Counterfeit?

Secret Service confiscates more Gospel tracts

Los Angeles agent says messages should be in black-and-white

By World Net Daily

U.S. Secret Service agents, who earlier confiscated Gospel tracts from Christians in Texas and Nevada because they carry a message of salvation and an advisory that they are not legal tender even though they look like a $1 million bill, now have taken the same tracts away from a Los Angeles man.

Jim Thomas, who with his wife Charlene had just finished an evangelism training program at their church, told WND he was handing out the tracts near an escalator at a downtown Los Angeles mall "and everything was going very well."

Then, he said, a man approached him and told him that "there's a problem here."
He introduced himself as a Secret Service agent.

"He began to ask me questions, like 'have you read the rules and regulations about bills similar to currency?'" Thomas said. "So he just kind of informed me what I could do to be in compliance."

He said the officer suggested the bills be larger or smaller than regular currency, or be printed in black-and-white. Then he took Thomas' stack of the tracts, which look like a $1 million bill but have a 160-word Gospel message and other disclaimers.

The tracts are produced by Ray Comfort, an evangelist whose Living Waters Ministry in Southern California has been inundated with requests for them since the first Secret Service confiscation happened last year.

As WND reported at the time, the controversy began June 2 when three agents visited the Great News Network office in Texas and told a staffer to hand over the tracts.

That dispute currently is pending in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a case brought by the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy.

"I think someone who is partially blind may think it's a genuine bill if it's given to them at night in the fog," Comfort told WND. "Any bank teller who tries to give change for a million dollar bill should not be a bank teller."

He said the whole point of a tract is to get a reader's attention and carry a message, and that's what this does.

"It makes people laugh. Even if it wasn't a Gospel tract, I'd give them out, because they give a good feeling," Comfort said.

WND messages left for the agent, who identified himself as Jess Martinez, weren't immediately returned.

The case before the appellate court stemmed from the confiscation of about 8,300 of the tracts from the Denton, Texas-based Great News Network.
The Center for Law and Policy is working on the case, where District Judge Jorge A. Solis of Dallas originally concluded the tract is not sufficiently distinct from actual currency
Brian Fahling, a lawyer with the center, told WND that the arguments on behalf of the tract are straightforward: how can there be a counterfeit to something that doesn't exist in reality?
"The statutes the Secret Service pointed to were inapplicable because the denomination itself is not in circulation. That seemed like a no-brainer," Fahling said.

He said the district court judge "went well beyond the statutes" in finding the tract was illegal.
"I can't fathom how the judge went their way," said Fahling of the opinion that would "separate him (the judge) from five million people who would conclude otherwise."
During the confiscation in Texas, the Dallas Secret Service officer said that someone had tried to deposit one of the million-dollar bills in a bank account, and the address on the back of the tract was of the Texas ministry.

The Secret Service has argued that the tract violates currency restrictions because it is regulation size and two-sided. However, Fahling said sections of the U.S. code's title 18 cited by the government, 475 and 504, don't apply. He said 475 deals only with authorized denominations and 504 pertains only to exact copies of currency, he said.

The tracts have multiple differences from real money, including the message:
"The million-dollar question: Will you go to Heaven? Here's a quick test. Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, or used God's name in vain? Jesus said, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already with her in his heart." Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgment Day? If you have done those things God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart. The Bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in Hell. That's not God's will. He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. Jesus took your punishment upon Himself – 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.' Then He rose from the dead and defeated death. Please, repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus, and God will grant you everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey it."

Fahling also was checking a situation in downtown Las Vegas, where 35-year-old Chris Bowen said he was passing out the tract on the city's pedestrian Fremont Street when a Secret Service agent threatened him with arrest and confiscated his tracts.

Fake currency, including $1 million and $1 billion bills, are readily available on the Internet. World Class Learning Materials sells a set of 100 bills of different denominations it calls "play money." And a website called Prank Place says its currency for sale "looks and feels real. Great conversation tool. Our funny money and fake million dollar bills look just like real U.S. Currency. These are very high quality, designed by an incredibly talented artist. Our fake money makes great gifts, additions to greeting cards, or even sales promotions and sales tools." Those bills carry serial numbers, the U.S. logo and the words "United States of America" with an "A Hamilton" signature and other traditional currency marks.

