China makes everything - except progress on religious liberty.

Happy New Year?  48 Christians Arrested On New Year's Day.

Landlords are forbidden to rent meeting space to Churches.

Beijing authorities detained 48 members of a large persecuted house church on New Year's Day, marking a total of more than 1,000 church members who have been taken into police custody during the church's 38 weeks of attempting to hold outdoor worship services.
 
"By arbitrarily detaining peaceful religious believers in the capital city on the first day of 2012, Beijing authorities show that they are determined to continue their crackdown on independent religious groups in the coming year," Bob Fu, president of China Aid, said.

"In defiance of universal values and in violation of its own laws and constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, China's communist leaders are walking further down the road of the wrong side of history," said Fu, a former Beijing house pastor who was imprisoned for his beliefs.

Among those taken into custody Jan. 1, 30 were believed to have been released by 10 p.m. and the remainder were held overnight at various police stations across the city, China Aid said. Many other church members had been kept under house arrest beginning Friday, the watchdog group said.

Shouwang Church began meeting outdoors in April after being evicted from its rented meeting space and after authorities prevented the church from gathering in a portion of an office building it had purchased.
The church tried three times to rent three different venues, but Beijing authorities have ordered landlords not to rent to them, China Aid said. 

Police arrest the Christians before the services even start and typically free them within 24 hours. China's Domestic Security Protection Squad has maintained constant surveillance outside the homes of senior church leaders, while police have camped outside the doors of other church members from Saturday night until noon Sunday, when service times technically are over, according to China Aid.

Compass Direct News Service reported that early on Christmas morning church members arrived at a public square only to find it heavily guarded with industrial-strength rails blocking access. Police arrested 41 believers who attempted to worship at the site that day, Compass said.

On the church's Facebook page, one church member said Christians who were detained indoors usually felt sorry for those waiting outside in the cold as they were able to "read books and have fellowship in a warm room," Compass reported.

The Facebook post explained that the believer was interrogated on Christmas Day with an officer taunting him for being afraid to give his home address and threatening to hold him long enough for the man to lose his job, Compass said.

Despite the ongoing persecution and winter weather, Shouwang Church leaders say they plan to continue meeting outdoors until a solution is reached.

When Principles Are As Important As Political Gain

Rick Santorum represents everything that's right with faith-based leadership.

Sadly, the political process shows us what's wrong with America.

With just five days until the New Hampshire primaries, Rick Santorum has his work cut out for him.  

And if the stress of running for a presidential nomination weren't grueling enough, Santorum's refusal to compromise on his values has unleashed a firestorm of criticism from the mainstream media that is sure to cast doubt within the ranks of an uninformed electorate.

There will be no shortage of political commentary in the days leading up to the NH primary.  My interest in Santorum -- and what I hope will be your interest as well -- is Santorum's ability to be competitive on a national stage after losing his last race for his Senate seat in 2007.

In the Senate, Santorum became known for his social conservatism. He led efforts to ban late-term abortions and led the unsuccessful GOP fight in 2005 to keep Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, attached to life-preserving medical equipment.

He derided a 2003 Supreme Court decision that declared a Texas sodomy law unconstitutional, saying, "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery."

Santorum's stances earned him a solid following among religious conservatives and a spot on Time magazine's 25 most influential evangelists list in 2005.

It also earned him the enmity of many Democrats, women's groups, abortion rights advocates and gay rights supporters, who disliked Santorum's faith-based stance.

Knowing this, most candidates would have moderated their message, and tailored their political stance to the polls.  Santorum's campaign staff urged him on many occasions to do just that, or risk the election.  He refused to compromise his values and ended up losing the Senatorial election for that very reason.

Does that make him politically naive, and unworthy to guide the United States as President?  Or does that make him the perfect candidate for a nation that is becoming increasingly morally bankrupt, and unable to maintain a conviction separate from the most recent public opinion poll?

He is the champion of the average guy -- the forgotten American -- who pays his taxes, fights for freedom and doesn't expect a handout.

He realizes that it isn't only the threat of Jihadism from abroad that threatens our nation, but an internal loss of confidence, an unwillingness to recognize and defend the exceptional nature of this country.

Though he lost at the ballot box in his last electoral attempt, he did not stop beating the drum for fiscal reform and a strong defense for the nation. He is a stalwart advocate of traditional American principles and has not wavered on these matters the balance of the current GOP contenders have done -- many times -- over the years.

Win or lose, private or public sector, Santorum's principles and values have remained steadfast and unshakable.  When did that become a character liability for an individual running for President?

As I was reading a story on the New Hampshire primary this morning on CNN, the following statement jumped out at me.  "The general electorate is now seeing the stark divisions within the GOP up close and personal," says Brown University political scientist Wendy Schiller. "Libertarian, social conservative, and fiscal conservative. Will the real GOP stand up?"

