27 June 2018
“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]
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“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]
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Presbyterians Week Headlines
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[1] Supreme Court Victory for Pro-Life Help Centers Applauded by Operation Rescue
[3] Heinous Nigeria Massacre As US IRF Ambassador Departs; Hundreds Feared Dead
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[1] Supreme Court Victory for Pro-Life Help Centers Applauded by Operation Rescue
WASHINGTON, June 26, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed the pro-life movement a victory in the case of NIFLA v. Becerra, stating that the California law, called the Reproductive Fact Act, forcing pro-life help centers to promote abortion was unduly burdensome to free speech rights and was therefore unconstitutional.
The following quote is attributable to Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue:
We are grateful that the First Amendment Right to Free Speech has prevailed and that pro-life pregnancy centers will be protected from forced promotion of abortion. Those of us with deeply held beliefs that abortion is a moral injustice now cannot be forced to capitulate to an unjust government demand that we promote this human rights abuse.
We are grateful to Tom Glessner and the National Institute of Family and Life Associates (NIFLA) for bearing the burden of challenging this unconstitutional law.
Read this statement on Operation Rescue’s website.
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+ Operation Rescue, Post Office Box 782888, Wichita, Kansas 67278, 800-705-1175, Fax: 916-244-2636, info@operationrescue.org
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MONTGOMERY, Ala., June 26, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ — The Foundation for Moral Law (“the Foundation”), an Alabama-based nonprofit corporation dedicated to religious liberty and the strict interpretation of the Constitution as intended by its Framers, applauded Tuesday’s U.S. Supreme Court decisions in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra and Trump v. Hawaii.
“Today is a great day for America and for the Foundation for Moral Law,” said Foundation President Kayla Moore. “The Court upheld the Constitution today in two very important cases in which we had filed amicus briefs. We are pleased that the Court rebuked California for trying to force right to life advocates to speak a ‘pro-abortion’ message and that the Court defended the President’s prerogative to keep this country safe, by certain restrictions on travel from other countries.”
NIFLA v. Becerra
In NIFLA, the Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that a California law requiring pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to provide information about how to obtain state-sponsored abortions violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, holding that the law was unconstitutional because it regulated the content of the pro-lifers’ speech and made them speak a message with which they disagree. Justice Thomas noted that the Court sometimes allows the government to require medical providers to disclose certain information, but that is permissible only when the information is factual and noncontroversial, which was not the case here. Justice Thomas’s decision aligns with the Foundation’s amicus brief, which argued that the law was a content-based restriction on free speech and also a form of compelled speech.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a concurrence, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito, and Justice Gorsuch, expressing alarm that the California law appeared to target only the pro-life viewpoint and was therefore an attempt by the government to suppress a particular message with which the government disagreed. Justice Kennedy emphasized that “Governments must not be allowed to force persons to express a message contrary to their deepest convictions.” Justice Kennedy’s arguments aligned with the Foundation’s argument that the law was not only a content-based regulation of speech but also targeted the speakers because of their viewpoint.
John Eidsmoe, Foundation Senior Counsel who authored the brief, said, “Of all the forms of free speech violations, forcing someone to say something controversial with which they deeply disagree is perhaps the worst. Through the course of history, people have chosen to suffer and even die rather than betray their convictions. The Supreme Court’s decision today reaffirms that freedom of speech is still alive and well in the United States.”
Matthew Clark, the Foundation attorney who submitted the Foundation’s amicus brief, added, “The Court’s decision not only upheld the right to free speech, but it also indirectly upheld the religious rights of many of these pro-life advocates who do their work because they believe life is a gift from God. The Foundation believes that also, and we are pleased that the Court’s decision today will help save innocent lives.”
Trump v. Hawaii
In Trump, the Court upheld in a 5-4 decision a proclamation by President Trump restricting travel to and from countries that pose a national security risk to the United States. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, rejecting the argument that President Trump’s proclamation was really a “Muslim ban” and reaffirming that the Court must grant great deference to the President’s decisions on national security matters.
Chief Justice Roberts’s decision reflected the Foundation’s argument that the President’s travel ban was not an Establishment Clause violation. Foundation Senior Counsel John Eidsmoe said, “The original purpose of the Establishment Clause was to prevent the government from coercing people to violate their religious beliefs. That wasn’t the purpose of the President’s proclamation. As we established in our brief, the ban applied only to certain nations that were centers for terrorism and failed to ‘vet’ terrorists. Most Muslim nations and 86% of the world’s Muslim population are not affected by the ban, which also included two non-Muslim nations (Venezuela and North Korea). This really was a national security case, not an Establishment Clause case. We are pleased that the Court agreed.”
