Did you miss it? Rally for Religous Freedom at 10 AM Saturday at Crown Point Courthouse Square!

The picture above? Left to right -  Dr. Ron Johnson, Pastor of Living Stones Church in Crown Point and candidate for State Representative for District 19,  Lake County Right to Life VP Cy Huerter and then the candidate for US First Disctrict Congressional seat Joel Phelps...all three part of the "Stand Up for Religious Freedom" rally held at the Lake County Government Center on October 20th.  Times article link.   

(The FIRST rally.  The second and hopefully even bigger one is scheduled for this Saturday, the 27th at 10 AM in Crown Point's Town Square.  More below)

I have known Dr. Ron Johnson for several years (since back when I could still play basketball), have worked with Len Reynolds and Cy Huerter oftentimes, learned to know and love Joel Phelps...men who work hard to make a difference, willing to work hard to preserve the precious thing that Benjamin Franklin warned us might be hard to do:

"A Republic, madam, if you can hold on to it!"

- Benjamin Franklin, responding to a lady in a crowd, who, at the close of the Constitutional Convention, called out, "Mr. Franklin! What kind of a government have you given us?!"- Sept. 17, 1787


The photo below is from the previously linked Times news article by Susan Brown.

The Times did get the count (over 200 people) pretty close to right.  Quotes in the article were correct.  But the person assigned to write the "cutline" (caption for picture) was clueless.   It was not an "anti-abortion rally!"  Do you even see the word, "abortion" on any of those signs?  No!!!

The rally in Crown Point was part of a nationwide rally (in over 140 cities)  concerning the attack on the Constitutional rights of the American citizens.   Perhaps you have read Declaration of Independence and read these words? 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

We two-hundred plus citizens gathered to protest the attack on our God-given rights!   They called us "anti-abortion."  We are Pro-Life and Pro-Constitution!  Abortion is the murder of our most vulnerable citizens, so we do protest that!   But the HHS Mandate violates both the First and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution - The Bill of Rights!   We were gathered to protest the attack on the first right granted to all citizens - to freely practice our religion!   If we believe murdering babies in the womb is wrong, we'll say so.  If the Congress and the President try to make us PAY for baby-murdering or force hospitals and clinics associated with faith groups MURDER those babies, then it is the government that breaks the law.   Thus we gathered to state this vehemently and clearly!

There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts. - Ronald Reagan

The above clip is from the Democratic National Convention.  Democrats think that we belong to the government and that the Constitution can be toppled by undermining the foundation.   In case you don't know what THAT foundation is, re-read the quote from the Declaration of Independence!

The picture above? Dr. Ron Johnson, Pastor of Living Stones Church in Crown Point and candidate for State Representative for District 19 with a few of his fellow attendees at the rally.

Among the speakers were priests, pastors, organization officials, candidates for public office and an author and Democrat, Woodrow Wilcox, who eloquently stated a case many Democrats find themselves making as they view the 2012 election -that he was going to vote the pro-Obamacare bums OUT!  He makes a reasoned case for overturning Obamacare on AmericanClarion.com - ObamaCare Ignores Religious Freedom but I will give you a small part of his impassioned plea:

"I say that these Democrats from Indiana who voted for Obamacare, and any Democrats or others who voted for or who now support Obamacare, should be expelled from the Congress in this election," said Woodrow Wilcox, the author and Democrat from Griffith.  "Slaves do not have the right to refuse to do work because it violates their religion..."  

Wilcox then made the case that being forced to purchase insurance by the government and being forced to pay for or take part in euthanasia or abortion effectively makes the US citizens slaves to the government.  "Every politician who is PRO-OBAMACARE is PRO-SLAVERY!"  

"We own the government, not the politicians!"  Joel Phelps reminded the crowd.   Phelps is running against long-time Democrat Pete Visclosky, who did vote for Obamacare and kept voting to keep it going.  Visclosky has firmly declared that he will back Barack Obama's Healthcare Mandate.

Dr. Ron Johnson gave an inspiring speech!  He had a fistful of notes but the wind picked up and he spoke from his heart and mind rather than trying to read from his prepared remarks.   I believe he said some profound things, first quoting some Founding Fathers -

"No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority." - Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and President

"Consciences of men are not the objects of human legislation." - Governor (and Constitution signee) William Livingston

"Security under our constitution is given to the rights of conscience..."A Federalist Papers author and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,  John Jay  

Then Dr. Ron made these key points:

1. God is the source of our liberty
2. Our duty to God precedes any duty we have to the State
3. Government exists to secure God-given, inalieanable rights
4. Therefore, the right to religious liberty must be protected by government

So many fine speakers, such as Lake County Right to Life President Len Reynolds and several clergymen and Indiana Knights of Columbus pro-life director Michael Velasco made stirring remarks.  But it was a priest from the former Yugoslavia and another from Romania who really caught my attention.   Both men recalled growing up under communist tyranny, being threatened with imprisonment and being fined and tossed into jail and offfered bribes to "spy" on their congregations.  Both were horrified at finding that here, in America, these kinds of oppression were  beginning to sneak up on us.

The wind made some notes a victim and since I only remember the first names of these two gentlemen, I will add their full and official names and titles later.   But now I have a question for you.

ARE YOU GOING TO LET AMERICA BECOME A TYRANNICAL SOCIALIST COUNTRY OR NOT?   IF NOT, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
OCTOBER 27th at the Crown Point Courthouse in the square.    Citizens of this area are going to peacefully gather,  as allowed by the Constitution, and we are going to have speakers remind us all of the state of the nation and the stakes in this election!   It begins at ten o'clock Saturday morning.   Surely you can take two hours away from home Saturday morning, before college football kicks off, and not only hear exactly what Obamacare does and will do to you and yours but also see that, when it comes to being patriotic, the labels concerning churches and organizations don't matter.  The Coalition for Religious Liberty was formed to protect all religions from those in government who do not respect and/or understand the Constitution.  

Catholics and Protestants and Non-Denominational and Orthodox and all sorts of other worshippers were there on the 20th.   There were Republicans and Democrats and Independents and Libertarians.   Most of us were of voting age, but a few youngsters were there with parents.   No one asked you what you believed in, we just all gathered and some of us held up signs and we listened and applauded and shouted "YES!" or "NO!" at appropriate moments.

I'll close with an excerpt from the book,  When A Nation Forgets God written by Dr. Erwin Lutzer, the pastor of Moody Church for 30 years.   Dr. Ron quoted these words:

“I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it because what could we do to stop it. A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance, and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars. Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews in route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.” And then the eyewitness shared with Pastor Lutzer, “ Although years have passed, I still hear the train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me, forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing to intervene.”


Will you do nothing?  

or

Will you join us at the Crown Point Square at 10 AM Saturday morning?