OUR COLUMNISTS Reality Politics Guest Commentary by Don Wildmon After 27 years as head of a national ministry, American Family Association founder Dr. Don Wildmon has a message for those in New York and Hollywood about the "values voters" they so strongly disparage. Code of Dishonor Commentary by Brad Locke Baseball players, and professional athletes in general, tend to abide by a twisted code of honor. The code is rooted in one simple principle: don't tattle on or "disrespect" your colleagues. If you do, prepare to suffer the consequences. Bush Re-Election Helped from Unexpected Source Commentary by David Sisler I have a theory about why George W. Bush was re-elected. If homosexuals had not flaunted their Scripture-violating lifestyle in the face of God and man, the marriage issue would not have been on the 2004 ballot in 11 states. And George W. Bush may well have been defeated. Helping Cops Keep the Faith Commentary by Mark Creech A South Carolina police officer, very aware of the pitfalls in the law enforcement field, has accepted what he believes to be a calling from God to help his colleagues fight the frustration and disparagement that comes with time on the beat. His name is Ray Nash.

...Should Thanksgiving be outlawed as a national holiday and U.S. presidents stop issuing their annual Thanksgiving proclamations? Thanksgiving is part of a targeted phenomenon known as "civil religion" -- meaning generalized acknowledgments of the national heritage of faith in God that fit as many religions as possible. But nonbelievers could find reason to object, and a federal appeals court accommodated that sort of objection when it outlawed the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. The U.S. Supreme Court scrapped the ruling on technical grounds, but more legal attacks on the phrase are expected. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is expected to rule next year on whether Ten Commandments displays on public property are constitutional. [AP]

...Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute says it is time for the Bush administration and the Republican Party to re-evaluate the efficacy of outreach to the Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual wing of the GOP. Knight says the LCR "had a fit" when Bush endorsed a federal marriage amendment, and said they might not support him. "Obviously, it didn't matter," the CFI spokesman says, adding, "You can fit all the gay Republicans in a closet and it really won't affect anything ... it's a non-constituency." According to Knight, the administration and party leadership need to spend their time seeking what the Republican base wants, not what the fringe element desires. The pro-family leader says there is a time to take advice and a time to ignore advice, and right now, he feels Bush is being inundated with bad counsel. "He needs to ignore it and get some very important things done," Knight says, "like appointing judges who will uphold the rule of law and not tear up our constitution to make radical social change." [Bill Fancher]

...The head of the Family Research Counsel says the 2004 election proved to many liberals that the so-called "Christian right," those Evangelicals identified with the Republican Party, are not the only Americans concerned about the nation's values and moral direction. According to Barna Research, born-again evangelical Christians make up roughly 38 percent of the voting population, but represented 53 percent of voters in the November 2 election when "values voters" carried the day. However, as FRC president Tony Perkins points out, those Evangelicals were not the only people who voted their values on election day. He notes that, according to the Pew Research Center, 27 percent of voters cast their ballots based upon moral values, and 44 percent of those voters did so based upon social policy issues such as same-sex "marriage" and abortion. "To the dismay of the media and Hollywood that have derisively ascribed moral values to the 'religious right' of the GOP," Perkins says, "they have found that those values of honesty, integrity, along with policy issues like same-sex 'marriage' and abortion are shared by a much larger segment of the American family." The pro-family leader cites a recent New York Times interview, which highlighted the touted "values voter" in an interview with two Puerto Rican women from the Bronx who said they were staunch Democrats but voted for Bush based on the moral issues. One of the women, a mother of four, said she voted for Bush because of the "immorality that is destroying our country." Perkins speculates that the media's own focus on Iraq and terrorism during the campaign could well be what caused so many U.S. voters to respond in a historically predictable way to external crisis, with "an introspective look at who we are." In a politically polarized nation, he says, the result was that "an overwhelming block of voters voted traditional American values." (See Related Commentary) [Jenni Parker]

