CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA OF WASHINGTON
ACTION ALERT JANUARY 23, 2013
OUR HOPE FOR THE NEW YEAR
Dear CWA Members,
I started reading through the Book of Psalms on January 1 and was struck by these verses:
Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:1-3; NKJV)
The last verse of that second Psalm is “Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”
Each year we see more attacks on America’s Biblical heritage and our religious liberty, as enumerated in the first sentence of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. That’s not a statement only allowing freedom of worship, but the free exercise of religious faith in our lives, private and public.
Throughout the Christmas season, people were raging again about the non-constitutional so-called “separation of church and state” with regard to any public display or celebration of that traditional, holy season. In the United Nations, there is a proposal to prohibit any “anti-Islamic” speech which includes Christian witnessing in Muslim countries. However, there is no proposed equivalent protection of Christianity or of its followers.
ObamaCare mandates that faith-based people and organizations betray their sincerely held religious convictions regarding their pro-life stances and several states including our own now have legalized homosexual marriage with the potential of everyone and every church being forced to comply with such unbiblical behavior or else be indicted for hate crimes such as in Canada and other post-Christian countries. Freedom of conscience is under attack, and parental rights are regularly ignored in favor of forcing “political correctness”. “Social justice” has been adopted by secularists as well as churches, yet it is really a rallying term for liberal ideology (The Corruption of “Social Justice”; Beverly LaHaye Institute, the think tank for Concerned Women for America; http://search.freefind.com/find.html?si=4208944&pid=r&mode=ALL&query=Social%20Justice%20brochure&t=s).
The Good News and our hope? Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Savior: ” by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1) and the promise from Psalm 2 that “Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” CWA is firmly founded on Biblical principles, and we will not compromise nor edit those principles simply to appease the people that Psalm 2 discusses (see Biblical Support for Concerned Women for America’s Core Issues; www.cwfa.org or request the brochure from the Washington state office).
ENCOURAGE-A-LEGISLATOR IN 2013! One way to promote and protect Biblical values is to adopt a state legislator and pray for him/her in 2013! It’s a simple program and well appreciated by many of our representatives and senators. You pray daily and send a weekly postcard with an inspiring thought from the Scriptures or from historical quotes related to our Biblical heritage. Join us! Contact the state office and get your first postcard in the mail this week!
MARCH FOR LIFE IN OLYMPIA: Thousands of pro-life citizens marched in the Washington State March for Life in Olympia on Tuesday, January 22, 2013, at noon. These pro-life citizens marched to the Capitol Building and Supreme Court Building in unison to support life from conception until natural death, where they stood in the cold to rally and listen to excellent speakers explain why we must continue to stand for life. Please remember the 3,800 babies aborted each day in this nation and pray for their mothers as they inevitably are impacted by their choice to end the lives of their innocent children.
LEGISLATION: Senate Bill 5009 Reproductive Parity Act would require any health insurance plan sold in Washington that covers maternity care to also cover the voluntary termination of a pregnancy.
“What we want to make sure is that the women of Washington State don’t lose any of their rights as we move into health care reform,” said Rep. Eileen Cody, a West Seattle Democrat who chairs the House Health Care & Wellness Committee. Cody is sponsoring House Bill 1044, the House version of the legislation.
In response, Dan Kennedy, the chief executive officer of the Bellevue-based organization Human Life of Washington, wrote in an email that the bill “should be renamed the ‘State Coercion of Conscience Act.'”
“The abortion insurance mandate would coerce employers to pay for abortions and violate the long-recognized principle that freedom, if it means anything, surely means the liberty not to be forced by government to violate conscience in so profound a manner,” Kennedy wrote.
The bill contains language preserving the rights of organizations and individuals to refuse abortion coverage “based on conscience or religion” as well as the rights of religiously sponsored health carriers to deny payment for abortions.
Contact your own district’s legislators to protest SB 5009 and HB 1044. Be polite, be firm, and explain why these bills offend you and should NOT be passed.
Legislative Hotline: 1-800-562-6000 to contact all three of your state legislators with the same message!
JOIN THE CWA OF WASHINGTON TEAM! Become a Prayer/Action Leader, Home Team Captain, or Steering Committee Member. Enact your faith. Build the wall and stand in the gap to protect the culture (Ezekiel
22:29-31). Find details at wa.cwfa.org. Contact the state office for details.
May you live to serve our Almighty God and may He bless you for working to protect and preserve Biblical values in our culture.
Sincerely,
Maureen Richardson, State Director
Concerned Women for America of Washington
P. O. Box 143 Woodinville, WA 98072
director@washington.cwfa.org