California

Dear Friends,

On October 15, 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed A.B. 569, a bill that would have infringed upon the First Amendment rights of faith-based organizations in an employment context. The governor wrote:

“Assembly Bill 569 would add to the labor code a prohibition against any employer from taking an action against an employee because of that employee’s reproductive decision.”

This bill is unconstitutional and is an attack on religious liberty.  If Gov. Brown had not vetoed this bill, it would have been illegal for faith-based universities, pro-life non-profit organizations, churches, and faith-based businesses to include, in an employee handbook or code of conduct, anything related to premarital sex, terminating pregnancies, same-sex relationships, and contraception. This code of conduct established by religious institutions would have been judged as discriminatory if the governor had not vetoed this bill.

This is a marvelous praise report! This kind of good news does not occur often, so it is very important that the governor hears a loud and clear message of gratitude!

Take Action:

1. Please take a minute to contact Gov. Brown to show your appreciation for his decision to protect the religious liberties of faith-based institutions. Be sure to let him know that you are a member of Concerned Women for America of California.  Call his office at (916) 445-2841 and/or email
2. Forward this e-alert to friends and family and encourage them to take action.

Please Pray:  Thank the Lord for protecting California from this potential religious persecution.

Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”

God bless!

Marlo Tucker
State Director
CWA of California
[email protected]
ca.cwfa.org

SB 179, “Gender identity: female, male, or nonbinary,” is currently in the state Senate and is expected to be voted on any day.  Your senator needs to hear from you NOW!

SB 179 would:

• Allow those who currently disagree with the reality of their gender to make a sex change designation.
• Create a third gender: male, female or nonbinary.
• Redefine and obliterate the words male and female.  These words will have no concrete meaning.  It removes the very definition of a man and a woman.  Anyone can use it.
• Render the individual’s original birth certificate as a false document. In a sense, it allows individuals who wish they were the opposite sex to falsify their birth certificates.

Take Action:

1. Contact your senator today!  If you know who he/she is, click here to find their contact information. If you don’t know who your senator is, click here to find out their name and contact information based on your address. Respectfully, yet firmly, ask him/her to vote “NO” on SB 179.  Leave a message after hours if necessary.  Remember to let him/her know that you are a member of Concerned Women for America of California.
2. Please forward this e-alert to your family, friends, pastors, and congregation members.

Pray:

• That the Senate will be convicted of the reality that a person is biologically a male or female and that God made it so.
• That the Senate will acknowledge that just because one desires to be a member of the opposite sex does not make one a member of the opposite sex.
• For your senator by name as you contact him/her.
• That pastors and Christians would defend the Biblical definition of male and female.
• That SB 179 will not pass in the Senate.

In today’s relativistic society, individuals can be whatever gender they feel—a policy which breaks down the biological classifications that humans have held throughout history. The transgender movement is a highly gnostic philosophy which undermines God’s authority.

“(Gnosticism’s) dogma is really about rejecting external authority and fixed reality in favor of self-empowerment, self-actualization, and some level of self-deification … transgenderism, joined now by post-genderism, insist individual thoughts, yearnings, and self-identities trump physical realities and universal truths.” – Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy

Proponents of SB 179 want to allow people to change the “gender marker” on their California birth certificate and driver’s license. If this law goes into effect, one’s gender status will be based entirely on a personal choice or a feeling

Gender is a fact and not a feeling. What if a biological male changes their “sex designation” to female and after two years wants to change it back again and so on, all based on how he feels at the time?  How long will legislators pander to pseudo-science babble?

Click here if you would like to read SB 179 and track its status.

Check out this great CWA brochure on this topic: Since When are Feelings > Fact?

For Him,

Marlo Tucker
State Director
CWA of California
[email protected]
ca.cwfa.org

Greetings! My name is Marlo Tucker.  I am thankful for this opportunity to introduce myself as the new State Director of Concerned Women for America (CWA) of California.  I have a media background in Communications, Film and Television. For a number of years, I have had the honor of working with Christian lawyers in broadcasting which fueled my passion for Christian advocacy.  CWA blessed me with the opportunity to focus on the seven core issues dearest to me: Family, Sanctity of Life, Education, Religious Liberty, Sexual Exploitation, National Sovereignty and Support for Israel.

It is exciting to witness today’s conservatives and evangelicals stepping out boldly in government to protect Biblical principles in public policy!

