Monday, March 31, 2014

"Jesus Is Muslim" Campaign Underway

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'We believe that clearing up the many misconceptions about Islam will make this world a better place---a place with less violence and hatred about Islam," explains the organization behind the newly launched billboard campaign carrying messages such as "Jesus Is Muslim" and "Muslims Love Jesus Too."

The sponsor of the campaign argues that Muslims are actually Christians, if "Christian" is taken to mean "someone following the teachings of Christ."

Is anyone actually going to believe their message?

Actually, there are those within the "Christian" community who are working to "reconcile" Christianity and Islam by advocating that Christians and Muslims worship the same God---just by a different name.

And they are advocating a new religious expression which combines Christianity and Islam.

It's called Chrislam.

Friday, March 28, 2014

World Vision Episode--"A Truth Serum For Evangelicals"

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Dr. Richard Land with the Southern Baptist Convention says this week's episode with World Vision deciding to embrace homosexuality in their employment policy---then 24 hours later reversing their decision, provides a reality check for evangelicals.

In fact he says through this episode same-sex marriage has provided a "Truth Serum" for evangelicals.

I wrote about this yesterday and did not intend to mention it again today, however the shock waves and ripples continue across the evangelical community.

Dr. Land is suggesting that this event and the homosexual agenda may in fact serve to bring greater focus to the Truth of God's Word and serve to purify and refine Evangelicalism.

And that, he says, is always a prerequisite for true spiritual revival.

I want to share what other leaders like Franklin Graham, Russell D. Moore, with the Southern Baptist Convention, and Dr. George Wood, head of the Assemblies of God, are saying, and what we can take from their wisdom.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

World Vision Reverses Position on Homosexuality

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A statement released by World Vision president Richard Stearns earlier this week caught my attention.

He said, "World Vision will no longer require its more than 1100 employees to restrict their sexual activity to marriage between one man and one woman if they are in a legal same-sex marriage."

Stearns explained this "very narrow policy change is simply a decision about whether or not you are eligible for employment at World Vision US, based on this single issue, and nothing more..."

He said this is not an "endorsement," we are not on a "slippery slope," we are not "caving to pressure" and we are not "compromising."

But they were doing all of those things.

He said we are "deferring to the authority of churches and denominations on theological issues."

He explained that there are many differences within churches such as method of baptism, communion sacraments, etc., and World Vision does not want to jump into the divisive issue of homosexuality.

I was profoundly concerned and disappointed both personally and spiritually.

I am fully aware that World Vision employs many in the Seattle area, many of whom read this column regularly. I am also aware that World Vision takes in over a billion dollars a year and helps many poor and needy around the world. I have personally seen their work.

I also knew the founder of World Vision, Bob Pierce. I know World Vision was born out of compassion for the needy and a passion to share the gospel and advance biblical teaching. Bob understood that to truly help the suffering, one must also have compassion for eternal suffering, and must preach the gospel and teach biblical Truth.

Bob began his ministry with Youth for Christ and the passion to reach people with the gospel was deeply embedded in the founding of World Vision.

I know that Bob's passion and compassion unfortunately blinded him to the needs of his family, taking him from them for long periods of time. And it happened too often.

His daughter, Marilee, has shared that story with me personally in a television interview.

This "very narrow policy change" that World Vision had announced earlier this week, was indeed an endorsement and it was an endorsement of something that is tearing at the fabric of our culture and the Christian churches around the world.

And it stood in defiance of God's Word.

Neutrality is not an option on moral issues and biblical Truth.


John Piper is one of the most trusted and brilliant evangelical theologians of our time. This caught his attention as well and he has addressed it directly. He reminded us of the words of J I Packer, another trusted evangelical theologian.

World Vision announced late yesterday afternoon they are reversing their decision.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

"Special Consideration" For Hiring Non-Christians

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The Ferndale Education Association provides "special consideration" for hiring "non-Christians."

Is this legal?

Is it discriminating against those who "are" of the Christian faith?

It seems rather hypocritical for a school district to give such a directive in hiring instructions that also include the standard "no discrimination clause" that states no employee can be discriminated against based on their religion.

Rana Elmir with the ACLU says there's "nothing wrong with encouraging people of diverse faiths to apply" for positions in public education.

But Richard Thompson with the Thomas More Law Center says, "Why would they be discriminating against people for their religious beliefs? It's outrageous."

What's going on?

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Hobby Lobby Goes to Court Today--So Does Religious Freedom and the Sanctity of Life

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The US Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today in the case of Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby.

The crux of the Obama Administration's argument is that when Christians form a corporation they give up the right to exercise their religion---they cannot run their business according to their Christian beliefs.

In the context of this case, the administration is making its argument that killing an embryo seeking to implant in his or her mother's womb is not an abortion.

