Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu is calling on the Christian community to rally support for a piece of legislation that is aimed at making orphan care a priority in U.S. foreign policy.
Landrieu said that it’s not a well-known fact that the U.S. State Department does not hold the belief that children belong in families. Therefore, the State Department does not usually consider the importance of children having parents in their actions.
“Government do a lot of things well but raising kids isn’t one of them,” Senator Landrieu said at a press conference. “It’s time to make that very clear.”
The bill, Children in Families First, would require a reorganization of the State Department to handle orphan care and move oversight of international adoptions from State to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The focus on the new office would be to keep families together and to place orphans in loving homes.
Senator Landrieu said that the law will make the State Department “work for us, not against us.”
Several major Christian organizations have endorsed the Senator’s bill, including Focus On The Family, the Southern Baptist Convention and Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is soliciting bids for submachine guns and body armor.
Initial reports showed that the USDA is seeking guns that have an “ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding,” and a “30 rd. capacity” magazine.
The agency’s paper said that they wanted interested vendors to submit their name and contact information “in a timely manner.”
The document was later revised to say the USDA also wants to obtain a “”tactical vest, undergarment (white), identification patches, accessories (6 pouches), body armor carry bag, and professional measurements.”
There was no explanation why the USDA is seeking to obtain military level weapons and body armor.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal believes the most important moment in his life is the moment he accepted Christ as his Savior.
The governor is scheduled to speak at Liberty University this weekend and released an advanced copy of his speech where he openly and boldly speaks of the importance of Christ in his life.
This is from the text of the governor’s address:
The short story is this, I read the words of Jesus Christ and I realized that they were true. I used to think that I had found God, but I believe it is more accurate to say that He found me. And it happened because people were brave enough to plant seeds of the Gospel in my life.
Many years later, when I became a candidate for political office, in one of my first debates, I got the question– “What is the single most important moment in your life?”
I had just endured countless hours of debate prep sessions with my political consultants and staff. That’s where you sit around and get savagely grilled by people you pay – your political consultants and staffers. I knew exactly what they hoped I would say – they would argue that I should try to appeal to female voters by offering a touching story about when I asked my wife Supriya for her hand in marriage, or about the birth of my first child. And yes, those were great moments.
But instead, I decided to do something new in politics, I told the audience the truth — that the most significant moment of my life was when I turned it over to Jesus Christ and acknowledged Him as my Savior.
My political consultants then began shifting uncomfortably in their seats…and I have to admit I enjoyed that.
Jindal goes on to talk about how despite what many in the liberal academic community claim about followers of Christ, it is not a faith that is followed by those with a lack of intelligence. Jindal is a Rhodes scholar.
Texas Governor Rick Perry was baptized in a private ceremony last month.
The announcement of the governor’s baptism was released after the ceremony as a way to keep the event for members of his family and his church.
“Governor Perry has a deep and abiding faith in God,” Perry spokesman Felix Browne said in a statement. “Like many people of faith, the governor wished to reaffirm his commitment in a way that holds great personal meaning.”
The governor had previously told reporters that he was baptized as a child in the Methodist church where they only sprinkle water on infants. He had never been baptized through immersion as Christ had been baptized.
Perry was baptized in Little Rock Creek near Independence, Texas. The spot was the same location where Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas, had been baptized.
The Texas governor has been outspoken in his faith in Christ during his time in office and has repeatedly mentioned Jesus in speeches around the state and nation.
A report from the Social Security Administration shows that a record number of Americans are on disability at the end of 2013.
The report says that 10,998,269 Americans collect federal disability benefits with an average payout of $1.146.43 a month. The total average amount per month is also a record.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the number of Americans on disability surpasses the entire population of Greece, Portugal or the Czech Republic. The total is less than 200,000 people away from matching the population of Cuba.
The number of Americans on disability climbs to record levels every month and has shown no signs of slowing down. The last time the number of Americans on disability declined was February 1997, when the number of Americans on government disability was 4,357,251.
If a Christian parent wants to homeschool their children in Ohio, a Democratic state senator wants to make sure the government approves of what they will be teaching their children.
Ohio Senate Bill 248 was introduced that will require any parent who wants to homeschool their child to meet with government social workers for interviews, have background checks conducted and give permission for government intervention.
If the state doesn’t approve the parents, they won’t be allowed to homeschool.
Social workers would not be required to obtain training or qualifications to determine if parents are capable of being able to educate their children using homeschool materials.
There is nothing in the bill that protects someone from being denied because a social worker takes issue with their religious beliefs.
If the bill passes, thousands of Christian homeschool families in the state will now be investigated by the government and must allow the government access to all parts of their lives if they wish to continue to educate their children.
Four children of a homeschooling family in Germany had their home raided and their children taken by the government because the parents refused to stop homeschooling the kids.
Germany bans homeschooling claiming that children cannot function in society unless they are exposed to “different points of view” as mandated by the government. The head of the regional youth services department told the BBC the children had to be seized to guarantee their right to education. Continue reading →
The leader of the party winning Greece’s elections Sunday is urgently trying to form what he calls a “national consensus.”
The New Democracy party, narrow victors in the vote, are one of a number of parties who favor Greece staying within the euro. Continue reading →