From the Desk of Pastor Rick Scarborough
Your Action
Needed: Bills Filed in Congress to Help Schiavo
As we continued
to follow the plight of Terry Schiavo, you now have the
opportunity to get involved. Unless there is court or
legislative intervention, the execution of the order by Pinellas
County Judge George W. Greer to cause the death of Terri Schiavo
by starvation and dehydration. Now is the time that you
can express your beliefs to your Congressman and Senator.
The Incapacitated
Person's Legal Protection Act (HR 1151 and S 539) would give
Terri Schindler Schiavo and people in similar situations the
same constitutional protection of due process as death-row
inmates.
"This bill is not
assuming a specific outcome for Terri Schiavo. It is not a
right-to-life or a right-to-die issue," said Sen. Mel Martinez
(R-Fla.), who sponsored the bill in the Senate.
"It is a very
narrowly written piece of legislation to ensure that in very
select cases - where there is a judicial dispute about the
perceived wishes of the incapacitated individual and a court
ordered cessation of nutrition, hydration and medical treatment
- that proper legal representation is provided for individuals
who have no voice for themselves and whose lives hang in the
balance," added Martinez.
A rally will
be held
this Sunday, March 13 at 3 pm on the steps of the Florida state
old capitol in the capitol courtyard. Speakers at the event will
include Ken Connor, a Florida attorney who defended Terri's Law
for Gov. Jeb Bush; Robert and Mary Schindler, Terri's parents
who have been fighting for over 7 years to defend their
daughter's right to life; and Dr. Gary Cass, executive director
of the Center for Reclaiming America.
"This is both a life and death struggle for Terri Schiavo and a
watershed fight for all disabled people," said Dr. Cass. "The
prospect of a long, painful death from starvation and
dehydration . . . sends an ominous signal to people with
disabilities nationwide. No just society can allow such cruel
and inhumane treatment to take place--especially on such a
flimsy and ill-founded legal foundation."
We must continue
to pray and work to fight the injustice that has been brought by
a single judge’s inability to act upon the law.
The Ten Commandments and Jesus’ Sermon on the
Mount
In the light of
the Texas and Kentucky Ten Commandments cases before the U. S.
Supreme Court, state legislators have continued writing and
debating bills in regards to posting religious texts.
The Mississippi
House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that allows for
the public posting of religious texts including the Ten
Commandments, the national motto “In God We Trust” and
pronouncements from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount known as “The
Beatitudes.” The vote came almost a week after the Supreme Court
heard oral arguments regarding the public display of the Ten
Commandments.
Also on Tuesday,
the Oklahoma House re-entered the debate over whether copies of
the Ten Commandments should be posted in public buildings when
it passed legislation authorizing their display.
The House, which has passed similar bills in the past, approved
the legislation. The measure now goes to the Senate, where Ten
Commandments bills have died in earlier legislatures.
And this Friday, all five Cherokee County Georgia commissioners
will gather on the steps of the county courthouse in downtown
Canton, to receive a special gift from local pastors — two
14-by-18-inch stone tablets etched with the full text of the Ten
Commandments. All five of those commissioners will then vote
Tuesday, they have said, to make sure those stone tablets are
hung in a prominent place inside the building's rotunda.
"This country was founded on freedom of religion so people of
all faiths could come to our shores and worship as they saw
fit," Commission Chairman Mike Byrd told CitizenLink.
"Separation of church and state, as intended by our founding
fathers, was to prevent government from dictating what or how we
worshipped, not to tell us that we could not have symbols of our
religious beliefs in public view."
Finally,
according to the Idaho Press-Tribune,
pilots at the Idaho Caldwell Airport are placing Ten Commandments
signs on their hangars in a show of support after a similar
marker was removed from airport property.
The sign outside the
airport office was taken down after pilot Bob Synoground
expressed concerns to Airport Manager Curt Hawkins and Caldwell
Mayor Garret Nancolas.
Pilots behind the
effort to put up Ten Commandments signs say the signs are not to
protest the removal of the display, but in support of the
principles.
Not only should we
support the display of the Ten Commandments, but also we should
practice the principles set forth by the commandments.
Disney Joining the “Pro-Christian” Movement?
News sources are now
reporting that one of Disney’s newest films, “The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe”, is being specifically targeted to
Christian audiences.
Disney has hired
Motive Marketing, the public relations firm for “The Passion of
the Christ”, to handle publicity for their new movie and has
been billing this movie as a “’Passion of the Christ’ for
kids.” Disney has also held private meetings with various
church groups in order to promote the religious aspects of their
new film.
Maybe the success of
The Passion can be a wakeup call for the media giants. The
entertainment industry needs to understand that quality
substance in a movie can sell better and is more important than
the amount of sex and violence that can be fit into 83 minutes.
Your Participation is Requested – CONFRONTING THE JUDICIAL
WAR ON FAITH
Here is your opportunity to get involved!
On April 7-8, a very special conference will take place at the
Washington Marriott in Washington, D.C. – Confronting the
Judicial War on Faith. The event is being sponsored by The
JCCCR. I am
honored to be chairman of the organization's Executive Committee.
The registration fee is $149. To register on-line, or for more
details, go to
http://www.stopactivistjudges.org