PLANNED PARENTHOOD AFFILIATES WRONGLY APPLIED FOR & RECEIVED $80 MILLION IN CORONAVIRUS ECONOMIC STIMULUS FUNDS

PLANNED PARENTHOOD AFFILIATES WRONGLY APPLIED FOR & RECEIVED $80 MILLION IN CORONAVIRUS ECONOMIC STIMULUS FUNDS

SEE: https://christiannews.net/2020/05/20/planned-parenthood-affiliates-wrongly-applied-for-and-received-80-million-in-coronavirus-stimulus-funds/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

(Fox News) — Thirty-seven Planned Parenthood affiliates applied for and received a total of $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has learned — and now the federal government wants the money back, saying the affiliates should have known they weren’t eligible for the coronavirus stimulus payouts.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is reaching out to each involved Planned Parenthood affiliate explaining that affiliates of larger organizations with more than 500 employees aren’t eligible for PPP distributions, Fox News is told. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) alone has had more than 600 employees.

A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Metropolitan Washington (PPMW), for example, will receive a letter stating that although self-certified that it was eligible for a $1,328,000 PPP loan in accordance with the SBA’s affiliation rules, it will need to return the money. …

The SBA warned more “severe penalties” were possible, beyond mandatory repayment. In particular, incorrect or false eligibility certifications by PPP recipients could result in criminal or civil sanctions if the SBA determined borrowers made knowingly false statements, the SBA letter read.

Continue reading this story >>

DAVID CLOUD'S "WAY OF LIFE" RECENT ARTICLES

DAVID CLOUD'S "WAY OF LIFE" 

RECENT ARTICLES

SEE: https://www.wayoflife.org/friday_church_news/21-21.php;

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DARLENE ZSCHECH SOLD HER SEASIDE MANSION FOR $4 MILLION 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 22, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

Darlene Zschech, former worship leader of Hillsong Sydney, has sold her seaside mansion for a reported $4-$4.4 million. The cliffside property, with a nearly 360 degree view of the ocean, is 1,258sqm with three levels, multiple entertainment areas, private movie theater, pool, and several cliff facing balconies (“Former Hillsong Church Leader,” Warwick Daily News, May 13, 2020). Zschech was “worship pastor” at Hills Christian Life Centre, Sydney, for 25 years, and published many of the most popular contemporary worship songs, including “Shout to the Lord,” “This Is Our God,” and “Mighty to Save.” In 2010, Darlene and her husband became the senior pastors of Hope Unlimited Church, but she continues to be involved in music projects with Hillsong. The New York Times reported that Hillsong is “without a doubt the most influential producers of worship music in Christendom” (“Megachurch with a Beat Lures Young Flock,” Sept. 9, 2014). Hillsong pushes one-world church ecumenism. Zschech says, “There is a new sound and a new song being proclaimed across the earth. It’s the sound of a unified church, coming together, in one voice to magnify our magnificent Lord” (“You Shine” album cover). Zschech and Hillsong performed for the Roman Catholic World Youth Day in Sydney on July 18, 2008. Pope Benedict XVI was present and conducted a papal mass. In July 2015, Darlene Zschech and Hillsong joined hands with the pope at the Convocation of the Renewal of the Holy Spirit at the Vatican. On her Facebook page, Zschech said: “Honoured to be singing this week, with Andrea Bocelli, Don Moen, Noa [Israeli singer], with Pope Francis and thousands of worshippers gathering in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. This is a celebration of unity and peace in the Renewal of the Holy Spirit. Amazing days for the Body of Christ.” Sadly, she doesn’t know the “body of Christ” from a pineapple, has zero spiritual discernment, yet she has vast influence among all denominations, including independent Baptist. In January 2019 and 2020, Hillsong Phoenix hosted the annual Alpha Conference which featured a Catholic mass. Fundamental Baptists and Bible-believing churches that use charismatic contemporary praise music are playing with fire. They will learn, probably too late, that this music brings with it a philosophy that will change the character of any fundamentalist church. It builds bridges to the “broader church,” which is progressing toward the formation of a “one-world church.”

