forces to get the a la carte  
cable packaging or "channel choice" solution implemented is "a campaign  
that just aims to put the power back into the hands that matter most,  
and that is the American consumer, the American families who subscribe  
to cable," Swann says. That is why CWA, the largest women's public  
policy organization in the United States, is throwing its weight behind  
the concept.

[More at URL]


----- 13 -----
Christmas the "Endangered Holiday"
Issue No.: 29
by: James Sunday
Family Research Council

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=CU05L05&f=PG03I03

As the abyss of political correctness engulfs our nation, it seems that  
not even Christmas  is safe from being sucked into the abyss of  
political correctness.  Across the U.S., nativity scenes and Christmas  
displays with Christian themes are now taboo.  Phrases such as "Merry  
Christmas" are considered "humbug," and even Jesus is being  
excluded from the navitity scene.  Library officials in Memphis,  
Tennessee believe that having Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and the  
wise men in a navitity scene is 'inappropriate.' A nativity scene  
without Joseph, Mary, Jesus, and the wise men? If this continues, soon  
we won't be able refer to Christmas as Christmas, but as the  
"Nondenominational Winter Holiday." Target retail stores have kicked  
the Salvation Army to the curb, as bell ringing to raise funds for the  
poor seems to be in "poor taste" and not political correct.  So much  
for the Christmas phrase "good will and cheer to men." Even the  
Christmas Carol "Silent Night" is in trouble.  In Wisconsin, an  
elementary school changed the lyrics, and is calling the song "Cold in  
the Night." So what are Christians to do as they face the prospect of  
Christmas becoming an "endangered holiday?"  Say "Merry Christmas" and  
order your Christmas Pamphlet from the Alliance Defense Fund, so you  
can learn how to protect your rights to celebrate Christmas.   


----- 14 -----
Help Preserve Traditional Marriage in Pennsylvania
December 8, 2005 - Thursday
Forward to a Friend!
Family Research Council

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL05L02&f=PG03I03

We need your help to pass a Marriage Protection Amendment to our state  
constitution in order to protect marriage for ourselves and our  
posterity, and now is the time!

As we've witnessed in other states such as Massachusetts, this issue  
will be decided one way or another. The real question is: Who Decides:  
activist judges or us (through our elected officials)?

Marriage Protection Amendment legislation will be introduced in January  
2006 by Pennsylvania State Rep. Scott Boyd (R-Lancaster); joined by  
Rep. Daryl Metalfe (R-Butler), Rep. Tom Yewcic (D-Johnstown), Rep.  
Katie True (R-Lancaster) and Rep. Teresa Forcier (R-Crawford).

Rep. Boyd is actively seeking co-sponsors for his bill and you can join  
the effort by helping to get your representative to sign on as a  
co-sponsor.

What you can do to help:

Contact your own state representative and urge him or her to contact  
Rep. Scott Boyd's office to cosponsor the Marriage Protection  
legislation.

Message - Marriage between one man and one woman must be preserved in  
Pennsylvania. We need a Marriage Protection Amendment to our state  
constitution.

Spread the word - Forward this alert to your family and friends in  
Pennsylvania. Tell your pastor. Make an announcement in your church  
this Sunday.

Pray for marriage to be protected in Pennsylvania.

Purpose - A Marriage Protection Amendment would:
* Protect the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one  
woman.
* Protect the public institution of marriage from any counterfeit or  
alternative "civil unions."
* Protect Pennsylvania's marriage statute (strengthened in 1996) from  
being overturned by activist judges in a potential lawsuit challenge.

After you make your contacts, find more information and more ways to  
help by joining Pennsylvania for Marriage at the new website:  
www.PA4marriage.org to get informed and get involved today. Thank you!


----- 15 -----
FRC Launches JusticeSunday.com for Justice Sunday III
Family Research Council
December 8, 2005 - Thursday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 8, 2005 CONTACT: Amber Hildebrand,  
(202) 393-2100

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR05L02&f=PG03I03

PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT THE LAND
WWW.JUSTICESUNDAY.COM

Washington, D.C. - Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia,  
Pennsylvania will host Family Research Council's (FRC) upcoming  
simulcast television program, "Justice Sunday III - Proclaim Liberty  
Throughout the Land" Sunday, January 8, 2006. FRC has launched  
JusticeSunday.com which includes all current details of this exciting  
event.

Justice Sunday III, the follow-up to "Justice Sunday II - God Save this  
Honorable Court" and "Justice Sunday - Stopping the Filibuster Against  
People of Faith," will broadcast live in churches across the nation in  
addition to being carried on hundreds of radio stations, via satellite  
and web-cast on www.frc.org.

Who: Partial listing:

Tony Perkins~ Family Research Council
Dr. James Dobson~ Focus on the Family
Rev. Herbert Lusk~ Greater Exodus Baptist Church

What: National television and radio simulcast
Broadcast in churches across America

When: Sunday, January 8, 2006 - 7 pm EST

Where: Greater Exodus Baptist Church
  714 North Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130

Misc: Media Filing Center available
TV Uplink available
Multbox available for radio

Contact: FRC Press Office - 202-393-2100

For more information regarding the "Justice Sunday III - Proclaim  
Liberty Throughout the Land" live simulcast, visit  
www.justicesunday.com or call the FRC Press Office at (202) 393-2100.

