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In the News.
Session Ends –
Sine Die
(NO MORE
DAYS)
At midnight last night the 2009
General Assembly mercifully came to an end. It is sad to watch the party line
voting that passes for voter representation as many bills are voted on, not
because of their merit, logic, cost or future usefulness, but because of which
party presents them.
We will be summarizing some of the
major bills important to families in the next day or so. For now please check
our website for an updated BILL STATUS CHART.
We should be thankful to the
Republican minority, most of whom gave excellent, thoughtful and timely
testimony during the Session and especially yesterday in the closing hours of
debate.
Of course there are several Democrats
that are conservative and that vote across party lines on specific bills, but
too often the party line is followed to the detriment of the citizens of
Maryland.
One promising note was that several
of our City On The Hill alumni served this year as interns to Senators and
Delegates. Last night Jeff Reid,
Steven Gaines, Heather Boyer (Rob Warlick’s fiancé) and of course, Rob, my assistant. Now that the Session has ended we will
be opening registrations for this year’s City On The Hill program. Check our
website for more information and an application. www.mdfamilies.org/city/
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2009 March For Life was Great Success!
From Prolifeblogs.com - Pro-Life Unity was on-site at the Maryland March for Life yesterday,
March 9th, 2009. Our news wing, ProLifeNews.tv broadcasted live from St. Mary's
Church starting from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm. I got plenty of interviews with people
who showed up for this event, including Senator Andy Harris, Delegate Don Dwyer, Pastor Luke Robinson,
Bishop Harry Jackson, David Bereit, Doug Stiegler, and many more.
Pro-Life Unity was a sponsor for the event and of course endorsed and
promoted it. Click here to read more about
the other sponsors and the event.
At about 6:40 pm hundreds of people who were gathered at St. Mary's Church
started the march for the State House in Annapolis, Maryland. They gathered to
stand up for life and oppose abortion and human killing research. By the time
everybody got to the rally at the State House, some say there were as many as
1,500 people participating. I could hear the cheers of the people from a block
away as I made my way from my car. No, I couldn't march with everybody else, I
had too much equipment, & well, I have crutches, so the combination of the
two make things a little too difficult to march for very long!
When I got to the State House the event was well under way. Speakers were
there from different organizations, as were many Pro-Life representatives from
the Maryland government. With the help of Bill Simpson, I squeezed my way
through the crowd and set up the camera to film the speakers, and then I wiggled
out to do some more interviews with the other camera and get some footage from
the side.
Then it was back to St. Mary's for refreshments and to check out the booths
from the various Pro-Life organizations, like Rock for Life, American Life
League, National Pro-Life Radio, Defend Life and more. I spoke with and
interviewed Bishop Harry Jackson there along with a few others.
The crowd really was large this year. Was it the weather, which was around 65
degrees? I don't think so, but I'm sure it helped. I think people are seeing
Obama's policies of death and many people are ready to stand up for those who
cannot defend themselves.
How about you? Are you ready? www.marylandmarchforlife.org
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Dr. Dobson Steps Down as Focus Chairman
From Doug Stiegler - It
was announced over the weekend that Dr. James Dobson, Founder of Focus on the
Family and his wife Shirley have resigned from the Board of Directors of Focus
on the Family.
Personally,
Barb and I have gained much from the efforts of Dr. Dobson through our
association with Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, which he
helped found with Gary Bauer in 1983.
We
wish him and Shirley God’s Blessings as they fulfill their desire to “finish
well” and enjoy grand parenting. Somehow
I expect to continue to see and hear of their activities for some time to
come.
Doug
Stiegler
Association of Maryland Families
For our complete comments about Dr. Dobson's resignation, click here +
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Correction to 02/25/09 News Release on Sen. Kittleman's Vote
Some of you may have received a NEWS
RELEASE quoting me as questioning Senator Allan Kittleman’s vote on Senate BIll 195 - Ultrasound Options bill before the Senate Finance Committee last
week.
