On these pages, I recently wrote about the plight of a German Christian family, the Romeikes, who were granted asylum in the United States because they sought the freedom to homeschool their children.  Germany does not permit homeschooling.  However, after initially granting asylum, the Obama Administration has rescinded their asylum, a decision that was affirmed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals last week.  To the Obama Administration, homeschoolers, and particularly homeschooling Christians, are a serious threat.  How much of a threat?  Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security has funded military-style exercises that portrayed homeschoolers as terrorists.  A recent police exercise earlier this month in Puyallup, Washington, showed police battling “angry parents” in a simulated shooting and armed siege at a school.  (Of course, there has been no violence by “angry parents” attacking schools.  But I digress.)  However, attacking homeschoolers is not a new phenomenon.  The May 8, 1995, issue of Time Magazine (at page 62) linked the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City with homeschoolers.  The bombing, Time said, resulted from “well known-elements of far-right thought: tax protesters, Christian homeschoolers, conspiracy theorists… and self-reliant types” in opposition to the federal government.  (Emphasis added.)  At around the same time, Lew Finch, the superintendent of schools in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in an interview with the Des Moines Register on May 4, 1995, directly blamed that bombing on those suspicious of government schools.  Dr. Finch said, “There is a dedicated, very well organized, very well financed movement in America that is very anti-public schools, very anti-government.  The ultimate example of that sentiment is the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.”  (Emphasis added.)

Consistent with the media and government animus against homeschoolers, a number of years ago, police in Muskegon, Michigan, conducted a mock attack on a school bus as part of a terrorism response exercise.  The terrorists were said to be fanatical homeschoolers.  However, the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District later apologized for characterizing homeschoolers as terrorists after hundreds of complaints were received.  In 2011, Pottawatamie County, Iowa, and Homeland Security conducted an exercise simulating a school shooting.  The shooter was portrayed as a “white teen boy, whose family is involved in anti-illegal immigration rallies” and supports the Second Amendment.  (Well, given the teen’s propensity for violence, he sure sounds like he was homeschooled!)

The stereotypes fostered by our government deliberately demonize homeschoolers as violent and dangerous.  For those of us who have had the privilege to know many homeschooled children, you are undoubtedly impressed with the fact that they are anything but violent and dangerous.  Rather, you will have noticed their courtesy, intelligence, work ethic, and ability to converse intelligently. Standardized test scores are far higher on average for homeschoolers than for those who have attended government schools.  Given that homeschoolers are academically, emotionally, and socially prepared to succeed at college, many colleges and universities actively recruit and admit homeschoolers.  (For example, Covenant College, a Christian college in Georgia, presently has 23% of its student body come from homeschool backgrounds.)  Thus, in spite of the troubling and insidious government propaganda that compares homeschoolers to violent terrorists, we should encourage homeschoolers, their parents, and their freedom-loving supporters to combat this massive governmental brainwashing effort that seeks to eradicate parent-directed education.  Homeschoolers and their parents are targeted by the Obama Administration because they pose a threat to the government’s monopoly for indoctrination and social engineering.  In the Obama Administration’s legal briefs against the Romeikes, Eric Holder’s Department of Justice argued that homeschooling is not a parent’s “fundamental right,” which is in direct opposition to prior decisions of the Supreme Court.  And we haven’t even spoken about what the Obama Administration is planning with the “Common Core” curriculum.  More about that soon!

On these pages, I wrote last week about the meeting by Michael “Mikey” L. Weinstein, Esq., Founder and President of Military Religious Freedom Foundation (“MRFF”), a decidedly anti-Christian group, with President Obama Pentagon appointees on April 23, 2013, to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military (including chaplains) who express or share their faith with others.  Mr. Weinstein is the author of several anti-Christian books and named as one of the “100 Most Influential People in U.S. Defense” by Defense News in December 2012, where he outranked General David Petraeus.  Mr. Weinstein has stated that U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”  Mr. Weinstein observed, “Someone needs to be punished for this.  Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.”  The Pentagon tried to spin this as the only meeting between Pentagon officials and Mr. Weinstein.

