WASHINGTON UPDATE 05/12/2015

May 12, 2015 | Permalink Iran Prisoners Strike It Risch Saeed Abedini was born in the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis -- but no one dreamed that 35 years later, he would become a hostage himself. The son of Tehran, who fled his country because of his faith, is now an American citizen -- though that fact has done him little good in Evin prison, where Pastor Saeed has been tortured for his conversion to Christianity for two and a half years. Captured during a visit to family, Abedini was charged with apostasy and sentenced to almost a decade in what many call "hell on earth." "Every day," survivor Marina Nemat remembered, "felt like 3,000 years." "Beatings, torture, mock executions, and brutal interrogations are the norm... where for four decades the anguished cries of prisoners have been swallowed up by the drab walls of the low-slung lockup in northwestern Tehran." Like Pastor Saeed, she speaks of lashings, beatings, and blindfolded horrors. Here at home, Saeed's wife has been suffering a different kind of agony -- the pain of a nonresponsive administration. After two years of pleading, the President finally met with the Abedinis in Idaho, assuring Naghmeh and her two young children that he would do everything he could to bring her husband home. Months later, there's still an empty chair at the dinner table and unopened presents from Saeed's 35th birthday. While the White House may refuse to act, Congress hasn't. Yesterday, members sent a powerful message to the administration that they will wait no longer, passing Sen. James Risch's (R-Idaho) resolution. By unanimous vote, they demanded Saeed's release and that of three others seized in Iran. After the 98-1 vote to give Congress a say in the final Iranian nuclear deal, leaders agreed that the President shouldn't "have sat down at the table before these four people were released or accounted for." And although plenty of conservatives had argued to make their release a condition of any deal, Risch's resolution was the next best thing. "At the very least," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned, "the American government should not be rewarding Iran for disgraceful human rights abuses." For Naghmeh, that message couldn't come soon enough. "Last week had been quite difficult for Saeed," she says. "The guards have also been threatening Saeed that he will never go free and additional charges will be added to his sentence" if he refuses to deny Christ -- something he refuses to do, even in the darkest hours. Instead, he focuses on his home, miles away, and prays for a great awakening. In his most recent letter, he writes, "I have been made aware that the National Day of Prayer (May 7th) falls on my birthday this year! As an American and as a prisoner for Christ I have spent many hours praying and crying out to God for revival for this great nation. We all hope for the success of our nation and for America to be blessed, but without revival there can be no true success or blessing." In a country more willing to negotiate a deserter's release than an American Christian's, that revival can't come soon enough. Regs to Riches? If you can't legislate -- regulate! That's the slogan of the Obama administration, which has apparently been stuffing the rulebooks at government agencies to get its way on everything on health care to greenhouse gases. In its new "Ten Thousand Commandments" report, the Competitive Enterprise Institute counted 3,554 new regulations in 2014 alone. "If U.S. federal regulation was a country, it would be the world's 10th largest!" CEI pointed out. And those guidelines aren't just oppressive -- they're pricey. Just implementing these changes costs about $1,880,000,000,000 each year. That's some expensive red tape! To put it in perspective, Congress passed 224 new laws in the same time frame -- which gives the Obama administration a 16-1 advantage over actual legislators in directing government activities. And these aren't insignificant changes either. They define things like "marriage" for federal benefits and, as we saw today, "gender" for health care. Even "progressives" like Matt Schudtz think it's ridiculous that the administration has tried to slip these changes past Americans when nobody's looking. "It's become an unfortunate tradition of this administration," he said of the President trying to accomplish his agenda without following the constitutional process. "Congressional rather than agency approval of regulations and regulatory costs should be the goal of reform," the report's author insisted. "When Congress ensures transparency and disclosure and finally assumes responsibility for growth of the regulatory state, the resulting system will be the one that is fairer and more accountable to voters." The American people were clear on Election Day that there was no appetite for the President's lawlessness. Seven months later, that hasn't changed! Farris Wheels out a Warning for Christians... The political landscape could look significantly different when the Supreme Court rules on marriage in June. And, as far as some Christians are concerned, it's never too early to prepare. For chancellors like Patrick Henry College's Mike Farris, the red flags raised in the oral arguments are giving administrators plenty to think about over summer vacation. Donald Verrilli's words still hang in the air for plenty of conservatives, who worry that the Solicitor General's tax exemption prophecy might come true sooner rather than later for natural marriage proponents. In a rare moment of honesty, the President's top lawyer confessed that the IRS could be the weapon of choice for Americans who dare to believe differently if the justices redefine marriage. But stripping the nonprofit status of religious schools and universities isn't the end, Farris writes in USA Today. Accreditation is next. "Colleges and universities that receive federal funding will be coerced into immediate compliance. Accreditation agencies will ratchet up their bullying of Christian institutions, as has already been done against Gordon College in Massachusetts. Threats to accreditation are fatal. Colleges may not legally operate in several states without it." Like FRC, he predicts a rocky road for every Christian entity, including churches. "No one should think that IRS implications will stop with colleges," he cautions. That's why men and women of faith need to be prepared. "We must decide which is more important to us -- our tax exemption or our religious convictions... A slogan of the American Revolution, 'We have no King but Jesus' may well be overturned by a 5 to 4 decision of the Supreme Court near the end of June." As for other colleges, he writes, "I cannot answer. But at Patrick Henry College we would egregiously deny our namesake's legacy, if we did not stand forthrightly for Christ and for liberty no matter what the cost." May others be inspired to do the same! ** You've heard a lot about Barronelle Stutzman -- now hear from her. The owner of Arlene's Flowers, who might lose her home in a suit over same-sex "marriage," has a powerful op-ed in today's Washington Post. Check it out here. Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.