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ABOUT US
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November 8, 2002
Office of the President Why do so many people want to silence Christians? We need your help to vigilantly defend the right of Christians to speak . . . yours could be the next voice that is silenced! Dear Friend: As shocking as it may seem, there are forces all over this country trying to silence people like you and me. The National Legal Foundation has been defending the rights of Christians for a long time—eighteen years to be exact. But I can’t remember the last time that atheists and others were trying to silence Christians in so many different ways! Let me tell you about just some of the outrages that have occurred lately . . . and what we have done and continue to do about them. Some of our responses have had to be so quick that I have not even had time to share them with you before now. But some of them are still on-going . . . and that’s where I need your help. As always, our services are provided free of charge. The National Legal Foundation counts on people like you to be ready and able to defend the rights of Christians. And don’t forget . . . when we defend the rights of one believer, we defend the rights of all believers, including ourselves. The first case I want to tell you about is a prayer case. Once again, a few people are trying to stop everyone from praying. This time, they are attacking prayers at supper at the Virginia Military Institute. Two cadets who object to these prayers want to take the right away from everyone else . . . even though the prayers are not mandatory. They could simply have not participated. But that’s not good enough for them. They want to silence the prayers of all the other cadets. We’ve already filed our brief in this case and the oral argument will be held soon—probably in January. Please pray for the VMI cadets to be allowed to continue to pray together at meal time. It is not right to strip every opportunity for religious expression from our public life. It is not right to try to shut Christians up! The second case involves the pro-life issue. The state of Florida, like most states, offers so-called vanity license plates. One of the choices is a pro-life plate that says "Choose Life." Well, guess what? The pro-abortion forces are so afraid of our message that they believe even our license plates must be silenced! Once again, we have already filed our brief defending the right of Christians and other pro-lifers to display the "choose life" message. Oral arguments in this case will also be held soon, and we need your prayers on this one, too. However, these are not the only two cases in which Christians’ speech is being squelched. Here are just a few more of the requests for help that we have recently received. Requests that we will be able to tackle only if we receive your financial help. The first case involves a man in New York State. He wanted to teach a couple of classes in the local school district’s Continuing Education program. In fact, he was actually permitted to teach his classes for one year. He taught a Christian Apologetics class and a class comparing creation and evolution. I guess that was too much for the powers that be. He was shut down. He told the Continuing Education officials that since they were allowing classes on yoga, psychic power, witchcraft, and astrology, they needed to allow his class to continue as well. They refused. He pointed out that they were violating the First Amendment by allowing everything except the Christian classes. They said they didn’t care if they were violating the First Amendment! That’s the kind of case that really gets my blood boiling. But the next one is even worse . . . because it involves a young child. A fourth grader in Minnesota was told that it is "against the law" to talk to his friends about being a Christian—even outside of the classroom. How dare any public school teacher dash the excitement of a young child who wants to tell a friend about Jesus? Let alone tell him it’s against the law? I could tell you about even more requests for help. In Iowa, atheists want to stop the singing of the Lord’s Prayer at graduation and the singing of Christmas songs. The Honolulu, Hawaii, police department has taken "So help me God" out of its oath of office. What do all of these cases have in common? They all represent efforts to silence people just like you and me. And we can’t let that happen. Please send your very best gift today to help defend the right of Christians just like yourself to speak out. Together we can do it! For freedom, Steven W. Fitschen P.S. Currently, we are not able to help all of those who so desperately need our help. Your very best gift today will enable us to help more and more Christians who are being silenced. Please send that gift today, before we have to turn down any more cases. Together we can keep going. Thank you so very much! |
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Post Office Box 64427, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 23467-4427 |
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© 2006 by the National Legal Foundation & Minuteman Institute |
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