Today's action comes from Polaris:

"Polaris operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline, an anti-trafficking hotline serving victims and survivors of human trafficking and the anti-trafficking community in the United States. The toll-free hotline answers calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year in more than 200 languages.

In over nine years, the Hotline has directly assisted over 20,000 trafficking survivors and identified 39,000 survivors. At Polaris, we want to ensure every survivor and ally has access to this crucial resource. Help us grow awareness and visibility for the National Human Trafficking Hotline by urging your governor to place it on every state website. "

Today's action comes from CitizenGo:

"Recently, Vanco Payment Solutions—an online donation site by which many different organizations accept donations—cut off services from a Louisiana-based Christian group called the Ruth Institute. It did so because the Ruth Institute was supposedly “flagged” for “being affiliated with a product/service that promotes hate, violence, harassment and/or abuse.” The sole evidence for the Ruth Institute’s connection to hate? It appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of “hate groups.”

As we recently reported however, the SPLC is a hyper partisan organization which unfairly smears mainstream conservative Christian groups. More and more organizations are waking up to SPLC’s libelous attacks on Christians, but there is still so much work to be done! Large corporations like Apple and J.P. Morgan still donate to SPLC and media like CNN are still citing SPLC as an authoritative source on hate groups.

It is true that SPLC lists some bona fide evil organizations like the KKK and neo-nazis on its list. But, and this is a big “but,” the SPLC also claims that many Christian groups are also so-called “hate groups” for nothing other than their belief in the Bible!  Take the Ruth Institute for example. It is a Catholic non-profit whose main goal is to protect children from broken and dysfunctional families! This group represents the opposite of hate: genuine love for kids stuck in the negative side effects of the sexual revolution. But, because the Catholic theology of the group does not approve of the new liberal sexual orthodoxy, SPLC has listed it as “hateful.”

Today's action comes from The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).  Here is an excerpt from their letter, which will be auto-routed to your member of Congress:

"This bill will allow families to claim asylum in the United States if they are persecuted for failure to comply with any law or regulation that prevents the exercise of the individual right of that family to direct the education and upbringing of their children.

Homeschooling is rapidly growing around the world. However, many families that choose to homeschool their children are being threatened with fines, prison, and removal of their children.  Section 21 of H.R. 391 will give these persecuted homeschool families an opportunity to seek refuge from oppressive governments, and will allow them to seek asylum in the United States.

I believe that the right of families to homeschool their children is a fundamental right. For this reason, I ask you to support the homeschool asylum language in H.R. 391. Please ask the House leadership to bring this bill to the floor for a vote."

Today's action comes from March For Life Action:

"Almost 2/3rds of Americans oppose tax dollars paying for abortion. Now is the time to end abortion extremism and redirect Planned Parenthood's government funds to federally qualified health care centers that outnumber the country's largest abortion providers by 20 to 1.

As Congress is set to take up the Graham-Cassidy healthcare legislation, which would defund Planned Parenthood while defending pro-life principles, your voice is needed! Contact your lawmakers for the cause of life and urge them to vote in favor of redirecting Planned Parenthood's funding to life-affirming healthcare.

Planned Parenthood, our nation’s largest abortion provider, commits over 328,000 abortions each year. The Congressional Select Investigative Panel that looked into Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby body parts and ultimately made 15 criminal and regulatory referrals of tissue procurement, and the Senate Judiciary Committee made 7 criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.

Furthermore, Planned Parenthood receives hundreds of millions in private donations – but the truth is that they can fund themselves.

Now more than ever, the unified voice of America's pro-life consensus must be heard.

It’s time for Congress to fulfill their promise by redirecting federal funding from abortion providers towards life-affirming, federally-qualified health centers. It's long past time to end the extremism of funding abortion-giant Planned Parenthood with our federal tax dollars."

