Bloomberg Denies Clergy From Offering Prayer at 9-11 Ceremony

New York mayor Bloomberg' decision to exclude clergy members from the 9-11 memorial "service" is flat-out UnAmerican! 

Who gave these ungodly politicians the right to decide how we memorialize our fallen citizens?

It is in GOD we trust...

 Wake Up America!

Memorial for Mychal Judge, New York Fire Department chaplain, and other firefighters lost in World Trade Center attack.

Some New York politicians and religious leaders are criticizing Mayor Michael Bloomberg for not offering clergy members a role in the high-profile ceremonies marking 10 years since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"This is America, and to have a memorial service where there's no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me," said Rudy Washington, a former deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani. "I feel like America has lost its way."

A spokewoman from Bloomberg's office told The Journal that the focus, as in past years, will be on the family members of the fallen. Rabbi Joseph Potasnik told the paper he understood the mayor's decision, saying, "I don't know how to make it possible for everyone to have a place at the table."

But opponents say faith played an important role in the country after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

There was a plethora of interfaith events, and New York Magazine even named New York Fire Department chaplain Mychal Judge, who died in the attack and is immortalized in a picture being carried from a tower, the "most famous victim of the World Trade Center attack."

City Council member Fernando Cabrera, who is a pastor at a Bronx church, told The Journal he was "utterly disappointed" by the absence of clergy.

"They were the spiritual and emotional backbone, and when you have a situation where people are trying to find meaning, where something is bigger than them, when you have a crisis of this level, they often look to the clergy," he said.

Article courtesy of FoxNews

Obama Administration Denies Christians The Right To Prayer at National Cemetery

The Obamanation and his Administration are once again imposing their position that we are not a Christian nation. Socialism is their call to order.

Wake Up America! The Trees Are In The Forest...

A Texas lawmaker is calling for a congressional investigation of the Houston National Cemetery after he went undercover and determined that cemetery officials are still preventing Christian prayers at the funerals of military veterans.

“The Obama administration continues to try to prevent the word ‘God’ from being used at the funerals of our heroes,” said. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas).

“It’s unacceptable and I’m going to put a stop to it as fast as humanly possible,” Culberson told Fox News Radio. He attended a burial service at the cemetery undercover on July 8, when he says he witnessed volunteer members of the honor guard from the Veterans of Foreign Wars being prohibited from using any references to God.

“The Obama administration had told the nation and me they were not interfering with the prayer said over the graves of veterans,” he said. “And I went undercover to personally verify that claim.” VA officials have strongly denied they’ve banned any religious speech – and have offered support for Arleen Ocasio, the cemetery’s director.

“The idea that invoking the name of God or Jesus is banned at VA national cemeteries is blatantly false,” said VA Press Secretary Josh Taylor in a written statement to Fox News Radio. “The truth is, VA’s policy protects veterans’ families’ rights to pray however they choose at our national cemeteries.”

Taylor declined to comment on the pending lawsuit or other ongoing legal proceedings, but did say, “No one should make judgments before all the facts are known.” Culberson said the commander of the honor guard was told by cemetery officials to approach a grieving widow to reconfirm that she wanted the word God mentioned at her husband’s graveside service.

“He quite correctly said as a Texan and a man of honor and integrity, ‘I’m not bothering that poor woman at this most terrible time of her life. We’re going to do the ritual,’” Culberson said. “Right in front of me, the VA directly and deliberately attempted to prevent the VFW from doing their magnificent, spiritual ritual over the grave of this fallen hero."

The cemetery is already the focus of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the VFW, an American Legion post and Houston’s National Memorial Ladies. They claim the VA banned members of the organizations from using the words “God” or “Jesus” at burial services.

They also allege they were banned from reciting prayers or using religious language during services unless families approved the text in advance. Culberson, who oversees the sub-committee responsible for funding the cemetery, said that he wants the cemetery director fired – and he’s willing to do whatever possible to make sure that happens.

