THE VISION OF HEAVEN

"Later I looked again, and before my eyes a door stood open in Heaven, and in my ears was the voice with a ring of a trumpet, which I had heard at first, speaking to me and saying, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must happen in the future.' Immediately I knew myself to be inspired by the Spirit, and in my vision I saw that a Throne had been set up in Heaven, and there was someone seated upon the Throne. His appearance blazed like diamond and topaz, and all around the Throne shone a halo like an emerald rainbow. In a circle around the Throne there were twenty-four thrones and seated upon them twenty-four Elders dressed in white with golden crowns upon their heads. From the central Throne came flashes of lightning, noises and peals of thunder. Seven lamps are burning before the Throne, and they are the seven Spirits of God. In front of the Throne there appears a sea of glass as clear as crystal."

(Revelation 4:1-6)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

"It seems to me that just in the ratio as newspapers increase, our morals decay. The more newspapers, the worse the morals. Where we have one newspaper that does good, we have fifty that do harm. We ought to look on the establishment of a newspaper in a virtuous village as a calamity."

(Mark Twain)

"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is."

(Winston Churchill)

"A bad man is worse when he pretends to be a saint."

(Francis Bacon)

LEAGUE BANQUET A SUCCESS AS RABBI DANIEL LAPIN SAYS "ALL EYES ARE ON MAINE"

The League's annual banquet saw a larger than usual turnout this year, with more people asking for tickets than the League had available. But in the end everyone managed to find a seat at what turned out to be a very entertaining event. The banquet started with a delightful and inspiring song by Paulie Heath about God's presence and glory being in both the weak and the strong.

There followed brief remarks by Mike Heath, Paul Madore, Rabbi Lapin and David Parker. During a question and answer session Parker emphasized his belief that there will be many parents in Maine who will run afoul of the gay rights movement if the Governor's sexual orientation law is not repealed. Parker is of course, the dedicated father from Lexington, Massachusetts who was arrested after he insisted on being notified when his son was being taught that gay sex is normal. Parker also said that sexual orientation laws are "the spearhead of a movement which wants to indoctrinate schoolchildren into the belief that homosexuality is normal."

Paul Madore emphasized the need for the friends and supporters of the League to speak out courageously on this issue.

The highlight of the evening was the speech by Rabbi Lapin, who fascinated the audience with evidence of how the Bible underlies every part of our civilization from the institution of marriage to the use of a seven-day week. Rabbi Lapin pointed out that Western civilization is a Biblical civilization, and that the contest between religion and secular humanism  (which the Rabbi called 'secular fundamentalism') - is in reality a contest of "God versus government" as a solution to man's problems. 

Referring to the Governor's sexual orientation law, Rabbi Lapin said that "the eyes of the entire country are now on Maine," and that if the gay rights and same-sex marriage lobby is allowed to prevail "it will lead to the end of American civilization."

Rabbi Lapin seemed to have struck a chord with the audience. Many nodded in agreement during the speech, and here and there throughout the room you could hear a "That's right!" or a quiet "Amen!"

Awards were given to Representative James M. Hamper of Oxford as Legislator of the Year; to Christiana Poole as Board Member of the Year, and to Dan Riley, for his work on the Citizen's Petition.

PRESS STATEMENT

On Friday, the League issued the following Press Statement on the start of the Coalition for Marriage campaign.

Statement by Michael S. Heath, Executive Director of the Christian Civic League of Maine at the Senator Inn on Friday, October 7, 2005 at 4:30 p.m. regarding the Coalition for Marriage campaign.

Today we are beginning our campaign to “Preserve Marriage and Protect Maine” in which we hope to persuade the voters of Maine to vote YES on Question 1 on Election Day, November 8, 2005. 

No vote has ever been more important to the people of Maine. At stake is the most basic principle of our democratic form of government, that government will be led by the will of the people, and that no special interest group or faction within government will be allowed to overrule their wishes. Also at stake are the most basic institutions of our society – marriage and the family. Thus, no issue could ever be of more importance to the people of Maine.

The Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Maine never envisioned the principle of group citizenship. The authors of these documents never intended that any group or individual would be singled out for special privileges. In a democracy, it is unthinkable that the will of a minority should be allowed to prevail over the will of the majority, which is exactly what the current law attempts to do.

The media are our greatest challenge. Our newspapers and our airwaves have gone beyond simple bias to actually campaigning for the other side. In the process, a great American institution, a free and impartial press, is being destroyed by those who are willing to undermine their own credibility in order to achieve a short-term victory.  I will note that the leading spokesman for the other side was once the leading spokesman for the Portland Press Herald. Every fair-minded American knows this is wrong.

In the next thirty-one days we will do our best to bring our message to the people of Maine despite the partisanship of the press. We intend to do this through debates, speeches, question and answer sessions, and through the online newspaper of The Christian Civic League of Maine, which is called, appropriately enough The RECORD. In addition to our online newspaper, we have other resources on the worldwide web, and these are as follows:
 
www.christiancivicleague.org
www.coalitionformarriage.net
www.christianeducationleague.org
www.mainegrassrootscoalition.org

Since this is the third time the citizens of Maine are being forced to vote on this issue, it is only just and fair they hear everything both sides have to say.

We are confident that once the citizens learn the truth about this radical law, we will, with God’s help, succeed.

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD REPORTS RESULTS OF BIASED STUDY AS GOSPEL TRUTH

In a partisan effort to hide the obvious connection between the Governor's sexual orientation law and the nationwide push for gay marriage, the Portland Press Herald has reported the conclusions of a group of forty-seven lawyers who have studied the Governor's sexual orientation law. The opinion of the lawyers is that there is no such connection, and the headline in the Portland Press Herald proclaims "Lawyers: Discrimination law not linked to marriage."

The same "conclusions" from the study also appear on the Maine Won't Discriminate website.

But not so fast! Only when we read on do we see the names of those who made up the group of lawyers - and they include none other than the Governor himself, and Senator Barry Hobbins, who helped push the bill through the legislature.

For the Portland Press Herald to claim that the Governor can render an objective opinion on a bill he himself supports is laughable, and an insult to the intelligence of the people of Maine. But that didn't stop the Portland Press Herald from trying. It is reminiscent of the make-believe "Hoax Crimes" that gay activists invent in order to drum up support for their cause. But all this smoke and mirrors comes as no surprise - there is so little evidence for their side of the issue, that politicians and their allies in the media have to resort to making it up as they go along.