| May 2, 2010 | “McAlpine was handing out leaflets explaining the Ten Commandments…when a woman came up and engaged him in a debate about his faith. During the exchange, he says he quietly listed homosexuality among a number of sins referred to in 1 Corinthians, including blasphemy, fornication, adultery and drunkenness. After the woman walked away, she was approached by a (police officer) who spoke with her briefly and then walked over to Mr. McAlpine and told him a complaint had been made, and that he could be arrested for using racist or homophobic language. …The Public Order Act, which outlaws the unreasonable use of abusive language likely to cause distress, has been used to arrest religious people in a number of similar cases. Harry Hammond, a pensioner, was convicted under Section 5 of the Act in 2002 for holding up a sign saying ‘Stop immorality. Stop Homosexuality. Stop Lesbianism. Jesus is Lord.’ while preaching in Bournemouth. Stephen Green, a Christian campaigner, was arrested and charged in 2006 for handing out religious leaflets at a Gay Pride festival in Cardiff.” ————————————- DAILY TELEGRAPH
London, England
May 2, 2010 Christian preacher arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin A Christian street preacher was arrested and locked in a cell for
telling a passer-by that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God. by Heidi Blake Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships. The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Wokington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God.
Police officers are alleging that he made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act. Mr McAlpine, who was taken to the police station in the back of a marked van and locked in a cell for seven hours on April 20, said the incident was among the worst experiences of his life. “I felt deeply shocked and humiliated that I had been arrested in my own town and treated like a common criminal in front of people I know,” he said. “My freedom was taken away on the hearsay of someone who disliked what I said, and I was charged under a law that doesn’t apply.” Christian campaigners have expressed alarm that the Public Order Act, introduced in 1986 to tackle violent rioters and football hooligans, is being used to curb religious free speech. Sam Webster, a solicitor-advocate for the Christian Institute, which is supporting Mr McAlpine, said it is not a crime to express the belief that homosexual conduct is a sin. “The police have a duty to maintain public order but they also have a duty to defend the lawful free speech of citizens,” he said. “Case law has ruled that the orthodox Christian belief that homosexual conduct is sinful is a belief worthy of respect in a democratic society.” Mr McAlpine was handing out leaflets explaining the Ten Commandments or offering a “ticket to heaven” with a church colleague on April 20, when a woman came up and engaged him in a debate about his faith. During the exchange, he says he quietly listed homosexuality among a number of sins referred to in 1 Corinthians, including blasphemy, fornication, adultery and drunkenness. After the woman walked away, she was approached by a PCSO who spoke with her briefly and then walked over to Mr McAlpine and told him a complaint had been made, and that he could be arrested for using racist or homophobic language. The street preacher said he told the PCSO: “I am not homophobic but sometimes I do say that the Bible says homosexuality is a crime against the Creator”. He claims that the PCSO then said he was homosexual and identified himself as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaison officer for Cumbria police. Mr McAlpine replied: “It’s still a sin.” The preacher then began a 20 minute sermon, in which he says he mentioned drunkenness and adultery, but not homosexuality. Three regular uniformed police officers arrived during the address, arrested Mr McAlpine and put him in the back of a police van. At the station, he was told to empty his pockets and his mobile telephone, belt and shoes were confiscated. Police took fingerprints, a palm print, a retina scan and a DNA swab. He was later interviewed, charged under Sections 5 (1) and (6) of the Public Order Act and released on bail on the condition that he did not preach in public. Mr McAlpine pleaded not guilty at a preliminary hearing on Friday at Wokingham magistrates court and is now awaiting a trial date. The Public Order Act, which outlaws the unreasonable use of abusive language likely to cause distress, has been used to arrest religious people in a number of similar cases. Harry Hammond, a pensioner, was convicted under Section 5 of the Act in 2002 for holding up a sign saying “Stop immorality. Stop Homosexuality. Stop Lesbianism. Jesus is Lord” while preaching in Bournemouth. Stephen Green, a Christian campaigner, was arrested and charged in 2006 for handing out religious leaflets at a Gay Pride festival in Cardiff. The case against him was later dropped. Cumbria police said last night that no one was available to comment on Mr McAlpine’s case.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7668448/Christian-preacher-arrested-for-saying-homosexuality-is-a-sin.html
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April 20, 2010 | “U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, sent an unsolicited letter to a group of Christian activists and pastors to support their efforts in suing Attorney General Eric Holder over the ‘hate crimes’ law that President Obama signed into law late last year. …King sent the letter to Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, who joined Pastors Levon Yuille, Rene Ouellette and James Combs in filing a lawsuit with the help of the Thomas More Law Center… Glenn told WND, ‘We’re gratified to receive Congressman King’s letter commending our civil rights lawsuit to overturn a law that — if used like similar ‘hate crime’ laws at the state level and abroad — will eventually threaten religious free speech rights by persecuting pastors and others who merely express disapproval of homosexual behavior and the political agenda that aggressively seeks to legitimize and promote it to our children.’” ——————————
WORLD NET DAILY
Washington, D.C.
