LAW OF THE LAND
Liberty Bell rangers halt minister's speech
Center honoring U.S. freedoms restricts message against abortion

A street preacher whose annual fall campaign often includes a stop in Philadelphia, the self-described "Birthplace of Liberty," has been arrested for speaking against abortion on public property outside the building housing the Liberty Bell.

The arrest of Michael Marcavage, chief of the Repent America ministry, was documented on video now available on YouTube.

Marcavage told WND he's awaiting information from the National Park Service authorities who arrested him on an appearance date in federal court.

The video shows Marcavage preaching to a crowd outside the Liberty Bell Center, which houses the Liberty Bell, the artifact from American history that rang to announce the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and is inscribed with "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof," a biblical quotation from Leviticus 25:10.

"This is where we have been on a number of other occasions," Marcavage told WND. "This time we were ministering to people waiting in line to see the Liberty Bell, speaking on the message on the Bell, which has 'Proclaim liberty throughout the Land.'"

(Story continues below)

"We were speaking on the issue of abortion being tolerated in this nation, generally how abortion is simply a representation of how wicked our nation has become, and the need to repent for sin in our own lives," he said. He referenced the loss of liberty by the unborn who are aborted, he said.

While he was speaking, National Park Service rangers ordered him and others in his group to the other side of the building, where they said they had set up a "free speech zone," which was far away from any pedestrian traffic entering or leaving the building.

Calls to the National Park Service by WND seeking a comment on the issue were not returned.

"[The Rangers] told us no one is permitted to be [speaking] on the public sidewalk outside the entrance or exit, to speak about issues that are important to them," Marcavage said.

The minister, who previously has challenged Philadelphia city regulations limiting free speech by preaching the Bible at homosexual festivals there, said the stop was part of his regular fall tour.

"Every year in October we go on a pro-life evangelism tour. This year it runs from Oct. 3-11," he said. "We travel throughout Pennsylvania, visit a number of high school and college campuses, and talk about the reality of abortion. Since we were in Philadelphia we thought it would be a good opportunity to stop [in the area] of Independence Hall. We've been there before."

But he said in the birthplace of freedom in the United States, where Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell exist as representations of the highest ideals of freedom, speech now is restricted.

The rangers approached Marcavage several times, to say that the rules had been changed and he was not allowed to preach on the sidewalk. Then one ranger consulted a supervisor, and repeated the orders.

"I was very patient," Marcavage said. "I listened to what he had to say, and encouraged him to speak to our legal counsel. I said it was sad that in the birthplace of freedom they were attempting to establish 'free speech zones.'"

Those are areas, which have been defeated in other court challenges, where officials say they want street preachers or protesters to remain, usually ostensibly to "avoid conflict."

The ranger on duty then said he was granting Marcavage a "verbal permit" for the free speech zone, then arrested him and cited him for violating the provisions of that permit.

"It was so absurd," Marcavage said. "We didn't want the permit. We have the First Amendment."

He noted that while he was discussing the situation with rangers, a team of marchers promoting the awareness of breast cancer, passed by with no comment from the rangers.

The park service website for the Liberty Bell notes that the bell's inscription "conveys a message of liberty which goes beyond the words themselves."

"When William Penn created Pennsylvania's government he allowed citizens to take part in making laws and gave them the right to choose the religion they wanted," the website explains. The bell was created for the Pennsylvania State House, and rang for public announcements, including the July 8, 1776 announcement about the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

It last was rung in 1846 for the celebration of George Washington's birthday. There's never been an explanation why the bell cracked.

World Net Daily
October, 2007

For more information on this topic, Click Here

---

GLOBAL JIHAD
Again! 10 Christians slaughtered
over alleged Muhammad cartoon
61 injured, 9 churches burned, hundreds displaced after rumored 'insult' to Islam

---

Rampaging Muslims have killed 10 Christians, injured 61 others, destroyed nine churches and displaced more than 500 people in northern Nigeria, according to eyewitnesses – all because Muslim high school students claimed a Christian student had drawn a cartoon of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, on the wall of the school’s mosque.

The rampage occurred Sept. 28 in the town of Tudun Wada Dankadai, in Nigeria's northern state of Kano.

According to Compass Direct News, which specializes in reporting on Christian persecution worldwide, there are 1,500 students at the high school, called Government College-Tudun Wada Dankadai, of which only 14 are Christians, and only seven of those actually live on campus. The Christian students at the school insist no one ever saw the alleged cartoon, and furthermore that no one in the tiny minority group of Christians would have dared such a feat, especially during Ramadan.

