TELLING IT LIKE IT IS !

Obama hopes to persuade all Americans to accept homosexuality.

President Barack Obama says that while he’s dedicated to expanding homosexual rights, many Americans still cling to what he calls “worn arguments and old attitudes” … sort of like clinging to our Bibles and our religion.

Those worn arguments and old attitudes Obama says Christians cling to are biblically based.  Whether people or the president agree with them or not, it is what God has instituted and He has not changed His mind.

Obviously if you are a Christian then belief in the Bible and what it says is a necessity … if you don’t then so much for a person being a Christian.  People can’t have it both ways.  Obedience to God’s Word … the Bible …for the Christian is not an option though people can make the choice to disobey.

At a recent White House celebration of Gay Pride Month, Obama said he hopes to persuade all Americans to accept homosexuality.  “There are good and decent people in this country who don’t yet fully embrace their gay brothers and sisters – not yet,” said the president.  “That’s why I’ve spoken about these issues – not just in front of you – but in front of unlikely audiences, in front of African-American church members.”

Obama acknowledged that many Americans still disapprove of homosexuality … and rightfully they should.  “There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones, who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes,” he stated.

The arguments and attitudes from a biblical perspective may be old and worn but they are true and relevant.  There is no new way to be a Christian … if you don’t like the only way then you just won’t be one!  It is not our way …  it is His way.

Obama added that Congress should repeal what he referred to as “the so-called Defense of Marriage Act” – and that his administration is working to pass a hate crimes bill and to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals in the military.  These are just more attacks on God’s ways being substituted by man’s ways.

The audience at the White House ceremony included Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, whom Obama introduced as a “special friend,” and other homosexual clergy.  The term homosexual clergy really is a contradiction in terms and ultimately they are deceivers, whom God will judge most severely due to their self-appointed roles as preachers and teachers.

This cap-and-trade bill heading to the Senate will raise energy costs, increase unemployment, and weaken the economy, if enacted.

The Washington think tank The Heritage Foundation estimates that House-approved legislation (219-212).limiting greenhouse gas emissions will hit consumers with a 60% spike in gasoline prices and a 90% increase in electricity prices, after inflation.

David Kreutzer, a senior policy analyst in energy, economics, and climate change at Heritage, says Congress needs to hear a bigger uproar from taxpayers about the economic impact of the bill.

“But we will also find that virtually everything will go up in price because everything uses energy, and energy gets much more expensive. So we find that the impact per household will be, for a family of four, about $3,000 per year for the first 24 years, and that’s as far out as we analyzed it,” he notes. “The CO2 caps get drawn down lower and lower and lower even beyond that, so the cost will continue to rise.”

Kreutzer says although the cap-and-trade bill faces tougher sledding in the Senate, President Obama was able to successfully employ “arm-twisting, tradeoffs, and back-room deals” to pass the measure in the House. So Americans “can’t rest if they don’t want higher energy prices,” advises the Heritage analyst.

Obama continues to twist things to get his way!

Temperatures seem to be dropping everywhere but at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where leaders are on the hot seat for burying a report on global warming. Days after the House passed an expensive Cap-and-Trade bill to reduce greenhouse gases, even the EPA’s own employees saying it is unnecessary. In a deplorable cover-up the agency hid a report disputing the threat of climate change. EPA Analyst Alan Carlin wrote 98 pages deconstructing the global warming phenomenon, only to have it concealed by the EPA’s leadership. Carlin told Fox News that his boss told him to stop working on the project, which found that global temperatures are actually cooling.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) is launching an investigation into the incident, telling reporters yesterday that the EPA fears the truth. “We’re going to expose it,” he said. Hopefully, he will manage to do so before the Senate delves into a Cap-and-Trade bill that will not have any measurable effect on the atmosphere but could ship an estimated 2.5 million U.S. jobs overseas … on top of the tremendous costs to every American taxpayer.

8 GOP Votes Paved Way For Unnecessary Climate Bill

President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scored a major victory with the House’s approval of a landmark climate bill – thanks to help from a handful of Republicans who have been deceived by the climate fear mongers who do not have science on their side.