April 20, 2010 U.S. congressman backs ‘hate crimes’ lawsuit
Tells pastors law is ‘unprecedented move to criminalize our thoughts’ By Drew Zahn
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa |
DES MOINES, Iowa – U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, sent an unsolicited letter to a group of Christian activists and pastors to support their efforts in suing Attorney General Eric Holder over the “hate crimes” law that President Obama signed into law late last year. “As a member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, I worked hard to stop this legislation,” King writes. “Like you, I believe this ‘Hate Crimes’ Act is unconstitutional and marks an unprecedented move to regulate and criminalize our thoughts.” King sent the letter to Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, who joined Pastors Levon Yuille, Rene Ouellette and James Combs in filing a lawsuit with the help of the Thomas More Law Center in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan earlier this year. The complaint contends that the “hate crimes” law violates the plaintiffs’ civil rights, since it opens Christians to being the target of federal investigations, grand juries and even charges for opposing or publicly criticizing the homosexual lifestyle and ‘gay’ activism. “On account of … the Hate Crimes Act, plaintiffs are targets for government scrutiny, questioning, investigation, surveillance, and other adverse law enforcement actions and thus seek judicial reassurance that they can freely participate in their speech and related religious activities without being investigated or prosecuted by the government or becoming part of official records because of their Christian beliefs,” the lawsuit explains. “In the complaint, you raise several constitutional and moral questions,” King writes. “Not only will this Act create a class of people that are ‘more equal than others,’ it will hinder your ability to preach the gospel and openly teach biblical principles. “As a Christian first and a congressman second, I know the conviction that brought you to institute this lawsuit,” King concludes. “I would like to commend you for your courage to challenge the constitutionality of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.” Glenn told WND, “We’re gratified to receive Congressman King’s letter commending our civil rights lawsuit to overturn a law that — if used like similar ‘hate crime’ laws at the state level and abroad — will eventually threaten religious free speech rights by persecuting pastors and others who merely express disapproval of homosexual behavior and the political agenda that aggressively seeks to legitimize and promote it to our children.” The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include individuals who already have faced accusations by homosexual advocates that they bear responsibility for the actions of others for no other reason than their agreement with biblical condemnations of homosexuality. The lawsuit cited the death of Andrew Anthos, a 72-year-old Detroit man allegedly the victim of a “hate crime” because of his “sexual orientation.” In that case, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force “blamed … Plaintiff Glenn’s ‘homophobic rants’ for causing his death.” According to the lawsuit, the homosexual activist said, “It is appalling hypocrisy for these forces to pretend that their venomous words and organizing have no connection to the plague of hate violence against gay people, including the murder of Mr. Anthos.” Anthos also was cited by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., as evidence of the need to extend federal “hate crimes” legislation to include “sexual orientation” as a protected classification. But the lawsuit said police and a medical examiner determined that Anthos died of natural causes. The complaint also said, “The former director of policy for the Triangle Foundation, a Michigan-based homosexual lobby group that supported the Hate Crimes Act, publicly stated, ‘We personally believe that the AFA may support the murder of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people.’” Such statements, combined with the “hate crimes” law that now exists, provide a “tool” of intimidation for federal officials, including Holder, “to abuse their positions of power to stifle political opinion and opposition to the homosexual agenda.” “It also provides political adversaries with a basis for making official criminal complaints and allegations against opponents of the homosexual agenda, such as plaintiffs, thereby deterring, inhibiting, and chilling the exercise of plaintiffs’ rights to freedom of speech, expressive association, and the free exercise of religion,” the complaint said. “By preaching God’s Word on homosexuality, plaintiffs and