Translation Series: Questions to Ask Your Kids

So you're not sure how to get your kids engaged on the whole "election thing"? Not sure how to convince them that the freedom as we know it is slowly disappearing if we do not do something? Well, consider this:

- Do your kids know who the top leadership is of our country? No, I'm not joking. Don't get rattled at them for not caring about something they may know nothing about. Should they? Yes. But accept it that they may be completely clueless as to why the election is important, who they would be voting for, and why they should be voted in or out!

- Have you asked them if they are registered to vote? And when you broached the subject, you did do it in a questioning, conversational, I see you as an adult, tone, right? No demanding, disrespectful,  "I brought you into this world, I can take you out" tone, right?

- Have you casually addressed the crucial subjects with questions like: "Hey Billy, do you and your friends talk about what's happening with the government world right now? Current Affairs? State politics?" or "Sarah, did you see what happened on the news this week? What were your thoughts?" or "I've been following this subject on the news, Molly - but I'd really like your take on it. What do you think about ....?"

Remember, as much as adults don't like this, there is no automatic recipe in which to engage your children. The liberals are woo-ing them with t-shirts, cool slogans, rally cries to justice, compassion and purpose. But they need to be convinced with truth, appeals to their intelligence, respect and patience.

More tips to follow...

Text from My Religious Freedom Rally Speech

Did you have an opportunity to attend a June 8th Religious Freedom Rally? Thought you might enjoy reading the speech I presented to hundreds of attendees in Lansing.

God is on the move in Michigan!!
ajh


STAND UP FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY
June 8, 2012
Amy Hawkins

Good afternoon!

We are here TODAY to stand up for religious freedom but I would like to propose to you this question: what does the term religious really mean?

What if the term religion was, and is, meant to be synonymous with relationship but somehow that idea has been diluted. Today it often stands for a system or a structure. What if we have relied on a “system” and while doing so have been speaking one thing and living another and it is costing our nation greatly.

I think the truth has been staring us in the face and today we acknowledge it: God sent His Son for a relationship with us. And it’s that relationship between God and man and adoration and obedience from man to God that establishes true religious freedom. And in our case, it’s the required foundation on which to build, rule and preserve a free nation.

You and I are standing here today, instead of having this meeting in secret, or whispering at the water cooler, or privately and cautiously addressing our outrage to one another at the government’s attempt to regulate our conscious - because a few faithful men and women met persecution hundreds of years ago across the ocean and decided to do something about it.

The task before us is similar. While we are not being asked, like the Pilgrims, to cross an ocean in dangerous voyages, leaving everyone and everything behind, losing loved ones as they made the arduous journey and facing an unexplored world, we are being asked to embark upon on our own sort of uncharted - waters.

When has the life of faith been guaranteed to be safe, good and easy? Thankfully, we’ve been warned for centuries that if we chose the way of relationship with God, there would be moments of discomfort and adversity. And this is that moment for us here in America.

The government has this false idea that in order to make the world better, they need to implement their philosophy by creating yet another law. And they are wrong. Here is the good news, the government cannot regulate and does not threaten our relationship with God. They might tamper how we manifest that faith in our religious system but our true religious freedom is between God and man – because of a sacrifice Christ made 2 thousand years ago.

But we must acknowledge how the presence or absence of our relationship with God in the public conversation has impacted our nation.

When personal dismissals of God continue to duplicate among families, generations, peers and societal cultures, we must not be surprised when our nation has little direction, wisdom, or true prosperity. Our individual relationship with God is our own calibration to health, balance, perspective, and quality of life. Our individual healthiness benefits our country as a whole.

If individuals are living virtuous lives within God's guidelines, you have healthier families, who contribute to healthier work forces and healthier economies. If raised with consequences, balance and family structure, you have healthier children in schools more equipped to learn.

When abiding by Divine order, you have individual responsibility – which results in less need for big government; a desire to defend, preserve and pro-create life – which expands the number of participating citizens; a moral conscious when considering potential laws; and a commitment to honesty, integrity and kindness – which makes a society of humans better all the way around.

[PAUSE]

We must be honest with ourselves. The government did not encroach upon us over night. It’s been taking place for years. But where have we been as people of faith? Have we been assuming our freedoms, or preserving them?

The pilgrims wanted their freedom to worship God so badly that they completely re-arrange their lives so that they could be free in their lifetime, yet also lay a foundation for generations to come, to experience true religious liberty.
It was their relationship with God drove their success to obtain and preserve this freedom.

John Adams, 2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence, said: Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

It’s not going to take one moment to change things… it will take atime, just as it did to arrive at Plymouth Rock. The threat to religious freedom is more than just one piece of public policy, and it goes beyond one Supreme Court decision or one significant election. We stand at a threshold. What’s happened has happened. But what will we do going forward?

