By Staff, Louisiana Right to Life NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans and Louisiana Right to Life have partnered together to have 16 streetlight banner signs installed along historic St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans between St. Joseph Street and State Street. The signs went up Dec. 10. The two-sided pink banners, intended to raise awareness regarding the humanity of the unborn, display a 19-week-old baby in utero and state: "Give Her Life a Chance! First Heartbeat 22 Days after Conception!" Benjamin Clapper, Executive Director of Louisiana Right to Life, said, "Under Louisiana state law babies may be aborted up to 20 weeks fetal age for any reason. We hope the banners help educate the public by highlighting the humanity of the unborn child so often overlooked in our society." Shanon Snyder, Projects Director for New Orleans Right to Life, worked with the city of New Orleans and its contractors to get the banners installed. The project came about after Robert Winn, president of New Orleans Right to Life, heard about similar signs put up by Students for Life at the University of Southern California. Winn saw this as an effective way to bring the pro-life debate to the minds of New Orleans residents, Snyder said. "Abortion … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Message BATON ROUGE -- America is in trouble, and it’s getting worse every day. Starting today, Jan. 5, — on the steps of the state Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa—Franklin Graham began the Decision America Tour, a series of noon prayer rallies in each state throughout 2016. As those gather to intercede for America, Graham will preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, calling the nation to repentance and encourage believers to engage the civil process by voting for godly leaders while prayerfully consider running for local office. The Decision America Tour, which begins in the state of the first caucus for the 2016 presidential election, will continue through early fall. On January 13, Graham will arrive in Baton Rouge, the third stop on his tour. He is encouraging everyone to join him for this special event which will take place within a short walk of Louisiana’s old State Capitol building. The rally will take place at noon on North Boulevard Town Square at the corner of North Boulevard and 3rd Street in Baton Rouge. He asks the question, “Will you join me for this important event?” “I encourage you to bring your friends, your family, and your church. Let’s stand together in prayer for our country … [Read more...]

By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner METAIRIE (Christian Examiner) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, known as the conservative firebrand on the nation's high court, said during an address to Catholic high school students in Louisiana Jan. 2 that the U.S. Constitution does not require the government to be neutral with respect to religion. In fact, Scalia told the audience at Archbishop Rummel High School as part of an early celebration of Religious Freedom Day (Jan. 16), the government would do well to keep God in the mix and allow times for spiritual reflection because "God has been very good to us." Religious Freedom Day is celebrated annually by presidential proclamation and commemorates the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty in 1786, widely regarded as the precursor to the First Amendment. Scalia said the modern perception that government was meant to be neutral to religion is not the groundwork for the Constitution, as evidence by the fact that so many presidents and other American leaders invoked the name of God and asked Americans to pray to him in times of national crises. "To tell you the truth there is no place for that in our constitutional tradition. Where did that come … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Managing Editor CALCASIEU – Pastor Courtland Stokes and his wife believe they may have witnessed a “Christmas miracle’ Dec. 21 after a brush with an EF1 tornado. The couple had just finished watching the 5 o’clock news and thought the severe weather watch had passed without incident when limbs started to hit the house. They scrambled into their bathroom and shut the door. “We hadn’t been in there but a moment when we heard the wind,” said Stokes, who is pastor of Peniel Baptist Church in Calcasieu. “It sounded like a lot of people screaming at the same time in the same pitch. It was very loud. The next thing we knew we felt something slam into the house and then it was gone. “We stepped out of the house,” he said. “Our carport, a small shed and some metal posts buried two to three feet in the ground in concrete were gone. The storm had just ripped them out of the ground. Our car was also under that carport but amazingly it did not have a scratch on it.” The same could not be said for 54-year-old Mike Smith, who is a member of Peniel Baptist, or his trailer which rested a short distance from the parsonage. “As we were surveying the damage to our carport, we looked out and saw Mike’s trailer,” … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Managing Editor METAIRIE – A judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction Dec. 22 against the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and Jefferson Parish over a dispute regarding sound levels during Sunday worship service conducted by Vintage Church. The church which is temporarily meeting in a tent filed a lawsuit accusing Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand and his officers of intimidation tactics in an attempt to shut down weekly worship services because of noise complaints by a sing individual, and the suit also described the noise level ordinances as flawed. The Liberty Institute, a non-profit law firm which focuses on religious liberty issues, plans to appeal the ruling immediately. “We have already begun working toward an appeal and we are optimistic we will prevail in the end,” said Justin Butterfield, senior counsel for Liberty Institute. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision,” said Butterfield, “because as the parish official acknowledged, this ruling could lead to pastors being arrested or the church being shut down. That is unquestionably a substantial burden on the church’s religious freedom.” The tent, erected in August, is intended to be a short term arrangement … [Read more...]