Wife and warrior Naghmeh Abidini testified at a Congressional hearing last Friday to raise national awareness for her husband, Pastor Saeed Abedini, and to urge the State Department and President Obama’s Administration to take long-overdue action. Saeed is an Iranian-born U.S. citizen who was arrested in Iran last July and imprisoned in the notoriously brutal Evin prison.  The Islamic Regime of Iran claims that Pastor Saeed is a national security threat, and yet, even they have stated that the real reason for his imprisonment is his Christian faith.  Saeed converted from Islam to Christianity in 2000 and subsequently started an underground church movement.  He and his wife have been living in America as U.S. citizens and have traveled back to Iran many times.  This past July, Saeed made another trip to Iran in order to gain final approval for the orphanage he is building.  This project had the full approval of the Iranian government, and he has complied with all of their past demands with regards to his activities in the country.  However, he was arrested in July 2012 and, at the beginning of this year, he was sentenced to eight years in Evin prison.

The U.S. State Department and the Obama Administration have been glaringly absent in this case.  In fact, they have done more in the past for non-U.S. citizens imprisoned in Iran than they have been willing to do on behalf of Pastor Saeed.  They were notified about the hearing, but their response was that they had no one available to attend. Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer during the hearing, Naghmeh said, “Silence in the face of evil, in itself is evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak; not to act is to act.”  The State Department’s shameful lack of acknowledgement of this issue, especially their refusal to send a representative to the hearing, is absolutely appalling.  Congress has acted on this issue, but it is the State Department and the Obama Administration’s responsibility to lead this case and demand Saeed’s release.  While White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has made mild comments in response to media questioning on this issue, President Obama has remained entirely silent. Likewise, the only comments that have been made by the State Department have been in response to questions from the media or from Members of Congress.

During the recent U.N. meetings, the E.U. spoke out specifically on behalf of Pastor Saeed, and yet, when it came time for the U.S. delegation to speak, they made no mention of his name.  “Imagine you’re a U.S. citizen detained for your faith abroad, and the E.U. is speaking out, but your own country is remaining silent,” said Jordan Sekulow, attorney with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and Nagmeh’s legal counsel.

However, thanks to the tireless efforts of Naghmeh, the relentless work of the ACLJ, the extensive and regular coverage by Fox News, the over 100 Congressmen who signed a letter to the State Department, especially the specific leadership of Congressman Trent Franks (R-Arizona) on the Hill with this issue, Congressman Frank Wolf’s (R-Virginia) leading of the Congressional hearing, and the 538,000 Americans who have signed the petition and called their representatives, a State Department representative did finally agree to meet with Naghmeh to discuss her husband’s imprisonment and torture.

Congress has done what it needs to do. Americans are doing their part, as the petition for Saeed’s release increases by about 15,000 signatures a day; it is now at nearly 600,000.   Many public figures, including several Christian recording artists and politicians, have spread the news about this issue to their audiences. Now is the time for the State Department and the Obama Administration to get their act in gear or face the growing outrage of the rapidly increasing number of Americans who are following this case.  Naghmeh and her ACLJ attorney, Jordan Sekulow, appeared on Fox News this morning setting this Friday as a deadline for the State Department to make a clear statement demanding Saeed Abedini’s release.

Please join CWA and continue to pray for the immediate release of Pastor Saeed Abidini. If you were not able to watch the Congressional hearing and Naghmeh’s moving testimony, you can watch it here.

Chelsen Vicari, CWA’s Communications Strategist, contributed to this article.

What does it look like to live out a faith that could move a mountain?  Dr. A.R Bernard, a former Muslim who now pastors a church of over 30,000 members in New York City, demonstrates this on a daily basis. He states that faith was given as a tool and weapon to deal with the reality of our time. After hearing of the daily threat on his life because of his decision to convert from Islam to Christianity, I have taken his call for using faith as a weapon, or having aggressive faith, a step further. With my passion for looking at the present assault on Christianity and women from the Muslim nation, I have reached some conclusions.

As women in today’s society, we are being attacked from all sides, and it is imperative that we be aggressive in our faith. Ecclesiastes 3:8 tells us there is a season for peace and for war. With our families being destroyed, marriage being degraded, and our government on a path of entitlement and excess spending, we must see the present need — that of a united voice. We are under attack. As Americans we must see the threat to our nation and as Christians we must see the threat to our beliefs. Due to God and our country’s sole purpose, the Muslim nation assaults the very core of our founding. We are considered as “people of the book” or “infidels” and as such, in their view, we deserve total annihilation.

I, for one, refuse to be passive to a culture or religion that considers women second-class and allows men to abuse and oppress them.  Christian Americans should be informed on the Muslim nation and the effect it has on women.  It’s time to rise up.  It’s time we get aggressive.  It’s time we start to realize the season of war dawning upon us.  God gives His people revelation, He instructs us, and I for one will have an aggressive faith to answer the call — faith that is larger than a mustard seed!  I will be like the apostles, who defended their faith so aggressively, even when the Roman Empire threated them with death!  They still prevailed and walked forthrightly.

Aggressive reaction is woven into the very fibers of our Christian and American doctrine.  We need to be warriors, courageous and understanding this present season.  In Hebrews 11:33, we are told that faith is conquered, obtained, quenched, escaped, and made strong, just to name a few aggressive verbs listed!

But in defining what I mean by “aggressive faith,” let me add one more aggressive verb: “reach.” As Christians, we need to “reach into the Muslim culture.”  It is only by the grace of God that we’re not the ones wearing hijabs.  By learning more about the Muslim mindset — by understanding their culture and worldview — we can better know how to present them with the Gospel.  It’s been shown that Muslims answer best to an authoritative presence.  So heed the advice of the Apostle Paul, and be confident in the Gospel; be confident in His Spirit within you, and be the Christ follower God made you to be.  Be full of the Spirit; don’t be full of yourself (don’t be arrogantly foolish).  Remember, it is well-known that strict Muslims advocate killing and desecration, so we, as educated Christians, must be aware of this and, as Jude cautions, “save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.”

Nurture this aggressive faith by passionately seeking after God through prayer and action.  And notice the order: first and foremost, pray.  Secondly, take action by educating yourself and refusing to be passive.  We need to conquer through conviction, defend our morals, and lead by example.

America was founded on Biblical principles.  Our Founding Fathers built this country on aggressive thoughts and actions.  They went up against a tyrannical government to gain freedom of religion and speech, which would not have been obtained without an aggressive faith.

So rise up!  Heed the call!  Have an aggressive faith, and trust God to lead you.  Remember, as Americans, we don’t negotiate with terrorists, and as Christians, we do not negotiate with those who seek to destroy what God has set apart.  Our faith is a weapon!  Use it!

The nation is aflame with the results of the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).   Google “don’t know much about history” and you’ll get all the articles:  they’re all using the same line from the famous song. 

In short, the news is bad.  Again.  The kids aren’t learning history.  Famed historian David McCullough tells the Wall Street Journal (6/18/11) that our textbooks are “so politically correct as to be comic.”   

True, we should worry about the coming generation.  But, the current one isn’t doing so great either. 

Last Fourth of July, the New York Times dropped the word “life” from its rendition of the Declaration of Independence.  As they said:  “We know the words well, but they bear repeating. …”  You betcha!

That fall, the President of the United States dropped the “Creator” from his rendition of the Declaration of Independence.  Oops. 

Just recently, NBC did a patriotic video montage as part of its coverage of the U.S. Open Golf Championship … in which they dropped the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.  Twice.  (But, they’re really sorry). 

Hmmm … Why do God and “life” keep getting dropped?

This Fourth of July, read the actual Declaration of Independence, especially to your kids.  Here’s a copy from our friends at WallBuilders, http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=25685.

And whatever you do, don’t rely on the kids’ politically correct comic-textbooks.  Or The New York Times.  Or NBC.  Or even the President of the United States.

Be sure you know what it really says and remember the words … because a lot folks keep leaving out the important stuff. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Virginia Gazette, July 26, 1776:

On Wednesday last, the Declaration of Independence was read at the head of each brigade of the Continental Army posted at and near New York, and everywhere received with loud huzzahs and the utmost demonstrations of joy.  The same evening, the equestrian statute of George III, which Tory pride and folly raised in the year 1770, was, by the Sons of Freedom, laid prostrate in the dirt, the just desert of an ungrateful tyrant!  The lead wherewith this monument was made is to be run into bullets, to assimilate with the brain of our infatuated adversaries…”

The Christian Century, “Editorial:  Don’t Know Much about History,” June 27, 2011, http://christiancentury.org/article/2011-06/don-t-know-much-about-history:

People who don’t know their country’s history make for poor citizens. People who don’t have a narrative sense of the American past are especially susceptible to politicians and other ideologues who try to weave their own versions of the past in an effort to manipulate people’s emotions. Knowing something about the past entails coming to grips with complexities and learning that real people wrestled with life-and-death questions and made tragic or wise choices. Historical knowledge keeps us humble about our own choices. We need the wisdom we can get only from knowing the stories of our past.

