TO RENEW AMERICA

Christians need to begin to engage in politics. It's an area in which Christians have been removed from influence by secularists who want to dissolve righteousness from a nation.

It is time for Christians to show "love for their neighbor" by preserving Judeo-Christian ethics in this land. It is the only ethic that can save a nation.

Newt Gingrich, in his new book entitled, " TO SAVE AMERICA, Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine," offers some important guidelines for Christians to engage in the public arena to preserve the eroding culture.

1. Pray -- for our nation and its leaders, that God will continue to pour out his blessings on America.
2. Register to vote.
3. Learn about the issues, especially those that threaten religious liberty.
4. Learn the religious liberty positions and records of elected officials and candidates for office.
5. Vote in every election. No candidate will agree with you on every issue, every time, but vote for the candidates who most closely represent your views.
6. Use your influence to educate and persuade others about the importance of protecting religious liberty, encourage them to run for office (hmm?).
7. If you have leadership ability and want to fight to protect freedom, consider running for office yourself (double hmm!).
8. If you are concerned that a measure in Congress, your state house, or county or town board will adversely impact religious liberty, tell your elected representatives how you want them to vote.
9. When you see or experience an encroachment on religious freedom, write a letter to the editor or an opinion article for your local paper, or call talk radio. If you don't speak up, maybe no one will. But if you do, you can frame the debate and help get good legislation passed and bad legislation defeated.
10. Organize a voter registration drive at your church.

That's for starters. Here's hoping that you all take this to heart and get involved to save our Judeo-Christian heritage and to help bring an awakening to the land.

What's Behind the Favored Status of Islam in American Media?

Here's an insightful article showing the widening divide of honor and favor accorded to American Muslims over American Christians.

Gary Bauer speaks the truth and I can only hope that American Christians wake up to the developing crisis in our culture. KEY LINE from his article is this:

Left-wing elites and radical Islamists are united in the common cause of upending the Judeo-Christian culture and roots of American society.

Read it here:

Few Americans would deny that Judeo-Christian beliefs and values informed the Founding of this country and that they continue to shape much of American life today. Nor would many of us deny that Americans who embrace Islamic values are a distinct minority here.

I raise these two facts because of an emerging reality: that, in a variety of contexts, American Muslims are treated better than American Christians. That might seem like a bizarre assertion, so think about it in another way: What if the Christians were treated like Muslims in America, and Muslims like Christians?

If Muslims were treated like Christians in America, Muslims would have to tolerate the defamation of their holiest images in our national museums, acts which would be called "artwork" -- and, if particularly provocative, even given taxpayer-funded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. They would also have to accept Korans being burned and thrown into toilets, which instead of inciting worldwide outrage and retribution would provoke a collective shrug of the shoulders.

If Muslims were treated like Christians, Muslims would be mocked by late night TV talk show hosts and lampooned in crude cartoon parodies. If Christians were treated like Muslims, conspicuous Christianity would be celebrated by our elites as a sign of our diversity and open-mindedness, not disparaged as an embarrassment, a nuisance and a breach of the law.

If Christianity were treated like Islam, our students would be taught a white-washed version of Christian history, with the troubling bits miscast or omitted from textbooks and lesson plans.

If Christianity were treated like Islam, if an evangelical Christian committed an evil act in the name of his faith, he would be portrayed in the media as a deviation from, not a personification of, the Gospel message. Meanwhile, our political and media elites would hasten to assure the public that evangelical Christianity is a religion of peace and that the vast majority of evangelical Christians do not support terrorism.

If Christianity were treated like Islam in America, our president, a professed Christian, would proudly attend Christian-themed dinners and events while skipping Ramadan dinners, not vice versa. And Muslim politicians would go out of their way to assure people that their faith would not affect their policy-making.

If Christianity were treated like Islam, Christmas and Easter would be publicly celebrated for what they are — the signature events of Christianity, marking the birth and the death and Resurrection of Christ — not stripped of all their theological meaning and transformed into secular holidays devoted to crass consumerism.