However, while this meeting was depicted as the first meeting between Mr. Weinstein and Pentagon brass, The New York Times (“NYT”) reported on March 1, 2009, in a story entitled “Questions Raised Anew About Religion in Military,” (available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/washington/01church.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& ), that Mr. Weinstein first met with four-star general and Air Force chief of staff, Norton A. Schwartz, in February 2009, mere weeks after President Obama’s inauguration.  This was the first time that Mr. Weinstein and MRFF had an official meeting with a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  During President Bush’s presidency, Mr. Weinstein’s MRFF sued the Defense Department as part of his anti-Christian crusade, so President Obama political appointees and the sycophantic generals at the Pentagon knew exactly who Mr. Weinstein was, and what he wanted to do, when General Schwartz met with him in 2009.  The NYT story gives a laundry list of Weinstein and MRFF’s grievances against the Defense Department during the Bush administration, including a “ceremony that began and ended with a Christian prayer…the appearance of uniformed officers at religious events, [and] displays of crucifixes at military chapels…”    For their average NYT readers, the story indicated that “Christian prayers” are prayers that are offered “in Jesus’ name.”  (You sure didn’t need to explain that to readers in either Dallas or South Carolina.)  In any event, while the Bush Defense Department fought Mr. Weinstein and MRFF in court, President Obama and Secretary Hagel welcomed him again on Apr. 23, 2013, to discuss how to stop seditious and treasonous Christian evangelization (oops, I meant Christian proselytization) within the military, a distinction that may seem to be without a difference.

However, as a public service to our nation’s military personnel, Mere Comments offers to clarify the difference between Christian evangelism (which is still permitted speech and conduct) and proselytization (which is now prohibited speech and conduct).  Thus, military personnel are legally permitted to say, “Have you made the wonderful discovery of receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” and “Have you ever considered the claims of Jesus Christ on your life?”  However, military personnel are not permitted to say, “Hey Soldier, your life is all messed up!  You had better get right with Jesus Christ, Who loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life?”  Further soldiers will no longer be permitted to say, “Hey, Soldier, you want to come to the base chapel with me this coming Sunday morning?”  Notice the clear and distinct difference between the two sets of statements: prohibited statements use the term, “Hey, Soldier,” but permitted statements do not.  Clear, right?

On these pages, I recently asked for prayer for Uwe and Hannelore Romeike.  The Romeikes, an evangelical couple from Germany, wanted to homeschool their six children in Germany as they had grave concerns that the German public schools taught non-Christian values.  Homeschooling in Germany, banned continuously since the Nazi era, is the only European nation where homeschooling is banned outright.  As a result, because the Romeikes homeschooled their children in Germany, they faced significant fines, imprisonment, and the loss of custody of their children.  As a result, the family fled to the United States in 2008, and applied for asylum.  In 2010, Judge Lawrence O. Burman reasonably and appropriately granted political asylum in the U.S. for the Romeikes based upon the evidence presented to him and the appropriate legal standard.  However, Secretary Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security appealed Judge Burman’s ruling arguing that German laws banning homeschooling do not violate the family’s fundamental human rights, and she withdrew the family’s asylum status.  (I suppose she didn’t want to open the floodgates to homeschooling Christian asylum seekers.)  In late April, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on appeal from the Romeikes.

Yesterday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Obama Administration’s denial of asylum granted to the Romeike family.  The court said that the Romeikes had not made a sufficient case, and that the United States has not opened its doors to every victim of unfair treatment.  (Of course, you might not know that from the more than thirty million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S.)  Nevertheless, the court of appeals did acknowledge that the U.S. Constitution recognizes the rights of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children (whew!), but then refused to concede that the harsh treatment of religiously motivated homeschoolers in Germany amounts to “persecution.”  (I suppose it has to be something more pernicious than merely significant fines, imprisonment, and the loss of custody of the children.  Perhaps the judges expected harsher treatment more akin to Iranian or North Korean legal and judicial standards?)

I am certain that the appellate court’s decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court, which typically hears fewer than 100 cases each year.  However, my suggestion is that the Romeikes can easily disappear into one of many “sanctuary” cities (which include the President Obama’s adopted home city of Chicago), where they can find “appropriate” documents any early morning at a local home improvement center, live openly, and teach their children as they see fit.  Please continue to keep the Romeike family and their litigation team in your thoughts and prayers.  And if you wish to assist the family in a more tangible way, please contact Michael Farris from the Home School Legal Defense Association at 540.338.5600.  If the Obama Administration wins this effort, your rights as a parent are at risk.