Interesting reading:

David McCullough in Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College, http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2005&month=04.

Editor’s Note: We bring you this blog post as part of our Memorial Day rememberance of all those who faithfully served our country.  It was written by guest blogger Janne Myrdal, who serves as state director for Concerned Women for America of North Dakota, and it was originally posted April 19, 2011.

Abby Sondeland, a 15-year-old high school freshman, bravely honored her grandfather, Lawrence Sondeland, by playing Taps at his funeral.

This morning I attended the small town funeral of a World War II veteran.  He served in the Air Force B-24 Bomber Squadron, 8th Air Force, England.  Watching the presentation of the flag to his widow, a British war bride (they were married 66 years), I was deeply touched once again by what these brave Americans did way back then.  Hearing Taps being bravely played by his 15-year-old granddaughter, a local high school freshman, put it over the top for me.  It was honor of a higher level as she nailed it and then collapsed in tears as the last tone from her trumpet hung in the air.  I happened to be standing near her and took her into my arms and held her sobbing frame while telling her that were it not for men like her grandfather, I might have grown up speaking German.  She looked at me and smiled through her tears.  I hope she understood what I was trying to tell her.  Indeed a moment to preserve.

Often, when I have the blessed opportunity to speak at gatherings here in this great country, I ask if there are veterans, but especially WWII veterans present.  Why?  Because I want them to know that I remember.  I grew up in Norway raised by parents who lived through five years of horror during the Nazi occupation.  And though I was born what seems to be an eternity away from that horrible era, it was only 17 short years that seemed like a blink of an eye to those who lived through it all.  The small town I was born in was the home of the factory that produced Heavy Water, a vital component sought after in the race for the atom bomb.  So, needless to say, the presence of the Gestapo as well as the Norwegian Resistance movement was large and intense.  (If you are interested, Heroes of Telemark, the 1963 movie featuring Kirk Douglas, is based on the true story.)  My grandfather was in the Resistance and hid in the mountains for months on end, while the Gestapo took his sons hostage and put them in labor camps in order to flush him out from hiding.  He could not come out as he knew the price for surrender was too high, even higher than that of his children’s well-being and even their lives.  At the recent funeral of my mother, one of my uncles stood up and talked about it all for the first time that I can remember, and I was stunned at some of the information that came to light, the price they all paid, yet the determination to fight for freedom at all costs.  It was something my parents drilled into our heads, almost daily, while growing up.  Stories of my dad smuggling horse meat home to cook, cut and stolen from a Nazi commander’s portion, and tales of my mom’s encounters with the Allied bombs that rained over the friendly little town – bombs aimed at saving the world, not to kill; however, kill they did.  Now, so many years later, I am ever grateful for the upbringing and heritage of a family devoted to liberty and freedom, to honor and sacrifice, and I often wonder about the providence of being born into such a family and where it takes one along the path of life.

Lawrence G. Sondeland and his wife, Pamela. Lawrence served in the U.S. Airforce, B-54 Bomber Squad, 8th Air Force in England during World War II.

So, today, at the funeral, I was overwhelmed by the honor shown this precious man and his family.  After all, how can you not be when standing in the bitter cold North Dakota wind, the soldiers with great precision folding  Old Glory and passing  on not only his memory but to remind the grandchildren and great- grandchildren of the exceptionalism of the American soldier and what is required of him/her in the quest for liberty.  Granted, this man came home, farmed and raised a large family, but many returned in a casket, and even more bodies never did return to the soil of their birth.  We must never ever take their service for granted, nor stop passing on the stories of history to our children, no matter how far removed it may seem.  Humanity has a way of repeating history, for good and for bad.  It is up to us to make sure it is for the better for the coming generations. 

We need leadership from the local to the state to national level that understands the blessing that is America, the fundamental beauty of the charters set forth by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and the duty that comes with it. 

