January 2013 - Paul Stanley

The Story Behind the Story on Louie Giglio and President Obama

Many articles have been written on why Pastor Louie Giglio withdrew from giving the benediction at President Obama's second inauguration on Monday. Now the story on why Giglio may have pulled out and what might have happened between the Presidential Inaugural Committee and the White House is discussed. My colleague at The Christian Post, Michelle Vu, has written an excellent article entitled Obama May Have Disagreed With Inaugural Committee's Handling of Giglio Controversy, describing how the decision to scrub Giglio may not have sat well with the White House, but nevertheless, President Obama seemed reluctant to use his political capital to keep Giglio on the program. The Atlanta based founder of the Passion Conference gave a sermon to his congregation in the mid-1990's exclaiming what the Bible says about homosexuality. Like tens of thousands of other pastors who have done the same, he has since been labeled "vehemently anti-gay." Vu writes: "In Giglio's mid-90s sermon, he also warned that gay activists were likely to seek to exclude Christians from the public forum for holding traditional biblical views of homosexuality. He said: "Underneath this issue is a very powerful and aggressive movement. That movement is not a benevolent movement, it is a movement to [...]

By Paul Stanley|2013-01-18T11:59:13-06:00January 18th, 2013|My Blog Post|Comments Off

Chuck Hagel’s First Three Hurdles for Sec of Defense: Gays, GOP and Gaza

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) was nominated by President Barack Obama on Monday as his new Secretary of Defense. Yet the three groups that appear likely to stand in the way of his nomination, not typically known for working together, include gay rights activists, Republicans and pro-Israeli organizations. Hagel is not the first Republican lawmaker nominated by an incumbent Democratic president. In 1997, former President Bill Clinton nominated retired Sen. William Cohen of Maine to head up the Pentagon and he sailed through an easy nomination process. However, it seems Hagel will not be afforded the same luxury and here are some of the more obvious reasons. Gay activists on both sides of the political fence had taken shots at Hagel, mainly for his comments in 1998 when he called Clinton's choice for U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, James Hormel, "openly, aggressively gay." Hagel has recently apologized, saying his remarks were "insensitive." Immediately after Obama made it official he was nominating Hagel, the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP leaning gay-rights organization, took out a full-page ad in The Washington Post opposing the nomination. The ad also blasts the former Nebraska senator on his support for the Defense of Marriage Act and [...]

By Paul Stanley|2013-01-09T15:26:13-06:00January 9th, 2013|My Blog Post|Comments Off

Planned Parenthood Received $1,622 in Gov’t Funds for Each Abortion

The nation's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, reports it received $542 million from government sources in 2011-2012 while performing 995,687 abortions from 2009-2011. In 2011 alone, its clinics performed 333,964 abortions. When broken down on an approximate annual basis, that means Planned Parenthood receives around $1,622 in government funds per abortion. From a time perspective, it translates to one abortion every 94 seconds. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, along with Board Chair Cecilia Boone addressed some of the challenges faced by the abortion giant in the past year, including the drama surrounding the Susan G. Komen Foundation's temporary withdrawal of support. "The past year will also be remembered as one when Planned Parenthood faced some of its most daunting challenges in our history – and once again emerged stronger than ever," Richards and Boone wrote in their joint statement. However, several pro-life organizations that consistently battle with Planned Parenthood were less enthusiastic about the group's perceived success, saying abortions are not a viable form of health care for women. "While government subsidies to Planned Parenthood have reached an all-time high, so too has the number of lives ended by this profit-driven abortion business," said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie [...]

By Paul Stanley|2013-01-08T15:07:51-06:00January 8th, 2013|My Blog Post|Comments Off

Support for School Prayer Declines Among Catholics, Jews; Remains High Among Evangelicals

A new study shows that support for school prayer has steadily decreased among most Americans since the 1970s with the exception of two groups: evangelicals and older Americans. University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist Philip Schwadel concludes from examining studies over the past 30-plus years that overall support for school prayer has declined – even among Catholics and mainline Protestants – but the support among evangelicals across all generations has remained steady at around 71 percent. "Social and cultural changes have led to greater opposition to state-sanctioned prayer and reading religious materials in public schools among some segments of the population," Schwadel reported in his findings. "Specifically, there's growing opposition among non-evangelicals but not evangelicals, and these changes manifest across generations." In an interview with The Christian Post on Monday, Schwadel pointed out that surprisingly, the rise of the "Christian right" in the 1980s and 1990s may have been a contributing factor as to why some Americans are less likely to support prayer in school. "I can't definitely conclude that to be the case, there is a large amount of evidence that leads some to conclude that the growth of the religious right may have turned some Catholics and mainline Protestants against [...]

By Paul Stanley|2013-01-07T13:42:20-06:00January 7th, 2013|My Blog Post|Comments Off

Religion on Capitol Hill: What Are the Faith Backgrounds of the 113th Congress?

The religious and faith backgrounds of the 113th Congress are more diverse now than at any time in the nation's history, with the addition of America's first Buddhist senator and the first Hindu in the House of Representatives. Since the birth of the nation in 1776, Congress has typically reflected the religious beliefs of the districts from which they were elected. But gone are days where the overwhelming majority of Congress was Protestant. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, with the assistance of Congressional Quarterly's Roll Call, compiled data comparing the faith breakdown of Congress to the American population and released their report on Wednesday. Here is what they found. There are 299 Protestants in Congress, making up 56.1 percent of the Senate and the House. In comparison, 48 percent of Americans are Protestant. Of those, 13.7 percent are Baptist, 10.9 percent are Unspecified/Other, 8.6 percent are Methodist, 8.1 percent are Presbyterian, 7.3 percent are Anglican/Episcopal and 4.3 percent are Lutheran. The remaining 3.4 percent belong to nondenominational churches, or are Congregationalist and Christian Scientist. One hundred sixty-three, or 30.6 percent of the body, are Catholic, 6.2 percent are Jewish and 2.8 percent are Mormon. All of these [...]

By Paul Stanley|2013-01-05T13:17:22-06:00January 5th, 2013|My Blog Post|Comments Off