I hope that my readers had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  For those whose mothers are still living, I hope that it was a great day of celebration.  For those who like me no longer have our mothers with us, Mother’s Day is when I contemplate and thank God for the wonderful memories of the love, kindness, and nurture that my mother gave to me.  President Obama, whose mother died in 1995, had no public schedule of events for yesterday, so I am sure the First Family celebrated Mother’s Day together.  However, in recognition of Mother’s Day, the White House tweeted the following to celebrate non-motherhood: “Thanks to the #ACA, 1 in 3 women under 65 gained access to preventive care—like birth control—with no out-of-pocket costs. #HappyMothersDay.”  The ACA referred to in the tweet is, of course, the Affordable Care Act, the so-called Obamacare.  Thus, for President Obama, Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate an abortion mandate that compels religious groups and others to pay for birth control and other abortifacients under the employee health care plans in violation of their religious liberty.  As my readers know, the abortion mandate has led to more than 100 lawsuits from religious groups, businesses, schools and universities, and others, that are not allowed to deviate from the narrow provisions of Obamacare’s mandates.  Of course, there was much that the President could have said to the American people to celebrate motherhood on Mother’s Day.  He could have written something general and non-political, as did Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition, who wrote, “With all the bad news of late, let’s turn our focus to those women in our lives who have loved us, cared for us, and mentored us.  We are so grateful for all the praying, faithful mothers and women who won’t give up.  I hope you enjoy special time with your families rejoicing in the blessings of a mother.”  Alternatively, if the President wanted to focus on the importance of women’s choices, perhaps he could have quoted Donna Ball, who wrote in At Home on Ladybug Farm, “Motherhood is a choice you make every day, to put someone else’s happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you’re not sure what the right thing is…and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.”  Either would have been very classy, but I think that such statements are outside of President Obama’s comfort zone.  But, with the White House tweet, President Obama is, at least, consistent and able to draw clear “red lines” with regard to abortion absolutism (though he readily struggles with “red lines” in Iran, Syria, North Korea, and the Benghazi scandal).  He recently blessed the Planned Parenthood convention by concluding his formal remarks by saying “God bless you!” and now blesses the ability of women to be non-mothers with no out-of-pocket costs.  On Mother’s Day?  Really?

The Chicago White Sox lost the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.  “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and seven other White Sox players were accused of accepting money to throw the Series.  A Chicago street urchin came up to the outfielder, grabbed his coat sleeve, and asked Shoeless Joe, “It ain’t true, is it, Joe!”  So in a similar fashion, could one of our Mere Comments readers be a tax evader?  Say it isn’t true, Mike!

How could such a situation arise?  First, let me put some perspective on this.  The fetching Mrs. Avramovich and I have never purchased anything from online Internet retailers for a variety of reasons.  Nope, as hard to believe, not from Amazon, not Netflix, not from Macy’s, Wal-Mart, never, zilch, nada!  Nor do we intend to do so as long as humanly possible.  So, I have no personal or vested interest for or against Internet purchases.  So, I can objectively opine on this topic.  However, I can easily imagine that some of my readers have made Internet purchases from an out-of-state business.  In this context, by a 2-1 bipartisan majority, the U.S. Senate recently passed the so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act,” which allows states, counties, towns, Indian reservations (yep, the Native American reservations were snuck into the bill by the Senate leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) at the last moment) to levy and collect sales taxes on Internet purchases.   This bill is intended to overturn the 1992 Supreme Court Quill decision that found that out-of-state retailers are not required to collect sales taxes, unless they have a “nexus,” meaning a sufficient business presence in a particular state, such as an office or warehouse.  If enacted, Internet sellers would have to comply with the sales taxes for almost 10,000 different jurisdictions within the United States that collect sales taxes, and where the same product may be taxed differently in various jurisdictions.  (An Internet seller of popcorn, for example, could face a bewildering task as some towns or counties might classify popcorn a food exempt from, or pay a lower rate of, sales tax, but an adjoining town might fully tax popcorn as a novelty item.)  President Obama is enthusiastic about this new tax, and supports it.  Although I am unsure whether this bill will pass the House of Representatives, which tends to be more skeptical about raising taxes on consumers, and still maintains, for the time being, some modicum of fidelity to federalism principles.  But then again, access to tax money talks, and I am sure even some Republicans can be bought as their states can use the tax money.  Nevertheless, I am unsure that the Supreme Court would find this end run around its Quill ruling to be sufficiently constitutional under our federal system.  Moreover, given that the Senate bill applies only to businesses that sell more than $1 million of goods annually, there is also a potential constitutional equal protection legal argument.  But whether this Senate bill is ever enacted into law, most Internet purchasers already have a tax liability due to their states, and other local jurisdictions.

