In Praise of Our Lord, Savior, and True Hope: April 2013

Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord -- Philippines 2:11

From there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. -- Deuteronomy 4:29

When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. -- Titus 3:4-6

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. -- Daniel 2:20-22

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. -- Romans 8:38,39

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GOD BLESS THE USA

"It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” -- Patrick Henry [May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses]

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” - Patrick Henry

"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles.... This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government." -- Noah Webster from public school textbook, 1831: "History of the United States"

“The policy of one age may ill suit the wishes or the policy of another. The Constitution is not subject to such fluctuations. It is to have a fixed, uniform, permanent construction. It should be, so far at least as human infirmity will allow, not dependent upon the passions or parties of particular times, but the same yesterday, today, and forever.” -- Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court

Friday, April 26, 2013

Liberty Counsel Successfully Defends National Day of Prayer Event

Liberty Counsel
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT - 800-671-1776 or Media@LC.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 26, 2013

www.LC.org

North Miami, FL – The City Council of North Miami ignored the threatening, inaccurate letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation in favor of Mission Miami and local pastors after a letter from Liberty Counsel.

The City of North Miami loans its sound truck, event staff, and certain public property to local nonprofits free of charge.

By an initial vote of 4-1, the North Miami City Council approved the same for Mission Miami’s National Day of Prayer event, but the action item was put back on the agenda after the dissenting councilman said that taxpayer dollars should not be funding religion, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter urging the city to reverse its decision.

Liberty Counsel intervened, and North Miami’s National Day of Prayer event remains on schedule after a 3-2 vote.

While the city need not provide city property for use by nonprofits, once it does, it creates a “forum” for purposes of the First Amendment.

Once government opens property in this manner for use by the public, it cannot discriminate on the basis of viewpoint.

Requiring Impact Miami to pay a fee for use of city property simply because it espouses a religious position constitutes viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.

The city “has no legitimate concerns that it may be violating the Establishment Clause by allowing Impact Miami to engage in private religious speech, even where it is in relation to the National Day of Prayer and on public property,” Liberty Counsel told the city council.

The Supreme Court ruled in Capitol Square Review and Advisory Bd. v. Pinette that “private religious speech, far from being a First Amendment orphan, is as fully protected under the Free Speech Clause as secular private expression.”

The Supreme Court has been very clear that government may not exclude individuals or groups from public property or a government-created limited public forum simply because the speakers are religious or because they wish to communicate a religious message.

“On May 2, thousands of National Day of Prayer Events will take place across America, despite the best efforts of atheist groups to remove God from the public square,” Staver said.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.