As Katie kindly pointed out:

Twitter: “God IS good. Check my blog on Monday to find out why.”
Trinity, today is Tuesday, and I still don’t know why.

And, yes, it’s now Wednesday. Sorry. (And thanks for calling me by the name only my mother uses, Katerz. Sheesh.)

Anyway. I made that tweet from my cell phone during church. Yes, yes, I know. You children are not allowed to text during church, so do as I say not as I do.

Here’s the story.  Think back to Sunday, August 31st. Hurricane Gustav was bearing down on New Orleans, where our church has gone twice over the last two years to help rebuild. Our church supports a missionary and church planter in India and the previous week militant Hindus had killed one of their pastors, destroyed a church and burned down dozens of homes belonging to Christian church members. Also a high schooler who’s family had formerly attended our church was hit by a drunk driver the preceding Friday and was in a coma with a brain injury. (That one hit much closer to home.)

Our pastor asked all the men of the church to come down to the alter and join in prayer. We prayed for God’s protection over New Orleans, restoration in India, and healing for the boy. It was pretty moving.

At the end of that same church service, someone burst into the church and ran down to the alter to tell Pastor Dennis that the boy had come out of the coma and was asking to go home.

Last Sunday, (September 7th) we got further updates:

Obviously, Gustav landed with a whimper and all our friends in New Orleans were spared.

Not only had the boy come out of the coma, but he was able to go home a few days later. He still has some work to do to recover his short term memory, but he’s way ahead of the game. (Tammy and I can testify to that!) On that same day, within a few hours of our prayer, three other patients on the same floor awoke from their comas, one of which had been in a coma for months and was expected to be a vegetable.

In India, the local and national governments had officially condemned the persecution of the Christians and sent in aid to rebuild the destroyed homes. The Indian Supreme Court went on record saying that all measures would be taken to track down the murderers and hold them to justice. This is completely unprecedented in Hindu majority India.

Wow! You just try and convince me that God doesn’t hear our prayers! I dare ya!

I’ve tried to leave this alone. I was sure that this would blow over and become non-news. But the events of the last week have been too ridiculous for me to ignore any longer. Thus, I’m forced to get out my old soap box and posit my proverbial two cents.

Let me start with a personal story. When I first moved to Colorado Springs (in 1997), I attended a “non-denominational” church a half mile from the college campus. It was great. Just the right kind of teaching and worship. Just the right kind of college group. I met several life-long friends there. I attended the church for several years. But one Sunday, something happened. The head pastor turned the pulpit over to a guy I had not heard of before, but learned much about later. This guy was one of the world’s leading Christian evolutionists. He taught both Sunday morning services, did a Q&A at the Sunday night service, and was “available for discussion” at the Wednesday night service. It was clear that the church leadership were all evolutionists. I was shocked and extremely disappointed. The pastor who’d been teaching me, guiding me through God’s word, entrusted with my relationship with God, had “come out” with a personal belief that I found completely unbiblical.

As I’ve said before, I’m a strict creationist. I don’t mean to say that this evolutionist pastor was going to burn in hell for his beliefs. However, it did mean that we had serious theological differences and I had a choice to make. I chose to leave the church. It was not a form of protest. It was not an emotional “I’ll show him.” It was a careful and prayerful decision. I could not continue to be shepherded by a man who had such a fundamentally different view of scripture.

With that said, let’s look at the current political mess. Bronco Bomber spent about 20 years attending a church led by a man who has made his views abundantly clear. I believe the good Reverend Wright would agree with the following list of, shall we say, derisive statements:

• Black Americans in the 21st century remain economically and politically enslaved to White America.¹
• There is a real possibility that AIDS was created and introduced into the black population by either a conspiracy of white Americans or the U.S. government as a tool to reduce and marginalize the black population in American.²
• The United States government has and continues to support terrorism through its support of the nation if Israel and other regimes.³
• Based on the statements above, white America and the U.S. government deserve any poor treatment that comes their way, including high taxation, “affirmative action” (a.k.a. reverse racism), and even the attacks of 9/11.⁴

Pastor Wrong has been attacked for these statements, but he insists these attacks are not personal. Instead they are attacks against the entire “black church”⁵. (Although, the black church seems to disagree.)

Now you would think that any intelligent person sitting in church listening to their pastor spew this kind of rebarbative poo would make the prayerful and careful decision to get the heck out of there and never come back.