Today's action is inspired by an article in Christianity Today by Mae Elise Cannon:

"Politico recently reported that the current Secretary of State is looking to eliminate the [Office of Religion and Global Affairs]. In a letter proposing organizational changes, Secretary Tillerson notified Senator Bob Corker and the Committee on Foreign Relations of plans to eliminate the RGA special advisor position.  Although the loss of RGA might seem to outsiders like a bureaucratic loss—just another government office to get the axe—it carries significant import for the church, missionaries abroad, and vulnerable people across the globe.

“Eighty-four percent of the global population self-identifies as religious,” says Doug Leonard, the director of global and local mission for the Reformed Church in America and a former advisor to the State Department. “[Religious groups] have the ability to influence the cessation of conflict, to advance peace and justice, and to foster reconciliation. We must not leave these fine tools of diplomacy to state agencies alone. There is a growing awareness among national diplomatic corps that religions and nations would do well to collaborate.”

Earlier this year, when news of the potential change began to circulate, 40 religious leaders representing millions of constituents in the US signed a letter calling on the administration to retain the RGA office. It “serves America well and is a valued nexus between U.S. policy makers and people of faith in addressing international concerns,” states the letter."

"Faith leaders must fight for RGA in order to protect our voice in government. Why? Because our participation in policymaking here, stateside, allows us to help protect people of faith abroad. By allowing for direct input from faith communities, RGA ensures that the voices of women and other persecuted minorities will be heard where they are not always heard—in the halls of foreign affairs."

Write a quick sentence urging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson not to eliminate the Office of Religion and Global Affairs.  Because small actions add up to real change when everyday Christians engage every day.

The United Nations' efforts to legalize abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia has gotten attention twice before at Engage Daily in recent days: once highlighting a petition by The Family Research Council and The Center for Family and Human Rights, and once highlighting a petition from CitizenGo.

Today yet a third petition is highlighted, from the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ):

"The UN Human Rights Committee is currently revising the definition of the “right to life” in international law. It contemplates imposing on every State the legalisation of abortion, of assisted suicide and of euthanasia, in the very name of the right to life!

These lobbies of the “culture of Death” are about to win a decisive victory, in the greatest discretion. The final text will be adopted in the upcoming months. It is still possible to stop this manoeuvre. As a Non-Governmental Organization holding special Consultative Status before the United Nations (ECOSOC), the ECLJ will submit a written memorandum to the Human Rights Committee, on the 6th of October, on the last day to submit contributions.

To reinforce this memorandum, we invite you to massively support it by signing before the 6th of October.  We will give the Committee the number of signatures received to support our memorandum."

Today's action comes from www.WorldChristian.com:

"Our NEW annual Hindu World Prayer Focus calls Christians and churches worldwide to take 15 days (Oct 8 - 22, 2017) to learn about and pray for our world's over one billion Hindu neighbors. That time period also encompasses the significant Hindu Festival of Light (Diwali). The informative prayer guide booklets will help Christians to know how to pray for the people(s) growing up within this major and very diverse world religion. (Of course, if this 15-day time frame does not work for you, there is no prohibition to taking another 15 days.)

Diwali (or Deepawali) is known as the Hindu Festival of Lights, and is one of India's most important annual celebrations, lasting about 4-5 days. While (similar to Christmas celebrations in the Christian world) it has historical and religious roots, Indians of all stripes celebrate it by lighting and displaying rows of small oil lamps, participating in family gatherings, consuming special sweets and watching fireworks.

It is not our intention with this prayer focus to disparage India or the Hindu religion. in any way. We recognize that both are far too complex and too full of great traditions to simply or easily condense, explain or take lightly within a mere booklet.

But, at the same time, it is no secret that as Christians, we long that all the world's people(s) will have an opportunity to freely see, hear and understand the grace of God incarnated in Jesus Christ. To this end we inform ourselves, pray for and want to support respectful efforts to make that grace known also within the world's Indian and Hindu communities.

We invite all Christians and churches to participate, and to learn about and pray for Hindus."

Today's action is a little different and is unique to Engage Daily.

