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|  | AFA JournalNews of InterestAFA Journal, July, 2002 edition AFA attorneys best ACLU in school prayer clash The possibility that a student would pray during a speech at graduation in late May sent the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) into federal court, where the ACLU’s attempt to quash religious freedom was successfully resisted by AFA attorneys. The lawsuit stemmed from a policy at a Plainview (Colorado) school that allowed graduating seniors to decide if they wanted a message at commencement, and if they did, then to vote for a student to deliver the speech. Senior Trista Harris was selected. On behalf of a parent, who is also a teacher at the school, and his daughter, the ACLU filed suit five days before Plainview’s graduation. The ACLU said Harris might pray during her speech, and asked a federal judge in Denver to order the school to censor her. AFA Center for Law & Policy Senior Trial Attorney Brian Fahling, who represented the school district, argued before a U.S. district judge that the school did not have a religious purpose in adopting its policy permitting student messages at graduation. Therefore, students have a constitutional right to express themselves. The judge agreed. Harris did pray, thanking God for “making us a stronger community,” and asking Him for “us all to have a great day and a great graduation.” She ended her prayer: “In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.” Parents hammer A&F over children’s thong underwear Members of OneMillionMoms.com (OMM) and OneMillionDads.com (OMD) popped controversial clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) with thousands of E-mails, prompting the company to pull an objectionable clothing line. A&F, which has already steamed countless parents with its sexually suggestive and nudity-filled quarterly catalogs, had begun marketing a line of thong underwear for little girls as young as 10, complete with expressions like “eye candy,” “wink wink,” and “kiss me” written on the panties. AFA, other pro-family groups, and innumerable concerned parents – some of whom had apparently never taken a stand concerning A&F – were hopping mad. “I think of myself as fairly hip, and I think it’s just disgusting,” 40-year-old mom Julie McNamara told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. McNamara discovered the underwear while shopping at an A&F store at the local mall. She said she complained to a clerk, who told her she was not the only one to protest. When the flap first arose and members of OMM and OMD began contacting the retailer, A&F released a statement that said, “The underwear for young girls was created with the intent to be lighthearted and cute. Any misrepresentation of that is purely in the eye of the beholder.” However, some parents seemed unable to swallow the retailer’s explanation for the rearless underpants. “It’s out of hand at this point,” said parent Lisa Maxwell, also from Wisconsin. “It’s Frederick’s of Hollywood for pre-teens and teenagers.” In any case, according to press reports, A&F has begun pulling the thongs from its store shelves, and the underwear was pulled from the retailer’s Internet catalog within 24 hours after the initial protests began. “They were cute yesterday, they’re gone today,” said AFA Chairman Don Wildmon. “I guess they’re not cute anymore.” AFA executive assistant Buddy Smith said the actions of concerned parents produced quick results. “This is the first time that I’m aware of that this company has been responsive to public pressure concerning their sexually suggestive marketing ploys,” Smith said. “I think they just had an avalanche of protest, and I think they were required to take a second look at what they were doing.” National motto finds a home in Michigan, Virginia AFA’s nationwide drive to encourage the posting of the national motto in schools and government buildings continues to produce success stories as individuals get involved in the effort. In Michigan, for example, a Midland Boy Scout organized an effort to frame and then distribute 360 posters featuring the words, “In God We Trust.” Kris Nagel, 15, a member of Boy Scout Troop 787, completed his Eagle Scout project with the help of fellow Scouts, family members, State Rep. Tony Stamas, R-Midland, and AFA of Michigan President Gary Glenn. The posters were presented to officials of the legislature in Lansing for display in state government offices. The posters, frames, and shipping were paid for by AFA of Michigan, a state affiliate of AFA. The state organization continues its own efforts to promote the display of the national motto in public schools and other government buildings throughout Michigan. Michigan passed a law late last year which “strongly encourages” the posting of the national motto in or on public buildings, including schools. That followed Mississippi’s first-in-the-nation law mandating the display of the national motto in all public school classrooms. Similar legislation is under consideration by the legislatures of Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Utah. Meanwhile in Virginia, Governor Mark R. Warner signed a new law in May which requires all public schools in that state to display the national motto. Warner said he initially had reservations about the law, saying he was concerned that students would feel pressured into bringing money to pay for national motto posters. However, Joe Glover, President of the Family Policy Network, the Virginia affiliate of AFA, assured the governor that his organization had already raised enough funds through private donations to cover the expense of posting the national motto in the state’s roughly 2,000 public schools. AFA is encouraging the posting of the motto in all classrooms. AFA maintains call for boycott of Kmart Struggling retailer Kmart restated its losses for the 2001 year at a staggering $2.42 billion, and subsequently reported another $1 billion loss for the month of April 2002. The losses come on the heels of news the company has launched a probe of its former management, including former CEO Chuck Conoway, to see what, if anything, was done wrong to send the retailer into its most recent tailspin. The FBI is also investigating the company for the same reasons. Kmart has been the focus of a boycott call from the American Family Association since last year. Its management team has consistently refused to stop selling music with sexually explicit lyrics and video games with graphic violence to minors. Kmart officials denied the products were being sold to minors, but spot checks at several Kmart locations around the United States revealed minors were often able to buy the CDs and games with virtually no trouble. Kmart officials attribute the April losses mostly to a reduction of foot traffic. AFA Special Projects Director Randy Sharp says that is only to be expected with the missteps the company has made. “Kmart can only lose money if people stop shopping in their stores. They already admit that foot traffic is down,” Sharp said. “I don’t know if this is a direct result of the boycott. But it does give an indication that fewer people are going to Kmart for some reason. We think their music policy is a viable one.” Kmart’s new management team has not responded to requests by AFA to remove the sexually explicit music and violent games from its shelves. “Kmart’s new chairman and his executives continue to ignore advice from concerned parents who advise them to stop selling violent and profane music,” Sharp said. “These are the same parents who are shopping elsewhere. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something is terribly wrong with Kmart’s philosophy. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” Sharp said despite Kmart’s woes, AFA is continuing its call for a boycott of the retailer. “Our message has been, and should continue to be, focused on reminding Kmart of why we refuse to do business with them. It’s vital for our supporters to contact their local Kmart store manager and the Kmart corporate office on a regular basis.” AFA affiliate director speaks in Uganda AFA of California Director Scott Lively was asked to address a gathering of Christians in Uganda on the subject of pornography and other issues that challenge a fledgling Christian pro-family movement in that country. Lively was invited by the Family Life Network (FLN), and spoke at the International Conference Center in Kampala. FLN is Uganda’s first pro-family ministry organization, and the conference was its first. “I can clearly see God’s purpose in sending me to Uganda, since this organization is just beginning to lay the foundations for a national campaign to teach Christian living as the answer to this nation’s many problems,” Lively said. About 400 people attended the conference, and the majority were social leaders: members of the nation’s parliament, heads of religious denominations, pastors, judges, teachers, journalists, businessmen and leaders from many Christian organizations. AFA of Indiana rescues little league ball team As the result of some quick action by the American Family Association of Indiana, a boys’ little league team in Fort Wayne is being sponsored by AFA instead of a local strip club. Micah Clark, AFA of Indiana executive director, was contacted in April by a local supporter. He said a local strip club was trying to obtain sponsorship for the last available team in the local little league, and asked if AFA could sponsor the team instead, in order to prevent that from happening. Clark agreed, and forwarded nearly $1,000 to cover the sponsor’s fee. “I must confess this is not the type of thing for which I would normally use our supporters’ hard-earned money,” said Clark. “However, when the friend explained the request, our check was in the mail the next day. “There was no way we were going to ignore the legitimization of such smut before young boys as long as we had some chance to stop it,” Clark continued. Conference to impact culture for Christ The seventh annual National Conference on Apologetics is scheduled for November 8 and 9, 2002, in Matthews, North Carolina, near Charlotte. Featured speakers will include international speaker Ravi Zacharias, Norman Geisler of Southern Evangelical Seminary, Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, former atheist philosopher Jay Budziszewski of the University of Texas, noted author and philosopher Ronald Nash, and Mark Ritchie, author of the landmark book, Spirit of the Rain Forest, which examines the Yanomamö “stone age” tribe. A host of other speakers will present seminars on various aspects of our current culture, including converts from astrology, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and animism. The theme of the conference, “Impacting the Culture for Christ,” will include dynamic visual presentations covering virtually every area of contemporary culture, including the political arena, the arts, media, the university, as well as pluralistic, primitive and youth cultures. The conference will be held at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews. It will begin on Friday evening and continue all day Saturday. It is the seventh annual conference of its kind and is sponsored by Southern Evangelical Seminary, a fully accredited graduate institution granting masters degrees in apologetics and counter-cult ministries for lay persons and professionals. For more information and reservations call the host organization, Southern Evangelical Seminary, at 1-800-77-TRUTH. Teen leading double life killed by online friend Police in Connecticut say a 13-year-old girl was killed by a man she had first met online and later met for sex. The body of the sixth-grader at St. Peter Catholic School was found in a remote ravine in Greenwich. The