UPDATE::Aaron And Melissa Klein Head For Big (Money) Leagues With New Attorney - The New Civil Rights Movement

None of this will Aaron or Melissa Klein ever admit to in public, nor, likely, will their new attorneys.

The Kleins have received well over half a million dollars from concerned and supportive conservative Christians outraged that the husband and wife, "good Christians," "lost their business," or so the Kleins claim, and were themselves subjected to harassment.

The Kleins have also started a new business, of sorts: they are now stars on the religious freedom talk circuit, making the rounds to events sponsored by the likes of the Family Research Council and other anti-gay groups.

“The past three years have been devastating,” Melissa Klein says in a press release today from First Liberty, formerly the Liberty Institute. “Just because we couldn’t participate in an event that violated our religious beliefs, we lost our business. We were committed to serving everyone regardless of their circumstances at all other times.”

First Liberty in their press release describes Melissa Klein as the "former owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa," and to show just how much compassion the young couple deserve, First Liberty proudly has placed a photo of the Kleins in front of their van, their van that says, "Sweet Cakes by Melissa," with a web address: SweetCakesWeb.com. If you click on it you might be confused, because the Kleins, as you can see, are still very much in business.
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The Kleins have apparently dropped their now-former attorney and, like elected officials who want to make big money after doing their stint of public service, have signed on to a top firm. The only difference is instead of a signing with a speakers firm, they've signed with a law firm. First Liberty, headed by the infamous Kelly Shackleford, says it is the "largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom."

But just like a speakers' firm, the Kleins have their own page at Fist Liberty, and you can even use it to "Book an interview" with them.

Aaron And Melissa Klein Head For Big (Money) Leagues With New Attorney - The New Civil Rights Movement

Vindicated: Navy Finds No Fault in Christian Chaplain Who Comforted Dead Sailor's Family — Charisma News

In their recent coverage concerning the Modder Matter, Charisma made the following statement,

While the Liberty Institute defended Chaplain Modder against these bogus charges in Navy proceedings, AFA Action Alert supporters flooded members of Congress with an amazing 75,395 emails, faxes and phone calls, urging that elected officials stop this witch hunt by homosexual hate.

There's no doubt that elected officials got involved as a result of the urging of these supporters. We know that many representatives and senators contacted Navy leaders after hearing from them.

Today, we're pleased to announce that the U.S. Navy has completely exonerated Chaplain Modder from the bogus charges!

I want you to read that again, focusing on this, "AFA Action Alert supporters flooded members of Congress with an amazing 75,395 emails, faxes and phone calls,,, U.S. Navy has completely exonerated Chaplain Modder" and it's implications for future jurisprudence.

Since when does public sentiment - 75,395 emails, faxes and phone calls - have any say in a matter before a court (whether military or civilian).

Politically-correct forces want to drive religious liberty and influence from key areas of American society, including the U.S. Military.

As Chaplain Modder’s legal defense moves forward, Americans need to support Chaplain Modder and stand up for the religious freedom of chaplains, and other brave members of our armed forces.

Please sign the “STOP THE UNLAWFUL ACTION AGAINST CHAPLAIN WES MODDER, AN AMERICAN HERO” petition below, addressed to The Hon. Ray Mabus, Secretary of the United States Navy.

The law is on the side of Chaplain Modder, all chaplains, and all members of the U.S. Military who want to exercise their faith.  But a public outcry is needed to wake up officials so that violations like this come to a stop. [Emphasis in original]

Since when are members of the judiciary allowed to become activist judges? Oh, that's right, when the ruling suits those within the Reich and their agenda.  "Today, we're pleased to announce that the U.S. Navy has completely exonerated Chaplain Modder from the bogus charges!"  And no, I am not insinuating that took place in this case,

But a high-level review at Navy Personnel Command rejected the commander's recommendation to fire the chaplain, a move that will clear the way for Modder to retire in good standing as he nears his 20th year of service.

Top Navy officials said there was limited hard evidence of Modder's alleged misconduct. Investigating chaplains is uniquely difficult because conversations between service members and chaplains are typically considered confidential.

"There is no documentation of poor performance in his personnel record," said one official familiar with the investigation, who asked for anonymity to discuss a personnel decision.

But what I find so fascinating, the hypocrisy of it all - activist judge(s) for me, not for thee - forgetting what Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor once opined, in McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union (2005).

By enforcing the Clauses, we have kept religion a matter for the individual conscience, not for the prosecutor or bureaucrat. At a time when we see around the world the violent consequences of the assumption of religious authority by government, Americans may count themselves fortunate: Our regard for constitutional boundaries has protected us from similar travails, while allowing private religious exercise to flourish.,,, Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?
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When the government associates one set of religious beliefs with the state and identifies nonadherents as outsiders, it encroaches upon the individual’s decision about whether and how to worship. In the marketplace of ideas, the government has vast resources and special status. Government religious expression therefore risks crowding out private observance and distorting the natural interplay between competing beliefs. Allowing government to be a potential mouthpiece for competing religious ideas risks the sort of division that might easily spill over into suppression of rival beliefs. Tying secular and religious authority together poses risks to both.

