Dallas Morning News, February 24, 2008
By Jeffrey Weiss

In my e-box comes a newsletter from the Christian Coalition listing events in Washington last week that it takes notice of. Most are what you'd expect: America's religious heritage, judicial appointments and their stands on abortion, the NFL decides to allow churches to show future Super Bowls. But the top item on the list stopped me a bit:

Christian Coalition of America commends the bipartisan bill regarding net neutrality named the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008," H.R. 5353 introduced last week by Democrat Congressman Ed Markey, Massachusetts and Republican Congressman Charles "Chip" Pickering, from Mississippi.

Surely there's an explanation for why the Christian Coalition likes this bill in particular? Yup. Go to the jump to read it.

Net Neutrality Legislation Introduced by Republican Congressman Charles "Chip" Pickering and Democrat Congressman Edward Markey called the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008," H.R. 5353 Christian Coalition of America commends the bipartisan bill regarding net neutrality named the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008," H.R. 5353 introduced last week by Democrat Congressman Ed Markey, Massachusetts and Republican Congressman Charles "Chip" Pickering, from Mississippi.

The official purpose of Markey/Pickering bill will "Establish broadband policy and direct the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a proceeding and public broadband summits to assess competition, consumer protection, and consumer choice issues relating to broadband Internet access services, and for other purposes." Americans should be in control of the Internet and not the monopoly cable and phone companies.

The monopolistic phone and cable companies such as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner have been lobbying to kill Net Neutrality. When Congressman Pickering's and Congressman Markey's bill is passed and signed into law, these companies will be forbidden to discriminate against Web sites such as Christian Coalition of America or indeed any grassroots organizations or services based on their source, ownership or destination. The Markey/Pickering bill will write Net Neutrality protections into the Communications Act to preserve an open and non-discriminatory Internet.

Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America said regarding the Markey/Pickering bill: "We believe that Net Neutrality is a family issue. At its core, the Christian Coalition is a grassroots organization that wholly depends on our ability to communicate with our members and chapters across the country. This bill is essential for that. It protects Net Neutrality and ensures that we can build a better America by connecting everyone to an open Internet."

Christian Coalition of America plays an important part in the SavetheInternet.com Coalition. It is an historic grassroots alliance of more than 800 groups from across the political spectrum, small businesses, thousands of bloggers, and millions of everyday people concerned about the future of the Internet. Members range from the liberal MoveOn.org to the conservative Gun Owners of America and include Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, Public Knowledge, Media Access Project, the ACLU, the American Library Association and leading Internet scholars such as Professors Lawrence Lessig and Tim Wu.

This article is copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.