So, where is the possible tax evasion?  Well, let us consider the example of Illinois, although dozens of other states have similar provisions.  According to the Illinois Department of Revenue website:

In 1955, the General Assembly passed the Use Tax Act.  Use Tax is a sales tax that you, as the purchaser, owe on items that you buy for use in Illinois.  If the seller does not collect at least 6.25 percent sales tax, you must pay the difference to the Illinois Department of Revenue. The most common purchases on which the seller does not collect Illinois Use Tax are those made via the internet, from a mail order catalog, or made when traveling outside Illinois. You must keep your receipts when you make these types of purchases.  In 2010, the [Illinois] General Assembly passed a law making it easier for individuals to pay their Use Tax by putting a line on Form IL-1040.  It also created an Illinois Use Tax Amnesty which means individuals can pay Use Tax owed for prior years without penalty and interest on Form ST-44.

[Emphasis added.]

Illinoisans might easily contend, “Oh Balderdash!  That is a ridiculous tax!”  But do not be sanguine about this.  The Illinois Department of Revenue warns:

The Illinois Department of Revenue can assess use tax owed by taxpayers who do not pay voluntarily.  For taxpayers who do not have records to document their use tax liability, the department will estimate liability.

Of course, Christian believers are reminded by our Lord, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”  And St. Paul teaches, in pertinent part in Romans 13: 6-7, “This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.  Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue . . . “  So could there be a possible tax evader among my readers?  Well, if you ever were an evader or know of one in your household, then you are now responsible for this information, which has been presented on Mere Comments as a public service to our readers.  After all, such sales and use taxes are needed by cities, counties and states to pay for public education, safety and police, and health care for the poor.  Surely, no one, particularly Christian believers, can reasonably object to paying these taxes.

Over the past year, I have written several articles on these pages about how unwelcome Christians and conservatives are in the new Obama military.  The repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and the open military service of homosexuals in the military, and former Defense Secretary Panetta’s lifting of the ban on women in combat beginning in 2016, makes the United States military an increasingly unwelcome (and hazardous) environment for more conservative and/or Christian believers.  Moreover, the increasing high number of sexual assaults on both male and female military personnel makes the military a dangerous place, and not merely from enemy soldiers and combatants.  Accordingly, after decades of encouraging young people to consider the military, several years ago, I came to the sad conclusion that the military should not longer be an option for Christian and more conservative young people.

In light of the manufactured pain of President Obama’s “Sequester,” military leaders complain that those budget cuts will hurt the morale of troops, military readiness, and damage the Pentagon’s ability to recruit an all-volunteer force, even though they continue to purchase “green” jet fuel that is almost sixteen times the price of conventional jet fuel.  So, while the Sequester may be blamed by the generals and Obama political appointees at the Pentagon for what I suspect will prove to be an increasing inability to recruit an all-volunteer military force, there may be a lesser known Pentagon measure that can make recruiting far worse.

According to numerous press reports, President Obama Pentagon appointees met privately on April 23, 2013, with Military Religious Freedom Foundation (“MRFF”) officials, a decidedly anti-Christian group, to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military (including chaplains) who express or share their faith with others.  (Yes, to let the full gravity of that sentence sink in, please re-read that last sentence.)  This arises from a military policy called “Air Force Culture, Air Force Standards,” published on Aug. 7, 2012.

Section 2.11 of that Air Force regulation states:

Government Neutrality Regarding Religion.  Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion.  For example, they must avoid the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion.  Commanders or supervisors who engage in such behavior may cause members to doubt their impartiality and objectivity.  The potential result is a degradation of the unit’s morale, good order, and discipline.  Airmen, especially commanders and supervisors, must ensure that in exercising their right of religious free expression, they do not degrade morale, good order, and discipline in the Air force or degrade the trust and confidence that the public has in the United States Air Force.

(Emphasis added.)