After much confusion and discussion
with several Senators, including Senator Kittleman I have found out that my
understanding and reporting was
incorrect.
The misunderstanding came because of
technical issues in the committee voting system that I was not aware of.
PLEASE TAKE THE
TIME TO READ AND UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED.
The original bill, as presented by
Senator Simonaire, was written to be a county specific bill only for
Anne Arundel County.
During the hearing, Senator
Kittleman asked many pro-life questions and was supportive of the bill that we
thought was the STATEWIDE
version.
In the committee voting session two
days later a letter from the Attorney General’s office stated their OPINION that
it would be unconstitutional to restrict the bill to only one county. Senator
Simonaire then placed the amendment to change it to be a STATEWIDE bill. We
thought this had already been done prior to the
Hearing.
Senator Kittleman did vote FOR that amendment to change it to a
statewide bill, which was the pro-life position. That vote failed in
committee.
Then the vote was called for the
original, county only bill. This is the bill that Senator Kittleman,
based on the opinion of the Attorney General, voted
against since in might have been unconstitutional.
I want to thank Senators Simonaire,
Greenip and Kittleman for clearing up this misunderstanding and look forward to
working with them all next year to get this bill through the Legislature.
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Session Update- Bills of Interest
02/12/2009- Below are just a few of the bills
that affect families in Maryland. There have been over 953
bills filed in the House and 911 in the Senate. Within a few days there
will be over 2000 total bills filed.
For a list of more bills, go to our website for the Bill Status
Chart.
Check back often to see new bills that we
will follow and think you will want to know about so you can make phone calls
and write letters and emails to your legislators about your opinions on these
bills. Please call us if you have any questions about the bills at 410.760.9166.
MARRIAGE
PROTECTION
Maryland's Marriage
Protection Act – Constitutional Amendment to allow
voters to protect definition of
marriage... click here for more info +
MARRIAGE
DESTRUCTION
Religious
Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act- Deceptive language
that replaces current law that states marriage is one man and one woman.
Actually takes away religious freedom and discriminates against
children... click here for more info +
ABORTION / PARENTAL
RIGHTS
Anne ArundelCounty - Ultrasound
Options-To require abortion providers to
provide an option for patients to view, receive a printout and /or listen to the
heartbeat of the fetus prior to an abortion.
Umbilical
Cord Blood Banking-Education Publications -
Requiring a hospital to allow a
pregnant patient to arrange for the donation of umbilical cord blood to a
certified private cord blood bank. Requiring the Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene, to develop an educational
publication... click here for more info +
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Legislative
Prayer Day was a Sweet Moment.
For more than
10 years we have been meeting on the Sunday before the start of the General
Assembly to pray for the Legislators, their families, staffs and the General
Assembly as a whole. This year was one of the warmest and heart felt
times of prayer that I can recall. About 50 prayers assembled in the
Senate Lounge along with the remaining boxes and equipment that was still being
put away after a 9 month renovation to the infrastructure of the State
House. We were blessed that Senate President Mike Miller allowed us to
use the Lounge again under those circumstances.
Pastor David
Gaines, Manna Bible Church Senior Pastor led us in a series of prayer
offerings, by name for the Governor, Lt. Governor, Comptroller, Treasurer and
Attorney General. His son, Stephen Gaines, a CITY ON THE HILL alumni, joined
his father by reading selected verses encouraging us to pray for our government
and to know that God is interested in the affairs of men.
All around
the room individuals joined in praying for the Senators, Delegates, their
families, their aides, Committee Staff Members, Pages, Legislative Services
personnel and security guards. Before closing in song we prayed for
Senator Janet Greenip and her husband Gary.
On the way
out several prayers prayed over the doorways and entrances to the Senate and
House Chambers and the offices of the Senate staff.