“The cemetery director has to leave,” he said. “I will zero out her salary. If she attempts to work for the VA anywhere in the state of Texas her salary will be zero.”

“It makes my skin crawl that liberals are attempting to drive prayer out of a funeral ceremony for our heroes,” Culberson said. “We’re going to fix this so that no Obama liberal bureaucrat will interfere with the funeral of a hero.”

But Taylor said the rules set in place at the cemetery are meant to protect the grieving families.

“Put simply, VA policy puts the wishes of the veteran’s family above all else on the day it matters most – the day they pay their final respects to their loved ones,” Taylor said. "Out of respect for the families, VA’s policy exists to prevent anyone from disrespecting or interfering with a veteran’s private committal service.”

Controversy first surfaced nationally at the cemetery during a Memorial Day event when a Houston pastor was ordered by the VA to remove the name of Jesus from his prayer.

Culberson said he hopes to hold hearings on the cemetery in the fall.

“They will bury 10 to 20 American heroes today and the Obama administration is preventing prayers from being said over their gravesites – today, ” Culberson said.

Article by Todd Starnes, FoxNews

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance 1969 (Video)

969A skit from one of Red Skelton's 1969 TV shows... I am sure he had no clue his words would ever come to fruition. If Red Skelton was alive today he would surely be a leading voice for reason. 

Wake Up America! What he was worried about in 1969 is happening TODAY!

Appeals Court Says Cross On Federal Land Is Unconstitutional

 

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument that the cross is solely a memorial.

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a cross displayed on public property for nearly a century is unconstitutional.

Three versions of the Christian symbol have been erected atop 822-foot Mount Soledad in the posh La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, since 1913.

The current 43-foot cross was erected in 1954 in honor of Korean War veterans and has been the subject of near constant judicial back and forth since 1989, when two Vietnam War veterans filed suit against the city, saying it violated the California Constitution's "No Preference" clause.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the notion that the cross -- since the late 1990s surrounded by plaques and paving stones honoring veterans and war dead -- was solely a memorial.

"The use of such a distinctively Christian symbol to honor all veterans sends a strong message of endorsement and exclusion," the court said in its ruling. "It suggests that the government is so connected to a particular religion that it treats that religion's symbolism as its own, as universal. To many non-Christian veterans, this claim of universality is alienating."

The court also noted that the site had, for most of history, been used for Easter services -- marked on maps until the late 1980s as the "Mount Soledad Easter Cross" -- and was designated a war memorial with a plaque "only after the legal controversy began in the late 1980s."

"It was not until the late 1990s that veterans' organizations began holding regular memorial services at the site," the court said.

And the court rejected arguments that the cross at a war memorial was no different than any other memorial that includes a cross.

To read the rest of the article click here: CNN

[Just who are these “judges” that are judging that Crosses are Unconstitutional? Have they even read the Constitution recently? Is there anything in that precious document that comes remotely close to implying that crosses on federal land are unconstitutional? 

Last time I checked the National Cemetery at Arlington was on federal land. What about those crosses? Or crosses on churches on US military bases? Or wearing crosses while on federal land? How long is it going to be before these same “judges” judge that those crosses must go? Sound a little Marxist to you? Me too!!

Wake up America!! These perfidious “judges” are trying to judge us into liberal socialism. Until we unite against this type of transgression, America will continue to suffer.]

 

Marine Sings 4th Verse of Star Spangled Banner at Tea Party Rally (Video)

How many Americans are even aware that there are 4 verses to our National Anthem? At a recent Tea Party rally, a United States Marine Veteran stood up and sang the 4th verse bringing the crowd to their feet and some to tears. 

The words he sang so eloquently should ring in the hearts of all Americans, as do the words of the 1st verse we are all familiar with. 

God Bless America. In God Is Our Trust.


The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
By Francis Scott Key 1814
 



Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!