Christianity Under Attack

By Michael Coren

Toronto Sun

TORONTO -- As we prepare to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ there is surely nobody who seriously believes that Christianity is not under attack in North America. It was the author and critic Michael Medved, an Orthodox Jew, who pretty much summed it all up.
He made the point that even in a film as banal and forgettable as Alien 3, the secular establishment and its poodle that is media and entertainment managed to throw a few punches. In the movie, one of the violent sexual maniacs on a futuristic penal colony explains, "You know, we're all fundamentalist Christians here."
This, of course, is in outer space.
One would have thought the eternal struggle against man-eating aliens had little to do with organized religion, but apparently not.
Out of context, out of place and just dumb, it nevertheless enabled another group of Hollywood types to bash their favourite foe.
And let us be specific here. Organized religion invariably means Christianity. To attack an Eastern faith or even Judaism would be seen as being politically insensitive.
As for Islam, nobody in Hollywood or the Canadian movie and television business has the courage to risk a fatwa or two.
But in the final analysis it doesn't really matter. Tearing down Christmas trees, banning nativity scenes, mumbling happy holidays, preventing prayer in schools and council chambers - all the dying spasms of the liberal culture.
Now this is important. Never think that the attack upon Christianity is a sign of the decline of the victim. On the contrary. These attacks are evidence of the decline of the perpetrator. So insecure in their ideology are the atheist hordes that they try to destroy anything and everyone that reflects and exposes their weakness.
Every little victory for the secular culture is a major triumph for the Messiah whose birthday we are about to commemorate. Just as the Church was persecuted most harshly by a Rome in massive decline. The darkness before the new dawn.
The attacks also mean that the weak and watery ones fall away, leaving the faith to serious Christians who understand they are here not to edit but to follow Christ. So the culture-friendly types, who submit to every whim of decadence and materialism in their pathetic effort to remain popular, become irrelevant.
It's why the United Church will effectively disappear within 20 years, why the Anglicans will split and their liberal wing evaporate, why the attempt to hijack genuine Catholicism is now stone dead and why solid, orthodox churches are growing in all corners of the world.
It's not about socialism, recycling, sexual licence, climate change, group hugs, self-esteem or never offending anyone. It's about truth, unchanging Scriptural absolutes, church teaching, the undeniable facts of the virgin birth and bodily resurrection, speaking God's message even when it hurts the speaker as well as the hearer and unending love and forgiveness.
It's about doing what is right but never blurring the lines of what is wrong. About exposing sin but offering salvation. It comes at a cost but it is worth more than the world.
Have a wonderful, faithful and prayerful Christmas. Oh, and look forward to Alien 12, in which a sad group of once influential people will announce, "You know, we're all secular fundamentalists here." Then be eaten by an enormous spider from Neptune.

Coincidence? You decide.

Christmas Photo Captioning Contest

This is the somewhat disturbing picture I have chosen for the 1st Annual Rozetta Baptist Church Christmas photograph captioning contest. Competitors should either post their captions directly on the blog, or e-mail them to me at isaiah6@monmouthnet.net for posting later. A panel of impartial judges will consider each entry on its merits and the winner will receive a grand prize package that includes a hearty handshake, a pat on the back, and a half-consumed roll of Lifesavers. Deadline for entries is 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 23rd.

Bibles on a Plane!

Stewardess 'banned from taking bible on plane'
By Laura Clout

An air stewardess is claiming religious discrimination against an airline which she says banned her from taking the Bible to Saudi Arabia.

The stewardess has been told by BMI that it is against the law of the insular Middle Eastern country to bring in religious books other than the Koran.

The woman, who is understood to be a committed Christian, takes her bible everywhere she goes and is now set to take the airline to an industrial tribunal claiming discrimination on religious grounds.

BMI, formerly British Midland Airways, said today it was merely following the Foreign Office advice that no non-Islamic materials or artefacts are allowed into the country.

A spokesman from the airline said: "We issue advice to all our staff and passengers that these are the guidelines.

"She is saying she wants to carry her bible with her. We are saying we can't start designing rules around individuals when we've got several hundred members of staff. To take every personal preference into account would be impossible."

On its web site the Foreign Office says of Saudi Arabia: "The importation and use of narcotics, alcohol, pork products and religious books, apart from the Koran, and artefacts are forbidden."
BMI said it offered the stewardess the opportunity to transfer from long-haul duties to short-haul, but she refused.

The case follows that of British Airways worker Nadia Eweida, also committed Christian, whose objection to BA rules which forbade her visibly wearing a cross led to a review by BA of its uniform policy.

First Amendment?

Valedictorian Silenced Over Her Christian Faith Will Go to Court
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer

December 19, 2006(CNSNews.com) - A high school student whose commencement speech was cut off when she spoke about her Christian faith will have her case heard in a federal court.A federal judge in Nevada ruled Monday that a debate over freedom of religious expression in public school commencement ceremonies will go to court.

The charges stem from a June 15 incident at Foothill High School in Henderson, Nevada, when school administrators cut off valedictorian Brittany McComb's commencement speech after she strayed from a pre-approved script. Earlier, they had removed from her speech references to the Bible and her faith.McComb described God's love as "something we all desire. It's unprejudiced, it's merciful, it's free, it's real, it's huge, and it's everlasting." Then the microphone was switched off.

Amateur video of the ceremony showed graduates and their families cheering and booing as McComb continued to deliver her speech without the microphone. Audience members heckled administrators as McComb argued with them onstage.After the ceremony, attorneys with the Virginia-based Rutherford Institute filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Nevada, accusing the administration of violating McComb's First Amendment right to freedom of speech and Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.

At the time, Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead told Cybercast News Service that McComb was not asking the court to award damages beyond declaring the school's actions unconstitutional.On Monday, Judge Robert C. Jones rejected the school's motion to dismiss the case, clearing the way for discovery hearings to begin after school attorneys file a response to the accusations.

"We're pleased that the court recognizes the validity of Brittany McComb's claims," Whitehead said in a statement. "This is an important first step in protecting Brittany's right to free speech."

Officials from Foothill High School could not be reached for comment Monday because school offices are closed for winter break. Bill Hoffman, general counsel for the Clark County School District where Foothill is located, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Lassonde v. Pleasanton Unified School District (2003) that schools can censor religious speeches that proselytize because they give the "appearance of government sponsorship of religion." The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, allowing the Ninth Circuit's decision to stand. Religious freedom advocates expect that decision to be revisited as soon as another circuit issues a ruling contradicting the Ninth Circuit's opinion.

Happy Holidays Vs. Merry Christmas

A respected pollster has published a provocative statistic and I shared it in last Sunday's message:

"A new Zogby poll found that 95 percent of Americans say they are not offended by being greeted with a 'Merry Christmas' while shopping; but greet them with a 'Happy Holidays,' and 46 percent say they are offended."

Shouldn't this make politically correct retailers sit up and take notice? Reactions and thoughts?