Yesterday was a sad day for Christians, the nation of Pakistan, and the world. Pakistan’s leading Christian, minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, was murdered in a hail of bullets as he left for work.
Bhatti had worked tirelessly, against the tide, for the rights of Pakistan’s minorities. In particular he had labored for the repeal of the infamous blasphemy law that is used against them at will by the majority Muslims. Not two months ago, the governor of the Punjab province was assassinated, by his own bodyguard, for opposing the blasphemy law, so Bhatti knew his life was in immanent danger. He had asked for secure housing, but had been given the run-around. On this particular day he had told his bodyguards to meet him at work. That his assassins took advantage of that opportunity suggests an inside job.
That wouldn’t be surprising, because a large portion of the Pakistani people actually approve of the death penalty for insulting Islam’s prophet.
Bhatti was a 42 year old Catholic who devoted his entire life to minority rights. He forewent marriage, because he believed it would be unfair to subject a family to the dangers of his work. A few weeks before he died, Bhatti recorded a video tape in which he spoke of his devotion to Christ and to his calling, and of his understanding of the cost of bearing the cross. He asked that the tape be released after his death.
A few hours after Bhatti was killed, a gunman stormed onto a bus in Germany and murdered two American servicemen, wounding others. The gunman was a Muslim from Kosovo, one of the nations the US had gone to war for in the 1990s, precisely to help Muslims that were being mistreated by Christians there. As he executed the victims, the gunman cried Allah akbar . The full sense of that is, “our God is greater”.
Last evening I turned to al Jazeera, English, to see how they would cover these stories. I watched the live feed and I scoured the web site. The Germany story was covered without mention of the assailant’s Islamic war cry. The assassination was not covered at all, not even in print. What may be the end of Pakistan’s last shot at civilized normalcy did not even merit a mention.
Al Jazeera is actively campaigning to break into the lucrative – and influential – American cable market. As with the story of the sexual assault on Lara Logan by a crowd in Cairo’s Tehrir Square two weeks ago, as they reportedly cried “Jew! Jew!”, yesterday’s stories evidently were considered a little too inconvenient to air, or in the German case, to air fully.
The Islamic world is being radicalized. The radicals read their Koran and then act. Islam brooks no dissent, and allows no questions. It is a religio-political system that demands absolute submission, with any lapse being punishable by death. And so the most moderate and reasonable elements are being ruthlessly eliminated, leaving the radicals in charge. The president of Pakistan issued this statement yesterday: “This is a concerted campaign to slaughter every liberal, progressive and humanist voice in Pakistan”. Indeed. And the government, which has forsworn blasphemy law repeal, is powerless to do anything about it.
Christians in Pakistan are a tiny minority in a nation headed for state-sanctioned barbarism. They are being brutalized, and they are fainting for lack of relief. It is a painful thing, but we must join in solidarity with them, and add our faith to theirs.
And Asa cried to the Lord his God, “O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.”-2Chr 14:11
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33
This subject is a bit unusual for this blog, but it is important enough that we should spend time on it. I watch the national scene closely, and I believe that America is headed for a major economic catastrophe, unless somehow we radically switch course.
One of the main themes of the recent past election was the economy. The Taxed Enough Already movement, despite being bitterly derided by the Democratic party and their allies in public sector unions and the media, proved to be an authentic people’s movement that provided the electoral energy for the Republicans to win back an historic number of seats in Congress and to give a stinging rebuke to the Obama agenda.
Since then, our domestic headlines have mostly revolved around the worsening balance sheet of the federal and many state governments. The new congressional leadership is carrying the torch for balancing the budget by controlling out of control spending, such as earmarks and entitlements, and by reining in unfunded mandates, such as social security, medicare and Medicaid, all of which are rapidly driving us into insolvency. But vested interests, which are the ones who led the way to our current predicament, do not want their lucrative apple cart upset, and are resisting tooth and nail.
What does this have to do with “Following Christ”, you may ask. Consider this. Jesus very practically warned His followers to flee Jerusalem when they saw approaching armies. Those who kept His words in mind were able to escape slaughter or capture a few decades later, when the Roman general Titus besieged, and then leveled, the city.
Just a few years after the Resurrection, the prophet Agabus from Judea predicted that a huge famine would sweep the lands under Rome’s control. The church heeded his warning and took immediate steps to strengthen that part of the church that was under the most duress at the time, which was the church in Jerusalem itself, which, being at the epicenter of Judaism, was being persecuted and plundered (see Hebrews 10.32-36).
But even more important than any one relief effort was that in reaching out to the hurting saints an ongoing mentality was birthed, whereby the local church began to think globally of the wellbeing of her sister churches. The famine Agabus predicted came during the reign of Claudius, and we can well assume that the churches continued to aid each other during that time. This not only helped the family of believers, it was a tremendous witness to those on the outside that were hurting, as international relief efforts were unheard of back then. This undoubtedly became one reason the Romans would later say of the Christians during the persecutions, “how they love one another”.
Accordingly, I want Christians to be aware of what is going on, so that they can understand what’s driving the news, consider what may be coming, and:
take steps to protect themselves
pray so that the nation can perhaps avoid catastrophe or lessen its impact
position themselves to strengthen the Kingdom should the calamity strike and Christians be in need
position themselves to extend the Kingdom by ministering Christ’s love to outsiders in need.
So I’m going to embed a video here that I think says a lot. But before I do, let me issue some qualifiers.
I do not endorse everything this video says.
