Bill O'Reilly and Tim Hardaway's Remarks

Here is a letter I wrote to Bill O'Reilly of the "The O'Reilly Factor" on the FOX News channel. It has to do with the way this otherwise staunch defender of freedom of expression budges to the liberal-progressive agenda. Mr. O'Reilly and a guest of his implied in the Factor that former pro basketball star Tim Hardaway had a sickness-type condition of thinking homophobic thoughts.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hardaway is not the best representative of the freedom of thought camp either. He heartily offered his apology for his anti-homosexual remarks (link takes you only to the search results in Google, so you don't have to visit a homosexual perversion web site unless you choose to.) However, the fact that Hardaway is a push-over only reveals that there is no true freedom of thought and speech in the US on certain issues. If one is to express their honest opinion of disapproval of the homosexual agenda they are threatened with left-wing and pro-homosexual paranoid propaganda. It would have been acutally quite amazing if Hardaway had stuck with his right to freedom of speech.

> Dear Mr. O’Reilly,

I appreciate your show and it indeed is a no spin zone. You do not let leftist and socialist agenda get by without making a point of their bigoted manner of approaching an argument or an opponent. I have respect for your moral and intellectual bravery to stand up to the mainstream “progressive liberalism” in this country. Their nonsense should be exposed for what it is – nonsense. And you do that well.

However, I think you made a serious mistake last night (Thursday, 2-15-2007). Your report and commentary, alongside that of the gentleman from the group that studies “hate and extremism,” regarding Mr. Hardaway’s remark on gays was off.

Mr. Hardaway has the right to freedom of thought and freedom of speech. He has the right to be homophobic and to not like gays. Even more so he has the right to think so and say so in public. This is a fundamental constitutional right in this country.

Mr. Hardaway finds gay behavior an imposing presence, were it in society and/or in his more private circles, and perhaps he has a reason. In the quote from him you showed, he clearly said that he does not like to have gay people in his locker room. He is absolutely right. Would you be comfortable with women staring at you while you’re changing your underwear? Why should gay men, of the conviction that other men are a sexual object to their “sexual preference,” should be allowed in the same locker room as those who are just athletes looking to change and relax in the privacy of the facility, and not to engage in flirtations or a more heated exchange? I find this concern of Mr. Hardaway’s very reasonable.

You and your guest went further in your denial of Mr. Hardaway’s right to his opinion. You even said something to the effect that he not only said this bad thing about gays and that he hates gays, but that he thinks that (the anti-homosexual attitude), that he carries it with him. What are you implying here? That he has no freedom of thought? That Mr. Hardaway is obliged to think only along the gay-rights agenda and to take a perversion and agree to it without being able to allow himself to entertain a different opinion? This type of self-censorship due to fear of law suits or of just plain becoming a target of the militant gay activism has already done substantial damage to the free thought in the US.

This suggestion of yours is scary because it proves the point of how far the leftist propaganda and bigotry have gone in this nation in changing the way people think, or are allowed to think. You are the no spin icon for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans. If you agree with your guest who studies hate, that freedom of thought and freedom of speech are a “disorder” which has to be “treated,” the establishment of tyranny is only months away in the US. Shall we expect that free speech and dissent from the mainstream beliefs should be treated as a sickness to society and such people should be locked up in hospitals, until they are “healed” from their different world view?

I am sure you know that this is what the Nazis and the communists did to all who disagreed with their propaganda. In Russia and Eastern Europe people used to be locked in psychiatric wards for religious beliefs which were not “scientific” and out of line with the “party line” and the “socialist realism.” We will obviously soon see thought police established in America in order to tell us what we are not to hate and what we are to like if the ACLU and the gay-lobbyists and the socialist left have their way.

To forcefully impose acceptance of homosexuality as a standard that should be promoted and accepted uncritically is beyond what I imagined you would agree to. But obviously you have. At least to some extent. I understand that you come under a lot of pressure. But your lumping Mr. Hardaway with extremists and terrorists, implicit by your remarks and those of your guest, is reprehensible. Tim Hardaway has the right to express his personal and moral outrage with homosexuals and their behavior. This right is given him by the Constitution of the United States. And, obviously, by his own conscience.

