Dr. Paul A. Ibbetson

As of February 8, 2011, Manhattan, Kansas has created a new mentality for the state. The message is clear: “Christians, beware.” There is a new sheriff in town that goes by the name of LGBT. The acronym “LGBT” stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and this organization and those that follow under its rainbow banners now wield the power to start a legalized process that could very well shut down local businesses in the city of Manhattan. This new ordinance alteration sends a clear message that the state itself is in an uncertain state of moral decline.

For the gay activist group LGBT, the process for passing a law counter to historical Judeo-Christian values found in the Bible Belt was simple. They just had to keep lobbying and placing pressure on city officials until a liberal voting power block was present that would subvert the majority’s will for the political initiatives of a special interest group. Make no doubt about it, what LGBT and its cohorts are offering Manhattan will be painful and potentially longstanding. The consistently anti-Christian American Civil Liberties Union hosts a page for LGBT and they describe the organization as follows: “The LGBT Project fights discrimination and moves public opinion through the courts, legislatures and public education across five issue areas: Relationships, Youth & Schools, Parenting, Gender Identity and Expression and Discrimination in Employment, Housing and other areas.”

So how will this discrimination ordinance alteration affect the city itself? In many ways the ordinance is still bizarrely ambiguous. It was passed before the wording was finalized. Yes, the city government went beyond the Nancy Pelosi-esque wording of “we need to pass Obamacare so you can see what’s in the bill,” to saying in effect, “We will pass the ordinance and tell you what the fine print reads later.” If you ever wanted to see an example of an out-of-control government, there it is. What we do know is that homosexuals, amongst others, will be able to forward allegations of discrimination against business owners and landlords that may force private Kansas citizens to be brought before a non-elected human rights panel that the city mayor will appoint. The panel, which by its rules will always have an activist member appointed, will have the authority to call witnesses, collect evidence and levy heavy fines. This is a Pandora’s Box and I believe its creators have no true idea of how much it will be used and misused if it is not repealed.

The ordinance allows gays to bring preemptive violation charges against citizens they believe may discriminate against them in the future. Unless science can rapidly catch up with the modern liberal version of equality, Manhattan, Kansas has created a city ordinance reminiscent to Tom Cruise’s performance in the science fiction movie “Minority Report.” That should be a clincher to call this ordinance insane and unenforceable, but there is more. The ordinance has a sloppy and completely incomprehensible definition of gender identity of which one of the byproducts is the need for employers to create gender-identity-acceptable bathrooms and other facilities. What will be the identifiers to designate these facilities? When a town gets to this level of absurdity, who knows, maybe a “?” placard will suffice.

I have never been more ashamed to be a Kansan or a citizen of Manhattan than I was when I saw the Christian value of morality and American citizens’ freedom being trampled upon by this radical ordinance alteration. However, the anger I and others feel toward this legislation should be qualified to avoid misconception on such a sensitive subject. Most likely everyone knows a person described within the acronym LGBT. They are true members of our communities, known to us as acquaintances, friends and family. There is no doubt that Christians can, and should continue a respectful dialogue with those whose life choices violate God’s laws. What cannot happen in showing respect to those we disagree with is selling out our biblical values.

It is also important to understand where this ordinance alteration stands within our community, state and nation. The LGBT-driven ordinance in Manhattan supersedes individual conversations and exchanges of ideas of morality. The legislation takes the issue of morality into the public square and the heart of our society. In this arena, the nation will be pulled toward the values we accept collectively. Here there is no room for tolerance when it comes to our core Judeo-Christian values and the tone the community sets for the future. If we are honest with ourselves, the dilemma of the ordinance alteration in Manhattan, Kansas, is not a product of a sweeping tide of homosexual support, it is an inevitable outcome when the majority of citizens become lukewarm to the necessity of placing moral conservatives into public office. While we care for those with the deviant lifestyle of homosexuality, they do not share our value system, nor can we acquiesce to their societal demands without facing the ultimate damnation of such a decision. In the end, the repeal of such an affront to Christian values as seen in this recent ordinance alteration by the City of Manhattan is not just something we should consider, it is our responsibility.

