#FacepalmFriday and Weekly Wrap-up

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#FacepalmFriday, abortion, Ben Sherman, Brochoice, Down syndrome, Fr. Vander Woude, Institute on Religion and Democracy, Marjorie Jeffrey, Preachers of L.A., Texas

(Photo credit: Paris Tuileries Garden Facepalm Statue: http://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/4199675334/)

By Marjorie Jeffrey (@MarjorieJeffrey)

This week started off on a note of hope, but we’ll save the good news ‘til the end.

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Most of our readers have probably heard about the war on abortion going on in Texas. Yes, those hateful pro-lifers are trying to restrict abortion rights even further, by moving the last possible date at which a pregnant woman can get an abortion from 24 weeks to 20 weeks, which is just before the generally-accepted point of viability.

Via Emily Zanotti:

If that seems straightforward, even pro-science to you, you’re not alone: if a kid can survive outside the womb, than it’s kind of hard to make the argument that they are an inhuman parasite. But, whatever. This is abortion legislation, so the rules are made up and the points don’t matter. What matters is, we’re all like, ten Texas legislators away from starring in our own post-apocalyptic Margaret Atwood novel, where us poor folk are chained to beds and forced to have children against our will. Never mind that by the time the Texas deadline rolls around you’re more than four months pregnant, you’re an idiot who simply can’t make up her puny female mind about being a parent, and need to have available a procedure that most of the world (except Canada!) views as barbaric.

At any rate, it’s been fun to watch. (And who can forget pro-abortion activists shouting “Hail Satan!” in an attempt to drown out pro-lifers singing “Amazing Grace”?)

But a brave young man named Ben Sherman (a University of Texas undergraduate and Think Progress intern) came out in support of late-term abortion and lower health standards for abortion clinics with an op-ed entitled “Bro-Choice: How #HB2 Hurts Texas Men Who Like Women”. (Isn’t that homophobic? What about men who don’t want to have meaningless sex with women, but still advocate for their ability to kill their young?)

My favorite part:

Your sex life is at stake. Can you think of anything that kills the vibe faster than a woman fearing a back-alley abortion? Making abortion essentially inaccessible in Texas will add an anxiety to sex that will drastically undercut its joys. And don’t be surprised if casual sex outside of relationships becomes far more difficult to come by.

Read the whole thing here. And in case any of you want to try to give the young man the benefit of the doubt by believing that his statements must have been satirical, read his follow-up article here.

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Are you ready for a new reality show about the fabulous lives of Los Angeles pastors who are changing the world with their Ferraris, Rolexes, security details, and prosperity theology megachurches? Life is really hard for them, especially when it comes to their relationships with their girlfriends and the mothers of their children. (And doubtless for the children themselves, who don’t appear in the trailer for the show.)

The show is coming to you courtesy of Oxygen. The channel describes the new series as follows:

“Preachers of L.A. gives a candid and revealing look at six boldly different and world renowned mega-pastors in Southern California, who are willing to share diverse aspects of their lives, from their work in the community and with their parishioners to the very large and sometimes provocative lives they lead away from the pulpit.”

It’s about time there was a television show to highlight the daily lives of men of God and their baby mamas.

(h/t First Things)

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There was a ray of hope this week for those who believe that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made.

Many of you who are active on Facebook may have seen and/or shared this status on Monday:

URGENT!!!! Chance to Save a Life! Please share ASAP with your friends:

“There is a couple in another state who have contacted an adoption agency looking for a family to adopt their Downs Syndrome unborn baby. If a couple has not been found by today they plan to abort the baby.

If you are interested in adopting this baby please contact Fr. Vander Woude IMMEDIATELY.
We are asking all to pray for this baby and the wisdom that this couple realize the importance of human life and do not abort this beautiful gift from God.

To contact Fr. VW call the office at Holy Trinity Parish (Gainesville, VA) after 9:30 or e-mail him immediately at
pastor@holytrinityparish.net. Please re-post.”

Well, that day, Father Vander Woude and the parish office at Holy Trinity received over 900 emails and hundreds of phone calls from all over the world, offering to adopt the baby. Three couples have been submitted to the adoption agency, and there seem to be plenty of backups if those fall through.