The dispute involves a regulation that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued under the Affordable Care Act. This regulation says that virtually all health insurance plans must cover, without any fees or co-pay, all FDA-approved “contraceptives.”

But what the FDA and the regulation call “contraceptives” include drugs and devices that sometimes work not by preventing conception but by ending a human life after conception. In other words, in these circumstances, the mandated drugs and devices are not contraceptives at all, but post-conception killing agents.

Today the US Department of Justice is trying to make the case that killing an embryo is not an abortion.

But the DOJ is also "evolving" in their "truth", because what they are saying today is different than what they were saying last September in the brief to this same Court.

"Relative truth" gets tricky.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Stanford University Labels Traditional Marriage Conference "Hate Speech"

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Stanford University has a strange way of practicing "tolerance" and "free speech."

This was on full display a little over a week ago when the Stanford Student Body officers declined a request from the Stanford Anscombe Society for some funding for their conference. The funding was primarily to cover the cost of security for their event.

All approved clubs or associations regularly apply for funding for their conferences. The funding comes through the University, from student fees, etc.

It was not the fact that they requested funds that caught public attention, it was the reason for being denied.

The Anscombe Society was officially denied funds for what they called a "Communicating Values Conference."

The university administration said officially that there were no funds available, but it was apparent there was much more at play than dollars.

Why no tolerance for this group? And what about free speech?

Student Body leadership said that if they allowed funding to the group, that would constitute approving of "hate speech."

But the SAS doesn't hate anybody. Neither do they have any formal religious or political affiliations.

SAS says they only focus on "human principles."

They said, "Our aim is to help university students and young adults to promote the values of marriage, family and sexual integrity to the broader culture. Featuring speakers at the forefront of this effort, the conference will allow students to network with individuals who are willing to engage in intellectual and civil discourse about the issues of marriage, family and sexual integrity."

Are discussions about traditional marriage, family and sexual integrity now silenced on university campuses?

Friday, March 21, 2014

Scientists Discover "Universe Created Suddenly"

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Researchers are saying this week they have now spotted evidence that a "split second after the Big Bang, the newly formed universe ballooned out at a pace so astonishing that it left behind ripples in the fabric of the cosmos."

Wow. I had been told the universe evolved over billions and trillions of years.

Not so, scientists are saying. This new discovery "gives us a window on the universe at the very beginning."

"It's just amazing, you can see back to the beginning of time," they say.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Bill Gates: "It Makes Sense To Believe In God"

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Bill Gates told Rolling Stone Magazine in the most recent issue, "It makes sense to believe in God."

He also revealed he and his family go to church.

Rolling Stone asked Gates, "You're a technologist, but a lot of your work now with your foundation has a moral dimension. Has your thinking about the value of religion changed over the years?"

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Common Core Washington Fails First Test

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The Seattle Times is reporting that the organization developing new Common Core Assessments for Washington State and a number of other states "got cold feet" and have delayed the scheduled test of the test that was supposed to begin Tuesday.

They have informed Washington education officials that the test has been postponed until next Tuesday---March 25.

Here's more information on Washington State, including which schools are affected, and more information on Common Core Standards with helpful links to why some educators, including a math professor at Stanford University, oppose implementation of the Common Core Standards.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Air Force: "Christians' Religious Speech, Not A Protected Right"

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Christians in the military are being told that their religious freedom and religious speech is "not" protected by their First Amendment rights.

Military lawyers are now claiming that legal protections for religion only pertain to matters such as clothing and growing beards but do not extend to any religious expression such as sharing one's personal faith in Jesus Christ or posting a Bible verse.

The assault on religious freedom in the military---and elsewhere, has been brewing for several years.

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the atheist "Military Religious Freedom Foundation," told the military and the country last April, "Today we face well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation's armed forces."

What was "brewing" last April is now boiling over.

It's stunning, to say the least.

Monday, March 17, 2014

US GOV--$575M For Abortion / Eugenics To Save Planet

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President Obama's new $3.9 trillion budget funds a lot of things, but I was shocked to see on page 930, $575,000,000 for "family planning/reproductive health" especially in "areas where population growth threatens bio diversity or endangered species."

Acts making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs.
GLOBAL HEALTH ACTIVITIES
SEC. [7058]7037
[(a)] IN GENERAL.—Funds appropriated by titles III and IV of this
Act that are made available for [bilateral assistance for child survival
activities or disease]global health programs including activities relating
to research on, and the prevention, treatment and control of, HIV/AIDS
may be made available notwithstanding any other provision of law except
for provisions under the heading "Global Health Programs'' and
the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and
Malaria Act of 2003 (117 Stat. 711; 22 U.S.C. 7601 et seq.), as
amended[: Provided, That of the funds appropriated under title III of
this Act, not less than $575,000,000 should be made available for family
planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population
growth threatens bio diversity or endangered species].

