Pastor A

Article originally posted on July 26, 2012 at Newsmax

All of a sudden, biting into a fried chicken sandwich has become a political statement.

Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain known for putting faith ahead of profits by closing on Sundays, is standing firm in its opposition to gay marriage after touching off a furor earlier this month.

Gay rights groups have called for a boycott, the Jim Henson Co. pulled its Muppet toys from kids’ meals, and politicians in Boston and Chicago told the chain it is not welcome there.

Across the Bible Belt, where most of the 1,600 restaurants are situated, Christian conservatives have thrown their support behind the Atlanta-based company, promising to buy chicken sandwiches and waffle fries next week on “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.”

The latest skirmish in the nation’s culture wars began when Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press that the company was “guilty as charged” for backing “the biblical definition of a family.” In a later radio interview, he ratcheted up the rhetoric: “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’”

That fired up gay rights advocates, including a group that waged a campaign against the company in recent years by publicizing $3 million in contributions that the Cathy family foundation has made to conservative organizations such as the Family Research Council.

“This solidifies Chick-fil-A as being closely aligned with some of the most vicious anti-gay voices in the country,” said Carlos Maza of Equality Matters.

A Chicago alderman vowed to block a Chick-fil-A proposed in his district, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel supported him, saying, “Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values.” Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wrote in a letter to Cathy: “There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail and no place for your company alongside it.”

In announcing it was pulling its toys, the Jim Henson company said it has “celebrated and embraced diversity for over 50 years.” It directed its revenue from the Chick-fil-A toys to GLAAD, a leading gay rights organization.

On the other side of the debate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, declared next Wednesday “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” to support a business “whose executives are willing to take a stand for the Godly values.” Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who like Huckabee ran for president as a darling of social conservatives, joined the cause along with religious leaders.

“As the son of a dairy farmer who milked many a cow, I plan to ‘Eat Mor Chikin’ and show my support by visiting Chick-fil-A next Wednesday,” the Rev. Billy Graham said in a statement, referring to the slogan in the company’s ads, which feature cows urging people to eat poultry.

The Rev. Roger Oldham, spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention, said many Christians want to support businesses owned by fellow believers, and the loyalty intensifies “when Christians see a fellow Christian being persecuted.”

“They will come out of the woodwork when a theologically based position is being politicized by individuals for their own purposes,” he said.

The Cathy family has never hid its Southern Baptist faith. Since Dan Cathy’s father, Truett, opened the first Chick-fil-A in 1967, the restaurants have been closed on Sundays, and the company refused to reconsider during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, sacrificing profits. It also boasts that the Chick-fil-A Bowl is the only college football bowl game with an invocation.

Chick-fil-A posted more than $4.1 billion in sales last year, most of it below the Mason-Dixon Line. Just 14 of its restaurants are in the six states and the District of Columbia where gay marriage is legal. Massachusetts has just two locations, both more than 10 miles from Boston. Illinois, which does not have same-sex marriage, has around a dozen, though only one in Chicago.

The company is well-positioned to come through the criticism relatively unscathed, even if it loses new markets in the North and elsewhere, University of Georgia marketing professor Sundar Bharadwaj said. He said that is because Chick-fil-A basically reflects the politics of its customers.

At a downtown Atlanta Chick-fil-A on Thursday, customers were divided over the company’s stance.

“If you’re a Christian, you believe in the Bible. The Bible says homosexuality is wrong. (Cathy’s) absolutely right,” Marci Troutman said over her breakfast.

Her business partner, Steve Timpson, said he chose not to eat at Chick-fil-A: “You’ve got to be more tolerant if you’re going to operate in the wider market in this country.”

Nearby, Dustin Keller offered another view of Cathy: “It’s his opinion. He’s entitled to it. I’m just here to eat.”

by Nick Sanchez on Saturday, July 28, 2012

First-term Congressman Mike Kelly made a splash this week with a speech that roused the House to a rare standing ovation and chants of “USA! USA!”

Advocating for a non-partisan, jobs-centric approach to the Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act, the Pennsylvania Republican began, “Let me tell you what it means to be in the real world and not inside the Beltway.”

Reviewing for the chamber a conversation he recently had with a banker friend, Rep. Kelly expressed anger as he held up a thick, 1,100 page document he discovered the government uses to determine “qualified borrower” eligibility.