In Friday’s vote of 219-212, the legislation was supported by 211 Democrats and 8 aisle-crossing GOP members: Reps. Mary Bono (Calif.), Michael Castle (Del.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Leonard Lance (N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), John McHugh (N.Y.), David Reichert (Wash.) and Christopher Smith (N.J.). It is obvious these GOP members are just Liberals hiding in Republican clothing.

What amazed me was 44 Democrats voted against the bill which was because they are either becoming educated to the truth about climate change fear mongering, or it is a tax increase issue and they want to be re-elected. Unfortunately it is probably the latter even though I wish it was the former.

House Minority Leader John Boehner was right when he said after the vote. “This is the biggest job-killing bill that’s ever been on the floor of the House of Representatives. And I don’t think that’s what the American people want.”

According to The Associated Press, the “cap-and-trade” legislation places the first national limits on emissions of heat-trapping gases from major sources like power plants, refineries and factories. It requires:

– A 17% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

– An 83% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

– That 20% of all electricity in the United States be generated by renewable sources and/or more efficient methods by 2020.

When you add the spinoff costs to the Congressional Budget Office estimate, due to increased manufacturing, transportation, and retail costs that will be passed back to the consumers,  some estimate up to $3,000 a year  per average household.

The 1,200-plus-page bill now goes to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future … hopefully defeat … as this legislation by definition is really a national energy tax. We will have many more such taxes as long as the Obama administration is at the helm.

Republicans need to clean up the party and be truly conservative as they are expected to be or they will not be elected in the next elections. The place to start is to get rid of these 8 who voted for this climate bill.

Funding UNFPA (The United Nations Population Fund)

MISSION STATEMENT: UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

UNFPA – because everyone counts

Their whole website is a lie.  All the reproductive jargon and “help” is all about abortion.

Last year, a young Chinese woman – let’s call her Dan Li – ran afoul of the Chinese government.  She had become “illegally pregnant.”  By the time the authorities found out, Dan Li was seven months along.  Family planning officials tied her to a bed, induced labor, and, when the baby was born, killed the baby.

What happened to Dan Li is an abomination – one, however, that tragically takes place regularly in China.  But now, thanks to the U.S. Congress, you and I will be paying for it.

Last March, without fanfare, Congress passed a bill providing $50 million for the United Nations Population Fund.  This organization promotes abortion around the globe – including in China.  What makes the bill especially heinous is that it voided Kemp-Kasten, a bill which, for two decades, prevented our tax dollars from funding forced abortions and sterilization.

This blows the lid off the argument that abortion is all about giving a woman choice.  If Congress really stands for choice, as they claim, why did they vote for coercion?  If feminists are really for choice, why aren’t they fighting this law?  Why isn’t our President demanding that this brutalization of women be stopped?  This administration has the conscience of the Nazis … none!

Abortion is a glaring example of the difference worldview makes.  Are not all children – Chinese babies or inner-city African American babies – worthy of protection?  Are babies just mouths to feed, and a strain on the environment – or are they potential producers and contributors?  Do parents have the right under God to have as many children as they desire?  Or should governments dictate this decision?

Understand that coercive family planning is more than a humanitarian disaster … it is an abomination to life and to God!

Reggie Littlejohn is an expert on China’s “One Child” policy for a group called Human Rights Without Frontiers.  She points to the process and three negative outcomes of China’s policy.

First, “gendercide.”  Parents who are forced to limit their families to one child overwhelmingly abort girls.  For every 120 boys born in China, there are only 100 girls born.  So, since China’s “One Child” policy began in 1978, she writes, “400 million births” have been “prevented.”  That’s more than the current U.S. population.

Second, China’s gender imbalance “is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery from nations surrounding China.”  Where do you think the young girls in America and other countries that are disappearing are going to? – China and the Middle East.

Third, according to the World Health Organization, China suffers the highest female suicide rate in the world – some 500 women per day.  As Littlejohn notes, “Forced abortion traumatizes women.  Could this high suicide rate be related to forced abortion?”  We know it is according to our American statistics.

You and I need to let our friends and churches know about the consequences of what Congress did – how their taxes being used by the UNFPA to support coercive family planning programs in China.  According to Reggie Littlejohn, if there’s enough of an outcry, “Congress can pass an amendment blocking . . . funding from going to nations that practice coercive family planning.”