This approach to extreme environmentalism is known as Population Health and Environment (PHE). PHE integrates population control into environmental initiatives.

That is eugenics. A philosophy and practice deeply embraced and advanced by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, is finding new life ---and funding from this generation of secular progressives. And the funding is coming from taxpayer dollars.

Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, US Rep. and Chair of the Democratic Party and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, who last week told Congress that our Constitution is 400 years old, have both been pushing for the US to come into compliance with the United Nations and meet UN "Millennium Development Goals" by using birth control and/or abortion as a means of "ensuring environmental sustainability."

With no real effort to fake subtlety, the Obama budget will likely fund sacrificing human life on the altar of extreme Environmentalism.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Former Seahawk Jon Kitna: Faith That Works

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Former Seahawk quarterback Jon Kitna made news last fall.

The Dallas Cowboys signed him to a one game contract to come to Dallas and help the team--for one game.

It's not surprising the Cowboys would call on Kitna to help them in that he played in the NFL for 16 years in Seattle, Cincinnati, Detroit and Dallas.

It was what he did with his $53,000 paycheck and what he is doing with his life now that he is retired from football that caught national attention.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Common Core, the Crises and the Cure--Heads Up Parents

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Heather Crossin, an Indianapolis mom of 4, has become one of the nation's most outspoken parents in opposition to what we know as "Common Core" education standards.

Here's why.

Her 8 year-old daughter Lucy brought home some math homework. Looking at it, Heather noticed that the math focused on abstract concepts, even drawing pictures to solve problems, instead of practicing formulas.

She says, "I assumed initially it was just a bad textbook selection. I found out that was not the case."

When she inquired, the principal brought in a representative from Pearson, the publisher of the textbook, to explain the new Common Core-aligned textbooks.

She recalls her moment when the light came on:

"When parents still weren't buying what [the publisher's representative] was selling, our principal in frustration threw up his hands and said, 'Look, I know parents don't like this type of math because none of us were taught this way, but we have to teach it this way because this is how it's going to be on the new [standardized] assessment.' That was the moment I realized control of what was being taught in my child's classroom---in a parochial Catholic school---had not only left the building, it had left the state of Indiana. And to me, that was a frightening thought."

Here is an overview of the crises Common Core is creating and will create and the cure.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

How Free Market and Democracy are Linked to Morality and Religious Freedom

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"The free market and democracy by themselves, unmoored by a religious population or a moral population, are nothing. The free hand of the market will provide cheaper, better pornography and drugs, if that's what the population wants."

"To have a robust free market is compromised if we are mired in debt, and to have a robust free market of ideas is compromised if religious freedom is threatened---They're really both sides of the same thing, different kinds of liberty inextricably intertwined."

--Eric Metaxes, best selling author of "Wilberforce," "Dietrich Bonhoehffer," Veggie Tales and many other books.

Speaking at CPAC last week, he told the organizers he was surprised that there were no CPAC panels on abortion or religious liberty.

And he explained why that matters morally and how those and other social issues are linked to America's future prosperity and freedom.

There is an unrelated survey just out that speaks to this very issue. In fact, it affirms that conservative biblical economic principles create more prosperity than the "income equality" policy of President Obama and the secular progressives.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Pew Research Finds A Confused Generation

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Much has been said about this generation. They are said to be narcissistic, impatient and sometimes flaky.

The most recent Pew Research survey has found that this generation---the "Y Generation," or millennial's, 14-34 years old, reflects more contradictions than trends in behavior.

Example: These young people are the most doomed economically by our country's debt than any generation in the history of America, yet they are the most financially optimistic of any generation in the past quarter century.

Many have characterized this generation as lazy, self serving, disloyal, spoiled and a number of other not-so-kind characteristics.

Recent studies are finding, however, that this generation does not lack character so much as they are experiencing confusion and conflict in the culture.

And these studies reveal what this generation is "really" looking for.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Oregon GOP Endorses Gay "Marriage"--Causes Split

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There is growing unrest among many social conservatives who have traditionally been a part of the Republican Party.

Oregon, as Washington did in 2012, is looking to legalize so-called same-sex "marriage."

Unlike the Washington GOP which merely ran candidates who publicly supported same-sex "marriage" while claiming the Party supports traditional marriage, the Oregon GOP has dispensed with the double talk.

At their annual convention this weekend, the Oregon GOP officially endorsed a same sex "marriage" bill that will likely be on their ballot in November.

Not all Oregon Republicans are willing to make that compromise so an alternative state convention was called simultaneously in another part of the state, proclaiming their support for the Party's platform and their personal beliefs and commitment to social conservatism.