“It only took 1,100 pages for the government to determine whether you’re a qualified borrower. Are you kidding me?” he asked.

 Launching into a second anecdote, he told the tale of a ballpark renovated by a veteran in his hometown. The park’s opening day ceremonies — set to welcome a crowd of 1,500 — almost didn’t happen because the bathroom mirrors were deemed “a quarter of an inch too low,” barring an occupancy permit.

Kelly stated that red tape costs the U.S. $1.75 trillion dollars every year, but went on to speak fervently of the larger price of over-regulation for America’s future.

“You want to know the price of regulation?…You want to talk about creating jobs in America?… Then let them rise. Take the heavy boot off the throat of America’s job creators and let them breathe!” he pleaded as the crowd sent up a shout.

“The jobs we are talking about are not red jobs or blue jobs—they are red, white and blue jobs. They are not Democrat jobs or Republican jobs or independent jobs or libertarian jobs—they are American jobs.”

After Kelly’s speech, the chamber stood, cheered and chanted “USA! USA!” before the House was brought back to order.

The bill subsequently passed with a 245-172 vote.

Not expected to pass the Democratically-controlled Senate, the bill itself would stop government agencies from taking any significant regulatory action until the unemployment rate is equal to or less than 6 percent.

© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

by Ben Shapiro on July 27, 2012

Today, the Department of Labor proudly announced that it had given away some $260 million in grants to various organizations through its Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). SCSEP is “a community service and work-based training program for older workers – providing subsidized, part-time, community service training for unemployed, low-income persons 55 or older who have poor employment prospects.”

Sounds great. Except the biggest recipients of SCSEP cash are Democratic political surrogates.

The largest single recipient of general SCSEP funds was – you guessed it – the American Association of Retired Persons Foundation, which pulled down almost $52 million. The AARP Foundation is a wing of the AARP, which stands to make some $1 billion over the next decade thanks to Obamacare and spends hundreds of millions of dollars to push liberal policies. The head of the AARP contributed some $8,900 to Obama’s campaign committees in 2008.

Coincidentally, the DOL is handing $6.6 million to the National Urban League – and it just so happens that President Obama spoke at the NUL this week in an attempt to reinvigorate his black support base.

The goodies keep on coming for President Obama’s friends. And that’s his entire campaign strategy: buy off specific constituency with taxpayer cash, and then let them push him to victory.

Fortunately we have two Arizona Senators on board… we just need the Senate Majority Leader to allow the vote for a full repeal of ObamaTax. Here is the schedule as put out by Tea Party Patriots:

PASSION:

This week we are focusing on the Senate. For too long the Senate has stood by and done nothing that the American people want. It is time for us to send a message LOUD and CLEAR! This week we will be demanding that the Senate take up a vote for Full Repeal of ObamaTax. Even if they don’t have the spines to give the American people what they want, it is important for us to have them on record.

ACTIONS:

Monday: Mobilize Monday – Contact all of your patriot friends and urge them to be prepared for this week’s engagements. We need as many hands on deck as possible!

Tuesday: Tweet Your Senator(s) Tuesday. We need as many people tweeting on Tuesday as possible. We will send an email out with links and sample tweets to help get you started.

Wednesday: We The People Wednesday. The majority of the American people want ObamaTax Repealed. We the People will make our voices heard through phone calls to our Senators’ offices demanding a vote for full repeal.

Thursday: Deal in the District Thursday. We are asking that as many people as possible make a stop into your Senators’ local offices on Thursday to deliver a letter demanding for a vote on Full Repeal of ObamaTax in the Senate.

Friday: Light the Lines on Fire Friday. Friday we are going to focus on Harry Reid. He is the Senate Majority Leader and the one man standing between us and a vote for Full Repeal in the Senate. We are going to call his office and Tweet him until he finally agrees to have a vote on Full Repeal in the Senate.

www.teapartypatriots.org

The new millennium finds the community of nations in crisis mode. Greed, corruption and violence are setting the stage for global conflict and a new world order.

God has dispatched an ancient Hebrew prophet to address the issues with America’s leaders. Will his words resonate in the seat of power or will they be a harbinger of impending judgment?

Author Duron Lowell Davis brings this intriguing proposition to life on the pages of OBAMA’S PROPHET. 

