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Religious Leaders Call for Civil Disobedience if Laws Don’t Respect Faith

 Saturday, November 21, 2009 2:52 PM

   

 A formidable coalition of 150 Catholic, Orthodox and evangelical leaders are calling on Christians in a new manifesto to reject secular authority – and even engage in civil disobedience – if laws force them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage and other ideas that betray their religious beliefs.

On Friday, these leaders released a 4,700-word document – called the "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience."

The document was signed by leaders ranging from evangelical leader Chuck Colson to two of the leading Catholic prelates in the U.S., Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, and calls on Christians to engage in civil disobedience to defend their doctrines.

The document also blasts the Obama administration, saying that social ills have grown since the election of President Obama, an abortion rights advocate, along with an erosion of what it calls "marriage culture" with the rise of divorce, greater acceptance of infidelity and the uncoupling of marriage from childbearing.

Colson says the project is aimed at instilling social conservative beliefs in a new generation of believers.

"We argue that there is a hierarchy of issues," he told The New York Times. "A lot of younger evangelicals say they're all alike. We're hoping to educate them that these are the three most important issues" – abortion marriage and religious liberty.

"We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them," says the declaration, which was drafted by Colson, an evangelical, and Princeton University professor Robert P. George, a Roman Catholic.

The declaration lists the "fundamental truths" as the "sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife, and the rights of conscience and religious liberty."

"Throughout the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required," says the document which cited civil rights icon Martin Luther King and his willingness to go to jail for his beliefs.

"Because we honor justice and the common good," it states, "we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide or euthanasia or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family."

George and other signers backed off from specifically defining what civil disobedience may entail. Wuerl's office played down the civil disobedience wording, saying he wasn't urging Catholics to "do anything specific," his spokeswoman Susan Gibbs told The Washington Post. "That wasn't something we had talked about."

"We certainly hope it doesn't come to that," said George, who told The Washington Times that he has represented a West Virginia resident who has refused to pay a portion of her state income tax that funds abortions. "However, we see case after case of challenges to religious liberty," such as compelling pharmacists to carry abortifacient drugs or health care workers to assist in abortions, he added.

"When the limits of conscience are reached and you cannot comply, it's better to suffer a wrong than to do it," he said.

Unveiling the declaration Friday, Archbishop Wuerl appeared at a news conference in the District of Columbia even as the Church was considering a city-proposed compromise on its same-sex marriage measure.

He and other Church officials say the bill would require faith-based groups like Catholic Charities to extend benefits to married same-sex partners, thus forcing Christians to abandon their religious liberty. On Friday, Catholic Charities of Boston halted adoption services rather than comply with state law and allow children to be adopted by homosexual couples.

Other signatories to the document include Cardinal Justin Rigali, outgoing chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities; Pentecostal leader Harry Jackson, pastor of a Beltsville church; evangelical activist Tony Perkins; and National Association of Evangelicals President Leith Anderson.

Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Newsweek the point of the Declaration is really to avoid mistakes of the past, such as when religious leaders did not stand up early enough against no-fault divorce, which he says led directly to the breakup of families and high divorce rates.

“I’m a former police officer, and I have hard time with civil disobedience, but if it comes to the point where our religious liberty is at risk, I’d not only participate but would encourage people to resist.”

The leaders are urging the public to sign the online document.

Read the full document here

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Posted in: Pro-Life Articles

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Wednesday, December 30, 2009 7:46 AM
'In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe ?'

Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the
Netherlands , at the Four Seasons, New York , introducing an Alliance
of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem .

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for inviting me.

I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old
world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very
difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the
Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger
to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the
sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of
Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.

First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe . Then,
I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about
a meeting in Jerusalem .

The Europe you know is changing.

You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities,
sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is
another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by
Muslim mass-migration.

All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim
neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even
seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the
police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk
around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of
children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three
steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have
signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any
economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious
fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming
in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for
territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe ,
street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.

There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe . With larger
congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city
there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church
in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.

Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take
Amsterdam , Marseille and Malmo in Sweden . In many cities the
majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now
surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most
popular name among boys in many cities.

In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be
mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that
would be an insult to Muslims.

Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to
all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost
exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore,
whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but
to stations in the country of origin.

In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed
offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is
increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no
longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.

In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal
system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women
without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten
up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan.

Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst
wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly
spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya , Israel . I could go
on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.

A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego
University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the
population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard
Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.

Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening
if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But
there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that
half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than
their loyalty to France . One-third of French Muslims do not object
to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported
that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide
caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how
we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.

The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia
in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet
members with passports from Morocco and Turkey .

Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty
crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and
bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in
the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators
'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to
integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into
their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.

Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively
against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their
neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are
now a swing vote not to be ignored.

The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the
prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be
criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say
like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no
problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile,
and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition
tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered
and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered
the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is
good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.

Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a
god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a
political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for
society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every
aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible
with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is
sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to
communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.

Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde
force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the
Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian
narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this
country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel . First,
because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile
up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and
third because Israel is our first line of defense.

This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating
Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of
jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines , Southern Thailand,
Darfur in Sudan , Lebanon , and Aceh in Indonesia . Israel is simply
in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.

The war against Israel is not a war against Israel . It is a war
against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows
that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel ,
Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its
energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who
send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in
Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.

Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to
address the grievances of our Muslim minorities.. But if Israel
were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the
West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden
change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the
end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of
Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof
that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean
the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would
mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can
get Israel , they can get everything. So-called journalists
volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a
'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands
, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of
Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And
another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a
danger greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America
as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster
than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without
freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual
nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies
will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic
Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of
Rome , Athens and Jerusalem .

Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation
never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver
platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All
throughout Europe , American cemeteries remind us of the young boys
who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation
does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only
hand over this hard won liberty to Europe 's children in the same
state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with
mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We
cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.
We have to take the necessary action now to stop this Islamic
stupidity from destroying the free world that we know.




Please take the time to read and understand what
is written here, Please send it to every free person that you know,
it is so very important.





--
Fr. William M.Fitzgerald O.Praem., S.T.L.
Associate Chaplain and Theology Instructor - Christendom College.
Padre Pio Hall
134 Christendom Drive,
Front Royal,Virginia, 22630.
(540) 622 6128

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