I believe leadership that understands America and her charters and blessings cannot but exude patriotism as they share their passion in the public square.  I cannot say what the future holds for any of us and much less who will reside in the White House come January 2013, and out of honor for this family on this day, I will not be as political as I would generally be in regards to the 2012 presidential race.  However, suffice to say that we need, and I sincerely hunger for, patriotic, proud leadership in this great nation.  Several years back, I swore an oath to America becoming a citizen of this great country.  And while doing so, having pride in the fact that my roots and upbringing come from a nation who has stood with America through over a century of partnership for freedom and liberty.  Sure, there are differences, but the core belief in liberty is deep in both nations and the willingness to sacrifice similar throughout history.  The words of my late father urge us to always “stand up for what you believe in, never be silent, and fight for those who cannot fight for themselves”, and my late and non-political mom’s advice after September 11 was, “never trust any bad guy, do not let anyone give you a Chamberlain message of peace in our time as long as bad guys are out there; tell your American President to always get the bad guy before he gets you.” Their advice rings loud and true in my soul.  Being an American comes with great responsibility, and that oath I took meant something to me.  Combine that with the heritage with which God has blessed me, and I will not stay silent, nor will I apologize for what I believe, that God did shed His grace on thee, America.  Hope comes from Providence.  That is nothing for which to apologize!  And we will not apologize for it, not now and not in the future.   This belief in America is nothing for which to apologize! 

Although I fear for America and the world today, (we have leadership on many levels that cannot see clearly that America is truly exceptional) we are a nation that has always lent itself to fight for the cause of liberty across the world regardless of cost.  I have great hope that we can see America renewed, revived, and restored to the values that made her great.  We must find and elect leaders who will insure that a future of freedom and prosperity will be provided this precious 15-year-old granddaughter who, by sounding the trumpet today, gave the honor so well deserved for her grandfather’s service.  I, for one, was reminded once again today that were it not for America and its staunch allies, my path of life would indeed have been different and may not have included freedom.

Janne Myrdal serves as state director for Concerned Women for America of North Dakota.

In a time when families are struggling to pay their mortgages and utility bills, much less buy Christmas presents for their loved ones, the Smithsonian Institution, which is partly funded by American taxpayers, is promoting an exhibit that degrades Christianity and exalts homosexuality.  Is this exhibit, which has been billed as “family-friendly,” really the best use of taxpayer dollars during a recession?

An exhibit including an ant-covered, crucified Jesus and erotic “art” isn’t exactly what I’d picture taking my family to on a Sunday during the Christmas season.  It’s an offensive and wasteful display of “shock” art.  In a time when we are all faced with over $13 trillion in debt, it is wasteful and a ridiculous use of tax dollars.  I urge Congress to swiftly take steps to defund the Smithsonian Institution for their reckless and inexcusable judgment in funding such a project.

Although the Washington media elite would like nothing better than to dismiss those who attended this past weekend’s Glenn Beck rally as single issue “racist Tea Party” folks, I think what transpired on Saturday left them smarting and scared to death about November.  Chris Matthews and others tried to marginalize the event in an interview with my good friend Colin Hannah, but Colin got the last laugh when hundreds of thousands of regular, small government, God-fearing folk descended upon Washington, D.C., like a couple from North Carolina who stayed at my own house during the weekend who came specifically for the event.

The Pattons own a dry cleaning business and work hard all week to build their business in a tough economy.  Lord knows they could have used the rest rather than drive six hours each way to Washington to stay just one night.  But they, like most of the others who came to the nation’s capital, desperately wanted their elected officials to hear their angst and to understand the seriousness of the situation.  They came to reaffirm the nation’s fidelity to founding principles, both from fiscal and social issue standpoints. 

The Beck rally was supposedly just about the economy, but the end result was a revival of sorts.  It was regular people joining each other to pay homage to their God and to show love for their country.  All of those ideas work in perfect harmony because it is from this same perspective that our nation was founded by similarly brave men and women. 

I think George Washington summed up the message Saturday when he said in 1789:

The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained. – George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

Via CBS News, posted on Drudge, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released a list of five categories of websites that it will be blocking its employees from accessing from a government computer.  Here’s the list (which isn’t defined of course):

• Chat/Messaging
• Controversial opinion
• Criminal activity
• Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content
• Gaming

The news today is over the “controversial opinion” websites, which I and many other conservative analysts and pundits agree are those websites that purport a differing view of the Administration, like MichelleMalkin.com, HotAir.com, Drudge Report, RedState.com, Human Events, and probably Fox News.

That is certainly concerning, but what’s the category that’s missing in that list? You get one guess — links here and here should help.

Pornography.

The TSA, under the Obama Administration, apparently aren’t that worried about blocking pornography websites.  In fact, they’ll apparently block an opinionated conservative over a porn site.

I don’t think it’s an oversight either.  More than a few employees at government agencies have been caught surfing pornography at work, some up to eight hours a day, and have received little to no punishment.  I’m not advocating government employees spend all day on the Drudge Report or Fox News, but I think it’s okay to check the news or opinion sites maybe during their lunch break, whereas surfing pornography is always a bad idea and should never be condoned, especially at work.

What kind of society do we live in that now views pornography as less harmful than ConcernedWomen.org websites?