Since the United States legalized abortion in 1973 in Roe v. Wade, approximately 40 million abortions have been conducted in this country. These death toll numbers, which continue to mount, dwarf the statistics of Americans killed in war, crime, accidental death from handguns, you name it. As we enter the year 2011, legalized abortion in America is by far the leader in institutionalized death. Prior to 1973 abortion was more than simply illegal, it was a socially shunned activity for both the pregnant mother and the covert abortionist. Today not only have the tables turned on the legality of taking the life of a baby in the womb, but the decades that have passed since Roe v. Wade have seen a continual desensitizing of Americans to the ramifications of abortion.

Since the recent mid-term election the Republican-controlled House has been working to pass the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. Among other things, the bill would stop internal revenue credits for expenses paid for medical care of the taxpayer or the taxpayer’s spouse or dependents for abortion. Furthermore, this bill would stop tax deductions through health benefit plans that include coverage of abortion. The bill is considered only a symbolic action for Republicans in the House of Representatives, since the Democrats will most certainly vote down any similar action in the Senate. It is a little bit too easy to simply look at the political maneuverings here and forget the actual tragedy that has become America.

We as a country are debating whether or not there should be tax break eligibility for taking a human life. In a country founded upon Christian values, we are calmly discussing, and for the opposition of abortion, losing the debate on society’s right to force all citizens of this country to fund the death of generations of children. This desensitization of the American conscience is inevitable as abortion continues in America and the effects accumulate.

To bring this point home, we simply have to observe how mildly the people of this country respond to the killing mills of abortion practitioners when things goes awry in our post-Roe v. Wade world. In the recent Pennsylvania case of the abortion clinic ran by Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the abortion doctor who is alleged to have killed seven babies by inducing birth and then cutting the babies’ spinal cords with a pair of scissors, the public’s outrage is more technicality based than an affront to national moral values. Had it not been for a separate federal drug investigation on unlawful pain medicine distribution, the clinic would most likely still be in operation. Even the most egregious of operating abortion clinics fail to stir concern or curiosity from regulating entities. Gosnell, who was allegedly responsible for the death of an adult, Karnamaya Mongar, was shocked when he found himself on trial for eight counts of murder as this whole strange case unfurled.

Gosnell reportedly told a judge at a recent arraignment, “I understand the one count, because a patient died, but I didn’t understand the seven counts.” In this case, despite the abortionist’s heinous actions within his clinic, Gosnell appears to feel he is simply guilty of deviating from standard operating procedures. In reality, those seven babies brought to his facility were slated to die when their mothers entered the abortion clinic. Gosnell simply failed to follow the institutionally accepted killing rituals. It’s that simple, and that terrible. Even one of America’s most notorious late-term abortionists, George Tiller, was openly embraced by a mainstream church in Kansas at the heart of the Bible Belt.

The undeniable truth is that abortion exists in opposition to everything America stands for, from the Bill of Rights to the Christian foundations of this country. Unfortunately, in failing to recognize the loss of moral values that have allowed abortion to be legalized in the United States, we are doomed to watching the country spiral further toward the devaluing of human life, creating future heartache. What is necessary for America to awaken to the desperate need to repeal abortion? Will it take having killed more babies than the living population of the country before the people’s conscience is stirred into action? As incredible as that seems, that bloody number will most certainly be reached in time.

The truth is that in time those that oppose abortion in America will no longer be losing the debate on this issue because the debate will be over. The opportunity to change the tide will be lost either through additional legislation or irreversible national malaise. Re-establishing America to greatness in 2011 will not be accomplished through stabilizing markets or lowering unemployment rates. Yes, America’s economy is struggling but the souls of its people are in much worse shape. The reemergence of America can only be accomplished through aligning the country’s belief system with that of the Creator that has made America a blessed land.