God is rallying us to do the same.  I encourage you to channel your conviction for Christ through prayer and action.  We are the Esthers of our time in our communities.  However, we are not alone.  God has raised hundreds of thousands of women across our nation in prayer and action through CWA.  Matthew 18:20 says, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am with them.”  We have strength in numbers, and God is on our side.

As you may know we have two phenomenal area directors with whom I have the privilege of working. Carissa Campbell is overseeing Northern California, and Ruth Smith is overseeing Southern California.  With their assistance, along with the new state steering committee that is being formed, I am excited to see how the Lord is going to use CWA of California in the days to come.

Stay tuned as we will be regularly presenting projects, events and issues on which you can join us in taking a stand.  We will be opposing legislation that limits free choice in education, threatens parental rights, penalizes religious institutions for their Biblical codes of conduct, and more.  Most importantly, though, we will be regularly taking a stand on legislation that affects life from the cradle to the grave.

Stay involved!  Please act when you receive our e-alerts and forward them on to others.  Regularly check in on our webpage and Facebook page and read our tweets (@CWAofCA).

Pray without ceasing.  This is the strength of CWA and why all of us have gotten involved.  It is our dependence on our Lord Jesus Christ that unites us.  Together may we continually seek His guidance, His strength and His joy in all that we do on behalf of CWA of California.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

We are a tight knit community.  Please stay in touch with questions, concerns and comments by contacting me.  I would love to hear from you!

God bless you!  And God bless California!

Joyfully in Christ,

Marlo Tucker
State Director
CWA of California
[email protected]
ca.cwfa.org
Facebook: Concerned Women for America of California
Twitter: @CWAofCA

Friday, February 17, in La Mesa, was a blessed gathering of CWA Prayer/Action Chapter Leaders, Home Team Captains, new Directors and members! Many of these strong women of faith have been praying with CWA since the days when Beverly LaHaye first founded CWA! God is so good to unite prayer warriors to focus their efforts on CWA’s core issues, take legislative action, educate citizens and establish Chapters all across the great state of California! These ladies also gave a warm welcome to incoming State Director, Marlo Tucker and returning Southern California Area Director, Ruth Smith.

In addition, it was an honor to host special guest, Hannah Ellis, CWA’s National Field Director from Washington D.C. Hannah was proud to announce that CWA of California’s voice is being heard on Capitol Hill, and it’s powerful. Keep up the good work with phone calls and emails to your legislators! We are making a difference for Christ.

Carol Humphrey, Debie Dillahunt, Ruth Smith, Virginia (Ginger) White, Mary Martin, Marlo Tucker, Hannah Ellis, Julie Reeves and Susie Hawk

Watch for a new post to come of Marlo introducing herself and her vision for CWA of California!

However well-intentioned his efforts may be, Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) is pushing an anti-parental rights bill (SB-18) which would leave unrestrained and undefined power in the hands of the California government to determine what is in the best interests of your children.

The only people who know what is best for children are their own parents.

“There is no greater calling than nurturing and caring for the hearts of the ones God has entrusted to you…” ~Sally Clarkson

Will religious beliefs, parenting philosophy, school choices (religious private schools, homeschooling) be targeted?

Parents, God has chosen YOU to be steward of your children.  He placed those specific little minds and hearts into your hands.  Guard that calling jealously.  Raise them well.  And don’t allow California elites to assert their power over the kids for whom you are responsible.

Pray:

• For Sen. Pan to understand that rights aren’t granted by government but are inalienable and God-given.
• For other legislators to understand and zealously protect God-given parental rights.
• For Californians to not sit on the sidelines as their freedoms are squashed, over-regulated, and outlawed.

Act:

• Please attend Sen. Pan’s Town Hall this Tuesday evening, February 28, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. to show and voice your opposition to this attempt by the California government to assert control over our children.

Oak Ridge Elementary School
4501 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95820

• Sign Sen. Joel Anderson’s (R-Alpine) petition opposing SB-18.

Additional information:

• Article: A lofty – and troubling – proposed bill of rights for California kids
  Check out the No on SB 18 website.

Joyfully,

Marlo Tucker
State Director
CWA of California
D[email protected]
ca.cwfa.org

Law enforcement officers need to be able to do everything they can to keep minors who are the victims of sex trafficking safe. However, this is no longer possible thanks to our legislature and Governor Jerry Brown’s decision regarding child prostitution.