It would be a prudent act for you to offer Mr. Hardaway your apologies for infringing on his right to freedom of thought, opinion and speech by comparing him with terrorists and extremists and by strongly implying that he must not be allowed to think the way he does.

Yet this is up to you to decide. I will not stop watching your show, because on many other issues I think you are right on. I’m sure this brings you a littlecomfort. I perceive you to be a man who stands for freedom and for what is right in the culture clash in the US. I encourage you to not change that.

Kind regards,
...

Pro-homosexual Legislature in US Congress Will Threaten Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion

I have posted the opening paragraphs of the article, the whole article is available here.

If this legislature passes the possiblities of banning free religious speech in America are paramount. If you would like to preach and teach that homosexuality and corss-dressing is a peversion which God hates you may be violating laws that protect homosexuals from hate-crimes. This legislature shows how the evangelical church is failing to affect the secular government in the United States, regardless of the significant involvement of the Christian Right in politics. Freedom must achieved in the spiritual realm in order to affect change on government. Free speech in America has already been threatened by self-censorship when the right of homosexuals to be overtly homosexual are in question. It has become publically unacceptable to even think of "same gender sexual attraction" as perversion, not to even speak of saying it publically. See my letter to Bill O'Reilly above.

Gay rights advances likely in Congress
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer2 hours, 45 minutes ago (Feb. 24,
2007)

Anti-gay bias has flared up in Hollywood and pro basketball recently, and soon the topic will be thrust dramatically into a new forum — a reshaped Congress likely to pass the first major federal gay-rights bills.

Wary conservative leaders, as well as gay-rights advocates, share a belief that at least two measures will win approval this year: a hate-crimes bill that would cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias, and a measure that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Also on the table — although with more doubtful prospects — will be a measure to be introduced Wednesday seeking repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the military.

All three measures surfaced in previous sessions of Congress, at times winning significant bipartisan backing but always falling short of final passage. This year, with Democrats now in control and many Republicans likely to join in support, the hate-crimes and workplace bills are widely expected to prevail.

"With liberals in control, there's a good possibility they'll both pass," said Matt Barber, a policy director with the conservative group Concerned Women for America. "They're both dangerous to freedom of conscience, to religious liberties, to free speech."

If approved by Congress, the bills would head to the White House. Activists on both the left and right are unsure whether President Bush would sign or veto them.

Free Christian Speech Persecuted in North America

This piece reveals instances of legislature in the US and Canada which under the guise of limiting "hate crimes" in fact punishes people for free thought and free speech.

We remind the reader that freedom of religon does not exist without the fundamental freedom of speech, which includes the right to criticize your oponents religious beliefs and the right to convert others or change one's own beliefs.

I am posting this article the way it was emailed to me.

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WHEN GRANDMAS GO TO JAIL FOR WITNESSING

February 7, 2007

By Janet Folger

Arrested for sharing the Gospel? An expected outcome in North Korea, China or any Muslim country on the globe. But in Pennsylvania? Yep. Arlene Elshinnawy, a 75-year-old grandmother of three, and Lynda Beckman, a 70-year-old grandmother of 10 (along with nine others), were arrested for sharing their faith on the public sidewalk in Philadelphia, Pa., USA. They faced 47 years (the rest of their lives) in jail for spreading the Gospel because of a Pennsylvania "hate crimes" law that is nearly identical to H.R. 254 – the "hate crimes" bill reintroduced in Congress and said to be on the "fast track" in the House Judiciary Committee. This is the same bill that previously passed both the House and Senate and was killed only because of Republican leadership opposition in conference – something we no longer have.

Don't believe hate crimes will silence your freedom of speech and freedom of religion? Think again.

Pastors in Pennsylvania are now seeking liability insurance to protect themselves from being prosecuted under the "hate speech" law. That's right. They are reacting to Pennsylvania's addition of "sexual orientation" to the state's hate crimes laws. Of particular concern was the expansion of the definition of "harassment" to include "harassment by communication" – which means one could be convicted based upon spoken words alone.

