When a Johnson County Arkansas deputy was shot and killed pursuing a burglary suspect the day before his son’s graduation, no one knew the way the brotherhood of officers would take care of his son.
Hours after the shooting, Dakota Smith walked across the stage at Clarksville High School to pick up his diploma. When his name was announced, a dozen officers who had rushed to the school stood up, snapped to attention and saluted the young man in place of his late father.
“There was also a standing ovation for him and a round of applause. The moment they said his name until the moment he sat so you…definitely felt a moment there of support and love for that family,” said youth minister Chad Race.
The graduating class also showed their support for Dakota by wearing black ribbons on their graduation gowns.
“There was a lot of outpouring emotion… he received a lot of applause and rightfully so,” School Superintendent David Hopkins told KARK News. “It took a lot of courage for him and his family to be here tonight and I know that’s where their dad would want them to be.”
Mike Huckabee made it official Tuesday.
Huckabee made his announcement in front of a crowd in Hope, Arkansas, where he was raised. He said that he wanted to take America “from hope to higher ground.”
Huckabee was unashamed of his Christian upbringing and love for the Lord in his announcement.
“We prayed at the start of each day [in school], and we prayed again before lunch,” Huckabee recalled. “And I learned that this exceptional country could only be explained by the providence of almighty God.”
Huckabee said that Americans have generally lost their way morally and that government leaders have made judges their God rather than the Lord.
“We’ve lost our way morally,” he said. “We’ve witnessed the slaughter of over 55 million babies in the name of choice, and we are now threatening our religious liberty by criminalizing Christianity and demanding that we abandon biblical principals of natural marriage.”
“Many of our politicians have surrendered to the false god of judicial supremacy, which would allow black-robed and unelected judges the power to make law as well as enforce it,” Huckabee continued, “upending the equality of our three branches of government as well as the separation of powers so central to the Constitution.”
Huckabee said that the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being.
“My friends, the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being and they cannot overturn the laws of nature or of nature’s God,” Huckabee proclaimed, receiving applause.
Arkansas lawmakers have passed a proposal to place a monument to the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state capitol and Governor Asa Hutchinson is expected to sign the bill.
As we previously reported, State Senator Jason Rapert proposed the moument, which will be funded by private citizens. The senator referenced other monuments in Texas and Oklahoma, which courts have found as Constitutional.
“The Secretary of State shall permit and arrange for the placement on the State Capitol grounds of a suitable monument commemorating the Ten Commandments,” SB 939 reads in part. “The Secretary of State shall arrange for the monument to be designed, constructed, and placed on the State Capitol grounds by private entities at no expense to the State of Arkansas.”
“The placement of the monument under this section shall not be construed to mean that the State of Arkansas favors any particular religion or denomination over others,” it continues.
The bill passed the Arkansas House 72-7 on Wednesday.
“The 10 Commandments monument is a visible reminder intended to keep us focused outside of ourselves, just as the founders looked outside of themselves for guidance,” Rep. Kim Hammer said, according to the Arkansas News.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has refused to sign the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The governor said that he wants the bill to mirror the federal Religious Freedom Restoration act so that the state is known “as a state that does not discriminate but understands tolerance.”
“The issue has become divisive because our nation remains split on how to balance the diversity of our culture with the traditions and firmly held religious convictions,” Hutchinson said. “It has divided families, and there is clearly a generational gap on this issue.”
Governor Hutchinson is the latest to back away from a bill to protect religious freedom after anti-faith activists in Indiana launched an attack on the state’s governor for signing a religious freedom law in his state. North Carolina’s governor is also backing away from a bill to protect religious freedom saying the law “makes no sense.”
Fourteen states are considering similar legislation this year.
If some Arkansas legislators have their way, a monument to the Ten Commandments will be placed on the grounds of the state capitol building.
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the proposal of Senator Jason Rapert and sent the matter to a full Senate vote.
“The Secretary of State shall permit and arrange for the placement on the State Capitol grounds of a suitable monument commemorating the Ten Commandments,” SB939 reads in part. “The Secretary of State shall arrange for the monument to be designed, constructed, and placed on the State Capitol grounds by private entities at no expense to the State of Arkansas.”
“The placement of the monument under this section shall not be construed to mean that the State of Arkansas favors any particular religion or denomination over others,” it continues.
Senator Rapert says the monument will be modeled after those in Oklahoma and Texas that have been declared Constitutional by the courts.
“I think as part of our state capitol, it would make a nice addition and give a nice honor to the fact that this is a part of the foundation of American jurisprudence,” Rapert stated. “We have room for many more, and we don’t have anything in particular that honored that aspect of the moral foundation of American law.”
A Christian family in Hot Springs, Arkansas had their home invaded by police and their children taken from them because of a “miracle supplement.”
State police and Garland County officers were looking for MMS, or Miracle Mineral Solution. The product is completely illegal and can be legally purchased online but the FDA believes there could be health concerns related to the product.
The officers were claiming that the children were being placed at risk because of the MMS in drinking water.
Hal Stanley said that he is the only member of the family that takes MMS and that it’s mostly used as a water purifier for his garden.
The couple, who homeschools their children, were kept away from their children while they were questioned by officers. Michelle Stanley told KARZ-TV that an officer said the kids looked great and the situation would be ending soon.
