This just in from the Catholic League:

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that churches are entitled to make employment decisions without interference by the government.  In doing so, the high court affirmed what is known as the doctrine of “ministerial exception,” the long-standing right of churches to be shielded from discrimination lawsuits brought by employees.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:

This is a great victory for religious liberty and a huge defeat for the Obama administration.  Last October, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in this case, the Obama administration’s lawyer proved to be such a secular zealot that she stunned even the more liberal members of the high court.  Leondra R. Kruger made such an extremist argument that she even got Justice Elena Kagan to agree wholeheartedly with Justice Antonin Scalia.

Had the Obama administration won, the government would have been able to order the Catholic Church to accept women priests.  Looks like the old guard, entrenched in the 1960s, has lost again.

More coverage:  FoxNews, GlobalPost

Jane Bullington

Each December, CBR’s Jane Bullington takes a week of “vacation” and works as a missionary in Germany.  Here’s her report:

In December, for the 10^th year, I went to Germany as part of a mission team to assist Southern Baptist missionaries Steve and Susan Jett of Knoxville.   Steve and Susan have lived in various towns in Germany for 17 years.   They have devoted their lives to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the German people.  Germans believe Baptists are part of a cult, so successful witnessing has to begin with relationship building.

Direct evangelism is not often successful, so the Jetts have devised several ways to get the Word into the marketplace and gain respectability in the community.  That is where the December teams come in.  Every German town, no matter how large or small, has a month-long Christmas Market in the heart of the town.  A few blocks are set aside for vendors to sell Christmas wares, all kinds of German fast foods, and German hot spirits.  They sell “kinderpunch” for children and tee-totalers!

The marketplace is full of festivities every evening, and parents love to bring their children out to enjoy the Christmas season.   Booth owners have to rent space, but because of their reputation and the draw they have on families, the Jetts have been given 3 spaces, at no cost!  One space is used for the very popular Living Nativity, one is for a kinder-pavilion (activities for children inside a warm tent), and one is for a marionette show that tells the Christmas story straight from the Gospel of Luke (in German, of course).

The team rotates among all 3 activities, 6 nights in a row, to reach as many adults and children as possible with the Gospel.  My favorite place to be is the Living Nativity.  In it, we place a Mary, a Joseph, an angel, and a shepherd.  We also have two sheep (a mom and a baby) plus a young donkey.  These living characters are a magnet for children.

A photographer draws poeple into the Nativity scene and takes a photo of  the children with the shepherd and donkey.  A team member prints the photo, on site, and places it in a packet of “Jesus” materials for the children and the parents.  In that way, the Gospel gets into the hands of folks who would not listen to an overt presentation of the Gospel.

It is so fun to see the absolute delight of children as they pet that donkey, get a hug from the shepherd, and then see themselves in a Nativity photo.  Parents are also delighted with the way we love on their children, and are amazed that we come to Germany at our own expense to share the Christmas story with strangers.

Germans think everything has a price tag, so this gift of a photo and sacks of games and tracts, at no charge, is hard for them to believe.  Our answer:  “We come because Christ loves us and we want to share His love with you here in Bruhl.  Merry Christmas!”  What a wonderful to begin preparing ourselves for the Day of Celebration when God sent His only Son into the world to save us from our sins.  Thank you, Jesus.

Nativity on display in Bruhl, Germany

Top 5 Christmas videos on FAB:

1. Hallelujah Chorus at the Mall Food Court
2. Hail, Favored One! the Lord is With You
3. If Mary and Joseph Used Facebook
4. Where’s the Line to See Jesus?
5. Santa and reindeer sing “White Chistmas”

Please suggest videos that you like!

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5icadzuoLyo

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reMq5fM874k

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OExXItDyWEY

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooc5eJc5SHA

Interesting op-ed in the National Review asks the question, “Are Evangelicals or University Professors More Irrational?”

At the same time, the opposite position — the position of nearly the entire liberal intellectual world, that everyone’s sexual orientation is fixed — is also driven by ideology rather than by science. Society has a huge influence on how people act out their sexuality, including the sex with whom they choose to be sexual. Human sexuality — especially that of the human female — is far more elastic than the intellectual community admits. And the widespread liberal belief that, all things being equal, it makes no difference if a child is raised by a mother and father or by two fathers or two mothers is hardly rational. On the issue of homosexuality, the intellectual Left is just as driven by ideology as are evangelicals.

