Dear Partner, Over the last two years, my family has developed a particular passion for the people of Haiti due to three recent mission trips my children and I have taken with the Haiti Endowment Fund. Our first mission trip was scheduled just before the earthquake that devastated this small island nation. The earthquake delayed our first trip to Haiti for a short time, a time during which Christian ministries and American humanitarian aid poured into Haiti.
While bringing basic necessities to the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, I have reflected upon the intolerable circumstances of living in Haiti and the blessings we cherish in the United States.
If you were born in Haiti, you would likely have suffered from the lack of clean water, lack of food, unending sickness, political corruption, and widespread Voodooworship. However, if you were born in the U.S., you would have likely benefited from the abundance of clean water, healthy foods, antibiotics, democratic values, and widespread Christianity.
Because of God’s blessings, we have been the most generous nation in the world with the provision of humanitarian aid. More importantly, however, Americans have exported Christianity worldwide through the passion of missionaries and humanitarian organizations.
In the context of this experience, I have come to view the necessity of our work at Advocates through a clearer lens.It is apparent to me that our work in the U.S. defending liberties has more importance than merely protecting our individual right to go to church or to share our faith. Rather, the importance of our work extends beyond these liberties to the ability of Christian organizations within the U.S. to initiate and expand their ministries such that their impact is felt worldwide.
For example, we often represent churches that are seeking to rent public facilities in order to hold services but are often denied on the misunderstood application of the so-called “separation of church and state.” Sometimes, churches are wrongfully prohibited
from occupying their own property and, in one specific case, a church-affiliated school was told that it could only expand if the Christian school provided a “secular education Mondays through Fridays.”
When Advocates stepped-in to defend the Christian school, the City of Los Angeles backed down after we filed a federal lawsuit, and now the school is educating potential ministers and missionaries from a Christian worldview! If we don’t defend our constitutional liberties, churches may not be able to assemble for services, their teaching may be censored and their ability to send out missionaries and humanitarian aid worldwide may be severely inhibited.Our purpose is greater than mere politics or patriotic principles.
We defend the First Amendment right to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our impact will not only be felt here in the U.S., but internationally as well. Please stand with us so that Christian organizations will be able to flourish in the United States minister to the nations.
have taken with the Haiti Endowment Fund. Our first mission trip was scheduled just before the earthquake that devastated this small island nation. The earthquake delayed our first trip to Haiti for a short time, a time during which Christian ministries and American humanitarian aid poured into Haiti.
worship. However, if you were born in the U.S., you would have likely benefited from the abundance of clean water, healthy foods, antibiotics, democratic values, and widespread Christianity.
Robert Tyler General Counsel