WHEN HEBREW WAS PROPOSED AS THE LANGUAGE OF AMERICA 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 22, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

The following is excerpted from “How Hebrew Almost Became the Language of America,” Israel Today, May 5, 2020: “William Gifford, an English poet and essayist, received a report that ‘In the rebellion of the Colonies, a member of that state seriously proposed to Congress the putting down of the English language by law, and decreeing the universal adoption of Hebrew in its stead.’ Some believe this was intended as a mockery of the mutinous colonists, but there is sufficient evidence to show that this was a very real and serious consideration. New England Puritans held a profound connection with Israel, the Hebrew language and the Jewish people. In their conviction that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, they held the original Hebrew in great reverence and of particular importance in interpreting and understanding Scripture. ... William Bradford (1590-1657) was a Puritan separatist who immigrated to the Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower in 1620. Bradford, who went on to serve as governor of the new colony for 25 years, taught himself Hebrew because he wanted to read the Scriptures in their original language. On his gravestone he had inscribed in Hebrew, ‘The LORD is the help of my life’ ... Their love of Hebrew led these early New England Christian ministers to develop relationships with Jewish rabbis. Rev. Ezra Stiles, who was driven out by the British in 1776 and immigrated to New England, struck up a close friendship with Rabbi Haim Isaac Carigal. ... With his knowledge of Hebrew, Stiles translated large portions of the Hebrew Old Testament into English. As did many Christian ministers at the time, he understood that knowledge of the original Hebrew was crucial to the proper interpretation of Scripture and even the basis upon which one could properly understand the New Testament as well. Credit is sometimes given to Stiles for proposing that Hebrew replace English as the official language of the newly forming United States. When Stiles was elected president of Yale University, he initiated a course in Hebrew as a freshman requirement. The Hebrew words Urim and Thummim worn on the breastplate of the High Priest, perhaps signifying ‘Light and Perfection,’ became part of Yale’s official seal along with the Latin Lux et Veritas (light and truth).”


DUTCH SUPREME COURT RULES THAT DOCTORS CAN EUTHANIZE ELDERLY WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 22, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

The following is excerpted from “Dutch Supreme Court Rules,” Reformation Charlotte, May 6, 2020: “If abortion against the unwilling infants still inside the mother’s womb isn’t bad enough, why not legalize abortion against elderly patients with dementia against their will? In a landmark ruling last month, the Dutch Supreme Court said that a doctor who committed euthanasia on an elderly patient with dementia while her family physically restrained her is not legally responsible for any wrongdoing. The Guardian reports: ‘Doctors in the Netherlands are able to carry out euthanasia on patients with severe dementia without fear of prosecution even if the patient no longer expresses an explicit wish to die, the country’s highest court has ruled. The supreme court’s decision followed a landmark case last year in which a doctor was acquitted of wrongdoing for euthanizing a woman in 2016 with severe Alzheimer’s who had requested the procedure before her condition deteriorated.’”


NINTH CIRCUIT COURT REVIVES CHURCH’S LAWSUIT AGAINST CALIFORNIA ABORTION INSURANCE MANDATE 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 22, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

The following is excerpted from “Ninth Circuit,” Christian Post, May 15, 2020: “A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has revived a California church’s lawsuit against a state law mandating insurance coverage for abortion. Skyline Wesleyan Church of La Mesa sued the California Department of Managed Health Care over letters from 2014 stating that insurance companies could not limit abortion coverage. ... The [Ninth Circuit] panel vacated the earlier district court ruling in a unanimous decision released Wednesday, sending the case back to the lower court for further proceedings. Circuit Judge Michelle Friedland authored the panel’s opinion, concluding that ‘Skyline has suffered an injury in fact. Before the Letters were sent, Skyline had insurance that excluded abortion coverage in a way that was consistent with its religious beliefs,’ Friedland wrote. ‘After the Letters were sent, Skyline did not have that coverage, and it has presented evidence that its new coverage violated its religious beliefs. There is nothing hypothetical about the situation.’ The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm that represented the church before the Ninth Circuit, celebrated the panel’s decision. ‘The agency has unconstitutionally targeted religious organizations, repeatedly collaborated with pro-abortion advocates, and failed to follow the appropriate administrative procedures to implement its abortion-coverage requirement,’ said ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus.”


LOOKING FOR CHRIST’S RETURN THE MARK OF A TRUE CHRISTIAN 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 22, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

“I believe it is a mark, that every true believer should be continually at,--to live so as to be ready to meet Christ. ... It is vain to tell me that a man may be a very good man, and yet not be ready for the kingdom of Christ. I deny it altogether. I say that every justified and converted man is ready, and that if you are not ready you are not a justified man. I say that the standard I put before you is nothing more than the New Testament standard, and the Apostles would have doubted your religion, if you were not looking and longing for the coming of the Lord. ... Yet a little while and the last sermon shall be preached,--the last congregation shall break up. Yet a little while and carelessness and infidelity shall cease and pass away. The believers among us shall meet with Christ, and the unbelievers shall be in hell. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand” (J.C. Ryle, Coming Events and Present Duties, 1879). “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).

