Sen. Grassley threatens - church leaders could end up like Abramoff
AP writer Henry C. Jackson reports (2.25.2008) on Sen. Charles Grassley’s (R-IA) investigation of several churches and televangelists:
“They’re non-profits, like anybody else I looked into,” said Grassley, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee. “I’ve sent them some letters because I want some information. If they want to cooperate that’s good, I expect they will. If they don’t, they’ll be the first people since a fellow named Abramoff, and he’s in a jail cell.” . . .
“Senator Grassley’s request clearly disregards the privacy protections of the church under law and appears to cross the line of constitutional guarantees for churches,” one of the ministries under scrutiny, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, said in a statement.
And Gary McCaleb, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, a religious liberty legal group, criticized the tone of Grassley’s inquiry.
“From the get-go he’s acted more like an investigator and not at all like a senator on this and that’s unnerving. He has a right to get facts, but this has looked, felt and smelled like an enforcement action,” McCaleb said.
Grassley seems bemused by the outcry . . . Despite the angry reply from some of the ministries, Grassley hasn’t seemed to pay a price in Iowa, where evangelicals are an important part of the state Republican Party.
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It’s time for all CHURCHES in this country to stand up and fight back - as a bloc! We CANNOT allow this Senate to steal the Constitutional guarantees made to churches! Liberal senators/congressmen seem to be leading the attack on churches…trying to get them to stop teaching Scriptural truths in favor of what these elected “leaders” (?) consider political correctness! We have allowed our public schools to strip away ALL signs of Christianity, while allowing others to actually teach Islamic rites and prayers…in some cases forcing children to learn Islamic prayers!
When are CHRISTIANS going to stand up for their Faith? do you not realize that to refuse to stand up for your Faith, you are, in fact, denying it? Will you, like St. Peter, continue to deny your Faith….and allow the government to strip away your right to practice it? Or will you be willing to stand as a massive group and DEMAND that the Congress (both House and Senate) recognize our own Constitution? IF you believe, you MUST be willing to stand up and fight for it! (or you will be judged accordingly by your Final Judge!)
I don’t know what it is going to take to make you people do what you are being paid to do. WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT not what you want. If you don’t do WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT go home and find another job. GOD IS IN CONTROL SO GET OFF OF HIS BACK AND OURS. Just look around Washington, HE (GOD) is everywhere. Why can’t you see HIM. If it were up to me I’d fire the lot of you and start all over again. POLLS show 86% of the nation believe in GOD…What is your problem?
Well said, Litl Bits!
To beat back fear, we must hold fast to our heritage as free men. We must renew our confidence in one another, our tolerance, our sense of being neighbors, fellow citizens. We must take our stand on the Bill of Rights. The inquisition, the star chamber, have no place in free society.
This is a quote from good old Harry Truman himself, weighing in against the witch hunts of Senator McCarthy. Frankly, it feels like what Senator Grassley is trying to do now. We cannot allow it.
Sadly the Evengelical’s are divided on this one because the ministries targeted are only of the Pentecostal/Charismatic brand many of the fundamentalist are happy to sit back and watch Grassley tear them to shreds.
Those who give to these ministries know that the people who run them live very well, and it is a part of their belief that they should. We know have a Senator who believes that ministers should be poor and therefor those who belief in prosperity will no longer be able to practice their faith.
I believe that the people of the United States of America who were born here, who truly love this country, know that the USA is, was and always will be a Judeo-Christian nation. This is NOT a Muslim nation in Jesus’ Name! Even our money says “IN GOD WE TRUST!”
It is time for all of us, hello….all of us in the Body of Christ to stand together as one and pray for our nation, for the Body of Christ, including ministries. Do you hear me?
Jesus Christ died for all of us. We are to come together in the unity of the faith, not unity of doctrine. It is the faith we have in our Lord Jesus Christ who is not only the Son of God, but HE IS GOD!
We cannot allow the children and young people in the USA to be taught and forced to embrace Islam in the schools. How the heck did that happen? How did we as Christians allow that to happen??
Brothers and sisters, please, please stop being angry at one another. Please forgive each other and walk in love and forgiveness even though it’s hard and I know that personally. For anyone I have hurt or offended, please forgive me.
The devil uses the spirit of division to separate us. We MUST bind it from operating against us every day in Jesus’ Name! We must cover our nation with the precious Blood of Jesus Christ every day!!
“NO weapon formed against the Body of Christ (that includes the ministries under attack) shall prosper” and “every tongue raised against us is condemned even as it comes out of their mouths.”
Pray for Senator Grassley to have a divine encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.
GOD BLESS THE BODY OF CHRIST and GOD BLESS AMERICA.
By the way, the witch hunt should not be against the Body of Christ. There is a Christian author whose book I found and he teaches about paganism, wicca, witchcraft that is operating in the USA today.
Another scripture that comes to me is this….”if you bring an accursed thing into your house, it brings a curse.” We as Americans, Christians and Jews are tolerating things in this country that we should not!! GOD IN HEAVEN, please help us.
We just celabrated “Memorial Day” to give honor to those who died and fought for the freedoms that this country has. One of those freedoms is “freedom of religion” and “freedom of speech”. Who is Senator Grassley but a public servent, elected by some of the very people under the religious cover that he deems to attack. If he has issues with the so called “earthly wealth” of church leaders like Kenneth Copeland, etc.; why then is he not questioning the Pope! Stupid, you say? Yes, all of this is. Less Senator Grassley forgets, we the people who elected him, could and maybe should, look into his life style and look at his tax returns. Who has he been entertaining? May be he has had guests that are questionable. Tell me that the Senator has not used his position to further his personal gain! Has the Senator used his Government position to secure “for profit” speaking engagements for which he received a fee? If so, then should this fee be paid directly into the governments treasury? (See my point)? These ministries are part of the “Church” and it is their right to enjoy what the Consitution affords churches. All the things Senator Grassley and the news media are critial of, are not news to those people who are partners in these churches. If people felt that these ministries where “cheats and liars”, when it comes to money, most people would be intelligent enough not to contribute. We do not want the government dictating what parts of the Bible we should believe and how to believe. Freedom to worship is just that. Freedom to choose!
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