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By Faith: I Am Proud of Franklin Graham
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.— Hebrews 11:13-16 (NIV)
Much has been made this week of Franklin Graham’s comments both about the Ground Zero Mosque and Barack Obama’s religion. It has been more than hilarious to watch all the news networks, newspapers, and pundits try to explain Graham’s comments.
All of those who have been talking about his comments have talked about them from a political point of view.
Franklin Graham could care less. I could care less. What Franklin Graham said is dead on.
Specifically, this week Graham noted that Barack Obama was born a muslim.
“I think the president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name,” Graham told CNN’s John King in a televised interview that aired Thursday night.
Likewise, Graham said if the State Department paid him or another Christian to do outreach, there’d be all sorts of outcry. But, due to double standards, there was no outcry over the State Department putting the Ground Zero mosque imam on the payroll.
Lastly, his words about Islam from last year have come back into focus due to his opposition to the Ground Zero mosque. Last year, he said, in part about Islam, “I speak out for people who live under Islam, who are enslaved under Islam, and I want them to know they can be free by Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.”
First, about Barack Obama’s faith — it is clear when he was enrolled in school in Indonesia his parents listed his faith as Islam. The New York Times, in 2008, buttressed that. One is not born into Islam (Rev. Graham got that point technically wrong), but as Streiff has pointed out, at one time his parents listed his religion as “Islam.”
Barack Obama says he converted to Christianity. Just like Hillary Clinton, we will take him at his word. If he claims he converted and has taken advantage of the gifts of the spirit without a true conversion, that is between him and God. I pity him if his conversion is insincere. “For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (Heb. 2:2-3a)
I await calls from the birthers for the baptismal certificate.
In any event, it is beside the point. Franklin Graham does not speak as a man of the political world, but a man of faith. His view, and mine, is a reliance, by faith, on the Hope of ages past and yet to come — that is Christ against the world.
We live by faith as pilgrims in an alien world headed home to eternity. There are too many people in this world who, when confronted with questions of faith, opt for the polite answer instead of the real answer.
By faith and history, Franklin Graham understands that there is only one way, one Truth, and one life. No one goes to the Father except through Jesus Christ. No one.
That is what our faith teaches us. Shame on the media for dwelling more on Franklin Graham’s words than on the imam of the Ground Zero Mosque. But there is a reason for that too.
The political elites in this world view Islam as, frankly, primitive. “Well of course those crazy guys would believe in something like Sharia,” think the secular political elites. After all, they are several hundred years behind Christianity. Christians have evolved — go to any Episcopalian church and you’ll see a gay priest, a female priest, or what have you.
Christians like Graham, and me, are viewed with the same suspicion as muslim clerics who defend their faith, but Graham and you and me will be questioned because, after all, Christianity is supposed to be more evolved. Therefore, for us to hold true to our faith means there must be something wrong with us individually, not with the religion. (This, of course, is at a superficial level. Theologically, and I’m not going to explore the depths of this here, it is because the world persecutes Christians because the world is against Christ.)
The problem, of course, is the Truth does not change. Our convictions remain. Christ remains.
By faith we believe, we persevere, and we know that there will be a last day and a final judgment. On that day we who persevere win because Christ wins against this world. It is that simple. It is that offensive. It is precisely that which our secular media and political elites do not understand and cannot grasp. That is why they dwell on Franklin Graham and the political impact of his words. These people live for the now.
Franklin Graham and all those who follow Christ live for eternity.
Barack Obama’s Administration Kills a Military Fly Over
For 42 years, the God and Country Rally in Idaho has started its rally with a military fly over.
The God and Country Rally is a non-denominational rally that supports American soldiers.
For 42 years the Pentagon has carried out the military fly over.
Not any more.
In Barack Obama’s America, the military is no longer allowed to do such things if the group requesting the fly over is Christian oriented.
That’s not an exaggeration.
Let’s roll the tape:
Sanford and Sin
Below is a portion of my weekly column in the Telegraph:
When the story broke that the governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, had disappeared, I was willing to lend a hand to help neutralize the story. What a line of bull he fed and lived in.