I believe there are some good politicians, who understand the real challenges our nation faces, and who are doing there best, against very powerful forces, including in their own party, to combat the problem.
I do not believe that both major political parties are the same.
I do not believe everything Ron Paul advocates. Specifically, I do not believe it is responsible, or even possible, for us to disengage from the world to the degree that he would like.
I know little about the group producing this video, the National Inflation Association, and therefore cannot endorse them. They seem to be a commercial outfit, but this video seems to be a clean educational effort. I have no connection to them, and neither do I benefit from this in any material way.
Most importantly, I believe that the solution to our problem is not primarily economic, it is spiritual. The video ends up calling us back to an economy rooted in quality interactions. Well and fine, but that is not going to happen unless we turn this nation around spiritually. I know that the two realms – the spiritual and the practical – very often must work together. But still I want to make clear that I am not advocating a strictly secular solution to a problem that is, at root, spiritual.
Regarding the spiritual, recall that great promise God has issued to us:
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. -2Chr 7:14
The spiritual side must lead. Nonetheless, I will emphasize that I do agree with the lion’s share of the content shown here, and I believe it is critical information that every American, every citizen of the West, and every Christian should become familiar with.
This video asks for almost an hour of your time. I believe you will be benefited to give it a viewing.
I just learned with sadness of the passing of Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Nathanson’s life was a bit reminiscent of that of Paul of Tarsus. In the early 1970s, he pioneered the ushering in of unlimited abortion in the United States. As this compelling and eloquent obituary states, he personally performed thousands of abortions, including that of his own unborn child. Say what you will, Nathanson was not in it merely for the money. He believed in what he was doing.
But at the appointed hour, truth unbidden barged in on Nathanson’s life. When he finally saw an ultrasound of a live abortion, a moment which he later immortalized in the Silent Scream movie, he realized the moral horror of what he had done. Unable to deny the truth, Nathanson turned completely around and became a forceful advocate on behalf of human life.
And more than that, his awakening opened up for him an issue he had previously been closed to – his own compelling need for forgiveness from a God he knew was morally perfect. Jesus said that everyone who seeks finds. Nathanson’s crushing weight of sin drove him to the only assurance of forgiveness we are given, Jesus.
While Nathanson’s passing is the end of an era, there’s encouragement in his life for us. Our God is so big that there is no sin He will not forgive, if only we come to Him with a sincere heart and ask. Paul the great apostle persecuted the church murderously, but when he finally saw the truth, he too could not deny it, and he converted. When God forgives, He forgives completely; it is a done deal. Despite Paul’s past, God chose him and commissioned him to be His vessel:
This man is My chosen instrument to take My name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites. -Acts 9:15
Later Paul would testify:
I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. -1Tim 1:16
So it is too, with so many of us, who early in our lives found the lies taught by our morally adventurous culture pleasing to our flesh, but who later discovered the terrible cost of sin, a cost that in many cases had been hidden from us.
Nathanson courageously embraced truth at great personal cost. There was a massive disruption of his professional associations and his friendships, to say nothing of his finances. For this reason, leaving his previous error behind, he went on to become a moral giant. Like Paul he earned the right to say:
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. -1Cor 15:10
There is sadness in loss, but the grace of God marches on, collecting trophies such as Bernard Nathanson. He is an example for us of casting off sin and every weight of encumbrance, and pursuing grace and truth, even when it is costly to do so.
Having been in many ways a cultural dropout for years, I had no idea until just a few years ago who Anne Rice was. Then I came across her testimony, describing how a leading vampire genre author had turned to Christ. I picked up her book on her conversion, and I found it to be both curious and a bit perplexing.
Rice grew up as a Roman Catholic in New Orleans. Interesting for someone so masterful with words, she really is a visual person first of all. All her earliest memories are images – visual snapshots of the things that formed her. It wasn’t until much later that she discovered the ability to translate those images into language.
And it is interesting that her return to Christ, after a life lived quite away from Him, was also driven not by words but by images. As Anne was drawn to Christ, she began collecting religious statuary, even traversing the world to do so. She begins watching live Masses on EWTN, but again the key word there is “watching”: she is absorbing the essence of the whole thing, primarily through the visual aspect, more than ruminating on and struggling with the verbal content.After reading the book I reviewed it at Amazon, irenically congratulating Anne for her achievement. But though my review did well in terms of reader feedback, I eventually took it down because I had no peace about it. I finally had to admit to myself that I had serious questions about what I had read. I was uneasy about the lack of focus on repentance, the lack of doctrinal questioning and struggle, and the uncritical acceptance of the Roman church’s authority structure. It seemed to me that Anne had enveloped herself in the atmosphere of Christianity – or perhaps of Christendom – and I that was a foundation I was not prepared to trust.
That was pretty much that for a while, until sometime last year, when Anne dropped the following bomb on her Facebook page:
For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.
Once again I was perplexed. Leaving church is one thing, but does one who is truly Saved ever really stop being a Christian? I wondered if maybe semantics were confusing things, but Anne being a master wordsmith, I had to conclude that she means what she says.
Now I want to make clear that I am not endorsing Anne’s statement. I’m not saying we should leave our churches, let alone leave Christianity itself.
And neither am I saying that we should abandon political engagement. In an interview with Christianity Today, Anne goes on to decry Christian political involvement, specifically against the gay rights movement. But is there no place for advocating for “moral” law – say, for the protection of innocent unborn human life? After all, all law ultimately is based on morality. Where do we draw the line?
