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Archives for the ‘Religious Freedom’ Category

What does it mean to be ‘free’?

Thursday, July 3, 2025, 8:15 am | Randy Thomasson
What’s the real definition of “freedom”?

When it comes to being an American who’s truly free from sinful slavery, context and definition matter!
As you prepare to celebrate Independence Day, stop and realize that the “freedom” our U.S. founding fathers wrote about and fought for is freedom to do what’s right in God’s sight.

This is why an American Revolutionary War cry was “No king but King Jesus.” And it’s why U.S. Founding Father John Adams said he wanted to live in a free country where he could exercise his Christian values without punishment.

So embrace your freedom! But instead of redefining freedom as freedom to sin and do whatever you want, understand that true American freedom is our freedom to obey God rather than obeying immoral tyrants – including the tyranny of our own flesh.

From Heritage Foundation’s “Why the American Founding Matters”

The American Founding is a unique and remarkable moment in human history, marking the beginning of a new order of the ages. It was the first time the people, as the only earthly source of political authority, exercised their right to establish government based on their consent.

As Alexander Hamilton observed in the opening salvo of the first Federalist paper, Americans were “to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government on the basis of reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”

The Founding generation understood that they were dramatis personae on the world stage, cast and called to prove the capacity of mankind for self-government. If they succeeded, the forces of despotism would never again find their ambitions unobstructed.

Excerpt from Fourth of July sermon outlines:

Biblical freedom is not self-centered. It is others-focused. Christ sets us free not so we can do whatever we want, but so we can finally do what we were created for—loving God and serving others.

In a culture that defines freedom as individual rights, God’s Word reframes it as relational responsibility. The freest people are those who no longer live for themselves.

Practical advice: Look around. Who can you serve today? What can you sacrifice to uplift someone else? Use your freedom to bring life and healing to those in need.

So, stand firm. Don’t go back to chains. Live free—not for yourself, but for Christ and His Kingdom. Use your liberty to bless others, walk in holiness, and glorify God. That is true freedom—and you have it in Christ.

Confirmed quotations of U.S. founding fathers:

“Whosoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.”
– Benjamin Franklin

“I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
– John Quincy Adams

“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”
– Samuel Adams

“Because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion … our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
– Letter of President John Adams in 1798

All the evidence says dads are essential

Wednesday, June 11, 2025, 8:21 pm | Randy Thomasson

All the evidence points to men being special and fathers being vastly influential, even essential.

This Father’s Day week, please do something to honor a father you know. They need your affirmation, especially when the media, culture, and bad government policies tear them down.

Below is proof on the importance of fathers. Skim it to excite you about the great good that fathers can bestow upon their children. And if you’re a feminist skeptic, who thinks a woman can do everything a man can do, get ready to think anew!

“The Significance of a Father’s Influence,” Focus on the Family, 2011
Dr. David Popenoe, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and Co-Director of the National Marriage Project, has provided us with a good summary and overview of the subject. Here’s what he has to say:

Fathers are far more than just “second adults” in the home. Involved fathers – especially biological fathers – bring positive benefits to their children that no other person is as likely to bring. They provide protection and economic support and male role models. They have a parenting style that is significantly different from that of a mother and that difference is important in healthy child development. David Popenoe, Life Without Father, (New York: The Free Press, 1996), p. 163.

One of the most vital aspects of a dad’s contribution to the lives of his kids lies precisely in what Dr. Popenoe calls his “significantly different parenting style.” Men and women are different. As a result mothers and fathers parent their children differently.

Dads, for instance, love their children “more dangerously.” That’s because they play “rougher” and are more likely to encourage risk-taking. They provide kids with a broader diversity of social experiences. They also introduce them to a wider variety of methods of dealing with life. They tend to stress rules, justice, fairness, and duty in discipline. In this way, they teach children the objectivity and consequences of right and wrong. They give kids insight into the world of men. They prepare them for the challenges of life and demonstrate by example the meaning of respect between the sexes. In connection with this last point, research indicates that a married father is substantially less likely to abuse his wife or children than men in any other category.