Last September, Gov. Brown signed SB 1322 into law, decriminalizing child prostitution.  As of January, SB 1322 is now law.  Sex trafficking is a difficult subject with no one-size-fits-all answer.  Decriminalizing child prostitution may sound good at a surface level; but decriminalization is not the answer.

This law makes “recruiting” children easier for the pimp, because the minor will not be participating in anything illegal and therefore won’t get into trouble.  Decriminalization gives law enforcement one more obstacle in their ability to investigate sex trafficking involving minors and potentially takes away  their ability to rescue the children involved. Without a criminal charge, law enforcement cannot safeguard the minor or provide treatments and services.  Child prostitution is vicious and can include torture; therefore, treatment is sometimes imperative to a child’s healing and their future.

CWA of California is outraged that this bill was passed and is now law.  It must be repealed!

 We agree that these children are victims, andwe believe law enforcement officers need every tool necessary to keep minors safe including being able to arrest them in order to get them the help that they need.  This bill puts minors within the sex trade industry more at risk than they have ever been.

 Pray:

• Pray for the rescue and rehabilitation of victims.
• Pray that our lawmakers’ eyes will be open and they will have wisdom and courage in dealing with this issue.
• Pray our representatives will push for the appropriations to fund shelters for juvenile victims.

Take Action:

1. Contact both your senator and assemblyman/assemblywoman.  Simply ask them to “repeal SB 1322”. Click here to find out who your senator and assemblyman/assemblywoman are and how to contact them.  I encourage you to at least make a phone call to each of them, even if you don’t have time to e-mail them.  A call puts a greater amount of pressure than an e-mail.  Some say a call represents as much as one hundred people.  Also, if you so choose, feel free to call after hours and leave a voicemail.
2. Contact Gov. Brown. Let him know how disappointed you are in him for signing SB 1322 into law.  Call him at 916-445-2841 and e-mail him.
3. Find out if there is a shelter in your community for juvenile victims in which you can volunteer.

More information:

Article: Washington Times article – Failing the Children of California

Article: The Orange County Register – California Democrats Really Did Just Legalize Child Prostitution

Brochure: CWA’s Children in Prostitution

Click here to read our Christmas letter now.

Why Churches Should Encourage Members to Vote

There is much at stake in the November 2016 elections.  Will you exercise your duty and vote and encourage others to do the same?

The institution of government was ordained by God (Romans 13:1-4).  It is our duty, as citizens and as Christians, to participate in the process.  According to the late U.S. Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson, people of faith are more to blame for the nation’s woes than are politicians.  Believers who are apathetic “abdicate their responsibility,” he said.  He noted that lawmakers have authority to act only “with the consent of the governed.  People of faith must understand the issues, vote intelligently, and advise elected representatives.”

Exercising our right to vote in elections is the most fundamental way to participate.  Yet, surveys have shown that as few as one-half of church members who are eligible to vote are registered to vote, and not everyone who is registered actually votes on Election Day.

There is a great need for Christians to get out and vote.  For this reason Concerned Women for America of California is encouraging voter registration drives and raising voter awareness. Download the What’s Your Vote Worth? brochure and the 2016 Party Platform Comparison. (To print the 2016 Party Platform Comparison simply print it double-sided on 8 ½” x 11” paper.)

Would you like to help register voters at your church? It’s an important, and permissible, activity.  Because the voter registration deadline is October 24, we suggest that you start the process without delay, by contacting your church leadership and offering to help make this opportunity available to your congregation. Click here to download a helpful “how-to” guide.

 Brown Signs Harmful Bills

As we anticipated, Gov. Brown signed the watered-down version of SB 1146 on September 30. While the most devastating portions of this bill were amended out, disclosure requirements remain and will begin to be enforced in the 2017-2018 school year. We now await what the bill’s author, Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Long Beach) may have planned when the new legislative session begins in December.

Sadly, the governor also signed SB 524. Now, faith-based boarding schools like FACESS will be required to adhere to the same “community care licensing” structure under which California’s broken foster/group home programs are overseen, increasing costs to the organization and the parents whose daughters are enrolled for help and healing from the devastating effects of sexual exploitation. It is unclear right now what action FACESS may take to try to preserve the fine work they and groups like them are doing.

For more information on the bills we have supported and opposed during 2016, please see our latest Targeted Bills List here.

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying and acting on behalf of faith, family and freedom!

Please forward this e-mail to like-minded California friends and family.