Anne’s position with regard to Christ and the church is ultimately something that she needs to decide on, and I can’t say that I fully understand it as it has been stated. But after considering the issues that she has raised, there are two things that need to be said.
Half a year ago, looking for fellowship, I joined myself to an online Christian community that was lively and looked promising. I enjoyed myself there for a season, and I dare say that I was able to help some people. Well and fine. But eventually I was forced out by the continual acrimonious doctrinal bickering that was going on. Never once did I see authority step in to curb it, yet they were quick to summarily ban several high quality posters for the mildest bit of independent thinking or for the unpardonable sin of questioning the use of authoritarian dynamic on others.
Now, if it were just one site doing this, we would not have a problem. But it is not just one site. I’ve been on the Net since 1983, and I don’t even want to tell you what CompuServe Religious Forum #2: Christianity was like back then. Let’s just say it was pandemonium, in the etymological sense of the word.
And over the years, I have seen the same thing time and again, to the point where I have to say that discord is a pervasive problem. Where then does one go for real online fellowship? For that matter, where does one go for real life fellowship? I have to agree to an extent with Anne’s evaluation that we are a “quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group”.
In the Epistles, the Apostles exhort us to let brotherly love cover all. We are to overlook offenses, forgo our rights for the sake of others, accept those who are weak in the faith, and not argue about doubtful issues. And in His High Priestly Prayer, just before He was taken, Jesus prayed to the Father that we would be one, so that the world would know that He is the One sent for the salvation of the world. What kind of unity did Jesus have in mind? Consider this:
May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.
I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. -John 17:21-23
That’s an organic unity so profound that we can only get glimpses of it. Yet if we are going to understand the fullness of the hope of our calling in Christ, if we are going to tap into its immeasurable power for overcoming the world, and if we are going to be effective witnesses to the love of God, we are going to have to press forward into the reality of this unity.
There is a time for taking a doctrinal stand. There is a time for disagreements, when core principles are involved. And in this fallen world there is even a time for separation. But we have a problem when contention and the splitting of doctrinal hairs becomes the dominant characteristic of our interaction. When that is the case we fall into the same judgment as the early Corinthian church, which though blessed with all manner of spiritual manifestations, was essentially loveless, divided and in need of rebuke and discipline.
The other thing I wanted to say is with regard to Anne Rice concerns her response to the problem – leaving the church. There are many, many Christians who are dissatisfied with the current state of the church. I saw an interview with noted Christian musician and worship leader Isaiah Hougton. He’s the guy who leads millions in worship each week on Joel Osteen’s TV program. He sells albums, he travels the globe, he performs for presidents. You might think that this guy is on top of the world, but surprisingly, even he admitted that he was tired of “just doing church”.
I visited a church once where the pastor got up and began thundering that we don’t need another sermon, we instead need to get out there and “do” the Gospel. Very true, I thought to myself, but let’s see where he goes with this. Sure enough, the church was treated to a forty-five minute sermon on how we don’t need another sermon. I wondered if I was the only one seeing the absurdity of it. The words were right, the spirit was wrong. And nothing was going to change. That pastor has continued preaching sermons for years now. What does that signify?
The world is looking for what is real, not for structures, hierarchies, rituals or formulas. Last year, Francis Chan, popular mega-church founder and best-selling author, left his pastorate in order to…. well, we don’t know exactly what he is going to do. He left to follow the Lord’s calling. He felt that he was falling into the trap of success. Was Francis right? I don’t know. But success can be a trap, even when it’s achieved within the Christian subculture. Francis at least had the courage to give up the plaudits of man and get out. One could say that he escaped the American dream. Last I heard, he was looking to start up a grassroots ministry in Asia.
I think we need to take a watchful and prayerful, rather than judgmental, position regarding a lot of the unusual movement within the church today. While that movement can be very disruptive to the church itself, it is even more so to the individual doing the moving. But let’s face it, the Gospel record is clear that, if nothing else, Jesus was disruptive. He never compromised who He was, and He never compromised the high demands of discipleship. That’s why he let the rich young ruler walk away. The Kingdom of Heaven is voluntary. If you’re not willing to pay the price, no one is going to force you to do so. But we mustn’t expect Jesus to change in order to fit into our comfort zones.
As we study the Book of Acts, we see that there was much disruptive movement, and even confusion, in the early church. Jesus told the first disciples to preach the Gospel everywhere. Apparently that wasn’t happening well enough, so a persecution conveniently arose which widely scattered the church. And where the church went, the Gospel went too. God works in strange ways.
I wish Anne Rice well, and while I don’t endorse her position fully, I think we would do well to consider her criticisms, in light of what the Spirit is trying to say to the church at this late hour. The reality around us is changing, almost daily, with regard to technology, culture, politics and economics. Difficult times are coming. The church is going to have to change shape and methodology to adapt to the new reality, in order to survive and to be effective. We have a choice. We can remain stuck in the status quo, or we can face the challenging new reality and cooperate with what the Spirit wants to do. Persecution may come, but eves in it, we have the chance to see the greatest expansion of the kingdom in human history. It’s already begun in places like China.
The message that Jesus gave the churches in the book of Revelation was that overcomers will receive glory, but the lampstands of those who will not heed the Spirit will be removed. The challenge is before us. The Lord wants His church to come home and be fully reconciled, and indeed, to stop being a stumbling block. He wants to live among us, and to impart His character and glory to us. He wants to do this for our sakes, and for the sake of a world which at this point is clearly falling apart. He is looking for willing vessels to empower for this very purpose. May the Bride prepare herself for the coming of the King.