others are engaging in conduct that subjects them to federal questioning, investigation, and prosecution as principals pursuant to [the law] for counseling, commanding, or inducing a federal offense under … the Hate Crimes Act.” “There is no legitimate law enforcement need for this federal law,” said Richard Thompson, president of the Law Center. “Of the 1.38 million violent crimes reported in the U.S. by the FBI in 2008, only 243 were considered as motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation. “Moreover, Eric Holder himself testified at a Senate hearing that the states are doing a fine job in this area,” he said. “This is part of the list of political payoffs to homosexual advocacy groups for support of Barack Obama in the last presidential election. The sole purpose of this law is to criminalize the Bible and use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians from expressing their biblically-based religious belief that homosexual conduct is a sin. It elevates those persons who engage in deviant sexual behaviors, including pedophiles, to a special protected class of persons as a matter of federal law and policy,” he said. The Hate Crimes Act was dubbed by its critics as the “Pedophile Protection Act,” after an amendment to explicitly prohibit pedophiles from being protected by the act was defeated by majority Democrats. In fact, during congressional debate, supporters argued that all “philias,” or alternative sexual lifestyles, should be protected. Robert Muise, the lead attorney on the case, told WND the law also elevates people who “engaged in a certain class of deviant behavior to a protected class as a matter of federal law and policy.” With some classes of people given more “rights,” others naturally have “fewer,” he said. And that’s where Christians are targeted. He noted that in an earlier version of what eventually became law under Obama was a proposed amendment referring to reading or citing biblical passages “In 2007, when Congress was considering similar hate crimes legislation, a motion was made before the Committee on Rules in the House of Representatives to clarify that the printing, distribution, or public reading of the Bible was not prohibited by any provision of the proposed bill. The motion was defeated.” Contacted by WND, Holder’s office declined to comment on the case. The law was promoted by its advocates as cracking down on “bias” crimes motivated by a person’s “actual or perceived” “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” Yiulle is the pastor of The Bible Church in Michigan and national director of the National Black Pro-Life Congress. He hosts a radio program and “is often warned by his Canadian listeners that he will prosecuted under the new U.S. hate crimes law for his public ministry.” Ouellette is pastor of First Baptist in Bridgeport, Mich., with about 7,000 members, and the author of five books. Combs is lead pastor of Faith Church, The Point Church, The Rock Church and The River Church, with about 10,000 members. The civil rights violations created by the “hate crimes” law involve freedom of speech, expressive association, free exercise of religion, the equal protection guarantee and other provisions of the First, Fifth and 10th Amendments as well as Commerce Clause, the case said. “This new federal law promotes two Orwellian concepts. It creates a special class of persons who are ‘more equal than others’ based on nothing more than deviant, sexual behavior. And it creates ‘thought crimes’ by criminalizing certain ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and the involvement of such ideas, beliefs, and opinions in a crime will make it deserving of federal prosecution,” Muise said. “Consequently, government officials are claiming the power to decide which thoughts are criminal under federal law and which are not.” Obama signed the “Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act” in October 2009 after Democrats strategically attached it to a “must-pass” $680 billion defense-appropriations bill. The law cracks down on any acts that could be linked to criticism of homosexuality or even the “perception” of homosexuality. As Congress debated it, there were assurances it would not be used to crack down on speech. Days after Obama signed it, in response, pastors and other Christian leaders gathered to read from the Bible at a rally organized with the help of Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Coalition. Former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt of PrayInJesusName.org read from Romans: “And they that commit such things are worthy of death.” “The government has to invade my thoughts to decide what my motive was in quoting the Bible,” Klingenschmitt explained. “I can be prosecuted if the government thinks my