Dear Friend,
Remember the story in Acts 12 when Christians were gathered at Mary’s house praying for Peter, who had been imprisoned by Herod? The angel of the Lord rescued Peter. He went to Mary’s, and young Rhoda answered the door as Peter knocked. She was so overjoyed that she left the door locked and ran back to tell those praying it was Peter. Their response? “It can’t be Peter–he’s in prison.” It must’ve been a little embarrassing when they realized God had answered their prayers and miraculously delivered Peter.
That’s a little how I feel right now. Many of you know we’ve been battling a horrible bill that would allow the state to take children away from their parents who don’t affirm their child’s wishes to “change their gender” [LD1735]. I knew it was important for us to resist this bill, but I honestly thought we had little chance of stopping it.
But God… That’s right – – totally out of the blue, the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee supporting LD1735 heard your voices. For reasons yet unknown to us, Chairman Matt Moonen moved that LD1735 be killed, and it was with a
12-0 vote.
Three days earlier, we had a very strong showing at the public hearing to testify against a bill that would enshrine abortion rights in Maine’s Constitution [LD 780]. The pro-life testimony of experts and citizens left no doubt in anyone’s mind that we will continue to effectively defend the life of the unborn and do what it takes to defeat LD 780.
The second legislative session is usually a lighter load as politicians prepare for reelection. I thought this session would follow that pattern, but as you can see, I was wrong. Here’s what we know we’re dealing with so far:
-
an attempt to make unrestricted abortion rights enshrined in our Constitution
-
bills stripping away parental rights regarding the transgender agenda
-
a number of aggressive attempts to expand gambling
-
efforts to weaken marijuana regulations
-
CCL’s effort to require age verification for access to porn sites
I usually wait until March to launch our Beacon Campaign to make sure we have the financial resources for our policy team to defend life, parental rights, religious freedom, and Biblical morality, but I can’t wait until March.
I know we just had a tremendously successful end-of-year campaign, so I am somewhat reluctant to ask for your help. Please remember, funds raised in end-of-year campaigns are tax-deductible and can’t be used for political/lobbying purposes. Our Beacon Campaign provides the funds needed for our direct and grassroots lobbying; therefore, Beacon Campaign donations are 501(c) 4 and are not tax-deductible. Our legislative budget is $40,000, and those 501(c)4 dollars are the most difficult to raise. I ask you to prayerfully consider making a gift to help us reach our Beacon Campaign goal of $40,000.
Please pray as Pastor Jim and I continue the important work of the Church Ambassador Network this session. I invite you to go to cclmaine.org, click the CAN tab, and learn more. Plus, contact Mike McClellan (policy@cclmaine.org) to learn about our efforts to equip the church to be effective citizens through our Community Impact Teams.
