Tonight at 730pm I'll be out at Calvary Chapel South Bay filling in for Pastor Steve Mays, who's recovering from surgery. Would love to see you there! For directions, go to ccsouthbay.org.
400-408 – • Fox News (7/28/2010) Court Upholds Expulsion of Counseling Student Who Opposes Homosexuality.
A federal judge has ruled in favor of a public university that removed a Christian student from its graduate program in school counseling over her belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. Monday's ruling, according to Julea Ward's attorneys, could result in Christian students across the country being expelled from public university for similar views.
"It's a very dangerous precedent," Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, told FOX News Radio. "The ruling doesn't say that explicitly, but that's what is going to happen."
U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh dismissed Ward's lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University. She was removed from the school's counseling program last year because she refused to counsel homosexual clients.
The university contended she violated school policy and the American Counseling Association code of ethics.
"Christian students shouldn't be expelled for holding to and abiding by their beliefs," said ADF senior counsel David French. "To reach its decision, the court had to do something that's never been done in federal court: uphold an extremely broad and vague university speech code."
Eastern Michigan University hailed the decision.
"We are pleased that the court has upheld our position in this matter," EMU spokesman Walter Kraft said in a written statement. "Julea Ward was not discriminated against because of her religion. To the contrary, Eastern Michigan is deeply committed to the education of our students and welcomes individuals from diverse backgrounds into our community."
In his 48-page opinion, Judge Steeh said the university had a rational basis for adopting the ACA Code of Ethics.
"Furthermore, the university had a rational basis for requiring students to counsel clients without imposing their personal values," he wrote in a portion of his ruling posted by The Detroit News. "In the case of Ms. Ward, the university determined that she would never change her behavior and would consistently refuse to counsel clients on matters with which she was personally opposed due to her religious beliefs – including homosexual relationships."
Ward's attorneys claim the university told her she would only be allowed to remain in the program if she went through a "remediation" program so that she could "see the error of her ways" and change her belief system about homosexuality.
The case is similar to a lawsuit the ADF filed against Augusta State University in Georgia. Counseling student Jennifer Keeton was allegedly told to stop sharing her Christian beliefs in order to graduate.
Keeton's lawsuit alleged that she was told to undergo a reeducation program and attend "diversity sensitivity training."
University officials declined to comment on specifics of the lawsuit but released a statement to FOX News that said Augusta State does not discriminate on the basis of students' moral, religious, political or personal beliefs.
Tedesco said both cases should be a warning to Christians attending public colleges and universities.
"Public universities are imposing the ideological stances of private groups on their students," he said. "If you don't comply, you will be kicked out. It's scary stuff and it's not a difficult thing to see what's coming down the pike."
The Alliance Defense Fund told FOX News it will appeal the ruling.
413-423 – Those of you in the counseling field, how do you deal with this? Can't you just give a referral to someone else? Does it matter that she was trying to become a school counselor, and not a marriage and family counselor? Does the state have a right to prohibit people with certain beliefs from entering certain fields? Do you think this will lead to not just Christian school counselors, but counselors of any kind not being licensed by the state? If a Christian student can legally get kicked out of counseling for her beliefs, why would the state grant accreditation to an entire school devoted to the same beliefs? Are Christian teachers next?
• ACA Code of Ethics, A.4.b Personal Values – "Counselors are aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors and avoid imposing values that are inconsistent with counseling goals. Counselors respect the diversity of clients, trainees, and research participants."
• Fox News (7/29/2010) Arizona Appeals Ruling on Immigration Law Amid Protests, Dozens of Arrests.
428-437 – Calls
443-452 – Meredith Turney, California Communications Director at Americans for Prosperity of California (americansforprosperity.org/california), and they're hosting a event tomorrow night at 730pm at Barney's Beanery in Westwood to honor the legacy of Milton Friedman – who would have been 98 years old tomorrow. Friedman began as a Keynesian under FDR, but came to realize the inherent danger of government meddling in the marketplace, and instead embraced free-markets as the solution, and not the problem. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976, and his two important works, Capitalism and Freedom and Free To Choose continue to be required reading in economics.
• Meredith Turney (7/29/2010) Milton Friedman's Enduring Legacy.
• Steve Spruiell, NRO (7/28/2010) Cut to Grow.
• Fox Business (7/28/2010) SEC Says New Financial Regulation Law Exempts it From Public Disclosure.
458-508 – Jeff Pries is one of the three creatives behind the awesome Liquid DVD series (experienceliquid.com) – simply the best Christian media I've ever seen! Jeff is the Small Groups Pastor and on the Speaking Team at Mariners Church (marinerschurch.org), a father of 4, and the former 1st pick of the New York Yankees out of UCLA in 1984. His partner, Director John Ward, is the president of Bay Ridge Films, and John wrote, produced, and directed the Liquid series. The third guy is former baseball player Todd Zeile. Check out the trailers at experienceliquid.com. Their new feature film is called "I AM" (iamthemovie.com) which comes out 10/10/10 – "Ten Commandments Sunday." 20th Century Fox will be releasing the DVD at the end of the year. But before then, Jeff, John & Todd want to make it available to churches FOR FREE!! He tells us why and how.
512-523 – Jeff Pries
TH 524 – [2:00] Don Rohde (818) 262-2092. For the past 38 years, Don has been a sales manager at Galpin, the #1 volume Ford dealer in the world for the past 20 consecutive years. Galpin has been family-owned and operated for the past 59 years, and 90% of their business is repeat or referral. Galpin offers Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Honda, Mazda, Saturn, Volvo, Jaguar, and Aston Martin. Located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley at Roscoe and the 405.
528-538 – Reza Kahlili, is the pseudonym of a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard member who turned against the regime when he realized that in order to save his country, he would have to destroy the regime. To do that, he began passing information to the CIA, which he did for several years in the '80s and '90s as a double agent. He's written a book about all this entitled A Time To Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran (atimetobetray.com). He joins us now, from here in California on a digital voice changer to protect his identity.
• Washington Institute for Near East Policy (7/9/2010) Inside Iran's Revolutionary Guard: A Defector Speaks.
544-554 – Reza Kahlili
558-608 – Wendel Deyo, Founder and President of Kings Domain (kingsdomain.org) – a camp and conference center in southwest Ohio, and the guy who lead me to the Lord in September 1984. Wendel was on staff with Campus Crusade for 32 years, 28 of those with Athletes in Action, where he was president from 1989-2000. He then went on to become the #2 guy with Crusade in the US, as Associate US Director, for 3.5 years before leaving staff in 2003 to become the primary care-giver for his wife Cindy who has MS. We talk a little about my "atheist" days and him leading me to the Lord, before turning to talk about the manifest sovereignty of God through some of trials they have endured as a family – not only Cindy's advancing MS, but his son Adam's serious facial injury, and the near-fatal trauma of his grandson Judah being born 4.5 months early. Judah is now 3, and one of 10 grandsons they enjoy along with their granddaughter.
612-623 – Wendel Deyo,
628-638 – Wendel Deyo,
644-652 – Wendel Deyo,
• Los Angles Times (7/29/2010) Bell residents paid huge tax bills in addition to huge salaries, records show.
