Home ›

Faith and Freedom Institute

Printer-friendly version Send to friend

Fringe RW Group Demands Control Over Obama's Language ... and His Impeachment

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on July 23, 2010 - 2:38pm

Last year, a new Religious Right organization was formed to fight the "satanic wickedness" that was engulfing America. Calling itself the Faith and Freedom Institute, the group held a sparsely-attended press conference/prayer rally and then ... who knows ... we stopped paying attention to them.

But now they are back, picking up on the Religious Right's latest bogus crusade against President Obama for supposedly using the phrase "freedom of worship" instead of "freedom of religion." 

And just because it's entirely false, the Faith and Freedom Institute isn't about to let that stop them from sending a letter to Obama demanding that he publicly "retract" all previous uses of the phrase and cease all future one:

It is with great concern that we have watched your rhetorical shift in terminology, choosing to use the phrase “freedom of worship” rather than “freedom of religion.” We’ve noted your use of that phrase (“freedom of worship”) at the Ft. Hood memorial service in November of 2009, as well as your utilization of the same during speeches in Japan and China.

While some may deem the words “worship” and “religion” to be synonymous, and thus interchangeable, they are most definitely not! The First Amendment of the United States Constitution uses the word “religion” and states unequivocally that Congress cannot prohibit the “free exercise” of said “religion.” Your use of the word “worship” implies that we have freedom ONLY within the confines of structures set aside for religious expression (i.e. churches, synagogues, etc.). This is not only a gross departure from the original intent of the First Amendment, but is also the first step toward eliminating faith expression in the public marketplace (i.e. display of religious symbols on public land, printing of religious materials for the purpose of evangelizing, public discussion of faith, etc.).

Mr. President, we call on you to retract all past use of this incorrect and misleading phrase, “freedom of worship,” and cease all future use of the same. We also call on you to acknowledge America’s Christian heritage as is clearly evidenced in our Founding Documents and the overwhelming abundance of statements from our Founding Fathers.

But on the off chance that doesn't work, it looks like the group has a back-up plan - impeachment: 

According to Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution, the President of the United States “shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” It is the opinion of the members of The Faith and Freedom Institute that the current President of the United States of America, Barack H. Obama, has compiled a number of personal offenses that qualify him for impeachment from the office of the presidency. Among those offenses are the following:

A. The act of not providing a clear copy of his official and complete birth certificate indicating that he is a natural born citizen of the United States of America as is called for in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution where it reads, “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States…shall be eligible to the office of the President.”

B. The act governing contrary to the spirit of the Constitution by the establishing of numerous “czars” who have no accountability to Congress, but who answer to the President alone.

C. The act of subverting United States sovereignty by bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia.

D. The intrusive act of confiscating private industry, (i.e., the take over of General Motors Corporation, Chrysler, and Bank of America – even dictating employees salaries), thereby making them accountable to the President alone.

E. The incessant desire to develop a civilian militia or military style organization that would be “as well funded and organized as the United States military,” to operate exclusively at the discretion of the President.

F. The overt attempt to force national health care on businesses and individuals, who oppose such, through creating a public health care option that would place individual insurance companies in competition with the United States Government.

G. The act of disregarding the law of the United States of America by not publicly recognizing the National Day of Prayer which was signed into law in 1952 by President Harry S. Truman.

H. The act of appointing to high level positions persons of questionable integrity who display treasonous animosity toward the United States (i.e., Van Jones, former “Environmental Czar”; Kevin Jennings, “Safe School Czar”; FCC head Mark Lloyd, etc.) and whose actions violate the letter and spirit of our national philosophy.

I. The act of violating the oath of the presidency by neglecting to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

TFFI actually issued this impeachment demand in October of last year. So I guess that'll teach us to ignore them, especially now that we see that Faith and Action's Rob Schenck will be speaking at TFFI's upcoming conference in September.

PFAW
Filed under:

The Faith and Freedom Institute Kindly Reminds Us: "It's Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve"

Submitted by Anonymous on July 13, 2009 - 1:03pm

Last week, I mentioned that the Faith and Freedom Institute was following in the footsteps of so many other right-wing organizations by conducting a sort of "save America" prayer vigil. We went down to check the event out, which took place outside the gates of the north side of the White House. Unfortunately for Gary Dull and the Faith and Freedom Institute, it seems we were the only ones there, apart from their film crew and a few tourists driving by on Segways.

Dull continued down his path of mediocre mimicking by using the Right's time-honored catchphrase of "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." Later, he equated male-male couples with that of a person and a dog, claiming that if we legalize gay marriage then the next step would be legalization of relationships between a man and a dog.