...The U.S. Senate opens hearings today into the $10 billion "Oil for Food" scandal at the United Nations. After the Gulf War, a program was set up under U.N. supervision to be used to provide food for the Iraqi people. Instead, millions of dollars of that oil money was stolen, some of it used by Saddam Hussein himself to buy more weapons, while other funds ended up in the coffers of French and Russian companies. As pro-family leader Gary Bauer notes, even the son of U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan is implicated in the scandal. According to Bauer, this may explain why Annan has been doing everything in his power to prevent the truth from coming out. One of the senators investigating the "Oil for Food" scandal is Republican Norm Coleman. He refers to what he has found out so far as "a sinkhole of corruption." [Fred Jackson]

...Pope John Paul has told Iraq's new ambassador to the Vatican that elections planned for January must be "fair and transparent" if Iraq hopes to build an authentic democracy. The pope, who opposed the war in Iraq, also urged the Iraqi government to settle conflicts through dialogue and negotiations and use military force "only as a last resort." John Paul expressed concern for the "many victims of terrorism and violence" and said he is praying that Iraqis will be spared further suffering and receive the help they need from international organizations. The pope accepted the credentials of the first ambassador sent to the Vatican by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who met with John Paul the week before last. Allawi received the pontiff's pledge that the church will do its part to help build democracy in Iraq. [AP]

...A former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. says that international body has completely departed from what it was formed to do almost 60 years ago. Best-selling author Dore Gold runs the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. His latest book is called Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. Gold says the U.N. was originally set up to identify and punish aggressors and to protect victims -- not the other way around. "This whole idea has been turned upside down," he says, "and the U.N. is busy celebrating and protecting terrorists, while at the same time undermining the security of people it's supposed to protect." And the author says recently, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan made an effort to protect terrorists in Fallujah, writing a letter to Bush urging him not to attack the terrorist stronghold. According to Gold, Yasser Arafat proved that the General Assembly rewards those who engage in international terrorism, which is, the former ambassador says, the major weakness of the United Nations. [Chad Groening]

...ChristianWeek reports that Canadian Anglicans remain divided, despite attempts by the Archbishop of Canterbury to address schism over homosexuality through a special Lambeth Commission. The 17-member commission's recent Windsor Report urged two high-profile clergy to express regret for their part in events that have caused "deep offence to many faithful Anglican Christians." One of these clergy is Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster, BC, who has approved marriage-like same-sex blessing ceremonies in his diocese. Along with V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the Episcopal Church USA's openly homosexual bishop, Ingham was called upon to express regret and to impose a moratorium on any similarly controversial actions until the global communion can reach consensus. Ingham remains unapologetic, however, and recently told the Anglican Journal that his diocese regrets "the consequences of our actions but not the actions themselves." Ingham says the diocese's intention was not to cause dismay, but to "affirm the relationships of gay and lesbian people." The Canadian bishop still refuses to forbid same-sex blessings in the diocese, at least not until the issue can be discussed at the annual synod meeting in May. Canadian Anglicans' reactions to the Windsor Report have been mixed. George Sinclair of the conservative group Anglican Essentials Canada is encouraged that the commission recognizes the current crisis and says he hopes the officials of the church will "receive this report so the crisis will be averted." But Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream called the report "a very English slap on the wrists for the liberals," and told the Daily Telegraph that the commission has clearly warned the pro-homosexual bishops and their supporters "if they do not express remorse, then they are no longer part of the Church." [Jenni Parker]

...An immigration reform organization is praising the voters of Arizona for passing Proposition 200. That measure, which was approved by nearly half the state's Hispanic voters, will make it difficult for illegal aliens to access welfare and other social services in Arizona. The measure requires proof of citizenship for voter registration and voting, and also requires proof of citizenship or legal residency before allowing applicants access to the state's social services. Susan Tully, Midwest field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), believes the support the measure found among 47 percent of Arizona's Hispanic citizens is telling and shows that many law-abiding Hispanics are fed up with illegal immigration. "Some of our biggest activists are actually immigrants who work with FAIR," she says, "people who've been through the process, respect our laws, and think that everybody else should as well." The immigration reform advocate says the lack of national media coverage on Prop 200 is no surprise; she believes the pro-illegal alien media is afraid voters in other states would be encouraged to push similar initiatives if they knew about the initiative. But Tully says the success of Prop 200 should show President Bush and other government officials that it is wrong to pander to those in Mexico and the U.S. who oppose strict immigration controls. [Chad Groening]

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