Controversy at Christian Music Fest

"Lifest," an annual Christian festival, which draws tens of thousands of people, opens tomorrow in Oshkosh, Wis. with a great deal of controversy.

At the heart of the problem is scheduled speaker Jim Wallis. He claims to be an evangelical, but promotes a far left social agenda that many find both offensive and unbiblical.

Q90 FM, a Christian radio station, has pulled out and will not be supporting the festival this year. Their issued statement says, "After researching extensively the words and published positions of Jim Wallis and his organization, Sojourners Magazine, and seeking fervently the guidance of the Holy Spirit in prayer, we believe the social justice message and agenda they promote is a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between Church and Government."

Lifest founder, Bob Lenz, has told local pastors and organizations who are objecting to Wallis that he will not remove Wallis from the program.

Crosstalk radio host, Ingrid Schlueter, said Lifest is presenting Wallis as "a creditable Christian leader" and said the youth attending the event are in "spiritual peril."

She said youth will be, "sitting under the tutelage of a religious and political radical who is...hostile to the biblical Gospel."

Mary Danielson of Calvary Chapel in Appleton said Wallis claims to be an evangelical pastor, but is merely using Scripture to "justify his radicalism."

She said, "He does not hold to the central tenants of biblical Christianity, but reads a brand of social justice into the Bible."

I agree.

Wallis is now doing what he always does when called on his radicalism, he is claiming to be like all other evangelicals. This is exactly what President Obama has done. He has claimed to be a "Christian" but has denied the very teachings of Jesus by saying that he believes there are many ways to God---affirming that Jesus is not the only way.

This, of course, stands in direct contradiction to what Jesus Himself taught. He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6.

It would be no surprise to you that Wallis serves as an advisor to President Obama.

Wallis and others are rebranding the Gospel. It is an insidious problem in the Christian church in America. It is being advanced under the banners of "social justice" and the Emerging "or "Emergent" church.

I am working on a blog that addresses this specific problem. I will be publishing it soon.

The controversy in Wisconsin is a microcosm of a much larger controversy that is indeed putting many in peril of being terribly misled.

Be Vigilant. Be Very Vigilant.

God bless you.

_______________
Gary Randall
President
Faith and Freedom

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