I am convinced the default behavior for politicians is unchaste. A friend points out it is the default for everyone. We live in a fallen world and we ourselves are fallen. I am disappointed in Sanford and sorry for his family.
I have noticed in the past years Democrats and Republicans elevate politicians to an insular level of no accountability. There is no support group, no group of friends, and no authority that can guide, admonish and correct politicians privately.
I have a good, dependable group of friends in a Bible Study who I surround myself with. They keep me humble, distracted as needed, and grounded as best they can. Sanford probably has none of that. I am sure John Edwards did not. Nor Bill Clinton. Nor John Ensign.
To be sure, Sanford and Ensign are in the same “Bible Study,” but anyone how knows about the C Street Group understands it is not what it purports to be.
Sanford is known as a fiscal conservative, not a social conservative. In the hours after his press conference, liberal pundits raced to the nearest keyboard and microphone to declare Sanford the second coming of James Dobson and a typical hypocritical social conservative. In their zeal to score points, they portrayed Sanford as someone he is not. They could have wounded the fiscal conservative movement that will ultimately undermine the president’s abilities to push his agenda. They, like Sanford, failed.
It is also worth pointing out that in Sanford’s absence, the state of South Carolina did not crumble and the government did not collapse. That is a feature, not a bug.
What Sanford did was wrong. He must rehabilitate himself. Blessed is the Lord who brings forth bread from heaven, water from rocks and men like Sanford from the dust of the earth. His will be done. Who knows what God has in store for Sanford.
Remember Priorities
A friend called me earlier today as I was heading into the grocery store to buy stuff to make a surprise meal for my wife tonight. He wanted to tell me a story that I want to tell you.
A man ran against this friend of mine a few years ago for a political office. As often happens, the two got to be friends. My friend’s friend is a committed pro-life Christian. Last year, this friend’s former opponent turned friend’s wife got pregnant.
Shortly after getting pregnant, they found out the wife had cancer. The wife was a county chairman for Georgia Right to Life. Many people may say she and her husband are crazy. Many people may not understand. But despite doctors’ insisting she have an abortion and begin cancer treatments, she refused. She did not want to kill her child to save herself.
It’s a choice some people do not understand and cruel people will sometimes mock. Some use it as an opportunity to mock God, questioning his purpose, his fairness, or even his existence. It is a difficult choice. Living your principles is not often easy. Sometimes we fail.
This lady did not fail.
Six weeks ago she and her husband welcomed a healthy child into this world. And she began to recovery too.
Over the last week, though, things took a turn for the worst. Susan went home to the Lord over the weekend. She leaves behind her husband and four children. She also leaves a very valuable testament to life and a much needed reminder that there are things in life more important than the daily grind in politics. She also leaves us with a very real reminder that sometimes we are called on to live our principles even in the face of death.
I don’t know that I could. But it is nice, however sad the news may be, to know there is someone willing to stand on principles even unto the end.
Merry Christmas
The Gospel of Luke 2:1-20
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Some people should not be allowed to breed
Did you read the “poor people” story in the media? You know, the one about the parents who tried to get a birthday cake for their three year old and no supermarket would give them one. They wound up having to go to Walmart for a cake. All the local places turned them away like the inn keeper tossing Mary out, forcing her to go to the manger.
The tragedy has been circulating for days. Except that it’s not a tragedy. The dad is a damn freak who should have his kids taken away from him for ruining their lives and the mother and father should be dragged into the street, tied to stakes, and beaten.
The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child’s full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance. Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the Greenwich ShopRite, but with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article over the weekend on their flare-up over frosting. “I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they’ve been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past,” Heath Campbell said Tuesday in an interview conducted in Easton, on the other side of the Delaware River from where the family lives in Hunterdon County, N.J.
What the hell is wrong with these people? In addition to little Adolph Hitler who’ll probably graduate at 11 from killing puppies to killing his parents (a rich irony no less), the couple has two other neo-nazis, “JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.”
I have no sympathy for a–holes and morons. I have loads of sympathy for the children, but the parents have no right to complain about the injustice of ShopRite given the injustice they’ve done to their kids.