Their fear is a rational one. Hate crimes invariably lead to fines and jail time for those who "violate" them. Just ask Sweden's Pastor Ake Green. Green faced jail time for the content of his sermon. He read from Romans Chapter 1 – something that is no longer legal in Sweden.

The "hate crimes" – or more appropriately, "thought crimes" – bill is the single most dangerous bill in America. Along with its companion, the "Employment Non-Discrimination Act," or ENDA – "Thought Crimes for your Business"– is expected to pass this session of Congress. Bow to the homosexual agenda – endorse, embrace, subsidize and celebrate it – or go out of business. That's what it did to the largest and most respected adoption agency in Boston, Catholic Charities, who, by refusing to place vulnerable orphans in homosexual homes, was forced to close its doors. England's about to get a dose of the same.

But you don't speak out about homosexuality, you say? Think you're safe? Think again. Here are just a few examples I've highlighted my book, "The Criminalization of Christianity" where you'll find a whole lot more.

Protest Islam? That's a hate crime!

Maybe it had something to do with Sept. 11. Maybe it had something to do with the beheadings. Maybe it had something to do with what is written in the Quran. But Canadian Pastor Mark Harding doesn't believe the Muslim religion is one of peace. So when his local high school started handing out copies of the Quran and announced a policy of setting aside a room for Muslim students to pray during school hours, Pastor Harding protested. Didn't think it was a good idea – especially since Christian, Jewish and Buddhist kids weren't afforded the same opportunity.

After losing an appeal to Canada's Supreme Court Oct. 17, 2002, Harding was said to have "willfully promoted hatred" in violation of Canadian law that had just passed six months earlier. He was then forced to undergo two years probation and 340 hours of "community service" at the Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga, Ontario.

So, for the "crime" of handing out leaflets protesting a high school's pro-Muslim policy, Pastor Harding was ordered to do community service to further the very religion he morally opposed.

Harding, an evangelical Protestant, says his evangelism is motivated by love for the Muslim people (rather than hate). In fact, in a phone call used as "evidence" against him in the trial, Harding verbalizes that he loves them. He says he wants them to go to heaven. Yet he received more than 3,000 hate-filled calls – many of them death threats. Some motioned by running their finger across their neck from ear to ear. Upon entering court for his trial, he required police protection from a large crowd of Muslims who were chanting, "Infidels, you will burn in hell." Of course, that speech is loving.

Harding said, "I had a call from someone who said they were from (Louis) Farrakhan's (Nation of Islam) group, and they were going to break my legs." Adding, "Another caller said he would rip out my testicles." Can't you just feel the love?

But instead of just "stuffing envelopes" to promote the Muslim faith, his punishment included Islam indoctrination under the direction of Mohammad Ashraf, the general secretary of the Islam center. Under penalty of going to jail, Harding was forced to undergo Islamic "re-education," which included reading a book called "Towards Understanding Islam," by Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi, which provided a description of one who does not follow Islam, referred to as an infidel or a "kafir":

"Such a man ... will spread confusion and disorder on the earth," the book says. "He will, without the least compunction, shed blood, violate other men's rights, be cruel to them, and create disorder and destruction in the world. His perverted thoughts and ambitions, his blurred vision and disturbed scale of values, and his evil-spelling activities would make life bitter for him and for all around him."

"It was obvious that he intended to make sure I understood that I was a kafir," said Harding, who was forbidden from voicing any objections or saying anything negative about Islam or its prophet, Muhammad.

Harding, who had been prevented from speaking publicly about his case under a gag order, told WorldNetDaily: "He said he was my supervisor, and if I didn't follow what he said, he would send me back to jail."

Harding, 49, has suffered four heart attacks since 1997 and is unable to work in his cabinet-making trade because of his poor health. Yet he must travel three-hours to the Islamic Society of North America to complete his sentence. His attorney has entered a plea based on humanitarian grounds, due to her client's poor health, to allow him to complete his sentence at an Islam Center closer to his home. Isn't that nice? Perhaps, if he's lucky, he can be indoctrinated closer to home.