MRFF president, Michael L. (Mikey) Weinstein, Esq., in an interview with Fox News, stated that U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”  Mr. Weinstein observed, “Someone needs to be punished for this.  Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.”  Mr. Weinstein further wrote in the Huffington Post, “Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces.”  (Read Mr. Weinstein’s full article here.)  He further compared the act of Christian proselytization to rape.  Mr. Weinstein told Fox News, “It is a version of being spiritually raped and you are being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian religious predators.  When those people [isn’t that dehumanizing term itself, Mr. Weinstein?] are in uniform and they believe there is no time, place or manner in which they can be restricted from proselytizing, they are creating tyranny, oppression, degradation, humiliation and horrible, horrible pain upon members of the military.”  So, there you have it!

Now in more normal times, that would be just one man’s ignorant and bigoted opinion, but it does seem to resonate with Obama political appointees and sycophantic generals at the Pentagon.  And we will see whether the military will actually enforce its own guidelines (I suspect that they will try), or whether any federal judge will affirm such a court-martial on First Amendment free speech grounds.  However, the Pentagon did confirm to Fox News that Christian evangelism is now against regulations.  “Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense,” Commander Nate Christensen said in a written statement.  He did decline to say if any chaplains or service members had been prosecuted for such an offense.  “Court Martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis and it would be inappropriate to speculate on the outcome in specific cases.”  Several days later, realizing that the military had opened a proverbial hornet’s nest, the Pentagon indicated on May 2^nd that, of course, evangelization is still permitted, but the rights of all believers and non-believers will be protected from aggressive proselytizing.  Lt. Col. Laurel Tingley clarified the Air Force position: “When on duty or in an official capacity, Air Force members are free to express their personal religious beliefs as long as it does not make others uncomfortable.”  (Emphasis added.)  Could the mere presence of a Bible passively on a sergeant’s desk, or a “I LOVE JESUS” bumper sticker to a lieutenant’s car make someone “feel uncomfortable?”

Ron Crews, the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, warned that the Air Force policy would “significantly impact the religious liberties of Air Force personnel.  Saying that a service member cannot speak of his faith is like telling a service member he cannot talk about his spouse or children.  I do not think the Air Force wants to ban personnel from protected religious speech, and I certainly hope that it is willing to listen to the numerous individuals and groups who protect military religious liberty without demonizing service members.”  Perhaps that is what the American people voted for last November.  But for Obama Pentagon officials and some of their high-ranking officer minions, the problems facing our military seem less likely to be Islamic terrorists in our midst and abroad, but those really pesky evangelistic Christian believers.  Of course, they are only sharing with others about the most important decision and relationship of their lives.  But again, I warn:  Christian and/or conservative young people, you would be prudent to find something better to do than to join our military!  For those of us who are signers of the Manhattan Declaration, it also seems to me that we are growing closer to the day when civil disobedience will be necessary.

This coming Thursday, May 2, 2013, is the National Day of Prayer.  Over the centuries, and long before our nation was established, our ancestors had a rich history of prayer.  In fact, by 1815, some 1,400 official calls to prayer had been issued by governmental leaders, including calls for Days of Prayer and Fasting, and Days of Thanksgiving.  On those days, Americans would gather at churches where pastors would preach a sermon addressing the topics identified in the proclamation, and then they would all pray.  (www.wallbuilders.org has recently posted some of these sermons on its website.  I was most touched by a sermon preached by the Rev. Henry Colman of Massachusetts on August 12, 1812, in response to a proclamation issued by President James Madison during the War of 1812, available here.)

On this coming Thursday, citizens and congregations will gather together as tens of thousands of groups, churches, and in many other public venues throughout our land.   To find any of these locations, please visit the National Day of Prayer official site at nationaldayofprayer.org.

And if you are unable to attend one of the prayer meetings in person, please take time to individually lift up our nation, government, leaders, military, families, businesses, schools, and places of worship, fervently asking for God’s grace, mercy, and blessing on the nation as we humble ourselves before Him.  Despite the fact that the United States has been greatly blessed by God, our nation is today in great need and peril from wickedness and murder.  Many of us have permitted impurity and selfishness in our lives, we have hoarded wealth and lacked compassion for the poor, but most of all, we have not been zealous in living and sharing our Christian faith with those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ.  We should plead with God that we should be the church and people that the Lord Jesus Christ would want us to be, even unto death.  May God bless our land as we humble ourselves, and pray and seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways.

