May, 2019

Founder’s Page

Dear CIC Supporters & Friends,

Recently God has been impressing upon me the importance of watching and listening for His activity in my life. The movement of His hand in my life has reawakened an awareness of the fact that God works miracles in my life - some small and some large - on a regular basis.

For 14 years God has led me to advocate for sex education (health) curriculum in Hillsborough County Schools that actually encourages students to avoid having sex and provides “sexual risk avoidance” techniques to assist them. The curriculum that has been being used is referred to as “abstinence plus” and it encourages students to use condoms so they will be “safe” when they engage in sexual activity. In spite of my requests, the people in charge of the sex ed curriculum were committed to abstinence plus so my pleas fell on deaf ears.

Through a movement of God’s hand, the key people who had been involved in the selection of the health curriculum (one School Board member and one administrator) are no longer with the School District. Their exit was followed by the selection of an administrator who has used sexual risk avoidance material in her classroom when she was a teacher. There is now also now a School Board member, Melissa Snively, who is actively in favor of implementing curriculum that helps students develop a strong sense of family and shows them how to avoid risky behavior.

These “people” changes have opened the door for me to recommend a curriculum that focuses on healthy relationships and risk behavior avoidance. The name of the curriculum is REAL Essentials.  It is making a meaningful positive difference in the lives of student around the country and here in Florida. The effort is progressing and there is a possibility that REAL Essentials will be selected and our students and community will benefit.

On top of that, here’s another miracle! A good friend leads a nationally known ministry that deals with individuals and families trying to work through issues of unwanted same-sex attractions and sexual confusion. He was contacted by a representative of an international network of Christian schools and asked if he could recommend a good sex-ed curriculum. He receives this newsletter so knew about the work we’re doing on this issue and contacted me. I put him in contact with the company that developed REAL Essentials, the Center for Relationship Education.

So God has not only opened the door to the possibility of seeing students in Hillsborough County benefit from the positive message in REAL Essentials, there may be schools around the world where it will be being used.

One final thought on this. Richard Mast, the attorney I work with at Liberty Counsel, just let me know that there is a - you may have guessed this - sex ed curriculum battle going on right now in Pinellas County. God has already created some connections with parents and school district employees who are concerned and ready to get involved. We’ll see what God has in mind.

There are two items that are frequently in the “fake news” that almost never fail to bug me. One is “evolution”. Writers write about is as if it were fact. The fact is that it’s a theory! It’s not been replicated. The headline of a recent article in the Times trumpeted: “We have a new cousin.” The headline went on to say: “Discovery adds to humankind’s family tree.” Just a couple quotes from the article: “It’s yet another reminder that, although Homo sapiens is now the only surviving member of our branch or the evolutionary tree, we’ve had company most of our existence.” “And it makes our understanding of human evolution in Asia “messier, more complicated and whole lot more interesting.”

Like the “Trump collusion hoax”, the authors jump to conclusions about evolution and treat it as a given, even though there’s no real proof, simply because it matches the narrative they want to advance.

Climate change is the other and there’s an article in this edition of Christian Citizenship In Action.

Please continue to help me stay on the front lines of the battle for our culture.

Together we can make a difference!

God bless you,

Terry

Letters to Editor or Elected Official

Parents Know Best And Should Be Involved!

Re: “House backs abortion change“

(My note) The writer refers to this bill codifying a parent’s right to be involved in the life and death abortion issue with a minor daughter as “controversial”. When an opponent asked the bill sponsor whether she had spoken with counselors regarding the issue, the writer says, “… she admitted [rather than: “… she stated] that she hadn’t.” In this subtle way, opinion is converted into “news”.

Dear Editor:

There was outrage among parents when the Florida Supreme Court said in 1989 that parents had no right to be involved in a minor daughter’s life altering decision on whether or not to have an abortion. As with many courts in our country, the majority of the Florida judges chose to “find a meaning in the Florida Constitution” that enabled them to come up with a ruling based on their own personal preferences rather than on the law.

