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Anybody want some Kool-Aid?
Exclusive: Pat Boone warns of Democratic aim to register religious groups

Please forgive me for a macabre analogy, but the times and our current situation call for it.

Surely most of us remember (how could we forget?) the horrible incident in Guyana, at a compound called Jonestown, in which 913 lemming-like followers of demented leader Jim Jones followed him in committing mass suicide, drinking poisoned Kool-Aid. I still feel like crying when I visualize those moms and their obedient kids imbibing the lethal liquid and lying down on the ground to die.

I suppose you can't imagine a more benign, enjoyable or harmless substance (except maybe for its sugar content) than Kool-Aid. Millions of moms still give it to their kids every day. And it certainly wasn't the Kool-Aid that killed the families at Jonestown; it was what Jones added to it.

And I see the new Democrat-led Congress trying to do something similar, to all of us. Wild exaggeration? Extremist political hyperbole? I think not. It is that serious.

First, the good news.

Recently, the Washington Times weekend edition reported the results of a Gallup Poll released on Jan. 30, entitled "Poll Finds Solid Ties Between Faith, American Well-Being." Well-being means health, confidence, productivity, positive attitudes, concern for others and overall strength.

As expressed, the poll "measures the extent to which Americans believe in God, act out their belief and impact secular America in real terms: in the workplace, in volunteerism, in business dealings." In short, it pictures how our faith, in whatever form, defines who we are and what we do.

Believers are many: 82 percent of the respondents believe in God, while 13 percent more believe in a "universal spirit or higher power." Fully three-quarters say they are Christian, 6 percent are labeled non-Christian, and 18 percent have no religious tradition. A majority – 58 percent – say success in life is "pretty much determined" by religious and spiritual forces. Adds the Times, "Such thinking may have its own rewards: 83 percent said their work 'is helping make the world a better place.'"

OK, now the Kool-Aid.

As Jay Sekulow, chief counsel with the American Center for Law and Justice (one ever larger counterbalance, we can hope, to the ACLU) has proclaimed in a newsletter, "Your freedom of speech has literally never been so threatened as it is today. In the new Congress, under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, there is a proposal to designate churches, pastors, religious denominations, public interest organizations and other non-profit groups as 'lobbyists.'"

"Hey," some will say, "nothing wrong with designating them lobbyists, is there? They promote their own agendas and try to get congressional support for 'em, right? So what's wrong with registering them?"

Sort of like Kool-Aid. Normally harmless.

But potentially poisonous.

There's a good-sounding expressed intent for this proposed legislation designating religious groups lobbyists, as championed for some time by Sen. Ted Kennedy and others. They say they want to curb "hate speech," anything that opposes homosexual goals or acceptance; and they particularly want to stifle the strong influence brought to bear on elections and national policy by "special interests" – including churches, clergy and religious organizations that disagree with their agenda.

And here's how they see it working: Lobbyists must register with the government; this new bill expands the definition of "lobbyist" to include any church or organization that strives to influence public opinion! This bill would also drastically affect the operation of churches that speak out on major moral and political issues, and Christian organizations using TV, radio or the Internet to mobilize citizens around an issue. Many churches, especially larger ones with TV and radio ministries, would be subject to registration as "lobbying organizations." Failure to register under this new law could result in criminal prosecution – fines of up to $100,000, and prison sentences of six and in some cases 10 years.

The analysis of the ACLJ on the proposed legislation states "… in essence, free speech is forbidden. To regulate and restrict free speech, to effectively stop people from speaking out on the issues, is exactly the opposite of what the Founding Fathers intended when they included in the First Amendment to the Constitution the right 'to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Chief Counsel Sekulow sums up: "This bill represents the biggest single legal restraint ever placed on people of faith; this legislation is absolutely unconstitutional; it attempts to override the Constitution itself!"

Here's why I use the Kool-Aid analogy. As revealed by George Gallop and the Washington Times, America's "well-being," our national DNA, our confidence in ourselves and our self-government, stems directly from our collective and individual faith in the God referenced in our Declaration of Independence – and in the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution to express, without congressional restriction, that faith and its mandates, anywhere, anytime. As Lincoln so beautifully expressed it, our government is supposed to be "of the people, by the people and for the people" – not of, by and for certain biased legislators and jurists.

The two prongs of the legislation are S.B. 1 and H.R. 90. The Senate bill already passed in January, largely "defanged" for now by amendment, thanks in part to alarms rung loudly by some proudly religious grass-roots groups. In the House, the "Full Disclosure in Lobbying Act" is now pending action by the Judiciary Committee, and the ACLJ has expressed concern "that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others will attempt to push through these dangerous restrictions" still.

You and I must vehemently refuse to swallow the Kool-Aid of this legislation that would work to rob us of our freedom to speak and act on our faith, would work to further erase the sober consideration of God's will in our public lives. If enacted, it would hasten our decline into the swamp of history, to doom our dream for lack of resolve. Please go to the ACLJ's website, or if you know examples of liberties being threatened, even reach them, as they invite, at (757) 226-2489. These guys are fighting valiantly for us. Let's help them be effective.

Let me close with a quotation from the highest authority: "Righteousness exalts a nation; sin is a reproach to any people." – God, Proverbs 14.