Jay Sekulow wrote: I wanted to update you on our action items concerning the Assessment from the Department of Homeland Security. We are notifying all 50 States that any interference with First Amendment rights, based on this misguided report will not be tolerated. I am sending a letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano outlining our legal concerns and demanding a retraction. You can read that letter here. To sign on to the Demand for Retraction click here. In addition, our Be Heard Project is launching a major intiative for those under 40 to express their outrage on this action. To participate go to BeHeardProject.com. The Department of Homeland Security has issued an emergency assessment entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.” When the document was first made public yesterday, I instructed our staff to verify that this was in fact a legitimate document. The reason I expressed skepticism was that the nature of the statements contained in the report were so outrageous to the pro-life community and to free speech that I could not imagine that Homeland Security would actually issue such a document. Nevertheless, we’ve had an opportunity to verify the document as to its authenticity. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also stated that it did in fact issue the document to all law enforcement personnel throughout the United States. The report is troubling as to its scope and dangerous as to its precedent. The key finding noted by the Department of Homeland Security is that, although there is “no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence . . . rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues.” In defining rightwing extremism, the report states “rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented . . . and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.” To label pro-lifers and those who are opposed to certain immigration policies as rightwing extremists and domestic terrorists is incorrect as a matter of law and wrong as a matter of policy. Nowhere in this report is there any mention of Al Qaida cell groups operating domestically here in the United States. DHS has taken its focus away from rooting out those people that are bent on causing harm to the United States. Instead, they are using government resources to monitor pro-life citizens who are exercising their free speech rights by holding up a sign in front of an abortion clinic. On FOX News today I stated that the government needs to be spending its time rounding up terrorists who are bent on the destruction of our government rather than focusing on grandmothers holding up a pro-life sign outside an abortion clinic. The scope of this report is also dangerous. In discussing rightwing terrorists, the report states that there is a phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States. Pointing to those who are opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage, the report envisions what it calls the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States as these pro-life groups, those opposed to immigration, and returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several times the Department of Homeland Security mentions the fact that we have a historic President in the United States. Unfortunately, despite this historic event, the Department of Homeland Security seems to be prepared to trample on the First Amendment rights of concerned citizens that want to disagree with the current regime’s positions. I say this because the report says that many rightwing extremists are antagonistic towards the new Presidential administration and have also exhibited “paranoia of foreign regimes” taking an active role in U.S. policy. These foreign regimes are already taking an active role in U.S. policy and we’ve been concerned about this issue for the last several months. At bottom, this is a dangerous precedent. It is troubling in its scope. It is wrong as a matter of public policy and it targets citizens of the United States who have fundamental free speech rights that can be exercised. We are going to react within the context of a legal response to the Department of Homeland Security’s actions. I linked here an interview I just completed on FOX News on the situation and we will have more on this on Monday. To ensure that you continue to receive e-mails from the ACLJ, please add jsekulow@aclj.org to your address book.

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  • You are so right, Mo. We have to stay focused on our cause. And that is to spread the gospel so that many will have the opportunity to believe and have their hearts changed by Christ. But we shouldn't get discouraged if we only see a few believe. Jesus told us that the path to heaven is straight and narrow. Few will enter it. It is our job to make sure everyone knows the choice they are making. But we can't make the choice for them.
  • I find myself as of lately practicing a great amount of self-control when it comes to speaking out about the political and moral injustices I see spreading like a plague through our beautiful nation. It's hard not to fear these dangerous times. But, these are times when we need to be eye to eye, nose to nose with God. Absolutely focused on him and the work he has called us to do.

    Regardless of what we hear or see around us, we are called by God to "live good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us". - 1 Peter 2:12.

    "Change" will not come from the top of this nation. It will come one soul at a time, from the core (heart) of the people. Changing a mind is temporary, changing a heart is eternal.

