Chairman’s Report for August 2, 2012

THE PRESIDENCY

OBAMA AND OUR DWINDLING FREEDOMS – Every social conservative should read Friedrich von Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. While the book is constantly quoted by economic conservatives such as Congressman Paul Ryan, and while Hayek was in fact an economist, the core of the book is about more than economics; it’s about how individual freedom is lost as governments consolidate power.

The central point of The Road to Serfdom is that it is impossible to have both central planning and individual freedoms. We can see this playing out today; for instance, a small business owned by a Roman Catholic family in Denver refused to buy the federally mandated health insurance covering birth control, the morning after pill and sterilization. The Obama Justice Department told the family that they could either provide the insurance as ordered by the government, or shut down the business. The case is still in the courts.

Then there is the ongoing saga of Chick-fil-A.

By the way of full disclosure, I have met with the founder of Chick-fil-A, S. Truett Cathy. His first name is actually Sam, but he prefers Truett. I met with him last year at the Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia on my way to speak at a youth facility in Pine Mountain supported by a Chick-fil-A foundation. I have been in many corporate headquarters in the last three decades, including that of News Corp. The Chick-fil-A headquarters is the only major corporate office I have ever been in that I can describe as happy. Every employee – hundreds of them – have a free lunch there every day. The company is about a lot more than profit.

The 91-year-old Truett Cathy is as sharp today as when he started the business. I was introduced to him as “Bill Murray” and he said, “You’re the son of that atheist who took prayer from the schools. I read your book back in 1962.” This man loves the Lord and that love has been handed down through four generations of his family.

Under the utopian, central planning system that Barack Obama wants to force upon America, this family and their business must be punished for openly honoring the Word of God.  When Truett’s son Don made the public statement that the family and business support “traditional marriage” the attack by Obama’s team began.

Rahm Emanuel, who ran President Barack Obama’s White House for two years as his Chief of Staff, has vowed to shut down any business in Chicago whose owners say they are Christians and who oppose homosexuality. He very pointedly said that Chick-fil-A would not get another business permit in Chicago. Rahm Emanuel is not just the mayor of Chicago; he has been a spokesman for the Barack Obama campaign and a close advisor to the President. The mayor stated that those who practice free speech will not be allowed to do business in his city.

Some say I exaggerate that Obama is conducting a war on religious freedom. What more proof is needed?  The advertising campaign to warn America of Obama’s plans is critically needed during this key year of decision.

OBAMA AD RUNNING IN VIRGINIA – Since the last Chairman’s Report, our newspaper ads exposing Barack Obama as the most dangerous president ever to religious freedom have continued to run. The ads began in Florida and we have now expanded to North and South Carolina and Virginia. We are now investigating appropriate markets in Pennsylvania and Ohio. I would very much like to go back into Florida and run the ad in four newspapers we were forced to skip because of cost.

See full list of newspapers running our ad

Winter Haven is a huge retirement area with several mega-churches that would be helpful in pressuring Congress to act against the Obama agenda. The same is true of Bradenton where the very large Christian Retreat is located. But, as I said, the ads are expensive. About $10,000 more is needed for the Florida project. The four newspapers I want to go back to in Florida are

The Ledger – Winter Haven
Florida Today – Titusville, Melbourne
Bradenton Herald – Bradenton
Charlotte Sun – Arcadia, Wauchula

You may note that we ran our ad twice in the Black Mountain News in Black Mountain, North Carolina. This was done because several very large Christian summer camps are located there and people we want to reach rotate through that area. We may run the ad in Black Mountain again in August once or twice.

Please note that the first ad placed directly by a supporter of the Religious Freedom Coalition appeared in a Nebraska newspaper on July 3^rd. If you live in a smaller community where there is little political commentary, you may be able to place the ad for some nominal cost. You may even have a small weekly newspaper in your area that we are not aware of, in which you can place one of the Obama ads. We can even help reformat the ad for your local newspaper if you will pay for the cost of the ad space.

To help place the ad, simply print off a copy from www.savingreligiousfreedom.org and give it to the ad department of your local newspaper. They can probably format the ad right then and there to a quarter, third or half page ad and give you the cost. If the newspaper needs us to format the ad they can call our Washington office at 202.543.0300.

We can make a difference in stopping Barack Obama’s attacks on religious freedom.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, OUR LORD AND PRAYER

Other than this Chairman’s Report I write a weekly update that appears at our Internet site at ReligiousFreedomCoalition.org. I also write numerous op-eds and other articles for several publications including newspapers. Many of my articles appear in World Net Daily which most people know as wnd.com. Just in July, I wrote three major articles for wnd.com including one on school prayer entitled Secularization does not ‘revitalize Christianity’.

For the most part I never reprint the articles I write for other publications in the Chairman’s Report. However, I’m making an exception this month. On my way back from the Middle East I wrote an article entitled Praying for Victory. The article was short, but to the point. Christians in the West, particularly evangelical Christians pray defensively while Muslims pray for our destruction. The article is below as it appeared at wnd.com and in other publications.

