In recent days, Jewish rabbis have joined all Catholic bishops in the United States in expressing alarm over the president’s “healthcare” mandates and other violations of the Constitution. The National Clergy Council deliberated for the last week on what it would do, consulting pastors, moral theologians, organizational executives and activists from around the U.S. As a result, the Reverend Rob Schenck, president of the Washington, D.C. based group, will begin the holy season of Lent 2012 by appealing to President Obama for answers with a “State of Emergency and Time for Speaking” declaration to be hand-delivered to the White House on Ash Wednesday morning, February 22.

Speaking for the council, Rev. Schenck says in his communiqué to the president,  ”[W]e state to you our unwavering position on the sanctity of our constitutionally protected right to espouse certain principles of conscience; and, we maintain and insist on our God-given, moral rights to act upon these principles of conscience within our respective institutions and in keeping with their attendant prerogatives. Furthermore, while we hope for a resolution to this crisis that includes the rescinding of your directives, we must hold to our convictions and positions and act according to our prerogatives no matter the legal, social, pecuniary, or political consequences.”

As Rev. Schenck explains in the document, the action he and his committee have taken is inspired by the Nazi-era hero Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “the German pastor and martyr, who is an exemplar of what it means to hold to and to exercise one’s religious, moral, and ethical convictions, even to the surrender of every other right, including the right to one’s life.” Bonhoeffer wrote on the “status confessionis,” a time when churches must speak out. Schenck says in his letter this is such a time, “during which we must take extraordinary action to respectfully resist your decrees, state our deeply held and felt reasons for doing so, and call our coreligionists, and all people of conscience to stand with us.”

On February 2, President Obama was publicly given the biography “BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich” by its author, Eric Metaxas, when he and the president shared a podium at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. In the State of Emergency declaration sent to President Obama, Rev. Schenck urges the president to read the book for insights to the National Clergy Council’s declaration.

Rev. Schenck, also president of Faith and Action, is currently writing his doctoral thesis on Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the Faith Evangelical College and Seminary of Tacoma, Washington.  See more about Confronting the President on Rob’s blog.

The spokespersons for the National Clergy Council on this subject are the Reverend Dr. Charles Nestor, senior fellow for Public Policy, available at 863-698-2270 or magrev1@yahoo.com; and the Reverend Norm Lund, Ph.D., Lutheran moral theologian and advisor on the Theology of Church and State, available at 425-402-9624 or NLund@OxfordTutor.org.

It names Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius because she issued President Obama’s order mandating houses of worship to pay for abortion pills, among other unethical and deadly procedures. Under the Affordable Health Care for America Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, HHS secretaries are entitled to issue unconstitutional mandates and ration or deny health care to Americans.

As Faith and Action explained, after hundreds of religious leaders, faith-based and pro-life organizations publicly refused to comply with the mandate, President Obama announced an “accommodation” exempting houses of worship. Now he requires all health insurance companies to provide so-called ‘contraception’ “free of change.” This “accommodation” exempts no one and the number of religious leaders protesting it has grown to thousands.

The Priests for Life lawsuit is the first to be launched subsequent to the announcement of the “accommodations” and addresses policy as it currently stands.

Thus, Priests for Life said, “One part of their lawsuit seeks injunctive relief from the ‘forced speech’ aspect of the controversial Health and Human Services ruling. According to the HHS regulations, virtually all U.S. employers will not only be forced to pay for 100% of an employee’s prescription for abortion-causing drugs, but also be forced to instruct the employee on how to obtain these morally-objectionable prescriptions and get them for free.”

Priests for Life is headquartered in Staten Island, New York and has a Washington office in the headquarters of Father Paul Schenck’s National Pro-Life Center on Capitol Hill.

WND covered the lawsuits by Priests for Life and EWTN, the global Catholic media network, noting that the Obama mandates violate universal human rights.

As Faith and Action further reported, many members of Congress reject the Obama mandates and seek to pass remedial bills until Obamacare can be completely repealed.

On Ash Wednesday, a “State of Emergency” declaration from Faith and Action’s Rev. Rob Schenck will be delivered to President Obama.

Faith and Action also is lodging formal complaints; working with members of Congress to “check” the executive branch; and signing-on to lawsuits to block these actions. Likewise, we’ll continue to mobilize religious leaders to speak out, pray and resist these unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment and other human rights.

