A Special End of the Year Update From Richard Thompson: There's Still Time

There’s still time to get your end-of-the-year donations in: A special personal message update reissued from Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center.

Dear TMLC Supporter:

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

These words begin the stirring message written by Thomas Paine on December 23, 1776. It inspired Washington’s bedraggled and demoralized army that had been defeated in New York and driven across New Jersey.

This Christmas season, Paine’s passage applies to many of us as we face a cruel winter of hard economic times.

But as a supporter of the Law Center, you know: sacrifice for country in times of trouble are not new to Americans.

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Our first American patriots made many sacrifices. George Washington, describing the condition of his army encamped at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777, wrote that you could tell the route of their marches by their bloody footprints in the snow

Some were boys as young as 12 ─ others in their 50s and 60s. They were barefoot, half naked, with no food, suffering from all kinds of illnesses ─ 2,500 of the 11,000 encamped at Valley Forge died during that harsh winter.

But animated with the spirit of liberty, those who lived, stayed to fight.

From the winter at Valley Forge in 1777 to the snow-laden mountains of Afghanistan in 2008, Americans have sacrificed for their country.

But here at home, now prowl adversaries who in many respects are more dangerous to America than any military opponent we have faced. These adversaries seek to destroy our religion and morality, which George Washington proclaimed were the very foundations of our political prosperity.

Militant atheists in alliance with those at the ACLU are well on the way to achieving their ultimate goal – to de-Christianize America. And at the same time, radical Islamic groups are working to destroy America by terrorist acts of violence and internal subversion.

Their agendas are supported by the cultural elite, Hollywood, the television industry, the mainstream news media, academia, public schools, the legal community, and a significant portion of the judiciary.

You, here at home, have been doing your part so that the sacrifices of American patriots from the birth of our Nation to the present time will not be in vain. That’s why, despite these hard economic times, I’m asking that, you make a special year-end donation to the Thomas More Law Center so that we are able to continue to fight the .internal enemy arrayed against America.

Your donation is tax-deductible.

Here’s a snap shot of what America is facing at home:

Alongside a Nativity display in front of the Washington State Legislative Building, atheists erected an anti-Christian sign that states, “Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

On the sides and back of busses belonging to the public transit system in Washington DC are ads that proclaim, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake.”

This Christmas, like every Christmas season for the past several decades, there is a concerted action by the ACLU and public schools throughout our nation to remove all religious significance to the Christmas ─ a religious holiday Americans have been celebrating since the founding of our country.

In the battle over the sanctity of marriage gripping our nation, enraged homosexuals are marching in the streets, assaulting Christians, vandalizing Churches, and menacing Christians who speak out with vile personal attacks and threats of retaliation. Opposition is being silenced. School children are being indoctrinated. And the homosexual life style is being forced on mainstream America.

Radical Islamic organizations are now engaged in an effort to undermine the United States, not only by violent means, but also to subvert our county from within. Regardless of their tactics, the goal is the same ─ institute Islamic law as the supreme law of the land. They are accomplishing their goals through the institution of Shariah compliant financing products in our major financial institutions, proliferation of pro- Islamic propaganda in our secondary schools and the Middle East studies programs of our major universities and support for so-called Muslim charities that act as fronts for Islamic terrorist groups. All these efforts are funded by millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and other oil- producing countries.

Our challenge as Christians is not to run from these battles, but to engage them head on. And that’s what you’re doing through your support of the Thomas More Law Center.

Your donation is tax-deductible.

And courageous Christians are speaking out and the Thomas More Law Center is taking action.

Described below are just a few of the many battles we are waging on your behalf.

Marine Lt Col Jeffrey Chessani

TMLC represents Marine LtCol Jeffrey Chessani, who is charged with orders violations relating to the so called “Haditha Massacre,” which everyone now agrees never happened. The criminal charges against him were triggered by a fierce house-to-house, combat action taken by four of his Marines after being ambushed by insurgents in Haditha, Iraq on November 19, 2005. In that battle, 9 insurgents and 15 civilians were killed. LtCol Chessani was the battalion commander of the four Marines involved in the action.

Clearly, LtCol Chessani was a scapegoat to appease anti-war politicians and the liberal media. TMLC lawyers succeeded in getting a military judge to dismiss the charges based on unlawful command influence. The government has appealed that decision.

A Father’s Anti-terrorist Decals

TMLC represents Jesse Nieto, a 25 year Marine veteran who served 2 tours of duty in Vietnam. Jesse has been employed as a civilian for the Marines at Camp, Lejeune N.C. for the last several years. In 2000, Jesse lost his youngest son, Marc, in the terrorist bombing of the USS Cole. Since that time Jesse has been driving his vehicle with anti-terrorist decals.

This summer, a base magistrate issued a written order prohibiting Jesse from driving his vehicle with the anti-terrorist decals on his vehicle on Camp Lejuene property or on any other “federal installation.” Jesse’s son is buried at Arlington Memorial Cemetery, a federal installation. He refused to remove the decals and TMLC is defending his constitutional right to do.

Mt Soledad Cross

The ACLU is at it again! As you may recall, after the City of San Diego gave up their 15 year fight and agreed to remove the 43-foot Mt. Soledad Cross, the centerpiece of Veterans memorial in San Diego, TMLC stepped in and through a series of legal and legislative maneuvers, we were ultimately successful in getting the federal government to take.

However, a second lawsuit has been filed by the ACLU. Because the federal government now owns the land on which the cross stands, the cross is being defended by the Department of Justice. Nonetheless, TMLC has filed a friend of the court brief in that case on behalf of the families of two Marine helicopter pilots who were killed in action in Iraq. The Marines have plaques in their honor at the Mt. Soledad Memorial. The district court ruled in favor of the cross. The ACLU has appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Defending Christmas

As in previous years, TMLC is engaged in an aggressive pro-active campaign to keep “Christ in Christmas.” TMLC is assisting citizens who want their local communities to display Nativity scenes. Our 550 affiliated pro bono lawyers throughout the country have been provided with a legal memo on how to challenge any attempt to eliminate Nativity displays and other celebrations of Christmas.

TMLC is currently engaged in a legal challenge to a New Jersey school district that banned Christmas music (without words) because it was religious.

“In God We Trust” and “One Nation Under God” banned

TMLC is representing a public school teacher who was ordered to remove several banners from his classroom that contained historical slogans such as “In God We Trust,” “One Nation under God,” and the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. California school officials told the teacher, Brad Johnson that his banners promoted an impermissible “Judeo/Christian” viewpoint. Brad had been displaying the banners for the past twenty years without a single complaint.

Pro-Life Matters

TMLC is leading a national effort to enact state constitutional Human Life Amendments in order to mount a direct challenge to the central holding of Roe v Wade. TMLC drafted state personhood amendments for Georgia, Oregon, and Montana. We also assisted Michigan and Colorado pro-life activists with their state personhood amendments.

TMLC is defending the rights of several pro-life activists and organizations to express their prolife messages in the public square. These efforts include defending the right of public school students to wear their pro-life t-shirts to school.

The deadliest enemies of America are not our foes in foreign lands, but those that dwell within our borders..

So as 2008 draws to a close, prayerfully consider whether you can make a sacrifice to defend America’s Christian heritage by sending a special, tax-deductible year- end gift to TMLC.

Your donation is tax-deductible.

Let’s keep faith with the vision of those earliest American patriots who sacrificed during the Christmas of 1776 and with our troops sacrificing for us in Afghanistan and Iraq– a free America based on Christian values.

The future of America is in your hands.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Sincerely,