faith & justice: vital signs

VITAL SIGNSOne tiny church prompts a Supreme Court debate

on whether some speech is more valuable than others

Volume VIII, Issue 2

Volume VIII, Issue 2 CONTENTS

C o v e r S t o r y :

Alliance Defending Freedom would enjoy hearing your comments on the stories and issues discussed in Faith & Justice. Please direct comments/questions to www.AllianceDefendingFreedom.org, call 800-835-5233, or write: Editor, Faith & Justice, Alliance Defending Freedom, 15100 N. 90th Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85260.©2015, Alliance Defending Freedom. All rights reserved.

@AllianceDefends www.AllianceDefendingFreedom.orgAlliance Defending Freedom Editor Chuck Bolte

Senior Writer Chris Potts

Art Director/Photography Bruce Ellefson

Contributors Gary McCaleb, Sue Thayer, Chris Potts, Alan Sears

Alliance Defending Freedom15100 N. 90th Street

Scottsdale, AZ 85260

[Phone] 800-835-5233

[Fax] 480-444-0025

Jonathan Lopez found few supporters when he challenged an abusive professor on his college campus.

8 VITAL SIGNS“The greatness of God,

that He would take a wee little church like ours, and maybe make a change

for the whole country.”

— Ann Reed —

4 HOW CHURCHES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS BENEFIT OUR CITIES“Behind this policy, there is an agenda. And I think

that the church in America needs to wake up.”

6 ADF INTERNATIONAL SEES GROWING SUCCESS“Our objectives are the same internationally as they are in the United States … to keep the door open for the Gospel.”

14 WHY I LEFT PLANNED PARENTHOOD“Planned Parenthood presents itself as a non-profit,

but it’s actually very profit-oriented.”

16 ALLIANCE PROFILE: CHUCK LIMANDRI“We’re not just serving our clients, but in a very real sense,

serving our Lord.”

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys Kristen Waggoner and Jeremy Tedesco compare notes following the January 12 Supreme

Court hearing for Reed v. Town of Gilbert (see story, p. 8).

M i n u t e s W i t h A l a n

Alliance Defending Freedom | 3

Watch a special message from Alan. Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and click on “Faith & Justice.”

Remembering Whyby Alan Sears, President, CEO and General Counsel

It’s a heartbreaking scene, and sadly, one most people of faith are called to experience, at one point or an-other. I was invited to a funeral for a young man who, as far as anyone knew, had no faith. And I watched, and hurt, for his family and friends as they grieved without hope ... mourning a life over too soon, and with no clear expectation of eternal life beyond the veil.

All agreed that he was a good man … kind, loving, con-

siderate. His loved ones shared delightful stories of mo-

ments and adventures fondly remembered, and there was

laughter. But then the laughter faded, and with it the light in

their eyes, replaced by shadows of doubt and uncertainty.

His was a wealthy family, and generous with their

wealth. The candles and flowers and décor were beauti-

fully well done. But these handsome accoutrements were

just window dressing for a room filled with mourners who

could talk only of their dearly loved son, brother, nephew,

uncle in terms of his past … not of his future.

Our time here is so brief. We all know that—and we

all try to shove it aside, to obscure and conceal it behind

a rush of activities and plans, dreams and diversions. But

something always brings it surging back to the surface of

our minds: a milestone birthday, a near miss in traffic, the

painful loss of someone we loved and cared about.

Some people ask, and no doubt many wonder, why we

do the work we do at Alliance Defending Freedom. The long

hours forging strategy, writing legal briefs, allotting grants,

building relationships with other legal groups and ministries,

the endless travel and nights away from loved ones … so

much effort, and so much of it battering against entrenched

legal and political agendas determined to submerge truth

and liberty to their own causes and profits.

It’s easy to say that we’re working for the great, his-

toric ideals—reforming the legal system, turning back

Roe v. Wade, restoring our society’s understanding of mar-

riage and family. And those are indeed objectives of this

organization. But the term we use most, in our speeches

and publications, is something simpler than that: we want

“to keep the door open for the Gospel.”

As long as that door is open … as long as you and I and

our children and our pastors and all those who share our

timeless faith have the freedom to live out the truth of the

love of Christ in our daily lives and language … people will

find their way out of the darkness and into the light.

And that, I thought—watching the aching souls at that

funeral stare into the darkness—is worth everything we

have to give.

John 15:5–Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.

How Churches In Public Schools Benefit Our Cities

With the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear the case of Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York, the for-now final outcome of this 20-year-old case—centered on the public’s right to meet for worship in rented public school facilities—is now in the hands of the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio. While he has assured Alliance Defend-ing Freedom attorneys and their allies (includ-ing many New York civic and religious lead-ers) that, under his administration, churches like Bronx Household will be allowed to hold worship services in public buildings, the only permanent hope for that freedom now lies with the state legislature.

Among the most outspoken civic lead-ers in support of Bronx Household is Dr. Fer-nando Cabrera, pastor of New Life Outreach International in the Bronx. Cabrera, a former professor of counseling at Mercy College, is now in his fifth year on the New York City Council, representing the 14th District, which includes the West Bronx. In that capacity, he has chaired the council’s committee on Juve-nile Justice, and co-chaired both the Black, La-tino and Asian Caucus and the Gun Violence Task Force. He is actively pressing state legis-lators to pass a measure ensuring the right of New York churches to hold worship services in city facilities. with

B r o n x C o u n c i l m a n F e r n a n d o C a b r e r aQ &A

O n T h e S q u a r e

4 | Alliance Defending Freedom

Then New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio and Councilman Fer-nando Cabrera (front row, second and third from left) lead a 2012 Brooklyn Bridge rally urging New York City to allow worship services in public schools.