On February 10, after Catholic bishops and other Christian and Jewish leaders publicly had refused to comply with a January 2012 mandate requiring them to pay for abortion drugs and other unethical procedures, President Obama announced an “accommodation.” However, while the president and White House say the latest  mandate exempts places of worship, they also say insurance companies must provide “free” “contraceptive coverage” and this really means no one is exempted from the unconstitutional mandate.

Members of our Faith and Action team were part of a special briefing with U.S. senators to discuss strategies for protecting religious leaders and institutions against the severe punishments threatened by the Obama administration should churches refuse to cooperate with him.

We made the point that this battle isn’t about birth-control pills or devices or “preventative care” – as the Obama administration sometimes coins it. After all, birth-control pills and interuterine devices don’t prevent pregnancy, they abort newly-conceived human persons.

This conflict is about the constitutionally guaranteed freedom to exercise our natural rights without government interference.

Recently, we began a new project at Faith and Action, the William Bentley Ball Memorial Archive. The archive contains all the files, case briefs and legal resources of the late attorney William Bentley Ball – a pioneer in defending religious liberty at the U.S. Supreme Court. The archive is being used to assist attorneys, lawmakers and judges in religious liberty cases.

Little did we realize when we began this project how crucial it would soon be to the preservation of our freedoms.

While at the meeting in the U.S. Senate offices discussing ways to resist the Obama administration’s unprecedented executive order, we were stunned to hear the members of the Senate refer to Wisconsin v. Yoder, the historic case argued at the U.S. Supreme Court by William Bentley Ball. We were stunned to hear that it’s the centerpiece of their efforts to end this presidential bullying of churches and religious leaders. In the trial, Mr. Ball defended the religious rights of three Amish families and won the case.

Incidentally, President Obama’s recent announcement backtracking on this issue is not the end of the story. We strongly believe this is just political maneuvering to buy time – and members Congress agree.

As a result of the Senate meeting, members of the Faith and Action team spoke with senior lawyers from one of America’s premier pubic interest constitutional law firms to discuss strategies to fight the president’s executive order.

So our William Bentley Ball archive has already become an invaluable resource in defending the free exercise of religion in America.

Bills and the Obama ‘Accommodation’

On January 30, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida introduced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 (S. 2043). So far, the bill is cosponsored by 29 of his colleagues. In brief, it would amend the Public Health Service Act to provide religious conscience protections for individuals and organizations.

In reaction to President Obama’s announcement of an “accommodation,” Sen. Rubio said, “It’s good that the president reaffirmed that the federal government cannot force faith-based institutions to provide services that they teach are wrong. Unfortunately, as more of these rules are written, our constitutional rights will continue to be threatened by the administration’s policy goals. This issue exemplifies the problem with putting the federal government in charge of health care and shows why we must fully repeal Obamacare.”

On February 15, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska held a media conference featuring House and Senate colleagues of both parties and called for swift action on his bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 11790), which he introduced last March to protect the religious liberties and conscience rights of every American. The bill has 190 cosponsors in the House and Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri is moving the legislation (S. 1467) forward in the other chamber with 37 cosponsors.

(Sen. Blunt also added the full text of Fortenberry’s bill to the Transportation Authorization Bill (S. 1813). On February 16, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois announced the Senate will vote on Blunt’s Senate Amendment 1520 after recess, most likely February 27 or 28.)

“The final rule that was filed last Friday did not make any changes to the HHS mandate,” said Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois. “We still need to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act in order to protect the conscience rights of all Americans.”

Congressman Bob Latta of Ohio essentially condemned the president’s “accommodation.” He said, “It is an accounting gimmick that ignores the conscience rights of Americans. The Obama administration has gone against 30 years of federal conscience protections with this rule. I am extremely disappointed that this regulation departs from that tradition and the religious liberty that is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.”

Faith and Action’s president, Rev. Rob Schenck, said, “It’s ludicrous for President Obama to offer a so-called compromise on this egregious violation of religious freedom. The First Amendment expressly forbids him from prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The U.S. founders were crystal clear on that. What’s there to compromise? Certainly not a constitutionally-guaranteed liberty. This action is reason for all religious people – all people of goodwill – to declare a state of emergency. We must speak now or be forever forced to hold our peace.”

In fact, President Obama only exempts places of worship. Thus, Faith and Action’s president, Rev. Rob Schenck, said this is no compromise because it violates the natural rights and liberties of all conscientious objectors and Faith and Action is taking your concerns to Capitol Hill.

Rev. Rob Schenck said, “It’s ludicrous for President Obama to offer a so-called compromise on this egregious violation of religious freedom. The First Amendment expressly forbids him from prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The U.S. founders were crystal clear on that. What’s there to compromise? Certainly not a constitutionally-guaranteed liberty. This action is reason for all religious people – all people of goodwill – to declare a state of emergency. We must speak now or be forever forced to hold our peace.”

Faith and Action invites you to join our chief of program, Peggy Nienaber, and many of our allies to combat this deadly and unconstitutional mandate on Capitol Hill. Here are the details:

Event: “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?”
Hearing by the House Committee of Oversight & Government Reform
Date: Thursday, February 16, 2012
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Location: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2154, Washington, D.C.

Update: The House Committee of Oversight & Government Reform has provided the following video segment from today’s hearing. It features Bishop Lori and Rev. Harrison answering questions by Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan in addition to commentary by Rep. Walberg:

Also on February 16, our longtime partner Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition will lead a prayer vigil and protest the mandates outside the White House at 10:30 a.m. Members of our partner organization Priests for Life will join forces with Pat Mahoney, along with Operation Rescue, Rock for Life, Students for Life of America, and Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust.

Update: Rev. Mahoney and Father Denis Wilde, O.S.A., a Priests for Life associate, were among six pro-lifers arrested. They were cited for “failure to obey a lawful order” as they knelt in prayer in front of the White House. Each paid a $100 fine and was released from custody.

“Occupy Wall Street protesters have been occupying federal property for months, but when we kneel in prayer, the police are called in and we are arrested,” said Fr. Wilde. “We knew that was the risk when we gathered today and we will do it again regardless of the risk. What people of faith – of every faith – need to do now is stand with us.”

We humbly request your prayers for the success of all efforts to secure the unalienable rights to life, true liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Of course we are with you in faith and action!

One of the important opportunities we have at Faith and Action is assisting our anchor church pastors in serving as Chaplain of the Day at the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. The Chaplain of the Day functions in all the duties facing the Chaplain for the day they serve including opening the House or Senate session with prayer. That prayer officially becomes part of the Congressional Record. At Faith and Action, a number of our supporting church pastors have had that unique privilege.

Last week, the honor of serving as Chaplain of the Day fell to Dr. David Anderson, of Faith Baptist Church in Sarasota, Florida. Dr. Anderson is a long time friend, colleague, and pastor of an important anchor church. He will soon receive an honorary doctorate at Cambridge University, England. Following the delivery of his power prayer, he had lunch with Rep. Vern Buchanon of Florida and Speaker of the House John Boehner.

After David’s prayer, Speaker John Boehner rose to comment on President Obama’s efforts to force religious hospitals and universities to provide employees with health insurance that would cover abortifacients, sterilization, and contraceptives…stating this would be a attack on religious freedom in our country.

To read the introduction of Dr. Anderson in the US House as well as his timely prayer, click here.

Dr. Docherty with President Eisenhower on February 7, 1954.

Different religious traditions use the term “saint” differently. For some, “living saint” is an oxymoron. By this definition, anyone deemed a saint has already passed to Heaven. For others, all faithful Christians are at all times “saints.” In common American parlance a “living saint” is somebody who stands out from others because he/she has lived a God-honoring life that has benefited humanity. The top qualities of living saints reflect the two Great Commandments: They love God and they love their fellow human beings.

To my amazement, one such “living saint” is still, well, living—and I had the privilege of meeting him yesterday! He is George MacPherson Docherty, a retired Presbyterian minister.

Now bedridden at 96, he carries the same dignity he did when he entertained presidents, lectured at universities and kept company with his golfing buddy Billy Graham. It was one of Dr. Docherty’s sermons that helped turn our nation back to God. In fact, it was his preaching that would lead to hundreds of millions of American citizens pledging their allegiance to the flag of “one nation under God.” It’s an amazing story.

For years I have known a little bit about how the Pledge of Allegiance was modified to include the phrase “under God.” It happened in 1954 at the height of the “Cold War” between the United States and the former Soviet Union.

The conflict boiled down to one basic element: The acknowledgment of God as sovereign over humanity and nations. Americans have always been a God-fearing people, while the Soviet Union was an officially atheistic state. America’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, states unequivocally that our most fundamental human rights come to us as irrevocable gifts from the Creator, not as privileges from the government. Soviet socialism sought to eradicate this notion of God-given rights and replace it with a purely secularist worldview and an all-powerful state.