The ruling begged the questions, “Does a 15 or 16 or 17-year-old have the maturity and depth of experience to fully grasp the significance of taking the life of her unborn child. Does she comprehend the dangers to her own physical and mental health that potentially lies ahead as the result of having had an abortion?”

And the same questions should be asked with respect to minor children who are being pushed to “change their sex”. At the same time minor children are being encouraged in some Tampa Bay school districts to “become” the opposite sex, they aren’t being advised of the significant health risks of a lifetime of taking “cross-sex hormones”. There isn’t any suggestion to girls that they might want to think through the implications of having a double mastectomy and hysterectomy to “become” a boy. Boys aren’t urged to think about the long-term significance of having their genitals removed.

In Pasco County, the school district policy adds insult to injury by including specific instructions for teachers and staff on how to keep parents in the dark about their children’s “sex-change” choices.

 Let’s pray the notification question comes back to the FL Supreme Court that the current judges will render a decision that follows the meaning of the FL Constitution. Add to that prayer the hope that the Legislature will step in and protect parents’ rights in the area of their children’s “sex change” choices and the Court will uphold those protections as they have with Tampa’s ban on counseling for minors who are struggling with same sex attractions.

We Should Vote On School Board Term Limits!

Re: “School board terms up in air“

Dear Editor:

All politicians should be term limited! With very few exceptions, the siren song of power and money seduces even the most stalwart elected official into compromise.

Allen Altman is quoted as saying about the Legislature’s 8-year term limits, “What we have seen as a result of term limits in the Legislature is a staff and lobbyist driven process.” With or without term limits the entrenched staff will have a tremendous influence on setting the direction that most legislation takes. As a veteran of many efforts to have an impact on legislation, I know that the way to affect the path and content of bills working their way through the process is to talk with the elected officials and to work with their aides.

As far as the influence of lobbyists, here’s a quote from the business world that applies: “People do business with their friends.” That applies equally with lobbyists. Lobbyists are business people. The method used by the successful ones is to be friendly and become friends with those they are trying to influence. The longer elected officials and their aides are exposed to friendly overtures from the lobbyists, the more likely that they become friends.

Once the lobbyists’ have become friends, elected officials are not deciding on the issue, they’re weighing whether or not they want to help out their friends.

Deranged Media Continues To Attack Trump!

Re: “Plenty of black marks against the President“

Dear Editor:

It’s distressing that any major metropolitan newspaper in America would want the President of the United States to be found guilty of working with a foreign government to the detriment of our country. It’s even more upsetting when the newspaper is, unfortunately, the only major daily that services the area I live in.

I didn’t take the time to count the number of editorials, op-eds, and “news” articles that have appeared in the Times over the past two years that either implicitly or explicitly accused the President of “colluding” with Russia. I couldn’t help but notice that in this morning’s paper, with the two+ year witch hunt over and no collusion found, there was no announcement of that important fact. Instead, the focus was on ways that Democrats and the lamestream media can continue to harass President Trump in an attempt to thwart his agenda.

The most important change that can take place in America today is for the “news” media to get back to its roots of being a watchdog and stop being a lap dog

Parents Have Rights!

Re: “Parent vs. student rights”

Dear Editor:

It’s telling that lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-q activists will do everything they can to keep the parents of minors who are experiencing homosexual or “transgender” feelings from learning about it. If young people are experiencing these sexual conditions and want to enter counseling, the activists and their allies in the school system want them to go to counselors who will affirm them in their feelings, even if the feelings are unwanted.

They press schools not to tell parents so parents won’t try to get them counseling that might help the students overcome unwanted sexual attractions. They push for cities and states to ban counseling for young people who are experiencing sexual confusion unless the counseling affirms them in the rightness of the condition that leads to the confusion.

The reason for this adamant pressure is to try to protect the “they’re born that way” lie. With all the money spent by the homosexual lobby to try and prove the “born that way” lie, if they were really born that way the proof would have been found. Actually, the research has shown just the opposite. Homosexuality is not genetic.