International Christian Concern is reporting that Said Musa, the Afghani convicted of apostasy and under threat of immanent execution, has been released into US custody and is out of Afghanistan. (See his moving letters a few posts down.) Here’s an excerpt from the Christian Post:
Musa wrote a letter dated February 13, saying he was visited by representatives of the U.S. and Italian Embassies offering him asylum.
In the letter, Musa said that after the foreign representatives left the room, he was visited by three Afghan officials who told him that he would be released within 24 hours if he wrote a statement declaring that he regretted his conversion to Christianity.
“I laughed and replied, ‘I can’t deny my Savior’s name,'” Musa wrote in the Feb. 13 letter. “Because my life is just service to Jesus Christ and my death is going to heaven [where] Jesus Christ is. I am a hundred percent ready to die. They pushed me much and much. I refused their demands.”
Musa was then transferred back to his prison cell, according to the letter relayed to ICC.
There seems to be some confusion as to exactly how much danger Musa really was in. All the reporting was that his execution drew nigh, but Musa himself did not believe it. Maybe there was a faith element working in that, because the article goes on to describe yet another Christian who is in prison in Afghanistan, and his situation sounds just as dire as did Musa’s.
Credit where it is due: The Italian and especially American governments did their part to aid Musa being freed. And they did it quietly, out of necessity, because of the explosive Islamic politics of the nation.
This is a great victory, but it’s just one among an ongoing tide of persecution, so we need to remain vigilant, prayerful and active.
There is a moral revolution going on in this nation, and entrenched interests are doing their best to suppress it. Nancy Pelosi called the gathering TEA (“taxed enough already”) movement “astroturf”, meaning it was fake grassroots financed by dark conservative sources. But if you looked at the signs at the TEA protests, they were almost invariably personally designed and hand-made. Indeed, it was their opponents who were often bussed in, and who held mass-produced signs. The grassroots movement that Pelosi smeared went on to effect an historic wave election that took the Speaker’s gavel from her hands.
When Rep. Gabriel Giffords was tragically shot a month ago, the media was quick to blame aggressive rhetoric on the right for a hostile political culture, though there was not an shred of evidence that the shooter was politically motivated. There was a reprimand of the Right and a big call for a “new tone” in our civil discourse. But these last two weeks the media hasn’t been so quick to focus on the verbal and physical aggression of the union protests in Wisconsin. State senators have been spit on, their female aides have been roughed up, a female reporter was thrown to the ground by a thug, and depictions of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker as Hitler range wall-to-wall. But Big Media instead focused on affirmations of the protest, such as an endorsement by President Obama and the inevitable visit by Jesse Jackson, even while its interviews with those on the other side showed thinly-veiled hostility.
But the other side to the story will not be suppressed. America for decades has lost its way, culturally, spiritually, and now economically. That’s often how it works. We make decisions in the spirit that we think will not have practical consequences, but invariably down the line we pay the price of our choices.
When the greatest nation in history is brought to its knees by creditors, something is wrong. When it is subservient to cruel, two-bit tyrants who happen to be sitting on oil wells, it has made bad choices – all the more so when we have vast untapped sources of energy that our own radical interests will not allow us to exploit.
Giving public workers the right to unionize was warned against for decades, but the unions finally won. And since then the public employees unions have held the nation’s political system hostage. They feed the governing elite, the elite takes care of them at taxpayer expense. This is nowhere more true than with the teachers’ unions, whose pay and benefits are already far above that of the private sector people they serve. We spend enormous amounts of money on education, we have technology the world has never before seen, and yet our scholastic results are pathetic and getting worse. And still the establishment wants us to trust them and throw more money at the problem.
Fortunately, we cannot continue. As Scott Walker says, we are broke. The choice to continue in our irresponsible, profligate and ineffective ways has been taken from us. In our supreme self-indulgence, we have already saddled future generations with a lethal, immoral debt burden. The time has finally come to say NO.
I said fortunately, above, because perhaps our fiscal crisis will force us to finally get our runaway culture under control as well.
I am encouraged by the new breed of leader that is arising to meet the challenge before us. They are dynamic, articulate, fearless, and they are speaking the truth. Some are young, but they are acting more grown-up than the long-entrenched corrupt leaders that have gotten us into this mess.
And so I’m posting this video of Scott Walker, in case you haven’t heard the other side of the story. Hopefully it will give you something to think about. And if you already have seen the light, and know that America must mend her ways in so many areas, you are going to love this presentation.
At this point, I’m wondering what America stands for. And I suspect I’m not alone.We have a brutal dictator, who also happens to be criminally anti-American, at the first time in four long decades vulnerable to overthrow. We see him using mercenaries to cut down peaceful citizens, helicopter gunships and air force jets to strafe them. We see bodies lying in streets, victims of mortars and bullets powerful enough to penetrate concrete walls. And we do nothing.
All it would take would be one phone call to dispatch NATO jets to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. Then let the people decide for themselves. With Quadaffi’s unfair advantage gone, perhaps the army would abandon him quickly.
But all we get is a few pathetic empty words from our secretary of state, and silence.
Did not the same thing happen a year and a half ago in Iran? It was a golden moment for the lovers of freedom there. Millions took to the streets. As with Neda Soltan, they began to be wantonly cut down. They were imprisoned, they were tortured, they were systematically raped. They were killed.
And what did we do? Nothing. Our leader was “willing to talk with Iran without preconditions.”
