We Need You!
Please help American Values make the most of our generous matching gift opportunity!
We are making progress in our year-end fundraising campaign, but we are still a long way from meeting our goal. Counting pledges and funds we know are coming in the next few weeks, we are about $250,000 short of meeting our needs.
Many battles lie ahead. Not only is 2016 an important election year, but we already know that there will be a major push by the radical gay rights lobby to attack religious liberty exemptions. So much for tolerance.
We're hearing that left-wing secular groups will redouble their efforts to end public displays of Judeo-Christian values. With each passing day, the educational establishment appears committed to exposing more of our children to the tenets of Islam, while references to Judaism and Christianity are banished. And political correctness is smothering our ability to enact commonsense counterterrorism proposals.
We are involved in all these battles. We are working with members of Congress to develop legislative strategies and organizing grassroots supporters at the state level. All of these things demand resources.
We were hoping to add staff next year to deal with these growing challenges. But unless we can close this budget gap, we may end up cutting staff instead.
Keep American Values strong by giving your most generous, tax-deductible gift today!
Trump & Terrorism
There was a Democrat debate over the weekend. Many pundits commented on the fact that the timing of the debate -- competing with the newest Star Wars movie and the last weekend of Christmas shopping -- seemed designed to keep viewership low. Not surprisingly, Saturday's debate had the lowest ratings of any debate -- Democrat or Republican -- held in 2015.
The candidates talked a lot about GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. In fact, it was a comment about Trump that got most of the post-debate attention.
Hillary Clinton claimed that ISIS was using Donald Trump's rhetoric for its recruiting videos. PolitiFact checked out her claim and determined there was no evidence for it.
But in its own way, the comment about Trump and ISIS is very revealing. To many on the left, virtually anything we say or do that exposes radical Islamists is an excuse for recruiting more jihadists.
For example, Barack Obama says that the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is a major terrorist recruiting tool. We're told that ISIS doesn't represent Islam. So, if we capture terrorists and detain them in a secure prison, Muslims should be thanking us, right?
Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the Palestinian stabbing attacks in Jerusalem on Israeli settlements. We were told an obscure video was responsible for the Benghazi attacks. Now we're being told that proposals for a pause in Muslim immigration lead to terror recruitment.
There is one thing that does demonstrably contribute to jihad and that is the large global infrastructure of radical mosques and madrassas teaching young Muslims that the only way to please Allah is to kill infidels. Yet that is the one thing that the left refuses to acknowledge.
Last night I reviewed the most recent, disgusting ISIS recruiting video. It is so filled with hate that I will not share a link to it. But I must concede that American politicians are being used in the video. Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Barack Obama were featured prominently as symbols of America's decadence and why Muslims should unite against us.
Religious Liberty In The Crosshairs
Having succeeded in forcing every state in the union to recognize same-sex marriages, you'd think that the radical homosexual rights movement would be content. No way.
As we have reported in the past, the brute force of the federal government is being brought to bear against local school districts that still think boys and girls should change and shower in separate facilities. Now there are reports that the left is moving against the religious exemptions of private Christian colleges and universities.
According to the Washington Post, more than 50 private schools have applied for exemptions, based on the tenets of their faith, to the government's interpretation of federal regulations as it relates to gender identity in student housing and other facilities. Eight left-wing senators, along with the Human Rights Campaign, are calling on the Obama Administration to crack down on these exemptions.
We warned repeatedly that the fight over the meaning of marriage wouldn't stop with just a redefinition of marriage. The right of religious institutions and religious business owners to adhere to their faith was also at risk.
Earlier this year, one gay rights advocate told business leaders, "We are at a crossroads. . . we will fight religious exemptions for two or three years or have a protracted twenty year struggle on our hands." In other words, the left has set a goal to crush all legislative and legal efforts to protect our First Amendment religious rights within "two or three years."
We must fight back! Help us defend our values.