After the
Prayer time all were invited to the Prayer House where Barb Stiegler leads
Bible studies and prayer times during the session for Legislators and their
aides. Cake, punch and snacks greeted Rob Warlick and his fiancée Heather
Boyer who were engaged over the Christmas holiday.
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Children Have Fewer Problems at Home and a School When They Live in Intact Married Families that Worship Weekly
Annapolis, MD - A new study co-released
today by Association of Maryland Families and the Family Research Council finds that children have fewer problems at school and home when they live with both biological parents and frequently attend religious services. Drs. Nicholas
Zill and Philip Fletcher co-authored the new study which analyzes data from the National Survey of Children’s Health.
Among the study’s remarkable findings:
1.
Children in this group are five times less likely to repeat a
grade.
2. Children in this group are less likely to have behavioral
problems at home and school.
3. This group is more likely
to be cooperative and understanding of others’ feelings.
4.
Parents of these children
report less stress, healthier parent-child relationships, and fewer concerns
about their children’s achievement.
These differences hold up even after
controlling for family income and poverty, low parent education levels, and race
and ethnicity.
Maryland ranks only slightly above
the national average with respect to the percentage of children living in an
intact married family, and the national average in the frequency of worship
category.
Doug Stiegler, Executive Director of AMF issued the following
statement regarding the study's findings and relevancy:
“It has long been believed that children
living in intact married families and that attend worship services weekly thrive
in many social areas. This survey shows that their overall social behavior is
healthier, they have less stress and show greater educational advancement. This
is the effect of a strong family structure.”
“Social science data continue to
demonstrate overwhelmingly that the intact married family that worships weekly
is the greatest generator of human goods and social benefits and is the core
strength of the United States. Policy makers should strongly consider whether
their policy proposals give support to such a family structure. Children are
not the only beneficiaries but also their parents, families, communities, and
all of society.”
Click here for a copy of the study +
[1] Dr. Nicholas Zill is the founding president of Child
Trends and the former vice president of Westat, and a member of the National
Academy of Sciences.
[2] Dr. Philip Fletcher is a research psychologist at
Westat.
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When Christians Win, They Quit...
...When Christians Lose, They Quit.
From Doug Stiegler 11/06/2008 - Shortly after I became the Director of the Family Protection Lobby I attended a Conference sponsored by a large national Christian organization. There were many encouraging and uplifting speeches and everyone felt energized and hopeful. Then the last speaker made this statement that I have never forgotten. “…when Christians win- they quit, when Christians lose- they quit. His tone was positive and had an air of “can do” about it. However, when he said “Christians quit”, I was shocked into the reality of that statement.
Over the years I have seen it happen: When an issue comes up, whether it’s as local as our PTA or zoning of the vacant lot across the street, we get motivated and involved. Then once we defeat the zoning or get healthy food in the school cafeteria we figure the job is done and then go back to our normal routine. You know, soccer games, church meetings, raking leaves, going to work, making dinners, etc. etc. But in that routine, we have forgotten about the reason we were so excited, committed and involved just a few short weeks or days ago.
Many of us worked very hard during this last election cycle: emailing, phone banking, sigh waving, letter writing, making financial contributions and even getting into those never ending debates with friends and family about who and why, yes or no, “what about the Judges?”, and other stressful activities that started too long ago and consumed too much of our lives over that time.
Then came Tuesday night. Some of our first reactions was numbness, anger, frustration and even fear. Now after the efforts and events of the past couple days, I have been able to read a little, talk with some good friends and start to think about, “What do we do from here?
One thing we cannot do is quit.
There were too many good things to come out of the Election to only dwell on one issue or even a couple that didn’t go our way. In the three states that had Ballot Amendments to define Marriage as one man and one woman all were successful. California’s Prop 8 was the second time the voters in California defined marriage correctly. This time the vote over-rode the judicial foolishness of activist judges. In Arizona, there was a similar Amendment. An amendment that was barely defeated two years before by some scare tactics in a deceitful ad campaign. The citizens of Arizona were deceived no longer and passed the Marriage amendment. Florida had a more severe challenge because of a law that not only required a majority but no less than 60% majority to amend their Constitution. The amendment passed there by over 62%!