It’s also not up to those who don’t live by religious principles to preserve a nation. It’s up to those who give allegiance to God. He has commissioned us to be caretakers of this earthly kingdom, to be in positions of authority that we can influence this culture with the truths of God.

SO… what do we do about it?

Learn more about groups like mine, Citizens for Traditional Values, Michigan Family Forum, Right to Life, American Family Association. Contact us to find out how to engage your church, what your pastors’ freedoms are for involvement, how to build church networks – and more! Google any of our groups, contact us and we will do our best to direct you.

Also, learn more about State Senator John Moolenaar’s Religious Liberty and Conscience Protection Act (more info online) and support his efforts.

You need to be encouraged. You are helping people like me in the government arena – make phone calls, provide rallying points and re-educating one another. And you are praying like never before for God’s mercy and Divine Intervention. You give me –as well as other cultural leaders- HOPE.

Especially as people of faith, we must make and keep our faith with God right and real; and we need to commit to engage in the culture deeper, farther, faster. We represent God and He has all the answers.

In closing, President George Washington, a man of deep faith said this: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

Our stand for religious liberty is a valiant stand. Our own relationship with and and obedience to God and the individual responsibility we embrace to preserve this nation before God is what will keep us free and our religious liberty the reason that makes our country great.

A re-post: Sarah Palin’s Full Speech at RightOnline 2012 (Video)

Disclaimer: The following is shared from Liberty News. Please check out their news source - and explore their site!!

Amy's Comments: Sarah Palin is a hero!!

_____________________________
Sarah Palin’s Full Speech at RightOnline 2012 (Video):
I am attending Right Online in Las Vegas.  I was fortunate enough to score a front row center seat for Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech, where I captured this photo:

Here’s her speech, via The Right Scoop:

I did a complete photo dump from the first day at All American Blogger. You can watch today’s speakers here.

Recommended Resource!! The Social Conservative Review

Dear Friends,

Recently in Bekasi, Indonesia, "a mob of 300 Islamic extremists threw bags of urine and ditchwater, rotten eggs, stones and dirt" at Christians trying to hold an Ascension Day service. In places as diverse as northern Nigeria, Vietnam, North Korea, Egypt, and China, believers arepersecuted daily for proclaiming their belief in Jesus.

Could such persecution ever happen here in the U.S.? As far-fetched as this might seem, it's not too much of a leap to ask if the seeds for such oppression are not being sewn. From the Obama Administration's contraception mandate to the recent New Mexico court ruling that a local photographer be fined for refusing to photograph a same-sex "wedding," violations of our cherished religious liberty are becoming increasingly widespread and, thereby, increasingly dangerous.

Last week, FRC Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell gave an eloquent address at a major Washington, D.C. conference on the growing threats to America's "first freedom." As Ken noted, many of the battles for religious liberty are taking place at the state level. Contact your local elected representatives to learn what's being done either to threaten or strengthen the freedom of religion in your home state - and get primed to engage, graciously but firmly, in the struggle for it.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. Student debt in the U.S. is roughly $1 trillion - an incredible burden for young Americans. FRC is committed to helping students find better ways to obtain a college education than indebting themselves so early and so greatly. That's why we've launched a new web site,http://www.savemefromcollegedebt.com/. Visit the site to learn about this fiscal and family crisis and what you can do about it.

---

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "Should you homeschool your children?," Ime Morales, GMA News
• "For Senate candidate Todd Akin, home schooling is a personal issue," Jake Wagman,St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• "Adjusting Educational Approaches," Jenny Williams, Wired
• "New Law Cures "Curriculum Description" Headache," Home School Legal Defense Association

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "Great Teaching," Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, and Jonah E. Rockoff, Education Next
• "Latest NCLB Waiver List Heavy on Race to Top States," Andrew Ujifusa, Education Week
• "Making the grade," Frederick M. Hess, American Enterprise Institute
• "Eighty-five Percent of Texas Republicans Approve School Choice Proposition," Joy Pullman, The Heartland Institute

College Debt

• "Insult to Injury: Rise in People with Student Loan Debt-and No College Degree," Brad Tuttle, Time
• "The State of Student Loans: More Debt, More Defaults, More Problems," PBS NewsHour
• "College students slammed with fees," Daniel Wagner, The Washington Times

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Homelessness: How Government Policy Makes It Worse," Dr. Tracy C. Miller, The Center for Vision and Values
• "Why We Need Principles-Based Regulation," Arnold Kling, The American
• "Deregulating Occupations: Is Michigan Leading the Way?," Thomas A. Hemphill, The American