*****

Praying for Victory

Are we losing to the Islamists because we will not ask God for help?

It was about a two years into the second Gulf War and things weren’t going too well. George W. Bush had made the fatal mistake of disbanding the Iraqi Army and police force, leaving the nation lawless. Islamist fighters, who were very happy that the secularist government of Iraq had been overthrown by the United States, flowed into Iraq to finish the job by creating a Sharia state.

It was 2003 and I had been invited to speak at a Texas church. At the opening of the service the pastor asked the congregation to pray for the protection of service members from the church who were in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly I was hit with this thought: Why are we praying only defensive prayers, why are we not asking God to give our brave servicemen victory in the field?

I actually spoke that day on my experiences on 9-11. That fateful day I was on the 14^th Street bridge crossing the Potomac River, when flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon by Islamists. I was trying to get a message out from nearly the first day, a warning that this was just the beginning of a hundred year’s war. However, with President George W. Bush singing “religion of peace” from the bully pulpit, few wanted to hear my message.

At the conclusion of the service I asked the pastor if he had ever led his congregation in prayer asking God to give our troops victory. He just sort of stared at me for a minute or so. Finally he simply said “no.” As we talked it was obvious he felt uncomfortable with the thought. The evangelical church had developed a message over the past few decades that Christ Jesus is only about peace and He came to comfort the sick, the grieving and to save the lost. Today, most in the evangelical church turn to Jesus only for personal matters, such as the health of a loved one, finding a better job, selling a house or bringing a lost child to Christ.

Over the years I have brought the subject up in various places, as our very well armed and educated troops in the field were beaten back again and again. Finally George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq where there was none. Obama pulled the troops out, leaving a wounded nation and people. The only real accomplishment of the second Iraqi war was the eradication of the Christian community in Iraq. The Islamists have raped Christian women, stolen Christian homes, murdered Christian men and blown up churches until 80% of the Christian population has fled. There is no democracy, and other than corrupt officials in the new government, no one in Iraq has benefited from our invasion.

Did anyone ever pray for our victory in Iraq or for our way of life to be shared there? Maybe, I just don’t know. I asked several army chaplains if they had ever led men in prayer for victory on the field of battle and the answer was no. The prayers were defensive, they were for protection. I continued to talk to church pastors, and one day asked my Sunday School class to pray for victory. For a few weeks the class did do that, but soon we were back to asking the Lord only for personal help with health or finances.

I wanted to start a campaign to get churches to pray for our troops to be victorious, but the suffering of Christians in the Middle East and my ministry there kept me away from any organized efforts. That is, until my latest trip to an area of conflict in the Middle East.

I must stop and thank God that the “rebels” I encountered on this trip had no idea who I was. Fortunately I was with members of the Muslim Brotherhood and under their protection. The Brotherhood had something to prove to me, which they did; however, it was not what they wanted to prove. I did learn a lot about the “fog of war”, as I met dozens of men who had no idea why they were fighting, other than for the glory of Allah. Some, I don’t think were even sure what nation they were in. What I did learn very well is how the Islamists pray.

Every sermon calls for the destruction of the enemies of Islam. Every prayer calls for victory of Islam in armed conflict. Every prayer calls for the destruction of the Jews first, their current enemy second, and finally America.

The difference was striking. While American Christians pray for better cars, the Islamists pray for the total and complete destruction of Christianity, democracy and the American way of life. While Christians here pray for the safety of a particular soldier who is from one of our churches, the Islamists pray for the death of every American soldier at the hands of an Islamist martyr. For the Islamists Christians ask God to “open the eyes of the unbelievers.” The eyes of the “unbelievers” are open, and looking down the sites of gun barrels at us.

During World War II virtually every church in the United Kingdom and the United States prayed every Sunday for an Allied victory. That was the last war in which we won a total victory. By the time of the Vietnam War it was politically incorrect to pray for victory, and victory never came. Praying for victory, even post 9-11 is still politically incorrect and America is still either losing wars or fighting to a standstill in decades long conflicts.

Straying from political correctness in the church I beg to ask the question: If we want to win a war, spiritual or otherwise, should we not be asking God for victory? If the answer is yes, pastors can find models for those victory prayers in Psalms authored by King David, among other note worthy places in the Bible. If, on the other hand, we do not want God’s intervention perhaps we should prepare ourselves to lose the existential battle against the Islamists.

*****

In the article, I mentioned my trip to the Middle East and my encounter with the Muslim Brotherhood. I would very much like to give you all the details, but to do so would endanger lives. Mentioning locations can get people killed. Mentioning real names of people or showing their photos in public documents such as this one can get them killed. Oddly, conservative leaders here in Washington have decided to welcome the Muslim Brotherhood as the future. This is a grave mistake.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990