Arizona

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer defended her finger-pointing exchange with the president Thursday, saying she had prepared a handwritten letter to Barack Obama and was instead dragged into a dispute over her book.

Reports asserted the two argued after pictures of the Wednesday encounter portraying the governor with her finger pointed at the president emerged. The finger wagging incident also led state Democrats to call for an apology. Online speculators deemed the entire thing a publicity stunt.

Brewer denounced stunt claims Thursday as "absolutely ridiculous." She told Fox News that she went to the airport tarmac to greet the president with a personal letter. When she shook his hand, Brewer said Obama confronted her about her book's portrayal of a White House meeting. more >>

As the nation marks January as Sanctity of Life Month and thousands gather to march for the unborn, Tina Torry, whose baby survived an abortion, shares her story of how "divine intervention" saved her daughter's life.

It was 1978 when Tina Torry, 17 at the time, became pregnant. Her boyfriend, family, and health care professionals were adamant that she have an abortion – as it was legal at the time, she told The Christian Post.

"I had no moral support to keep the child," she said. "From day one, I was pointed to an abortion clinic. They never said consider adoption." more >>

Operation Save America, a pro-life group aiming to bring down the abortion industry in the country, is launching a new campaign called "States of Refuge" with one specific goal in mind – to take advantage of what it says is declining support for abortion and eradicate the practice from the U.S. altogether.

The Rev. Flip Benham, national director of Operation Save America, firmly declared in an interview with The Christian Post: "We are winning the battle. What we want to do is push abortion into a shallow grave and bury it forever, leaving no market above its place. We want this horrible abomination to be gone, as slavery was 150 years ago."

Benham is perhaps most well-known for his life-changing encounter with Norma McCorvey, the woman represented as "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade. Benham, due to their 1994 meeting, is credited with leading McCorvey to Christ, which led to her becoming a pro-life activist. more >>

Terri Proud, a Republican Rep. from Arizona, has sponsored a bill to create an elective high school course on the Bible and its influence on culture, assuring that it would help students gain knowledge and not seek to elicit devotion.

Rep. Proud, who is on the House Education Committee, wants the state Board of Education to design a course called "The Bible and its Influence on Western Culture" that would be religiously neutral.

"This is such an essential foundation for our kids' knowledge," The Associated Press quoted Proud as saying. "We are so engulfed in it." She said biblical references are found in everything from Michelangelo's paintings and Shakespeare's plays to modern movies and television. more >>

An after-school Christian club is looking to lift the flier ban placed on their organization by the Dysart Unified School District in Phoenix, Ariz., prohibiting them from distributing invitations and permission slips to attend their meetings.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit in federal court on Thursday on behalf of the Good News Club, a ministry of the Child Evangelism Fellowship, stating that the district's ban was unconstitutional and in violation of the First Amendment.

While the district permitted a variety of other organizations to distribute their literature at the schools, including the Boy Scouts, Cesar Chavez Foundation, Interfaith Community Care, Sun City Area Interfaith Services, and the Salvation Army Sun City Corps, it denied CEF Phoenix's request because it purportedly went against their policy to distribute literature of a "religious nature." more >>

An Arizona college student quit her job with the Girl Scouts after being asked to turn her pro-life t-shirt inside out because of its message, an incident not shocking to a previous member of the organization.

“I believe unfortunate situations like this will continue to arise, especially as people discover the truth about Girl Scouts' values,” said Sydney Volanski, a former Girl Scouts member who left due to the organization’s pro-choice stance. “I can see a cycle forming: as more people know the truth, more people stand for their beliefs and get criticized; as more people get criticized, more people know the truth.”

The incident involved Renise Rodriguez, a 21-year-old Girl Experience Associate for the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona in Tuscon. She was wearing a “Pray to End Abortion” shirt when she went into the office during off-duty hours to prepare materials for a meeting. It was there that she was told twice by a supervisor to turn her shirt inside out if she planned to stay in the office or attend a troop meeting, according to Priests for Life more >>