If Christians were treated like Muslims, NASA would be tasked with reaching out to Christians and recognizing their faith's profound achievements and contributions to science, math and engineering, instead of being told to make Muslims feel good about their rather meager scientific accomplishments.

If Christians were treated like Muslims, the Catholic Church's stances on sex, contraception and human life would be revered as welcome departures from our over-sexed, self-obsessed culture, not condemned as a cause of disease and death in the less-developed world. And if Muslims were treated like Christians, the application of Sharia law around the world would be met not with stony silence but with the outrage it deserves.

If Christians were treated like Muslims in America, amusement parks would celebrate "Christian Family Day," (Six Flags recently celebrated "Muslim Family Day"), and Christians would be asked to embrace, not set aside, their religious convictions at the door when they entered the public square. Meanwhile, Muslim imams, not Christian pastors, would fear hate crimes lawsuits for preaching orthodox views of sexuality and sin.

The notion that American Muslims face discrimination, even to the point of violence, is often posited by America's elites. But that idea evaporates under scrutiny. Remarkably few hate crimes are reported against Muslims (fewer than one-eighth those against Jews). What's more, Muslim immigration to America has risen sharply since September 11, 2001, and Muslims thrive, economically and educationally, once they arrive.

In fact, it is Christians, not Muslims, who increasingly encounter cultural elites who are hostile to their beliefs and values.

Sadly, Christians will never be treated like Muslims by America's elites. Why? Because Christianity can be attacked without fear of retribution. The Christian response to insult and attack -- "to turn the other cheek" -- contradicts the knee-jerk call to violence of many Islamists.

It's also because left-wing elites and radical Islamists are united in the common cause of upending the Judeo-Christian culture and roots of American society.

I’m not in favor of burning the Koran, and I don’t think insulting or defaming symbols of any religion constitutes art. At a time of the year when intolerance for public displays of Christianity is most acute, it is my Christmas wish that Muslims and Christians would be treated equally.

Former presidential candidate Mr. Gary Bauer is president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families.

CULTURE AFFECTS CHRISTIANS!

Recently I've been brooding over a conviction: a deep desire to "change the culture of a nation, from one that tolerates sin to one that tolerates righteousness."

Why should we care about changing the culture? We Christians are separated from the world! -- aren't we? We live apart from the world! -- don't we?

We're not affected by the world, or its culture, now are we?

Don't be too sure. The scriptures show us that culture can indeed ensnare Christians and lead us off the path of righteousness.

Scriptures describe the city of Sodom as wicked and sinful -- it was so bad there could not be found ten righteous people there. But a righteous man lived nearby named Lot. Genesis 19 speaks of a time when angels came to the city to pronounce judgment upon it. The men of Sodom were so sexually deviant that they wanted to rape the heavenly visitors.

Astonishingly, Lot proffered his virgin daughters to appease the crowd. What?

Can you see how the sexually permissive culture negatively affected his own judgment and morality so that he offered his own daughters to be molested? And he thought nothing of it! Various New Testament translations say that Lot was "vexed, oppressed, distressed" by the conduct in Sodom (2 Peter 2:7). Young's Literal Translation says that Lot was "worn down" by what was going on around him, day in day out.

His convictions were seriously seared by his culture.

The same today: one's perspective of issues can change with the constant bombardment of negative influences on TV, from classroom teachers, from devious politicians.

Prayerfully, Christians can "come out" from the ways of the world. Our allegiances and behavior are not those of the world (-- or so we would hope!).

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit, once empowered within an individual, can help us discern both good and evil as mature Christians (Heb 5:14).

But ponder the landscape of Christendom throughout the world. Pick a social dilemma in the world and see if there is unanimous Christian consensus on it. Don't you think there should be?!

Let's go down the list:

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Do we side with law and order; or do we side with the poor?

ABORTION
Do we side with the life of the child; or the rights of the mother?

GOVERNMENT
Do we want government to punish the rich to give to the poor in equal distribution; or do we want free enterprise that doesn't limit our potential?

POLITICAL PARTIES
Do we want liberal/socialistic candidates; or do we want those with traditional, more conservative values? Do we vote for someone according to ethnicity; as opposed to righteous behavior?