And then, Egypt. Instead of strongly identifying with the forces of freedom, we stood off to the side, incoherently contradicting ourselves with every statement. Now that Egypt has thrown off its dictator, who will get the credit? It will not be us, and it probably won’t be the forces of real democracy. It will be the Muslim Brotherhood.
President Obama campaigned on the promise to restore America’s respect among the nations. One doesn’t do that by making articulate speeches. It is done by taking right stands on critical issues, even when those stands might be costly. America is finding herself on the wrong side of history, and that’s an expensive place to be.
In the past weeks, Obama has found time to give us his radical left opinions on a defacto teachers’ strike in Wisconsin (favorable), and on Planned Parenthood, in light of video revelations of its pervasive willingness to aid and abet child prostitution (also favorable). Yet he has not found the time to weigh in on the issues he was elected to deal with.
Jesus warned us that to whom much is given, much will be required. We are going to be judged based on what we were able to do vs. what we actually did. He also warned us that he who does not have, even what he does have will be taken away.
In short, that boils down to use it or lose it. I fear that our nation is losing something very precious. And what begins in the spirit eventually becomes manifest. The Old Testament record is clear that whenever Israel strayed from the Lord, she fell into the hands of cruel enemies. Watch what happens now to the price of energy. Understand that these situations are of vital importance to the whole world, and wrongly handled they have to power to bring our economy to its knees. And maybe on our knees is exactly where we need to be.
I’m closing by including a short opinion by a noted political commentator.
It’s a little perplexing looking at the White House today. There was a statement on the horrible earthquake in New Zealand, and certainly our hearts go out to all those affected by this horrible natural disaster. But nothing on the slaughter in Libya? The protests in many places in the Middle East affect regimes that have cooperated with the U.S. on issues from peace with Israel, fighting al Qaeda, hosting our military forces, or cooperating against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Gaddafi’s Libya is different. For four decades, this tyrant has held power. Gaddafi was Osama before Osama hit the scene. He ordered the bombing of a disco in Germany to kill Americans. When he paid the price for that – after President Reagan rightly ordered retaliation – he directed his agents to blow up Pan Am Flight 103. They did, and more than 250 innocent people died. Gaddafi tried to come in from the cold in 2003 – scared by the demonstration effect of Iraq. But we should have no illusions. Gaddafi is a brutal killer and Libya – not to mention the world – would be better off if he were out of power. Now is the time to speak out. Speak out for the long-suffering Libyan people. Speak out for the victims of Gaddafi’s terror. NATO and our allies should look at establishing a no-fly zone so Libyan air forces cannot continue slaughtering the Libyan people. We should not be afraid of freedom, especially when it comes to people suffering under a brutal enemy of America. Here’s to freedom from Gaddafi for the people of Libya. – Sarah Palin
Our friends the Afghanis are set to hang a Christian brother for the dread crime of turning away from Islam, which he did eight years ago. We have spent precious blood, much toil, and a whole lot of money to bring this nation out of Seventh Century tribalism, and what have we gotten?
Basically, Seventh Century tribalism. With little confidence that America is going to stay the course, the population is turning away from us. The Afghan government so many had put hope in is turning out to be increasingly weak and corrupt. And we are reduced to negotiating with the Taliban.
The abominable apostasy and blasphemy laws are how Islam keeps it reign of fear and coercion intact. They also are used to destroy others for strict personal gain.
That after all we have poured into Afghanistan, an innocent Christian man has been imprisoned, badly abused, and is in immanent danger of being executed is simply unacceptable. That the government of our nation has not pressed strongly for human rights in this case is a cause for national shame. We see people clamoring for freedom all over the world, and spilling their blood to get it. And from the White House we hear…. nothing.
Christian Post reports on a tweeting campaign for the freeing of Said Musa. This is a good thing, as evidently the only thing our leaders hear is political volume. Perhaps it will draw Obama away from opining on the situation in Wisconsin.
I’m enclosing below an article from Open Heaven on Said. It is dramatic testimony of what the Lord is accomplishing through him. Our brother is a physiotherapist with six children, and he has held faithful through a hellish experience. Let’s pray that he is saved from this tribal injustice.
And here’s a link to an encouraging report on how with all this repression and upheaval Muslims are looking for something that will take them out of their tragic centuries-long rut of futility and backwardness. They are open, like never before, for the liberating truth of Christ. Please pray. Here’s the first article:
Afghanistan: Jesus appears in prison
A brother in Christ and an employee of the International Red Cross, Said Musa, was arrested in Afghanistan in late May 2010 after footage was nationally televised of Afghan Christians being baptized and participating in prayer gatherings. The broadcast triggered protests throughout the country and calls to execute Christians, including from a deputy leader in parliament. Musa, a father of six and an amputee with a prosthetic leg, explained in a letter written from Oullayat prison in Kabul that he had been beaten, forcefully sleep deprived, and sexually abused by prisoners. He added that Afghan judicial officers granted him no protection and at times encouraged the abuse.
On December 11, 2010, he wrote from his jail cell that he rejoices in the Lord amidst great suffering. “I saw a vision during my sleep one night. I saw the heaven opened and a person, his cloths like snow, his face in dazzling light. He came to me and put his hand on my shoulder and on my head, and told me: ‘Please he happy, I am always with you in this jail. I chose you and you should announce my good news to the people of Afghanistan and all over the world.’ On that moment I was shaking and trembling with fear. I fell down and could not stand on my feet. He took my hands and I woke up.”
“In my dream a very light person told me: I am Jesus Christ.”