I would hope even pro-choicers would agree that women deserve better than to be hunted down and tied up while their babies are being ripped out of them and killed.

As usual The New York Times passed on the opportunity to publish a great op-ed letter to President Barack Obama from Lou Pritchett, a former vice president of Procter & Gamble. Pritchett worked for that company for 36 years, until his retirement in 1989.

Confirmed by the Internet watchdog Snopes, here’s a sample of what Pritchett wrote:

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me. …

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll. …

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves. …

You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals. …

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

Thank you, Mr. Pritchett, for your love for America, honesty and willingness to risk your reputation by speaking up to this administration.

Here are some more . . .

President Obama:

You scare me because so many amazing corporate and American leaders, such as Lou Pritchett, are saying you scare them.

You scare me because after you initiate more government borrowing and bailouts than all presidents combined, you then require Congress to follow a system that is “pay-as-you-go.”

You scare me because you really do believe that going into massive amounts of debt can remedy our economy in the long run.

You scare me because your actions don’t reflect the federal governmental constraints and fiscally prudent principles of our Founding Fathers and Constitution.

You scare me because you buy and run the banking, automobile and (soon) health industries with taxpayers’ money but refuse to call it socialism.

You scare me because you claim to be a fighter for minorities and the promises of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness yet do not defend the unborn. What greater minority is there than those in the womb, against whom you already have enacted more pro-abortion laws than anyone since the Roe v. Wade decision?

You scare me because you promise to defend the U.S. against all potential enemies yet pacify those harboring terrorists, fight for the rights of combative detainees, and enable the enemies of Israel.

You scare me because your media team (including the mainstream media) seeks to label as radical or in some way penalize any opposing conservative voices … such as conservative talk show hosts, news agencies, columnists and actors.

You scare me because your media team does not address or diminish in any way your deification before the world, epitomized by the editor of Newsweek who stated on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC show: “In a way, Obama’s standing above the country, above the world. He’s sort of God.” (How much scarier can it get than representative statements like that in a republic that once stood for a balance among political powers and a government “by the people, for the people”?)

You scare me . . . period!

THIS INFORMATION DESERVES YOUR ATTENTION AND ACTION BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE  !

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), added the “Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” (which is better known to conservatives as the “Pedophile Protection Act,”) to his short-term legislative list Monday, by saying he was “committed” to a Senate vote on hate crimes legislation before the August recess.  The pro-homosexual newspaper Washington Blade reported the vote could happen as early as this week, but staffers at  Senator Kennedy’s office denied that claim, giving us a few more days to act.

The pro-homosexual, anti-faith bill, sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and pushed hard by the Obama Administration, was until recently labeled S. 909 “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.” But it faced such strong resistance by conservatives (including threat of filibuster or faith-protecting amendments by pro-faith Senator Jim DeMint, R-SC), so instead Democrats have announced they will soon hide the bill as an amendment to another “must-move” bill, denying committee hearings, and completely side-stepping the Republicans right to debate and amend.

547 SEXUAL DEVIANCES TO BE PROTECTED BY FEDERAL MARSHALS

The forthcoming “poison pill” amendment will mirror a House bill H.R. 1913, already passed 249-175 along strict party lines, which makes “sexual orientation,” “gender,” and “gender identity” into federally-protected classes under the law, and codifies federal protection of up to 547 types of sexually deviant behaviors, including:

* Incest – sex with one’s offspring (a crime, of course)
* Necrophilia – sexual relations with a corpse, also a crime
* Pedophilia – sex with an underage child, another crime
* Zoophilia – a crime in numerous states
* Voyeurism – a criminal offense in most states
* Fronteurism – a man rubbing against an unknown woman’s buttocks
* Coprophilia – sexual arousal from feces
* Urophilia – sexual arousal from urine

Attempts by House Republicans to add amendments stating “pedophilia is not protected as a sexual orientation” were specifically blocked and defeated by House Democrats. Lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) expressed opposition to excluding pedophiles from the bill, and Democrats voted with her to strike any child-protection amendment. She claimed that pedophiles would not be defined within “sexual orientation,” but wouldn’t put that in writing, and refused to define that phrase “sexual orientation,” which according to the American Psychiatric Association includes all 547 sexual deviances listed in their DSM-III manual of clinical psychoses, including pedophilia, so now thanks to most Democrats, child molesters will be protected by federal law.

