Pastor
s' retreat set
October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and AFA is
suggesting that churches send their pastor and wife to the first annual AFA
Pastor and Wife Fishbowl Retreat, part of AFA's outreach. The retreat will be
in Tupelo, Mississippi, October 23-25, 2012, and will be a time of
encouragement, worship and fellowship.
The retreat will be hosted by Bert and Jan Harper (left),
who spent 37 years as pastor and wife of local churches. Harper is AFA director
of family and pastoral ministries.
At this year's retreat, the guest speaker is Dr. Robert
Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. Don and Katie
Chandler will lead worship.
Participation is limited and on a first-come,
first-served basis. For more information on this and other AFA Marriage
retreats, go to www.repairingthefoundations.net and click on "CPR."
Values Voter Summit comes at critical hour
Many people believe the November 2012 election is the
nation's most significant of the last 50 years, making the upcoming Values
Voter Summit even more vital for American conservatives.
"The choices facing our nation could alter America
permanently," said AFA president Tim Wildmon. "Conservatives need to hear
what this year's summit speakers have to say."
The summit is sponsored by AFA Action, the legislative
arm of AFA, as well as other important pro-family organizations, such as Family
Research Council, Heritage Foundation and Liberty University. The event is
scheduled for September 14-16 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Last year almost 3,200 people attended, and with critical
congressional races and a presidential election upcoming in November, sponsors
expect a huge crowd.
Speakers expected to attend include: Rep. Michele
Bachmann (R-MN); Bill Bennett, best-selling author; House Speaker John Boehner
(R-OH); House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA); Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC); James
Dobson, author and radio host; Sean Hannity, radio/television host; Gov. Mike
Huckabee, television host; Laura Ingraham, radio host; Michelle Malkin, author;
Star Parker, president of CURE; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL); and Sen. Rick Santorum
(R-PA).
Tim Wildmon will also address the summit.
Presumed GOP presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney is
expected to return to VVS this year.
For more information or to register for the
2012 Values Voter Summit, visit the website (www.valuesvotersummit.org) or call
1-877-372-2808.
One
"[O]ne of their crowning achievements is something that
has gone undetected by the mainstream media. It was the American Family
Association that became the evangelical engine behind thousands of those
original Tea Party rallies back in April
of 2009."
From The Teavangelicals: The Inside Story of How the
Evangelicals and the Tea Party Are Taking Back America, by David Brody, chief
political correspondent for CBN News.
A personal note:
Don Wildmon still on duty
AFA gets frequent calls regarding the status of chairman
emeritus and beloved founder Don Wildmon.
AFA Journal is happy to report that Bro. Don is healthy
and doing well, coming into work each day and focusing on special projects.
Considering his heart for our nation, it is not
surprising that his latest project involves the distribution of the "I pray"
button, which encourages citizens to intercede for our country at this great
hour of need.
For more about the "I pray" buttons, including how to
order yours click here.
AFA retreat scheduled for The Cove
The beautiful mountain retreat at the Billy Graham
Training Center at the Cove in Asheville, North Carolina, will be the location
for the AFA Retreat, to be held September 11-13, 2012. Hosted by AFA president
Tim Wildmon, featured speakers will include Dr. James Dobson and Dr. Don
Wildmon.
For more information visit www.afr.net or contact Wriley
Wildmon at 662-844-5036, ext. 233 or wriley@afa.net.
J.C. Penney stock plunges after gay marriage push
Along with other pro-family groups, AFA and
OneMillionMoms are showing success in the effort to educate people about J.C.
Penney's aggressive national campaign to promote same sex marriage.
Since February, company stock has lost more than half its
value, and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services further lowered its credit
rating on J.C. Penney Co. into "junk" status.
First-year CEO Ron Johnson's decisions have led to
disastrous results for the company. Rather than build on the faith-based
traditions of founder James Cash Penney, Johnson has abandoned family values
and taken the company into a financial tailspin by embracing social activism.
http://finance.yahoo.com
HD boycott nears 750,000
Home Depot continues to support homosexual advocacy
groups driving the same sex marriage agenda. In June, employees represented the
company at gay pride festivals and parades in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and
Saint Petersburg, Florida.
Since the 2010 launch of the boycott of Home Depot,
746,813 people have signed a pledge to boycott the company until it agrees to
remain neutral in the culture war over marriage.
"These types of events are created for the purpose of
normalizing and celebrating deviancy and wickedness on the streets of our
cities," said Randy Sharp, AFA director of special projects. "Most people
can't imagine the depravity that takes place in the name of 'marriage
equality.'"
AFA has documented Home Depot's participation in
multiple homosexual pride events and has posted photos and videos online at
www.boycottthehomedepot.com.
'October Baby' DVD
The surprise box office hit October Baby, a powerful
pro-life film produced by American Family Studios, is set for a September DVD
release.
October Baby had a limited theatrical opening in February
and ranked number eight at the box office. The film's performance led
Entertainment Weekly's Grady Smith to place it in his list of top 15 most
impressive box office performances for 2012 thus far.
