The only thing necessary for triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - E.Burke
This may strike you as political and having nothing to do with homeschooling... but think again: When liberal judges are allowed to take prayer from public schools, take religious programs away from prisoners, and force evolution to be taught in place of creationism... it effects everyone - including school children and homeschoolers. Your children and mine will one day be standing beside the godless that have been shaped by society and nothing more. Should we be so apathetic towards the way that society is heading? I petition to you that you would read this article and let it sink down into your heart. Even if you don't know anyone who has been in prison and have never even thought of those men and women before who are being punished for their crimes (either justly or unjustly)... please stop and take pause to read and assimilate what this liberal judge's ruling could do to their lives and society as a whole.
What is sad is the fact that faith based prison reform programs really work. From a World-Net Daily article: "only 8 percent of the inmates who complete the full program of religious instruction, mentoring and vocational training return to prison within two years of their release. The comparison group without the program had a 20 percent recidivism rate."
IFI and the Verdict
by Prison Fellowship
In a ruling that has potentially enormous consequences for faith-based organizations working to provide social services, a federal judge in Iowa has ruled that the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI), an intensive and effective pre-release program for prisoners, is unconstitutional.
Stating that IFI is “pervasively sectarian” and therefore cannot receive state funds, the judge ordered that the program be closed within 60 days and that IFI must refund to the state of Iowa more than $1.5 million it received from the state over the years. The judge’s order, however, does not go into effect until after the appeals process. Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley confirmed that PF and IFI will indeed appeal, “all the way to the Supreme Court if we must.”
Barry Lynn and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a suit in February 2003 against Prison Fellowship, IFI, and the state of Iowa, challenging the existence of a faith-based program in a state prison. Americans United were also seeking, as they state on their website, “to have a significant impact on President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative generally.”
In a recent BreakPoint radio commentary, Prison Fellowship Mark Earley warned of the repercussions of this ruling. “We can only hope that what happened with God being taken out of the classrooms of America thirty years ago does not repeat itself in America’s prisons as a result of the federal courts,” Earley said. “Despite the fact that the program is purely voluntary on the part of prisoners, the judge found that the program is unconstitutional because it was a Christ-centered program and received 40 percent of its funding from the state, even though 60 percent was raised from private donations.
“People of faith should not be excluded from providing services in the public square to those who have volunteered to receive them. We want prisoners to be able to take part in a program—yes, even a Christ-centered one—that will help them change their lives for the better if they desire to do so.”
I find it ironic that liberal judges would vehemently support the religion of evolution being taught in secular public schools (against many student's wishes), and yet vehemently oppose the religion of Christianity from being taught in prisons (even though it is voluntary rather than mandatory). Talk about a double standard. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." - Charles Carroll - signer of the Declaration of Independence
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7 comments:
The "liberal" judge was Robert Pratt, confirmed in 1997 by a Senate controlled by the Republican Party.
He must be a real left winger, that one.
I see that fact that he ruled this way as evidence that this was likely an egregious case of the state violating the Constitution.
I can be a grown up and agree to disagree with you, and honestly, I don't care if he's a Republican. There are plenty of moderate republicans who side with libs all the time. I'd say I'm more of a conservative than I am a Republican. I don't think either party should be in office. Politicians are usually as corrupt as they can be. There are a rare few that don't fit that mold.
I agree that it would be ideal for the service to get 100% of their funding from private institutions, but some of their training is self-help rather than gospel-led, and over 60% of it is from the public, rather than Gov. funded.
I am quite sure that almost 100% of the state religion of evolution is funded by our tax dollars, however. Nobody would believe we came from rocks if it weren't.
and... THAT'S MY POINT - THE DOUBLE STANDARD.
I'm for the seperation of state and school.
We came from rocks? I'm a scientist and in 10 years of college and grad school bnever heard that "theory" (to use the word in the vernacular).
Evolution is silent on origins. It starts with the first living organism and posits natural selection as the mechanism for all idversification since then. All of the scinetific evidence supports the hypothesis, to the point that it is now described as the Evoltuionary Theory. This puts evolution on a plane with the Theory of Gravity or the Theory of Quantum Mechanics. IOW, pretty heady stuff.
And it's NOT a religious belief any more than my beleving that if I jump off my house I'll crash into the ground is.
You may have heard that theory (rocks to people) in a lot of other circular language, but you've certainly heard it. Most textbooks have similar phrases to this:
"... and then it rained on the rocks for billions of years... until the first elements of life emerged from the primordial seas..."
So what are the ingredients then? Rocks and rain? I guess that's what they want us to believe. OH - and the magic ingredient - "billions of years".
Here's from an article you might want to read (in case you wanted to get your blood pressure up for the day if it hasn't been raised already by this conversation):
It's by Bruce Malone and is posted at DrDino.com :
The Macro-Evolution Framework of History:
In the beginning, something exploded (we really don't know what, how, or when it came from) and our current universe slowly formed and cooled. The rock surface of earth dissolved to form a chemical soup which somehow formed the first self-replicating cell. This cell somehow adapted itself to its environment, becoming more and more complex with time. Billions of years passed as useful information was added to the chemical blueprint of simple organisms causing the variety of life forms to increase. The end result is the current diversity of life we see all around us. Thus, what we are really being taught is that rocks (or basic elements) somehow turned into people.
To read the full article, click here.
I understand that you might not believe in Creation... but ALL evidence does NOT point to evolution. There's 16 hours worth of evidence presented in Kent Hovind's Creation Seminars if you had an open mind enough to give them a chance. I've already given your "Theory" a chance - I had 12 years of Public School, countless books, and college that was chocked full of it.
Although I may not be a scientist like you, my dad is a Biochemist who has worked in the geology field at a major oil company - all three branches (geology, chemistry and biology), and he's a die-hard Creationist to bat. You can share your opinion here, but you won't be able to convert me. Sorry. That's OK, though. I've got a lot of family members who are not Creationists, and we all can still love each other and get along.
Oh, and I did a review of Icons of Evolution by J. Wells also - which talks a lot about false claims by Darwinists.
You are right that it affects more than just those in the schools, but even more directly than the fact that we all must live together. I just talked about this on my blog yesterday, but there is now a group called Conservatives Against Intelligent Design. Normally, I would just think that rather ironic, but the head person of this is equating the teaching of evolution with child abuse and advocating that all institutions teach evolution as science and nothing else (including homeschools).
And Daryl, I understand the bit about species changing over time. I think that is established, provable, testable fact. We see that everyday in antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, insecticide resistant insects and herbicide resistant weeds to name a few. But where in anything observable, measurable, and testable have we proof that these slight changes give rise to new species?
In the fossil record? What the fossil record shows is multicelled organisms for some length of time (millions of years by most scientific clocks). Then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a great diversity of complex life forms. No transitional species.
Speciation is no more objective science than creation is.
Too bad sprittibee, you had lost comletely 12 years and even more...
What do you mean I lost 12 years and maybe more? How is that?
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