Then fully armed sheriffs came into the home and took the children away from their parents.
The family considers themselves “self-reliant” and avoids contact with the government. Sources close to the family say this is the motivation behind the police harassment. A court hearing is being held on January 21st to determine if the state can continue to hold the family’s children.
The Garland County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement after the media heard of their actions, claiming that the MMS story is “false.” They claim two residents close to the family who are unnamed made claims of child abuse.
In a victory for the religious freedom of Christians, Arkansas State University has announced they will allow players to continue to have cross shaped stickers on their helmets to pay tribute to fallen classmates.
The only condition from the school is that the players pay for the stickers themselves and that they personally place them on the helmets.
The stickers, which bare the initials of classmates Markel Owens and Barry Weyer who died in the last year, had been placed on all the helmets as a way for the team to pay tribute. An anti-Christian attorney in Jonesboro, Louis Nisenbaum, saw one of the players on TV with a cross on his helmet and sent a threatening letter to the school.
After initially saying they would remove the crosses in response to the anti-Christianist, the school relented after student athletes contacted various religious freedom organizations to defend their religious freedom.
“In the interest of allowing our student-athletes to memorialize their fallen colleagues, Markel Owens and Barry Weyer, it is the university’s position that any player who wishes to voluntarily place an NCAA-compliant sticker on their helmet to memorialize these individuals will be able to do so,” University attorney Linda McDaniel wrote.
“This is a great victory for the players of Arkansas State University,” Liberty Institute litigation director Hiram Sasser remarked following the decision. “The university officials and the Arkansas attorney general did the right thing restoring the religious liberty and free speech rights of the players to have the original cross sticker design if they so choose and we commend them for doing so.”
A member of the Arkansas State University football is standing up against an anti-Christianist who demanded a cross emblem on the team’s helmets remembering slain classmates be removed.
The cross emblem was used because both of the slain students, Markel Owens and Barry Weyer, were open and practicing Christians. The team thought that a cross was appropriate to fit both young men.
Jonesboro attorney Louis Nisenbaum decided that the team shouldn’t be able to honor their fallen classmates that way and sent a demand to the school.
“That is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause as a state endorsement of the Christian religion,” the anti-Christianist wrote. “Please advise whether you agree and whether ASU will continue this practice.”
The school then said they would remove the crosses even though they saw no legal grounds to require it to avoid litigation.
One football player, who is remaining anonymous out of fear of the wrath of anti-Christianists, has obtained legal assistance from the Liberty Institute to fight the decision.
“ASU’s actions in defacing the students’ memorial stickers to remove their religious viewpoint is illegal viewpoint discrimination against the students’ free speech. As these stickers were designed by and adopted by the students on their own, they constitute protected student speech,” the letter, written by Director of Strategic Litigation Hiram Sasser, stated. “Furthermore, ASU’s actions evince that hostility to religion that the Supreme Court has stated is a violation of the Establishment Clause.”
The Liberty Institute has demanded an answer by Wednesday as to whether or not the school will affirm the players have the right to voluntarily put the crosses on their helmets.
A cross that was placed on the helmets of Arkansas State University football helmets to remember two fallen classmates is being removed after anti-Christianists demanded they be removed.
The helmets had the initials of ASU player Markel Owens, who had been murdered in a January home invasion along with equipment manager Barry Weyer who died in a car accident this year.
“My job is to support our players and our coaches in their expression of any type of grief, and that’s what I was doing,” athletics director Terry Mohajir told USA Today Sports. “It is unfortunate, and I am disappointed. However, we’re also going to uphold whatever legal advice we got, and that’s what we did based on the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That’s what we were told we needed to do. So that’s what we did.”
Jonesboro, Arkansas attorney Louis Nisenbaum is the man who wanted to prohibit the players from honoring their fallen classmates and make sure that the Christian emblem was removed from being seen in public.
The virulent anti-Christian group Freedom From Religion Foundation, which strives to remove Christians from society, called the move “great news.”
An Arkansas pizza parlor owned by a strong Christian who offered a discount on Sundays to anyone who brought in a church bulletin has been dealing with harassment and threats for his refusal to cave to anti-Christianist demands.
Bailey’s Pizza even received a bomb threat delivered through their Facebook page.
“Better get the bomb squad out,” one of the comments read. “Stand fast and get blown up quicker,” it also read. Police are investigating the comment as a legitimate threat.
Shop owner Steven Rose said that despite the threats from the anti-Christian organization Freedom From Religion Foundation saying he was violating the Civil Rights Act by offering the discount, there’s no discrimination.
The church bulletin discount is just one of many offered to the community. The discount does not require anyone to be a part of the church whose bulletin is brought in.
Advocates for Faith and Freedom, who is representing the pizza parlor in any legal actions, says the attack of the anti-Christianists is backfiring.
“The majority of the responses to the promotion have been positive,” it stated. “Bailey’s Pizza has received enthusiastic support from the local community and around the country. Some people have come from other states to dine at Bailey’s Pizza and show their support. One Pennsylvania gentleman purchased 150 dollars’ worth of pizza each day for a week, for delivery to different organizations, such as the police and fire departments.”