The MSM, while keeping the story afloat, has handled it with kid gloves. You may, as I have, wonder why this hasn’t been a death blow to the Obama campaign, as an affiliation with the Klan would be the end of a white candidate’s campaign. Well, just listen to the first minute of this video, in which Rev. Wrong receives a standing ovation from the National Press Club. The press has not crucified Obama over this because the majority of the MSM agrees with Rev. Wrong. Heck, they love him!!

So why should Bronco Bomber be held liable for the vitriol of his pastor? It was not the Bomber up in that pulpit. Just because his pastor said it doesn’t mean that Bronco believes it. Or does it?

If you grew up in a church; if you, as an adult, have remained in a church for any length of time; you know how your pastor’s views become (if they weren’t already) your own. You can’t sit in the pews year after year under the tutelage of a pastor if you disagree with him on a deep level and certainly not if you find his teachings “appalling,” if they leave you “outraged” and “saddened.” You might give a pastor “the benefit of the doubt” for one or two sermons, but not for 20 years.

Your pastor is not an acquaintance, not an associate, not even an old friend. Your pastor is your shepherd, your teacher, your mentor, the person who shapes your beliefs, who guides your understanding of both your spiritual and physical worlds. (Even the good Rev. Wrong acknowledges this truth.⁶) Your pastor plays a major role in building your character and as we know (and as the MSM continues to deny) character matters.

That is why this story won’t die. And that is why, after months of hem-hawing around, the Bronco Bomber has officially filed for divorce from his pastor. This is political posturing at its worst. (Rev. Wrong called it for exactly what it was.⁷) I say it’s too little and 20 years too late.

____________________________________
In these YouTube references, you can skip to the time referenced by clicking the “pause” button and dragging the little disk left and right until the correct time displays in the counter on the right.
1- Reverend Jeremiah Wright National Press Club pt.3 (2:15-2:50, 3:35-5:14) (Notice all this is in the present tense.), Reverend Jeremiah Wright National Press Club pt.4 (5:05-5:35) (So who, Mr. Wright, is your enemy? Who put you in chains?)
2 – Reverend Jeremiah Wright National Press Club pt.5 (2:25-3:44)
3 – Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America – US To Blame For 9-11 (2:08-2:50)
4 – Reverend Jeremiah Wright National Press Club pt.4 (1:00-1:30, 6:55-9:15)
5 – Reverend Jeremiah Wright National Press Club pt.1 (6:10-6:30)
6 – Reverend Jeremiah Wright National Press Club pt.3 (3:14-3:33)
7 – Reverend Jeremiah Wright National Press Club pt.4 (5:42-6:45)

Since I have so vocally endorsed Ben Stein’s documentary on the subject, and for reasons of full disclosure, I think it’s important that I spend a few minutes discussing Intelligent Design and my personal beliefs.

I) I am a “fundamentalist” Christian.

That is to say, I believe in a strict interpretation of the Christian Bible. I put my eternal faith in, and strive to live according the will of, the God of the ancient Israelites and in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This also means that I believe in the literal, Biblical account of creation in six days. In other words, I am a “strict creationist.”

II) I believe in the intelligent design of the Universe, but not in Intelligent Design.

Yes, I believe that God created the Universe. However, this is not the same thing as what is commonly referred to as Intelligent Design (or ID). Because I am a strict creationist, when it comes to picking nits, I must disagree with many IDers (several of whom I have met and debated in person) who teach what I call Christian evolution. Christan evolution differs from Darwinian evolution only by the idea that, instead of random mutation, God was the origin of life and “directed” the evolution of all species from a common ancestor.

III) I do not believe that anyone should be forced to conform to my beliefs.

Theocracies are very dangerous and ultimately they fail to produce real believers. If you force someone to live according to your religion, that someone is very unlikely to accept that religion at a heart and soul level, especially a “free will” religion like Christianity.

IV) I do not believe that my view of creation is “scientific” in the strictest sense.

I freely admit that my “strict Genesis” belief is not scientific. That is to say it can not be observed, tested, or reproduced. It is a faith-based stance. That does not mean it is based solely emotions or feelings. I must examine my faith in light of the available evidence. If I find evidence that contradicts my faith, it is my responsibility to question my faith and examine the validity of the evidence. As yet, I have not found any evidence that has caused me to abandon my faith.

V) When it comes to academics, I think a healthy dose of agnosticism is in order.

