Family Research Council

Prayer Targets: Liberty; Court Ruling, Assaults on Liberty; Prayer AND Action; Prayer Initiatives


July 03, 2012

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1

Dear Praying Friends,

Puritan Minister Roger Williams (1603-1683) fled England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to persecution over his views on religious liberty. He preached those views in Massachusetts while pastoring churches in Plymouth and later Salem. But in 1635 the General Court in Boston found Williams guilty of both heresy and sedition because of his unrepentant views regarding freedom of conscience and institutional separation of church and state. Sentenced to exile in England, he escaped to Rhode Island. A year later he founded Providence Plantation on land given him by the Narragansett Indians. In 1639, he organized America's first Baptist church upon the principles of free and open worship according to the Scriptures, not to be interfered with by civil authorities. Williams obtained a British colonial charter and became Rhode Island's first President in 1654. His words are pertinent today:

When they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broken down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made His garden a wilderness, as at this day. And that therefore if He will [ever] please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world (Rev. Roger Williams, American Quotations, Federer, 2001).

Samuel Adams, in his The Rights of the Colonists (1772), wrote:

Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.... The supreme power cannot justly take from any man any part of his property, without his consent in person or by his representative... [Government] has no right to absolute, arbitrary power over the lives and fortunes of the people; nor can mortals assume a prerogative not only too high for men, but for angels, and therefore reserved for the exercise of the Deity alone (ibid).

These rights: life, liberty, property and religion, are all violated by Obamacare.

Call2Fall - This past Sunday was a remarkable moment for many churches, individuals and families across America. Nearly 1.4 million believers took to their knees to humble themselves before God, repent of sin, and declare our nation's dependence upon Him. We must press on with prayer and action in the few months remaining before Election Day to re-secure the liberty our Forefathers (and our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters) shed their blood to obtain and preserve. We must preserve "His garden," the church, from the ravages of "the wilderness" - the coarse, unsanctified, increasingly secular and socialist state. The very survival of the economic, political and religious liberties we have taken for granted is in question. Our sacred liberties are under serious, open assault.

Supreme Court Ruling - Last Thursday's shocking ruling by the Roberts court, declaring the Affordable Care Act constitutional, has, as Justice Anthony Kennedy warned, fundamentally changed the relationship between government and the American people. Americans are no longer free men. Congress and the President may now tax the American people without limit, and dictate to Americans people how they must spend their hard earned money, regardless of their own wishes, conscience and religious convictions. In 1819, Daniel Webster asserted, and Chief Justice John Marshall agreed, that "An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy,"

Congress and Other Assaults upon Liberty - Will we stand idly by and allow the exaltation of men and women who will rule over us, and continue to:

  • Expand the welfare state
  • Borrow without restraint
  • Balloon the national debt
  • Impose limitless taxes upon us
  • Perpetuate the slaughter of the unborn
  • Impose homosexual conduct upon our families, states, businesses, schools, churches and private and religious associations?

Will we will allow them to pass ENDA, overturn DOMA and redefine the God-given holy institution of marriage to include the unions of men and men, women and women, with all the benefits society affords married couples, including the adoption of children (those who oppose us are working hard and giving liberally to defeat liberty and to advance their cause in both political parties)? The measure of our children's liberty will be determined by what rank and file American citizens do between now and November. Will we pray and work to secure the election of sufficient numbers of god-fearing men and women to the White House, the U.S. House and Senate, servant-leaders who understand liberty and will stand fearlessly and labor arduously to preserve it?

Prayer AND Action - On the day after Independence Day, it appears 2012 may go down in history either 1) as the year the people of the freest, strongest, most prosperous and spiritually-blessed nation in history embraced lies and lost their sacred liberty (including their liberty to obey God according to their conscience), or 2) the year Americans awakened, turned to the God of the Bible and experienced a rebirth of liberty!

The National Day of Prayer, Call2Fall and Fortnight for Freedom have launched a season of extraordinary prayer, desperately needed between now and November, but we are far from alone. Other significant initiatives we support include:

As we reflect on our Independence, may God help us resolve to pray without ceasing between now and Election Day, 2012; to participate in one or more of the Prayer and Action initiatives planned. May we do spiritual combat as never before and prevail over every effort to rob us and our children of liberty! May the HHS "contraceptive mandate" be reversed and every effort to prohibit prayer proclamations by government leaders and/or to prohibit public prayer and/or the name of Jesus fail. May God's People Pray, take Action, and make their voices known far, wide and effectively between now and November! May efforts to register Christian voters be hugely successful. May this be the year your people take America back to be One Nation Under God! (2 Chr 20:3; Josh 1:9; Joel 2:15 ff; Mt 17:21)

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