City officials in Rancho Cucamonga, California ordered a home Bible study to cease or get a permit.

There seems to be a rash of these cases going on lately. Recently home Bible studies were ordered to stop meeting in Gilbert, Arizona and in San Diego , CA. The San Diego case has been resolved allowing the home fellowship to continue along with an apology from officials. The Situation in Gilbert seems to be resolving itself with support from the Mayor and Council members.

Now comes this case in Rancho Cucamonga. The city claimed that the home Bible study was really a church. They ordered the group to get a Conditional Use Permit by April 2, in order to continue meeting. While the members point out that they are merely a small group of 15 or so meeting in a home on Friday evenings for Bible study. The Bible study is not a church but a small group that is part of a church -Shiloh Tabernacle- that meets on Sunday in a community center.

Pacific Justice Institute is legally representing the group. PJI President Brad Dacus said the following about the situation:

“Imposing a CUP requirement on a home Bible study is manifestly absurd and unjust. I don’t know of a single court in America that would approve their actions. We will give the City a chance to rescind its letter without litigation, but we are fully prepared to take this as far as is necessary to defend this Bible study group—and countless others like it.”

Pacific Justice Institute has handled and won a large number of similar cases where the freedom of religion and free association is under attack.               *Top

On Monday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops made it clear that they oppose the HealthCare bill in its present form because it would open the door to Federal funding of abortions.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the conference, stated:

“The Catholic bishops regretfully hold that it must be opposed unless and until these serious moral problems are addressed.”

He further noted that supporters of the bill have told them that it would be changed later after it was passed and put into law:

“Assurances that the moral objections to the legislation can be met only after the bill is passed seem a little like asking us, in Midwestern parlance, to buy a pig in a poke.”

The bishops have been heavily lobbied by both sides of the bill and are said to favor passage of a HeathCare bill in some form that does not include funding for abortions.

Response: It is great to see the Bishops standing up and holding the line on the abortion issue. Now if they could only get their parishioner politicians to follow suit.               *Top

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Heavy PR and advertizing notwithstanding, Green Zone opened with a miserable $14.3 million box office over the last weekend. The film was shown in over 3,000 theaters which is usually reserved for potential hits only to fall on its proverbial face. When will Hollywood ever learn. It joins a dozen or so failed anti-Bush anti-war conspiracy films that seems to dominate the thinking in this liberal leaning industry. They spend hundreds of $millions on films like this and then wonder why no one pays to see them.

From all accounts it was actually an excellent war film for the first hour or so before it degenerated into a hard to follow diatribe supporting the ‘Bush lied—millions died’ simplistic liberal slant toward the Iraq War. The President and Wallstreet are the bad guys along with the Special forces and of course, the ‘evil’ ever present Blackwater Security folks. Compared to those Americans, the Saddam Hussein and his sympathizers come out looking good.

Hollywood continues to feed us with liberal propaganda pieces on the war. Then they wonder why moderate and conservative folks that go to movies don’t want to put out $9 or so a piece to get in and another $14 or so for popcorn and a drink only to be subjected to fantasy liberal conspiracy theories.

If they want fantasy they’ll go to see Alice in Wonderland instead, which is exactly what happened.            *Top

Catch this dubious quote made by President Obama today on the following video:

“Premiums will decrease 3,000% so you should get a raise when health care is passed.”

Meanwhile, here’s a recent quote from Sen. Dick Durbin (D) the #2 Democratic leader in the Senate:

“Anyone who would stand before you and say ‘well, if you pass health care reform next year’s health care premiums are going down,’ I don’t think is telling the truth. I think it is likely they would go up.”

Response: So there you have it. Sen.Durbin would appear to be calling the President a liar even if it is unintended.

Today in Ohio, the President said a number of things in his speech which simply are not true. The most outrageous of many outrageous statements was this one—that health care premiums would actually decrease by 3,000% if the new health care bill was passed. Even a 30% decrease is completely out of the question.

Everyone who has actually looked at the Senate bill agrees that it would end up increasing costs for those already insured for a number of different reason. Not one expert agrees with the President that it would bring a decrease of any sort. Even one of his own major Democratic leaders in the Senate- Sen. Durban obviously disagrees with the President’s assessment.

I guess if you are going to be wrong, exaggerate or lie you might as well make it big and over-the-top—like by 3,000% or so! Does this President really think that the American people are that stupid? I guess he does.            *Top

It is time for Christians to remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Meanwhile Muslims are praying for a huge piece of Jerusalem and demonstrating in the streets demanding that the whole city be given to them chanting:

“Jerusalem is Arab, our eternal capital”

Here’s what I posted today on one of my other blogs:

There are many reasons why Christians should continue to remember Jerusalem in our prayers. First of all because I believe that we are commanded to pray for Jerusalem in Psalm 122:6. But beyond that we need to pray for the destiny of that land and people.

Those of us in America should be praying for Our President and his administration. VP Biden has been over to Israel recently and pretty much favored and was sympathetic to the Palestinian Muslims and their claim over the land. In fact he warned Israeli officials that their relationship with the US was in severe danger over settlements in Jerusalem.

It is my perspective that if this country does not support Israel and their right to Jerusalem then we are the ones that are ultimately in real trouble. So even for purely selfish reasons we do need to be praying. I just don’t understand why we would want to support violent dictatorial Islamic despots over the freely elected leaders of a democratic Israel. It doesn’t make sense to me on any level. Obviously we are battling against demonic powers here and spiritual blindness can be the only logical explanation. Prayer is essential for this situation.

<<Read the rest of the post>>

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The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance is  grounded in historical identity, philosophy, and politics and not specific theology or the establishment of an official religion.

Thus the court ruled against Michael Newdow, an atheist who challenged ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance and ‘in God we trust’ on US currency as unconstitutional endorsements of religion.

The court also ruled unanimously that Newdow did not have standing to challenge the official motto of the United States that appears on the US currency- “In God We Trust”.

Response: Wow, for once the left leaning 9th Circuit actually made the right decision. Since other circuits around the country have made similar decisions concerning ‘The Pledge’ it is doubtful that this case will be going on to the Supreme Court.            *Top

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From Compass Direct News: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 10 (CDN) — Suspected Islamic militants armed with guns and grenades stormed the offices of a Christian relief and development organization in northwest Pakistan today, killing six aid workers and wounding seven others.

Approximately 15 gunmen attacked the World Vision offices near Oghi, Pakistan killing six staff members (all Pakistanis) including two women and wounding seven others. World Vision is an international humanitarian organization which came to Pakistan to offer aid to earthquake victims in 2005. While the humanitarian organization has Christian ties it does not proselytize or provide any particular religious teaching.

Here’s the account of one survivor, World Vision administration officer Mohammad Sajid:

“They gathered all of us in one room. The gunmen, some of whom had their faces covered, also snatched our mobile phones. They dragged people one by one and shifted them to an adjacent room and shot and killed them.”

This is not the first attack of aid workers by Islamic extremists in Pakistan. Last October, the UN’s World Food Program office in Islamabad was attacked by a suicide bomber and five aid workers were killed. After that, the United Nations decided relocate a number of their offices and international staff from Pakistan due to security concerns.

Response: Pakistan is becoming a far more dangerous place than it use to be. With all of the allied armies attacking the Taliban and al Queda folks in Afghanistan thousands of the Islamic extremists have fled to Pakistan.

The extremists are making their presence felt in that country nearly every day. The Taliban has literally taken over several provinces and have initiated a radical form of sharia law. There are on-going battles between the extremists and the Pakistani army. Remember that Pakistan has nuclear weapons so there is a lot at stake.                  *Top

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