DAVID CLOUD'S "WAY OF LIFE" RECENT ARTICLES

DAVID CLOUD'S "WAY OF LIFE" 

RECENT ARTICLES

SEE: https://www.wayoflife.org/friday_church_news/21-20.php

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

HILLSONG DEPICTS ONE OF THE THREE WISE MEN 

AS A WOMAN 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 15, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

In a Christmas production (probably from 2019), Hillsong Australia depicted one of the wise men as a woman (“Hillsong Depicts,” Reformation Charlotte, May 9, 2020). This feminization of the wise men fits Hillsong’s passion to conform Christ to modern culture in direct disobedience to God’s Word, and Hillsong represents the heart and soul of contemporary worship music. It is a Christianity that is very much at home in this world. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Ro. 12:2). For more about Hillsong, see The Directory of Contemporary Worship Music, available as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org.


IRVING BERLIN’S GOD BLESS AMERICA 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 15, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

The following, which is a shocking reminder of how dramatically America has changed, is adapted from “Irving Berlin and ‘God Bless America!’” by Bill Federer, American Minute: In 1940, Kate Smith sang the patriotic hymn “God Bless America” before Democratic campaign rallies at the request of the Democratic National Committee. The hymn was written by popular song writer Irving Berlin, who was born in Russia in 1888, the son of a Jewish rabbi. The family immigrated to New York in 1902 to escape anti-Jewish persecution, and Irving served in the U.S. Army in World War I as an infantry sergeant. Berlin gave all the royalties of “God Bless America” to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. The original scout oath said, “On my honor I will do my best: To do my duty to God and my country...” Irving was granted the Congressional Gold Medal “in recognition of his services in composing many popular songs, including ‘God Bless America.’” The bill was signed by President Dwight Eisenhower. Upon receiving the medal in February 1955, Berlin told the president, “To me, ‘God Bless America’ was not just a song but an expression of my feeling toward the country to which I owe what I have and what I am.” The lyrics go like this: “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea, let us swear allegiance, to a land that’s free. Let us all be grateful, for a land so fair, as we raise our voices, in a solemn prayer. God Bless America, land that I love, stand beside Her, and guide Her, through the night, with the Light from Above, from the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam, God Bless America, My Home Sweet Home, God Bless America, My Home Sweet Home!”


JIM BAKKER SUED FOR BOGUS CORONAVIRUS CURE 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 15, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

Jim Bakker, disgraced former host of The PTL Club, is being sued by the state of Missouri for selling a bogus coronavirus cure called Silver Solution. After spending five years in prison for defrauding his followers out of $158 million to support a lavish and immoral lifestyle (including the famous air-conditioned doghouse), Bakker launched a new career with The Jim Bakker Show. He sells survival food and equipment for preppers who, we suppose, plan to hide from the Antichrist. Bakker also has been selling Silver Solution, though it has conveniently disappeared from his web site. This is one of the many brands of colloidal silver (tiny silver particles suspended in a liquid) that are marketed as a health product. On his Feb. 12 broadcast, Bakker’s guest Sherrill Sellman, a “natural health expert,” said, “[I]t has been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours. Totally eliminate it. Kills it. Deactivates it. [Silver Solution] has been proven by the government that it has the ability to kill every pathogen it has ever been tested on, including SARS and HIV” (“Missouri Sues Televangelist,” NPR.org, Mar. 11, 2020). Four 4-ounce bottles are a mere $80. On its very face, Silver Solution has all the hallmarks of snake oil quackery by claiming to be a cure for just about anything. Not only does it kill bacteria and viruses, it boosts the immune system, and is an effective treatment for cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and other things. Bringing everything back to reality and bursting the Silver Solution bubble, the Mayo Clinic says, “Colloidal silver isn’t considered safe or effective for any of the health claims manufacturers make. Silver has no known purpose in the body. Nor is it an essential mineral, as some sellers of silver products claim. It’s not clear how much colloidal silver may be harmful, but it can build up in your body’s tissues over months or years. Most commonly, this results in argyria (ahr-JIR-e-uh), a blue-gray discoloration of your skin, eyes, internal organs, nails and gums. While argyria doesn’t usually pose a serious health problem, it can be a cosmetic concern because it doesn’t go away when you stop taking silver products. Rarely, excessive doses of colloidal silver can cause possibly irreversible serious health problems, including kidney damage and neurological problems such as seizures. Colloidal silver products may also interact with medications” (mayoclinic.org). So silver won’t cure coronavirus, but it might turn your skin blue if you want to look like a Martian! Since it appears that Bakker no longer sells Silver Solution, you can always get the Keto Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder or the Fermented Green Supremefood made of fermented vegetables and grasses and enzymes. Bakker’s wife and former co-host of the PTL Club, Tammy Faye, divorced Jim while he was in prison and married Roe Messner, an old family friend whose company helped build PTL’s Heritage USA resort complex. She had a second wind evangelistic ministry, too, before she died in 2008.


WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, A MAJOR PROMOTER OF ABORTION AND SEX EDUCATION 

(Friday Church News Notes, May 15, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - 

The following is excerpted from “World Health Organization,” The Stream, Apr. 27, 2020: “The World Health Organization, the ‘watchdog’ of the global health, is a lot more than the world’s disease and infection police. It’s also, as more Americans are starting to learn, one of the biggest promoters of abortion and peddlers of radical sex ed. At this point, it’s undeniable. And it’s been its agenda for many years. If Americans are upset about anything, it shouldn’t be that the president temporarily cut the WHO’s funding. It should be the incredible injustice that’s been done to taxpayers by sending billions of dollars to a group that doesn’t share most people’s values. Sharon Slater of Family Watch International exposes this shameful history in a recent publication on the WHO. According to Family Watch: ‘In 2018, WHO co-published with other UN agencies and the help of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) the radical International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. This guide purports to set the sexual health education standards for all of the world’s children. Please note that WHO defines “sexuality” to encompass “sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction,” and thus, WHO supports such controversial topics being taught to children. If you’re still not convinced, Slater offers additional damning evidence from the WHO-supported learning objectives for children from the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education that encourage everything from gender and sexual experimentation to abortion, shocking acts of sexual pleasure, and departures from their parents’ more traditional views. Slater also explains that “the WHO’s CSE standards for European children, which are even worse, start by teaching toddlers about [sexual experimentation]. They also refer 9-year-olds to [the International Planned Parenthood Federation] to learn about their “sexual rights,” which is further evidence of WHO’s deep partnership with IPPF.’ ... Slater adds: ‘[WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] also has worked toward the decriminalization of cross-dressing, same-sex behaviour, sex work and drug use.’ She points to the WHO’s Values and Preferences of Transgender People Study as further evidence, and a ‘WHO fact sheet reveals that the organization has bought into unscientific transgender ideology, stating it is important to recognize identities that do not fit into the binary male or female sex categories.’”

"DRAG QUEEN" RUPAUL RAISES NEARLY $100,000 FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD ON "THE PRICE IS RIGHT"

VIDEO:

"DRAG QUEEN" RUPAUL RAISES NEARLY $100,000 FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD 

ON "THE PRICE IS RIGHT"

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: https://christiannews.net/2020/05/13/drag-queen-rupaul-raises-nearly-100k-for-planned-parenthood-on-the-price-is-right/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

(Christian News Network) — Disgust is being expressed after “drag queen” RuPaul of the long-running television show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” chose Planned Parenthood as his recipient “charity” for an episode of “The Price Is Right.” The game show, which matched the value of the prizes with a donation to the guest’s organization of choice, ended up giving $97,266 to the contraception and abortion giant.

“So, Ru, you’re going to be playing for charity,” outlined host Drew Carey on the May 11 broadcast. “All throughout the show, you’re going to be playing alongside the contestants, and whatever [this contestant wins] and the rest of the contestants win, we’re going to match and give to a special charity that Ru is playing for.”

“That’s right,” RuPaul, whose full name is RuPaul Charles, responded with enthusiasm. “What’s the charity?” Carey asked.

“Well, I am playing for Planned Parenthood, which provides vital and often free services to both men and women,” Charles advised, generating cheers and applause.



As contestants won vehicles, vacations, cash and other prizes, the total value matched to Planned Parenthood was nearly $100K.

