Conservative Christian groups are outraged that a school decided a lunch a preschooler’s mother prepared was not healthy enough and replaced it with chicken nuggets, reports onenewsnow.com. The student also brought home a bill for the cost of the school lunch she had to eat instead. The elementary school in Raeford, N.C., decided the 4-year-old’s lunch—which consisted of a turkey-and-cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice—did not meet nutritional standards established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Why? Because it did not contain a vegetable. The USDA guidelines say lunches, even those brought from home, must consist of one serving each of meat, milk, and grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables. Those guidelines, introduced last month as “historic improvements” by the federal government, spring from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by First Lady Michelle Obama as part of her Let’s Move! Campaign and signed into law by President Barack Obama. Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow for the Beverly LaHaye Institute at Concerned Women for America, sees the incident at the North Carolina school as historic in another sense. “It’s another way that the government says it knows best, another way to waste taxpayer dollars, quite frankly, and to really irritate parents,” Crouse told OneNewsNow.
Other news:
- President Obama has “betrayed Israel at almost every turn,” GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum told a town hall meeting Wednesday, reports cnsnews.com. “I can think no greater betrayal” than Obama’s announcement of Israel’s plans to attack Iran, he said. Speaking at a high school in Tioga, N.D., Santorum was asked to contrast his foreign policy and defense vision with that of President Obama’s. Santorum responded, “I believe that we need to go out in the world and make sure that any threats to the United States are confronted. And, at the same time we have to work with our allies and let our allies know that they can trust us, that we will be with them. . . . Unfortunately . . . evil exists in the world. And, as we’ve seen with, with the tale of history, that if evil is not confronted and is not either contained or defeated, then it will grow and prosper and it will, in fact, eventually threaten us, here in our homeland. And so I’ve taken the approach that we need to actively go out and engage our friends. That’s not what this president has done. Some of our best friends—Israel is an example. The president systematically has betrayed Israel at almost every turn. His most recent announcement that Israel is planning an attack on Iran—I can think of no greater betrayal than taking intelligence information from an ally and divulging it to the . . . world, and then criticizing them for defending themselves as Iranians.”
- The Mormon Church apologized Tuesday for a “serious breach of protocol” after it was discovered that the parents of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized as Mormons, reports The Los Angeles Times. The church also acknowledged that one of its members tried to baptize posthumously three relatives of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. The efforts, at least in Wiesenthal’s case, violated the terms of an agreement that the church signed in 1995, in which it agreed to stop baptizing Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Wiesenthal and Wiesel gained fame for careers spent grappling with the legacy of the Holocaust, Wiesenthal by hunting down war criminals, Wiesel by writing books that became part of the canon of 20th century literature. Posthumous baptism is common in the Mormon Church. The purpose is to ensure that ancestors can join church members in the afterlife. Individual Mormons submit to the church the names of persons they wish to have baptized, then undergo baptism “by proxy.” However, the practice has sometimes offended those of other faiths whose ancestors are baptized by proxy by enthusiastic Mormons. That is especially true of the families of Jewish victims of the Holocaust, whose outcries prompted the 1995 agreement. Although the Mormon Church now says its policy limits posthumous baptisms to direct ancestors of its members, it acknowledges that the policy is sometimes violated.
- Another lawsuit is challenging the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, reports onenewsnow.com. But a different approach is being taken this time, as a clause in the Massachusetts Constitution—not the federal Establishment Clause—is being cited. The case is brought by an Acton, Mass., atheist family that objects the mention of God in the pledge. The American Humanist Association is representing the “Does” in their effort to completely bar the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in Massachusetts schools because of the phrase “under God.” They argue that the state constitution’s equal rights amendment supports their request because the pledge is discriminatory toward them. But Brian Camenker of MassResistance says the constitution does not protect atheists in that manner. “It’s a very religious document written by John Adams in [1780], and so to try to claim that the [Massachusetts] Constitution protects atheism is absurd,” he contends. And if the phrase “under God” is unconstitutional, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel reasons that the use of God’s name on currency or anywhere else would also be unconstitutional. “I believe that this is one of these frivolous lawsuits destined for ultimate dismissal,” he suggests. “But we can’t take them lightly because they chip away one little brick at a time, until ultimately, they want to have the entire house topple.” Staver has repeatedly warned that atheists, agnostics, and the organizations they support will not stop their attacks until they have pushed religion, specifically Christianity, out of the public arena.