And speaking of indoctrination, thanks to the city council in Hamtramck, that shrill siren from Muslim mosques is now blasted five times a day just outside of Detroit. Whether your child is sleeping or you're on an important call, for about 15 minutes every day it's going to sound like a tornado drill outside your suburban Detroit home or business beginning at 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. so the Muslims will know when to pray. But if you were to ring church bells – which typically play music for two minutes once a week – in a Muslim country, you could be shot.

California 'hate crimes' law – pro-lifers automatic suspects

"Hate crimes" bill, SB 1234, was signed into law by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Sept. 22, 2004. SB 1234 creates a new hate-crime training requirement for law enforcement called "multimission criminal extremism." In addition to those categories already considered for special punishment under the term "hate crimes," the new multimission criminal extremism training adds "anti-reproductive-rights crimes."

That means if you are pro-life, you are an automatic suspect, and law enforcement is being specially trained on how to handle you. I wonder what that special "multimission criminal extremism" trains officers to look for. "Anti-reproductive-rights" T-shirts? Those who've passed "anti-reproductive rights" laws? Those who've debated the "anti-reproductive-rights" position? If I lived in California, I have a feeling my picture would be found at the local post office. If you think killing children is wrong, they're training people against you, too.

This law also expands "crimes" to include "speech" interpreted as "threats, intimidation and coercion." As long as a "victim" claims the speech makes them "feel" "intimidated," violators will be liable to penalties of $10,000-$25,000 and a year in jail.

"[And] any person who says they are 'fearful' because someone has said homosexuality is wrong could have the speaker arrested and jailed," according to James Hartline, California pro-family activist.

This will be used to criminalize expressions of biblical truth about homosexuality as "hate speech" and could very well target not just organizations who disagree with homosexuality, but Christian bookstores that carry books like "The Criminalization of Christianity" or another book already ruled to contain "intimidating" beliefs: the Bible.

I agree with James Hartline who was quoted saying: "This is the worst bill ever put before the California Legislature – and that's saying a lot."

And now it's about to go federal: the "hate crimes" bill in Congress will pave the way for the very same thing. If you are for "hate crimes" legislation, you are also for the persecution of Christians. It's a package deal. There is no longer any doubt; that's exactly where it leads. Just ask Arlene Elshinnawy and Lynda Beckman.

If we are to stop this freight train aimed at our freedom from passing in Congress, we must work together and speak in a unified voice. Faith2Action and the Christian Interactive Network have reserved the website: www.StopHateCrimesNow.com that features Arlene and Lynda's stories in two 30-second television ads that you can help air. One hundred percent of donations will go toward airtime. With your help, we will place these commercials on cable news like Fox, CNN and MSNBC and earn additional media elsewhere. And if your organization is willing to link to www.StopHateCrimesNow.com , you will keep all your names and all new names generated. But most importantly, by sounding the alarm together, we have a chance of stopping it.

If the "hate crimes" bill or ENDA is passed by Congress, we are ready for Phase 2: sending veto pens to the president with individualized messages urging a veto.

One thing's for sure, if you value your freedom, you need to use it now. Yes, you have the right to remain silent, but if you use it very much longer, those are precisely the words you, your pastor, business owner or grandmother will hear before seeing the inside of a prison cell.

This article appeared origninaly on the WorldNetDaily web site.

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"Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body." (Hebrews 13:3)

"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." (Matthew 5:10-12)

PaulDBird
"God's Holy Rebel"
http://www.jesusreturn.com

Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

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Germany Violates Feedom of Religion of Families

This is an info email by the American Homeschooling Legal Defense Association. It addresses the totalitarian practices the German state has resorted to in order to prevent families from having control over their children's education. There are instructions below on how you may object to the brutal tactics of the German authorities against the freedoms of these homeschooling families, many of whom are Christians.
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February 5, 2007

HSLDA--German Homeschooled Child Sentenced to a Child Psychiatry Unit

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:

The situation for homeschoolers in Germany is getting worse each week. Just last Thursday, a 17-year-old homeschooled girl was forcibly removed from her parent's custody by over 15 police officers. The homeschooled girl has been placed in the child psychiatry unit of the Nuremberg clinic.