That's telling in and of itself.  The Republican Party has lost its self-identity, and those who support the party are at a crossroads.  It's my opinion that the party will be defined by our choice in 2012 for many years to come, and the thought that "Faith, Family and Freedom" are values outside the mainstream is a chilling proposition.

Thankfully, faith-based conservatives are finally catching on to the Santorum message.  As reported on Fox News this morning, Santorum, who finished just eight votes behind Romney in Tuesday's caucuses, has already seen a surge of online donations, enough to cripple his campaign's website shortly after the Iowa results were announced.

I encourage everyone interested in the political process -- who believes values still have a place in our political process -- to research Rick Santorum and consider supporting the only candidate who has not waivered in his beliefs.

Win or lose, I don't believe we can ever do the "wrong thing" by voting for the "right person."

Rick Santorum for President

P.O. Box 37

Verona, PA 15147

Phone: (888) 321-6675

Email:  info@ricksantorum.com

https://www.ricksantorum.com/

I truly believe 2012 is going to be an awesome year for all God's children.  With your help, our combined efforts can, and will, be successful for our Lord.  Thank you, and God Bless you!

God's Justice May Not Be Swift, But It IS Perfect.

Court rules black Baptist Church is the rightful owner of a KKK store.

After a 15-year legal battle:  God = 1, Hate = 0

The Redneck Shop, Laurens, SC

I believe the true definition of irony has to be "God making things right, in His time, as only He knows how."

I also believe in a sense of Divine Justice that, while never quick or apparent enough for my limited tastes, always works out better than I could have ever planned it myself.

Case in point:  after a 15-year legal battle between a church and a white supremacist hate group, the church wins.  To add honey to the victory, the hate group must pay all expenses (and go broke), and then be evicted.

As reported in the Associated Press, A circuit judge ruled last month that New Beginnings Baptist Church is the rightful owner of the building that houses the Redneck Shop, which operates a so-called Klan museum and sells Klan robes and T-shirts emblazoned with racial slurs. The judge ordered the shop's proprietor to pay the church's legal bills of more than $3,300.

But the irony doesn't end there.  Consider the namesake of the South Carolina city in which this battle actually took place.

Since 1996, the Redneck Shop has operated in an old movie theater in Laurens, SC, a city about 70 miles northwest from Columbia that was named after 18th century slave trader Henry Laurens.  Laurens had earned part of his wealth by operating the largest slave-trading house in North America. In the 1750s alone, his Charleston firm oversaw the sale of more than 8,000 enslaved Africans.

Priceless.  As I stated above, God's justice may not be swift but it is perfect.

Ownership of the building was transferred in 1997 to the Rev. David Kennedy and his church, New Beginnings, by a Klansman fighting with others inside the hate group, according to court records. That man, according to Kennedy, was feuding with store proprietor John Howard over a woman and "developed a spiritual relationship" with Kennedy's church, the judge wrote.

But a clause in the deed entitles Howard, formerly KKK grand dragon for the Carolinas, to operate his business in the building until he dies.

Pastor Gerald A. Tucker
New Beginnings Baptist Church, SC

After years of trying to have the property inspected, Kennedy and New Beginnings sued Howard and others in 2008. On Dec. 9, a judge ruled in Kennedy's favor.

It wasn't immediately clear if the judge's ruling would mean Howard must close the shop. Howard hung up on a reporter when asked about the shop's status, but an outgoing message on the shop's answering machine said it's only open one morning a week.

Howard has defended his business in the past.

"If anything turns people off, they shouldn't come in here," Howard told The Associated Press in 2008. "It's not a thing in here that's against the law."

The Redneck Shop has been the target of protests and attacks from the start. A few days after it opened, a Columbia man crashed his van through the front windows and was charged with malicious damage to property. High profile black activists have staged several protests outside the store, and Kennedy has regularly picketed there as well.

Kennedy has a long history of fighting racial injustice. He protested when a South Carolina county refused to observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and he helped lobby to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome.

Kennedy said Tuesday his congregation was elated by the judge's decision, which he said he had already discussed with local police in hopes of being able to visit and inspect the property this week.

"It has been a long time coming," said Kennedy, who learned of the ruling this week. "We knew we had done everything right. ... The court knows that we have suffered."

Kennedy said his congregation's numbers have decreased in recent years as some of its 200 members became fearful of reprisals from Klan members. Nazi and Confederate symbols have been tacked to the door of the double-wide mobile home where New Beginnings now meets, Kennedy said, and dead animals have been left at the building.