QUOTING THE BIBLE IN CHURCH WILL BE PUNISHED

Not only will sexually deviant behaviors gain legal protection, this legislation also lays the legal foundation to investigate, prosecute and persecute pastors, youth pastors, Bible teachers, and anyone else whose speech and thought is based upon and reflects the truths found in the Bible. How will this legislation over-rule the First Amendment?

PASTORS NOT PROTECTED BY FIRST AMENDMENT

S. 909 broadly defines “intimidation,” thus a pastor’s sermon could be viewed as “hate speech” if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against persons based on any “sexual orientation.”

The pastor could be prosecuted for “conspiracy to commit a hate crime” or for “inciting violence against gays” simply by quoting the Bible in church. And the First Amendment won’t automatically protect pastors, since speech accused of “inciting violence” is not protected, and is punishable, under precedent of Supreme Court rulings.

In 1993 Wisconsin v. Mitchell, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a “hate speech” law providing enhanced punishments for violent crimes based on racial motives as revealed by speech of the accused, (which would now apply broadly to punish any “anti-gay motives” in the speech of accused pastor “co-conspirators.”)  But pastor, if a crazy person in your audience commits a crime against a heterosexual, don’t worry, you’ll get a comparative discount in your prison time.

IS PRAYER IN JESUS’ NAME A “HATE CRIME?”

Any public prayer against the sin of homosexuality could be construed as “inciting violence” by easily offended listeners, especially if those prayers are offered “in Jesus name.”  When I served our country as a former Navy Chaplain, for example, I was told in writing by Chief of Chaplains Rear-Admiral Louis Iasiello, that “any chaplain’s continued insistence on ending public prayers ‘in Jesus’ name’…could reasonably tend to denigrate those with different forms of faith.” His policy prohibiting prayers “in Jesus name” was enforced against me at court-martial, before it was later rescinded by Congress in 2006. But this year I’ve already been falsely accused of “inciting violence” because I quoted verbatim from Psalm 109 in my public prayers, (for which secular activist Mikey Weinstein literally requested an FBI investigation against me!) Just imagine more anti-Christian aggression by law enforcement officials AFTER this hate-crimes bill becomes law.

IS PREACHING AGAINST SIN A HATE CRIME?

As a former Navy Chaplain who was punished (in writing, three times) for quoting the Bible in chapel during optionally-attended worship, I know exactly how they’ll come after us. The enemies of religious liberty will simply declare certain gospel phrases “hateful” and “offensive” like my commanding officer who punished me for quoting John 3:36 in chapel, and was supported by government lawyers for “protecting” easily offended listeners from the “offensive” gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) agrees with me, saying pastors, rabbis, or imams could be charged with encouraging or inducing a “hate crime” if they preach against homosexuality.  “Every preacher of the gospel, unless you cut out parts of it; every imam who mentions anything with regard to sexual immorality – they could be pursued, and in other countries they have been,” says Gohmert.  (Congressmen Gohmert is my personal advocate, with whom I preached last year at a pro-faith rally in Texas…and we both agree the gospel of freedom from sin really is “love speech” not “hate speech.”)

FREE SPEECH SUPPRESSED IN NORWAY: Hate crimes laws protecting homosexuals from criticism are already silencing pastors in Norway, where these dangerous laws specifically empower law enforcement officials to prosecute “intimidation” of homosexuals. For example, Congressman Gohmert warned “I was talking to a guy from Norway who was telling me that people are even afraid to say Mary was a virgin, because just bringing up sexuality at all can raise problems with law enforcement.”

FREE SPEECH CRIMINALIZED IN SWEDEN: In Sweden, Pastor Ake Green received a one-month jail sentence last year under a Swedish “hate crimes” law that forbids criticism of those who participate in homosexual behavior. The Goeta Appeals Court later overturned the decision.  The government demanded the pastor be punished by appealing the case to the Swedish Supreme Court, which ruled the law unconstitutional.  Yet here in America, the Reid-Kennedy-Obama trio is pushing to pass and enforce this same type of “anti-free speech” law, despite their acknowledgment that any such enforcement would be unconstitutional in America too. (They why pass the bill in the first place?)