In response to the advance of such radical secularism, the Knights of Columbus and other groups had launched national petition drives in the early 1950s to insert the phrase “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance. But it would be a single sermon and a president’s response to it that proved the tipping point.

On Sunday morning February 7, 1954, Dr. Docherty, the Scottish-born pastor of Washington’s famed New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and the successor to pulpit luminary Peter Marshall, preached a sermon entitled “A New Birth of Freedom.” It was the church’s annual “Lincoln Day,” an observance in honor of the 16^th president who regularly attended services there nearly a century before.

Knowing then-President Dwight Eisenhower would be in attendance, Dr. Docherty revised an earlier sermon, this time weaving in his proposal that Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address reference to “one nation under God,” be added to the Pledge of Allegiance.

“We face, today, a theological war,” he thundered from the pulpit in his impressive brogue. “It is not basically a conflict between two political philosophies, Thomas Jefferson’s democracy over against Lenin’s communistic state. Nor is it a conflict fundamentally between two economic systems, between, shall we say Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’ and Karl Marx’s ‘Das Capital.’”

Then the preacher launched his proposition, “To omit the words ‘Under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance is to omit the definitive character of the ‘American Way of Life.’”

(Ironically, it wasn’t until 1960 that Docherty himself became an American citizen.)

Eisenhower liked the sermon and bought Docherty’s argument, as did two members of Congress present that morning. (The above photo was taken immediately following the service.) The very next day the legislative initiative was underway and in record time the House and Senate passed the new language for the Pledge. In a floor speech just days after Docherty’s prophetic message, Michigan congressman Charles Oakman said, “The tough moral fiber which has characterized this Nation’s growth to a position of world preeminence must not deteriorate. It was fed on the belief that our destiny was bound to the will of God. It cannot survive unless this spiritual fuel is maintained.”

In answer to a rhetorical question about violating the so-called “separation principle” or the separation of church and state, Oakman said, “A distinction exists between the church as an institution and a belief in the sovereignty of God.”

The modified Pledge was signed into law four months later on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.

Of course, as you probably know, the notorious atheist activist Michael Newdow has recently challenged these words in court. As a result, in 2002, the powerful Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down the clause “Under God” as unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court then extended a rare privilege to Newdow in 2004. Although the emergency room physician had only just completed a law degree and passed his bar exam, the justices lifted the normal three-year waiting period and permitted Newdow to argue his own case in front of them. It didn’t help; the case was dismissed and sent back to the lower courts to review again. Newdow just reargued it at the Ninth Circuit. No opinion has been rendered yet.

Regardless what the Ninth Circuit or any other court decides, the story of “Under God” in our Pledge reminds us all this struggle for the soul of our American civilization is not over. It will require constant vigilance. It also reminds us of the power of the pulpit. When God’s Word is faithfully proclaimed from the “sacred desk” it reshapes the moral landscape. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord,” reads Proverbs 21:1. “Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever he wishes.”

In the days ahead you’ll hear a lot more from me about George Docherty, his sermon and the Pledge to the Flag of “one nation under God.” While Dr. Docherty is still with us, I am working feverishly with members of Congress to petition the President to confer the Medal of Freedom on him. Dr. Docherty deserves such a great honor for his incomparable contribution to our country, but his receiving it will give the nation another opportunity to consider the profound meaning and consequence of these words. I’ll soon ask you for your help in getting this accomplished in short order. Dr. Docherty is a gift from God to this country, and I’d like to see us say thanks before he departs for Heaven!

Post Script: Rev. Dr. Docherty entered eternity on November 27, 2008.

On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, Congressman Trent Franks, as Chairman of the Constitution Subcomittee, will see “PreNDA,” or the Prenatal Non-Discriminatory Act, to its full Judiciary Committee Markup.

PreNDA restricts sex-selection abortion and race-selection abortion and the coercion of a woman to obtain either. The woman seeking an abortion is exempted from prosecution, while abortion providers are held to account.

It is a tragedy of post-modern America that this discussion is even taking place. It seems incredible that there would need to be any congressional action to protect an innocent life simply because they are from the “wrong” race or gender. Such notions as race or sex selection as a justification for abortion are a throwback to the darkest hours of the twentieth century under Hitler’s Nazism.

None-the-less, the reality is the abortion industry is so powerful we need to act now to prevent the very atrocities that would have once been unthinkable. At Faith and Action, we believe no one should be able to decide that an innocent life is worthless, least of all because the child isn’t of the preferred race or sex. Please pray for Congressman Franks and those who will stand with him in opposing any abortions based on race or gender selection.