Last Friday, at a Planned Parenthood gala (I wonder what they celebrate?), President Obama gave the keynote address.  He is our nation’s first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood.  As the audience of more than 1,000 cheered, he vowed that “Planned Parenthood isn’t going anywhere.  It’s not going anywhere today; it’s not going anywhere tomorrow.”  I do have some sense from the Scriptures where Planned Parenthood and its supporters might be going tomorrow, or in the not distant future, if they do not repent.  But this brings me to President Obama’s concluding remarks before this ignoble assembly.  He stated at the end of his 12 minute address (which, according to CNSnews.com, was enough time for 7.6 abortions based upon the 333,964 abortions performed by Planned Parenthood during fiscal 2011):

As long as we’ve got to fight to make sure women have access to quality, affordable health care, and as long as we’ve got to fight to protect a woman’s right to make her own choices about her own health, I want you to know that you’ve also got a president who’s going to be right there with you, fighting every step of the way.  Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.

Emphasis added.

It takes a particularly tone-deaf (and/or narcissistic) president to speak to Planned Parenthood during the criminal trial of 72-year-old Dr. Kermit Gosnell, our modern-day Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi physician who performed human experiments on children and other camp inmates at Auschwitz.  Dr. Gosnell is a Philadelphia abortionist facing multiple counts of first-degree murder for severing the spinal cords of babies born alive during abortions.  Further, Dr. Gosnell also faces one count of third-degree murder in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old Bhutanese refugee who died of a monstrously negligent drug overdose at Dr. Gosnell’s “Women’s Medical Society” clinic.  Most of the mainstream media has focused little or no attention to this case for obvious reasons, but now this case has become better known case through social media, which forced national media to acknowledge their selective attention to heinous mass murder.  (Even the mostly very liberal Atlantic magazine has admitted recently that the Dr. Gosnell trial “should be a front-page story.”)  For my readers who are not faint of heart, a particularly gruesome summary of 58 horrific details from the Dr. Gosnell trial are available here: http://washingtonexaminer.com/58-horrific-details-from-the-kermit-gosnell-trial-that-you-do-not-want-to-read/article/2527524. )  Further, Dr. Gosnell’s alleged activities are not an isolated series of incidents.  (Please see Kyle Smith’s article from the New York Post at http://m.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_truth_about_late_term_abortion_TDW9MnQT0XIQDRyfInpm2L .)

During President Obama’s remarks to the Planned Parenthood audience, he criticized the 42 states that had introduced laws to restrict abortion.  He also singled out a new law passed in North Dakota to ban abortions as early as six weeks.  The President noted with disapproval, “A women may not even know that she’s pregnant at six weeks.”  Indeed, Mr. President, she might not.  However, in his remarks, President Obama did not say anything regarding Dr. Gosnell’s trial or even use the word “abortion.”

As far as God blessing Planned Parenthood, I am unconvinced that will happen.  However, I do not know for sure which “god” President Obama asked to bless Planned Parenthood.  Perhaps it was Baal or Moloch, both of whom required child sacrifice.  However, the God I am familiar with and worship does not condone the murder of the most innocent children among us.  (See, e.g., St. Matthew Gospel 18: 5, 6 and 10.)  The God I know and worship cannot “bless” those who sanction the type of horrific atrocities described in the Grand Jury and trial court testimony presented against Dr. Gosnell.  And yet, God is a good and merciful God, who is unwilling that any should perish if they repent and come to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  And we, as followers of God, can use Dr. Gosnell’s trial to remind our friends and neighbors, and the young in particular, about the brutal reality of abortion.  Planned Parenthood leads women down the long road to death and remorse.  Let us pray that God will move among the hearts and minds of those who heard the President’s remarks, and Dr. Gosnell and those who worked with him, and that they will repent of their activities and support for Planned Parenthood, an organization that arises from Hell itself.