“We’re donating $97,266 to Planned Parenthood,” Carey announced at the end of the broadcast.

Some expressed elation that Charles named Planned Parenthood as his selected recipient.

“Way to go Ru Paul and The Price is Right for doing the right thing to protect a women’s right to healthcare. #PriceIsRight #PlannedParenthood,” wrote one commenter on Twitter.

“Learning that @RuPaul was on @PriceIsRight raising money bag for @PPFA (which provides compassionate healthcare to people of all genders) makes me actually wanna start watching #PriceIsRight. Thanks, RuPaul, for supporting women, queer, and trans folks’ access to care,” another remarked.

However, others expressed disgust that the popular game show gave money to an organization that murders unborn children.

“Tell me I’m wrong, but ‘The Price is Right’ is a disgrace. They raised $97,000+ for Planned Parenthood with their evening show tonight. How many lives will be lost because if this?” one commenter posted to Twitter.

“@PriceIsRight Great, you gave a pile of money to baby killers. Isn’t that special,” another remarked.

“Nothing says ‘game show’ like raising money for a $2 billion abortion biz responsible for killing 345,672 humans last year alone,” also wrote Ryan Bomberger, a pro-life activist whose mother had been raped but rejected abortion.

As previously reported, according to Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report, the organization performed a record number of abortions during the 2018-2019 fiscal year, as 345,672 babies were murdered in their mother’s womb, up 12,915 from the year prior and up 24,288 from two years ago.

The organization focuses on sexual activity, testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), distributing contraceptives and performing pap smears to check for cervical cancer.

Many of its locations now offer services to help those who identify as homosexual and transgender, which could be part of the reason why RuPaul selected the organization as his “charity” of choice for “The Price Is Right.”

RuPaul identifies as homosexual himself and has been in a relationship with another man, Georges LeBar, since 1994.

In February, representatives with Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California delivered gift bags of candy and condoms to the offices of state lawmakers, with the vulgar phrase on the condom wrappers,“Don’t [expletive] with us; don’t [expletive] without us.”

Attached to each bag was card announcing “Happy Valentines Day and National Condom Day” and featuring sayings on the graphics of candy hearts, such as “access is sweet,” “expand not ban” and “stand with PP.”

As previously reported, in 2018, Planned Parenthood of New York City launched a “Freedom to [Expletive]” campaign, which included a YouTube video that used 20 expletives in 45 seconds.

“[Expletive] anyone with a washer and dryer in their [expletive] apartment,” “[expletive] your loudest [expletive] upstairs neighbor,” “[expletive] your hottest [expletive] bartender,” the ad stated. “[Expletive] dancers,” “[expletive] anyone in fashion,” “[expletive] a broker,” the ad stated. “[Expletive] New York and everyone in it.”

“Protect our right to [expletive] whoever the [expletive] we want,” it concluded. “Donate to PPNYC …”

A description of the video on the PPNYAction YouTube page also proudly touted that “New Yorkers have more sex than the rest of America.”

The video was later deleted.

Scripture speaks about fornication in numerous texts, teaching in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God.”

Ephesians 5:3 also exhorts, “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.”

Hebrews 13:4 likewise warns, “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

Romans 3:18 simply laments, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

_____________________________________________________________









Thetimeisnow





@Gary36940794














Tell me I’m wrong but The Price is Right is a disgrace.  They raised $97,000+ for Planned Parenthood with their evening show tonight.  How many lives will be lost because if this?  They celebrate the deaths. 









195

9:16 PM - May 11, 2020

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While another added: "Great, you gave a pile of money to baby killers. Isn't that special."















Infidel Mike@glockster23














@PriceIsRight Great, you gave a pile of money to baby killers. Isn't that special.









37

9:01 PM - May 11, 2020

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PRO-LIFE GROUPS SUE CITY OF CHARLOTTE OVER COVID-19 CITATIONS, ARRESTS OUTSIDE ABORTION FACILITY

PRO-LIFE GROUPS SUE CITY OF CHARLOTTE OVER COVID-19 CITATIONS, ARRESTS 

OUTSIDE ABORTION FACILITY 

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: https://christiannews.net/2020/04/22/pro-life-groups-sue-city-of-charlotte-over-covid-citations-arrests-outside-abortion-facility/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 

purposes:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two pro-life groups in North Carolina have sued the City of Charlotte for citing and arresting their members while they were peacefully praying and seeking to reach mothers outside of an abortion facility that was allowed to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic.