- Town hall prayers have been banned in Britain, according to a report from a Christian organization that considers the court ruling an assault on the country’s heritage, reports onenewsnow.com. The high court decision means the saying of prayers during town hall meetings is no longer legal even if the council has voted in favor of the prayers. Mike Judge of The Christian Institute says it was a bad day for democracy. “The majority of the British public have been appalled at this ruling. Even people who are not Christians, even people who don’t necessarily favor the saying of prayers, believe that this is an intrusion into democracy. And politicians, both on the left and the right, have also criticized the judge,” says the institute spokesman. Judge goes on to say there will be a move in Parliament to remedy the situation. “The government minister who’s in charge of local government has already said that there is legislation coming on line that will allow councils to be able to say prayers if they vote in favor of that,” Judge says. “And if the councils are still told by the courts that they’re not allowed to say prayers, then they’ll introduce specific legislation that gives them that right.” Judge says it is a situation where one atheist councilor and one secularist lobby group “has taken a whole nation to court” on the issue, and has won—for the time being.
- U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint has come out saying that the only solution to “ObamaCare’s tyrannical attack on religious freedom is full repeal.” Says DeMint on redstate.com, “Well, we can’t say they didn’t warn us. Nancy Pelosi famously decreed that Congress must first pass ObamaCare to find out what’s in it. The problem with passing a 2,700 page government takeover of health care is that it gave unprecedented authority to Washington bureaucrats to infringe upon our most personal health care decisions. So when Congress passed the bill they didn’t really know what we’d end up with, but conservatives had a bunch of good guesses. It turns out we were right. And now we know for sure what’s in it: assaults on religious liberty, government bureaucrats with the power to strip away our most basic freedoms, increases in health insurance premiums, trillions in new costs, and a drag on our economy that is killing jobs. . . . The contraception controversy is only the beginning of Obamacare’s tyrannical reach into our personal lives. It is not enough for certain groups to be given “accommodations,” based on their national influence, campaign contributions or friends in high places. The next group of Americans whose freedoms are taken away may not be large enough to get their concerns on the nightly news, but their rights must be defended with equal zeal. That’s why I will fight this week for a vote on full repeal of Obamacare. To protect all Americans’ religious freedom, and every other kind, the only acceptable ‘reform’ is for ObamaCare—the entire law—to be repealed.”
- Rasmussen has just taken a poll that finds that 52 percent say it is better for the GOP to work with Obama than stand on principle.
- On the heels of the fracas that resulted from the Susan G. Komen Foundation pulling Planned Parenthood funding, and then reinstating it, comes a new report that might make the breast cancer research giant a little uncomfortable, reports Patriot Update. The American Life League has released a graphic new video report that it says shows how Planned Parenthood “exposes children to sexual material in order to seed a generation of sex addicts, who will become future customers for the abortion giant.” “If you aren’t convinced by now that there are some truly sick pups behind Planned Parenthood, this video from the American Life League should erase any lingering doubts,” the Right Scoop says. “In the name of ‘education,’ Planned Parenthood exposes children as young as 10 years old to pornographic illustrations of masturbation, nudity, sexual activity, and much much more.” “Any parent that sees the video of Planned Parenthood’s material for school children will be horrified,” Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, told Life Site News. “Planned Parenthood’s business model is aimed at making money from people who are engaged in sexual activity. Those are the women who will have abortions, which made up 51% of Planned Parenthood’s clinic revenue in 2010.”