On these pages, I have written a number of blogs detailing the plight of Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, the American pastor of Iranian descent currently held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison for his Christian faith.  He was sentenced this past January to eight years in prison for evangelizing and other Christian activities in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  The married father of two children recently wrote a powerful and poignant letter to his wife, Naghmeh, which has now been released publicly.  His entire letter reads:

Hello to my dear love and wife,

When I saw my family for the first time behind the glass walls, I could see my mom four meters away. As she approached me and saw my face, she broke down and could not get closer.  She was crying.  I understood what she felt because after weeks of being in solitary confinement in Evin Prison, I also got to see my face in the mirror of an elevator that was taking me to the prison hospital.  I said hi to the person staring back at me because I did not recognize myself.  My hair was shaven, under my eyes were swollen three times what they should have been, my face was swollen, and my beard had grown.

It was a few days ago when one of my family members, with weary eyes and after running around for 15 weeks in trying to get me out of prison, said that my dad says every single day that “this week I will get my son out of prison.”  But this does not happen and he is not able to get me out of prison.  In that instant I looked into the wrinkled and tired eyes of my dad.  I could clearly see that he had ran around for months and he had no more strength left in him.  It was very hard seeing my family in such a situation.

You, my wife, on the other side of the world, alone with the kids.  Alone and worried. My family here in Iran, being interrogated, tired and under so much pressure.

With the loud voice of the prison guard, our visitation had ended and they put covers over our eyes and we returned to the dark room void of any natural sunlight.  I started praying for my family. My dear Naghmeh. You are the love of my life. I am always in love with you.

Dear Naghmeh, I have been stung so many times that I have become full of poison.  This is an Iranian saying.  A lot of people say that they have been stung by so many people that their whole being is full of poison like a poisonous snake.  It means that we have been bitten by the snakes of this world so many times that, that all of the poison has collected in us and that we are like the poisonous snake.  But if we sting anyone, we will die.  This Iranian saying is full of spirit of revenge and unforgiveness and every time I would hear this in Iran, I would get very sick hearing it.

A few days ago they brought a young war veteran who was disabled in 80% of his body in my cell.  He had been put in solitary confinement with his horrific condition.  And this had made him very mad and he kept saying “why did they do this to me?  I gave my whole life for their sake.  See what they have done to me!!!”  And when he would get very mad he would say “I will take my revenge!”

I spoke to this young man until 4 in the morning.  I spent time with him and spoke to him to forgive.  When we don’t forgive, we drink the poison ourselves and then wait for the other person to die.  And we take the knife that has hurt us and we stab ourselves with it again!  And this is the will of the evil one who wants to destroy us.

But when we forgive, we pour out the poison of the enemy and of the devil and we don’t let the poison stay in us and we don’t let the poison make us into poisonous snakes!  So that we don’t become like the person we despised and who persecuted and tortured us.

Maybe you ask, what is the secret of being so happy in such a hard situation?

Forgiveness and a change of attitude.  When we forgive, we become free and we become messengers of peace and reconciliation and goodness.  And whoever stings us, we can take into our embrace and love them.  And in this dark and evil time, we can live full of love and full of peace and full of joy and shine like the stars!  Glory be to His Name.

I forgave the prison doctor who did not listen to me and did not give me the medication that I needed.  I forgave the interrogator who beat me.  Every day when I would see the interrogator and for the last time when I saw him, I forgave him.  I smiled at him and with respect shook his hand and I said my goodbye.  The minute I forgave them and loved them, that second I was filled with unspeakable joy.  I saw in the eyes of the interrogator that he had come to respect me and as he was leaving, he could not look behind him.  Love is as strong as death.

We have to get rid of the poison in our body because if we don’t, we will die.  We have to get rid of both poisons; first the poison of the snake that bit us and also the poison in us that was created by that bite.  We can get rid of the first poison by forgiveness and we can get rid of the second poison by humility, by dying to ourselves, and allowing the band-aid of love and goodness to replace the empty place of the wound.  So that we are not a tool of darkness and revenge, but that we can be light and love and a vessel of forgiveness and we can be transformed in the process.

Surely you have someone in your family, city, work or environment that have become like poisonous snake who have bitten you and tried to make you poisonous.  So, forgive them and use the antidote of love and be Victorious!

One of the chances of forgiveness came when I was blindfolded and a guard was holding my hand guiding me.  He asked “what are you here for? What is your crime?” I said “I am Christian Pastor.”  All of the sudden he let go of my hand and said “so you are unclean!  I will tell others not to defile themselves by touching you!”  He would tell others not to get close to me.  It really broke my heart.  The nurse would also come to take care of us and provide us with treatment, but she said in front of others “in our religion we are not suppose to touch you, you are unclean.  Baha’i (religion) and Christians are unclean!”  She did not treat me and that night I could not sleep from the intense pain I had.  According to the doctor’s instructions, they would not give me the pain medication that they would give other prisoners because I was unclean.

