Syria: The Sectarian Divide

Source: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

The two-year armed conflict in Syria has left at least 80,000 people dead and more than 5 million displaced. In his May 13, 2013 press conference with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, President Obama noted the difficulty of “putting things back together” in Syria after “the furies have been unleashed.”

These “furies” include a brutal conflict that increasingly is sectarian in nature. The recent massacre in Bayda and the kidnapping of bishops of the Syriac and Greek Orthodox Churches underscore the fact that what began as a political struggle in Syria has become a war in which sectarian rhetoric and religiously-motivated violence have led to sectarian divides.

“We are deeply worried for the lives of Archbishop Mor Gregiorius Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church, who were kidnapped on April 22 while providing humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged people of Syria,” said USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett. “These two religious leaders put aside their own safety by travelling to one of the worst areas of fighting to help those Syrians left with few basic necessities after more than two years of war. The United States and the international community must leave no stone unturned to free the Archbishops and halt sectarian violence,” said Dr. Swett.

The civil war in Syria began in March 2011 when peaceful protests by mostly Sunni Muslim opponents of the al-Assad regime called for the repeal of the country’s abusive emergency law, space for political parties, and the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. The civil war that has now entered into its third year has caused at least 80,000 deaths 1.3 million refugees and at least 3.6 million internally displaced people. The brutal massacre by al-Assad’s armed forces in the town of Bayda on May 2 claimed the lives of dozens, including women and children, largely from that town’s Sunni Muslim community.

“The use of sectarian violence and rhetoric will destroy any hope that Syria will emerge from this war as a representative democracy in which human rights and religious freedom for all Syrians is promoted and protected,” said Dr. Lantos Swett. “The kidnapping of the Archbishops and the massacre of innocents are only the latest attempts to inflame tensions between religious communities and divide them along sectarian lines. The al-Assad regime and some opposition forces, including those foreign to Syria who espouse violence based on extreme religious ideologies, increasingly are stoking sectarian tensions as a tactic in the civil war.”

USCIRF’s report, “Protecting and Promoting Religious Freedom in Syria” includes preliminary findings and recommendations on the situation in Syria and underscores the detrimental effects of sectarianism on Syria’s current and future religious freedom environment.

Global Pro-Life Conference and Papal Mass

By Austin Ruse

(ROME – C-FAM) Pro-lifers held their breath the day the world received a new Pope. They did not question his pro-life credentials but wondered if he would speak forcefully.

An old quote soon surfaced and concerns faded. “Defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you. No child should be deprived of the right to be born, the right to be fed, the right to go to school.”

This June the Pope also will play a central role in the Vatican’s annual celebration of the Gospel of Life, the papal teaching published by Pope John Paul II in 1995. His successor, Benedict XVI, started the annual celebration a few years ago that features a papal mass for pro-life leaders. The new Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, established by Benedict to encourage a reawakening of the faith in traditionally Christian countries, leads an expanded celebration this year.

This year’s three-day celebration begins with a conference funded by C-FAM and led by its chairman, Douglas A. Sylva. Cardinal Raymond Burke will deliver the keynote address on the Gospel of Life and the New Evangelization. Dr. Robert Royal of the Faith and Reason Institute and Dr. Francis Beckwith of Baylor University will answer Burke’s keynote address.

Unlike Protestant and even Evangelical denominations, the Catholic Church has not waivered on the question of abortion or other life issues. The Church sees an inextricable link between its central evangelical mission and the life.

On Saturday morning pro-life pilgrims will gather around Rome and proceed to the tomb of St. Peter. Churches near the Vatican will host an afternoon of Eucharistic adoration followed by a prayer vigil and candlelight procession led by American Archbishop Augustine DeNoia, head of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship. The procession ends near the Vatican where some think Pope Francis will greet the crowd. Surprising many, Francis visited the Roman March for Life.

On Sunday, June 16, Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass for Life in St. Peter’s Square.

A number of Americans have helped plan this event including representatives from Priests for Life, the Pro-Life Secretariat of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Alliance Defending Freedom, Susan B. Anthony List, Students for Life of America, LiveAction, and Americans United for Life.

Besides the conference for English speakers, there will be events in other languages with many attendees expected from Europe.

The Pope’s commitment to life issues cannot be underestimated. He sets the tone of the church and while many bishops and priests shy from the life issues, they find that more difficult if the Pope assertively leads the way.

Pope Francis continues to express strong pro-life views. Besides appearing unexpectedly at the Rome March for Life, he tweeted this week: ”It is God who gives life. Let us respect and love human life, especially vulnerable life in a mother’s womb.”