FREE SPEECH CRIMINALIZED IN CANADA: In Canada, where “hate crimes” laws already passed, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal actively forbid evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson from expressing his moral opposition to homosexuality. The tribunal also ordered Boisson to pay $5,000 “damages for pain and suffering” and apologize to the “human rights” activist who filed the complaint. His crime? In 2002, the pastor wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper in which he denounced the homosexual agenda as “wicked” and stated that: “Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.”  The Canadian government tribunal ordered the Christian pastor to “cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals.” (This “re-education commission” reminds me of Big Brother from Orwell’s 1984.)

FREE SPEECH CRIMINALIZED IN PENNSYLVANIA: Can’t happen in America?  It already has.  In 2004 my friend Michael Marcavage was arrested along with ten other Christians (including two elderly grandmothers), and charged with violating Pennsylvania’s “hate crimes” laws, because they carried signs conveying God’s love at a Gay Pride rally. One member of “The Philadelphia Eleven,” Arlene Elshinnawy, 75 year-old grandmother of three, was holding a sign: “Truth is hate to those who hate the truth,” before she was hauled off to jail by police officers. They were literally threatened with 50 years in jail for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a public sidewalk, because it offended gays. That hate crimes law was so outrageous it was later found unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, but now Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama want to pass essentially that same discredited law nationwide.

WE CAN STILL DE-RAIL THIS TRAIN

But together, we can still stop them. We’ve identified 16 Democrats below, who are NOT YET committed as co-sponsors of S. 909, so please call them today, asking to OPPOSE AND FILIBUSTER any amendment to any bill that resembles S. 909. Sadly two Republicans (Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, R-ME) have joined 43 Democrats by co-sponsoring this pro-homosexual bill, so call them too, and ask them to switch.

But remember, 100 emails = 10 phone calls = 1 fax in political capital, since the Senate staffers must handle each paper and usually write a reply. So you can join our automated fax-petition campaign first, and WE WILL FAX THE 18 KEY UNDECIDED SENATORS LIST ABOVE with your personalized petition.  This does cost a bit but it will save you time or you can make the contacts yourself.

Thank you for reading our lengthy analysis. If you’ve read this far, we must agree, so now please forward this email widely to other pro-faith friends, and to pastors in all 50 states.

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt

(For media interviews, or to invite “Chaps” to speak to your crowd, click here.)

P.S. Time is urgent! The full Senate could vote any day to pass S. 909 as an amendment to any other “must-move” bill.  Select and sign today, & we will forward your name immediately. Please don’t wait another minute. Life, Liberty, and Jesus are too important to be banned by Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, and Barack Obama.

Disclaimer: The views of Chaplain Klingenschmitt, who was honorably but involuntarily discharged from the Navy in 2007 after facing court-martial for praying “in Jesus name” in uniform, (but was later vindicated by Congress), are his own personal views, not the views of any political party, government, or organization.

Quotes from President Barack Hussein Obama at the Cairo University on Thursday, June 04, 2009.

“Throughout history Islam has demonstrated tolerance and racial equality.”

“My father came from a Muslim family; I know civilization’s debt to Islam.”

“America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition.”

“America is not and will not be at war with Islam.”

“9/11 had led some in my country to view Muslims with fear and as being anti-human rights.”

“Changes brought about by globalism made many Muslims view the West as hostile.”

None of these are accurate … in fact they are consider lies by most Americans and not representative at all to them.

Please tell me about Islam’s demonstration of tolerance and racial equality … you can’t … history shows there is none.

What debt does civilization owe to Islam … convert or death to the infidel? … civilization owes Islam nothing.

America is exclusive and what on earth and why would they want to compete with Islam?

9-11 had nothing to do with Muslim human rights but everything to do with a terrorist war against the West on American soil … indeed taking away American human rights. Islam’s human rights records are atrocious.

Globalism is not what made Muslims view the West as hostile … the Koran and Islamic teachings did!

