¹"Barack Obama on Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Rights" at BarackObama.com:  http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/lgbt.pdf Following the California Supreme Court’s imposition of "gay marriage" on the people of that state, Obama reiterated his support for the full repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/06/defense-of-marr.html. In a letter to San Francisco's Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, opposing a proposed California amendment to preserve marriage in the state as between a man and a woman, Obama effectively recognized "gay marriage," stating: "I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks"; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/01/MN8J11I731.DTL.  See also http://pewforum.org/religion08/compare.php?Issue=Gay_Marriage

²California voters may ban same-sex marriage if Proposition 8 passes in November. The Defense of Marriage Act says: "No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship" and "In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word "marriage" means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word "spouse" refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife." (28 U.S.C. § 1738C and 1 U.S.C. § 7, signed into law by President Clinton on 9/21/96).
³http://asp.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/issues.aspx?i=4&c=11 , http://pewforum.org/religion08/compare.php?Issue=Gay_Marriage
⁴http://www.bilerico.com/2007/11/a_call_for_full_equality.php
⁵See note 2.
⁶See note 2.
⁷In response to the California Supreme Court decision to reject the voted will of the California citizens and require gay marriage, Obama’s campaign released this statement: "Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as President. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage." Reuters, 3/16/08: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1638254120080616
⁸http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5890105.html; http://www.hrc.org/equality08/264.htm
⁹See link to PDF in note 21 and http://www.bilerico.com/2008/02/open_letter_from_barack_obama_to_the_lgb.php. See also: Elaine Donnelly, "The problem of 'forced intimacy' and gays in the military," Chicago Tribune 8/14/08
¹⁰See "Obama and immigration rights," 9-6-07, in which the Obama campaign reaffirms its support for the pro-homosexual-immigrant Uniting American Families Act: http://citizenchris.typepad.com/citizenchris/2007/09/obama-and-gay-i.html.
¹¹See Human Rights Campaign report: "Senator John McCain: a record of opposing the interests of the GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender] Americans," http://www.hrc.org/equality08/264.htm.
¹²Sen. Obama is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 1173, which would abolish restrictions on partial-birth abortion and other reforms such as the requirement that parents be notified before their minor daughter undergoes a surgical abortion. See also http://www.nrlc.org/Election2008/obamarecord0608.pdf  A graphic description of Partial Birth Abortion can be found here: http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/diagram.html, and a complete discussion is available here: http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/index.html.   Against Supreme Court support for banning PBA, Obama said http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/04/obama_decision.html
¹³Teenagers, as well as infants, have been offered up in "sacrifice" to the abortion industry: In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Obama voted against the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (S.403, vote number 2006-216 on July 25, 2006), a bill designed to prevent minors from being taken across state lines without the consent of the parents to have an abortion, in circumvention of the laws of 45 states which require parental consent or notification in order for a minor to have an abortion. See also: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102197.html
¹⁴http://www.nrlc.org/Election2008/mccainrecord0608.pdf In favor of the Supreme Court support for banning PBA, McCain said http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/04/mccain_says_the.html
¹⁵http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2008/02/links_to_barack.html
¹⁶Sen. McCain voted "yes" on the Federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act. It passed 98-0 in the US Senate in 2001. Reference is: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00208. See also http://www.lifenews.com/nat4217.html
¹⁷http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/aborted-alive/
¹⁸http://www.ilga.gov/senate/transcripts/strans92/ST033001.pdf ²²The Declaration’s most famous phrase ends with “and the pursuit of Happiness,” an important, but non-absolute, right that must be circumscribed by social survival: An HIV or other lethal STD carrier, for example, should not be free to pursue his happiness by wantonly spreading deadly disease to others.
19The Jerusalem Post, 4/3/08: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207159750412&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
20http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1113869 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NHG3_FoB24
21The New York Times, 3/15/07:  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E1DC1E31F936A25750C0A9619C8B63
22The Declaration’s most famous phrase ends with "and the pursuit of Happiness," an important, but non-absolute, right that must be circumscribed by social survival:  An HIV or other lethal STD carrier, for example, should not be free to pursue his happiness by wantonly spreading deadly disease to others. 
²³http://www.lc.org/media/9980/attachments/political_legislative_guidelines_pastor_church_1pg.pdf
²⁴http://www.citizenlink.org/fpc/
²⁵www.priestsforlife.org/liturgy
²⁶Mat Staver, “Pastors, Churches and Politics,” at http://www.lc.org/media/9980/attachments/pastors_churches_and_politics4pg.pdf   Although The Judeo-Christian View and its Volume I, Issue I signatories do not herein urge express political endorsement or opposition by congregations (as opposed to simply teaching the Bible while clearly informing congregants of named politicians’ policies), attorney Mat Staver argues that it is vital to understand that no church or synagogue has ever lost its tax exempt status as a function of endorsing or opposing a candidate. 

Law Professor Mat Staver on Church Tax Exempt Status For a complete, eye-opening legal discussion by First Amendment expert and Constitutional Law Professor Mat Staver on the rights of religious leaders and congregations, click here.