Now available as a new release at www.TruthPublishers.com

or order by mail at:

Truth Publishers

1605 Hammond St

Rocky Mount, NC 27803

$14.00

by Columnist Kim Strassel of the WSJ

What’s the difference between a calm and cool Barack Obama, and a rattled and worried Barack Obama? Four words, it turns out.

“You didn’t build that” is swelling to such heights that it has the president somewhere unprecedented: on defense. Mr. Obama has felt compelled—for the first time in this campaign—to cut an ad in which he directly responds to the criticisms of his now-infamous speech, complaining his opponents took his words “out of context.”

The Obama campaign has elevated poll-testing and focus-grouping to near-clinical heights, and the results drive the president’s every action: his policies, his campaign venues, his targeted demographics, his messaging. That Mr. Obama felt required—teeth-gritted—to address the “you didn’t build that” meme means his vaunted focus groups are sounding alarms.

The obsession with tested messages is precisely why the president’s rare moments of candor—on free enterprise, on those who “cling to their guns and religion,” on the need to “spread the wealth around”—are so revealing. They are a look at the real man. It turns out Mr. Obama’s dismissive words toward free enterprise closely mirror a speech that liberal Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren gave last August.

Ms. Warren’s argument—that government is the real source of all business success—went viral and made a profound impression among the liberal elite, who have been pushing for its wider adoption. Mr. Obama chose to road-test it on the national stage, presumably thinking it would underline his argument for why the wealthy should pay more. It was a big political misstep, and now has the Obama team seriously worried.

The Obama campaign’s bigger problem, both sides are now realizing, is that his words go beyond politics and are more devastating than the Romney complaints that Mr. Obama is too big-government oriented or has mishandled the economy. They raise the far more potent issue of national identity and feed the suspicion that Mr. Obama is actively hostile to American ideals and aspirations. Republicans are doing their own voter surveys, and they note that Mr. Obama’s problem is that his words cause an emotional response, and that they disturb voters in nearly every demographic.

It’s why Mr. Obama’s “out of context” complaints aren’t getting traction. The Republican National Committee’s response to that gripe was to run an ad that shows a full minute of Mr. Obama’s rant at the Roanoke, Va., campaign event on July 13. In addition to “you didn’t build that,” the president also put down those who think they are “smarter” or “work harder” than others. Witness the first president to demean the bedrock American beliefs in industriousness and exceptionalism. The “context” only makes it worse.

This gets to the other reason the Obama campaign is rattled: “You didn’t build that” threatens to undermine its own argument against Mr. Romney. Mr. Obama has been running on class warfare and the notion that Mr. Romney is a wealthy one-percenter out of touch with average Americans. Yet few things better symbolize the average American than a small-business owner. To the extent that Mr. Romney is positioning himself as champion of that little business guy and portraying Mr. Obama as something alien, he could flip the Obama narrative on its head.

It would be all the more potent were Mr. Romney to use “you didn’t build that” to launch his own economic narrative. One unexpected side effect of “you didn’t build that” is that it has emboldened the GOP to re-embrace and glory in free enterprise (so abused since the financial crash). And the president’s disparaging attack on business has also made voters more open to a defense of it.

Meaning, it’s a perfect time to marry emotion with some policy. Mr. Romney has explained why the president doesn’t get it. The next step is to explain why his own tax policies, regulatory proposals, and entitlement plans are the answer for those who actually do the building. The president is on defense. We’ll see if Mr. Romney can keep him there.

Write to kim@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared July 27, 2012, on page A11 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Four Little Words.

Today is Tuesday and our team feels so refreshed. Our hotel was so much better last night… hot shower, washing machine and dryer, safe to use in room, clean beds, etc. Everyone enjoyed a hot shower and getting caught up on their laundry.

There is much fall-out in the local press regarding the severity of the rain on Saturday night. Apparently there is a government cover up to conceal just how many people died in the worst rainstorm in 61 years. The pictures are really devastating. On the South side of Beijing there is a pig farm and 3,000 pigs were killed. There are dozens of people still missing. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow so the city is taking many more precautions. The Beijing mayor resigned over the recent handling of the flood here in Beijing.

Our team is doing well. Jo Ann dressed up in her costume today when she taught her story and the children loved it. Mr. Bee is very expressive in his teaching and the children listen well. Today everyone went to the Science Park in the afternoon. Everyone was able to work with their hands and use their imaginations. It was a great activity for all of the campers.