I am a strict creationist and have to admit this requires faith. If you are an Christian evolutionist, your must admit it requires faith. If you are a Darwinist, you need to admit that it requires faith. (No one can observe, test or reproduce macro evolution any more than I can creation. Does this mean that macro evolution is not “scientific”? Hmm.) Thus, I think we need to teach students that there are many different theories, none of which can be proven. Then we explain the evidence and let them form their own opinions. Right now that is not happening. And that is why I think everyone should go see Expelled.

The movie is not about proving or disproving any particular theory. It is about the fact that, currently, our scientific and academic cultures have become so entrenched in Darwinism (and the resultant antitheism) it has created “Darwin Fundamentalist,” people so devoted to their faith that any one who questions Darwin is professionally crucified. If you think this sounds far fetched or over stated, you really need to see the movie.

This weekend, I’m going to be in Midland, Texas, performing with a couple other guys from Stage Right Theatre. We’re the entertainment for a conference there. And that’s all cool and stuff, but it means I’m going to miss out of some things here at home.

The one I’m most bummed about is the opening night of Ben Stein’s “Expelled”.

In a scientific world gone mad, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed is the controversial documentary that will chronicle Ben Stein’s confrontation with the Neo-Darwinian machine, exposing widespread suppression and entrenched discrimination in his heroic quest to bring back freedom in our institutions, laboratories and most importantly, in our classrooms, with the help of the world’s top scientists, educators and thinkers.

Basically, this film will expose how academia’s elite antitheists have so overrun out universities and research facilities that it is now pretty much impossible for a scientist to make a living if he lets slip that he believes in any god other than Darwin.

I will see the show. I was just hoping to see it opening night. That’s the best way to make sure a movie like this gets some traction. If it has a bad opening weekend, it won’t last as long in theaters. That’s just how theaters work.

So check it out. Watch the trailer. Read the blog. Find a theater near you that’s screening the flick. And most importantly GO SEE IT!

So far this year, I’ve failed miserably at one of my resolutions: to memorize 52 Bible verses in 2008. So far I’m at zero. The good news is our church is testing out a new curriculum that includes scripture memory. Now I can finally start wrestling that particular demon. Which brings us to this weeks white board quip.

I tried to wrestle my demons once, but they used too many illegal holds.
Steven Wright

Tuesday, January 22nd, at 10 AM, I’ll be observing a moment of silent prayer.

It was on January 22nd, 1973 at around 10 AM that the supreme court sided with the plaintiff in the infamous Roe vs. Wade case. I didn’t know until recently that the Roe case started out right here in Dallas, Texas.

Jane Roe was the pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a 9th grade drop-out and runaway who was taken under the wings of a couple of feminist attorneys. She was a pawn in the political battle over abortion. Those attorneys had Norma sign an affidavit and from that point on, Norma, as Jane Roe, was no longer welcome in the feminist, pro-abortion movement. All they needed was a name and a piece of paper to trot before a liberal court. They didn’t care about Norma just like they don’t care about the tens of millions of women who have suffered the physical and psychological effects of abortion. And they certainly don’t care about the incredible number of lives that have been stolen thorough this barbaric practice.

48,589,993 abortions were performed between January 1973 and December 2006.

That means that as of this writing there have been over 49 million American’s executed on the alter of our “modern” culture.

What’s really amazing is that the woman who’s name is forever associated with those 49 million deaths, the helpless pawn, has been speaking out against abortion since 1997. You can read Norma McCorvey’s testimony here. Please do. It speaks not only to the madness of “abortion rights”, but also to the love and grace of a mighty God.

Clicky clicky.

An interview with myself concerning the “Holidays”:

Q: Would it make me happy if the whole world came to follow Jesus Christ and celebrated Christmas?

A: Sure.

Q: Am I crazy enough to believe that that will ever happen?

A: Of course not. I teach a series on Revelation every year and I am confident that this world (as a whole) will never accept Christ, even according to His own book!

Q: Should we all quit trying to evangelize the world?

A: No! As a Christian, my number one priority should be evangelism.

Q: So if I meet someone who isn’t interested in accepting Jesus, should I shun them, hate them, kill them, or fart in their general direction?

A: No!! Jesus taught us to love our enemies. That is to say, just because we don’t agree doesn’t mean we have to fight about it. I’ll just continue to live the way God directs me to live let the testimony of my daily life give authenticity and verisimilitude to my evangelism. Besides, we are blessed to live in a country where all of us are free to worship as we please.

