Stand with Truth

The abortion of a child late-term is the most cherished and protected right in Kansas. For a video review of the Kansas abortion issue click here.

Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2008

This morning I am again amazed at the glory of God reflected in His creation. Today’s sunrise painted brilliant colors and although winter’s hibernation loomed, the crisp air was full of life. All preparation is in anticipation of Spring and presentment of plenty. His promises are present for our tomorrows. In such I give thanks.

It seems illogical to experience such peace and joy while also feeling such deep ache, fear and anger. Such conflict often leaves me voiceless. How to explain a faith that sustains and provides hope while being fearful for tomorrow? How to explain the majesty of God’s truth reflected in all of creation while being deeply hurt by the inability of the world to see truth and the inability to express truth in a way that is heard? How to be abandoned to God’s calling while being angered at the cost? How to joy at God’s grace and its working in my life while feeling the sting of a world full of judgment? How to be in the world and not of the world?

read more here

This video was produced by Kansas City radio journalist and author Jack Cashill in the Spring of 2008 in an effort to explain the complexities of the Phill Kline’s efforts to enforce Kansas abortion laws. The video runs 10 minutes.

Secret court orders silencing witnesses, millions of campaign cash flowing to pro-abortion government officials, unexplained judicial delays and mainstream media ignoring relevant facts. The saga of trying to hold the abortion industry accountable to the law continues in Kansas - the nation’s leading late-term abortion capital.

This is the lead of Denis Boyles article published by National Review Online.

Read the full story here.

To outrage in some quarters and applause in others, the Untied States Supreme Court has recognized what it calls the “coercive” environment caused by non-sectarian student voluntary prayer at high school football games and stuck down such prayers as unconstitutional. (See Santa Fe Texas School District v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000). In the Santa Fe case the Court ruled the following voluntary prayer by a student unconstitutional:

“Lord, we ask for Your protection as we depart to our next destination and watch over us as we go our separate ways. Grant each of us a safe trip and keep us secure throughout the night. In Your name we pray. Amen.”

What remains to be seen is whether the American public, and specifically the Cumberland County (Fayetteville) North Carolina School District, recognizes the coercive environment created when a teacher bullies and frightens an elementary school student in front of her classmates due to that student’s support for Sen. McCain for President.*

A Finnish film crew produced a documentary regarding American education and the 2008 Presidential elections. Along the way they interviewed and filmed the Asheville, North Carolina elementary class of teacher Diatha* Harris. Ms. Harris provides an interview to the crew and proudly proclaims that her group of impressionable youngsters voted for Obama in the school’s student election. The problem, however, is how “teacher” Harris persuaded the students to cast that vote.

At one point in the film, during her class, the proud teacher turns to a young girl whose father serves in the military and who expressed her support for Mr. McCain. The student states she supports Mr. McCain because her mother and father support Mr. McCain.

Ms. Harris then asks the girl if she knows what the war with Iraq, which Obama is going to end, is really about. When the girls hesitates under the onslaught, Ms. Harris states it is a “senseless war.” But she is not through with her persuasion. Ms. Harris then proclaims that “that man” who you support for President has stated we would keep the troops in Iraq “for one hundred years if thats what it takes.” She then adds her own coup de grace: “that means your father will stay in the military for one hundred years.” (view the film here or watch it below)

With the exception of religion American’s have now long suffered a coercive educational environment. Such is evidenced in the lack of intellectual diversity on college campuses, policies and expenditures of teacher’s unions and shallow and deceptive curriculum.

The Supreme Court does not have, nor should it have, any role in the latest example of coercion in the educational environment, but certainly the parents, administrators and school board of Cumberland County, N.C. do.

It will be interesting to see how they fill that role and whether, if they chose to ban such coercion by firing Ms. Harris - the teacher’s union and others who cheer the Supreme Court’s vigilant eye for coercive environments regarding religion - will also cheer the school board’s action.

* It has been widely reported that Ms. Harris teaches in Asheville, however, she left the Asheville school district a few years back. She now teaches in Cumberland County. Her school board website is: http://www.communications.ccs.k12.nc.us/Board/BOE.htm

Ms. Harris’ school website is:

http://www.mmes.ccs.k12.nc.us/faculty_and_staff.htm

** Ms. Harris’ first name is actually Diatha. Her name was misspelled in the Swedish documentary as Diantha. Diantha is simply an alteration to the name Diana which means heavenly divine or it is derived from the “dianthus” flower which is Greek, meaning “heavenly flower.” The origin and meaning of Diatha is unknown, thus likely causing the misspelling in the Finnish film.

Jill Stanek is an articulate and informed pro-life blogger who was instrumental in revealing President-elect Barak Obama’s efforts as an Illinois Senator to defeat the Illinois born alive act. Ms. Stanek testified before Senator Obama’s committee and described her own experience confronting the reality of newly born children being left to die. Ms. Stanek was a nurse in a Chicago hospital and learned that children that survived an abortion attempt were left to die. In her testimony Ms. Stanek describes holding one of these newborns to whom medical treatment was denied. She held the child for 45 minutes until it died.  (Stanek’s blog is linked in the blogroll on this page).