How special is America? Is it truly a unique place where people can find opportunities for a better life that surpass those of other countries? Many think this to be true and the country has had a long history of being a welcoming place for people from all across the world. From 1892 to 1924 the port of New York at Ellis Island processed over 20 million foreign immigrants to legally enter the country. According to the National Park Service’s Ellis Island site, as many as 11,747 immigrants legally entered America in a single day in 1907. It is estimated that as many 100 million Americans are descendants of the process of legal immigration that took place at locations such as Ellis Island.

Unfortunately, the mentality that gave America such a large infusion of hopeful and hardworking immigrants to this country has vanished and has been replaced with something much different. For one, immigrants entering America through Ellis Island came in with no preconceived beliefs that the United States owed them anything. Instead, immigrants entered the country with gracious humility to seek out the “American Dream.”

Traditional immigration encompassed a mutually respectful exchange between country and immigrant for the right of admittance. Foreigners had to show that they had a trade or other ability that would be useful to the country in order to be allowed in. Also, immigrants had to show that they were not carrying harmful communicable diseases that would be a detriment to the American people. Some immigrants were held for observation due to fear of disease and about two percent of those seeking to enter the country were turned away. America’s policy at that time was most certainly pro-immigration but it also encompassed a secure border element that is sorely lacking today. The next time you’re faced with an argument for open borders by someone who declares we are all descendants of immigrants, remember that a majority of this country’s classical immigration was conducted legally.

Today’s open-border mentality has been steadily moving toward an entitlement belief system that combines the thinking that America, for some inexplicable reason, owes everybody everything and that the country’s financial pockets are bottomless. This open-border entitlement mentality has not only enveloped immigrants that enter America through our southern border, it is also a heavily entrenched mentality for many within the U.S. government. The idea that America needs illegal immigrants to do America’s work is still touted despite the crushing unemployment rates of the last two years. The open-border mentality has been tested by time and continues to exist. No matter whether a Republican or Democrat is running the country, the border remains unsecured and the American people continue to pay from their own pockets, suffer from a lack of security and be forced to endure the open-border propaganda machine.

Recently Americans were shown a presentation meant to highlight the futility of the fence at the Mexican border. Fox News aired footage of two women scaling a four-million-dollar-a-mile security fence in eighteen seconds at the southern border. The message being sent is that attempts to secure the border are futile. What is less evident in this visual of the fast-moving climbers circumventing the border fence is the missing concertina wire at the fence’s apex let alone the lack of funding for double fencing that has fallen to the wayside since 2006. If one can break away from the open-border mentality, what is actually shown in such depictions is that the American government is extremely successful at failing when they really try.

To maintain the current open-border mentality that secure borders are akin to hatred of immigrants, an idea that would have been rejected by the immigrants processed at Ellis Island, it has become acceptable for government officials to spend their times downplaying incidents such as the daily gun battles that occur in places like Laredo, Texas, by the Mexican drug runners. The open-border mentality requires a person to accept as economically reasonable the $1.6 billion being spent for welfare, public safety and healthcare for illegal aliens in Los Angeles County alone. Sadly, U.S. citizens are more likely to receive a bundle of airmail(ed) marijuana via catapult than a secure border.

America has never had an inability to secure the border. If the government desired, we have the means to create a southern border that would allow only recognized and processed immigrants into the country as we did at Ellis Island. What we have is a mentality problem that starts with how some perceive the worth of America and its relationship with those that wish to visit or become part of this wonderful country. The immigrants that came to Ellis Island came with respect for America. Respect of country leads to a respect of a country’s law and its people. The idea of illegal immigrants covertly entering America to give birth to children that will eventually receive citizenship and social benefits that must be paid for by the descendants of Ellis Island’s legal immigrants is more than a painful irony. In the end it shows us the dark side of the current open-border mentality, a mentality that perceives the value of America as less than what has been traditionally held by the immigrants that have made this country so great. We will all pay if we allow this mentality to dominate our actions as a nation on the issue of border security.