In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas addressed the fact that the Hawaii district court issued a nation-wide injunction in this case, arguing that the constitutionality of nation-wide injunctions is “dubious.” Justice Thomas argued that judicial power is the power to settle disputes between the parties to the case, which is different than giving orders that bind the entire nation. The Foundation raised the same point in its amicus brief.
Explaining that point, Foundation attorney Matthew Clark said, “If an unelected and unaccountable federal district judge can issue an order that binds not just the parties to the case but everyone in the country, including those who live outside the district court’s jurisdiction and who have no opportunity to be heard in the case, then we no longer have a constitutional republic but a dictatorship. The Supreme Court needs to address whether nation-wide injunctions are unconstitutional, and we are glad that Justice Thomas is calling the Court’s attention to the problem.”
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+ Foundation for Moral Law, Post Office Box 4086, Montgomery, Alabama 36103, 334-262-1245, Fax: 334-262-1708, Info@morallaw.org
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[3] Heinous Nigeria Massacre As US IRF Ambassador Departs; Hundreds Feared Dead
By Emmanuel Ogebe, Special to ASSIST News Service
NIGERIA (ANS – June 25, 2018) — In a 60-hour killing spree that began last weekend about 200 Christians were slaughtered in Plateau State even as the US Ambassador At Large for IRF was departing Nigeria.
Ambassador Sam Brownback’s one-week visit was pockmarked with 6 suicide bombings by Boko Haram in one day (the largest single day detonations), deadly Shiite clashes with the police, altercations between local Muslims and a community and continuing killings by Muslim Fulani Herdsmen.
The grand finale of this perfect storm of violence was the triple digit massacre in Plateau State. https://viewpointnigeria.com/despair-as-death-toll-of-barkin-ladi-killings-reaches-106/?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C7541351262
Overnight, I have been inundated with photos too gruesome to share here of horribly mutilated bodies of children brutally macheted to death and macheted still after death for maximal horror effect, charred corpses and bodies stacked in mass graves.
Already the Fulani have justified this heinous crime against humanity http://scannewsnigeria.com/news/plateau-killings-are-retaliatory-says-miyetti-allah/
The sad thing is this is not the first time nor the last. In 2012 when Fulani’s massacred over 60 Christian villagers in Plateau State, an executive of the same cattle rearers group said the same thing. I wrote to the Attorney General and asked, “This man has admitted the crime. Why hasn’t he been picked up?” He is still free till today. After the New Year Massacre in Benue State, again they admitted it. No one has been arrested.
Worse still, some of the communities attacked this weekend were attacked previously. In fact one of them was part of the notorious 2010 Dogo Na Hawa Massacre in which 500 Christians were killed. That massacre 8 years ago spurred me to launch the Justice For Jos project and that has evolved to covering Boko Haram atrocities. Ironically the Herdsmen atrocities have continued unabated while Boko Haram hogged the spotlight.
Sadly all of this occurred while Nigeria’s President Buhari was busy holding a party convention in his bid for re-election. Early last week I got distress messages from of our local workers that he was trapped outside the orphanage because of an ongoing Herdsmen attack. However President Buhari deployed over 5000 policemen for his security at the party convention and the killings built up until the massacre despite the early warnings.
We hear reports that mass burials are being ordered by the authorities to hide the true casualties.
At this point the Plateau massacre this weekend looks likely to be the third worst in the 8 years in which I have tracked Herdsmen attacks.
- Dogo Nahawa 500 killed March 2010 Plateau State
- Agatu 300 killed February 2016 Benue State
- Barkin Ladi about 200 Plateau State June 2018
Mourners at a funeral were also killed https://www.skyrockdaily.com/2018/06/24/news/confusion-suspected-herdsmen-killed-plateau-mourners-witness-says-120-police-confirm-11/?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign= Again not for the first time.
It is disconcerting that a small Muslim minority can so terrorize Christian majorities in Benue and Plateau state because of their monopoly of violence. The great danger is if Christians choose not to take it anymore. Friends and family have been appealing for evacuation since last night as Muslims are amassing. However, Plateau is where most Christians from the far north flee for safety so where does everyone one now go?
One of my learned colleagues informs me that Rocket Propelled Grenades were used in these attacks. I am waiting on the evidence but if true, this is not the first time either.
I will keep you updated while I ask your prayers for this unraveling situation.
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