Five days later, on December 16, he wrote again about an unusual occurrence, this time involving a Taliban prisoner: “A person who is accused of murder is sleeping in front of me in the corridor of the jail. He’s a hundred percent extremist, a Talib person. One night he wanted to kill himself. I prayed for him and told him: ‘Please be patient, believe in Jesus Christ, he’s the only person to forgive you and save you and release you from this jail.’ At first he began screaming and insulted me. He told me: ‘You’re not clean, you’re not a Muslim!’ But I told him: ‘Oh my friend and brother, please think about my word.’ Then I prayed for him throughout the night.”
Musa continued: “While all the prisoners were at sleep, he woke up and sat on his place. He came near my bed and told me: ‘Please forgive me, brother. You’re really a true person. I have seen wonderful dreams. A very light person spoke with me. He was an amazing person. I fell down on my knees and to the ground. He told me, please believe in your friend Said Musa. I am the Lord Jesus Christ. I forgive you now. I was shaking in my body from fear and then I woke up.’ He told me he now believes in Jesus Christ.”
Various human rights organizations have taken up Musa’s case and call for prayer for him and his family.
Source: Said Musa
Via Joel News www.joelnews.org
(c) JOEL NEWS, 2011 | republication only with full creditline www.joelnews.org
I’m watching the keynote speech to the annual conservative CPAC event, given this year by Rep. Allan West of Florida. And man, he is hitting the right buttons.
The Left came against West in spades last fall, because they fear him. West is that rare politician who has more than good articulation and a nice suit; he has a fine intellect, spiritual discernment, ironclad principles and a backbone of steel.
As I wrote earlier, this is the centennial celebration of Ronald Reagan, and I’ve got to say, we may have found his standard-bearer here.
Please, take half an hour and watch this. You’ll be glad you did. This man is headed for higher office.
In case you were not aware, the reference at 24 minutes, regarding voting to allow born children to die, and considering having a baby punishment, is to none other than president Obama.
I’ve been watching the news from Egypt with a mixture of hope and apprehension, but mostly apprehension. Mubarak finally has stepped down, and he has handed the government over to the army. It is a sad commentary, indeed, that the military is the only institution strong enough to hold the nation together.
What might have been had the US used its influence not merely to keep a brutal dictator in its corner, but to advocate for democracy? We will never know. In letting this thugs brutalize the people, Mubarak poured gasoline on the smoldering fumes of Islamic fundamentalism, and that in turn set the Muslims to terrorizing the Copt Christians.
In short, the nation was falling apart and was doomed to the rule of a strongman. The only question was whether that strongman would be from the military or from the Islamic radicals. We don’t have our long-range answer yet.
It’s a huge opportunity lost. Thirty years of aid, at about $2B a year, and all we bought was delay. But the money spent is not the worst of it. Our lost respect is more expensive. The last two weeks, in particular, has shown the White House stumbling all over itself, not knowing a thing about what was going on, getting its news from the TV, sending its chief intelligence specialist to make an open show of his utter incompetence before Congress.
The key ingredient that could have brought about a different outcome is leadership. Moral leadership. Jimmy Carter professed to be a big advocate of global human rights when he was president. Maybe he was, but he did not back it up with the one thing dictators respect – strength.
The man who did champion human rights, and who also backed it up with strength, was Ronald Reagan, whose centennial we celebrated this week. It’s in vogue to laud Reagan now, but in his time he was derided by the same liberal elites that now praise him.
Reagan made mistakes, such as allowing Hezbollah to survive its bombing of our Marine peacekeepers in Lebanon. But he got the big picture right – something we haven’t done terribly well since. It’s a shame that we suffer with such poor leadership, but then, we essentially get the leadership we deserve.
John Adams said that the Constitution was designed for a religious and moral people; that none else could sustain it. Because our moral foundations are disintegrating, we have lost discernment and opened ourselves up to any sweet-talking shyster with big promises. If we want better government, each of us needs to commit to personal moral and spiritual revival. Jesus promised that if we would clean the inside of the cup, the outside would be clean as well.
I pray that the Middle East can overcome the political strongholds, many of them rooted in religion, that have bound it so long. I also hope that we can overcome the progressing humanist strongholds that keep us from being the witness we are meant to be. The world is crying out for moral leadership. First in Iran, and now in Egypt, the nation and the man that so many had placed their hope in has merely voted “present”.
Since the mid-1980s I’ve counted myself as a conservative. I spent time on the abortion barricades and in the public square, advocating for morality and for America’s return to her Constitutional roots, as the only basis on which we can survive in any recognizable or good form.
America’s founders based our government upon the unique paradoxical biblical revelation of the nature of man. Man is made in the image of God. As such, he deserves dignity, freedom, and human and civil rights.
But the Bible also holds that man is fallen, a sinner that cannot be trusted. Therefore we must have government. And because fallen man is also the one who runs the government, that government must be strictly limited.
There’s a tension between those truths, and the best solution we can come with is a dynamic equilibrium that balances them successfully. It never will be perfect, but if we keep working to maintain the center, we can survive and preserve the freedoms we have gained.
The problem is that for several decades now, the nation has been increasingly run by humanistic elites whose purpose, stated or not, is to erode the biblical foundations of our republic. They have systematically stripped the culture of as many references to God as they could. Prayer and morality left the school, and condoms filled the vacuum. How could it have been otherwise?
It’s heartening then to note that the nation of late continues in a tilt toward conservatism. Fully 40% of the population so self-identify, more than even the 33% who claim the middle, leaving liberals with less than a quarter of the count. This is a stunning reversal at the grassroots, even if we don’t see much reflection of it yet in the halls of power.
