This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Welcome to the FEA worship experience.
A lay minister who is suing the Georgia Department of Public Health for religious discrimination has been ordered by the state’s attorney general to relinquish his sermons to the government, according to federal court documents. Dr. Walsh said he will not comply with the request. “No government has the right to require a pastor to turn over his sermons,” Walsh said. “I cannot and will not give up my sermons unless I am forced to do so.”
Walsh, a Seventh-day Adventist lay minister had been hired in May 2014 as a District Health Director with the Georgia Department of Public Health. A week later, a government official asked him to submit copies of his sermons for review. He complied and two days later he was fired. His attorneys said the government was curious about sermons Dr. Walsh delivered on health, marriage, sexuality, world religions, science and creationism. He also preached on what the Bible says regarding homosexuality. He has since filed a federal lawsuit charging state officials with engaging in religious discrimination. His Attorney Jeremy Dys said that “If the government is allowed to fire someone over what he said in his sermons, they can come after any of us for our beliefs on anything.” “It’s an incredible intrusion on the sanctity of the pulpit,” Dys said. “This is probably the most invasive reach into the pulpit by the state that I’ve ever seen.”
“Pastors and rabbis across the country – especially in the state of Georgia should be frightened that a state would demand all the sermon notes and transcripts of a pastor,” he said. “This is unprecedented.” It may be unprecedented, but is it illegal?
“I think it is wrong for a state to demand that a pastor turns over his sermons at any time,” Dys said. “It was wrong for the state to ask Dr. Walsh for his sermons as part of the job application and hiring process. It was wrong for them to turn around and fire him when they listened to those sermons. And it is wrong now for them to demand that he turn over all the sermons and sermon notes he ever produced going back to when he was 18 years old.”
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins condemned the state’s demand calling it “an alarming display of government intrusion into the sanctity of the church, pastor’s study and pulpit.” “This is something that I would have expected to see in a communist country, not America,” Perkins told me. “Government scrutiny of speech in the pulpit is unconstitutional, and unconscionable.”
Dr. Walsh also gained the support of Emir Caner, president of Truett-McConnell University, a Christian school based in Cleveland, Georgia. “A new era has come to our shores, a time where government finds it acceptable to suppress the freedom of religion even to the extent of requesting a minister’s sermons,” Caner said. “As an ordained minister, I know that this is not merely an assault on the messenger, but on the very message of our Sacred Scriptures.”
Let us continue to pray for our Country asking God to turn the hearts of the governments, educational institutions, the judicial system and the people of the United States back to honoring and fearing Almighty God. For the fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom.
SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK
THE KING’S DAUGHTERS MEETING
Today, 6:00p.m.
LUNCH HOUR HOTLINE/WARFARE PRAYER
Wednesday, 12:00 noon- Lunch Hour Hotline
5:30 P.M. – Warfare Prayer for the Elections
PRAISE AND ADORATION PRACTICE
Friday, 6:30p.m.
PASTOR APPRECIATION-PRAYER BREAKFAST
Saturday, 7:30a.m.
NEXT SUNDAY
Worship & Ministry Service, 9:00 a.m. (Communion)
The Kingdom Men’s Ministry Meeting, 6:00p.m.
The King’s Daughters Ministry
Invites all women to support the Eleventh Annual Interdenominational Women’s Convention from St. Thomas Assembly of God, starting on November 8 thru November 11, 2016. Please see the bulletin board for more information or call (340) 776-7243 or email staog@vitelcom.net.
God Is Our Refuge In Distress
God is our refuge in distress,
Our shield of hope through every care,
Our Shepherd watching us to bless,
And therefore will we not despair;
Although the mountains shake,
And hills their place forsake,
And billows o’er them break
Yet still will we not fear,
For Thou, O God, art ever near.
God is our hope and strength in woe;
Through earth He maketh wars to cease;
His power breaketh spear and bow;
His mercy sendeth endless peace.
Then though the earth remove,
And storms rage high above,
And seas tempestuous prove,
Yet still will we not fear,
The Lord of Hosts is ever near.
Poem by Martin Luther
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MEDIA MINISTRY
World Overcomers: WSTA 1340 AM station: Sundays at 12:30 p.m. & Tuesdays at 6:00 a.m.
Website: http://www.wom.vi
On our Website you will find: Live Streaming, free copies of our audio message & radio broadcast.
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