So much for those pro-life activists who don’t care what happens to babies after they’re born.

It’s an incredible story, which you can read more about at the Washington Times. God be praised!

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From all of us here at the IRD, to all of you out there, have a great weekend. See you in the pews!

Texas Mega-Church Leader Partners with Muslim Brotherhood Front

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Bob Roberts, Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Brotherhood, NorthWood Church, Ryan Mauro, Texas

(Photo credit: The Brook Network)

Ryan Mauro (@RyanMauro)

On June 9, the Clarion Project reported that the U.S. envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will be speaking at an Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) regional conference, sharing the stage with at least three Islamists. But there are some other featured guests: ISNA’s interfaith allies, including Pastor Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church in Texas.

ISNA is identified in a 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memorandum as one of its fronts. The U.S. government also listed ISNA as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity when it designated the group an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation. The so-called “charity” was another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity that, in the words of Judge Jorge Solis, “operated from within ISNA.” ISNA denies it has “ever been subject to the control of…the Muslim Brotherhood.”

ISNA’s South Central Conference will be held in Dallas on June 15. The event will feature an interfaith panel that includes its Community Outreach Director, Mohamed Elsanousi, who attended a Muslim Brotherhood-linked conference in Mauritania last year.

Other participants include Rabbi Joshua S. Taub of Temple Emanuel and Cristina Warner, the Campaign Director of the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign, an ISNA-allied interfaith coalition. ISNA is so proud of Shoulder-to-Shoulder that its success was a top talking point of senior officials when they met with the Islamist Prime Minister of Turkey.

The most high-profile interfaith speaker at the ISNA regional conference is Pastor Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church, a critic of “Christian Zionists.” As reported last month, Pastor Roberts’ NorthWood Church is holding its own Islamist-stocked interfaith event called the Global Faith Forum in November. Pastor Roberts’ speakers include ISNA officials, former senior Saudi officials and a former director-general of Al-Jazeera.

The Clarion Project’s original article on the event provides insight into some of the fellow speakers of Pastor Roberts, Rabbi Taub and Cristina Warner.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Jamal Badawi, who will also be on panels about Sharia and having a healthy family. His record includes praise for Hamas, “combative jihad,” and justifying the physical disciplining of wives (or, as he says, “a gentle tap on the body” for disobedience). His name also appears in a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood phonebook from 1992 and he hangs out with Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi. The radicalism of his resume is strong enough to prompt counter-terrorism expert Patrick Poole to ask, “Why is Jamal Badawi Still Allowed into the United States?”

ISNA official Yusuf Ziya Kavakci will be handling the opening remarks, leading a prayer and joining Badawi for the panel on Sharia. He used to lead a mosque that an article in 1999 said “is considered to be one of the most active centers of Hamas activity in the United States[.]” The mosque was linked to the Holy Land Foundation, the aforementioned U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity that was housed by ISNA and shut down for financing Hamas.

The notorious Imam Siraj Wahhaj is listed as an invited speaker at the event. His radicalism is unquestionable. He has preached that “America is the most wicked government on the face of the planet Earth.” America, he told his audience, is a “garbage can” that he prays “crumbles.” Unlike some Islamists, he doesn’t hide his desire for Sharia Law in America.

“If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if eight million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us,” he said.

The book Muslim Mafia quotes Wahhaj even condoning violence. “We don’t need to arm the people with 9mms and Uzis. You need to arm them with righteousness first. And once you arm them with righteousness first, then you can arm them,” he said, as well as “I will never tell people, ‘Don’t be violent.’ That’s not the Islamic way.”

Wahhaj’s rhetoric lines right up with the private words of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The 1991 memorandumthat identified ISNA as one of its fronts said its “work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

Page 21 of the document states: “[W]e must possess a mastery of the art of ‘coalitions’, the art of ‘absorption’ and the principles of ‘cooperation.’” That is the context that ISNA’s interfaith alliances need to be put in.

After my last article on NorthWood Church was published, a reader emailed me to say that he posted it to the Facebook page of the church and the personal page of Pastor Roberts. It didn’t take long for it to be deleted. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.

This blog post originally appeared as an article on the First Things website.