"How can we take such a risk when we know that we are a minority and cannot stand [against] them?" Christian student Shehu Bawa told Compass. "This is a lie created to have a reason to attack us."

Eighteen-year-old student Iliya Adamu told Compass he was getting ready to go to class when a group of Muslim students stormed into his dorm and began to beat him.

"I was surprised that they were beating me without telling what I did," Adamu said. "I asked to know what was happening, and they claimed that one Christian student had gone to their mosque to draw a cartoon of Muhammad. In spite of my denying the act, they kept beating me."

Seeing the Muslim mob beating a Christian classmate named Sule La’azaru, Adamu ran to the principal's office for refuge, soon to be joined by the remaining Christian students there, according to the report.

Despite the attempts by the Muslim teachers to stop the rampage, Muslim students began throwing stones at the Christian students through the window of the principal's office, wounding student Ayuba Wada in the head.

"I was inside the office of our principal, with the others, when suddenly the Muslim students began throwing stones at us," Wada told Compass. "It was through this way that my head was broken. I was bleeding, and no help came as the situation became more riotous."

Eventually, the rampaging Muslim students broke into the principal's office, but the principal's arrival saved Wada's life, while the other Christians holed up there managed to escape the mob.

One of the Christian students, Shehu Bawa, told Compass his arrival on campus that morning was punctuated by shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is Great) "all over the school." In fact, he said, "The Muslim students were now attacking every Christian student on sight. Four of us ran into the office of the vice principal, but when it was finally broken into by the Muslim students, we ran out and escaped."

What about the alleged cartoon of Muhammad, rumors of which instigated the attacks?

"We suspect that either one of the Muslim students in the school did this to create an excuse for us to be attacked, or that a Muslim fanatic from the town might have done this to spark off a fight among Muslims and Christians," said Bawa. "How could we have done this when Muslim students are always around the mosque day and night because of the Ramadan?"

The rampage spreads far and wide

After attacking the few Christian students in their school, the rampaging Muslim students poured into the streets of Tudun Wada, joined now by other Muslims. For the next four hours, reports Compass, the growing mob burned down Christian churches, vandalized Christian property and murdered innocents.

Among the churches burned were: St. Mary’s Catholic Church; St. George’s Anglican Church; Evangelical Church of West Africa; Assemblies of God Church; First Baptist Church; a Pentecostal church called the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church; an African independent church, the Cherubim and Seraphim Church; and two other Pentecostal churches, The Chosen Bible Church and Deeper Life Bible Church.

The 10 Christians murdered included: Augustine Odoh and his younger brother Cosmos Odoh, both members of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Another Catholic, Joseph Eze, was also killed. When Compass filed its initial report, the corpses of the three Catholics were lying at the City Hospital in Kano city. Seven other Christians murdered were buried in a common grave Wednesday, but government workers did not allow relatives or church leaders to identify the corpses.

The dozens of injured are being treated at the Assumpta Clinic, Nomansland in Sabon Gari area of Kano city.

According to Musa Ahmadu Haruna, the priest of St. George’s Anglican Church, Tudun Wada Dankadai, whose church was burned, no Christian student in the school could have drawn an image of Muhammad.

"None of these students is capable of drawing a cartoon on a mosque," he told Compass Direct. "That is a frame-up to find a reason to attack us."

Another pastor, Rabiu Danbawa of the Evangelical Church of West Africa, said that upon hearing of the waves of attacks on Christians, he moved toward the town's center to see for himself what was transpiring.

"I stood as they set fire on our churches one by one," he told Compas Direct. "There was nothing I could do," he said, adding, "I did not know the fate of my wife and my children." When he went to the local police station for help, Danbawa found the police turning away Christians who had run there to escape the attack. "We were told to leave, as our safety could not be guaranteed," he said, in tears, according to Compass Direct. "Women and children all scampered to the bush, only to be attacked by the Muslims who had already hid themselves in the bush awaiting their Christian prey."

It wasn't until several days later that Danbawa found his wife and children safe.

Accoroding to reports from Compass, Danbawa and his family are now refugees in Dogon Kawo village, along with other Christian victims. None have food or shelter, he said.

Even Christian policemen were not immune, with about 30 officers and their families being attacked and their homes looted and set on fire.

Last week's massacre comes in respose to a call in July by the Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar III, to Muslims in northern Nigeria to rise against Christianity. Kano's state government has led the way in northern Nigeria for the implementation of sharia Islamic law.

Mark Lipdo, director of the Stefanos Foundation, which ministers to persecuted Christians in Nigeria, told Compass he's shocked that the Nigerian government has done nothing to help the injured and displaced.