As followers of Engage Daily are well aware, the legalization of same-sex unions by the Supreme Court has led to a host of legal cases against Christians serving the wedding industry.  These cases seek to make Christian bakers, photographers and florists use their talents to celebrate what, according to their faith, are immoral, prohibited unions.   These Christian businesses do not refuse to serve gay clients, but rather bake, photograph, and arrange flowers for them in all contexts except one.  And their motive for refusing service in that one context (their wedding ceremonies) is not animus or hatred, but conscience.

Such coercion of conscience by government would have been anathema to our nation's founders.  Sadly, it is becoming more common.

However, there is a glimmer of hope.  The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed this term to hear the case of one Christian baker, cake artist Jack Phillips of Lakewood, Colorado.  If the court rules in favor of Mr. Phillips, it could set a precedent which would shield other Christian businesspersons from being forced by the government to do something they believe to be morally wrong.  If the court rules against Mr. Phillips, the consequences for biblically faithful Christians could be disastrous.

The Colson Center for Christian Worldview has dubbed this case possibly "Religious Freedom's Roe v. Wade."

The 2017-18 Supreme Court term begins October 2.  However, oral arguments in the case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, have yet to be scheduled.

As an unelected body, the Court is not officially open to public persuasion or campaigns to influence it, unlike the White House and Congress. 

So what can Christians do?  Engage Daily believes that this is a time for serious fasting by biblical, conservative Christians.  In times of extreme threats to our nation and its principles, our nation has often called for times of prayer and fasting.  The court's likely swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, has in the past strongly supported both religious freedom and same-sex unions.  In this case, he will have to choose between them.  We should pray and fast that Justice Kennedy leaves a legal legacy of accommodation for religious dissenters within a culture accepting of gay unions.

Specifically, Engage Daily urges Christians to fast at least one meal every week until the Supreme Court renders its decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.  Please use the time during the meals you skip to pray for the Supreme Court, that it would uphold the freedom of conscience of religious Americans who dissent from the new sexual orthodoxy.  Our freedom to practice our faith could depend on it.

For an introduction on how to fast click here.

Today's action comes from Christian Solidarity Worldwide:

"The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in Burma, and are sometimes referred to as the most persecuted people group in the world. They have been officially disowned by the Burmese government and are stateless, even though many Rohingya have lived there for generations. 

The Burmese military stand accused of committing extensive and severe human rights violations against the Rohingya, including the burning of homes, mass rape, torture, execution without trial, and the blocking of aid.

Over 120,000 people have been displaced and forced to flee their villages in Rakhine State since 25 August, as the Burma Army has burned homes and killed hundreds of civilians. Thousands have fled across the border into Bangladesh. There is an urgent need for international aid to reach those displaced, both in Bangladesh and in Rakhine State.

This is unacceptable. Nobody should suffer just because of their faith or ethnicity. Demand an end to violence against innocent civilians, and for aid to get through. "

Today's action comes from Christian Freedom International:

"The US State Department's top lawyers are systematically removing the word "genocide" to describe the Islamic State's mass slaughter of Christians.
 
This action by the State Department would make it impossible for persecuted Christians to obtain asylum, under current law.
 
The Washington Free Beacon is reporting that the U.S. State Department's top lawyers are systematically removing the word "genocide" when describing the Islamic State's mass slaughter of Christians, Yazidis, and other ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria from official documents and speeches before they are delivered, according to human rights activists and attorneys familiar with the policies.
 
Richard Visek, who was appointed by President Obama as head of the State Department's Office of Legal Adviser in October 2016, is behind the decision to remove the word "genocide" from official documents, according to Nina Shea, an international human rights lawyer who directs the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom."

Today's action comes from Shared Hope International:

"H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and S.B. 1693, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act currently sit with the House and Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees.  These two bills would amend the Communications Decency Act (CDA) to ensure websites that facilitate sex trafficking can be held accountable for their role in this egregious crime. You can learn more about this important issue here.  Please add your name to the petition, to tell the members of the House and Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees that you support amending the CDA!"