Fathers encourage competition, engendering independence. Mothers promote equity, creating a sense of security. Dads emphasize conceptual communication, which helps kids expand their vocabulary and intellectual capacities. Moms major in sympathy, care, and help, thus demonstrating the importance of relationships. Dads tend to see their child in relation to the rest of the world. Moms tend to see the rest of the world in relation to their child. Neither style of parenting is adequate in and of itself. Taken together, they balance each other out and equip the up-and-coming generation with a healthy, well-rounded approach to life.

More research:

The Extent of Fatherlessness
The Consequences of Fatherlessness
The Causes of Fatherlessness
The Benefits of the “Father Effect”

“Why Fathers Are Important in a Child’s Life: 16 Key Reasons,” Callen Winslow

“Why Fathers Matter,” The Fathering Project (Australia)

“The Importance of Fathers,” A Father’s Place (South Carolina)

And here’s my personal encouragement for professing Christian fathers and their wives:

When fathers are strong, practical hope for our nation increases.

If you want a good culture and good government again, strengthen your own home with fathers being the center of it.

For when a man reads the Word of God and grows in God’s purposes, he needs and deserves his wife’s support, not her distrustful opposition.

Bottom line, we need real men to love King Jesus, and real women to intrinsically respect the man as the family’s loving leader. As a result, good wives receive more security, love, purpose, and peace.

This Father’s Day, let’s intrinsically value fathers and husbands – let’s strengthen men to be the men that God designed them to be!

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor detest His correction;
For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

Proverbs 3:11-12

Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?
Hebrews 12:7

Put him into the garden – to dress it, and to keep it.Horticulture, or gardening, is the first kind of employment on record, and that in which man was engaged while in a state of perfection and innocence. Though the garden may be supposed to produce all things spontaneously, as the whole vegetable surface of the earth certainly did at the creation, yet dressing and tilling were afterwards necessary to maintain the different kinds of plants and vegetables in their perfection, and to repress luxuriance. Even in a state of innocence we cannot conceive it possible that man could have been happy if inactive. God gave him work to do, and his employment contributed to his happiness; for the structure of his body, as well as of his mind, plainly proves that he was never intended for a merely contemplative life.
Adam Clarke commentary on Genesis 2:15

UPDATE: Who are the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only)?

Thursday, June 5, 2025, 12:05 pm | Randy Thomasson

SaveCalifornia.com provides this solely for educational purposes
and does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

With this being a deadline week to pass bills in their house of origin, many bad Democrat Party bills have already passed, including more “LGBTQIA+” tyranny and indoctrination, and more baby-killing via abortions.

And, on your behalf, SaveCalifornia.com has been tracking which Republicans are voting like Democrats.

Ask yourself — how many times does a Republican have to betray you on non-negotiable issues before you call him or her a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and oppose them?

Here are the RINOs in the California State Assembly (the 80-member lower house), based on at least 3 “yes” votes on 13 Democrat-authored, anti-family bills on the floor:

Greg Wallis of the Greater Palm Springs area
Supported HR 38, AB 40, AB 45, AB 54, AB 86, AB 260, AB 302, AB 715, AB 822, AB 908, AB 935, AB 1084

Juan Alanis of Stanislaus County
Supported AB 45, AB 54, AB 86, AB 260, AB 715, AB 822, AB 908, AB 935

Laurie Davies of south Orange County and north San Diego County
Supported HR 38, AB 45, AB 86, AB 302, AB 715, AB 822, AB 932

Josh Hoover of northeast Sacramento County
Supported HR 38, AB 86, AB 715, AB 822, AB 932

Diane Dixon of Orange County’s beach cities
Supported AB 86, AB 715, AB 932

Heath Flora of Galt, Lodi, Manteca (south Sacramento Co. and part of San Joaquin Co.)
Supported AB 86, AB 715, AB 822