motive was wrong.” The rally took place in front of the Holder’s offices. He supported the bill although he explained it does not protect all people equally. He is charged with enforcing the law. Obama boasted of the “hate crimes” bill when he signed it into law. “After more than a decade, we’ve passed inclusive hate-crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are,” he said. Some of the rally in opposition to the law was captured by Christian Broadcasting Network on video: “If this law is used to silence me or any of these preachers for speaking the truth, then we will be forced to conscientiously defy it,” Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America, declared. “That is my calling as a Christian and my right as an American citizen.” Janet Porter of Faith2Action called it a “sad day for America.” “While a small minority of homosexual activists are celebrating, thousands of pastors, priests and rabbis are lamenting their loss of First Amendment freedoms. I for one refuse to bow before this unjust and unconstitutional law, and I intend to continue to preach the whole counsel of God as revealed in the Scriptures,” she wrote. “But this law doesn’t just affect pastors; it will criminalize the beliefs of millions of ordinary people who may now be afraid to speak even their pro-marriage positions lest it spark a federal ‘hate crime’ investigation,” Porter wrote. Cass noted in the U.K., a senior citizen was accused of “hate crimes” for writing a letter objecting to a pro-homosexual festival: “This is the way it gets implemented in all the other countries,” Cass said. “Christians are singled out for prosecution, with threats, imprisonment and fines simply for refusing to stop doing what Christ commands: proclaiming the truth.” “[These cases] are a good precursor of where this goes,” he warned. The bill signed by Obama was opposed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which called it a “menace” to civil liberties. The commission argued the law allows federal authorities to bring charges against individuals even if they’ve already been cleared in a state court. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=143513
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April 5, 2010 SAGINAW NEWS
Saginaw, Michigan
April 3, 2010(Guest Commentary) Columnist’s disagreement is with his Maker, not Gary Glenn
by Mike Westfall, Presque Isle In answer to Justin L. Engel’s March 26 column in The Saginaw News, “Anti-gay critic doesn’t — and shouldn’t — rattle Democratic leader:” http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2010/03/opinion_anti-gay_push_doesnt_-.html Mr. Engel, shame on you for your biased, pro-gay piece written at the expense of American Family Association of Michigan President Gary Glenn and the hard-working Michigan families who support his work. Your article, as well as some of the twisted commentaries, are representative of the politically correct, liberal mindset of many misguided people today. Let me put you straight. According to Scripture, the practice of homosexuality is a sin. Gary Glenn did not write the Bible. Your confusion and disagreement, along with those who agree with you, is with your Maker, not Mr. Glenn. The American Family Association, which you choose to bash, believes America was founded upon biblical truth and that the Bible is the only inspired and infallible word of God. Today, special interest groups are bashing Christians because the Bible will not support their lifestyle. The faith and cultural values of our nation’s foundation are under attack. The obvious goal of these special interest groups is for America to become a Godless, hedonistic, self-indulgent, complacent place where ridiculed Christians are rendered voiceless. So, no, Mr. Engel, I am not buying your arguments, because your conclusions are faulty. I will continue to support the AFA and Gary Glenn, who co-authored the Marriage Protection Amendment. Gary correctly states that those who support the protection of traditional marriage should be concerned with homosexual activists who have risen to the top of the Democratic Party chain. Gary is an appreciated lightening rod for decency, a powerful man of faith and a true American hero. We thank our God for his untiring dedication, for putting the cause above himself and for the abuse he takes from people like yourself. Every American who espouses a biblical world view owes Gary Glenn a debt of gratitude. Largely because of him, traditional marriage still stands in America today. http://www.mlive.com/opinion/saginaw/index.ssf/2010/04/columnists_disagreemnent_is_wi.html
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September 11, 2006 DAILY MAIL
London, England
September 7, 2006 How Britain is turning Christianity into a crime