We need to keep working, with both prayer and action, to win America back. The situation is dire, but with God’s help we will succeed.
But while I continue to hold conservative political values, at the same time two important truths have been impressed on me lately, as I watch the pace of cultural decline accelerate.
First, conservativism and godliness often overlap, especially at this critical time, but essentially they are distinct entities. This was strongly impressed on me recently when a story about the detrimental effect of pornography on men’s ability to bond qualitatively to women was posted to a conservative blog I frequent. Very predictably, I’m sorry to say, the reaction from the crowd there was a bunch of snide jeering and a celebration of the joys of porn. These were conservatives.
Because of the attack on moral values, coupled with the unrestrained Internet, America and the world is awash with an unprecedented amount of pornography. And we are suffering for it. While in some ways they have obtained freedom, women are now openly objectified as never before, and often by their own choices have become their own worst enemies. The values that used to protect them – morality, fidelity and monogamy – are in short supply indeed. And women, in competition for attention, have largely allowed themselves to be degraded to the level of the culture’s expectations. They are the worse for it.
It is short-sighted that many conservatives have an implicit belief that the morality they labor for in foreign and domestic policy can long endure if personal morality is jettisoned. They ought to give Washington’s farewell address a good read, in which he warned the nation that it could not long stand if it abandoned the “twin pillars” of democracy – morality and religion.
Jesus said that judgment will take place in this manner: two will be working in a field, and one will be taken; two will be grinding at the wheel, and one will be taken. Let me apply that to our current day. Two will hold conservative political values, and only one will be pleasing to God.
It’s a good thing to labor to restore the nation to its roots. But it’s not a good enough thing. It’s a terrible thing to work conservatively in the external political sphere but not attend to restoring one’s own spiritual roots.
The other issue that I think needs reassessment is conservatism’s claim to exclusive correctness. In that same farewell address, Washington also warned against involvement with other nations. That is no longer possible, and indeed it never was. It was only shortly after Washington left the scene that the Barbary Pirates – read: Muslims – began to severely harass American ships. If we were going to have any commerce with the world at all, it quickly became necessary to deal with international problems.
With increased information flow, the world is getting smaller. If nothing else, the latest Muslim incursion, on 9/11, proved that we simply cannot shut out the world.
And I’ll go one further. We are not meant to shut out the world entirely. America was blessed with resources and governance not merely for her own freedom and prosperity, but that she could bring them to others. More precisely, America, founded on Christian principles, is meant to be a Gospel light to the nations. We cannot do that by hiding our light under a bushel.
Strict isolationism will not work. God’s love and grace has been shed abroad in our hearts liberally, not conservatively, and that’s how we need to spread it to others. In this regard, the motivations of liberals are many times correct. Their mistake is their inordinate faith in the state, which becomes a substitute for the church and the individual as the means of dispensing that grace. Jesus warned, call no man ‘father’, but we have forgotten.
The point of this article is this: we should acknowledge civic virtues, and we should work to bring America back to her roots, but we need to do it all, first and foremost, for the glory of God. When we do that, we not only have the chance of earthly achievements, we have the certainty of heavenly rewards.
An added note on porn:
Those who embrace pornography are squandering their affections. They are building walls around themselves that make real intimacy with their wives impossible. They are sowing seeds of cynicism, resentment and alienation, and one cannot do that without consequences.
In this regard, a good woman is like anything else: what you put into her, you will get out of her, and more. What better is there to invest in but your family? Or for that matter, God?
If you make a commitment to avoid porn, you can get to a place where you recognize when women are using their appearance as a substitute for good character. Trust me on this, you will be avoiding a world of pain if you do so. The benefits of devoting yourself to your wife, and the detriments of squandering your affections, are both so great that the difficulty of disciplining yourself morally are well worth it.
Sunday, 1/30/2011, is an international day of prayer for the release of a Pakistani woman sentenced to death for blaspheming Islam’s prophet, Muhammad. Dominant Muslim nations such as Pakistan (“Land of the Pure”) have instituted blasphemy laws which punish, often with death, any insult, real or perceived, against the founder of that religion.That would be bad enough, but what is worse is that the laws are used as raw leverage against the weak and defenseless. Christians are the main target, but others as well, such as minorities in offshoots from Islam such as the Sikhs, and even normal Muslims, can at any time find themselves falsely charged with blasphemy or tearing up a Koran, as a way for the accusers to exact personal revenge, get a hold of land or livestock, or to pressure women for sexual favors.
In the case of Asia Bibi, the woman on death row at this time, the motive seems to be revenge and just plain bullying and bigotry. What’s new is that this is the first time Pakistan has stooped to sentencing a woman to death for this supposed crime.
There has been talk of repealing the blasphemy laws in Pakistan for many years, but the problem is that the military has ruled the nation by shrewdly balancing off the Islamist religious groups against the secularists. And it hasn’t been good politics in recent years to tick off the Islamists by repealing these laws. As a sop to the West, Pakistan has instituted a ministry for minority affairs, but it’s pretty much a joke. And a week ago, one outspoken governor who openly sympathized with Bibi’s plight was assassinated for his position in the matter. One could say there is a distinct and tragic chilling effect on liberalization in Pakistan.
So this is more than about the life of one woman, as important as that is. The Body of Christ is suffering worldwide, especially in Islamic and totalitarian nations, and the use and misuse of blasphemy laws is often the cutting edge of the sword used against our brothers and sisters.