The DVD can be purchased at store.afa.net or 877-927-4917.
Where'd we come from?
A recent Gallup poll asked Americans age 18 and up what
they believe about how human beings came to exist. Here are the results:
• 46% - God
created humans in present form
• 32% -
Humans evolved, with God guiding
• 15% -
Humans evolved, without God's involvement
• 7% - No
opinion
www.gallup.com, 6/1/12
Life leaning
Americans still value life, according to two recent
Gallup surveys. In fact, according to one poll, the majority of American adults
believe that abortion should be illegal under all or most circumstances.
That same sentiment is borne out in another Gallup survey
in which a majority of Americans self-identify as pro-life. Poll results
indicate that the lowest percentage ever recorded by the polling group now
claim to be pro-choice - 41%.
Gallup first began asking Americans to identify their
view on the issue of abortion in 1995, allowing survey participants to define
themselves as pro-choice or pro-life.
In 1995 the percentage identified as pro-choice was 56%,
while the percentage claiming to be pro-life was far lower (33%).
Gallup numbers also reveal that higher income individuals
are more in favor of abortion, and that people 55 and older are more pro-life than young people. However, Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America
believes these statistics are skewed.
"It's not a matter of whether you have money or not,
but the views that you hold are according to the values you have," she said. "The
only group that has continued to remain pro-choice are those without any
religion … [people from all sectors of life] are becoming more and more
pro-life."
www.gallup.com, 5/6/12, 5/23/12; www.onenewsnow.com, 6/26/2012
Global what?
Climate change 'deniers' not so dumb after all
The current environmental paradigm assumes that those who
don't believe in man-made climate change are less scientifically savvy, while
those who do are scientifically smarter.
According to one study, however, those assumptions just
aren't true.
"Seeming public apathy over climate change is often
attributed to a deficit in comprehension. The public knows too little science,
it is claimed, to understand the evidence or avoid being misled," said a
report published in May in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study added: "We
conducted a study to test this account and found no support for it."
Instead, the researchers found just the opposite: Those
with the highest degrees of scientific understanding were less concerned about
climate change, while those who were the most concerned scored slightly lower
on tests of scientific knowledge.
"As respondents' science literacy scores increased,
their concern with climate change decreased," the paper said.
Rather than scientific literacy, the researchers said it
was ideology that was driving the cultural battle over man-made climate change.
Those who believed in individual interests were less concerned about climate
change and its causes, while those who believed in pushing for social equality
were more concerned.
The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.
www.nature.com, 5/27/12; www.foxnews.com, 5/28/12
Millennials
Millennials and family: a troubling profile
A June study by Focus on the Family noted that
Millennials - the demographic generation born in the early 1980s - are half
as likely to be married as their parents were at the same age, and twice as
likely as Baby Boomers to have children out of wedlock, with only 21% being
married before the age of 28, and 44% saying both parents are not necessary for
children's happiness.
Pew Research Center reports that Millennials are 5% less
likely than older generations to say "successful marriage is one of their
most important life goals."
At the same time, some singles are celebrating weddings -
with "self-marriage." This anomaly of displaying one's self-commitment
and contentment with single status may be a growing trend if more singles
decide, as did Nadine Schweigert, "The love I need, it's in here"
[pointing to her heart].
California is moving in the opposite direction, however,
with a proposed bill that allows three legal parents per child. The Sacramento
Bee reported this would recognize same sex "parenthood," assisted
reproduction and surrogate births.
www.worldmag.com, 6/11/12; www.cnn.com, 6/22/12;
www.onenewsnow.com, 7/5/12
Islamist promises Israel's destruction …
A radical Muslim preacher predicted that the new
president of Egypt would construct a new Muslim caliphate - a single Islamic
dominion - over the Arab world with its capital in Jerusalem.
In a May speech at a soccer stadium in Cairo, Muslim
cleric Safwat Higazi told thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, "The
capital of the caliphate - the capital of the United States of the Arabs -
will be Jerusalem, God willing."
He then led the crowd in chanting, "Millions of martyrs
march toward Jerusalem," according to the Jerusalem Post.
Higazi claimed this would be accomplished by
then-candidate Mohamed Mursi, who eventually won the Egyptian presidency in a
controversial election victory. Mursi agreed with Higazi's sentiments
regarding Israel.
"Yes, Jerusalem is our goal," Mursi told the crowd. "We
shall pray in Jerusalem, or die as martyrs on its threshold."
Mursi has also said that Egypt-s Coptic Christian
population must "convert [to Islam], pay tribute or leave" the country. The
statement was made privately to a journalist but was publicized by the Egyptian
news website El Bashayer.
… and then the Vatican
The Middle East Media Research Institute released a video
and translation of an interview with a prominent Muslim professor in which he
predicted the Islamic re-conquest of Andalusia (Spain) and the subjugation ofz
the Vatican, home to the Catholic Church.