"It is surprising that an overwhelming thing like this that has displaced thousands of Christians is not known to the Nigerian government," he said, noting that the government initially downplayed the mass rampage. "The government must act to check such unprovoked attacks against Christians."

And Haruna of St. George’s Anglican Church said, "We are living under persecution in Kano state, and yet, we are being told that we are under a democratic government. Do Muslims really want us to co-exist together as a nation? I doubt so."

As WND reported in May, Christians in Nigeria, who make up about half the population, fears the imposition of Islamic law throughout that nation.

Indeed, as WND has reported, Muslim rioters in Nigeria in 2006 were incensed over cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark, and more than 130 Christians in the Nigerian cities of Maiduguri and Onitsha were slaughtered.

The reports documented six children burned to ashes in front of their father, according to Voice of the Martyrs.

WND also has reported nearly 1,000 homes of Christians and many churches have been destroyed in these regions.

"If you go around villages, you will see people missing one hand or one foot," explained Rev. Obiora Ike. "Do you think that's the result of an illness? That is the result of sharia law."

More than 10,000 Christians have been martyred in the region since the Islamic law was imposed in the region in 1999, and Voice of the Martyrs has helped surviving family members through its Families of Martyrs Fund with Care Packs, Village Outreach packs and words of encouragement to believers who stand for their faith "amidst volatile, uncertain conditions."

World Net Daily October, 2007   For more information on this topic, Click Here

---

FAITH UNDER FIRE
Burma Christian converts face crackdown
Excluded from homes, villages in Buddhism-dominated nation

---

The Burma military government's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators has raised alarms among world powers in recent days, but that's only one of the head-to-head clashes occurring in the Asian nation, according to Voice of the Martyrs, the worldwide ministry to persecuted Christians.

The second war being waged is the crackdown on Buddhists who renounce their old gods in favor of Christianity.

"Please pray for me," begs a 65-year-old man in message to VOM, "as I have been forced to leave my village, my wife and my two children who I love dearly.

"I pray that I may soon be able to return back to them. I love them but I cannot do what they have asked me to do – curse my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, come back to Buddha and my family."

The testimony, VOM said, is representative from individuals who come to Christianity in Burma.

This man tells of his faithfulness to Buddhism over his lifetime. Then, he said, "One day we were sitting at the temple entrance receiving collections from the people, one of the Christians passing by gave me a tract."

He said he kept it, and took him home and read it.

"When I read this tract it spoke of receiving the gift of eternal life when believing Jesus Christ. I started to question and wonder, 'How can we know eternal life? What is this eternal life the tract spoke of?'"

He asked his family, and, "They simply joked about it, saying, 'Father you are a good man, you will surely be a rich man in your next life.' But the thought would not leave me, I felt it deeply as I was growing older. When I die, will there be a place that I go to? So I kept thinking about this over and over in my heart and mind, until finally at midnight I called on Jesus, 'Lord Jesus I believe, please give me eternal life.' The Lord Jesus heard my prayer and answered my call.

"Then the light shone into my soul, light in my heart which was great joy. Simply stated, I am at peace, a real peace in my heart which I had never experienced before, which is difficult to put into words," he told Voice of the Martyrs.

He said he had been worshipping his Buddha statue every day. "Early the next morning I knew in my heart that I must throw out the image of Buddha … Without speaking to my wife, I took the image and threw it into a small river near my village," he said. "When my wife woke up and was preparing an offering to the image of Buddha, it was gone! She was very upset asking, 'What is happening here? Where are the gods?' I told her I had thrown them away."

She got angry, then called the authorities.

"They came to my home – policemen, firemen, the local security forces, in all about 25 people. All asking at once what had happened. I told them that I had found the True and Living God, Who loved me and had given me eternal life," he said. "They proceeded to tell me I was not worthy to live. Then I was imprisoned for five days when they tried to convince me to give up this foolish belief and convert back to Buddhism. Thank God, the Lord Jesus gave me strength to face and overcome these trials."

But he said he was ejected from his home, and his town, and he hopes to be allowed to return at some point.

"May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on my family and my fellow-villagers," he said.

Burma has been one of the least accessible nations in the world over its history. A government website notes "for the majority of the population, Buddhism is the center of individual life and the monastery is the center of the community."

It recent days, however, the nation has been the focal point of international attention because of pro-democracy protests staged by villagers, and the military government's response.

The United Nations has made plans for an emergency session on human rights abuses after soldiers clubbed activists in the streets and occupied monasteries. Government officials said 10 people have been killed, while activist groups estimate fatalities at 20 times than number.

Even the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Burma as a member, issued a statement that it was "appalled" by the violent clashes.