The religious liberties group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed suit on Saturday on behalf of Cities4Life and Love Life Charlotte over the incident that occurred on April 4, when Cities4Life President David Benham and others were arrested for declining to leave as they did not believe they were violating the law.

Their organizations are nonprofit charities that provide a public service, and its members were observing social distancing as required.

According to the complaint, attorneys for the two groups were able to obtain confirmation from Major Kornberg of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) that their outreach would be permissible under the Mecklenburg County and City of Charlotte joint proclamation regarding allowed “essential activities.” The proclamation included nonprofit organizations that “provide charitable and social services.”





Read the proclamation in full here.

Cities4Life works with the H.E.L.P. Crisis Pregnancy Center to offer free ultrasounds and counseling to abortion-minded mothers, and also supplies physical goods, including baby items, as well as funds for groceries, rent, prenatal care and wedding services. Love Life Charlotte likewise supplies needed items to overcome material obstacles to parenting, as well as emotional support and counseling.

ADF says that nonetheless, a dozen police officers descended on the scene that Saturday as the pro-lifers were standing spread apart on the sidewalk outside of A Preferred Women’s Health Center.

As previously reported, abortionist Ashutosh “Ron” Virmani was recorded last year calling out “Rape them and send them here!” to pro-life Christians outside of the facility. He had previously been captured referring to African American infants as “ugly black babies” — a remark for which he later apologized, stating that he “lost [his] cool in the heat of exchange.”

Six Christians were arrested and/or cited on April 4 for violating the county coronavirus order and declining to leave: Benham, Robert Reeder, Joshua Kappes, Katherine Burgess, Isaiah Burner and Luke Surak — some of whom are pastors.

Benham tried to reason with the officers, stating, “We are an essential federally-recognized nonprofit charity that helps at-risk mothers and babies. We are within our rights to be here. We are practicing social distancing, we have cleaned our hands, [and] we are offering help to these mothers.”

“And if you’re saying that we don’t have a right to be here, then go into the abortion clinic and make the arrests there,” he said. “I appreciate you serving. I appreciate everything you do for us. But this is wrong and you know it. You cannot tell us to leave.”

Police stated that the Christians were in violation of the joint proclamation because more than 10 people were present between the two groups. ADF believes that the proclamation excludes the nonprofits because of their charitable nature.

However, as previously reported, while the arrests were taking place, two women spared the lives of their unborn babies on the H.E.L.P. Crisis Pregnancy Center mobile ultrasound unit, and one of them and her boyfriend repented and believed the gospel.

“If those two women had not met us, had not been told of all the help available for them, they would be just another statistic of death and those babies would be dead right now in all likelihood,” volunteer Vicky Kaseorg outlined in a video posted to social media. “Both [were] strongly abortion-minded [and] both turned from death to life because we were there.”

“So, we are an essential service if you believe the unborn child is a living human being,” she said. “[God] uses us, and He can’t use us if we’re not here.”

The lawsuit contends that the actions of police violated their freedom of religion and speech, as well as their right to equal protection under the law.

“Defendants lack a rational or compelling state interest for such disparate treatment of the [pro-life] Advocates because prohibiting prayer and religious speech when walking, while at the same time permitting walking in the same location and manner by those who are not praying or engaging in religious speech, bears no real or substantial relation to the public health crisis underlying the Proclamation,” it reads.

“Defendants’ disparate treatment of the Advocates is not narrowly tailored because prohibiting the Advocates from providing charitable social services to women near abortion facilities is not the least restrictive means of advancing any compelling or even legitimate interest the government may have regarding the public health crisis,” the lawsuit states.

It seeks an injunction, as well as a declaration that the proclamation as written and as applied is unconstitutional.

Read the legal complaint in full here.

ADF had submitted a letter to City attorney Patrick Baker earlier this month in an attempt to resolve the matter and avoid litigation.

“We support the efforts of public officials to prioritize health and safety, but if other people are free to talk on sidewalks, people of faith should be, too. They can’t be singled out for their religious beliefs or because their form of speech is prayer or pro-life counseling,” Kevin Theriot, ADF senior counsel and director of the ADF Center for Life, said in a statement.

“And if abortion businesses can stay open during the coronavirus crisis, non-profit organizations that provide social services to women should be allowed outside — particularly when they are abiding by health and safety guidelines, as Mr. Benham and the others were.”