How Churches In Public Schools Benefit Our Cities


What is New York City losing by not allowing churches to hold worship services in public schools?

A lot of people don’t understand how important

it is to have these churches be able to function out of

public schools. One, they’re providing revenue that is

needed in the city. Two, they’re providing free servic-

es … Celebrate Recovery groups, working with young

people, after-school programs, educational programs,

senior programs. We’re talking about millions upon mil-

lions of dollars’ worth of tangible outreach events and

activities that they are providing to the community. The

city right now cannot fill that gap. We have seen count-

less [monies] that were supposed to go to after-school

programs totally being eliminated, and who stepped in?

It was the houses of worship, specifically those who are

renting right now from public schools.

Why are these churches able to make such a significant impact?

Because they’re there. They coordinate with the

principals, they know firsthand what the needs are

—not only in the school, but in the community. So

whether it’s immigration services, adult literacy pro-

grams, whatever it is, the churches have come in and

filled the gap.

Are church groups being singled out for discrimination in a different way than other groups?

Over 10,000 applications [to use public schools]

go in every year for nonprofit organizations. The only

group that has been targeted, the only group that has

been marked to be eradicated from public schools has

been these churches [because of their worship servic-

es]. And we’re talking about churches and synagogues

that are giving frontline help. There’s an obvious level

of unfairness that is taking place here. Behind this pol-

icy, there is an agenda. And I think that the church in

America needs to wake up.

What are the implications of such discrimination, for communities beyond New York City?

Whatever happens in New York City, for whatev-

er reason, usually is replicated and copied all around

the world, and particularly in the U.S.

Policies often determine behavior,

and the message and the behavior of

the city says, “Religious people can-

not have the same kind of freedoms

that other people have in terms of be-

ing able to use public space, namely

public schools [for worship services].”

Are you confident of Mayor de Blasio’s support for the churches’ position?

We’ve been in talks with the mayor’s staff, and

they’ve been assuring me that the city is going to con-

tinue letting churches rent from public schools. We

commend him—he’s kept his word. I’m delighted by

that … but at the same time fearful, because—in the

future—we don’t know who the mayor’s going to be.

That places churches in a predicament. This becomes

a political issue … the very thing the Constitution was

trying to avoid, putting churches at the mercy of the

state. Every election puts this [equal access] up for

grabs, unless it becomes a state law.

Do you still believe there’s a “strong possibility” of a measure being voted on in the state assembly this summer that would secure churches’ definitive right to meet in public schools?

We’re very confident. We will definitely make a

lot of noise. The main issue is whether they will allow

democracy to have its way … whether they will let the

issue come to the floor for a vote.

How, over the 20 years of litigating this case, has ADF been able to help the nearly 100 New York churches affected by the city’s actions?

The Bronx Household of Faith, the right to wor-

ship movement, has brought churches to work to-

gether like I’ve never seen before in New York City.

If it wasn’t for ADF, we would have been history.

Without them, public schools would

have been closed and shut down to

every church. ADF came to our res-

cue and right now, we have all of our

churches being able to rent from pub-

lic schools. The fight continues, and

ADF is there to help us. We couldn’t

do it without them.

The right to worship movement has brought churches to work together like I’ve never seen before in New York City.

Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and click on “Faith & Justice” for the

latest news on Bronx Household of Faith and to learn more of what

ADF is doing to protect the religious freedom of all Americans.


It’s been 10 years since Alliance De-

fending Freedom successfully defended

the case of Ake Green, a Swedish pastor

threatened with jail time for preaching a

sermon that addressed sexual morality,

including homosexual behavior. The min-

istry’s defense of Pastor Green at the Su-

preme Court of Sweden set a solid legal

precedent for free speech in that country

and throughout Europe.

More than that, though, the case

marked the beginning of ADF involve-

ment in overseas legal actions—actions

that have, “through God’s own providence

and design,” says Benjamin W. Bull, execu-

tive director of ADF International, had far-

reaching effects not only on the laws of

other nations, but of America as well.

“God has allowed us to accomplish

extraordinary results,” says Bull. If that

success continues, he adds, “countries all

over the world will be the beneficiary and

the U.S., too, will continue to reap good

results from our successes in carrying out

ADF’s core mission.” A mission that hasn’t

changed in expanding overseas.

“Our objectives are the same interna-

tionally as they are in the United States,”

Bull says, “to keep the door open for the

Gospel, to defend religious liberty, life,

S p e c i a l F e a t u r e

Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org

and click on “Faith & Justice” to learn more about the work

of ADF International.

ADF International Sees Growing Success

Our objectives are the same internationally as they are in the United States, to keep the door open for the Gospel.

- Benjamin W. Bull Executive Director, ADF International


marriage and family, and to protect the sovereign-

ty of nations. The tactics and strategies are dif-

ferent, because the venues are different, and the

challenges are different. But when we succeed,

the results can have an incredible ripple effect.

“A year ago,” he says, “the European Court of

Human Rights (ECHR) decided there was no inter-

national right to same-sex marriage.” Meanwhile,

in the U.S., ADF filed briefs in a similar marriage

case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Cir-

cuit, which upheld the freedom of the states to

affirm marriage as the union of one man and one

woman. “That decision,” Bull explains, “prompted

the U.S. Supreme Court to review the entire mar-

riage issue. You know what case the 6th Circuit

cited? The marriage case at the European Court of

Human Rights.”