VOM is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.

The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.

World Net Daily October, 2007   For more information on this topic, Click Here

---

---

LAW OF THE LAND
State's 'hate crimes' code used against 'pure speech'
Civil rights advocate warns federal plan 'still lurking in shadows' in U.S. Senate

---

While California hate-crimes laws are being used to target "pure speech," a federal plan that would impose similar speech restrictions on Christians "is still lurking in the shadows" in the U.S. Senate, warns a team of civil rights advocates.

The warning comes from the Pacific Justice Institute, which is running an online petition campaign right now to alert people to the dangers the pending legislation poses.

As WND reported earlier, the federal plan, H.R. 1592, was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, and then when it got to the U.S. Senate, instead of holding hearings and a vote, senators tried to attach it to another bill as an amendment, a maneuver that would have prevented any public input on the plan.

That effort failed, but that doesn't mean the American public is safe from the dangers the federal legislation poses, according to Matt McReynolds, a staff attorney for Pacific Justice.

(Story continues below)

The full title of the legislation is "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007," and it provides federal help to local agencies dealing with "hate crimes." It also separately creates new federal offenses for "hate crimes," including the addition of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" for inclusion as protected characteristics.

"It hasn't gone away, it's still lurking in the shadows," he told WND. "And not just that. The U.S. House version has passed, so they can slap it on as an amendment to something else."

He said the dangers are real.

"When you start down the list of Western countries, Australia, Canada, Britain, France. Everywhere hate crimes plans have been adopted there are examples of problems. It's gotten to the point even pure speech is being criminalized, with no actions or violence," he said.

"That's where hate crimes legislation inevitably has led in other Western societies," he said. His organization has worked on a number of such cases already involving California's own version of a "hate crimes" plan.

"The law of unintended consequences – or perhaps intended consequences cleverly disguised – is starkly illustrated by the ongoing federal case Harper v. Poway Unified School District," he wrote in a summary of the problems. "In Harper, a student responded to the annual pro-homosexual 'Day of Silence,' which was being heavily promoted on his high school campus, by wearing a T-shirt which expressed his religious viewpoint that homosexuality was 'shameful.'

"Instead of allowing a differing viewpoint, school officials pulled aside Harper, demanding that he change his expression or face suspension. An assistant principal even suggested to Harper that he needed to leave his faith in the car while at school, in order not to offend homosexual students," according to McReynolds.

"Such a result clearly undermines basic Constitutional protections," including free expression and religion, he noted.

"Incredibly, the federal courts in California upheld the school's actions. In one of the most sweeping, speech-restricting opinions in recent memory, Judge Reinhard of the Ninth Circuit baldly asserted that Harper's First Amendment rights – undeniably strong under Tinker and other Supreme Court precedents – were trumped by the need to protect homosexual students from an opposing viewpoint…"

"Not surprisingly, Judge Reinhardt's decision cited California's ''hate violence' educational statute, Cal. Educ. Code §§ 201, 220, et seq. as justification for stifling a politically incorrect viewpoint – even though there were no allegations of violence against Harper. In concurrence, Judge Gould followed the same line of reasoning in labeling religious opposition to homosexuality – even when expressed peacefully – as 'hate speech' which he equated with 'a burning cross' or 'a call for genocide,'" McReynolds continued.

He said such cases illustrate that once enacted, "hate crimes" legislation inevitably ends up being used as a justification for restrictions on pure speech, particularly against people of faith who raise religious objections to behavior they consider immoral.

He said it's fortunate that the Harper precedent was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, but he noted that the litigation of the core issues still continues, and other school districts in the state still are relying on the now-vacated decision as a basis for "stifling student speech."

He said Pacific Justice also has worked on cases involving a handful of students in Sacramento schools who in previous years were suspended, and some of them were physically assaulted, cursed and intimidated, for wearing T-shirts that peacefully expressed their religious beliefs disagreeing with homosexual behavior.

"Months of negotiations with school officials in an attempt to ensure that students' free speech rights would be respected had limited effects. As a result, the Day of Silence has proved to be even more of a flashpoint this year, with hundreds of suspensions doled out in Sacramento-area high schools for peaceful literature distribution and printed Bible verses on T-shirts. Tolerance, it seems, is becoming a one-way street," he said.

Such intolerance, he said, "appears to flow from biased policy judgments, expressed through hate crimes laws such as H.R. 1592 and its predecessors already embedded in California law, that some minorities are better than other minority or majority groups…"

He also warned that "hate crimes" labeling is not limited to the issue of sexual orientation, but poses significant dangers to the First Amendment.

