Today is the 65th Annual National Day of Prayer. If you’re like Jonathan and I, you see how desperately our nation and our state are in need of prayer, as we see our culture move farther and farther away from its Judeo-Christian moral foundations.
It makes sense, then, that the theme for this year’s National Day of Prayer is “Wake up America.” Isaiah 58:1 reminds us of the prophetic mission of God’s people to awaken a culture that falls away from fidelity: “Cry aloud, never ceasing, raise thy voice like a trumpet-call, and tell my people of their transgressions, call the sons of Jacob to account.”
There are so many attacks on life, family, and religious liberty threatening us at the federal and state level. Within our state, our Christian population must awaken to the dangers surrounding affecting our churches, law, and culture. This year, California lawmakers are pushing to do the following:
- Subject religious colleges and universities who receive Cal Grants or Pell Grants to lawsuits for any acts of “discrimination” in hiring and admissions. This includes discrimination on the basis of religion (e.g., a Catholic school refusing to hire a non-Catholic as its president), sexual orientation (e.g., a Baptist college refusing to employ a person living in a same-sex marriage to serve as a professor), and gender identity or expression (a school refusing to allow a biological man to live in a woman’s dormitory, on the basis of his claimed gender expression or identity).
- Fund assisted suicide medication for all MediCal beneficiaries.
- Remove all references to “husband” or “wife” within the text of California laws, and replace it with the gender-neutral “spouse.”
- Ban funding for state employees to travel to states that have enacted religious liberty protection laws.
As evidenced by the above legislation, standing up for godly values can be overwhelming in California.
But in the midst of all this negative news, good things are happening in California! Good bills are being introduced in Sacramento and have a chance to advance. One of those is SB 1457, which would allow high school students to receive credit for off-campus “Released Time” religious education provided by a sponsoring religious organization. Other legislation been introduced to assist families within the educational realm, and to protect the unborn.
Even with bad legislation, California Family Council has worked with a coalition of religious advocates–Catholics, Baptists, Adventists, and others–coming together to fight in defense of our religious colleges and universities, which are under attack in Sacramento. These evil initiatives can actually be stopped, but we need your help!
Will you join us? Much is at stake, but we stand with Christ and his truth. Please stand—and pray—with us.