Carl DeMaio of east San Diego County
Supported HR 38, AB 86, AB 715

DOCUMENTATION

See details at our updated SaveCalifornia.com Legislation Center

HR 38 honoring sexual anarchist and predator of teens Harvey Milk of San Francisco
➡️ Resolution coauthors on May 19 included Republicans Phillip Chen, Laurie Davies, Carl DeMaio, Josh Hoover, Tom Lackey, Tri Ta, David Tangipa, and Greg Wallis

AB 40 defining “emergency medical services” at hospitals to include abortions (baby-killing)
➡️ Joining the ruling Democrats in voting “yes” on April 21 was Republican Greg Wallis

AB 45 prohibiting other states’ law enforcement from using “geofence” technology to locate teen and pre-teen girls from other states brought to California for abortions
➡️ Joining the supermajority Democrats in voting “yes” on June 3 were Republicans Juan Alanis, Laurie Davies, and Greg Wallis

AB 54 exempting dangerous chemical abortions (baby-killing) from civil or criminal liability laws
➡️ Joining the ruling Democrats in voting “yes” on May 21 were Republicans Juan Alanis and Greg Wallis

AB 86 requiring the State Board of Education to adopt K-8 “sexual health education materials” based on the anti-family 2019 “health curriculum framework
➡️ Joining the supermajority Democrats in voting “yes” on May 29 were Republicans Juan Alanis, Laurie Davies, Carl DeMaio, Diane Dixon, Stan Ellis, Heath Flora, James Gallagher, Jeff Gonzalez, Josh Hoover, Alexandra Macedo, and Greg Wallis

AB 260 requiring pharmacists to dispense chemical abortion drugs to minors, and insurers to pay for them
➡️ Joining the ruling Democrats in voting “yes” on May 28 were Republicans Juan Alanis and Greg Wallis

AB 302 prohibiting health insurers from disclosing information about the abortions (baby-killing) or “sex changes” of teens or pre-teens transported from another state
➡️ Joining the supermajority Democrats in voting “yes” on May 23 were Republicans Laurie Davies and Greg Wallis

AB 715 prohibiting K-12 government schools from allowing any classroom materials that don’t promote “gender, gender identity, gender expression … sexual orientation”
➡️ Joining the ruling Democrats in voting “yes” on May 29 were Republicans Juan Alanis, Leticia Castillo, Laurie Davies, Carl DeMaio, Diane Dixon, Stan Ellis, Heath Flora, James Gallagher, Jeff Gonzalez, Heather Hadwick, Josh Hoover, Tom Lackey, Alexandra Macedo, Joe Patterson, Kate Sanchez, Tri Ta, and Greg Wallis

AB 822 reauthorizing the biased “Commission on the State of Hate”
➡️ Joining the supermajority Democrats in voting “yes” on June 2 were Republicans Juan Alanis, Laurie Davies, Heath Flora, Josh Hoover, and Greg Wallis

AB 908 requiring compliance reviews to ensure pro-“LGBT+” curriculum is taught to children in California’s K-12 government schools
➡️ Joining the ruling Democrats in voting “yes” on June 2 were Republicans Juan Alanis and Greg Wallis

AB 932 prohibiting “gender identity/expression” discrimination in public school, city, and county sports programs and sports facilities.
➡️ Joining the supermajority Democrats in voting “yes” on June 2 were Republicans Phillip Chen, Laurie Davies, Diane Dixon, Heather Hadwick and Josh Hoover

AB 935 requiring the state’s Civil Right Department to promote claims of “LGBTQIA+” “discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying”
➡️ Joining the ruling Democrats in voting “yes” on June 3 were Republicans Juan Alanis and Greg Wallis

AB 1084 fast-tracking “sex change” legal proceedings for children, cutting out parents
➡️ Joining the supermajority Democrats in voting “yes” on June 4 was Republican Greg Wallis

What to do about RINOs? Replace them by refusing to support them.

Having a Democrat win the seat for a term will allow you to help expose their evil deeds, and importantly, give you motivation to recruit and support a conservative, constitutional, pro-family fighter to win in the next election.

Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.”
Advice of Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, in Exodus 18:21