January 21, 2006 by s.z.

Civil Liberties, WorldNetDaily Style

Pat Boone, plagiarizing Nathan Tabor's rewriting of Shakespeare, declaims, "To tap or not to tap: That is the question."

Thank God, our government is doing something, a lot of right somethings.

Am I one of the last remaining Americans who remembers the civil liberties we all suspended, voluntarily, during World War II? To keep ourselves and our neighbors alive, we endured blackouts rather early every evening, gave up most all gasoline and nylon and butter and sugar and many other things we were accustomed to, accepted ration stamps, women went to work in defense plants ("Rosie the Riveter"), and there was the nationwide feeling we were "in this thing together." Since so many of our finest young people were putting their very lives on the line – we felt we'd make any personal sacrifice to support them and win the war.

Um, Pat, you are probably the only living American who remembers a time when the Bill of Rights promised us such civil liberties as gasoline, nylons, butter, sugar, and a workplace without women.

What's happened to us? Is there no national resolve anymore?

Do these liberal critics actually think we can protect ourselves against organized, fanatical murderers without using every means at our disposal?

Every means at our disposal? Internment camps based on ethnicity?  Mail opening programs?  The prosecution of dissidents for unpatriotic speech?  The deportation of all foreign-born radicals? 

Gee, we've tried those things before, and they didn't really help -- but since we have to protect ourselves, I guess we need to try even more extreme measures.  Maybe it's time to suspend such civil rights as freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, the right against self incrimination, and the right to a jury trial. But hey, we'd better not infringe on the right to keep and bear arms -- the people are going to need those guns to overthrow the government when it becomes a totalitarian state.

Can we not picture a gentlemanly boxer getting in the ring with a toughened, dirty street thug?

Do we really think the Marquis of Queensbury rules will prevail against a brawling, kneeing, sucker-punching , stool-swinging crazed animal? If you found yourself caught in the crossfire of a shootout in the street, would you rather have Perry Mason defending you – or Dirty Harry?

Well, Perry looked like he might be a good man in a street fight (at least he did in the early years of the series), but yeah, I suppose that this is no time for a brilliant criminal lawyer whonever loses a case, this is a time for a vicious, sadistic, violent vigilante who can't be bothered with laws and rights and such.

Don't bother; I know your answer. Mine, too.

You know, I think it's time for Dirty Pat Boone, a crooner who doesn't play by the rules.  You don't assign him to wiretapping cases, you just turn him loose!  With his .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, Dirty Pat wipes out free speech to hell!

Two thoughts, if I may: 1) Both the Italian and American governments are interested only in listening in on phone conversations that are connected from overseas countries and involving those already suspected of terrorist activity or support.

Because if you have any communication with anybody suspected by an NSA shift supervisor of having some tangential connection with terrorism, then you don't deserve any rights.

They aren't interested in your calls to brokers or the corner grocery or the neighbors to gossip; they're trying to SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Well, I've worked with the FBI, and I can tell you that they don't throw away information.  So, if your call to your broker (who happened to be on holiday in Egypt, and whose name happens to resemble somebody's on a watch list) triggered a follow-up investigation, then the transcript of that conversation is in an FBI file now, even if it wasn't about terrorism.  And if you happened to talk about insider trading or something, then not only are the Feds TRYING TO SAVE YOUR LIFE, they are also probably trying to put you in jail.

And 2) I don't care personally if some governmental agency listens to our family's phone calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have nothing to hide. The surveillors may expire from boredom, but that would be their problem.

They might learn what black artists Pat was going rip-off cover next, but yeah, hearing the songs would probably cause them to die from boredom.  So, if Pat doesn't care if the feds listen to his family's phone calls, then you shouldn't either.

Now, here's Coach Dave Daubenmire with a piece about how "Ohio's patriot pastors" are being denied their right to preach politics from the pulpit while retaining their tax-exempt status.

Rod Parsley is pastor of mega World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio, and host of the TV program Breakthrough, broadcast on stations all around the world.

And, as commenters Autonomousgerm and AnntiChrist S. Coulter so memorably informed us, "Rod Parsley" is is also slang for male pubic hair.

Like so many television evangelists, he has developed a reputation in some circles as a money-grubbing name-it claim-it ministry. He has built a large ministry and now he spends much of his time feeding it, with techniques that some find offensive.

So, yeah, he's basically the kind of false prophet whom Jesus warned you about.

Say what you will, he has yet to fall into the chasm of seeker-sensitivity so prevalent today and still preaches a sin-killing message, although the opulence at his church sure raises eyebrows.

Sure, he urges the poor to donate their meager funds to him, promising them that God will bless them with wealth, happiness, and a cure for AIDS in return (and he then uses their money to buy himself such signs of God's approval as an expensive  house and an airplane).  But since he speaks out against abortion, homosexuals, and feminists, he's an okay guy.

Russell Johnson is pastor at Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, Ohio. A faithful man of God, Pastor Johnson has labored for two decades, doing all he can to impact the small midwestern town in which he lives.