She has written the following column in the aftermath of the election. The column is well worth a read.

Stanek 11-6 column: “Life will not go on”
by Jill Stanek		Barack Obama was elected president despite the fact he supports abortion into the fourth trimester… . Either the 63 million people voting for him didn’t know about his radical record, which includes abandoning abortion survivors to die, didn’t care, or didn’t believe it. Meanwhile all three state pro-life initiatives failed Tuesday…. And both state anti-life initiatives passed…. Altogether, this means we are fooling ourselves if we think the United States is still a Christian nation. Its people just elected a barbarian as president, authorized the killing of both its youngest and sickest, rejected scientific fact that human life begins at conception, blocked parental intervention of abortions of young girls, and voted down the wording of an abortion ban they said only two years ago they would support…. Continue reading my column, “Life will not go on,” on WorldNetDaily. com.

Phill typically does not place his speeches on paper as he usually speaks from a few notes, and then rarely refers to the notes.  He has, however, written a brief statement about justice and he has referred to this statement in recent speeches.  Many of you have asked for a copy of that statement.  It is provided below.  Please feel free to use but attribute to Phill.

Thanks,

Editor

Phill Kline Comments on Justice

Justice should not be blind.  For justice must peer into human frailty, into the crevices of brokenness and exploitation; it must see the harm, suffer the loss and hear the cry of the innocent who are exploited by injustice.

Its attire must not be bleached with political correctness, starched into shape by political polls and be ironed to conformity by desire for personal glory or power; rather justice must walk alone the path of truth and soil itself by carrying the helpless; its voice hoarse through giving voice to the voiceless.

Justice is discriminating – for its intolerance for injustice destroys evil.  Justice cannot be silenced by politeness or avoidance – for its voice is the clarion call of the human soul.  Justice shall prevail – for its origin is found in the author of truth.

Phill Kline

A recently completed study by the Rand Corp., involving tracking the television viewing habits and pregnancy rates of over 2,000 teenagers concludes that teens who watch highly sexual programming are twice more likely to cause a pregnancy or be pregnant while a teen. In other words, sexuality on television causes sexuality in real life. (read AP story on the study here).

Unfortunately, it appears that the AP reporter and study author may have reached the wrong conclusion. The story states that the shows “can lead teens to have unprotected sex ‘before they’re ready to make responsible and informed decisions,’” stated Anita Chandra, the studies author.

This writing leads one to the conclusion that teen intercourse is not a significant problem as long as such interaction involves “safe” sex. In other words, as long as the teen is protected (which means using a contraceptive) then they are “responsible and informed.”

It is interesting that the AP writer appears to place these words into Ms. Chandra’s quote. The author of the study only stated that the viewing of such shows can contribute to teens engaging in sexuality “before they’re ready to make a responsible and informed decision.” It appears the AP reporter editorialized about “unprotected” sex.

This demonstrates the default attitudes of popular culture today. Teen sexual intercourse is here to stay and so, teach safe sex. This approach has four flaws: (1) sexuality is not just a biological urge but a precious gift - this is why few things can affect our mental health as deeply as sexual abuse or exploitation - it has deep personal and spiritual meaning; (2) teaching teens that full sexual interaction at a tender age outside a loving relationship is natural - sets teens up for exploitation; (3) teaching such sexuality as the norm reduces the ability of a teen to resist pressure to have sex; and (4) teens by nature are still growing and maturing and are not as responsible to understand the repercussions of their actions and therefore, do not use the protection urged.

At least we finally see the obvious stated in a study - the objectification and commercialization of sexuality encourages cheap sex.

This aggressive sexual culture has also accelerated the break down of the family as indicated by the following startling and underreported statistic.

In 1960 2% of all children born in the United States were born out of wedlock. In 2006, for the first time in United States history over a majority of children born in the United States that year were born out of wedlock.

(see MSNBC story here).

Debate has raged for decades on whether Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, was racially motivated. News stories that broke onto the national scene this summer about the modern version of Planned Parenthood have given fodder to those who claim that abortion has a racist impact which Planned Parenthood refuses to reject and may even embrace.

In secretly recorded conversations with Planned Parenthood fundraisers, callers posed as potential contributors who wanted to contribute money to the nation’s largest abortion provider for one reason - to exterminate black unborn children. The callers played up the racist motivation making such observations as: “I don’t want my child competing with black children for jobs” and “there are just too many of them as it stands now.”

In each instance, Planned Parenthood gratefully accepted the donation. In one particularly telling moment, one Planned Parenthood fundraiser asks the caller for forgiveness explaining that she is somewhat breathless because “she is so excited” and “wants to make sure she handles the call correctly.”

The release of these tapes caused somewhat a national sensation with protests in various parts of the nation. A group of black pastors marched in Washington demanding the end of federal funding for Planned Parenthood. News conferences were held, petitions signed, media stories printed and aired - except in one state - Kansas.

No coverage by the Kansas City Star or Wichita Eagle. The controversy did not happen. In the jurisdiction of the only criminal case ever filed against Planned Parenthood: the controversy did not exist because the paper did not report on it.

The following is just some of the coverage and a few of the recorded conversations that you missed hearing about in Kansas.