On October 28, 2010, Colorado District Judge Mullins rejected an atheist group’s attempt to relegate religious groups to second class status.  The National Day of Prayer Task Force (“NDPTF”), led by Shirley Dobson, has asked state governors for many years to issue a proclamation acknowledging the annual National Day of Prayer.  Colorado, like most states, allows any group to request such a proclamation from the governor, and suggest language for it.  For instance, the Colorado Governor has issued proclamations for groups supporting the Turks and Armenians.

But a radical athiest group from Wisconsin thinks groups like the NDPTF shouldn’t have the same access to this opportunity because they are religious.  So they sued Governor Ritter, and asked the Colorado District Court to enter an order prohibiting prayer proclamations in the future.  The plaintiffs claimed the prayer proclamations violated two provisions of the Colorado Constitution:  (1) “no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privilege or capacity, on account of his opinions concerning religion,” and (2) “[n]or shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.”

Judge Mullins wisely rejected both of these claims.  First he held the plaintiffs’ claim that the prayer proclamation made them “feel like outsiders” was not a denial of any right or privilege.  The Colorado Constitution does not give citizens the right to “feel any particular way.”  Then the judge properly determined that allowing the NDPTF to have the same ability to request a proclamation as other groups does not give any preference to religion.  The Governor’s proclamation merely “acknowledges the right of individuals to pray and worship, the National Day of Prayer, and the events held by the National Day of Prayer Task Force at the capitol.”

No court has ever ruled that governors, presidents, mayors and other members of the executive branch cannot issue proclamations acknowledging the National Day of Prayer.  Judge Mullins rejected the atheists’ mischaracterization of a recent Wisconsin judge’s opinion as making such a holding. And he also concluded that refusing to issue proclamations by groups with religious motivation would actually violate the constitution because it would indicate hostility toward religion.  Of course, hostility to religion is exactly what this anti-religious group is all about.

Instead of just asking for their own proclamation, the atheist group tried to use the courts to further their own ignoble purpose of attacking religious people and treating them like second class citizens.  Thankfully, Judge Mullin saw through their ruse and upheld the rights of religious people and groups like the NDPTF to obtain proclamations just like anyone else.

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Renowned physicist, Steven Hawking, is reportedly releasing a new book that concludes “God did not create the universe, and the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.”  Hawking writes:

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.”

Of course this sophistry merely begs the question. It fails to explain where the law of gravity came from.

Apparently, Hawking’s book is written to counter Sir Isaac Newton’s conclusion that God must have designed the  universe, because even cursory observation of the complexity of nature indicates it could not have randomly resulted from chaos. This is a biblical concept. ”For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:21.

Prof. Hawking is a brilliant man, but that doesn’t make him wise. The Bible speaks to that too:  “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.” And more directly to the point, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14:1.

At bottom, attempts to explain the origin of the universe based on man’s wisdom are the height of hubris. It reminds me of the story my father, a retired Baptist preacher, used to tell from the pulpit. It went something like this.  A group of scientists decided to challenge God to a creation contest. The rules were simple – each side gets one gallon of dust, and from it they have to create a living organism. God accepted the challenge on one condition: the scientists had to make their own dust.

Try as they might, men (even brilliant ones like Hawking) cannot get past the conundrum of how to create something from nothing. Only God can do that.

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Ann Rice, author of Interview with a Vampire and many other novels, is reported as saying she’s had it with Christians, but is still a follower of Christ. A Roman Catholic, apparently she doesn’t agree with the moral positions taken by the Church on issues such as homosexual behavior.

In some ways, I understand her concerns. She’s quoted as saying, “I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.” Certainly she’s correct that Christians should do a better job of loving one another, as Jesus commanded in John 13:34. I, for one, confess I don’t always follow His command, and am sometimes quarrelsome, hostile, and disputatious (just ask my wife and kids). So rejecting organized “religion” that doesn’t truly reflect the love of Christ is commendable. But the very next verse in John 13 says that people will know we are Disciples of Christ by our love for another. Ann Rice cannot truly be a follower of Christ and not love Christians.

What I suspect is really going on is she’s attempting to mold Christianity to her worldview and experiences. Though she came back to her childhood faith later in life, she married an atheist and has a son who engages in homosexual conduct.  (Regrettably, her husband passed away, but in writings attributed to her, she indicates that she still has atheist friends.) Her relationships with her family and friends probably would be much easier if the Bible didn’t condemn sexual immorality and call atheists fools.