Unfortunately, Christian perspectives vary. And, quite often it's due to culture.

This is why I say that we need to change the culture from one that tolerates sin to one that tolerates righteousness. Today you can say the most outlandish, disrespectful, sinful thing and you get a pat on the back.

Talk about righteousness and you get a sneer.

Yes, it's time to do all we can to change the culture.

WHY I SPEAK OUT!

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, quote attributed to Edmund Burke.

I want to take this opportunity to explain why I’m so conscious of what’s going on in the nation.

When I speak about the things of the world, and how wrong things are, it’s a matter of waking up, what seems to be, a sleeping church, unconcerned as freedom and righteousness is slowly being taken away from them and evil is tolerated.

It’s not a matter of “loving this present world” – but like God, it’s a matter of loving the people -- "God so loved this world..."! This nation, more so than any other, was founded upon Godly principles. The United States has produced more missionaries for the world, contributed more dollars to charitable organizations than any other, and has been a beacon of light for the world for centuries.

But now, as I see America losing its way, when I see a generation that doesn’t know right from wrong, it’s not love for the world’s system that I voice my opinion, but love for the people. And like Wisdom from Proverbs cries out (I paraphrase), “How long will you tolerate evil and self-destruction?”

There is no guarantee that Jesus is coming within ten years. I wish He does, but He may not come for another hundred.

Yet, in the meantime, is it not incumbent upon us Christians to be the salt and light of the earth? If we see evil or danger approaching, is it not wise to sound the alarm?

In the 1960s, very few Christians spoke out against God being expelled from our schools. Yet, look at what our incriminating silence produced for the nation. You can see a direct correlation between expelling God from school to the national, cultural erosion that began at that time and continues to this day: in sexual promiscuity, intolerance of morals and Christianity, drug use, profanity, and just about every other evil. Today’s generation knows nothing about, and in fact mocks, the moralistic pre-60s culture.

So when Comedy Central wants to malign my Savior, you bet I’m going to say something! It has been our silence that has allowed so much of the evil we presently see.

When I see a government run amuck in debt spending, which my children will inherit and couldn’t possibly pay back, you bet I’m going to say something.

When I see a large part of the church vote for change rather than righteousness, you bet I’m going to sound the alarm – lest we repeat our mistakes in the next election.

When the news media, to support its anti-American mindset, calls certain voices for righteousness racist or homophobic – I'll be there to defend righteousness.

Presently we see an administration turning it’s back on the National Day of Prayer – so why aren't the pastors of this nation speaking out?

While we are ambassadors for a heavenly kingdom, we still live here. If evil reigns, we suffer under it. So let our lights and influence shine, lest we allow evil to be at the helm of this spiraling-downward nation. Let us not be relegated to the back of the bus any longer.

God gave us a voice, let’s use it without apology. If God’s people don’t speak out for righteousness, who will?

Christians to Mobilize!

I'm sure glad to see this. The Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition seemed to have had their heyday in mobilizing Christians to get involved in their world, and have now, unfortunately, fallen by the wayside. But now, Rick Joyner of Morningstar Ministries is convening tonight over God TV with 300 ministries to launch an organization aimed at mobilizing Christians to bring "profound changes to the political, financial and spiritual landscapes of the world."

It comes at a great time, lest the landscape that's presently taking shape in the U.S. becomes something so totally socialistic and irreversible.

Go Rick Joyner.

Go Christians.

Faith of Whose Fathers?

May 7th of this year, President Barack Obama refused to participate in the National Day of Prayer, which had been a staple in the Bush Administration. Oh, and I seem to recall that when President Obama gave a speech at Catholic Notre Dame University, he insisted on covering up the name of Jesus (ie, the "INS" Catholic monogram for Jesus).

However, the President found time to give every Muslim in the world a heartfelt Ramadan greeting.



Happy Ramadan everyone!

Need an Encouraging Word Today?

WHY SHOULD CHRISTIANS VOTE? WHY SHOULD THEY BOTHER?

HERE'S PROPHETIC REVIVALIST MATT SORGER giving Christians a healthy push to become more involved in our nation's interests.