    Colossians 3:2-3, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." Last time I checked, the dead are not overly concerned with taxes, gov't spending or terrorists.
  • Brother Rich, We are on the same side.. The Holy Spirit of Truth abides within me, as well for many Believers who are in this Group.. Blessings..
  • and the mystery of lawlessnes is already at work.....this is the spirit of the antichrist.....the report is birthed out of the spirit of antichrist..

    if you are against marriage betwen same sexes...

    if you are against abortion

    if you are believe cataclysmic and apocalyptic end day events

    if you believe in prophect ( God foretelling end day events_
    all prophts did, all apostles did - jesus did - the holy Spirit does to day..the word still speaks today

    the report waS RELEASE TO ALL AW ENFORCEMNET ACROSS THE LAND....

    it is ANTI - god...ANTI-RIGHTEOUSNESS and therefore anti-christ

    ansd so there many antichrists - but there will be the one who comes above th rest given power by satan...he will be a liar..deciever....which means also a hypocrite...he the antichrist by the power of satan will work in signs and wonders 9wak up church al signs and wonders are not authored by god - some cme by satan)

    and the decieved leader of th harlot church wil also give the antichrist his power, authority - help to set him up and lead a part f the church into idolatry and sexual immorality- adultery (simply unfaithfuness t Jesus) and as the revelation says...it ill LOOK LIKE a Lamb - it is not the lamb - it just lLOOKS LIKE the lamb - but it is a harlot...ad it is a product of babylon (humanism = 6)

    human counsel over Gods counsel......we have at the minimum these types(at a minimum) manifested in our government now

    has god sent a great delusion because we 'refused to love the truth'?????

    Do you love the ruth??? Do you nurture the truth you have?
    do you spend time meditaiing and studying and learnig the truth?
    Do you do what the truth says to do....

    Jesus is the ......TRUTH...

    Jesus said, If you love me you will keep my commandments.....do you keep the truth??...
    He is coming for His bride (marked by faithfulness to his truth -to Him) - without spot and wrinkle....( not anxiuos, not decieved, not of this world system, not of this age - but pursuing the kingdom of God)

    to him who overcomes I will keep him from the hour of trial coming upon the whole earth......

    watch and pray that you may be worthy to escape all these things coming

    press in and seek to know Him - that you may ATTAIN TO THE RESURECTION (if you are alive when He comes its called a rapture - catching up - away)
  • Brother Jerry. Very great point, but you would think that the Church as a Whole would be united in what you have just stated, "evangelizing the nations" but the problem is that Satan has many Christians deceive to where they are embracing world religions, homosexuality and believe in killing the unborn babies. Their needs to be an evangelizing the Church.. You got unbelieving believers who are not doing the works of Christ and have not the boldness to speak out concerning their faith in the Gospel. This is why we need each other to teach concerning the fullness of the Gospel, get believers anointed in the power of God's Holy Spirit and as we do evangelism will happen within the Church, being empowered to get their own hearts and homes in divine order and it then spreads like wildfires. Great comment!
  • Most of the people I talk with share these same concerns. This isn't a small grassroots rebellion. In fact, it isn't a rebellion at all. It is concerned citizens who feel like they are being trodden on by an increasingly oppressive government. We are being denied our freedom of speech and our freedom of religious and moral convictions. Those who are trying to deny us of those basic rights are the ones who are committing hate crimes. Our leaders should be prosecuting them for these hate crimes. They are also violating their own statement of separation of church and state. What we have now is a government that is telling the church what they can say and believe and where they can and can't state those beliefs. Recent years have given us many examples of this. That is the real violation of separation of church and state.

    This sounds like the same oppressions that led us to fight the Revolutionary War. We had to free ourselves from an oppressive government that was denying freedom of speech and that was controlling the church. Religious freedom was one of the strong reasons we came to America in the first place. Politicians that are trying to bring these same kinds of oppression into our society are doing tremendous damage and aren't representing the majority of Americans.

    Do we have politicians that are trying to rebuild the Iron Curtain here in the USA?

    In spite of all these issues, God is still in control. He may be using these situations to wake up the church, or he may be using them to chastise a country whose leaders have left their "first love" of Christ and are now attacking God's standards. That is why we are commanded to be the salt of the earth and we have to keep doing that. But through all of this we have to stay focused on the Great Commission. Leading people to Christ and training them as disciples of Christ is our true purpose. This is the only level that we can truly change our society. Even if we get politicians and the American public to 'behave", it is useless if it isn't the result of lives that are Changed by Christ. The more people we bring into the Kingdom of God, the more change we will see in our society. That is dealing with the root cause of our problems. We must grow our evangelistic churches quickly.

    Jerry Hartman
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