If Christianity and the Bible are merely inventions of man, then we can change them to fit our changing wants and desires.  Pastors feel the pressure to do exactly that when they address topics like abortion and homosexual conduct, which also happen to currently be political issues. This pressure can come from parishioners, but our concern is when it comes from government officials and laws.  For instance, Erik Stanley recently blogged on a pastor in England who was arrested for merely preaching what the Bible has to say about homosexual behavior.

This brings us to the whole reason ADF launched the Church Project – to protect the right of Pastors and Churches to continue to proclaim all of God’s Word as Truth. The good news is pastors still have that right in America, but we see attacks on it almost every day.

Professing Christians like Ann Rice need to conform their beliefs to what the Bible says, and to what their pastors say the Bible says. Not what they wish it said. And if she’s really concerned about the hypocritical behavior of Christians, she should join the rest of us hypocrites and work to change it by being part of the Body of Christ, not giving up on it.

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The Left wants silence, not dialogue.  That quickly became obvious to me as I sat as part of the team defending Prop 8 in California this past January.  I was amazed at how often the plaintiffs’ lawyers brought up the Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist statements on marriage and homosexual conduct.  It was such an odd strategy in a trial about whether the definition of marriage is constitutional.  But those statements (one of which was authored by Pope Benedict) became the example of “invidious discrimination” that has no place in modern society.  The Left reckons that if same-sex “marriage” is the norm, religious views like these will be much easier to suppress.

And they’re right.  Our views on marriage and family—and our faith in general—will come under much heavier attack if same-sex “marriage” is the law.  As ADF’s Alan Sears warned several years ago, the legal fight to advocate homosexual conduct is the biggest modern threat to religious liberty.  The Left will use whatever pretext they can find to muzzle opposing voices.

For example, atheist Richard Dawkins, homosexual activist Andrew Sullivan, and a loony United Nations judge have at least one thing common— they and a slew of leftist newspapers and pundits would like Pope Benedict XVI to resign and/or be arrested.  Is that because they care so deeply for the safety of children or the health of the Catholic Church?  Don’t bet your life on it.

What they care deeply about is a radical agenda that would do much better if the Pope would simply go away.  And because they smell blood in the water, they’re attacking with all their might.  Facts don’t matter a whit.

For example, some of the media have unsuccessfully tried to link the Pope to specific cases of sex abuse. But this media-driven onslaught isn’t surprising if you think about what the Pope represents.  He’s one of the few religious leaders proclaiming the Gospel boldly on the world stage, fighting for an end to abortion, and defending the sanctity of marriage and family.  No doubt much of the media and secular culture would prefer that he just stay passively compliant in his own little corner of the world.

Any doubts?  Just ask the pastor of Mt. Hope Church in Michigan.  His Sunday services were terrorized by a group of anarchist homosexuals merely because the church dared to preach biblical truth about homosexual conduct.  And government officials refused to do anything about it.

We pray for the Pope and other religious leaders, and we thank them for their unyielding defense of Truth.

May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. [Psalm 41:2]

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The assault on faith and people of faith has never been greater here in America. Billboards sponsored by atheistic organizations have been springing up around the country spouting phrases like “Praise Darwin: Evolve Beyond Belief,” and “Imagine No Religion.” Churches taking a biblical stand on moral issues such as homosexual behavior are becoming victims of vandalism and disruption of worship services.
But those standing firm in the face of this anti-religious onslaught received welcome news from a federal court the first week in March. Several years ago the anti-religion group, Freedom From Religion Foundation, sued President Bush, the governor of Wisconsin, and Shirley Dobson in an effort to stop the National Day of Prayer.
Mrs. Dobson voluntarily chairs the National Day of Prayer Task Force – a private non-profit ministry that promotes prayer observances on the National Day of Prayer each year and asks the President to issue a proclamation. For her efforts, she was named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit. The plaintiffs complained that a ministry requesting the President to ask the nation to pray violates the so-called “separation of church and state.” In essence, they wanted the court to muzzle people of faith and keep them from talking to their political leaders.
But in a March 2, 2010 ruling, a Federal District Court in Wisconsin threw out their claim against Mrs. Dobson – reaffirming the right of religious people and organizations to petition their government officials. Thankfully, this attempt to silence religious ministries was unsuccessful. Mrs. Dobson is to be commended for not rolling over when faced with legal action for merely speaking up.