Members of the media must register for FRC media credentials
prior to the event at www.justicesunday.com

-30-


----- 16 -----
ABC's Good Morning America Features Exodus President Discussing  
Controversial New Movie
Ex-Gay Organization Says Hollywood's One-sided Portrayal of Gay Life in  
Brokeback Mountain is Damaging and Harmful
Exodus International
Dated: December 8, 2005

http://www.exodus-international.org/news_2005_1208PR.shtml

Orlando, FL -Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the  
largest evangelical network of former homosexuals in the world, was  
featured on ABC’s Good Morning America yesterday discussing Brokeback  
Mountain—a controversial new movie centered around the issue of  
homosexuality.

Hailed as a fictional love story, Brokeback Mountain, stars Heath  
Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two cowboys in the 1960s who embark upon  
a troubled lifelong secret homosexual relationship—a relationship that  
spans the course of each of their marriages to women and their eventual  
divorces. Ang Lee, the acclaimed director of the film, states that a  
frequent theme in his movies is “social obligation vs. free will” and  
this one is no exception. Brokeback Mountain’s clear intent is to show  
that an unaccepting society is to blame for the tragedy that unfolds in  
the lives of the main characters.

Chambers, himself a former homosexual, says that while some of the  
themes explore the unhappiness, pain and promiscuity in gay life, the  
movie’s overarching premise sends the wrong message to Americans about  
culture and sexuality. “Brokeback Mountain is a story of unbridled  
obsession and painful oppression—emotions that I and thousands of  
others who have left homosexuality are well familiar with,” said  
Chambers. “The hopeless desperation we experienced, however, came from  
accepting the culture’s ‘born-gay’ mantra and resigning ourselves to a  
life dominated by our unwanted same-sex attractions.

[More at URL]


----- 17 -----
Most Alabamans Surveyed Trust Bible's Creation Account Over Darwin's
By Jim Brown
December 9, 2005

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/12/afa/92005g.asp

(AgapePress) - A new poll shows more people in Alabama adhere to the  
biblical account of creation than to Darwin's theory of evolution. Of  
the more than 400 Alabamians surveyed between November 28 and December  
1, about three out of four identified themselves as "born-again  
Christians."

The survey conducted by the Mobile Register and the University of South  
Alabama found that about 70 percent of the state's residents believe  
creationism and intelligent design should be taught in public school  
science classes. Fewer than half of those polled said the theory of  
evolution should be taught in schools.

Dale Younce, a Christian Studies professor at the University of Mobile,  
says he was "delightfully surprised" by the survey's findings. The  
result is particularly unexpected, he asserts, considering that  
evolutionism "holds the floor" in secondary and higher education  
classrooms, even in Alabama.

"I would like to think that the conservative Baptist churches  
throughout the state have an effect in causing the church members to  
think thorough the question of creation and evolution, but I have no  
evidence to support that," Younce says...

[More at URL]


----- 18 -----
The Jewish Grinch who stole Christmas
Dec 8, 2005
by Burt Prelutsky
Townhall.com

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/BurtPrelutsky/2005/12/08/ 
178211.html

I never thought I’d live to see the day that Christmas would become a  
dirty word. You think it hasn’t? Then why is it that people are being  
prevented from saying it in polite society for fear that it will  
offend?

Schools are being forced to replace “Christmas vacation” with “winter  
break” in their printed schedules. At Macy’s, the word is verboten even  
though they’ve made untold millions of dollars from their sympathetic  
portrayal in the Christmas classic, “Miracle on 34th Street.” Carols,  
even instrumental versions, are banned in certain places. A major  
postal delivery service has not only made their drivers doff their  
Santa caps, but ordered them not to decorate their trucks with  
Christmas wreaths.

How is it, one well might ask, that in a Christian nation this is  
happening? And in case you find that designation objectionable, would  
you deny that India is a Hindu country, that Pakistan is Muslim, that  
Poland is Catholic? That doesn’t mean those nations are theocracies.  
But when the overwhelming majority of a country’s population is of one  
religion, and roughly 90% of Americans happen to be one sort of  
Christian or another, only a damn fool would deny the obvious.

Although it seems a long time ago, it really wasn’t, that people who  
came here from other places made every attempt to fit in. Assimilation  
wasn’t a threat to anyone; it was what the Statue of Liberty  
represented. E pluribus unum, one out of many, was our motto. The  
world’s melting pot was our nickname. It didn’t mean that any group of  
people had to check their customs, culture or cuisine, at the door. It  
did mean that they, and especially their children, learned English, and  
that they learned to live and let live.

That has changed, you may have noticed. And I blame my fellow Jews.  
When it comes to pushing the multicultural, anti-Christian, agenda, you  
find Jewish judges, Jewish journalists, and the ACLU, at the forefront.


_______________________________________________
||| REMOVE THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE FORWARDING!!!
||| DO NOT POST THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS TO ANY PUBLIC FORUM!!!
Given those two things, all action items of all types are forwardable unless stated otherwise.
||| REMOVE THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE FORWARDING!!!
||| DO NOT POST THE SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS TO ANY PUBLIC FORUM!!!
Active-l mailing list
Active-l at murkworks.net
http://murkworks.net/mailman/listinfo/active-l