Dear Friends,
Are you planning to leave New Jersey? Planning to give up, find a new place to worship, become a refugee looking for economic liberty, limited government, and the freedom to practice your faith? If so, then this letter is not for you.
But if you’re not leaving New Jersey, let us work together and join me on the team.
I’m Lee Rouson, I did seven seasons with the NFL’s New York Giants and Cleveland Browns. I played for the Giants in the 39-20 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI; and the 20-19 win over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV.
laying with the NFL — battling to win in two Super Bowls — taught me never to give up. I’m a husband, a father, grandfather, minister and currently facilitate a middle school behavior modification program in New Jersey which will hopefully spread throughout America! I’ve taken the lessons of the NFL with me in the ministry and now I’m going to bring it with me to a new team — the Center for Garden State Families.
The Center for Garden State Families is built on a simple proposition: God’s Church still matters. With all the hubbub of social media, all the fake news, and mainstream liberal agenda served up 24-7, every week people of faith continue to meet in their hundreds and thousands in literally every community across New Jersey. No interest group or political party can boast that level of participation, and yet, it seems that we are often ignored, forgotten and taken advantage of. Yet with these numbers if we join together we can change the culture. We can make the Garden State a great place to live, work and raise our families.
It is the purpose of The Center for Garden State Families to provide a voice for people of faith in New Jersey. To remind the politicians, the bureaucrats, and the social planners that we remain. We are here. And we are not leaving.
The Center sees its mission as threefold. First, it educates people about the process, about legislation, and about the elected and appointed officials who are either being helpful or who stand in the way of our work. The big legislative issues at the moment are the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act. This has been proposed by Senator Steve Oroho (R-24) and Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-21) attracting dozens of sponsors, both Republicans and Democrats.
New Jersey is leading with this legislation, with more than 40 states filing bills modeled after the Garden State’s bill. Passage of this Act will go a long way towards preventing children from being lured into sexual slavery and then trafficked and sold. It is vital.
Another piece of legislation, also introduced by Senator Oroho, is known as the Pain Capable 20/20 bill. This is pro-life legislation designed to bring the United States into line with the rest of the world regarding the reality that an unborn child feels pain in the womb at 20 weeks. America is one of only seven countries — joining the likes of North Korea, Vietnam, and Communist China — that fails to recognize this medical fact. We have gained bi-partisan support for this bill as well.
The second part of the mission of The Center for Garden State Families is to identify and nurture the next generation of leaders from our communities and get them engaged in the process of educating elected and appointed officials. This is an ongoing process of outreach and mentoring, undertaken on a church by church, individual by individual basis. We take building leaders seriously.
And the third part of our mission is to come up with ways to address the important issues of the day, to think about, discuss and pray about them, and then draft legislation and policy to promote school choice via parochial, Christian, private or government and protect things like religious freedom or the right not to have your child harassed for his or her beliefs at school. These matters are important to all people of faith.
I’d like you to join our team.
You can do that by (1) making a generous contribution (it is tax deductible); by (2) signing-up for email alerts; and by (3) joining a regional policy committee. Support the work of the Center for Garden State Families, keep informed, and get involved in affecting policy.
Your involvement and participation will go a long way to helping The Center for Garden State Families educate people about the need to enact the Human Trafficking & Child Exploitation Prevention Act and the Pain Capable 20/20 bill. For more information, visit us at www.gardenstatefamilies.org .
Thank you for taking the time to become part of the team!
Sincerely,