The Overcriminalization of America (Video)

In conjunction with the upcoming release of his new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, John W. Whitehead sits down to discuss several “pressure points” that are threatening the Bill of Rights and undermining our essential freedoms. In part two of this special series, Whitehead examines the overcriminalization of America.

Motorists Are Encouraged to Buckle Up

[XENIA, OH] — Safety should be everyone’s top priority and Laurie Fox, Greene County Safe Communities
Coordinator, reminds all Greene County residents that saving a life is a snap. Buckle Up America encourages
everyone on the road to use seat belts and restraints and to use them properly.

“Seat belts are the most effective lifesaving feature in a vehicle,” said Ms. Fox. “However, they only work if you use them and use them correctly. It only takes a second to snap the buckle on a seat belt, but the benefits can last you a lifetime.”

In 2011 alone, seat belts saved an estimated 11,949 lives nationwide. But nearly one in five Americans still fail to buckle up regularly and too many children still don’t use their seat belts or child safety seats. In 2011, of the 21,253 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed in motor vehicle crashes nationwide, 52% were NOT wearing seat belts at the time of their fatal crashes.

In 1998, the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), developed a national initiative to increase seat belt use to 85% by the year 2000 and to 90% by 2005. The latest national seat belt use rate was 86% in 2012.

“You have too much to lose if you don’t buckle up”, said Ms. Fox. “Using a seat belt will halve your chances of
being killed or badly injured in a serious crash, and using the proper age-appropriate car seat in a passenger car will reduce your infant’s chance of fatal injury by 71% and your toddler’s by 54%.”

According to research compiled by NHTSA, from 1975 through 2009 an estimated 9,310 children under age 5 were saved by child restraints (car seats or adult seat belts).

All States have laws requiring infants and toddlers to ride in car seats, but children still ride unprotected, and the consequences are frightening. According to NHTSA, fully 31% of passenger vehicle occupants under 5 who were fatally injured in crashes in 2009 were riding unrestrained.

“Let’s use Buckle Up America! Commit to wearing seat belts on every trip, ensuring that everyone who rides in our cars is buckled up and that all children 12 and younger ride in the back seat in properly installed restraints appropriate for their age and size,” Ms. Fox said. “Remember; never place a rear-facing infant seat in front of an air bag. Drivers and front-seat passengers should maintain at least a 10-inch distance between themselves and their air bags. While we cannot always avoid a crash, we can take the responsibility to do everything in our power to protect ourselves and our loved ones.” Buckle Up America, Every Trip. Every Time.

The public is invited to attend the Click It or Ticket Kick Off set for Tuesday, May 21st at 9:00am at Xenia
High School, 303 Kinsey Road in Xenia. Remarks on the campaign, seat belt use and enforcement will be
provided by local officials and the winner of the Greene County High School Click It or Ticket Poster Contest will be recognized.

For more information on the Greene County Safe Communities Coalition, please call 937-374-5669 or email
lfox@gcchd.org. For more information on seat belt safety, visit http://www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov.

Bob Ford & Ragmuffens Performing Saturday May 18

IRS Tea Party Scandal Fallout

The IRS apologized for its political bias towards social-welfare or advocacy organizations like the Tea Party groups. The IRS targeted the Tea Party because of its political advocacy, but presumably political groups were not the only ones singled out for special scrutiny. Some lawyers reported educational groups have also been receiving undue scrutiny. It is suspected that any group advocating for conservative political issues received IRS’s biased attention. Fortunately for some non-profits, only organizations applying for tax-exemption are being adversely effected.

An article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy voiced the following concerns about the likely effects this controversy will have:

The whirlwind of controversy surrounding the disclosure that the Internal Revenue Service had singled out applications from conservative advocacy groups seeking tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny could damage the agency’s ability to regulate charities, hinder needed efforts to update IRS rules, and deter nonprofits from expanding their advocacy efforts, say nonprofit experts.

They fear that the political fallout, including plans for Congressional hearings, will delay even further some of the issues that the nonprofit world has wanted lawmakers and the IRS to tackle for many years, including beefing up oversight of tax-exempt organizations and giving clearer guidance about what constitutes political activities for both charities and advocacy groups.

“All nonprofits are being smeared as though we are engaging in political activity,” said Tim Delaney, president of the National Council of Nonprofits.

He worries that tens of thousands of charities that are navigating the slow process of getting their tax-exempt status approved could now face delays as Congress reviews how the IRS handled applications from the much smaller universe of 501(c)(4) groups. Charities make up the vast majority of the 60,000 applications for tax-exempt status the IRS manages each year, with about 3,500 applications coming from advocacy groups in 2012.

The good news for non-profits with existing tax-exempt status is that they only have to deal with fallout caused by the great recession.