But ADF International is also succeeding in

bringing religious freedom to parts of Europe that

had lost it—in some cases, for centuries.

“We have a case at the ECHR that has the po-

tential to open up Turkey to religious freedom for

the first time in centuries,” Bull says. “Turkey in

1952 subordinated itself to the ECHR, because it

wants to be part of the European community. We

represent church planters who, under Turkey’s

law, don’t have the right to legal existence. [They]

can’t open a bank account, rent space, buy prop-

erty, or hire anybody.

“And for the first time in centuries, we’re

holding Turkey accountable,” he says. “They can’t

have it both ways, that is, be a part of the Eu-

ropean community and simultaneously suppress

religious freedom. Now we’re on the verge of get-

ting a judgment that will open Turkey to modern

notions of religious freedom.”

In Italy, ADF International has even been able

to stave off the kind of legal assaults atheists in

America used to remove references to God from

public schools half a century ago. “As a result of

the victory we helped win in Europe in Lautsi v.

Italy,” Bull says, “every country in Europe is free

to put the Christian cross in public school class-

rooms—a right we lost in the U.S. 50 years ago.”

Strategy, Bull says, is the key to the once and

future success of ADF International cases.

“Our strategy in Europe is focusing like a laser

on the major institutions of international gover-

nance,” he says, “where we can obtain the highest return on

investment of our human and financial resources.”

The United Nations, for instance. “When you win there, you

win in 193 nations,” Bull says. “When our clients win a judg-

ment at ECHR, it establishes the law of 47 nations, from Russia

to Spain, to the U.K. to Greece. The European Union, located in

Brussels, has jurisdiction over 28 nations. And the U.N. Human

Rights Council, in Geneva, Switzerland, has jurisdiction over

193 nations. That’s why, standing with our allies in Europe who

have sought our assistance, we’re opening up three new offices

in Brussels, Geneva, and Strasbourg (where the ECHR and Eu-

ropean Parliament are located), fully staffed with lawyers from

those regions.

“In the last four years,” Bull says, “we’ve been involved in

more than 50 cases at the European Court of Human Rights,

which is one of the most important courts in the world. We’ve

been blessed to win over 80 percent of our engagements there

for our clients. Today, as a result of our success in working

with allies and winning a single case at that court [ABC v. Ire-

land], every country in Europe—all 47 nations—has the right to

ban abortions, except to save the life of the mother. A virtual

total ban. That’s a right lost in the U.S. with Roe v. Wade.

“So, on many of our issues, in a very short time, and as a

result of a very strategic and focused activity, we’ve seen God

turn the playing field 180 degrees. And when people in Europe

who have a heart for serving the Lord hear about these oppor-

tunities, they want to come alongside and be a part of it.”

Sophia Kuby, director of European Union Advocacy for Alliance Defending Freedom, discusses upcoming legal questions with Bastiaan Belder (left), a Dutch member of the European Parliament, and Jan Figel, vice president of the National Council of the Slovak Republic.

8 | Alliance Defending Freedom8 | Alliance Defending Freedom

One tiny church prompts a Supreme Court debateon whether some speech is more valuable than others

Vi tal Signs

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to attend the services at Pastor Clyde Reed’s church … and you have to know where you’re going. There’s no steeple, no church-looking building to draw your attention. No stream of cars or teeming crowds. And hardly a sign to tell you where to go.

Where you go is to Gilbert Elementary School … a vast campus, as elementary schools go, but away from the main thoroughfares of this fast-growing Arizona town just southeast of Phoenix. You have to take a side street, turn into the sprawling park-ing area the school shares with several city government buildings, drive down to the far, far end of the lot, hang a right, and drive down to the end of another long, narrow parking area.

If you get out there early enough, you can help Clyde and his wife, Ann, carry their church stuff—a little table, some flowers, a heavy box of hymnals—across the grass and around a few corners to the building that houses the school’s music classroom. You can

— by Chr i s Pot t s —

join the 15-20 other folks making their

way into the cheerful mix, laughing

and talking weather and helping set

up the chairs and the accoutrements

of communion.

It’s the pretty usual group for a

suburban Sunday morning: mostly

older; coats and ties, blue jeans and

open collars; couples and widows. They

smile easily and genuinely to greet the

Reeds, who know them all very well. It

may be a small congregation, but Clyde

takes a caring interest in each of them,

asking questions about their families

and the week’s events.

Time is short—the Reeds will fin-

ish here in time to reload the car and

head over to a nearby senior living

center for a second, late-morning ser-

vice. They’ll just have time for lunch

before moving on to an Alzheimer’s

facility for their third service of the

day. It makes for a full but tiring Sun-

day for the couple, now in their early

80s. No microphones, no TV cameras,

no megachurch audience. Theirs is a

warm but obscure ministry, lived out

in the easygoing backwaters of a quiet

desert town.

And yet … their obscurity some-

how isn’t enough for this town’s lead-

ing administrators, whose curious

determination to make the Reeds all

but invisible has inadvertently drawn

national attention to their community,

surprised Clyde and Ann in a late-in-life

spotlight, and raised far-reaching ques-

tions at the U.S. Supreme Court about

freedom of speech for all Americans.

Clyde harbored no ambitions to rock

small-town boats or make legal waves

some 60 years ago when he moved to

Schenectady, New York, fresh out of

tech school, to take up a new job with

General Electric. He had no intentions

of preaching, either, and no great inter-

est in God. The only reason he joined

a local Presbyterian church, he admits,

was to find himself a girl.