Q: If my friend invites me to a pagan blood letting ceremony should I go?

A: Only if you’ve done your homework and you know what all is involved in the ceremony. I probably wouldn’t go to a pagan blood letting ceremony because 1) it might be rude or awkward if I have to refuse to participate in some part of the ceremony because it conflicts with my own beliefs and 2) I hate giving blood.

Q: So should I tell my friend that his religion is “all lies” and that he’s going to Hell?

A: I don’t think that would achieve the desired effect. Better to maintain your friendship and just be honest about your own faith without insulting his.

Q: What does verisimilitude mean?

A: Look it up!

Merry Pancha Ganapati and Happy New Year!

After my previous post on “The Golden Compass”, dedicated reader, excellent blogger, and all-around swell Hindu, Ghosty, published a related post on the dogmatic extremes involved and I highly recommend you read it.

Clicky clicky.

I’ve touched on this in several previous posts, but I want to dedicate some time the subject. I get lots of emails from “religious groups” like the AFA, the RFC, et. al., and I’m grateful for the work these folks do. It’s a great way to stay on top of political and cultural battlegrounds. But I don’t charge angrily into the fray every time I get an “alert” email. Quite frankly, there are battles I choose not to fight.

As Ghosty said in his post, the Bible is rife with passages challenging you to think. Use your head. You can’t believe what you know until you know what you believe. I believe the strength of Christianity is the fact that it teaches its followers to challenge authority. “Don’t take my word for it, look it up!”

I remember seeing a clip on the news back during the Branch Davidian hubub. (Remember Waco?) In it, David Koresh is preaching from the Bible and not one of his followers has a Bible of their own. Get it?

You’d be amazed at how many people don’t carry a Bible to church. They just assume that the guy in the pulpit knows everything and they trust everything he says… blindly. I love my pastor, I really do, but I’m not putting my eternal soul in his hands. My faith is in Christ, not Dennis, and not the AFA or the RFC.

This goes beyond “The Golden Compass”. In the last month, I’ve received at least five or six emails from the AFA decrying various retailers for not including “Christmas” in their marketing. Really? That’s worth taking up arms? Does it somehow damage our culture when secular retailers act like secular retailers rather than Christian ones? I don’t think so.

This is from an email my dad sent me last week, a letter from God:

It has come to my attention that many you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wasn’t actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a pagan festival. Although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.

I don’t care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just get along and love one another.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

• Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home.
• Instead of writing to the President complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don’t you write and tell him that you’ll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up.
• Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren’t allowed to wish you a “Merry Christmas” that doesn’t keep you from wishing them one.
• If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn’t allow a scene depicting My birth on the lawn of City Hall, then just put a Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn’t be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be so many of them all around town.
• Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Don’t forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I’ll take care of all the rest.

Good stuff.

Lest you take this to mean otherwise, I do still believe that there are some causes worth fighting for and some cultural movements that are dangerous, especially to our kids. On those, I have looked it up and I am willing to fight.

One frequent argument by those who favor freedom of everything is to say, “If you don’t like it then don’t buy/watch it.” While that is true of the individual, I can tell you that no parent is capable of sheltering their kids from anything that is popular with their peers. Not unless they lock the kids in a broom closet their whole lives (which, apparently, law enforcement frowns upon, those pansies).

Yes, you can refuse to take your kids to see a movie, but their friends at school (even a “Christian” school) may see it, and love it, and quote lines from it, and buy merchandise promoting it. Eventually, your kid will see the movie whether it’s at the mall, on DVD at someone else’s house, or even on their friend’s iPod. It’s not out of spite (usually). It’s just so they can feel a part of the craze.

The two biggest faults I see in parenting today are 1) assuming your kids are naive to the world and 2) assuming your kids are completely honest with you. Were you completely honest with your parents? (I was of course. *wink* Hi, mom!)

I agree with Ghosty’s point that exposure to dissent is good, but I would say that there must still be reasonable limits. It’s good to have your faith challenged so that you will learn to defend it. But it’s not good to be exposed to any evil just to make sure you know it’s wrong. Some evil can be correctly judged from a distance. I don’t have to pick up a red hot piece of metal to know that it will burn me and I don’t have to watch every movie Hollywood puts out to know when one is not fit for my consumption.

That’s all I’m tryin’ to say.

It may be old news by now, but I wanted to get this out and see if anyone knows more about it.