***

If you disagree with race-based affirmative action, you are a racist; disagree with the ever-expanding welfare state, you lack compassion; disagree with redefining marriage in the most radical way ever attempted in history, and you are a hater.

Entire article here.

As I watch this … now for the 30th time … I can’t help but wonder what the prophet Handel might think if he could see it. How could he imagine this scene, half a world and 269 years away, as he worked day and night in the summer of 1741 to set God’s Word to music?

Who knows what God will do with the work He has given each of us to complete?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

As you may know, the prophet Handel is generally credited with writing Messiah, the Musical, but he actually plagiarized most of the lyrics. For example, he copied some of its most memorable lines from another prophet, a guy named Isaiah, who lived in the 700’s BC. For example, Isaiah wrote these lines:

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa. 7:14)

For unto Us a Child is born, unto Us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6)

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:3-6)

Anybody can write about a person who has already lived and events that have already happened. The eternal beauty of Handel’s Messiah is that so much of it was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Only God can do that. Check this out.

(Note:  If cable TVcan put Star Trek re-runs on TV, FAB can put up re-runs here.)

Nicole Cooley speaks with a student at Liberty University.

Nicole Cooley, CBR’s Virginia Project Director, spoke to the pro-life student group at Liberty University last night.  She described her experience with rape and abortion and spent another hour answering questions and speaking with students.

One student wanted to know how to help his girlfriend, who is post-abortive from a previous relationship.

Another student wanted to know about our use of pictures at the entrances to the campus back in August.  He asked how Christians can do more to end abortion, which is exactly the question we hoped to stimulate with our GAP appearance.  Nicole stressed that if we can’t get Christians to care about abortion, we have no hope of ever ending it.

She also spoke to the  issue of how Christian women can feel pressured to abort if they are condemned and punished for getting pregnant out of wedlock.  Notice that men never have to face this.  The irony here is that the sexual revolution was sold to America as an emancipator of women.  In practice, women are pressured to have sex.  Women become pregnant.  Women are threatened with expulsion from school.  In many cases, women bear the more severe symptoms of STDs.  “Men” get sex without responsibility and then they try to transfer their own guilt to the mothers of their own children by saying, “It’s a women’s issue.”  Yeah, right.

Pro-life students told Nicole that we had a huge impact on Liberty when we brought GAP early this semester.  Students were talking about abortion a lot for a month after we were there, and they still talk about it now, months later.  Even though many of them were angry at us, we still succeeded in making abortion a significant and ongoing topic of discussion on campus.  Mission accomplished.

We agree with Martin Luther King.  We don’t care what people think about us; we care what they think about injustice.  Read my letter to Liberty University here.

Great new Christmas song from Becky Kelley!  Story behind the song here.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OExXItDyWEY

Cat and Owl

See for yourself!

If a cat allows you to live in his or her house, you may recognize the game of tag that the cat plays with the owl as he flys by.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqmba7npY8g

We promised a detailed analysis of Harold Camping’s complex calculations that led him to declare that the world would end on May 21.

At FAB, we keep our promises.  See if you can follow the logic here:

1. Camping’s calculations were wrong.

There it is.  Did we lose anybody?

It has come to our attention that the world is set to end on May 21, only 2 days from now.   This is based on a complex set of calulations that we will review on May 22 right here at FAB!

Read the San Francisco Appeal report here.  Until the big day arrives, you can keep up with the countdown here.

Apparently, there’s big money in predicting the end of the world.  KGO-TV reports that Family Radio has spent million$ on their campaign.  Does that mean they’ve raised millions as well?  If their prediction doesn’t pan out, will they give refunds?

Hey, whatever works.  If FAB predicts the world will end on August 15, you reckon we could raise million$ for our Fall GAP tour?  Let’s get started!

Have you seen this story (ESPN version)?  Please watch the video below.

Here’s another account:

A Game of Hope

In the fall of 2008, there was an unusual high school football game played in Grapevine, Texas. The game was between Grapevine Faith Academy and the Gainesville State School. Faith is a Christian school and Gainesville State School is located within a maximum security correction facility.

Gainesville State School has 14 players. They play every game on the road. Their record was 0-8. They’ve only scored twice. Their 14 players are teenagers who have been convicted of crimes ranging from drugs to assault to robbery. Most had families who had disowned them. They wore outdated, used shoulder pads and helmets. Faith Academy was 7-2. They had 70 players, 11 coaches, and the latest equipment.