He said Pacific Justice recently defended Pastor Audie Yancey, who had been ordered to appear before a local "Human Relations Task Force" to answer for some religious tracts he distributed.

They depicted the 9/11 terrorism, and said: "Remember 9/11: In the name of Allah, they brought destruction and death to thousands. In the name of Jesus Christ, you can have eternal life."

While McReynolds said it's hard to imagine a scenario more protected by the long list of leafleting precedents from the Supreme Court, Pastor Yancey still was accused of "hate speech."

The pastor's defense was successful, but "it is alarming to think that some officials believe that, under the pretext of preventing 'hate speech,' they can interrogate a clergyman concerning religious statements which could not possibly be considered threatening."

He also noted recent attacks on Christians by the Hindu American Foundation. That organization, as WND has reported, has blasted Christian organizations across the nation, including the Southern Baptists' missions board, Gospel for Asia and the Minnesota-based Olive Tree Ministries, which aims its ministry at teaching Christians about their beliefs, for having Internet "hate sites."

"The proliferation of websites promoting religious hatred is an unfortunate consequence of the universality of access to the internet," said Vinay Vallabh, the lead author of the report by the Hindu American Foundation. The organization called for Internet Service Providers to censor such postings of Christian beliefs.

"If anything … the concerns about H.R. 1592 are being understated. A decision by Congress to inject the federal government into the culture wars and fundamental theological disputes can only engender further divisiveness and limitations on free speech," the Pacific Justice Institute said.

McReynolds also warned the pending federal plan has included a provision allowing evidence of "expression or associations of the defendant" allegedly related to the "hate crime."

"In other words, a crime committed by a deranged person against someone who is gay or transgender could trigger investigations into churches the defendant attended, or conservative groups he may have been part of," McReynolds said.

As WND also has reported, a New York has even concluded that evidence of "hatred" is unnecessary for a prosecutor to pursue a "hate crimes" case.

The judge said prosecutors can seek enhanced penalties for the case defendants, if convicted, under the state's Hate Crimes Act of 2000, without any evidence of actual "hate."

Pacific Justice noted that the California legislature recently approved a resolution urging Congress to adopt a "thought crimes" plan.

"We cannot afford to lose this fight," said Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice. "Recent history in California and around the globe demonstrates the disastrous consequences to people of faith when so-called 'hate crimes' bills are enacted. Now is the time to sign petitions, call lawmakers and let our voices be heard."

He told WND especially dangerous is the tactic that seems to have been adopted to embed the new restrictions within another piece of legislation, such as a military funding bill.

"If the legislation is going to decide whether our men and women in Iraq are going to have the weapons they need to do their jobs, then we could very easily see this become law [even though President Bush does not support it]," Dacus told WND.

The organization's website petition says: "As a concerned citizen wishing to protect religious freedom, free speech and equal protection for all Americans, I hereby voice my OPPOSITION to the 'Hate Crimes Bill' H.R. 1592 currently being considered by Congress."

A wide range of leaders previously expressed concern over such "hate crimes" plans.

Former White House insider Chuck Colson, in his Breakpoint commentary, has labeled such a provision a "Thought Crimes" plan.

WND columnist Janet Folger wrote the idea of arresting people for stating their religious beliefs that homosexuality is wrong is no longer something that "may" happen in the future.

"Here's the Cliff Notes of what so called 'hate crime' legislation has already done IN AMERICA," she wrote. "This is no longer up for debate. Here are the facts."

• Madison, Wis. David Ott, a former homosexual, was arrested for a "hate crime" for sharing his testimony with a homosexual at a gas station. He faced a $10,000 fine and one year behind bars. Seven thousand dollars in legal fees later, [he] was ordered to attend re-education classes at the University of Wisconsin conducted by a lesbian.
• St. Petersburg, Fla. Five Christians including two pastors were arrested at a homosexual rally for stepping onto the public sidewalk instead staying caged in their officially designated "free speech zone."
• Elmira, N.Y. The Elmira police arrested seven Christians for praying in a public park where a homosexual festival was getting started.
• Crystal Lake, Ill. Two 16 year old girls are facing felony "hate crime" charges for the content of their flyers.
• Philadelphia, Pa. Arlene Elshinnawy, a 75-year-old grandmother of three, and Linda Beckman, a 70-year-old grandmother of 10 (along with nine others), were arrested for sharing their faith on the public sidewalk.

Folger said the testimony from the grandmothers can be seen and heard at the Stop Hate Crimes Now website.

"Just how many cases do we need to cite before America stands up and stops the bill that will criminalize Christianity?" she asked.

World Net Daily September, 2007   For more information on this topic, Click Here