The soon to be released movie, “The Golden Compass” has raised the ire of many Christian groups. Despite the impressive star-power and production values this movie boasts, the story behind it seems pretty nefarious. The movie is based on the first book of a trilogy written by secular humanist and staunch atheist Philip Pullman. Pullman’s trilogy, “His Dark Materials”, was written in response (or perhaps retaliation) to C.S. Lewis’ Christian allegory, “The Chronicles of Narnia”. It is Pullman’s attempt to, “kill god in the minds of children”.

Snopes puts it this way in their article on “The Golden Compass”:

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy of children’s books [is] a series that follows the adventures of a streetwise girl who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armor-plated bears, and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God.

“Compass” is the first, and least offensive of the books, designed to pull in readers. Reports are that the movie is a “dumbed down” version of the book (but really, what movie isn’t) to increase it’s appeal and mask it’s anti-religious theme. Later in the trilogy, the protagonist kids fight against the church, referred to as the “Magisterium”, in order reach and kill God, referred to as “Yahweh”.

I don’t consider myself a rank-and-file religious nut. Instead, I try to be a careful, thoughtful, truthful religious nut, basing my beliefs on facts rather than hearsay. I’m not planning to see “Compass” but that was established long before I heard about all this hubbub. I haven’t seen any of the recent fairy tale movies, like “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Last Mimzy”. They just don’t appeal to me. Maybe I’ve just had enough of Hollywood’s pseudo-philosophy that seems to drip from the genre. Or maybe I’m actually growing up a little. … Nah! That can’t be it.

Anyway, I wanted to stir the pot a bit on this one and see what percolates. I would love to have some comments from anyone more familiar with the subject. Maybe someone who’s actually read the books. If I had time, I’d find them at the library and read them myself, but that seems unlikely.

I await your thoughts.

My distaste for Wal-Mart is well documented. I need not go into detail. (If you haven’t read about it, use the search form on the right to find the posts.)

But even more powerful is my distaste for (nay, my steadfast resistance to) the campaign by a powerful, vocal minority in this country to establish, embrace, and glorify a culture of sexual immorality in the United States.

If you don’t go to Wal-Mart for your Frisbees and hair dryers, where do you go? Usually, Target is the next option. But Target has made some decisions that bug me too. They made a big media splash a couple years ago when they kicked out the Salvation Army bell ringers. And just recently I’ve learned that Target offers homosexual “couples” the same benefits as married spouses.

So now, I’m caught between two evils. Do I take my money to Wal-Mart and finance the communist, atheist, super-power of China or do I shop at Target and line the pockets of a corporation that embraces a destructive sub-culture against which I have serious moral objections?

Fortunately the decision has been made for me.

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay lobby in the U.S., has called for a boycott of Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart does not offer “domestic partner benefits”. (That’s a very politically correct way to say that Wal-Mart refuses to pay for Chuck’s doctor bills just because he’s shacked up with their employee Larry.) The HRC is calling on all homosexuals and their friends to take their money to Target instead, because of Target’s “gay friendly” employee benefits.

Now, it seems pretty obvious to me that Wal-Mart would make this decision. Never mind the fact that it’s bad logic: If we give benefits to a shacked up Chuck and Larry, what’s stopping a shacked up (and unmarried) Chuck and Mary from getting the same benefits?! Beyond that, Wal-Mart has never been the champion of workers rights anyway. Why should this be any different.

Regardless, the HRC has thrown down a gauntlet of sorts. They have challenged the “religious right” to put up or shut up. If Target’s sales go up noticeably and Wal-Mart’s correspondingly go down, they will claim victory for their cause undoubtedly causing big waves in the media. On the other hand, if the numbers are reversed, or, for that matter, if there is no impact at all, there will be no victory and no media frenzy. Yes, that’s right. Even if Target’s number go down, there will be no media coverage, I assure you.

And so, when I am forced to choose between the turn-coat communist and the openly pro-gay, I must make a moral choice rather than a political one.

This issue is very important to me because I work with youth and I have seen first hand what the culture of tolerance has done to our kids. I can not stand idly by while our society degrades to the point where homosexual activity in the bathrooms and locker rooms of our middle schools is overlooked and accepted. (Yes, middle schools. I’m talking about 13 year olds. And yes, it’s really happening.)

So who’s with me? <MyBestRedNeckAccent>Let’s all go down to the Wal-Mart</MyBestRedNeckAccent>.

Read the USA Today article about the boycott.
Read the AFA alert for more info that was not included in the article above.