“I didn’t find the girl, but I did find

the Lord,” he says, and his new faith

took sufficient hold on his personality

and conversation that his minister de-

cided he had the makings of a preach-

er. Clyde took the hint, moved north to

Montreal, and enrolled in pre-seminary

courses at McGill University. His faith

remained strong, and he became a

leader among the Christian students on

campus. But gradually the zeal for pro-

fessional ministry faded. He switched

back to his original ambition, engineer-

ing—and met the girl.

Ann was a McGill student from

Vermont who had grown up in church

but knew God only from afar. She had

already taken an instant shine to Clyde

when, back home during a summer

break, she made her own decision for

Christ. “The Lord just ‘zapped’ me,” she

laughs, “and I knew I was ‘zapped!’”

Back on campus that fall, Clyde be-

gan to notice her, too, and soon enough

the two graduated, married, and moved

back to the U.S. They were well along in

starting a family and building Clyde’s

career when his fellow engineers—the

ones who weren’t Christians—began

telling him the same thing his pastor

had, years before … that he should

consider going into the ministry. Clyde

took that as divine nudging, and elect-

ed to give seminary one more shot.

He and Ann sold their house,

packed up their children, loaded the

car and the truck and the U-Haul trail-

er, and headed out again for seminary.

As they pulled out for Canada, a neigh-

bor came out to wish them well on

their new careers. “We’ll pray that this

is the Lord’s will!” he called.

“It was,” Ann says, sharing a smile

with her husband. “And it’s been great.”

A half-century can go by pretty fast

when you’re investing yourself in the

lives of others. The Reeds poured

themselves into congregations and

communities of varying size in New

York, North Carolina, Arizona, Geor-

gia, and Maryland. Retirement age

eventually came and went, but fish-

ing, golf, bingo, watching TV—none of

those held much appeal for Clyde. The

only thing that really interested him

was the thing he was already doing:

sharing the Gospel.

One idea did take hold. Retiring,

he realized, might give him the free-

dom and time to be a missionary, as

well as a pastor. “We could just start

churches,” he told Ann. “That’s the

most fun.” They bought a “fifth wheel”

trailer and hit the road, trying their

hand at growing churches in Mary-

land. But the golden opportunity came

in a phone call from their daughter,

Paula, who was living with her fam-

ily in Gilbert, an Arizona town not far

from where the Reeds had ministered

years before.

“If you’re going to start another

church,” she suggested, “come here.


“When your service is at 9,

[posting a sign] two hours before doesn’t do much

for you.”

– ANN REED

We’re having trou-

ble finding one we

really like.” Her

folks took her up on

the offer.

It was slow go-

ing, at first … feel-

ing their way in a

new community,

where many either

had a church home

already or weren’t

especially interested

in finding one. But

Clyde, particularly,

enjoyed the chal-

lenge. Their denomi-

nation “had nothing

out here,” he says.

“And I guess it was

advantageous for us,

because we sort of

were left on our own.

We enjoyed that.”

“It was lots of excitement—nothing

laid out for you,” Ann says. “You sort

of winged it—and he likes winging it.”

The church they began struggled

to take root. The Reeds moved their

fledgling congregation from one loca-

tion to another, as attendance ebbed

and flowed … somebody’s home, a

public-school classroom, a different

school in a more growing part of town.

Though they tried several kinds of ad-

vertising, their best turned out to be

the small signs Clyde put out at major

cross streets, directing passersby to

the latest meeting place.

“That was our main way to reach

people,” he says. The church finally

settled into more-or-less permanent

weekly residence at one particular

school, “and the growth there was the

best we’d had anywhere, mainly be-

cause of the signs.”

But the signs, as it turned out,

weren’t just pointing visitors to the

location of the church. They were also

pointing the Reeds toward a most un-

expected destiny.

“We got in trouble,” Ann says.

“We were putting them out on Sat-

urday, and we didn’t know the [city

ordinance] was that they could only

be out two hours before your ser-

vice, and they were to be down one

hour after.” The problem, of course,

was that “when your service is at 9

o’clock, two hours before doesn’t do

very much for you.”

One Sunday, retrieving his signs,

Clyde found that one of them had a

citation on it. Another was missing

—the city had confiscated it. Clyde

went down to city hall to see what the

problem was. He learned that Gilbert

had very detailed restrictions on the

kind of signs he was posting—what

size they could be, where they could

be posted, some even requiring writ-

ten permission.

Clyde was confused. He saw many

other signs posted all over town …

realty signs, signs promoting politi-

cal candidates and causes. He found

it hard to believe that all those sign

posters had been jumping through

the same bureaucratic and legal

hoops now being spelled out for him

by city officials.

In fact, they weren’t. The Town

of Gilbert, it turned out, had a differ-

ent set of rules for signs promoting

churches. The other signs the Reeds

saw throughout the community were

not nearly as restricted as to size,

number, placement, or how long they

could be posted. Why the special fuss

about church signs, they wondered.

They never got a satisfactory ex-

planation. Gilbert officials simply told

Clyde that if he continued to violate

the city’s code, he could be subject to

criminal fines, even jail time. All for

a few small signs, up for little more

than a day, telling passersby where a

church was meeting. Clyde thought it

over, and decided to take action.

“You know, we view ourselves, as

Christians, as making good citizens,”

he says. By bringing church and faith

to communities, he says, pastors like

himself “are out there helping these

cities and towns, and we don’t un-

derstand why they want to make it

difficult.” They didn’t like finding

themselves in opposition to the gov-

ernment … but they weren’t ready to

give up their rights, either. The ques-

tion was, where to turn for help?

“What you need to do is call Alliance

Defending Freedom,” a minister friend

told Clyde. The Reeds, whose church

had no money to retain a lawyer or

pursue legal action, made the call—


“To see a sign is a lot easier

for me, and for a lot of people, than to get on

a computer and research.”

– IRL NOBLE, member of the Reeds’ church


and were delighted to find not only that

ADF attorneys were interested in their

case, but would represent them free

of charge. The lawyers, for their part,

were impressed with the Reeds, too.

“Just really warm, loving, genuine

people to be around,” says Senior Le-

gal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco, the ADF

attorney who first contacted them.

“You’re never far away from a laugh

with Clyde, and you’re never far away

from an interesting story with Ann.”

Still, while working to help them, he at

first had no inkling that theirs was any

more than a local case about local is-

sues, to be resolved with minimal ado.

“You have certain cases in your

mind as a First Amendment attorney,”

he says. “We strategize about certain

cases that we think have a good chance

of making it to the Supreme Court, cas-

es that will advance our legal goals in

the First Amendment realm. A sign or-

dinance case wasn’t one of the ones we

were really targeting. But, you know,

God has greater plans. And the case

turned out to involve some critical First

Amendment issues.”

At first, even Gilbert officials

seemed willing to make the case go

away. Faced with the prospect of a

preliminary injunction barring them

from enforcing their sign code against

the Reeds, the town quickly offered to

amend the code. But “amending,” it

turned out, meant applying their un-

lawful free speech restrictions to more

than just religious assemblies.

“So it was, essentially, ‘We’re going

to add more people to the back of the

free speech bus,’” says Tedesco. “We

told them that wasn’t going to solve

the problem.” With that, the legal battle

was joined in earnest—and ultimately

turned into an eight-year donnybrook.

“We litigated the case hot and

heavy in the lower courts,” Tedesco

says. ADF argued for the Reeds twice

before a district court, and twice more

at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th

Circuit—and lost all four times. “But

we kept fighting,” says Tedesco. “We

knew that our cause was right, and we

really felt like the law was on our side,

even though the courts, we thought,

kept getting it wrong. So that’s what

inspired us to petition the U.S. Su-

preme Court to hear the case.” On July

1, 2014, the High Court granted that

petition.

“What’s amazing about this case,”

says ADF Senior Counsel David Cort-

man, who argued on behalf of the

Reeds at the Supreme Court, “is you

look at it and, on its surface, it’s about

signs. And you think, ‘Well, who really

cares? There are too many signs out

there anyway.’ But there are so many

layers, as you unravel it … it’s not only

about their church, it’s not only about

signs, it’s about speech in all contexts

—whether you’re speaking orally, or

using a forum, or distributing leaflets,

or using signs. And the Supreme Court

is basically going to decide what tests

we should use to figure out if the gov-

ernment can discriminate against reli-

gious speech.”

Gilbert officials, Cortman says,

are “actually arguing in their brief that

they should be able to ban the Reeds’

signs because they don’t have any val-

ue … that church speech is of lesser

value than other types of speech,” such

as political, ideological, and homeown-

ers’ association signs.

“One of the arguments we’re mak-

ing is that inviting someone to church

to hear about the Gospel, is, we think,

more important than political speech,”

Cortman says. “The justices may not

agree with that, but we hope they will

agree that the government shouldn’t

get to pick and choose which speak-

ers are its favorites and which are not,

and which are of lesser value under

the First Amendment.”

“If the government can do that,

they can basically eliminate entire

ideas or viewpoints from the market-

place,” says Tedesco. “They’re small

signs, but the First Amendment stakes

are enormous.”

On January 12 of this year, Cortman

presented the Reeds’ case at the U.S.

Supreme Court. Clyde and Ann were in

the courtroom, a little agog at what all

these years of litigation had brought

them to.

“It’s still surreal,” Ann says. “And

so wonderful … the number of people,

the number of hours involved in our

case. The way the Lord orchestrated

everything. You realize that God can

pick you out of nothing, and say, ‘I’m

“It’s still surreal, and so wonderful …

the way the Lord orchestrated everything.”

– ANN REED

ADF team members and Ministry Friends line up in the rainy, predawn darkness to secure seats for the Reed hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court.

See an inspiring video of the Reeds’ story by visiting AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and

click on “Faith & Justice.”


“Our signs inviting people to church are very important, yet are treated as second-class speech.”

– CLYDE REEDClyde Reed speaks to reporters on

the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.

going to use you in this way.’ It’s very

humbling.”

After the hearing, Clyde—so ac-

customed in recent years to talking to

a sprinkling of churchgoers, or a room-

ful of wandering Alzheimer’s patients

—found himself standing on the great

marble steps of the nation’s highest

court, in a freezing rain, facing the mi-

crophones and cameras of the national

media.

“This whole experience has been

shocking to me,” he told the gathered

reporters. “Our signs inviting people

to church are very important, yet are

treated as second-class speech. We

aren’t asking for special treatment; we

just want our town to stop favoring

the speech of others over ours. I pray

that the Supreme Court will affirm our

First Amendment freedoms and uphold

our church’s and others’ free speech

rights.”

On June 18, his prayer was an-

swered. The High Court ruled 9-0 in

favor of the Reeds, affirming their First

Amendment rights and freeing them

to post their small signs on the quiet

streets of Gilbert once more.

“One of the most effective ways for

churches meeting in a temporary space

to tell people where they are is to put

up these kinds of temporary signs and

advertise their services, and invite peo-

ple to come,” Tedesco says. “Clyde and

Ann have struggled for eight years be-

cause of this town’s sign code, just to

tell people where they meet. My hope is

that now they can put up more signs to

invite more people to hear the Gospel

at their church.” The Reeds see ADF as

a partner in that outreach.

“We have great admiration for

ADF,” Clyde says. “We’re working to-

gether to build the Kingdom, that Jesus

might be exalted. It’s great to find fur-

ther allies. We thank them for that.”

In truth, the long struggle to build

a church without benefit of signs or

advertising has taken its toll on the

Reeds. So has leading three services

every Sunday, often for only a hand-

ful of people. But in its way, their legal

case—and its ultimate success—have

given them new perspective, and a

sense of God using them in a different,

perhaps more important way than they

ever imagined.

After all, Clyde says, big churches

with permanent sites don’t really need

signs. Only little, impermanent ones

do. “Maybe the sign thing is part of the

reason we’ve stayed small,” he says.

“If the church had been big, the signs

would never have been an issue.”

“The greatness of God,” Ann mar-

vels, “that He would take a wee little

church like ours, and maybe make

a change for the whole country, and

churches all across our country, that

they can put out signs that will not be

stomped on, inviting people to come to

church and meet the Lord.”

“We hope that will be the result,”

Clyde says, but he is content to leave

the results of this long struggle in the

hands that brought them through it.

“All this is of God,” he says. “He bears

the fruit.”


M y V i e w

WHY I LEFT PLANNED PARENTHOODIn 1991, Sue Thayer, a struggling mother living in a small, rural Iowa town, answered an ad for an entry-level assistant at a near-by Planned Parenthood facility. The job of-fered good benefits, was close to her home, and—to Sue’s mind—promised an opportu-nity to help other women.

Within a couple of months, she had been promoted to office manager, a position she held for the next 17 years. Sue did the hir-ing, firing, and training, oversaw patient re-cords and scheduling, maintained the build-ing and the books. She enjoyed the family counseling side of the business, believing she was helping women who needed help. Opposed to abortion, she took solace in the fact that abortions weren’t performed at the small facility where she worked.

But, as years passed, Sue found it harder to reconcile her conscience with the realities of Planned Parenthood’s practices. She began to question other aspects of the corporation … and to realize how much the business depends on abortions for its profits.

by Sue Thayer

Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org/InvestigateTheirPlan

to learn more about this ministry’s efforts nationwide

to expose the truth about Planned Parenthood and

preserve the sanctity of life.


Planned Parenthood presents itself

as a non-profit, but it’s actually very

profit-oriented. At monthly manag-

ers’ meetings, those managing abor-

tion facilities were given quotas, and

those who didn’t meet them had to

provide a plan for increasing their

numbers.

The company is just as high-

pressured about selling birth control

pills. Their contract with drug manu-

facturers lets them buy these pills in

bulk at a big discount … say, $2.98

for one 28-day cycle’s worth. When a

woman asks for a cycle (often having

seen ads for “Free Contraception”),

Planned Parenthood sends the bill to

Medicaid—for $35. But staff members

are also urged to press the woman for

a $10 “donation” to help offset costs.

(Many, feeling guilty, pay more.)

Planned Parenthood doesn’t tell

Medicaid about these women’s con-

tributions. So the company pockets

two profits on each pill (one provided

by the woman, the other by the tax-

payers). If you multiply that by every

woman who comes into each facility

in the course of a day, you can quick-

ly see the potential for huge profits.

But they’re not big enough to suit

Planned Parenthood.

I had qualms about the pill bill-

ing, and I asked questions. But my

real wake-up call came with the an-

nouncement at one of our monthly

managers’ meetings that all the facili-

ties—including mine—would soon be

offering something called “webcam

abortions.”

Webcam abortions work like this.

A woman comes in for a pregnancy

test. If it comes out positive, staff

members are instructed to tell her,

“We can take care of that for you to-

day—in and out in 45 minutes.” (Iowa

has no waiting period for abortions.)

If the woman agrees, she’s shown into

a room where an entry-level staffer

—not a doctor, not a nurse—does a

transvaginal ultrasound. The images

are scanned to a doctor at a remote

location. If he decides

that the baby in the

womb is 70 days old

or younger, and the

woman wants the

abortion, he pushes

a button.

The button pops open a drawer

in the exam room; inside are two sets

of pills. The first she takes immedi-

ately; it chemically kills the baby. The

second—taken at home a day later

—initiates contractions to eject the

dead baby from her body.

The woman is given a card with

an 800 number on it, and told that

if anything goes wrong, she can call

and talk to a nurse. She isn’t told that

the nurse will simply refer her to the

nearest ER—and suggest that, rather

than mention the pills, she just say

that she’s having a miscarriage.

Planned Parenthood charges

these women the same fee for a

webcam abortion that they’d pay for

seeing a doctor face-to-face. But since

one doctor, sitting at a desk, can han-

dle all these brief conversations with

patients in several states—no nurse,

no crash cart, no travel expenses—

the company can cut costs to the

bone. Managers are urged to aggres-

sively sell as many women as possible

on these low-cost, high-profit chemi-

cal abortions—no matter the danger

to the women.

In 2013, Iowa’s Board of Medi-

cine passed a regulation requiring

that a doctor perform a physical pre-

examination of any abortion patient,

be on hand in person when abortion

drugs are given, and do a follow-up

exam after the abortion. But the Iowa

Supreme Court (urged on by Planned

Parenthood) issued an injunction al-

lowing the company to ignore those

directives while the legality of the

regulation is debated in the courts.

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood at-

torneys continue to make it clear that

the company’s real concern is its bot-

tom line, not women’s health.

I was the proverbial frog in the ket-

tle who finally realized the water was

boiling. It wasn’t until Planned Par-

enthood was about to begin training

me in how to facilitate webcam abor-

tions that I realized, “I can’t do this.”

I called our local Right to Life office,

and told them all about the webcam

strategy. Surely they could do some-

thing that would block these abor-

tions from happening.

The Iowa Right to Life people

found it hard to believe the webcam

idea was for real, but I finally con-

vinced them enough that they put

me in touch with Alliance Defending

Freedom. An ADF attorney came to

Des Moines to meet me. I was ner-

vous: I’d never thought of “Christian”

and “attorney” in the same sentence

before. But I found the ADF team to

be made up of godly people who tru-

ly stood for life, and would help me

stand up for it, too. They’ve been an

inspiration to me.

I left Planned Parenthood in

2008. They asked me to sign a paper

promising never to tell what I knew of

the inside workings of the company.

But God put it on my heart not to do

that. Instead, I became an active part

of 40 Days for Life, praying for the

closure of the clinic I once managed.

Praise God, it’s now closed. We hope

to replace it with a Pregnancy Help

Center.

God continues to give me op-

portunities to speak out against the

evils of abortion, and about Planned

Parenthood’s disregard for the

health and safety of women. If, in

His mercy, He can use me to make a

difference, think how much more He

might use you.

Managers are urged to aggressively sell as many women as possible on these low-cost, high-profit chemical abortions—no matter the danger to the women.

JUDICIARY BLOCKS OBAMACARE MANDATE Vol. V, Iss. 3


A l l i a n c e P r o f i l e

In college, Chuck LiMandri’s career

aptitude test said he was most suited

for ministry, social work, or the law.

“Doing religious liberty work kind of

wraps up all three,” he says with a

laugh. “So I’m fulfilling my destiny.”

LiMandri’s destiny also primed

him to become one of Alliance Defend-

ing Freedom’s most dependable allies

in defending the three key issues both

care deeply about: life, marriage and

family, and religious freedom.

“They’re all integrally related,” he

says. “You cannot have a loss of re-

spect for marriage without having a

loss of respect for life. And that’s go-

ing to cause a problem with religious

liberty, for people who are bucking

against the [cultural] trend, to try and

preserve marriage and life.”

Something of a legal Renaissance

man, the San Diego native defended

the cross on that city’s Mount Soledad

against ACLU efforts to remove it for

more than a decade, took a leading

role in the defense of Proposition 8 in

California, and successfully defended

Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and click on “Faith & Justice” to learn how ADF and its allies are

working to defend life, marriage and family, and religious freedom.

(with the help of ADF attorneys) four San Diego firefighters forced to participate

in a homosexual pride parade. (In the course of those and many other cases,

LiMandri has contributed over $2 million worth of pro bono service.) He’s also

represented Priests for Life and Legatus (a group of Catholic business leaders) in

litigation against the HHS abortion pill mandate.

The breadth, depth, and generosity of LiMandri’s legal contributions have

brought him not only the appreciation of his ADF allies but also the ministry’s

2015 Service Award honoring outstanding pro bono work. He says that, as a civil

lawyer, he finds joy in working alongside fellow Christians for something bigger

than a mere financial settlement.

“These disputes that I work on with ADF transcend the issue of money, be-

cause they’re about ideas and values that define our culture and determine the

course of our nation and, to a large extent, the future of our children and grand-

children.”

“ADF is a very classy group,” he adds. “Everything they do is first-rate. I was

trained, in big law firms, that excellence is the standard—and that’s how ADF

practices.” But more important, he says, “is the spirit of fellowship, and sense of

mission and purpose and higher calling ... that we’re not just serving our clients,

but in a very real sense, serving our Lord.”

PREVIOUS ARRANGEMENTS Vol. VII, Iss. 1

Allied Attorney Chuck LiMandri has been instrumental in defending the Mount Soledad cross in San Diego.

On March 16, a federal dis-

trict court issued a permanent

injunction in favor of the New-

land family, owners of Hercules

Industries—a final legal victory

for the first family business in

the nation to challenge the

Obama administration’s abor-

tion pill mandate.

Alliance Defending Freedom

attorneys represented the New-

lands in their opposition to the

mandate, which compels employ-

ers, regardless of their religious

convictions, to provide insurance

coverage for abortion-inducing

drugs, sterilization, and contra-

ception under threat of heavy

financial penalties through the

Internal Revenue Service.

The federal court’s opinion

rejected the Obama administra-

tion’s argument that the admin-

istration must sign off on the

injunction before the court can

issue it, saying, “This proposed

arrogation of authority offends

the very structure of our gov-

ernment, and ignores the ex-

clusive jurisdictional author-

ity of the United States District

Court to provide such relief.”


One of the most volatile issues of 2015 has

been the media uproar over efforts by several

states to implement Religious Freedom Resto-

ration Act (RFRA) laws. Some things to know:

• In situations where a law forces someone to

take an action that conflicts with his faith,

RFRAs provide courts with a legal test for

balancing the government’s interest in its

own law with a person of faith’s determina-

tion not to violate his conscience.

• A federal RFRA was signed into law in

1993, and 21 states have enacted similar

laws since then. President Obama, while a

member of the Illinois legislature, voted in

favor of the RFRA bill that passed there in

1998.