It is true that many Americans find the Commandments in accord with their personal beliefs. But we do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment,,, There is no list of approved and disapproved beliefs appended to the First Amendment—and the Amendment’s broad terms (“free exercise,” “establishment,” “religion”) do not admit of such a cramped reading. It is true that the Framers lived at a time when our national religious diversity was neither as robust nor as well recognized as it is now. They may not have foreseen the variety of religions for which this Nation would eventually provide a home. They surely could not have predicted new religions, some of them born in this country. But they did know that line-drawing between religions is an enterprise that, once begun, has no logical stopping point. They worried that “the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects.”. The Religion Clauses, as a result, protect adherents of all religions, as well as those who believe in no religion at all.*

In other words, what O'Connor and the Court is saying, no activist judges (or politician for that matter) in regards to maintaining the wall between religion and government.  They must remain neutral and rule according to applicable law and precedent.  This point echoes O'Connor's concurrence in Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) as well.

The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community,,, The second and more direct infringement is government endorsement or disapproval of religion. Endorsement sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community. Disapproval sends the opposite message. 

But here is the kicker and why I say that the Reich is being hypocritical in their stance concerning the Modder Matter and other faux persecution case (cough,,,cough,,,Kim Davis).  The losing lawyer in McCreary, none other than Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel.  Though not associated professionally with Kelly Shackelford's Liberty Institute, they are compadres within the Reich and share the same agenda.  What was being argued, a reformulation or abandonment of the "Lemon test"  as set forth in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), which applies to religious displays on government property and to other Establishment Clause issues.

Although Shackelford et al prevailed in this case, the tactics employed - petitioning those within the political and judiciary community - are clearly outside the bounds of established precedent.  The Reich can bitch all they want about activist judges, but before they do they need to take a very long look in the mirror.
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*FYI:: In November 2010, counties in Kentucky filed a new appeal to the Supreme Court. In February 2011, the Supreme Court without comment declined to review the case.

Vindicated: Navy Finds No Fault in Christian Chaplain Who Comforted Dead Sailor's Family — Charisma News

Our eyes need to be wide open,,,

Kelly Shackelford: LGBT Advocates Will 'Destroy' People Until We 'Lose All Freedom'

Shackelford, whose group works against antidiscrimination laws and represents those who claim to have been hurt by them, described how LGBT equality supporters have been “taking over the airwaves” in order to pressure people into supporting their cause.

“People are afraid to speak up, which is the opposite of our country — our country is all about people having different beliefs,” he said. “And the scary thing to me is how quickly it moved from the GLBT [community] having some victories on this issue of marriage to having complete intolerance, of trying to force people to violate their faith. This is antithetical to our country and anything we’re about.”

It is sad that Fischer is encouraging bad "journalism" in a child to foment his organization's agenda.

Fischer: Gay Rights Are The 'Greatest Threat' To Liberty That America Has Ever Faced

"The homosexual agenda represents the greatest single threat to religious liberty we have ever seen in the history of our existence as a nation," he declared. "In fact, it's the greatest threat to liberty of all kinds, whether it is freedom of religion, whether it is freedom of speech, whether it is freedom of the press, whether it is freedom of association, all of the rights that are enshrined in the First Amendment are threatened by the active, aggressive homosexual lobby and the homosexual agenda":

NOM Warns Marriage Equality Will Lead To Community-Marriage, End Of First Amendment

National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown is furious that a gay couple who were legally married in Iowa but now live in Missouri have filed for divorce in Missouri, which a local judge has refused to recognize.

Speaking with WorldNetDaily about the case, Brown accused LGBT rights advocates of seeking to undermine the First Amendment and contended that the legalization of same-sex marriage will lead to polygamy and even marriages among “entire communities,” whatever that means.

Pat Robertson: Gays 'Will Die Out Because They Don't Reproduce'

“You know, those who are homosexual will die out because they don’t reproduce,” he said. “You know, you have to have heterosexual sex to reproduce. Same thing with that church, it’s doomed, it’s going to die out because it’s the most nonsensical thing I’ve heard in a long time.” 

Although both Chanukah and Christmas are both past, this (so-called) rabbi, Jonathan Cahn, is a "new" name to me within the crazy world of the Reich. Let this sink in a minute "Messianic,,, End Times,,, rabbi."

 

End Times Preacher's Chanukah Message: Gay Rights & Harry Potter Lead To Fascism

Messianic End Times rabbi Jonathan Cahn, a favorite doomsday preacher among right-wing activists, told WorldNetDaily in an interview today that Chanukah is a time for Americans to reflect on the purported dangers of books like Harry Potter, as well as gay rights laws, which he warned will outlaw the Bible.