Homeschooling is not legal in Germany. There are over 40 cases currently in court or being appealed. Christian families are fleeing Germany for safety in nearby countries. The unconscionable treatment of sincere and faithful Christian homeschool families is a sad legacy from Germany's past. Homeschooling was first banned under Adolf Hitler, and that ban is still enforced today.

Many families who have had their children forcibly taken from their home each day and taken to government school have since fled Germany, but there are still some homeschoolers. The latest incident involves 17-year-old Melissa Busekros, the girl sent to the Nuremberg psychiatry unit. What is being done to this sensitive girl--just to set an example of enforcing the compulsory schooling at all costs--is reprehensible and causing trauma to unassuming and lovable Melissa.

In the summer of 2005, when Melissa was 15, she was told she would have to repeat the seventh grade at the government school because she was failing math and Latin. She had good grades in the rest of her classes, so her parents tutored her at home for those two subjects. When the school officials found out they were angry and then expelled Melissa, so the family began to homeschool full time.

However, the Youth Welfare office then took the family to court because they were homeschooling. Then, on Tuesday, January 30, 2007, social workers and police officers came to the Busekros home and forcibly took Melissa to the child psychiatric unit where she was questioned for four hours before she was returned home. Then two days later, 15 police officers and social workers came to the Busekros home and took Melissa away from her parents by force and placed her in the child psychiatric unit.

According to Melissa's father, Hubert Busekros, this treatment was justified by the psychiatrist's finding two days previously that Melissa was supposedly developmentally delayed by one year and that she suffered from school phobia.

Nevertheless, one organization concerned with education expressed outrage at the treatment of Melissa Busekros.

"The Netzwerk Bildungsfreiheit [the Network for Freedom of Education] condemns this inconsiderate and totally incommensurate behavior on the part of the officials involved and demands that they give Melissa her freedom and return her to her family immediately," the group was quoted in an article on its website. To view the site, as well as more information and a photograph of the Busekros family, go to
http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=3697 .

ACTION

We ask you to take a moment and do two things: First, call or email the German Embassy and give them this message:

"We are shocked to hear of the Busekros' homeschooled daughter Melissa being removed from the custody of her parents and being placed in a child psychiatric unit. This is an outrage that hearkens back to the Nazi era. We cannot believe a free nation would put a homeschooled child in a psychiatric ward for 'school phobia.' The attack on the homeschool families throughout Germany must stop."

The German Embassy can be contacted at:

Dr. Klaus Scharioth
Ambassador
German Embassy
4645 Reservoir Road NW
Washington, DC, 20007-1998
(202) 298-4000

The embassy can be emailed from its website:
http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=3696 .

Second, pray for the German situation. Only God can change the situation for homeschoolers in Germany. Attempts by German homeschoolers to organize or to change the laws through court continue to be lost, but with God all things are possible. We ask that you cry out for the German homeschool families.

BACKGROUND

German parents have been fighting for the right to homeschool for the last seven or more years. However, all efforts have failed in the face of the stubborn German government and their official response that they cannot "allow a counterculture to exist."

We believe the hope for Germany will be via the international pressure bearing down so that they abandon their witch-hunt after homeschoolers and their terrible treatment of these innocent families.

Homeschoolers remaining in Germany are hoping to legalize homeschooling in one state and thereby make a safe-haven for homeschoolers. However, the German homeschoolers are so few and the attacks so intense that it is hard to make any progress in this area.

If you wish to assist the Germans in their struggle for homeschool freedom, or with many other struggling countries, you can donate to HSLDA's international fund via the Home School Foundation at
http://www.homeschoolfoundation.org/ .

Your donation will be used to meet the homeschooling needs in Germany. After meeting the known homeschooling needs in this country, if there are remaining funds, this money will be transferred to the
Foundation's International Fund to meet homeschooling needs in other countries.

Thank you for standing with these families and taking a moment to assist them.

Sincerely,

Christopher J. Klicka
HSLDA Senior Counsel
Director of State and International Relations