"The conquest of Andalusia is an old dream, something
Muslims proudly hope for and will continue to hope for in the future," Dr.
Subhi Al-Yaziji said in a May 25 interview on Al-Aqsa TV. He added: "We place
our hopes in Allah and trust that the day will come when our triumph will not
be restricted to Palestine. Our hopes go beyond that - to raise the banner of
the caliphate over the Vatican, the 'Rome' of today, in accordance with the
hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: 'Constantinople shall be conquered, and then
Rome.'"
According to MEMRI, Al-Yaziji is dean of Koranic studies
at Islamic University of Gaza and former department head at the Ministry of
Religious Endowments for Hamas.
www.christianpost.com, 5/31/12; www.jpost.com, 5/8/12; www.memri.org, 6/8/12; www.theblaze.com, 6/12/12
Broken
Recent surveys from two major polling agencies indicate
that Americans have a growing distrust in basic institutions such as government
and media.
A slim majority (51%) now view the U.S. government as a
threat to individual liberties rather than a protector of those rights,
according to a Rasmussen poll released in June. Only 34% saw the government as
a protector of rights, while 15% were undecided. (See story, "Beware the camel's nose.")
Another Rasmussen poll released last fall revealed that
20% of likely U.S. voters thought the government was operating with the consent
of the governed, while 63% believed it was not.
That poll found that the majority of likely voters felt
the federal government had "lost touch with the people it represents,"
according to Rasmussen.
According to Gallup's most recent annual Confidence in
Institutions survey, 21% of Americans have much confidence in television news.
Only 25% have confidence in news reporting of newspapers. The confidence in
television is down seven points from last year and has continued in a steady
decline of viewers who believe what the mainstream news is saying.
www.rasmussenreports.com, 6/4/12, 11/3/11;
www.newsbusters.org, 7/11/12; www.gallup.com, 6/10/12
It
"It's extremely disappointing to me that the Pentagon is
celebrating behavior today that was a court-martial offense one year ago. The
Pentagon is setting apart a category of military personnel that's based on
their sexual behavior."
Retired Chaplain Colonel Ron Crews on the Pentagon's
gay pride celebration during June.
www.onenewsnow.com, 6/26/12
Some things aren't as large as they seem
Perhaps all those homosexual characters on television are
paying off for the gay community.
Less than 2% of the U.S. population self-identifies as
gay or lesbian, according to the most reliable estimates. But a recent Gallup
poll found that Americans significantly overestimate that figure.
Gallup found that more than a third of adults believe
that more than 25% of Americans are homosexual, with another 17% saying they
think the percentage of homosexuals is in the 20-25% range.
www.gallup.com, 5/27/12
Study: Fear of hell lowers crime
There is a relationship between a society's religious
beliefs regarding heaven and hell and how much crime exists, or so says a
psychologist from University of Oregon.
Professor Azim F. Shariff said that his research
indicated that a strong cultural belief in a God who punishes sin results in
lower crime rates, while stressing a forgiving God tends to increase crime.
"It seems like there is a case to be made for the
causal direction that religious punishment does actually lower unethical
behavior, whereas forgiveness does seem to license people," Shariff told a
local ABC news affiliate.
The study examined attitudes and actions of people in 67
countries over a 26-year period.
www.christianpost.com, 6/20/12
'Sexting' epid
emic
Researchers at University of Utah asked more than 600
high school students about their experiences with 'sexting.' The results:
• The percentage of students who said they had sent a
sexually explicit image of themselves by cell phone:
male: 18% female: 17%
• The percentage of students who said they had
forwarded a sexually explicit image that they received via cell phone:
male: 27% female: 21%
• The percentage of students who said they had received
a sexually explicit image via cell phone:
male: 50% female: 31%
Archives of Sexual Behavior, 6/7/12
Military facing suicide crisis
When soldiers come home from combat, their battles are
often just beginning. According to data released by the Pentagon, the most
common way U.S. service members die outside combat is by suicide. In 2011, 25%
of soldiers' deaths came by their own hands.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta directed all military
branches to "immediately look at the situation and determine what’s behind
it, what's causing it and what (we) can do to make sure it doesn't happen."
Panetta also said, "Commanders cannot tolerate any
actions that belittle, haze, humiliate or ostracize any individual, especially
those who require or are responsibly seeking professional services."
www.usatoday.com, 06/19/12
How to contact your elected officials
• The
President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Salutation: Dear Mr. President
Comment line: 202-456-1111
Email: comments@whitehouse.gov
Web: www.whitehouse.gov/contact
• U. S. House
of Representatives
The Honorable _____________________
Washington, DC 20515
Salutation: Dear Congressman (or
Congresswoman) ___________________
• U.S. Senate
The Honorable _____________________
Washington, DC 20510
Salutation: Dear Senator _____________
• Washington
switchboard: 202-224-3121
• votervoice.net/groups/AFA/address
Links to contact information for federal
and state officials as well as media companies