According to Cahn, the struggle of the Maccabees is seen today in American society among those who oppose secular government, LGBT equality, the so-called War on Christmas and the country’s transformation into “a post-Christian society” that will ultimately “produce a Hitler or a Stalin, and the antichrist.”

Cahn urged WND readers to become modern-day Maccabees who will fight gay rights and Harry Potter even “if it costs us our life.”

 Something to keep our eyes on through the coming months,,,

Hagee Ministries Creating A 'Sanctuary Of Hope' To Train Up God's Army And Take Back America

"Right now, the battle lines in this country are for the young people," he explained. "The one thing that's missing in American education right now? The Word of God. The one thing that's missing in our decisions in government, in many cases? The Word of God. And whenever you do not have the foundation of your society, which is the Word of God, in the decisions that you are making, you're going the wrong direction."

"How do we take America back? One leader at a time. That school is going to train leaders that are going to make godly decisions. How are we going to take this country back? One generation at a time and the Sanctuary of Hope is going to be the training ground for the soldiers in the army of the living God that are going to do great things for his kingdom":

Sandy Rios: Riots And Starvation Coming To America | Right Wing Watch

In identifying "goodness" and "superiority" with "us," there was a tendency to identify "evil" with "them." This process involves scapegoating and dehumanization. It was then an easy step to blame all societal problems on "them," and presuppose a conspiracy of these evildoers which had emasculated and humiliated the idealized core group of the nation. To solve society's problems one need only unmask the conspirators and eliminate them. 

Chip Barlet, 1992

So which is it Sandy, are "we" Nazis (as Fischer says) or Fascists? Might want to look in the mirror before answering. And yes there is a difference although slight.

Fascists particularly loathed the social theories of the French Revolution and its slogan: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."

• Liberty from oppressive government intervention in the daily lives of its citizens, from illicit searches and seizures, from enforced religious values, from intimidation and arrest for dissenters; and liberty to cast a vote in a system in which the ; majority ruled but the minority retained certain inalienable rights.
• Equality in the sense of civic equality, egalitarianism, the notion that while people differ, they all should stand equal in the eyes of the law.
• Fraternity in the sense of the brotherhood of mankind. That all women and men, the old and the young, the infirm and the healthy, the rich and the poor, share a spark of humanity that must be cherished on a level above that of the law, and that binds us all together in a manner that continuously re-affirms and celebrates life.

This is what fascism as an ideology was reacting against--and its support came primarily from desperate people anxious and angry over their perception that their social and economic position was sinking and frustrated with the constant risk of chaos, uncertainty and inefficiency implicit in a modern democracy based on these principles. Fascism is the antithesis of democracy. We fought a war against it not half a century ago; millions perished as victims of fascism and champions of liberty.

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“If we don’t do something, I think we’re going to see — and this is radical — I think we’re going to see riots in the street, we’re going to see starvation, we’re going to see things we have never seen before, we’re going to see a complete breakdown in terms of law enforcement, it’s going to be a nightmare,” she said. “This will be what you are handing to your children if you don’t speak up now. I’m not sure we can pull it back, but are you going to say in retrospect that you did nothing?”

Later in the show, Rios spoke to Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Institute about the supposed death of religious freedom in America, linking it with the news out of the Supreme Court.

Rios said “leaders the [gay rights] movement” are “fascists when it comes to this issue” who “will not stop until people who object are brought to their knees,” an assessment that Shackelford agreed with, and in turn denounced gay rights advocates for using “unconscionable” tactics and pushing “the ultimate intolerance.”

Sandy Rios: Riots And Starvation Coming To America | Right Wing Watch

Liberty Institute's Kelly Shackelford Spreads 'Fear and Misinformation' at Air Force Academy Leadership Symposium | Chris Rodda

Another excellent article by Chris Rodda - author of 'Liars For Jesus' - debunking the "Fear and Misinformation" of Kelly Shackelford, President & CEO of the Liberty Institute.

On February 27 and 28, the Air Force Academy held its annual National Character & Leadership Symposium, an event described as "one of the nation's premier symposia in the field of character and leadership development." The speakers at this annual symposium include "distinguished scholars, military leaders, corporate executives, world-class athletes, and others." The attendees are not only Air Force Academy cadets and staff, but also students and faculty from civilian colleges and universities, ROTC detachments, and international delegations.

One of the speakers at this year's National Character & Leadership Symposium was Kelly Shackelford, the President & CEO of the Liberty Institute, which describes itself as "the largest legal organization dedicated solely to defending and restoring religious liberty in America."

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Several times during his two presentations at the NCLS, Mr. Shackelford said that the greatest "attacker" of religious liberty is "fear and misinformation." And that it absolutely true, as demonstrated by Mr. Shackelford's nearly nonstop use of fear and misinformation in his presentations -- presentations that were chock full of fear-inducing stories full of misinformation about alleged egregious violations of religious freedom and Christian persecution.

Liberty Institute's Kelly Shackelford Spreads 'Fear and Misinformation' at Air Force Academy Leadership Symposium | Chris Rodda