Religious Liberty Update

Greetings,

As I understand this bill from my sources, mere participation in the aforementioned 'volunteer' program would then prohibit a young person from participating in a lot of other outside programs including Church.

I must apologize, I am way behind the curve on this one. The bill became law just today, it is called the 'Serve America Act' now, previously called Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education. It is an expansion of the Americorps ( www.americorps.gov ) program where college money from the government is exchanged for government service. The person who alerted me to all this was a bit johnny-come-lately on this and so I am too. The Senate version (S 277) already passed and today Obama signed it into law. Section 132A of the new law forbids funds going to any entity that is:

Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of proselytization, consistent with section 132.

So the above paragraph is already law and I bet many or all of us did not know until today.

A companion bill (not yet passed into law) HR 1444 would make this 'volunteer' service mandatory. So the bill is law and we are too late to stop that but we can attempt to stop HR 1444 and whatever it's Senate version maybe:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1444

Remember, when government expands, liberty contracts.

Jim

Church Attendance, Confirmation, Sunday School - Against The Law

Greetings,

I couldn't believe this until I checked it out for myself. I found the bill on Govtrack, the House passed it, the Senate has yet to vote.

HR 1388: Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (AKA The Obama Youth Brigade Bill)

Click on this link:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1388

then scroll down to sec 1310 in the yelow and click on it, it reads,

‘SEC. 132A. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

‘(a) Prohibited Activities- An approved national service position under this subtitle may not be used for the following activities:

‘(1) Attempting to influence legislation.

‘(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.

‘(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing.

‘(4) Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements.

‘(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to Federal office or the outcome of an election to a State or local public office.

‘(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials.

‘(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of proselytization, consistent with section 132.

‘(8) Consistent with section 132, providing a direct benefit to any--

‘(A) business organized for profit;

‘(B) labor union;

‘(C) partisan political organization;

‘(D) nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, except that nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and

‘(E) organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph (7), unless the position is not used to support those religious activities.

‘(9) Providing abortion services or referrals for receipt of such services.

‘(10) Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive.

‘(11) Carrying out such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit.

‘(b) Ineligibility- No assistance provided under this subtitle may be provided to any organization that has violated a Federal criminal statute.

‘(c) Nondisplacement of Employed Workers or Other Volunteers- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not be directed to perform any services or duties, or to engage in any activities, prohibited under the nonduplication, nondisplacement, or nonsupplantation requirements relating to employees and volunteers in section 177.’.

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Time to burn up the phone lines and PASS THIS ON to everyone you can think of!

Herb Kohl
http://kohl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Russ Feingold
http://feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.html

Outside of Wisconsin:
http://senate.gov/

You can search for your Senator by state in the upper right hand corner of the page.

In Christ,

Jim

What Church Father Are You?

You’re St. Melito of Sardis! You have a great love of history and liturgy. You’re attached to the traditions of the ancients, yet you recognize that the old world — great as it was — is passing away. You are loyal to the customs of your family, though you do not hesitate to call family members to account for their sins. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

Reading Luther's Sermons

Greetings,

I'm still slogging through 3 Revelation commentaries (I'm up to chap 19!) but since Lent began I have also been reading Luther's Sermons again. I have an eight volume set I bought back in 1988 that read all the way through once over a summer (I had a sedentary job as a security guard) and I began to read these in earnest again. I most recently read Luther's sermon for Easter on the Sacrament of Holy Communion. If Luther's Sermon is any measure of good practice - then I feel none of the Synods are following it.

Back in the day, people were compelled to make a confession to a priest and then take communion on Easter. Luther was opposed to the practice because these people were going right back to the sinful lives they led beforehand often with no effort to better themselves. Also Luther distinguishes between 'historical faith' - head knowledge that Christ had indeed existed -vs- 'real faith' of the heart as well. Today some fellow Lutherans (who can be 'Left Brain' to a fault) would yell PIETISM! But here they have to argue with Luther himself so I think that claim falls flat. I think Luther was worried about people living in open sin, habitually drunk, etc. Also Luther wanted people to have a faith that was bicameral - more in keeping with the Scriptures:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. - Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 & Luke 10:27.

Luther was also on guard against the 'herd mentality' which was to have everyone take communion. He wanted people to be asked one-by-one if they wanted it and not to rely on the faith or piety of family members but an individual desire to receive it. I have not been asked that for years. Congregations I was a member of who were conscientious usually collected communion cards at the altar and elders were required to know who everyone was. Also even long time members were supposed to register for communion in a register prior to worship and that was as good as it ever got.

So the WELS and ELS churches I once attended were holding fast to the Galesburg Rule but not Luther's. Luther wanted to be sure the communicant actually desired forgiveness from Christ and was not just 'going up' as a matter of law, custom or peer pressure. I'm not going to go into my current LCMS congregation for now because I am not fully informed on it's practice but I will say they have no statement regarding participation in their bulletins.

The bottom line is we live in such a materialistic society these days that few approach the sacrament with the same fear, wonder and awe that Luther had in his day. Some might say that was because Luther was a victim of medieval theology and magical thinking and to a degree that is true but yet - as Christians who confess the Creeds, do we not believe in all things both seen and unseen? I think our lips move and our hearts lie. If we did believe as we should, we would have no open communion and we would see people get turned away from the altar once in a while. I haven't seen anyone turned back from any synodical altar since the early 1990s.

Another thing that really takes me back is Luther's language. Luther had a lawyers gift for rhetorical flourish. Today he would be so politically incorrect and offensive he would require his own team of ACLU attorneys to keep him out of jail just for being himself. Luther would have a hard time with today's idolatrous worship of pluralism, tolerance and diversity. Luther was a warrior for truth and let the chips fall where they may. Since I read him in English translation, I wonder just how bowdlerized the English speaking pastors who translated these sermons rendered some of what he said. As Nicolas Cage's character Ben Gates said in National Treasure, "People don't talk that way anymore."

They certainly don't and that is most certainly true.

In Christ,

Jim