In our own state, the race in Maryland’s 1st congressional district is not yet decided. Senator Andy Harris is trailing by less than 1000 votes to Frank Kratovil, but 25,000 absentee ballots are being counted today and Provisional Ballots will be counted early next week. We could know tonight if the Absentee Ballot count is high enough for either candidate to declare the winner.
All of these wins and defeats show us several things. There is still much work to be done to protect our families and our conservative Christian values for our children. Also, we must not quit.
On the issues that we “won”, like marriage in three more states there still needs to be protections put into law and into the Constitution in Maryland. Right now we are very vulnerable to the courts forcing us to accept homosexual “marriages” that are performed in other states like Massachusetts and maybe Connecticut or Vermont. There will be zoning and permit battles over the locations, size, building requirements etc dealing with the slots parlor locations. There will be bills introduced in the upcoming General Assembly trying to close Crisis Pregnancy Centers, bills to change the fees charged to slots parlor operators, meaning less money for the state.
Now is the time for all of us to be praying and thinking about how we will be educating our children about the addiction of slot machines: we certainly will not participate in gambling (bad stewardship) ourselves or even promote their “appeal” by buying those toy slots machines for them to play on. Parents must be Aware of what the schools are teaching, especially in elementary school, about gay “marriage” and other issues.
Who will run for state offices in 2010? It’s not too early to start thinking about it. Is it someone you know that really has the passion but doesn’t have the knowledge of how to get started or how to run a campaign? Maybe you’re felling a call in that direction? We will introduce you to the GIDEONS TASK FORCE. Deacon Monti Montalto and George Towel have experience in running and funding campaigns and are looking for pro-life/pro-family candidates from any party that are ready to become delectable. Contact them at http://www.gideonstaskforce.com/ Even if you ran an unsuccessful campaign before, these men can get to the heart of the reasons and perhaps change the outcome for 2010.
And what if you do nothing? Remember what Mordecai told Esther: "For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish" (Esther 4:14a). God does not place us in positions simply for our own comfort or pleasure, but rather to fulfill a purpose. Whether you are in government, in the workplace, or an entrepreneur, God has placed you in those circumstances for such a time as this. Call to mind all that He allowed you to go through for preparation. Was it all in vain? No! It was all to prepare and equip you. Find ways to use what God has put in you to contribute to His cause and bring solutions and answers for the marketplace problems the world faces today. If you can, and you do not, God will use someone else. And you will face the consequences of non-action.
Instead, take action. You must reject fear, cultivate courage, and pursue God's purposes to see His answers for the current crisis. Reflect upon these scriptures so you may be encouraged to fulfill God's purpose where you are: Jeremiah 1:4-8, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:18-39.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
When the General Assembly begins in January the Family Protection Lobby, the lobby arm of the Association of Maryland Families, will be working to keep you informed of the proposed bills, the status of the bills throughout the session including the hearing dates and an explanation of the issues.
Pray with us on January 11, 3-4:00 PM in the State House.
Get your friends and family to sign up for our ENEWS FOR THE FAMILY Alerts
Join or Adopt-a Legislator Program. (call for information)
Think of Legislation that you would like to see introduced. We can help you connect with your Legislator about it.
Plan to attend Hearings on key issues. Most hearings take place Tuesday–Thursday starting at 1:00 PM
Agree to write, email or call legislators on key issues.
Plan to write letters to the editor of your local newspaper as the issues become clear.
Check our website for information on “how to Write a Legislator” www.mdfamilies.org
Plan to join us for our annual Legislator Appreciation Day (known as “Cookie Day”). More info will follow.
Attend the Maryland March For Life – March 9, 2009 on Lawyer’s Mall
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