The Short Session
Christian Action League

RALEIGH — It may be called the short session, but there was no shortage of issues being batted about in the General Assembly in 2010 and certainly no shortage of opportunities for the Christian Action League to educate lawmakers, mobilize the faith community and ensure the biblical worldview was effectively represented in the state legislature.

While countering the push from the gambling industry for legalization, regulation and taxation of video gambling, the CAL succeeded in getting a ban on video sweepstakes gaming by lobbying lawmakers with daily briefings and creating various pressures from their constituents. CAL also labored to keep privatization of liquor sales out of the state and worked side by side with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, the North Carolina Local ABC Boards, and various legislative study committees to help formulate the historic ABC Modernization Bill.

As in the past, the Legislature’s leadership kept the Defense of Marriage Act and a bill to create a “Choose Life” specialty plate locked up in committee, and lawmakers passed up an opportunity to keep Sunday hunting at bay. Nonetheless, legislators heard from the CAL on these and numerous other issues, many of which are explained below. Read the rest of this entry »

Christian Action League/American Family Association

For several years, The Home Depot has given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America’s towns. And, it says it will continue to do so!

“At the end of the day here, we’re not going to…forbid our associates to be involved in these pride festivals in any way.” – Stephen Holmes, company spokesman. (Note: The associates participating in these parades were clearly doing so as representatives of the company.)

Rejecting several requests by the American Family Association to remain neutral in the culture war, The Home Depot has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals. Most grievous is The Home Depot’s deliberately exposing small children to lascivious displays of sexual conduct by homosexuals and cross-dressers, which are a common occurrence at these events.

The goal of every homosexual organization supported by The Home Depot is to get homosexual marriage legalized. BoycottTheHomeDepot provides just a glimpse of how broad its support for the homosexual movement is. The Home Depot says it is committed to furthering the homosexual agenda. Read the rest of this entry »

By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League

SHALLOTTE — College is often considered the “marketplace of ideas” — an environment to challenge students’ thinking and help them find out where they fit. But if your teen shows up there without a strong grasp of the truth, what ideas will he have to offer? Or perhaps more frightening, what beliefs will he be willing to buy?

Organizers of the Coastal Christian Worldview Weekend set for Saturday, Sept. 11, at First Baptist Church of Shallotte, are offering a chance for students to prepare themselves to take a stand for God’s truth.

“Challenges to a distinctly Christian worldview are proliferating in our culture, and many Christians are simply not well-equipped to address these issues and to respond to challenges to their faith,” said the Rev. Bob Weathers, pastor of First Baptist of Shallotte. “We want to encourage and equip Christians to answer challenges to the Christian worldview and to participate in a ministry of pre-evangelism (apologetics) as the Lord might give them an opportunity.” Read the rest of this entry »

Rules of Professional Conduct would include “sexual orientation,” and “gender identity.”
North Carolina Family Policy Council

The North Carolina State Bar is considering adopting a controversial provision that could threaten the First Amendment rights of attorneys throughout the state who object to the promotion of homosexuality. The proposed amendment to the Preamble of the Rules of Professional Conduct would include the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in a list of nondiscrimination categories. The proposed amendment states, “While employed or engaged in a professional capacity, a lawyer should not discriminate on the basis of a person’s race, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. This responsibility of non-discrimination does not prohibit a lawyer’s advocacy on any issue.” If the proposed amendment is approved by the Ethics Committee and the Executive Committee of the State Bar Council in their meetings on July 22, the entire State Bar Council would vote on the proposed provision on July 23. Read the rest of this entry »

Lawmakers do the hokey-poke with lottery funds
By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League

RALEIGH — “You put your ticket money in; they take some prize money out; they mark the rest for education but then they shift it all about …”

The lottery hokey-pokey has become an all too familiar dance in Raleigh since 2005 when lawmakers created a state-run gambling program with promises, pledges and pleas — “it’s all for education!” — and then proceeded with a budgeting shell game that makes it next to impossible to tell if any additional funding ever actually makes it to the classroom.