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "Outrageous Corporate Earmarks Stage a Comeback," Merrill Goozner, The Fiscal Times
• "Officials waste more than $2 million in taxpayer money in May," Christopher Butler,Tennessee Watchdog
• "When States Go Broke," Michael S. Greve, Library of Law and Liberty

Health Care
Abstinence

• "Why Sexual Integrity Isn't Out-of-Date," Nathaniel Peters, The Public Discourse
• "Lolo Jones and Tim Tebow Linked by Abstinence Vows," Daniel Blake, The Christian Post
• "Message to the College of Physicians: the safest sex is monogamous sex," The Iona Institute

Conscience Protection

• "U.S. Bishops: Catholics should prepare for civil disobedience to HHS mandate," Christine Dhanagom, LifeSiteNews
• "An Unconscionable Mandate," Ed Feulner, Patriot Post
• "What's Behind the HHS Mandate?," Gerard V. Bradley, The Public Discourse

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• "Why Small Businesses Aren't Using the Health Insurance Tax Credit," Scott Shane, The American
• "Obamacare diagnosed as quackery," Sally C. Pipes, Pacific Research Institute
• "New Regulation Forces Private Insurers to Advertise Obamacare," Alyene Senger, The Heritage Foundation
• "Once the Supreme Court Rules on Obamacare, Who Benefits?," Ben Domenech,Ricochet

Homosexuality

• "Same-Sex Marriage Becomes Constitutional Right in California Unless SCOTUS Takes Case," Ken Klukowski, Breitbart.com
• "Opponents Block Washington State Same-Sex Marriage," Associated Press
• "Black Americans on Gay Marriage: Is Obama Changing Opinion?," Tobin Grant,Christianity Today
• "The Church and Homosexuality: Ten Commitments," Kevin DeYoung, The Christian Post

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "Notes from the PRENDA Debate," Jeanne Monahan, Family Research Council
• "The Origins of Forced Abortion in China," Chris Gacek, Family Research Council
• "FRC Releases New Policy Publication on RU-486," Krystle Weeks, Family Research Council
• "Looking the other way on sex-selection abortion," Jared Bridges, Family Research Council
• "The Times's Convolution of Facts on Abortifacients," Donna Harrison, National Review Online
• "National Pro-Life Group's Computers Seized," Ben Johnson, LifeSiteNews
• "Fifteen years later and silent no more...," The Crescat
• "What if the Population Replacement Rate Drops to 2.0. Then What?," David Shedlock,Caffeinated Thoughts
• "Guttmacher Institute Wrong About Maternal Mortality, Abortion," Paul Stark,LifeNews.com
• "Sex-Selective Abortions and the Twisting of Souls," Hadley Arkes, The Catholic Thing
• "Abortion and the Limits of Philosophy," Jon Shields, The Public Discourse

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Great-tasting choice," Daniel James Devine, WORLD Magazine
• "A Crisis of Faith in Science?," Rebecca Oas, First Things
• "Bionic Brains and Beyond," Daniel H. Wilson, The Wall Street Journal

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Why Facebook Removed Photos of a Baby," Karen Swallow Prior, Christianity Today
• "One Human Heart: Wordsworth's Old Cumberland Beggar and the Sweetness of Being Human," Anthony Esolen, The Public Discourse
• "A Partisan Look at U.S. Science Policy," Jeffrey Mervis, Science

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC's Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• "Adult Stem Cell Treatments Move Ahead, Embryonic Stem Cells Fall Farther Behind," David Prentice, National Right to Life News
• "Did the California stem cell program promise miracle cures?," Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times

Human Trafficking

• "Unavoidable Destiny | Legally a Criminal, Legally a Victim: The Plight of the Bottom," Shared Hope International
• "A Permanent Evil," James L. Dold, The Polaris Project
• "More penalties for Calif. human traffickers," Becky Yeh, OneNewsNow

Women's Health

• "The real war on women," U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, The Washington Post
• "Obama Ad Deceives About Birth Control," Wesley J. Smith, Secondhand Smoke
• "Chilean Study Exposes Fundamental Flaws in Maternal Health Research," Susan Yoshihara, Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Wisconsin Student 'Censored, Punished' by School for Gay Adoption Beliefs," Ravelle Mohammed, The Christian Post
• "Virginia Senate Passes 'Conscience Clause' Restricting Gay Adoption," Paul Stanley,The Christian Post
• "Gay couples no longer banned from adopting a child in Florida," Martin E. Segal, The Miami Herald