While you can't blame him for trying, I think the turnout alone (or lack thereof) is evidence that Dull needs to either get a new message or join one of the myriad of other right-wing organizations using the same, tired, rhetoric.

PFAW
Filed under:

I Wonder Why No One Ever Thought of Holding a Prayer Vigil Before

Submitted by Anonymous on July 7, 2009 - 4:20pm

Gary Dull, leader of the Faith and Freedom Institute, who has also promised to rid America of its "satanic wickedness", has announced a prayer vigil that will take place tomorrow outside the White House. The purpose behind the vigil, among other things, is "to warn America that God may indeed bring judgment on the land if repentance is not conducted."

As Dull puts it, there are three objectives of the vigil:

1) To pray for America, as it is evident that the nation is rapidly falling away from the Judeo-Christian values upon which she was established.

2) To call America back to God by repenting of national and personal sins which have angered God.

3) To warn America that God may indeed bring judgment on the land if repentance is not conducted.

As Kyle previously noted, the Faith and Freedom Institute joins a seemingly endless group of right-wing organizations that promote the very same cause. And, like many of those groups, Dull has chosen to take the entirely predictable step of holding a "save America" prayer vigil.

Dull was unoriginal in his forming of a group to defend the ten commandments and Christmas, and he's unoriginal now in holding a prayer vigil like so many identical right-wing groups have done before him.

PFAW
Filed under:

Because What America Needs Now Is Another Right-Wing Group

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on March 24, 2009 - 11:29am

We've already written a few posts about a new group billing itself as The Faith and Freedom Institute, an affiliate of Faith and Action, which has pledged to rid America of "satanic wickedness" and bring the nation to Christ "in order to save the nation from the judgment of God."

Now WJAC TV in Pennsylvania has run a short profile of the new group in which its leader, Gary Dull, asserts that they are needed now more than ever because the Ten Commandments and Christmas are under attack and warns that "since we've taken God out of the center of what we are doing as a nation, we see so many adverse effects" and we are now on a "downward slope":

An Altoona pastor is receiving national attention as he's joined forces with two other ministries in an effort he said will bring America back to its Christian roots.

Pastor Gary Dull of the Faith Baptist Church in Altoona is one of the leaders spearheading the "Faith and Freedom Institute."

"When we look back in history we find that many times when the nation came up against a crisis, such as we are today, with the economic crisis, the national leaders would literally call for prayer," Dull said.

The institute's mission is to educate Americans on the Christian values that our country was founded on.

Dull said he's hoping to host a pastor's conference in the fall.

He's been in touch with other pastors in Florida, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Illinois. He's hoping other church leaders will be the first to spread the institute's message to their congregations.

The institute is also planning a radio talk show, "Sound of the Trumpet." It's expected to start this summer.

There are already dozen, if not hundreds, of groups just like this all over the country and, from what little we've been able to garner from the limited press this new group has received, nothing the Faith and Freedom Institute is going to do is going to be in any way different from anything all of the other groups are doing.

Defending the Ten Commandment and Christmas?  Please, there are literally dozens of groups with the same mission.  Reversing the nation's "downward spiral" into Godless?  Get in line behind Vision America, Faith 2 Action, Wallbuilders, and the countless other groups created for the very same purpose.

Is Dull really unaware that there are already multiple groups doing the very same thing that his new groups intends to do?  Does he really think that what is needed now is one more right-wing group to add its voice to the cacaphony? 

Frankly, if these sorts of right-wing efforts were effective, Dull's group wouldn't even be necessary as the dozens of other groups committed to this same mission would have already saved the Ten Commandments and Christmas and reversed the nation's descent into heathenism.

But they haven't, as evidenced by that fact that Dull thinks that what is needed is a new group dedicated to exactly the same mission.

PFAW
Filed under:

Say Hello to The Faith and Freedom Institute and Goodbye to "Satanic Wickedness"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on March 6, 2009 - 2:40pm

Yesterday we mentioned that there was a new Faith and Action affiliated right-wing group on the scene calling itself the Faith and Freedom Institute that believes that our nation's myriad of problems are caused by our "rejection of God and His values." NBC's Lauren Appelbaum reports that they are out to fix that:

In the wake of James Dobson retiring from Focus on the Family, leaving a possible vacuum of power in evangelical leadership, Dr. Gary Dull and other Christian leaders are forming The Faith and Freedom Institute to combat "satanic wickedness" in order to return America to a foundation of Biblical principles.