Today's action comes from Voice of the Martyrs and its Prisoner Alert project:

"Pastor Bakhrom Kholmatov, who was detained by police in April, was sentenced in July to three years in prison. The 42-year-old pastor also known as Bakhrom Holmatov, was arrested on April 10 after KNB officers raided the Sonmin Sonbogym [Good News of Grace] Protestant Church, harassing and beating church members in addition to arresting the pastor."

From the link below, click "Petition Official" underneath his picture on the left.  Then click on "Permanent Representative of Tajikistan to the United Nations,"also on the left. 

In your email please be brief and respectfully request Bakhrom Kholmatov's release. Do not mention Voice of the Martyrs, Prisoner Alert or Engage Daily. I suggest you also ask the government of Tajikistan to respect Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states the following:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

Small, quick actions add up when everyday Christians engage every day.

Today's action is from CitizenGo.  It mirrors a similar petition in an earlier Engage Daily action.

"The United Nations Human Rights Committee are currently consulting on a new Draft General Comment on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This Comment provides a particular interpretation of the Article 6 – the Right to Life – by which Article 6 is understood to support radical views on abortion and euthanasia.

The authors of this General Comment are attempting to twist the “right to life” as enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to support the decriminalisation of abortion i.e. making abortion completely lawful up to birth."

For this Sunday's World Missions Here at Home action, Engage Daily presents "30 Ways to Stay Alive to Missions."  It is from The Joshua Project and Desiring God.

Today's action comes from Shared Hope International:

"When the original Trafficking Victims Protection Act was enacted in 2000 it established the federal framework for combatting human trafficking and for providing critical protections to victims of this egregious crime. The TVPA also authorized funds for needed services and enforcement tools. The protections established in the TVPA have been strengthened and reauthorized every 5 years starting in 2005, however, they are set to expire if not reauthorized this year. We cannot let these critical protections for victims expire! We need your support to help move four bills through the House and Senate in the next few months to ensure the strong federal protections for trafficking victims not only continue but are expanded to address this growing crime."

Today we feature the second of these four bills, S.1311, The Abolish Human Trafficking Act.  (For all actions related to Human Trafficking, including the first of the four bills, click here.)

Write your Senators from the link below.  Write just one sentence urging them to support S.1311, The Abolish Human Trafficking Act. 

Small, quick actions add up as more everyday Christians engage every day.

Today's action comes from The American Family Association (AFA):

"The American Family Association has partnered with The Moral Outcry in petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn one of the most devastating high court cases in American history, Roe v. Wade.

Roe v. Wade, which was decided in 1973, is known as the landmark case which legalized abortion across the United States.

In the 1992 landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the U.S. Supreme Court had an opportunity to reverse Roe v. Wade, and its companion Doe v. Bolton. In conference the justices voted 5-4 to overturn Roe and Doe, but at the 11th hour before the opinion was released a centrist coalition of moderate judges – including Justice Kennedy who switched his vote – was formed to write a compromise that would weaken the Roe and Doe decisions, but still leave abortion as the law of the land.

What might have happened that day if more pro-life voices had been heard? What if a massive moral outcry had emerged from the American people?

This petition will serve as a symbol of that moral outcry. It will wake up the nation and galvanize the national conscience to end the scourge of abortion in America. It will declare that as a people, we do not accept the compromise that leads to the unnecessary death of millions of innocent babies."

Today's action comes from The Family Research Council:

"This week during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for federal court nominee Amy Barrett, several U.S. senators, including Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) used Barrett's faith to cast suspicion upon her suitability as a judge. Senator Feinstein went as far as to say:

"When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you, and that's of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for, for years in this country."

Senator Durbin even probed Barrett further, asking if she considered herself an "orthodox Catholic," as if certain degrees of personal faith would be impermissible.

Sadly, this is not new ground for some in the United States Senate. This comes on the heels of another instance (earlier this year) of religious hostility by a senator toward President Trump's nominee to be Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought. When Vought answered a question about his Christian faith, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) declared Mr. Vought is "really not someone who this country is supposed to be about."

Our Constitution guarantees there will be no religious litmus test. Americans should never be forced to choose between their faith and public service."