We ate at a Chinese restaurant for supper and had many unusual foods. Everyone is being super good about eating the different foods that are put before us. We had to go buy new chopsticks as the restaurant gave us recycled chopsticks. That was just too gross for me!

K2 has a cold and we were able to get him medicine. He has a super great attitude and said he was not going to allow a cold to ruin his trip! Gotta love that enthusiasm.

Today has been another very humid and sweaty day! We began this morning with a form of VBS; I believe this is the best way to describe it. Jo Ann and Keith both taught lessons; Jenna led the singing; and K2 helped with the games. The children were excellent and listened so well.

The real news of this update is the hotel that we stayed in last night! This 7 Days Inn was unbelievable! Here was our wonderful accommodations for last night: non-smoking rooms with ashtrays, no mattresses – just a boxspring, no toilet paper in the restrooms, paper thin walls that allowed you to hear everything – even Keith talking to Jo Ann who was in her room and we were separated by a hallway, and keys that may or may not work. Someone came into Keith’s room and took his remote control. During the night someone opened my door – glad the key chain was on. For obvious safety reasons, we checked out of this hotel as soon as we got ready this morning.

I was able to secure the hotel that the group stayed in last year. The hotel was completely booked but they came up with two rooms – bumping two people out of their rooms because we were such good customers last year with our group. No one complained in our group!

Everyone is now in bed and waiting for the events of tomorrow. It is 1:14 a.m. Tuesday morning, so I need to go to bed now!

Today is the Lord’s Day! I had the privilege to preach in the house church of 31 adults, 8 teens, and multiple children. I was able to preach for one hour and one church member asked why I stopped. Now that is interesting.

We had a delicious lunch prepared by the members of the church.

We checked into our new hotel… the 7 Days Inn. This is going to be interesting. I feel like we are in a drug hotel. We will just have to see how it goes.

At any rate, the family that we support is very excited that we are here to minister. We have had a great honor to spend time with them today, helping them, and encouraging them. We even went to Burger King for supper tonight; quite delicious. We then had small blizzards from DQ.

Oh, by the way, the rainstorm from yesterday was the worst storm in Beijing for over 60 years. Over 5,000 cars were damaged and several drowned. It was quite a storm.

All team members are doing well!

Today is the day that we meet the family for which we have come to help. This morning we met a little later as I sensed the four team members were dragging when we left each other last night. We met at 9:00 a.m. for breakfast and then we walked to a Christian Bookstore that is about 1 1/2 miles from the hotel. We were able to pick up several nice items from the store, some of which will be shared with the children of our church.

We then proceeded to go to the Silk Market. At the Silk Market we met many people. It began to rain while we were at the Silk Market. It became very, very steamy with the humidity. We left the Silk Market at 4:00 p.m. to meet the missionary family. It poured the rain down very hard during our drive. Once at the restaurant we ate and planned to meet for a couple hours. However, the rain continued so we thought it best to leave the hotel.

I don’t recall it ever raining so hard!

The story of today is the rain! It has rained and rained and rained. The rain was up to the middle of the bus tires as we drove from the missionary’s house back to the hotel.

Everyone is still doing well. Our ministry begins in earnest tomorrow morning!

Our day began today at 6:45 a.m. with breakfast. We had to leave by 7:30 a.m. in order to get to Tiananmen Square because there is a large African delegation in town for some kind of summit with the Chinese government. There were tens of thousands in the square. It was some kind of humid today too. We took several pics, imagine that!

Off we went to the Forbidden City and then to Wangfujing Street. The street vendors with their scorpions, snakes, squid, silk worms, star fish, baby chicks, etc. were peddling their wares. There were no takers in our group. As much as we tried to get Jo Ann or Keith to try, they politely declined repeatedly.

From Wangfujing Street, we took our van to the Pearl Market. Everyone spent several hours shopping and buying gifts for family and friends. I hope you are a family member or friend to one of our team members because I saw several really neat gifts purchased.

At 6:00 p.m. we headed back to the hotel for a quick shower. Then we headed to Pizza Hut for the second time since we arrived. We ordered two large pizzas and all of them were eaten by five hungry people! We walked the two miles back to our hotel. We did not have to beg anyone to go to bed tonight. Every one is now feeling the effects of the time change.