by Melanie Phillips How long will it be before Christianity becomes illegal in Britain? This is no longer the utterly absurd and offensive question that on first blush it would appear to be. An evangelical Christian campaigner, Stephen Green was arrested and charged last weekend with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour. So what was this behaviour? Merely trying peacefully to hand out leaflets at a gay rally in Cardiff. So what was printed on those leaflets that was so threatening, abusive or insulting that it attracted the full force of the law? Why, none other than the majestic words of the 1611 King James Bible. The problem was that they were those bits of the Bible which forbid homosexuality. The leaflets also urged homosexuals to “turn from your sins and you will be saved”. But to the secular priests of the human rights culture, the only sin is to say that homosexuality is a sin. Admittedly, Mr Green is not everyone’s cup of tea; other Christians regard him as extreme. But our society is now so upside-down that, by doing nothing more than upholding a fundamental tenet of Christianity, he was treated like a criminal. And yet at the same time, the police are still studiously refusing to act against Islamic zealots abusing British freedom to preach hatred and incitement against the West. Prejudice The Bible is the moral code that underpins our civilisation. Yet the logic of the police action against Mr Green surely leads ultimately to the inescapable conclusion that the Bible itself is “hate speech” and must be banned. This bizarre state of affairs has arisen thanks to our human rights culture which automatically champions minorities against the majority. As a result, no one can say anything disobliging about a minority without being accused of prejudice or discrimination. The problem for Christianity is that it holds that homosexuality is wrong. This, however, it is no longer allowed to say because it treats a minority practice as sinful. So it can no longer uphold a central tenet of its own faith without being accused of prejudice. This dilemma is currently tearing apart the Church of England itself. But it is also turning our whole notion of justice on its head. Author Lynette Burrows received a warning from the Metropolitan Police merely for suggesting that gay people did not make ideal adoptive parents. The former leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, also had his collar felt by police after he said that homosexuality was harmful. Notably, in his case the matter was swiftly dropped. If there’s one thing that terrifies our PC police even more than being called homophobic, it’s being called Islamophobic — even though Islamic fundamentalism poses a real threat to the human rights of gay people. If this wasn’t all so frightening, it would be hilarious. Christians, by contrast, get very different treatment. An elderly evangelical preacher, Harry Hammond, was convicted of a public order offence after he held up a poster calling for an end to homosexuality, lesbianism and immorality. Although he had been the victim of a physical attack when a crowd poured soil and water over him, he alone was prosecuted. And Lancashire pensioners Joe and Helen Roberts were interrogated by police for 80 minutes about their ‘homophobic’ views after they had merely asked their local council to display Christian literature alongside gay rights leaflets in civic buildings. Bullying Christianity is fast becoming the creed that dare not speak its name. It is being written out of the national script by ideologues seeking to hasten its disappearance. Yesterday, the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said in a radio interview that Britain was “no longer a Christian country” because people no longer went to church. Local authorities and government bodies are systematically bullying Christianity out of existence by refusing to fund Christian voluntary groups on the grounds that to be Christian means that they are not committed to ‘diversity’. Thus local and central government refused to replicate the vocational training provided by the Highfields Happy Hens Centre in Derbyshire for young offenders and pupils excluded from school despite its impressive record of success, simply because it was run with a clear Christian ethos. Norfolk council objected to the inclusion of the word ‘Christian’ in the constitution of Barnabas House in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, which houses homeless young men. And the Housing Corporation, the major funder of Romford YMCA in Essex which looks after hundreds of needy young people, objected to the fact that only Christians were board members — which meant, it said, that the YMCA was not capable of ‘diversity’, even though it was open to all faiths and none. The ‘diversity’ agenda, in other words, is a fig-leaf for an attack on Christianity. And to cap it all, we can no longer rely on our future monarch to hold the line, since Prince Charles has said that when he becomes King he will no longer be Defender of the Faith but “defender of faith”. But Christianity is still the official religion of this country. All its institutions, its history and its culture are suffused with it; Britain would lose its identity, its values and its cohesion without it. But minority rights are now being wielded against it like a wrecking ball. What started as a commendable desire to ban hatred of the gay minority has morphed into a hatred of the Christian majority. Behaviour which was previously considered to transgress the moral norms of the Bible has now instead become the norm — and it is biblical values that are treated as beyond the pale of acceptable behaviour. This is no accident. The sacred doctrine of human rights — which explicitly sets itself up as the religion for a godless age — is the means by which secularism is steadily attacking the Christian roots of our civilisation, on the basis that religion is inherently unenlightened, prejudiced and divisive. Christianity has been dethroned as this country’s governing creed on the basis that equality demands equal status for minority faiths and secularism. As a result, it is being marginalised as no more than a quaint cultural curiosity. Offensive It is a process before which the Church of England has long been on its knees, going with the flow of moral and cultural collapse in accordance with the doctrine of multiculturalism — and then wondering why its churches are so empty, while those of uncompromising evangelicals such as Stephen Green are packed to the rafters. As a result, Christianity is being steadily removed from the public sphere. Various councils have banned Christmas on the grounds that it is “too Christian” and therefore “offensive” to people of other faiths, and are replacing it with meaningless “winter festivals”. This attack on Christianity is not merely something that seems straight out of Alice In Wonderland. It is not merely a threat to freedom of speech and religious expression. It is a fundamental onslaught on the national identity and bedrock values of this country — and as such will destroy those freedoms which Christianity itself first created. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ January 10, 2006  Traditional marriage supporters welcome
Rev. Bernice King visit to Central Michigan
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — A statewide group that promotes traditional family values including one-man, one-woman marriage Tuesday commended Central Michigan University for inviting the Rev. Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to deliver the keynote address Jan. 19th during campus events next week commemorating the slain civil rights leader’s birthday. Tracey Lee, West Bloomfield, an African-American attorney and spokesperson for the American Family Association of Michigan, based in Midland, welcomed King’s appearance. “We applaud CMU for inviting a true civil rights advocate who boldly testifies that the movement her father led was a faith-based initiative run by African-American pastors from the pulpits of Christian churches,” Lee said. “Rev. Bernice King fearlessly defends her father’s legacy from those who try to use the Civil Rights Movement to legitimize a political agenda that undermines and attacks traditional Christian doctrine on marriage and morality.”
(more…) January 5, 2006 Amendment co-author files amicus brief Wednesday Marriage amendment bans recognition of homosexual relationships “for any purpose,”
including benefits, group tells appeals court Benefit plans offered broadly to all employees still allowed + PDF file of full amicus brief is downloadable here +  LANSING — A Marriage Protection Amendment approved by nearly 60 percent of Michigan voters in 2004 prohibits government from recognizing homosexual relationships as equal or similar to marriage for any purpose, including as a basis for providing taxpayer-financed benefits to government employees, the family values group that first proposed and co-authored the amendment told a state Court of Appeals Wednesday.
The American Family Association of Michigan, in an “amicus” brief filed with the court, joined Attorney General Mike Cox in asking the Court of Appeals to overturn a decision by Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk, who ruled in 2005 that the amendment does not affect “domestic partner” benefit plans based on government recognition of homosexual relationships. Draganchuk’s ruling was expected following endorsement of her 2004 election campaign by two homosexual activist political action committees.