How anyone can actually make these statements in an Islamic country is ridiculous!

First he declared that America isn’t “a Christian nation.” Now President Obama is telling the world that his country is a Muslim one. In a stunning interview with France’s Canal Plus, he said, “If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” The statement, one in a long line of White House shockers, is part of the administration’s campaign to soften the opposition to America in advance of the President’s speech to the Islamic world tomorrow. As ABC’s Jake Tapper puts it, President Obama is getting in touch with his “inner-Muslim,” even embracing “Hussein,” his once-taboo middle name.

Wednesday, the President is hoping his silky oratory will translate well in Cairo, where he will try to charm the Arab nations with his Muslim roots. While the White House may talk a good game, this President’s agenda is the embodiment of every immorality the Islamic world detests about the West. In five months, his policies have endorsed global promiscuity, sodomy, and abortion. Just last Friday, his Baghdad embassy presided over the region’s first “drag party” in the middle of a war zone. Like a growing number of Americans, the Middle East sees the tension between the President’s rhetoric and the global reality. This kind of duplicity only fans the flames of anti-American sentiment.

While the President speaks of peace and reconciliation on the Arab stage, American soldiers are being gunned down in the U.S. by Muslim converts. On Monday, a 24-year-old Army recruiter was killed and another wounded by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammed in Arkansas. The suspect admitted to the killing, blaming “what [the Army] had done to Muslims in the past.”

As Gary Bauer pointed out in his End of Day, “President Obama, who immediately condemned the murder of abortionist George Tiller on Sunday, still has not – 24 hours later – said one word about the cowardly attack on these soldiers. The U.S. Justice Department, which sent federal marshals yesterday to guard abortion clinics, has sent no one to guard our military recruitment offices, even though more than 100 of those offices have been attacked in recent years … I guess he was just too busy pouring over his … proclamation declaring June ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.'”

Could the rise in government spending – from economic stimulus to health care reform to education spending – endanger the vitality of religion in America? That’s a question University of Virginia Professor W. Bradford Wilcox discussed recently in the Wall Street Journal.

Wilcox zeroed in on a intriguing study entitled “State Welfare Spending and Religiosity.” The study’s authors, Anthony Gill and Erik Lundsgaarde, found an “inverse relationship between religious observance and welfare spending.” Put more simply, the more a government spends on welfare, the fewer people go to church. This is why it is that church attendance is so low in welfare states such as Denmark and Sweden compared to countries like the U.S. and the Philippines – where government doesn’t provide cradle-to-grave assistance.

Anthony Gill hits the nail on the head. “For many centuries,” he writes, “average citizens and local communities have often relied upon the support of religious organizations to meet their various social needs, including assistance for the poor, counseling in times of crisis, and education for the young.” So as the government grows, it elbows out the church and other voluntary associations. Gill continues, “Many people have found that they can get the same services from the government without having to give a time commitment to the local church.”

Now, we would like to think that most people don’t stay in church just because they get can get help in times of trouble. But the truth is that many people first encounter the Church when they are in need: at a crisis pregnancy center, a soup kitchen, or in counseling for drug abuse or alcoholism. So as Wilcox writes in the Wall Street Journal, “Many of those who initially turn to religious organizations for mutual aid end up developing a faith that is as supernatural as it is material.”

Yes there are other factors behind declining church attendance in America but the recent turning of the people toward government as the answer to all our problems is also detrimental to themselves and the Church. It is also destructive to the future of American democracy.

In his book, Democracy in America, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at how Americans could accomplish almost anything through voluntary associations – especially churches. They built schools, hospitals, sent missionaries all over the world. He wrote, “I frequently admired the boundless skill of Americans in setting large numbers of people a common goal and inducing them to strive toward that goal voluntarily.”

De Tocqueville doubted that government could ever accomplish all that American citizens could do through their associations. But he also warned that if government should supplant the good work of these associations, the American people would ultimately end up dependent upon government. And this, he said, would imperil not only American democracy, but “civilization itself.”

In times of trouble, it’s natural to echo the question of the Psalmist from Psalm 121: “Where does my help come from?” Sadly, it seems that more and more Americans these days would answer, “It comes from Uncle Sam.”