I could not fall sleep one night due to the pain when all of a sudden I could hear the sound of dirty sewer rats with their loud noises and screeches.  It was around 4 in the morning.  It sounded like laughter in a way.

Even though many would call me unclean and filthy and would not even want to pass by me and they had abandoned me and they were disgusted to touch me because they were afraid that they would also become unclean, but I knew that in the eyes of Jesus Christ, and in the eyes of my brothers and sisters, I am like the sewer rat, beautiful and loveable – not disgusting and unclean – and like the rats I can scream with joy within those prison walls and worship my Lord in joy and strength.

The Joy of the Lord is my strength. Amen.

Pastor Abedini’s birthday is May 7^th.  If you (or other members of your church, Sunday School class, or small group) want to send a birthday card and letter of encouragement to Pastor Abedini, please write to him at the following address:

Pastor Saeed Abedini
Evin Prison
Saadat Abad
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

For of such, the world is unworthy, but we are privileged to call him Brother Saeed.  Please pray also for his wife and family.

I suppose that it is common knowledge that our nation is a sieve with many millions of illegal immigrants living here openly, and not as some have contended “in the shadows.”  It seems to me that our nation’s present immigration laws are mostly ignored, or, even worse, selectively enforced.  (Recent events in Boston highlight this fact.)  For a number of years, I have volunteered in a legal aid clinic for the poor in my community, and have seen how many illegal immigrants know how to “game” the system for their financial benefit.  As one example that is mostly unknown to readers of my blog, the Internal Revenue Service knowingly allows illegal aliens to claim children (whether fictitious children or those living in foreign countries) in order to obtain Earned Income Tax Credit (“EITC”) cash payments of up to $5,891 per tax filer.  The General Accountability Office (“GAO”) estimates that 23 percent to 28 percent of EITC payments of $55.7 billion in 2011 are issued improperly every year.  How could such a thing happen?  The IRS issues taxpayer identification numbers (“ITIN”) to people who lack valid Social Security numbers because they are not authorized to work in the United States, but then ITINs can be used to make EITC claims.  A 2010 government audit found that 72 percent of tax returns filed by persons using ITINs, rather than Social Security numbers, claimed the EITC.   Anyway, that is just one example, but if you ask any illegal alien, they can fill you in with much more information and other examples.

But that prologue, it brings me to Uwe and Hannelore Romeike.  The Romeikes, an evangelical couple from Germany, wanted to homeschool their six children in Germany.  The parents had grave concerns that the German public schools teach non-Christian values.    Homeschooling in Germany, banned continuously since the Nazi era, is the only European nation where homeschooling is banned outright.  As a result, if the Romeikes continued to homeschool their children in Germany, they faced significant fines, imprisonment, and the loss of custody of their children.  As a result, the family fled to the United States in 2008, and applied for asylum.  Under current immigration law, “persons who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion” are eligible for asylum in the United States.  In 2010, an immigration judge reasonably and appropriately granted political asylum in the U.S. for the Romeikes.  However, the Department of Homeland Security now claims that German laws banning homeschooling do not violate the family’s fundamental human rights, and are seeking to withdraw the family’s asylum status.  (What would have happened under this Administration if the Romeikes were a foreign homosexual or lesbian couple seeking to homeschool?  But I digress.)

On Tuesday, April 23^rd, the Romeikes’ appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will be heard for oral arguments.  If their appeal is denied, then the family will be sent back to Germany, where the parents face jail time, more fines, and the loss of custody.  Of course, if I were a cynic, one could easily surmise that under the Obama Administration, all illegal immigrants can be granted privileges afforded to American citizens and legal residents, but homeschooling Christians from other countries are beyond toleration in our society.  Why might a cynic say that?  Because it is very dangerous to this government for you to educate your children as you see fit.  Please pray for the Romeikes, and that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will come to a just conclusion based upon law, and not merely upon a political agenda dressed in legal jargon.  If the Obama Administration wins this effort, your rights as a parent are at risk.  And that is not merely a cynic’s view.