The "moderates" generally told the press they were glad the social conservatives were not there, some even mocking the conservatives.

The growing division between social conservatives--- people of faith, and the so-called Republican moderates is growing, not only here in the secular Northwest, but across the country.

That was evidenced in the CPAC meeting that concluded this weekend near Washington DC.

Why does the GOP believe that if they can move, or appear to move far enough to the left they can somehow begin to win rather than lose elections?

More on the Oregon Republicans and some observations.

Friday, March 07, 2014

CPAC-No Room For Social Conservatives

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The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) which has just begun, is not offering a single panel or speaker for pro-life issues.

CPAC, which is supposed to be the preeminent annual gathering of conservatives in America, had earlier invited a national atheist organization, then because of considerable push back disinvited them, seems to have overlooked so-called social conservatives.

Not a single panel or speaker focusing on abortion, marriage, family or religious freedom.

Should conservative people of faith read anything into this?

Thursday, March 06, 2014

"It's Perfectly Normal" Textbook is Not Normal--It's Pornographic

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Russ has a child at Covington Middle School in Evergreen School District in Vancouver, Washington.

This week he became aware that the textbook, "It's Perfectly Normal," is available to his middle school daughter.

He is angry.

And he should be.

The textbook has been around for about 20 years, but each school year parents often become aware of it for the first time.

Public schools use it---or have it available.

Planned Parenthood promotes and places it.

Most school libraries have it.

Planned Parenthood and the book publisher claim it is "age appropriate" for children as young as 10.

It isn't. It isn't appropriate for children of any age, because it isn't educational.

It is an enticement for young children who are not sexually active to become so. For children who are sexually active, it is a enticement to sexual addition.

Parents and grandparents, beware.

Here's what you should know.

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Disney Dumps Boy Scouts--Compromise and Consequences

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Disney has announced they will be dropping the Boy Scouts of America. No more donations after this year.

Disney has been directing about $4.8 million per year to BSA.

****************************
ALERT: The Home School Legal Defense Association put out this release yesterday afternoon regarding the Romeike family, which we commented on yesterday morning:

The Department of Homeland Security verbally informed Home School Legal Defense Association that the Romeike family is being granted indefinite deferred action status. The Department told HSLDA that this meant the order of removal would not be acted on and that the Romeikes could stay.

HSLDA Chairman Michael Farris was thrilled.

“This is an incredible victory that I can only credit to Almighty God. I also want to thank those who spoke up on this issue—including that long ago White House petition. We believe that the public outcry made a huge impact. What an amazing turnaround—in just 24 hours,” he said.

****************************

Last year, you will recall, BSA was pushed by activists and corporations to "revise" their moral code, which they had held for more than 100 years.

After much conflict, BSA decided to work out a compromise on their moral revision. That way they felt they could please the donors and corporate leaders who were demanding they change their policy regarding gays in the organization, and also please those members who still wanted to hold the original moral code.

The compromise was that BSA would allow openly gay kids in the program, but would not allow openly gay leadership.

In addition to Disney stopping funding, Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Major League Soccer, Merick, Intel, and UPS have also dropped their donations to BSA.

Why?

Because BSA didn't compromise enough.

Compromising moral standards or beliefs usually works out that way. At what point is compromise enough compromise?

Let me tell you about 15 year-old Andrew Orr and some of his peers who did not compromise their moral beliefs.

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

US Government: "Parent Has No Right To Home School"

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Although deeply disappointed, I'm not surprised.

The United States Supreme Court declined yesterday to hear the case involving the home school Romeike family.

The US Department of Justice argued with ICE that there is "no fundamental right to determine the education of one's children."

The US Government's argument, even more than the Court's denial to hear the case, reveals much about the beliefs of our own government and the present administration regarding our children. And the role of their parents.

And if anyone still believes public education is about "education" rather than "indoctrination," please read on.

Monday, March 03, 2014

Is Atheism and Conservatism Compatible?

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The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) convenes its annual conference later this week near Washington DC. CPAC has been known as a safe haven for conservatives, particularly Christian conservatives.

It annually highlights conservatives and works to help elect them.

In an apparent attempt to "build a bigger tent," CPAC invited the American Atheist organization founded by Madalyn Murray O'Hair to be a participant this year.

After considerable push back from certain conservatives, CPAC then dis-invited the atheist group. The atheists are angry and are telling the press what they had wanted to tell the conservatives had they been a participant in this week's conference.

Part of their message of enlightenment is that religion is counterproductive to conservatism.

Which raises the question, "Is Atheism compatible with Conservatism?"

Some thoughts from William F. Buckley Jr., Michael Youssef and others. And a personal thought.