Opening a pregnancy or “life-affirming” clinic near an abortion center is a brilliant idea. The juxtaposition of life/light and death/darkness is more than a sharp contrast between the missions of the two organizations—it’s the difference between a living human being, protected in his mother’s womb until he’s able to survive outside it, and a dismembered human being, scraped out of this safe place because his existence is inconvenient.

The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia—who was a conservative, pro-life, pro–Second Amendment, anti-racial preferences Roman Catholic—left a court evenly split between conservative and liberal judges.

For Americans who want to see immigration law enforced, the even number proved positive. President Barack Obama tried to push through a plan to grant amnesty to certain illegal aliens, but the Supreme Court announced it was deadlocked in the case last June, a decision that upheld a lower court’s injunction against the president’s attempt to circumvent Congress.

Konni Burton introduced a bill in the Texas state Senate that bars public schools from hiding or withholding information from parents about their children. If passed, her bill would give parents the right to see all written records related to their children’s test scores, grades, disciplinary records, etc., including records related to their physical, psychological, and emotional well-being.

“Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established” (Proverbs 16:3).

Real Alternatives—a non-profit, non-religious, pro-life organization—provides “life-affirming pregnancy and parenting support services.” It hires like-minded people and even requires subcontractors to agree to promote the protection of the unborn over killing them. Real Alternatives doesn’t want to offer its employees health insurance coverage that includes drugs and devices that could induce abortions.

It’s that time again. Americans will decide next Tuesday who will occupy the White House for the next four years. The speeches, commercials, and mudslinging will be over soon, but the problems will remain. We’ll go through a similar season again in four years, God willing. Some of us will be sad next Tuesday, maybe to the point of despair. Others will be happy, satisfied, or merely resigned to the “lesser of two evils.” A number of Americans won’t care either way.

Pastors shouldn’t be intimidated by complaining secularists, and they shouldn’t be silent when groups try to suppress their First Amendment rights. That’s Liberty Counsel’s response to a letter from Americans United for Separation of Church and State to pastors threatening to report them for violating tax law.

The letter from Barry Lynn, a United Church of Christ minister and executive director of Americans United, reads in part: