Released: Tuesday, November 03, 2015

Preparing for the 2016 General Assembly

A key focus for the 2016 General Assembly will be protecting religious liberty and moral values. In light of judicial decisions related to these areas and other activities, VAIB is working on:

• Preventing efforts by transgender individuals to have open access in locker rooms and bathrooms in public schools,
• Preventing the usual efforts to add sexual orientation to nondiscrimination protections,
• Protecting religious free speech and traditional moral values when we hold to biblical marriage and oppose sinful lifestyles.

I have already been in meetings with other like-minded groups discussing possible legislation to help in these and other areas. Opposition groups say, “You have your religious freedoms; now we want ours.” Every gain made to protect sexual orientation puts limitations on religious freedoms. You only need to look at the states in the US where these protections are in place as “Hate Crimes.”  In fact, look north to Canada. I recently discussed with a missionary in Canada how it is illegal for anyone, pastors included, to speak or read aloud those portions of scripture which point out the sinfulness of homosexuality.  But we, as Christians, must continue to speak the truth in love pleading for lost souls to be saved. Changed hearts, not laws, is the hope for our country.    

Concluding Our Travels

Since March, we have traveled nearly every week to be in churches, fellowships, missions’ conferences, and one-on-one appointments. Here is an overview:

• 50 churches visited; 30 were non-supporting
• 6 new churches began regular support increasing to 181 our number of supporting churches!
• Visited five pastors’ fellowships or meetings where I promoted VAIB
• Seven one-on-one appointments with new pastors

We are already scheduling for 2016. Call (804-299-3986) or email our office to speak with Carol about availability.

Elections Done

Elections will probably be done by the time you read this letter. Elections for state Senate and the House of Delegates are sometimes won by less than twenty-five votes. I hope you voted. Whoever is elected to the General Assembly, I will seek to build a relationship with that person, pray for him or her to see the value of standing with VAIB, and maybe see that person develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Conference Messages Available Online

If you missed the September conference, you can still listen to the messages by going to our web site http://vaib.org/education/conference-recordings/ for free downloads. I want to thank all who the churches and individuals who gave, such that the conference expenses were all covered! 

Will you pray for VAIB? If you are supporting VAIB, thank you for allowing us to be “Your voice for Christian liberty!”  If not, would you pray and consider supporting?

Thank you for being on our email list. Would you help by encouraging friends and those in your church to sign up for emails and CapitolALERTs? I need more people who will contact their legislators during session. Ask them to go to www.vaib.org to sign up.

Thank you—and God bless!

Eddy Aliff
Executive Director

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