Ah, yes, Pastor Russell Johnson, the guy who accused the public schools of neglecting to teach that Hitler was "an avid evolutionist," and who links abortion to children who murder their parents.  He's a great guy too.

Together, Pastor Parsley and Pastor Johnson have decided it is time to take the cultural war seriously. Parsley has founded The Center for Moral Clarity, and has been hosting gatherings of thousands of Ohio's pastors in attempt to get them to engage the culture. Johnson is head of Ohio Restoration Project and is recruiting hundreds of "patriot pastors," training them in cultural stewardship

As their efforts begin to draw national attention, the enemy is beginning to draw its swords. Crying the old worn-out saw "separation of church and state," a group has taken their complaints to the IRS, asking that Parsley and Johnson be investigated for violating their tax-exempt status.

Separation of church and state is just an "old worn-out saw" now?  I am forced to conclude that Coach Dave played a few too many games without a helmet.

Who is this group, you might ask, that is opposing these pastors? 
The ACLU?

Nope.

Americans United For Separation of Church and State? Sorry.

Moveon.org? Move on.

People for the American Way? Negatory, Big Ben.

Druids for Freedom and Virgin Sacrifices?  The Satanic Alliance of Hillary Clinton-Supporting Feminists?  Howard Dean's Marxists R Us.org? 

Okay, I give up.

No folks, the whistleblowers in the case happen to be "31 church leaders from nine denominations" in the Columbus area. That's right, chums, the church is blowing the whistle on the church.

The bastards!   If there's one thing that God hates, it's tattle-tale church leaders who blow the whistle on other leader's scams.

The battle centers around Republican Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. Over the past five years, Blackwell has boldly championed true conservative issues in Ohio. He has publicly supported and in some instances led the battle to reclaim Ohio's Republican Party from the rapidly left-drifting inner circle. Blackwell fought for the repeal of Ohio's recent income tax increase, led the battle for an Ohio constitutional marriage amendment, is un-apologetically pro-life, and has been un-wavering in his support of Christian values.

The Republican Party is scared to death of Ken Blackwell. His strong moral stance has projected him to clear-favorite status in Ohio's 2006 race for governor. Oh, did I mention that Ken Blackwell is black?

So, the church leaders who objected to Parsley and Russell using the pulpit to stump for a political candidate just complained because they're racists.  Got it.

But the church is confused. Many pastors believe that it is wrong to involve the church in politics. They say that they don't think it is right to influence how their people vote. Just vote, they say, it is your duty.

That is as dangerous as giving a young boy a gun and telling him to "just shoot." He needs to be trained, to differentiate a good target from a bad one.

And the person who should be teaching your boy about target practice and political candidates is your pastor.  It says so in the Bible.  (It's in Matthew -- Jesus said, "Render under Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.  And always shoot tasty animals, snakes, varmints, and Islamofascists, and always vote for right-wing Republicans, especially Ken Blackwell."

I don't know about you, but I want to know for whom my pastor is voting.  If we are voting differently, I think I better find out why.

And I don't know about you, but I want to know what kind of sexual acts my pastor is employing with his wife (or floozy, undercover policeman, blowup doll, mule, or whatever).  You know, just to make sure that he's not a commie -- also, because I might learn a few new tricks from him.  So, following Pat Boone's advice, I have wiretapped my pastor's phone, read his mail, and installed a video camera in his bedroom.  But I sure as hell haven't interfered with his right to be tax exempt!

A Supreme Court decision is not a law, despite what they might try to convince us, and Christians do not forfeit the right to free speech when they join a church. It is time Christians stood against this unconstitutional, unrighteous Supreme Court opinion. It is obvious that there are those in this country that want to deny Christians the same free-speech rights afforded the ACLU, National Education Association and the labor unions, all receiving some form of tax deductibility for their contributors.

And there are some in this country who say that MoveOn.org doesn't have the power to save souls.  They too are wrong.  Christians who involve themselves in supporting political candidates and poltical groups who promise salvation to believers should both be tax exempt. 

I proudly stand with Parsley and Johnson, and I promise you these men will not be chased back into the box in which the ACLU and their ilk would like to lock them. They will not be chained to the safety of their church by the leash of the tax-exempt status.

So, they are demonstrating the strength of their convictions (and their allegiance to Ken Blackwell) by giving up their tax-exempt status.  More power to them, I say!

No, wait, I think that what Coach Dave means is that they will not be chained by the leash of the tax-exempt status because they plan to whine about how they are being persecuted until their followers get the IRS to back off.

The lines are being drawn, and the weapons are being fashioned.

On which side will you stand?

On the side of that old, worn-out saw, I'm afraid.

Coach Dave Daubenmire, founder and president of Pass The Salt Ministries and Minutemen United, is host of the "Pass The Salt" radio show heard in Columbus, Ohio. In 1999, Daubenmire was thrust into the cultural war when sued by the ACLU for praying with his football teams while coaching in Ohio. He now spends his energy fighting for Christian principles in the public domain.

So, he's an old, unemployed wingnut ... but an old, unemployed wingnut with a cause.  Good for him!  I think we might be seeing more of Coach Dave very soon . . .

2:48:55 AM