The reality of the way this plays out is revealed in the situation that took place at Chasco Middle School in Pasco County. A girl who thinks she’s a boy was allowed into the boys’ locker room for gym class. Neither the boys, not the boys’ parents had been advised that this was about to happen. It’s not clear whether the girl’s parents had been told, but according to the procedure put in place by Superintendent Kurt Browning, if the girl didn’t want her parents told they wouldn’t be told.

Think about that. A government entity that is responsible for the health and wellbeing of all the public school children in the county has a policy that directs its employees to put young girls and boys in situations that are potentially dangerous, and certainly violates their right to privacy. Is that what the role of government, and especially school districts, is supposed to be?

One final note, when the girl entered the locker room the boys ran out in a mass exodus!

More On Climate Change!

I don’t think anyone suggests that there isn’t climate change going on. There is even general agreement that man’s activities have some impact on climate. What people do argue is just how much of climate change is a result of man’s activities.

Still, there are two groups of people who stand to benefit from the acceptance of “man made” climate change. One is the “scientific” community that makes big money by gathering the data - much of which has proven to be fabricated - and by writing the software programs that are used to validate the “man is responsible for climate change” hypothesis.

The other group is made up of people in positions of political power. If they’re able to use the “scientific” data to convince enough people that humans are responsible, then it dramatically increases their power. If they’re able to tax carbon emissions it greatly enhances their control of the body politic (us). It also creates a tremendous pool of money they can use to further consolidate their power.

Then there’s the media. I’m not sure exactly how they benefit except that their “chicken little” protestations may increase sales of their respective media offerings. Things you’ll notice if you pay attention are their reports of record high temperatures in one location this month when it was record low temperatures somewhere else last month.

It seems that for some there is a desire to take a less hysterical look at this issue. There seems to be a gravitation toward taking a reasonable stab at finding out what is actually causing the current changes in climate. Once that’s determined - if it is and the reason is found to be more than natural causes - then the ingenuity of man can be set to the task of trying to develop a means to counter it.

 A Look At Persecution Of The President!

All the brouhaha being made about  “obstruction of justice” is simply a continuation to invalidate President Trump’s victory in 2016. You all are probably already aware of most or all of this, but please allow me to point out some facts that are glaringly obvious to me. Overall, these are not in any particular order of importance although the first few are pretty key.

· It isn’t a special prosecutor’s job to exonerate someone.

· The Mueller probe was supposed to determine if the President had colluded with Russia.

· Even if he had, that’s not a crime but could have led to a successful impeachment trial.

· Mueller found that there was no collusion.

· The Mueller tried to find or manufacture obstruction charges against the President.

· They couldn’t find any actions that would constitute illegal obstruction.

· The Mueller team was made up of anti-Trump activists whose desire, I believe was to find a way to find guilt in the President’s actions.

· Since they couldn’t find anything with which to destroy the President they did what they could to empower Congressional Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings.,

· That’s the reason for the list of 10 so-called “obstruction activities”, the claim that Mueller couldn’t exonerate the President, and the statement that it would have to be up to Congress ot make a final determination.

  statement that it would have to be up to Congress to make a final determination.

· Democrats in the House know they don’t have what they need to warrant impeachment.

· They know that if they harass the President with meaningless investigations it will make it harder for him to “Make America Great Again”.

· They talk about impeachment so that their harassment seems less obstructionist.

· The whole thing is actually about thwarting President Trump and putting Democrats back in the position of power in America.

· What they fail to recognize is that thwarting President Trump is the un-American and potentially treasonous action.

We need to be vigilant to make sure that we’re aware of the tricks that are being played so that we can keep our friends and family up-to-date. The 2020 elections are much closer than they appear on the calendar. Candidates are already signing up and issues of importance are bubbling up to the top.

We need to pray that Democrats in Washington come to their senses. If they fail to do that, then we need to pray that they’re booted out of office by voters.