Family Economics

• "On the Morality of Capitalism," Joe Carter, The Acton Institute
• "Marital Parenthood and American Prosperity: As Goes the Middle-Class Family, So Goes the Nation," Ryan C. McPherson, The Family in America
• "Do Tax Credits Encourage Work?," Casey B. Mulligan, New York Times
• "Number of the Week: Half of U.S. Lives in Household Getting Benefits," Phil Izzo, The Wall Street Journal

Family Structure

• ""Where Are the Dads?" How Richmond, VA - and FRC - Are Working to Restore the Family," Rob Schwarzwalder, Family Research Council
• "And Just When You Thought the Seventies Were Over. . . ," Glenn T. Stanton, National Review Online
• "Parenting Adults Intentionally," Susan Card, The Examined Life
• "What Makes a Relationship?," Kaitlyn Elisabet Bonsell, BreakPoint
• "20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms," Isabel Sawhill, The Washington Post

Media
Pornography

• "Veteran memorial used as set for porn movie," Becky Yeh, OneNewsNow
• "Protecting children online," Carolyn Moynihan, MercatorNet
• "This is your brain on porn," Michael Cusick, Relevant Magazine

Internet

• "Up in the air," Daniel James Devine, WORLD Magazine
• "Facebook and the Importance of Being Unimportant," Edward Tenner, The American

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "Remarks on Religious Liberty," Ken Blackwell, Family Research Council
• "End of an empire?," Thomas Kidd, WORLD Magazine
• "Court Says City Can Tax Church Room By Room," Jeremy Weber, Christianity Today
• "'The Bishops & Religious Freedom'," Grant Gallicho, Commonweal Magazine
• "Town Ordered to Find Non-Christians to Lead Invocations," Alan Sears, Alliance Defense Fund

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton's feature on Watchmen Pastors called "The Lost Episodes," featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• "For Greater Glory," Patrick F. Fagan, MercatorNet
• "Good Religion: In Defense of Ross Douthat," Daniel K. Williams, The Public Discourse
• "Fairfax County changes 'faith-based service policy'," Bob Kellogg, OneNewsNow
• "Pope says family values are key to escaping modern ills," Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere, AFP

Secularism

• "Secular Coalition Creates 'Atheist Lobby' in Virginia," Michael Gryboski, The Christian Post
• "A Secularist Sees The Benedict Option," Rod Dreher, The American Conservative

International
Israel

• "Christian Villages Attempt to Revive Ancient Biblical Language," Haaretz
• "After Toulouse, More Attacks on Jews," Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary Magazine
• "The reign of the fantasists," Caroline Glick, CarolineGlick.com

International Economy and Family

• "Is It (Finally) Crunch Time in Europe?," Walter Russell Mead, Via Meadia
• "Behind the Mountains," Konrad Muller, The American Interest
• "10 Years After Civil War, No Peace for Sierra Leone's Kids," Greg Campbell, The Atlantic
• "Affirmative Action in China?," Ethel C. Fenig, The American Thinker

Religious Persecution

• "The Fate of Syria's Christian Minority," Ken Blackwell, The American Thinker
• "Another Chinese Activist's Story of Persecution," Chris Gacek, Family Research Council
• "Egyptian Christians Back to Square One Ahead of Election," Jayson Casper, Christianity Today

Sharia law -- U.S., foreign

• "Egypt Likely to Reject Sharia Law," Tawfik Hamid, NewsMax
• "Nigeria's Boko Haram a holy war? Maybe not entirely," Fredrick Nzwili and Ibrahim Garba, Christian Science Monitor

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Is the Ban on Women in Combat Unconstitutional?," Justin Shubow, The FedSoc Blog
• "Reexamining the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions," Brian T. Hodges, Pacific Legal Foundation

Judicial Activism

• "A Result in Search of a Rationale," William C. Duncan, National Review Online
• "First Circuit Rules Against DOMA," Ed Whelan, National Review Online

Other News of Note

• "Walker Walks the Talk, Obama Talks About the Walk," Ken Blackwell, Townhall
• "Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man," Mary Elizabeth Podles, Touchstone Magazine
• "Anyone for Tennis?," Joseph Epstein, The American

Book reviews

• "True entitlement reform will hit upper and middle classes," Alan D. Viard, American Enterprise Institute
• "Young Evangelicals Still at War? A Review of 'A Faith of Our Own'," Matthew Lee Anderson, Christianity Today
• "Markets and Morality," Anthony Domestico, Commonweal Magazine
• "On History Books and Why You Should Care," Lindsay Marshall, The Examined Life
• "Promises, Promises," Charles R. Kesler, Claremont Review of Books
• "How the West was Won," Stephen H. Balch, Claremont Review of Books