suspect in the slaying, Saul Dos Reis, 25, confessed to the killing, saying he accidentally strangled the girl while they were having sex in his car at a mall in Danbury. Authorities say the child apparently lived a double life. While she was popular in her school, friends said she spent a lot of time at home in her bedroom on the Internet. Police said the teenager routinely had sex with partners she met online, and had apparently been with Dos Reis several times, the News-Times of Danbury reported. The girl was living with her aunt after being separated from her parents because of their substance abuse problems. Police said the aunt apparently didn’t know anything about the girl’s extensive online or outside activities, the News-Times stated. “It’s heart-breaking to know this young girl’s life could have been saved if the adults in her home had taken the time to know what she was doing,” AFA Chairman Don Wildmon said. “This should chill every parent to the bone, and prove to them just how dangerous the Internet can be. Parents, please pay attention to what your children are looking at and doing online. And invest in their safety with Internet filtering.” USA Today, 5/21/02 Christian organization names public school educator of the year Dr. Samuel J. Ayers was recently selected by Christian Educators Association International (CEAI) as their fifth National Educator of the Year. Dr. Ayers, an educator in Lubbock, Texas, will be honored in Indianapolis July 19, 2002 at the association’s annual convention. Each year, CEAI honors a public school educator with this prestigious award. The recipient must be an educator of excellence, involved in his/her community and church, and must be highly recommended by his or her principal, pastor and others they work with in the field of education. Dr. Ayers is the recipient of numerous awards, including: Liberty Bell Award, 2000; Clinician of the Year; Elementary Administrator of the Year by the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, 1999-2000; Texas Reading Leader, Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts, 1999-2001; Educational Leadership Award, Llano Estacado Chapter of PDK, 1997; and Point of Light Award, Northside ISD PTA Council, 1992. Christian Educators Association International, located in Pasadena, California, was founded in 1953 to encourage, equip and empower Christians serving in public education. CEAI Executive Director, Forrest Turpen and Carole Romatko-Cliffe, last year’s winner will present the award. In a press release announcing this year’s award-winner, the organization said it affirms the words of Abraham Lincoln regarding education: “The philosophy of the classroom in this generation will be the philosophy of government in the next generation.” ABC bleeps out ‘Jesus’ Although the word Jesus may be used as a profanity on network television, when spoken seriously it may be censored. On the May 23 episode of the ABC talk show The View, hosted by Meredith Vieira with Joy Behar, Star Jones and Lisa Ling, Behar rejoiced that her diet had ended. “Yes, and thank you, thank you, Jesus, is all I have to say!” According to the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group, ABC bleeped the name of Jesus when the show was aired on the West coast. Five days later, Behar complained on The View about ABC’s move: “For the West coast, they took [the name of Jesus] out. They would not allow me to say, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’ I think that’s wrong.” “With all the filthy talk that ABC allows on its regular network programming, why would ABC feel that the name of Jesus is offensive enough to edit out?” asked AFA Chairman Don Wildmon. “This takes the religious bigotry of the news media and entertainment industries to a bizarre level.” Wildmon said he urged AFA supporters to contact ABC (netaudr@abc.com) and let them know how they feel about the network’s action. Prayer affects United Nations children’s summit Pro-family experts are thrilled at the outcome of the World Summit on Children recently held at the United Nations. They say the delegation’s final consensus document embraced the most pro-family policy to be approved by the United Nations in decades. United States delegate Bill Saunders of the Family Research Council said the document represented a triumph for those who are pro-life in this country. “Pro-abortion forces have been arguing that there is some international right to abortion based on documents out of previous U.N. summits,” Saunders explained. With this new document, that is no longer the case. Although the U.S. group couldn’t get the entire delegation to define marriage as “one man united with one woman,” Saunders says the document’s interpretive statement “made it absolutely clear that the U.S. sees the family as being based on the marriage of a man and a woman.” “This enormous victory would not have happened without tremendous prayer,” said Thomas Jacobson, U.N. analyst for Focus on the Family. Saunders agrees. As negotiations went far into the night, Jacobson said he and many others stayed up, praying for God’s intervention. CitizenLink, 5/14/02 Ministry leaders call for effort against gambling In May hundreds of the nation’s best-known religious leaders called on the president and Congress to address the problems caused by legalized gambling. More than 200 pastors, priests, educators, and ministry leaders sent an open letter to President Bush and Congress, calling for action. The letter described legalized gambling as a “moral and cultural cancer” and a “rapidly growing menace,” and urged Bush and the nation’s lawmakers to address the devastating effects of this “blight on [the] nation’s cultural landscape.” Janet Folger, national director for the Center for Reclaiming America, an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, said the facts show that gambling has had a debilitating effect on