²⁷In fact, Islamic/other polygamy in America is quite close to legal victory over the one-man, one-woman marriage standard right now:

On June 26, 2003, the Court's 6-3 majority overturned the Texas anti-sodomy law on the basis of freely- consenting adults having a "right to privacy." This reversed a previous Supreme Court decision, Bowers v. Hardwick (1986). Not only did Lawrence v. Texas give polygamists this "right to privacy" precedent, but it was actually U.S. Justice Scalia himself, again, who would specifically write the Dissent to which polygamists could point in advancing pro-polygamy arguments. Scalia disagreed with the majority's decision of reversing Bowers v. Hardwick. In his Dissent, Justice Scalia wrote, "State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are likewise sustainable only in light of Bowers' validation of laws based on moral choices. Every single one of these laws is called into question by today's decision; the Court makes no effort to cabin the scope of its decision to exclude them from its holding." Scalia noted that Bowers v. Hardwick determined that States did have an interest to self-determine what forms of sexual behavior are "immoral and unacceptable."   Scalia stated that that was the "same interest furthered by criminal laws against fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality, and obscenity. Bowers held that this was a legitimate state interest. "The Court today reaches the opposite conclusion," Scalia continued. This Court now says that the (anti-sodomy) statute... 'furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual.'" From http://www.pro-polygamy.com/articles.php?news=0004

²⁸See, eg., http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/1296.htm
²⁹For more on Sen. Obama’s views about death and euthanasia, see Nat Hentoff, “Barack Obama vs. Terri Schiavo” in Jewish World Review, 3/26/08 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff032608.php3
³⁰For more on Sen. Obama’s experiences with Islam, go to http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/obama_muslim_mccain/2008/09/07/128559.html?s=al&promo_code=6975-1
³¹"Obama will also … the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression." at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/civilrights/  See also note 2.
³²See http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=2288
³³“Obama promised to establish a President's Council of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships that would assist religious groups in obtaining federal funding to provide social services, such as summer learning programs. He said religious organizations would not be allowed to use taxpayer funds to proselytize and would be prohibited from violating federal civil rights laws in providing services or in hiring staff for government-funded work. In answer to a reporter's question, Obama said federal anti-discrimination laws do not cover discrimination based on sexual orientation. But Obama said he believes local laws in some states prohibiting discrimination against gays would apply to faith-based social programs funded with federal money in those states.” Chicago Tribune, 7/2/08 at 1 or at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-faith-based-webonly-jul02,0,2892982.story. Omitted from that report: Obama is firmly committed to amending federal civil rights law to prohibit discrimination -- in private organizations and not just government employment -- based on "sexual orientation," an elastic term that transcends "gay". The combination of such law and increased government funding for "faith-based" social service ministries will force those holding the Judeo-Christian view on homosexuality to opt out (or corrupt them), plus fuel an absolute and proportionate mushrooming of government-funded lobbying to more liberal social service organizations.
³⁴http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14213
³⁵The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and its clients have this year openly, in full page newspaper ads and a YouTube video, challenged the IRS to try censoring speech from the pulpit or congregational lectern – even if it does mix Scripture or comment on the moral character of politicians and their positions on public issues. The IRS, after backing down from an attempt to censor preaching at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, has declined as yet to take up this challenge. To see Becket’s Wall Street Journal ad and amusing YouTube video, go to: http://www.becketfund.org/index.php/article/740.html The Alliance Defense Fund is a multi-million dollar legal defense group that focuses on issues of religious freedom. To view an excellent video on your freedom of speech in the pulpit (from a Christian perspective), go to: http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/issues/religiousfreedom/churchandstate.aspx?cid=4485. For an encouraging discussion of the (very modest) risks entailed to a congregation if the pastor or rabbi criticizes or praises a political figure from the pulpit and goes on to deliberately invite (unconstitutional) “speech police” attention to such Scriptural preaching or teaching, go to: http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/userdocs/Pulpit_Initiative_FAQ.pdf. (An alternative, of course, is to freely exercise First Amendment speech rights and religious liberty without also, purposefully, attempting to provoke test litigation such as ADF, Becket and other legal defense groups have supported. Nothing herein should be construed as legal advice, but for a troubling discussion of failure by church and society to exercise their freedoms with sufficient boldness, whether quietly or loudly, see Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich). Freepreach.org, a Becket division, has offered free legal defense to around 300,000 houses of worship to defend pulpit speech from IRS harassment – perhaps a diminishing prospect in light of the IRS’s retreat from attempts to regulate preaching at All Saints Episcopal Church. To read the Freepreach legal defense pledge to pastors, priests, rabbis, and other religious leaders, go to: http://www.freepreach.org/letter.pdf The Catholic League vows “When the religious freedom rights of any Americans are threatened, the Catholic League stands ready to fight for justice in the courts.” Liberty Counsel “provides pro bono legal assistance in the areas of religious liberty, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family…” The Thomas More Law Center “is a not-for-profit public interest law firm dedicated to the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life. Our purpose is to be the sword and shield for people of faith, providing legal representation without charge to defend and protect Christians and their religious beliefs in the public square.”

© 2008 The Judeo-Christian View, All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to reproduce this journal (print or electronic), accompanying Sermon Outline (print, electronic or DVD versions) with attribution to our web address.