Give a Gift This Christmas
A great many of you have either emailed or posted comments in the “Gunnar” thread saying you wanted to make a gift to a charity in honor of Gunnar’s birth.
Whether you want to for that or you are just feeling charitable, I have a suggestion.
As you know, Sarah Palin’s church was torched. It looks to be arson, though they aren’t sure yet. The damage is in excess of $1 million. I’m sure they have insurance, but I’m sure they also need the help.
Whether you want to make a gift for Gunnar or for any other reason, consider sending a check to Wasilla Bible Church.
Share the Christmas spirit and contribute to rebuilding the church.
The Gay Reich Strikes Again
You know, there is nothing wrong with a protest. There is nothing wrong with a boycott. But hounding people out of work, harassing people who refuse to go along with the boycott, etc. crosses a line that should not be crossed.
In the latest escapade of the gay reich movement, the Los Angeles Times chronicles the fall of El Coyote. The Times notes
Margie Christoffersen was a manager at El Coyote, the Beverly Boulevard landmark restaurant that’s always had throngs of customers waiting to get inside. Many of them were gay, and Christoffersen, a devout Mormon, donated $100 in support of Proposition 8, the successful November ballot initiative that banned gay marriage. She never advertised her politics or religion in the restaurant, but last month her donation showed up on lists of “for” and “against” donors. And El Coyote became a target. A boycott was organized on the Internet, with activists trashing El Coyote on restaurant review sites. Then came throngs of protesters, some of them shouting “shame on you” at customers. The police arrived in riot gear one night to quell the angry mob.
Ironically, as El Coyote fails, its employees, many of whom are gay, are out of work in a down economy. One of those employees put it best:
“You can express yourself as a citizen,” said Archila. “Not everyone has to believe the same things.”
No Mr. Archila. You can’t. Not as long as the gay rights movement operates as a Gay Reich Movement.
Jon Meacham’s Profound Cowardice and Jackassery
I should leave the Newsweek hit job as I left it, but I think more needs to be said about Jon Meacham’s column. Meacham is the Editor of Newsweek and his column shows a profound disrespect for people of faith and a great amount of cowardice.
Let’s deal with it.
Meacham writes
No matter what one thinks about gay rights—for, against or somewhere in between —this conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism. Given the history of the making of the Scriptures and the millennia of critical attention scholars and others have given to the stories and injunctions that come to us in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt—it is unserious, and unworthy of the great Judeo-Christian tradition.
To parse this:
No matter what one thinks about gay rights—for, against or somewhere in between —this conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism.
Note his premise: he seeks to take of the table the argument for legitimacy of scripture. Immediately, he disqualifies, in the best case scenario for Meacham, 40% of the nation that believes in the literal Bible. So, 40% of the nation at a minimum is excluded from the debate because their view is “the worst kind of fundamentalism.”
Why exactly?
Newsweek Joins the Gay Reich Movement. Declares War on the Bible
Geez, now I’m embarrassed to have ever been profiled in the magazine. If you thought they were maintaining a notion of fair, independent journalism when they turned into an opinion rag advocating global warming, get a load of their new issue. It tries to use the Bible as justification for gay marriage. And in doing so, Newsweek’s editor opens with this wonderfully humorous editorial note:
No matter what one thinks about gay rights—for, against or somewhere in between —this conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism. Given the history of the making of the Scriptures and the millennia of critical attention scholars and others have given to the stories and injunctions that come to us in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt—it is unserious, and unworthy of the great Judeo-Christian tradition.
In other words, if you rely on the Bible to defend anything, you are intellectually bankrupt.
Guess I need a congressional bailout then.
This is, naturally, a pattern on the left. When words do not suit them, they change the words. When they are unable to change the words, they change the meaning of the words. When they are unable to change the meaning of words, they slander any who believe the words.
As the Gay Reich movement goes beyond hounding people out of jobs for disagreeing with them, they now must declare war on religion. It is, after all, a 5000 year old western religious tradition that throws up road blocks to what they want in the here and now. Read more