Meanwhile, in Lausanne, Evangelical leaders got together and issued a call for unity and fervent missions. I’d like to draw attention to one clause of their statement:
“A divided Church has no message for a divided world. Our failure to live in reconciled unity is a major obstacle to authenticity and effectiveness in mission.
“We lament the dividedness and divisiveness of our churches and organizations. We deeply and urgently long for Christians to cultivate a spirit of grace and to be obedient to Paul’s command to ‘make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Unity is absolutely key to our progress in the world. As one of the last things He said during His natural life on earth, Jesus prayed and exhorted His followers to be one, even as He and the Father are one – and that’s pretty tight organic unity, indeed.
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. -John 17:20-21
At this point, I don’t much care to argue ecclesiology or tradition or structure, beyond the basics. I care about essential right doctrine, and I care about love. The Body needs to come together if our witness is to have any power at all.
Please spread the word. Let’s join in solidarity Sunday with our suffering sister, and with the suffering church throughout the world. Let’s do it for their sake and for the sake of the Gospel. The onerous blasphemy laws are being used to oppress and persecute. They also are being used by a militant religion to stifle honest criticism and dissent, which is a major reason why Islamic societies have consistently failed to evolve and prosper. God loves freedom (Gal 5.1) and He welcomes sincere questioning (Is 1.18). He can take the heat.
May God bring peace and prosperity to His church, and if necessary, strength under persecution, but in either case, love and unity.
A southwest Virginia school district has reposted copies of the Bible’s Ten Commandments in all county schools, despite concerns that doing so is unconstitutional.
The Roanoke Times reported that the school district rehung the commandments Friday.
The commandments were up on the walls in Giles County for at least a decade next to framed copies of the U.S. Constitution. But one resident complained, claiming the commandments display violated the Constitution so school officials took them down.
Then several parents and pastors, supported by numerous citizens, told the school board it had a moral obligation to reinforce God’s teachings.
The five-member Giles County School Board voted unanimously to put the framed, 4-foot-tall, biblical texts back up.
“The board, after hearing comments from some members in our community, they felt it was the right thing to do,” said Superintendent Terry Arbogast, who noted that school officials didn’t anticipate the public outcry.
Arbogast said the district will wait to see if a lawsuit is filed.
That this simple act of defiance is so unbelievable shows how far we have fallen. Let’s go back to 1963, when the US Supreme Court banned prayer in public schools across the entire nation. Here’s the twenty-two-word prayer that was found to be so offensive:
“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country.”
Wow. Can’t you just feel the seething religious intolerance and coercion there? At the time, 93% of the nation approved of this innocuous prayer. Indeed, the school board president at the time observed:
“I can only conclude that this suit is a premeditated act to undermine the American heritage. This is not a religious issue. It’s simply a matter of giving our children additional moral and spiritual help and recognition of God.”
The following year the Bible was banned from the schools. Then the Ten Commandments went. The majority opinion against the Ten Commandments actually warns that if the commandments are posted on school walls, the students would read them and might actually follow them, and that would be unacceptable. This stupefying mindset is what the Bible refers to when it says:
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. -Rom 1:21-25
There’s a pattern of regression there. When you don’t honor God, you honor something else. When you turn away from God, you turn to something else. Nature abhors a vacuum, and we have to fill our hearts with something. What on earth did these geniuses think would happen if they took away God and handed out condoms? If you read the history of the likes of Sanger and Kinsey, you will see that some of them knew exactly what they were doing. It all happened incrementally, and much of the church was asleep, so the humanists have gotten away with the greatest cultural heritage heist in history.
As if on cue, in 1963-4 every single social indicator took a precipitous turn for the worse. School dropout rates, teen pregnancies, violence in the schools, test scores, etc. And then the dysfunction spread to the general population. At this advanced date, every single one of our societal institutions is coming apart at the seams. The “seven mountains” of society – commerce, education, government, the family, the arts, religion and media – are all wandering blindly, removed from moral foundations that are no longer there.
Scripture warns us:
if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” -Ps 11:3.
But then it answers it’s own question. They can repent, which essentially means a change in thinking:
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. -Isa 1:18
They can pray according to the promises:
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. -2Chr 7:14
and they can get enough resolve to act, as this school board in Virginia is doing.
Think of Daniel, who despite the king’s decree that no one could call on God, purposely went to his window, opened it, and prayed aloud to the Lord, as he was accustomed. Imagine if more school boards would say that enough is enough. We’re sick and tired of trying to raise our kids amid cultural filth with our hands tied behind our backs. We’ve had it with a minority humanist agenda driving the nation and dictating the lives of the vast number of believers.
Daniel wound up in the lion’s den for his defiance, and I suspect that this school board is going to find out what happens when one resists the undemocratic elites that have been running this nation, and running it into the ground. But the Lord was faithful to Daniel and preserved him, and in the end He vindicated him. So it often goes for those whom the Lord values highly.
We are in a battle for this nation’s soul. We have lost much ground, and we are starting late in our attempt to recover what has been stolen. But signs abound that a major groundswell of purpose and determination is arising. And it’s true to the form of real revivals that this one is coming not from within our institutions themselves, but predominantly from below. The political establishment, in fact, can barely keep up with the pace of change, and is in continual danger of being steamrolled if it doesn’t press forward.
We need to pray for those in authority, as Paul tells Timothy. Much is at stake and the resistance is strong. I don’t know how this Ten Commandments thing in Virginia works out, but it’s a hopeful sign indeed. Let’s give them the support they deserve.