“Anyone who believed then that the lottery would bring extra money to schools rather than just supplant tax dollars should be better educated now,” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “We’re following the path of virtually every state that has enacted a lottery, adding some of the proceeds to the chosen beneficiary and then taking away much of the tax money designated for that cause in the first place. It’s like every other kind of gambling — in the long run, there simply are no winners.” Read the rest of this entry »

By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League

RALEIGH — The North Carolina House of Representatives will take a close look at its guest chaplain policy after a Winston-Salem pastor says he was asked not to pray in Jesus’ name.

Ron Baity, pastor of Berean Baptist Church and president of Return America, told the media that after reviewing a copy of the prayer he intended to deliver, the House Clerk asked him on May 31 not to include the mention of Jesus because it might be offensive to some. He told her that he was highly offended when asked not to pray in Jesus name because doing so is an integral part of his faith.

Baity was allowed to offer his prayer that day without any interference but was also informed his services would not be required for the next three days. He had initially been invited to give the opening convocation each day through June 3. Read the rest of this entry »

By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League

RALEIGH — The video poker mole was whacked once again Wednesday when the N.C. House approved a ban of electronic sweepstakes. The 86-27 vote that set Dec. 1 as the “game over” date for the hundreds of mini-casinos popping up across the state came after more than two hours of sometimes heated debate.

“This was not an easy vote for many lawmakers. We applaud those who stood firm in the face of intense pressure from the gambling industry,” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “Video poker is one of the most addictive forms of gambling, so our hope is that folks who are caught up by these games will seek help now without even waiting for the cyber cafes to shut down this fall.” Read the rest of this entry »

By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League

RALEIGH — Lawmakers who spent countless hours over the past six months developing a bill to help modernize the state Alcohol Beverage Control System may have felt like raising a toast Thursday when the House concurred with the Senate-approved version of the bill — 16 pages that address everything from ABC store manager salaries and budgeting procedures to nepotism, contracts for alcohol law enforcement and more.

“I’ve been doing a lot of work on alcohol legislation over the years, and Rep. Warren (Ray Warren, D-Alexander) did the best job I’ve ever seen,” Pryor Gibson (D-Anson) told fellow House members Thursday as he urged the bill’s passage.

Warren, who co-chaired the Legislative Joint Study Committee on ABC along with Sen. Don Vaughan (D-Guilford), had earlier called the bill the result of a “long journey” that began with input from dozens of stakeholders. Read the rest of this entry »

‘No remedy via the legislature for this new rule’, says Director, ‘Sunday hunting is now legal after nearly 150 years’
By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League

RALEIGH — The Senate’s State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday shot down a bill that would have given residents of Watauga County a chance to vote on whether to accept the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission’s new Sunday hunting provisions. The defeat means that for the first time in more than a century, Sunday hunting — in the form of bow hunting and falconry — will be allowed from North Carolina’s mountains to its coast.

“Although the new rules do not include hunting with a gun, we can assure you that it is step one toward allowing all hunting on the Lord’s Day,” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “We had not championed the Watauga bill but instead hoped lawmakers would see the wisdom in House Bill 1930, legislation that would have completely repealed the Wildlife Resources Commission’s rule change.” Read the rest of this entry »

Support HB 80 – Ban Electronic Sweepstakes
Only a few days left in the session, your lawmaker needs to hear from you now!!!

Video poker was outlawed in 2006, but since that time two Superior Court Judges issued injunctions against applying the current ban to a new form of gambling becoming more and more prevalent in North Carolina known as Video Sweepstakes.

Rep. Ray Rapp (D-Madison), a longtime leader in the fight against video poker, told the Asheville Citizen Times that about five video sweepstakes parlors open every day in North Carolina. Researchers say that video gambling is “the most addictive form of gambling in history”, as opposed to other forms such as horse racing, sports betting, blackjack, the lottery, etc., which can take up to three years to form an addiction, while video gambling only takes a year. (R.B. Breen and Zimmerman, “Rapid onset of pathological gambling in machine gamblers,” Journal of Gambling Studies, vol. 18, No. 1, 2002, 21 August 2003) These video sweepstakes parlors are essentially mini-casinos that are spreading like a wild-fire.

This is why on June 21, the North Carolina Senate approved HB 80 – Ban Electronic Sweepstakes by a margin of 47-1, making it crystal clear that not only was video poker not wanted in this state, but also any electronic games that mimic it. Yet the House has not acted on the measure and time is running out. The North Carolina General Assembly is expected to adjourn by the end of this week. Read the rest of this critical entry