"A lot of people became so afraid," Kennedy said. "I just told them that it is part of our faith to endure."

Amen, Pastor.  Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  So we may boldly say: “ The LORD is my helper; I will not fear.  What can man do to me?”  (Hebrews 13:5-6)

Every time I encounter a story like this, I am reminded that God's justice is perfect.  I am reassured that God is always present in everything we do.  And I am humbly reminded that whatever "justice" I could have thought to visit on such a vile business as The Redneck Shop, nothing I could have done could have ever come close to this end result.

I truly believe 2012 is going to be an awesome year for all God's children.  With your help, our combined efforts can, and will, be successful for our Lord.  Thank you, and God Bless you!

Ron Paul Opposes Abortion ... Just Kidding.

In the twisted mind of Ron Paul, a State's rights trump "Right To Life."

Behold, children are a Blessing from the LORD, 

The fruit of the womb is a reward.  (Psalm 127:3)

I hope everyone will be watching the Iowa Caucuses tonight.  Closely.  In particular, pay careful attention to Ron Paul's performance.
 
Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are in a virtual tie for first place.  Anything can happen with 41% of the Iowa voters undecided, of course, but this Ron Paul trend is scary.

Battling Rick Santorum for the "pro-life" credential, Paul has managed to twist the truth as only his twisted mind could.  In the process, voters are being misled.

What you will hear is Ron Paul telling his constituents that he is a "pro-life" medical professional that wants to de-fund Planned Parenthood and reverse the Supreme Court decision of Roe vs. Wade.  He also touts the fact that he signed the Personhood USA Pledge.

What you will not hear is Ron Paul's argument that the protections afforded to unborn children under the 14th Amendment -- by virtue of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which Ron Paul voted against -- are trumped by the 10th Amendment, which establishes a state's right to exert authority over the federal government.

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-212) is a United States law which recognizes a "child in utero" as a legal victim, if he or she is injured or killed during the commission of any of over 60 listed federal crimes of violence. The law defines "child in utero" as "a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."

It was signed into law by President Bush on April 1, 2004.

In short, Ron Paul supports the concept of a ban on abortion, but thinks that states should be left to decide whether or not they want to enforce that federal ban.

"I support a ban on abortion except when I don't support a ban on abortion."  What a wonderful example of morals and ethics Ron Paul presents to the American people.

In signing the Personhood USA pledge, which calls for Fourteenth Amendment protections for the unborn, Paul included a statement saying the Fourteenth Amendment -- which says nobody should be deprived of life without due process -- should not "cancel out the Tenth Amendment," which pertains to states' rights.

Prior to enactment of the federal law, the "child in utero" was, as a general rule, not recognized as a victim of federal crimes of violence. Thus, in a federal crime that injured a pregnant woman and killed the "child in utero," no homicide was recognized, in most cases.

According to Fox News, Paul warned in that statement about a "federal police force" on the issue, or the possibility of a "Federal Department of Abortion."

Asked to clarify the position, Paul told the group he believes the federal government should "define life" as beginning at conception, and then leave it up to the states to determine enforcement.

Personhood USA later said it had "serious concerns" about Paul's "inconsistencies" on the issue.
Personhood USA President Keith Mason told Fox News on Tuesday that Paul's stance is "a little bizarre."

A little bizarre?  When I looked up the word "bizarre" in the dictionary it said:  see Ron Paul.

Pay careful attention this evening to the results of the Iowa Caucus.  If Ron Paul places in the top 3, which he mostly will, he'll carry his twisted momentum to New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.  If you live in one of those fine states, don't be duped by his Libertarian message.

The Devil is in the details.

Welcome to the American Independence Alliance Blog

A place for faith-based patriots of the United States of America
to seek Fellowship and effect Positive Change.

We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution. 

John F. Kennedy

We would like to take the opportunity to welcome our visitors to the American Independence Alliance blog.  We hope you had a wonderful holiday and a safe New Year, and are prepared for the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead for us in 2012.

As you will read in the mission statement pages at the top of this site, AIA was created in response to a series of critical issues that threatens the very fabric of America.  Faith is under assault, our values are being discarded, and our system of government is being destroyed from the inside out by the Secular Progressive Left.

We have prioritized these critical issues under the label of the 7 Credible Threats.  Our writing and political actions will address the challenges stemming from threats.  We are also pursuing a grassroots movement to counteract these threats on a local level across the United States.

Articles will be posted on the blog every day, Monday through Saturday, at 4:00 PM EST.  We encourage you to bookmark the blog and check in daily.  We also ask you to post comments for each article, and share our faith-based message throughout your social media circles such as Facebook and Twitter.

With your help, our combined efforts can, and will, be successful for our God and our great Country.  Thank you, and God Bless you!