• Much of the current political animosity

against RFRA is being stirred by advocates

of same-sex marriage, who oppose the bills

based on their potential to shield Chris-

tian business owners from government-

enforced support for same-sex marriage.

“RFRA doesn’t pick winners and losers,” says

ADF Senior Counsel Austin R. Nimocks. “It

simply ensures that freedom gets a fair hear-

ing in court when government intrudes on it.

How can anyone be opposed to that?”

On April 28, Alliance Defend-

ing Freedom attorneys appealed

to the Washington Supreme

Court to hear the case of floral

artist Barronelle Stutzman of

Richland, who was sued by the

state’s attorney general and a

same-sex couple for politely de-

clining to create floral arrange-

ments for a same-sex ceremony,

based on her Christian beliefs.

In February, a judge ruled

that Stutzman could be held

personally liable for damages

and attorneys’ fees and that—

despite her faith convictions

—she must provide full

wedding support for same-

sex ceremonies. When the

attorney general offered to

drop his lawsuit if she would

pay $2,001 and give up her

religious freedom, Stutzman

replied that her stand was

“about freedom, not money. I

certainly don’t relish the idea of

losing my business, my home,

and everything else that your

lawsuit threatens to take from

my family, but my freedom to

honor God in doing what I do

best is more important.”

JUDICIARY BLOCKS OBAMACARE MANDATE Vol. V, Iss. 3

U p d a t e s

WHAT RFRA IS REALLY ABOUT

I n T h e N e w s

PREVIOUS ARRANGEMENTS Vol. VII, Iss. 1

So often, the big speeches we hear

from our nation’s leaders—the in-

augurals, the convention keynotes,

the State of the Unions—seem less

about getting to the bottom of the

problems facing the country than

about whatever is top-of-mind with

the congressman, the candidate, the

man-in-charge at the moment. We

tune in longing to hear a word of

vision, candor, wisdom … and get

bromides, platitudes, the party line.

For Christians, in particular,

the dominant events of recent

months—the deadly attacks on be-

lievers overseas, the extraordinari-

ly aggressive censure of people of

faith in the U.S.—leave us longing

for a “state of the union” that would

honestly address the real source of

growing disunion in America ... the

rapid erosion of religious freedom.

What we would give, so many of us,

to hear something clear and reso-

nant and true. Something like …

All about us rage undeclared wars

—military and economic. All about

us grow more deadly armaments—

military and economic. All about us

are threats of new aggression—mili-

tary and economic.

Storms from abroad directly

challenge three institutions indis-

pensable to Americans, now as al-

ways. The first is religion. It is the

source of the other two—democracy

and international good faith.

Religion, by teaching man

his relationship to God, gives the

individual a sense of his own dignity

and teaches him to respect himself

by respecting his neighbors.

Democracy, the practice of self-

government, is a covenant among

free men to respect the rights and

liberties of their fellows.

International good faith, a sister

of democracy, springs from the will

of civilized nations of men to respect

the rights and liberties of other na-

tions of men.

In a modern civilization, all

three—religion, democracy and in-

ternational good faith—complement

and support each other.

Where freedom of religion has

been attacked, the attack has come

from sources opposed to democracy.

Where democracy has been over-

thrown, the spirit of free worship

has disappeared. And where religion

and democracy have vanished, good

faith and reason in international af-

fairs have given way to strident am-

bition and brute force.

An ordering of society which rel-

egates religion, democracy and good

faith among nations to the back-

ground can find no place within it

for the ideals of the Prince of Peace.

The United States rejects such an or-

dering, and retains its ancient faith.

There comes a time in the af-

fairs of men when they must prepare

to defend, not their homes alone, but

the tenets of faith and humanity on

which their churches, their govern-

ments, and their very civilization

are founded. The defense of religion,

of democracy, and of good faith

among nations is all the same fight.

To save one we must now make up

our minds to save all.

Actually, I didn’t have to make

that up. A great leader did see

the situation that clearly, and un-

derstood the eternal threat all too

well. Franklin Roosevelt shared

those words in his State of the

Union speech of January 1939, on

the verge of World War II. And a

great people responded with the

supreme effort and extraordinary

sacrifices that earned their reputa-

tion as “the greatest generation.”

Faced with challenges no less

daunting, it falls to us to summon

the same courage and determina-

tion in facing down the enemies

of religious freedom—foreign and

domestic—who, in threatening the

liberty of people of faith, threaten

all people … and, indeed, the very

idea of America. Without the free-

dom to believe, and to live out

our beliefs, we have nothing to of-

fer the world, or each other. With

those freedoms, we can face any-

thing else arrayed against us.

Seventy-six years later, I still

see the dangers FDR saw. And pray

that, as Americans, we will once

more rise to the challenge.

Gary McCaleb is chief solicitor

and senior vice president of

Strategy Implementation for

Alliance Defending Freedom.

Gary McCaleb


O p i n i o n

Now Is The Time For All Good Men …


The defense of religion, of democracy, and of good faith among nations is all the same fight. To save one we must now make up our minds to save all.

Pass on a legacy of freedom. Please contact Lisa Reschetnikow at 800-835-5233 or [email protected] to discuss your legacy giving.

TODAY’S PLAN

TOMORROW’S PROMISE

Alliance Defending Freedom is a Christ-centered

organization, the Light burning on the hill protecting

our Christian values, now and into the future, through prayer, witnessing, and deeds that honor God and country!

— Roger and Ramona R.

faith & justice: vital signs

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