Chris Hogan, the head coach at Faith Academy , knew the Gainesville team would have no fans and it would be no contest, so he thought, “What if half of our fans and half of our cheerleaders, for one night only, cheered for the other team?” He sent out an email to the faithful asking them to do just that. “Here’s the message I want you to send,” Hogan wrote. “You’re just as valuable as any other person on the planet.”

Some folks were confused and thought he was nuts. One player said, “Coach, why are we doing this?” Hogan said, “Imagine you don’t have a home life, no one to love you, no one pulling for you. Imagine that everyone pretty much had given up on you. Now, imagine what it would feel like and mean to you for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.”

The idea took root. On the night of the game, imagine the surprise of those 14 players when they took the field and there was a banner the cheerleaders had made for them to crash through. The visitors’ stands were full. The cheerleaders were leading cheers for them. The fans were calling them by their names. Isaiah, the quarterback-middle linebacker said, “I never in my life thought I would hear parents cheering to tackle and hit their kid. Most of the time, when we come out, people are afraid of us. You can see it in their eyes, but these people are yelling for us. They knew our names.”

Faith won the game, and after the game the teams gathered at the 50-yard line to pray. That’s when Isaiah, the teenage convict-quarterback surprised everybody and asked if he could pray and he prayed, “Lord, I don’t know what just happened so I don’t know how or who to say thank you to, but I never knew there were so many people in the world who cared about us.” On the way back to the bus, under guard, each one of the players was handed a burger, fries, a coke, candy, a Bible, and an encouraging letter from the players from Faith Academy .

What an incredible act of Christian witness and kindness and goodness that was. Proverbs 11:17 says, “Your own soul is nourished when you are kind.” Proverbs 3:27 says, “Do not withhold good when it is in your power to act.”

Be kind to someone this week. Be kind to every person you meet. You might be amazed at what God will do with a simple act of kindness.

— Dr. Tim Thompson

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuxejhBOCOo&NR=1

Steve Saint has invented a flying car.  You may recall the story of Steve’s father Nate Saint, who was a missionary pilot.  In 1956, he and four other missionaries were killed by Waodani Indians during an effort to make peaceful contact with them.

We have all been inspired by their sacrifice and the courage shown by family members of these men, women actually returned to the Waodani Indians with the good news of Jesus Messiah.

Steve is now himself a missionary pilot, and has been a huge help to CBR in setting up our airborne RCC campaign, which features huge abortion photos on airplane tow banners.  Now he’s invented a flying car!  Check it out:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzs-Cd0PL2s

Click here to see story by CNN.

When I started this blog earlier this year, one goal was to give you the very best pro-life information and analysis.  Not the daily news that will be forgotten in a month or so, but the stuff that really matters.  As a measure of our success, FAB was recently recognized as the best pro-life blog in all of Karns!

But this is more than a pro-life blog.  As politically active patriots, we share many interests that FAB touches on every now and then.  As it turns out, FAB provides expert economic analysis as well as pro-life commentary.  You are really getting two experts for the price of one!  On September 9, FAB wrote:

The ultimate cause of the economic conflagration was the widespread belief that this economic gravy train—25+ years of Reagan-Bush recovery—would never end.  This belief caused people throw caution to the wind.  They took on way too much debt to buy bigger and bigger houses and other stuff they didn’t need and couldn’t afford.  Lenders lent money to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back.  Corporations focused on short-term profits at the expense of long-term stability.  It’s very tempting to throw your money around at the casino if you get the stupid idea that the game won’t let you lose.

To elaborate, the crisis wasn’t created by just one culprit, but by the cumulative effects of more and more greed that manifested itself as risky economic behaviors, especially excess debt, at all levels of society, from the household to the state house (e.g., California and New Jersey) to the halls of Congress.

Well, it appears that the New York Times has finally caught up.  In Gold Fever: Pondering the Causes, NYT chief financial correspondent Floyd Norris observes:

… the problem seems to be perpetual weakness in rich economies that have been hobbled by debt foolishly taken on by people from bankers to subprime home buyers who had one thing in common: a belief that the risk of something going very wrong was all but nonexistent.  (emphasis added)

My mom always said she’d rather be right than rich.  Well, it seems I’ve gotten her wish.

Want some good investment advice?  FAB actually stole this from Somebody Else:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  (Matthew 6:19-21)

More on the way.  By the way, I’m also a Tennessee sports fan, and when we start winning football games, you’ll hear more about that as well.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTElttRJ1dw