In Jesus’ Name, Simply Love Her (Video)

Ten Commandments of Capitalism

Charles Dykes article titled Is There a Moral Basis for Capitalism? is a true classic. Not only does he explain how capitalism is an economic system of Christianity but demonstrates its principles of economic justice. What I like about Dykes article is the Ten Commandments of capitalism. That is, he shows how those biblical laws are the moral basis of the capitalism. For example,

While keeping in mind that the market economy is only a part or aspect of society, we do contend that capitalism is more than just an economic system of voluntary relationships. Specifically, it is an economic system based on the right of private ownership of property and a free market for goods and services, consistent with the second table of the moral law.

The fifth commandment of the Decalogue, “honor thy father and thy mother,” implies that the family, not the state, is the basic social and economic unit of society and should be the strongest. R. J. Rushdoony has noted that “throughout history the basic welfare agency has been the family. The family, in providing for its sick and needy members, in educating children, caring for parents, and in coping with emergencies and disasters, has done and is doing more than the state has ever done or can do.” A society characterized by a significant degree of economic freedom is always a society dominated by strong family units who provide for their own. This contrasts with socialism, whose basic goals, if realized, would destroy the family in the interests of the larger collective.

The sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” is “simply the other face of Locke’s and Jefferson’s ‘unalienable’ right to life.” Without it, the family is threatened. Individual and collective liberty also is jeaporodized.

The seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” teaches us, as does the ninth commandment, that contracts must be honored and double-dealing scorned. “The historic link between the biblical idea of binding covenants and the Western idea of binding contracts,” writes Gary North, “is obvious enough.”[8] The very idea of contracting for joint benefit presupposes a high level of moral integrity and faithfulness on the part of all the parties engaged in the transaction.

In socialism the paternal state seeks to vitiate the necessity for the sanctity of contracts by substituting its omnipotent controls and decrees. Opportunity for moral development and the growth of trust between free men is thereby suppressed. The socialist ethic in this area is readily illustrated in the attitude of contemporary socialist bloc nations toward the fulfillment of treaty obligations.

The ninth commandment forbids lying. The whole idea of a free market implies that the parties to this voluntary exchange will not deceive each other…. Lying is an inescapable concomitant of socialism. The socialists must forever condemn profits, for instance, and the profit motive. But the truth is, socialist nations are just as profit- minded as are capitalist nations. The difference: In capitalist nations the individual reaps the profits and decides how they will be used; in Socialist nations the state reaps the profits and determines what to do with them. So lying, even about its basic tenets, is crucial to socialism.

The tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” “means that it is sinful even to contemplate the seizure of another man’s goods—which is something which Socialists, whether Christians or otherwise, have never managed to explain away.” Coveting is a root of all social evil.

This law forbids dishonest gain not just to the individual, but to the state and all institutions. “The state is often used as the legal means whereby others are defrauded of their possessions. Socialism, through its employment of the police powers of the state for the purpose of expropriating the wealth of producers to transfer to nonproducers, is one example.”

I know an even more specific example: U.S. income tax law. Comprehensive research shows the 16th amendment to the Constitution was not legally passed. which is likely the reason members of Congress have been attempting to pass an alternate tax to alleviate the problem. When passed, the fair or flat tax proposal would continue generating operating revenue for the federal government while eliminating its police power (IRS) to forcefully expropriate the fruit of American labor. The eighth commandment is “Thou shalt not steal.”

Like the Declaration of Independence, capitalism assumes an obligation to fulfill the laws of the first tablet: God is the Creator and Supreme Judge of all nations and people. God is to be honored by keeping his laws. Capitalism works because its results trends toward prosperity and a measure of happiness for all. It is also the reason why our mixed economy does not.

Is There a Moral Basis for Capitalism is an article well-worth reading. You will find it at http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/is-there-a-moral-basis-for-capitalism.

A Caring Place Letter: How to Help Our Community

FIRST EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH 287 W. Main Street Xenia, Ohio 45385 937-372-7421 Dear Friend; Some of you have asked how you or your organization could help serve those in need in our Community; this letter will answer how you can get involved. Our Church hosts the “Caring Place” and every Thursday from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. we open our doors and usually feed 170-200 folks. We have been doing this for a few decades and we have partnered with many other Churches, Organizations, businesses, governments, and people to feed all who arrive without any judgments. This year we have some dates that have not yet been spoke for and we could use some help. Our Church fills in the holes and when we partner with an organization we provide a fully stocked kitchen, and a room set up with tables and chairs. Your organization would provide the food, plates and some volunteers to help serve. If you want to make a monetary donation that is also very much appreciated and you can make a check out to First Lutheran, please provide a note that you want it to go to the Caring Place and it is tax deductible. The dates that we have openings for are: May 23, and May 30, June 27, Aug 15, Sep 19, Oct 3, and Oct 31, Dec 3, 12, and Dec 26. If this interests you please call Evie at our Church and she can answer any questions. Also, know you are welcome to worship with us any time. I am confident you find our Congregation welcoming and know that our Pastor Alicia starts worship Sunday’s at 9:30 a.m. We appreciate your time and consideration, we wish you all God’s Peace. Sincerely; John Saraga, Council President jsaraga@sbcglobal.net Our Purpose Statement: “EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WE WORSHIP, REACH OUT, SHARE THE GOSPEL AND SERVE” Semper Fidelis; John Saraga, USMC, Ret. (Mustang)