society. “This gambling phenomenon preys on the poor,” Folger said. “These are people in income brackets of less than $10,000 a year. The fact of the matter is that Americans spend more money each year on gambling than they do on groceries – and it’s these very, very poor people that are really hurt the most.” The open letter to President Bush and Congress was published in Roll Call magazine. Besides AFA Chairman Donald Wildmon, among those signing the letter were Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ, Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries, Kenneth Connor of Family Research Council, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, author Max Lucado, and Sandy Rios of Concerned Women for America. Research shows that more than 15 million Americans are problem or pathological gamblers. More than half of those will engage in illegal activities to support their gambling habit. AgapePress, 5/13/02 Coke, BellSouth sponsor ‘Atlanta Pride’ festival Two major American corporations, Coca-Cola and Bell South, are providing sponsorship dollars to the Atlanta [Gay] Pride festival in June, encouraging possibly hundreds of young people to make decisions which will ultimately ruin their lives. Randy Sharp, AFA Director of Special Projects, said, “Coca-Cola and BellSouth will help advance a lifestyle that continually leads to death and disease. “Oxford University’s International Journal of Epidemiology reports life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men.” He also noted that a report from the American Medical Association says that “people with same-sex sexual behavior are at greater risk for psychiatric disorders” – including depression and substance abuse. According to the Medical Institute of Sexual Health, “Homosexual men are at significantly increased risk of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, anal cancer, gonorrhea and gastrointestinal infections as a result of their sexual practices. Women who have sex with women are at significantly increased risk of bacterial vaginosis, breast cancer and ovarian cancer….” “Coca-Cola and Bell South should spend their time selling their products, not promoting homosexuality,” said Sharp. Action addresses Coca-Cola Chairman Douglas N. Daft 1 Coca-Cola Plaza Atlanta, GA 30313 Email: ddaft@na.ko.com BellSouth Corporation Chairman F. Duane Ackerman 1155 Peachtree St. NE Atlanta, GA 30309-3610 Phone: 404-249-2000 Email: duane.ackerman@bellsouth.com Nickelodeon to promote homosexuality to kids A children’s TV channel that bills itself as a network parents can trust is set to air a show that one pro-family activist calls “pure homosexual propaganda.” Nickelodeon has in production a controversial edition of Nick News, a 60-minute program that airs every Sunday night. The upcoming show, which targets children between the ages of eight and 13, will include a discussion of homosexual families and anti-discrimination laws, and will feature homosexual middle-school children. Andrea Lafferty, executive director of Traditional Values Coalition, is outraged. “When I called Nickelodeon to discuss this, they told me that Nick News deals with issues that are pervasive,” Lafferty said. “I’d like to know for how many eight-year-olds is homosexuality a ‘pervasive’ issue. I’d say very, very few.” Lafferty pointed out that the host of Nick News is a long-time supporter of homosexual causes. “[T]his is nothing more than trying to promote the homosexual agenda to our children – and the producer of this show is Linda Ellerbee, who’s been given awards by a homosexual organization for her work in promoting homosexuality,” she said. “[W]hen people call [Nickelodeon], they either patch them through to a common line, or they tell people that this is not true, that it’s a rumor,” Lafferty says. “Nickelodeon is being dishonest to the parents who have trusted them to do fair, clean shows.” Nickelodeon and Lucky Duck Productions, which is producing the upcoming show, have been the focus of an E-mail campaign by OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com. Both groups recently urged their supporters to contact the network asking that the program not be aired. Nick News is shown in classrooms across the country as part of Cable in the Classroom. “This means that this ‘gay’-friendly program will go to a captive audience of children in classrooms as ‘news,’ designed to shape the minds of millions of children,” said AFA Chairman Don Wildmon. Action Address Herb Scannell, President Nickelodeon Network 1515 Broadway New York, NY 10036 Phone: 407-363-8500 E-mail: edutv@nickonline.com Officials expel Gideons from Michigan school The Bible, which most Christians refer to as “God’s Word” is obviously not so revered by school officials in a Michigan town. According to an Associated Press report, the school board in Wayland caved in to pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union and instructed Gideons International to stop its annual practice of giving free Bibles to fifth-graders. The report said the school superintendent had originally planned to permit the Gideons to give Bibles to those students who had written permission from their parents. But when the ACLU threatened a lawsuit against the school district, he reversed his decision. Local Gideon members expressed disappointment and said they are uncertain if they will seek other ways to put God’s Word into the hands of youngsters. AgapePress, 5/22/02 Correction An article in the June edition of AFA Journal contained incorrect information. The article, “Harmful to Whom,” stated that the man who is the focus of the book, As Nature Made Him, was the son of Dr. John Money. The boy who was seriously injured in the circumcision was not the son of Money, but the boy’s subsequent castration and failed rearing as a girl were overseen and recommended by Money. | |
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