Small, quick actions add up as more everyday Christians engage every day.

Today's action comes from The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). 

CBMW recently crafted a document clarifying the Biblical view of human sexuality, including homosexuality, same-sex unions, and gender identity.  The document, dubbed The Nashville Statement, brings needed clarity to these thorny issues, and helpfully corrects many of the misunderstandings opponents have about what conservative evangelicals really believe, and about what motivates them.

As one of the first evangelical leaders to sign the document, Al Mohler wrote this in The Washington Post:

"Evangelical Christians believe that God has spoken in the Bible, and that obedience to what he has spoken is both true and essential for human wholeness, freedom, and fulfillment — for human flourishing.

We fully understand that our culture is increasingly influenced by the promise that human flourishing can come by what is styled as sexual liberation and the overthrowing of historic Christianity’s witness to God’s purpose in making us as sexual beings — even making us as male and female.

The statement was carefully written. Love of neighbor requires us to speak clearly and very specifically to the truths affirmed and the errors denied in the document.

It would be much easier to be quiet, to let the moral revolution proceed unanswered, and to seek some kind of refuge in silence or ambiguity. For the sake of same-sex attracted people and others, we did not believe we could remain silent — or unclear — and be faithful."

Many conservative Christians have now signed the document.  You can too.

Today's action comes from The National Prayer Accord:

"Downstream in America we find the symptoms and signs of church irrelevance, fragmented relationships, cultural decay, moral decline, and love growing cold, but upstream from such symptoms, we find hope in united prevailing prayer."

"Abortion and racism are both symptoms of a fundamental human error. The error is thinking that when someone stands in the way of our wants, we can justify getting that person out of our lives. Abortion and racism stem from the same poisonous root, selfishness."  - Alveda King

For the statistical case linking abortion and racism, click here. For a related Engage Daily action, click here.

This Saturday's state-level issue is abortion.  Please check with your state chapter of National Right to Life, to see how you can help protect unborn children in our state.  From the home page of your state's chapter, look for a tab called "Legislation," "Advocacy," "Get Involved," "Projects," or words to that effect.  Please take a simple action that is being encouraged, such as writing a quick letter to your state legislator.

Today's action comes from The Awakening America Alliance and Cry Out America:

"Founded in 2007, by the Awakening America Alliance, Cry Out America has been a national prayer movement focused on crying out for a Christ awakening in the U.S. In 2017, Cry Out America became an initiative of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. in an effort to further mobilize united, public prayer for America. 

Please join us at one of the many events being scheduled around the country. Commemoration of the events of 9/11 that Patriot Day represents is a perfect opportunity for believers from around the country to unite in prayer to cry out to the Lord."

Today's action comes from Shared Hope International:

"When the original Trafficking Victims Protection Act was enacted in 2000 it established the federal framework for combatting human trafficking and for providing critical protections to victims of this egregious crime. The TVPA also authorized funds for needed services and enforcement tools. The protections established in the TVPA have been strengthened and reauthorized every 5 years starting in 2005, however, they are set to expire if not reauthorized this year. We cannot let these critical protections for victims expire! We need your support to help move four bills through the House and Senate in the next few months to ensure the strong federal protections for trafficking victims not only continue but are expanded to address this growing crime."

Today we feature the first of these four bills, S.1312, The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, or TVPA.

Write your Senators from the link below.  Write just one sentence urging them to support S.1312, The Trafficking Victims Protection Act. 

Small, quick actions add up as more everyday Christians engage every day.

Today's action comes from One Million Moms, an affiliate of The American Family Association (AFA):

The AMC series “Preacher” is advertised as gory good fun and airs during primetime. The “preacher” in the show is far from it, and the program blasphemes Jesus in the latest episode with the Son of God depicted as a lying s-x p-rvert. The show opens with extremely graphic Jesus s-x scene and closes with an inbred Messiah. (A dash “-“ is used to bypass internet filters.) AMC continues to air the anti-Christian program “Preacher” on Monday evenings at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 8:00 p.m. CT."