"America was founded with a spiritual basis, but there are those who want to make it a purely secular nation," Dull said near Capitol Hill Thursday. "Because of the rejection of God and His values, we can expect nothing but His judgment. All one needs to do is to read in history and find out how that when a nation forgot God, God forgot the nation."

That is where Dull says the Faith and Freedom Institute plans to step in. According to Dull, the Institute "is being formed to lead America back to the knowledge of God in order to save the nation from the judgment of God."

"Without a doubt, we believe that there is a definite agenda to destroy America that is being empowered by satanic wickedness and enhanced by Godless citizens," Dull said. "The Faith and Freedom Institute desires to put those who have an adverse vision for America on notice that we will not lie down and allow them to overtake us and our heritage, but that we will intend to stand up and fight for those rights given to us by God Himself and proclaimed by many who committed their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to make America work."

As a result, Dull blamed things like economic failure and moral decline to abortion and same-sex marriages on an idea that "God is being forgotten."

Dull said the new Christian conservative organization would provide educational opportunities in order to motivate leaders to call for a return to God and basic values.

"The Faith and Forum Institute intends to motivate religious, governmental and social leaders, as well as the general public to confess the sins of forgetting God and His word, to repent and turn back to God, and begin to live by the values that made America great," Dull said.

PFAW
Filed under:

Faith And Action's Tangled Web

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on March 5, 2009 - 11:00am

A few weeks back, Faith and Action's Rob Schenck provided a video update in which he reported that Focus on the Family's new lobbyist to Capitol Hill, former Bush administration aide Tim Goeglein, would soon be sharing office space with them.

Shortly after we highlighted the video, Faith and Action yanked it down, but in it Schenck related how their office was actually the office of several allied ministries as well including the Christian Defense Coalition, Priests for Life, the National Pro-Life Action Center, the Judicial Action Group, and the Life Education and Resource Network.

In fact, there are so many different organization operating out of that office and being run by people with ties to Faith and Action that it is almost impossible to tell them apart.  For instance, Schenck and Christian Defense Coalition Director Patrick Mahoney regularly work together, like when they got together to annoint the door through which Barack Obama would walk on his way to his inauguration.

Priests for Life is run by Frank Pavone, who is also a trustee at Faith and Action, as well as president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council and Pastoral Director of Rachel’s Vinyard.

The National Pro-Life Action Center is run by Paul Schenck, Rob's twin brother, who is Chairman of Faith and Action as well as the Chief Operating Officer for National Pro-Life Radio, which itself was founded by Stephen Peroutka, who just so happens to also be the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Pro-Life Action Center.  National Pro-Life Radio's on air broadcasters include Frank Pavone, Paul Schenck, and Rob Schenck, as well as other allies like Day Gardner of the National Black Pro-Life Union and Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice who has his own close ties to Rob and Paul Schenck.

As for Rob Schenck, in addition to being a co-founder of Faith and Action, he is also president of the National Clergy Council. Among the board members of the NCC are Patrick Mahoney of the CDC as well as a man named Gary Dull, who is also an executive board member of Faith and Action.

All of which is a long way of saying that it looks like we'll soon have yet another Faith and Action-related group to try and keep an eye on because Dull is set to announce that he is starting his own new right-wing organization to confront the problem of godlessness in America:

Why is the USA in the midst of a great economic crisis? Why is there so much corruption in government? Why are American marriages breaking up at the rate of nearly 50%? Could it be that there is a root cause that many are overlooking? Could it be that the America we love is facing the judgment of God due to rejecting His laws regarding abortion, same-sex marriages, the public display of God in public spaces, trying to borrow our way into wealth, and the funding of godless programs? It appears that we too often attempt to fix the symptom of the problem, as the root of the problem continues to eat at the very core of the nation.

Today, Faith and Action in the Nation's Capitol, HOPE Ministries of Hickory, NC, and The Way of Truth Ministries of Altoona, PA are announcing the formation of THE FAITH AND FREEDOM INSTITUTE for the purpose of motivating religious, governmental, and community leaders to call our nation back to its basic values defined in historical documents. The vision of TFFI will be to perpetuate true patriotism and generate a genuine desire for biblical values in churches, schools and governmental entities within the USA.

...

Today (March 5) at 4:00 PM, a press conference will be held by the organizers to TFFI at the headquarters of the Faith and Action Ministry at 109 2nd Street, NW Washington (behind the Supreme Court) to explain the mission and objectives of the organization.

PFAW
Filed under:
Syndicate content