Toxic Exports: Harvey Karman, Planned Parenthood, and the Exploitation of Rape Victims

By Rebecca Oas, Ph.D.

NEW YORK, May 10 (C-FAM) An effort to advance abortion by exploiting women raped in war stirs memories of an earlier campaign, its dangerous gadgetry, and a grisly abortionist now on trial for murder.

A new political campaign seeks to overturn a U.S. prohibition against funding abortions overseas, framing the procedure as humanitarian aid. That’s despite the disastrous consequences of a 1970s experiment using the plight of pregnant women in conflict areas to extend abortion, which became a cover for an abortion gadfly named Harvey Karman to test new and controversial abortion devices. In 1972, he used one in collaboration with Kermit Gosnell in what became known as the Mothers Day Massacre.

Karman’s “consuming passion” for abortion was matched only by his “incessant self-promotion.”

During the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war, Pakistani soldiers raped hundreds of thousands of women and many became pregnant. While the Muslim country only permitted abortion to save the life of the mother, the Bangladesh government waived the restriction for those raped during the war.

The following year, a small group of abortion experts arrived in Bangladesh in a partnership between the International Planned Parenthood Federation and a U.S.-based group. Planned Parenthood invited Karman to train local health workers to perform abortions, despite his earlier criminal conviction for performing illegal abortions and his having no credentials save a degree in psychology. Authorities had arrested Karman five times, including when his 1955 attempt to induce an abortion using a nutcracker caused a woman’s death.

In Bangladesh, Karman’s preferred method for early abortion involved a manual vacuum device he invented. Many of the women’s pregnancies were too advanced for that approach. Instead, Karman used a “super coil” made up of sharp plastic strips and inserted it into the woman’s uterus. He boasted that both devices could be made for pennies and reused hundreds of times, but did not discuss sterilizing them between patients. Reports indicate the women suffered a high rate of complications from the super coil.

Upon returning to the U.S., Karman teamed up with Kermit Gosnell in a 1972 publicity stunt intended to promote the super coil. Merle Goldberg, the pro-abortion activist who had instigated the Planned Parenthood mission to Bangladesh, bussed poor women with late-term pregnancies to Gosnell’s clinic in Philadelphia for abortions. The stunt turned disastrous when nine of fifteen women suffered serious complications.

Prosecutors charged Karman with practicing medicine without a license. His testimony hinged on technicalities: He admitted that he inserted a coil and might have “eased out” fetal material with forceps, but emphasized that he went no farther than the cervical canal. Another court later overturned his conviction.

The Centers for Disease Control issued a report warning that the method carried significant risk. In response, Goldberg defended the super-coil method. In an interview with a feminist newsletter, she said there was “no contest” between super coil and other second-trimester techniques, and she would choose the super-coil “hands down” if she wanted a late-term abortion.

When Karman died in 2008, a Planned Parenthood director credited him with doing “more for safe abortion around the world than practically any other person in the world.”

Karman’s former colleague Gosnell currently awaits a verdict on charges filed in 2010 of murdering one woman and several newborns in his Philadelphia abortion clinic.

Rebecca Oas is the Associate Director of Research for the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). Her article first appeared in the Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-FAM, a New York and Washington DC-based research institute (http://www.c-fam.org/).

[Note: Some background articles about the recent efforts to promote abortion for women raped during war are included here: New York Times article, Abortion and Women Overseas, adds its sales pitch to those in the UK and EU reported in European Leaders Use Laws of War to Pressure US to Fund Abortions in Africa. It's one thing for other nations to promote this, but American laws supposedly prohibit use of foreign aid to fund any abortion activities abroad. For a historical background on these laws read a Congressional Research Service Report titled Abortion and Family Planning-Related Provisions in U.S. Foreign Assistance Law and Policy. As the above article by Oas reminds us that safe abortion is not necessary the end result of liberal policy. Voluntary measures to prevent pregnancies of rape victims certainly should be made obtainable to them, but supporting the strategy to expand Planned Parenthood services and further globalize the left's abortion agenda may not be as safe as it has been sold.]