(more…) January 4, 2006 “Three days later, Our Lady of Lansing is singing a different hymn. Seems her earlier comments drew an enthusiastic response from the American Family Association of Michigan, which says it wants the guv’s help in displaying the Ten Commandment Monument…” (more…) December 21, 2005 Values group hails unanimous decision Tuesday 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals:
“The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.” CINCINNATI — In an astounding return to judicial interpretation of the actual text of the United States Constitution, a unanimous panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Tuesday issued an historic decision declaring that “the First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.” In upholding a Kentucky county’s right to display the Ten Commandments, the panel called the American Civil Liberties Union’s repeated claims to the contrary “extra-constitutional” and “tiresome.” See Cincinnat Enquirer. See page 13 of full Court of Appeals decision. “Patriotic Americans should observe a day of prayer and thanksgiving for this stunning and historic reversal of half a century of misinformation and judicial distortion of the document that protects our religious freedoms,” said Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan. “We are particularly excited that such an historic, factual, and truth-based decision is now a controlling precedent for the federal Court of Appeals that rules on all Michigan cases,” Glenn said. 6th Circuit Judge Richard Suhrheinrich wrote in the unanimous decision: “The ACLU makes repeated reference to the ’separation of church and state.’ This extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state. Our nation’s history is replete with governmental acknowledgment and in some cases, accommodation of religion.” The words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the U.S. Constitution, though according to polls, a majority of Americans have been misled to believe that they do, Glenn said. For background information, see: http://www.answers.com/topic/separation-of-church-and-state-in-the-united-states December 4, 2005 “His organization ‘relies on the Thomas More Law Center as a faithful and extremely effective ally in promoting and defending the traditional family values shared by most Americans,’ said Gary Glenn, president of American Family Association of Michigan, an organization best known for fighting gay rights.”
(more…) December 2, 2005 UPDATE: Thanks to some quick work by our faithful allies at the Thomas More Law Center, the neighborhood association mentioned below has already apologized in writing to the Samonas and even sent them a “holiday” fruit basket, which the family forwarded to a local charity. Salute and Merry Christmas to this courageous family and our friends at TMLC. Gary Glenn, President
AFA-Michigan
 AFA-Michigan offers to pay fines, legal fees for Novi homeowners Group says neighborhood Nativity ban discriminates against Christians, compares to race-based covenants NOVI, Mich. — A Novi neighborhood association’s attempt to ban Christmas decorations that feature the Baby Jesus and other Biblical figures associated with the birth of Christ is as blatantly unlawful, unconstitutional, and discriminatory toward Christians as neighborhood covenants that once prohibited African-Americans from purchasing homes, a statewide family values group charged Wednesday.
(more…) November 17, 2005  Dear AFA-Michigan supporter,
I hope you will find this encouraging, a group of concerned parents who are doing an inspired and extremely effective job of communicating support for traditional family values in their community and public schools. Gary Glenn
AFA-Michigan “The grass-roots traditional values group has been a thorn in the side of the Howell Public Schools Board of Education since June, when the group approached the board with an offer to provide enough copies of the national motto — “In God We Trustâ€? — to hang in every classroom in the district. …The district has rejected the offer, but the group has been persistent in its message, continuing to push the issue, most recently noting that on Monday the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal to have the motto removed from a government building in North Carolina.”
(more…) November 14, 2005 “The Supreme Court on Monday…did not comment in rejecting an appeal over an ‘In God We Trust’ inscription on the Davidson County Government Center in Lexington, N.C. The inscription, in 18-inch block letters, was paid for with donations from individuals and churches in 2002. …A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that ‘In God We Trust’ appears on the nation’s coins and was made the national motto by Congress. ‘In this situation, the reasonable observer must be deemed aware of the patriotic uses, both historical and present, of the phrase “In God We Trust,”‘ the court ruled.”
(more…) October 12, 2005 When Howell High School’s homosexual student club hung the official “gay pride” flag in the school’s main stairwell to protest voter approval of the Marriage Protection Amendment, Howell school board members ignored parents’ protests and officially approved the display, even holding a flag dedication ceremony. The same school board arrogantly refuses to allow displays of the national motto of the United States: “In God We Trust.”
Please support Howell parents taking a stand for their families and family values by expressing your opinion: Howell Public Schools
Phone: 517-548-6200
E-mail: blairk@howellschools.com
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