I learned today that this group likes to shop, eat pizza, laugh, and take lots of pics!

Today is Thursday and was a very long day indeed. We met at 6:00 a.m. for breakfast… only breakfast did not begin until 6:30 a.m. We compared notes among the five of us. After eating breakfast, our guide and driver were waiting in the lobby.

Off we headed to the Mutian yu section of the Great Wall of China. When we arrived the mountain was shrouded in fog. We had to walk uphill for about 200 yards. Once there, we boarded the cable car to the top of the mountain. It was certainly a spectacular  sight, even in the thickest of fog. We hiked for around two hours and had a great time enjoying this amazing wonder of the world.

Once finished hiking the GW, we drove over to the Sacred Way at the Ming Tombs. It was incredibly peaceful and serene today. The lushness of the grass and trees is remarkable. It is hard to comprehend that this was build in 1409 and it is still in this kind of shape.

From the Ming Tombs we headed to lunch. It was not spectacular, but it was food. Our tour guide ate with us and we did enjoy asking him questions. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to take a shower before going to supper and the Acrobatics Show. None of us were hungry so we ended up going to Starbucks for a cold drink. The Acrobatics Show was very enjoyable.

We took our van ride back to the hotel where we are now. I’m sure everyone is sound asleep by now.

Tidbits: Keith is having a great time with K2. Jo Ann is amazed by everything and takes pictures of everything. Jo Ann refused to use the restroom today because she was formally introduced to the “stoop potty”. Jenna loves being here in China.

We have arrived in China! We arrived around 40 minutes late into Terminal 3 at the PEK airport. The flight was totally uneventful. All five of us slept off-and-on. They served us two meals. Keith, K2, and I had plenty of leg room as we were seated in row 47 which was an emergency exit row. In fact, we had no seats in front of us at all.

We cleared immigration rather quickly and took the train to the baggage claim. All of our bags arrived in the first few bags off the conveyor belt. The bus driver and guide were waiting for us as was the son of the family that we came to help. We loaded our bags and headed to the hotel. Jo Ann was snapping pics as fast as her new camera could take them!

We had no issues at check-in and everyone was given an hour to shower and meet for supper. We met in the lobby at 8:30 p.m. Jo Ann decided to go to bed. The four of us walked 1 1/2 miles to a Pizza Hut. We enjoyed pizza and 7-up. We then walked back to the hotel and looked around at the hotel.

It is now time to go to bed for we must be in the lobby at 6:00 a.m. for breakfast. Good night all!

Our China Team is significantly smaller than just one year ago. Last year we had 24 members of TBT travel to China to help with two different camps. This year our team consists of five members: Keith Bee, Keith Bee II, Jo Ann Savage, Jenna Grantham and me. Both K2 and Jenna are “veterans” as they helped with the camps last year.

Today has been a big and exciting day for the team. We met at the TUS airport at 4:30 A.M. This was early! All were on time at the airport and we checked in at the United counter. We had no issues and everything went smoothly at check-in. We next went through security and the first four that went through had no issues; however, Keith was stopped because he had jello and pudding cups in his small suitcase. After some discussion, it was decided that he could keep two or three in his backpack but he needed to “check” his bag. We went on to the gate and Mr. Bee was “escorted” back to the check-in counter. He finally joined us and all was well.

We next landed at the LAX airport around 7:35 a.m. After a 15 minute wait we were able to unload. We walked from terminal 8 to terminal 2 where Air China is located. We arrived before the Air China counter was open so we went downstairs to enjoy a Starbucks drink. At 9:00 a.m. the counter opened and we were able to check-in. We had no issues with Air China and we were off to the next security gate.

Again, no one had an issue except Mr. Bee. The 2 or 3 jello / pudding cups that were in his backpack were reexamined. Mr. Bee asked the TSA agent, “Do you want me to eat worms in China?” With that the TSA agent ushered him through and Keith was able to keep his jello cups.

We are now waiting on our flight to leave for Beijing. We leave on Air China flight CA988. The flight is scheduled for 12:40 minutes. This is a long time to be in an airplane. Everyone has eaten something and we are ready to go! This is a good team and the camaraderie is excellent.

Jo Ann has a brand new camera. She has taken hundreds of pics and we have not even left the US yet. Just what awaits us when we arrive China?

Well, they have announced that we will begin boarding soon…