CBN Faithwire: Christian Leader Urges Trump to Do These 5 ‘Critical’ Things

 As President-elect Donald Trump is swiftly piecing together his incoming administration, one top leader within the Southern Baptist Convention is urging the former and future president to set his sights on five “critical policy actions” within the first 100 days of his return to the White House.

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the policy arm of the SBC, sent a letter outlining the request to Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, the managers of Trump’s transition team.

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The five policies Leatherwood urged the president-elect to enforce are: vowing to impose the Hyde Amendment, reestablishing the so-called “Mexico City Policy,” repealing outgoing President Joe Biden’s executive order on sexual orientation and gender identity, eliminating unnecessary “rule-making advanced by the Biden administration,” and repealing the Food and Drug Administration’s easing of abortion pill requirements.

We will briefly break down what each request means.

Reimpose the Hyde Amendment

Leatherwood is urging Trump to “reaffirm continued support for and fully enforce the Hyde Amendment across government agencies.”

The Hyde Amendment is a provision that first took effect in 1980 and blocks the use of federal funds to pay for abortions, except in rare cases to save the life of the mother or in situations in which a pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

Calling for an executive order reinstating the amendment, the SBC leader said the provision “should explicitly direct federal agencies to stop the funding of abortion-related travel and counseling for abortions through immediately ceasing such policies and implementing rule-making as necessary.”

“By issuing an executive order committing to full enforcement of the Hyde Amendment,” Leatherwood wrote, “President Trump will usher in a renewed focus on protecting life and the deeply-held religious beliefs of taxpayers from government overreach.”

Reapply the “Mexico City Policy”

Leatherwood is asking the president-elect to bring back the “Mexico City Policy,” which was first implemented in 1985 by then-President Ronald Reagan.

Referred to by its critics as a “global gag rule,” the policy bars the federal government from funding non-governmental organizations providing pro-abortion counseling or referrals, advocating for the decriminalization of abortion around the world, and working toward the expansion of abortion services globally.

Trump reinstated the policy during his first term, but Biden rescinded it when he took office.

Repeal Executive Action on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Leatherwood is calling on the incoming commander-in-chief to undo Biden’s Executive Order 13988, which sought to expand the protections outlined in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Fair Housing Act, and section 412 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity.

“This executive order by the Biden administration redefines ‘sex-based discrimination’ to include sexual orientation and gender identity while directing all federal agencies to implement this new definition through rule-making,” explained Leatherwood, arguing the action was “specifically crafted to circumvent the religious beliefs and conscience protections of millions of Americans regarding gender and sexuality, misuse taxpayer funds for ‘gender transitions,’ and promote radical gender ideology, even amongst children.”

Undo “Harmful” Rules From Biden Era

Leatherwood is calling on Trump to “undo the anti-life, anti-religious liberty, and pro-gender ideology rule-making advanced by the Biden administration.

“In addition to rescinding the aforementioned executive order,” he wrote, “the Trump administration can easily begin fulfilling this goal by undoing many of the harmful rules promulgated by the Biden administration and ceasing in any related federal litigation.”

The SBC leader noted three rules in particular he hopes the White House will target.

Leatherwood’s list includes: the Department of Health and Human Services’ “Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities,” which the ERLC argued would force faith-based medical institutions to perform transgender-related procedures; the Department of Education’s “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance,” which, according to an ERLC analysis, would require any school receiving federal monies to allow transgender-identified males to compete on female sports teams; and the HHS’ “Designated Placement Requirements Under Titles IV-E and IV-B for LGBTQI+ Children,” which would mandate prospective foster parents to affirm transgender-identified kids’ claimed gender identities.

Upend the FDA’s Relaxation of Abortion Pill Requirements

At the end of the letter, Leatherwood encourages Trump to “reverse the Biden [Food and Drug Administration’s] changes to the risk evaluation management strategy (REMS) requirements for mifepristone that expanded the reach of the abortion pill and threaten the health and safety of women.”

He went on to say that, under Biden’s direction, the FDA took action to “allow prescription of the drug through telehealth without ever seeing a doctor in-person and to allow dispensing of the drug at local pharmacies.”

In June, as CBN News reported, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Democrats’ favor regarding wide availability of mifepristone, which is currently accessible via mail. Prior to the Biden-era changes, the FDA required an in-person meeting with medical providers in order to receive the abortion pill.

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Why Abused Children Hate Themselves, Not Their Parents

 From "The School of Life":

Why Abused Children End Up Hating Themselves

There is almost nothing sadder in the universe than the abuse of a child by its own parents. That a being should be put on earth in an entirely helpless state, then maltreated by those to whom it automatically turns for protection and education, constitutes a particular abomination.

What I am starting to learn more and more every day is that abuse in the household is more common than I realized. It's really sad, but it seems that family dynamics are more riddled with tragedy that joy. I don't want to accept this fallen aspect of our fallen world, but unfortunately, the stain of sin has ruined everything, including family relationships.

God wants all families to prosper and be in health, but these families need to receive the revealing favor of the Savior!

One of the people who can best help us to understand the way a child typically responds to abuse is a little known and too often underestimated Scottish 20th century psychoanalyst, Ronald Fairbairn. Fairbairn was touchingly honest about what had brought him to psychoanalysis: he was not well. He had a bad relationship with his mother; he had a cold marriage, he had a range of anxieties and phobias. But as he put it himself: ‘It is difficult to see what inducements to seek psycho-analytical treatment there could be for an adult with a relatively mature, strong and unmodified ego.’ In other words, only fairly disturbed people are ever likely to get interested in psychoanalysis, let alone submit themselves to a training. And that is fine - and no argument against anything.

Ronald Fairbairn

Fairbairn came to his views about how the victims of parental abuse interpret what has happened to them as a result of working as a doctor at the University of Edinburgh’s Psychological Clinic for Children in the late 1930s. In his post, he came into contact with many children who had been extremely badly treated in their homes of origins. What he found - and what profoundly struck him - was how little these children appeared to hold the abuse against their parents. Some had been appallingly mocked, others badly beaten, others sexually abused. One might have expected that the children would, in the safety of a doctor’s consulting room, voice grave misgivings and rage against those who had treated them so unfairly. But Fairbairn found no such thing. 

Contrary to all expectations, the children he spoke to had only positive things to report about those who had - to a substantial degree - ruined their lives. A violent father would be described as strong and decisive: a cold and contemptuous mother would be re-interpreted as kind and intelligent. And correspondingly, a child would pour all the negativity that one might have assumed belonged elsewhere onto their own shoulders: they were the bad one, they had clearly been naughty, there was something intolerably wrong with them - and that is why they had been punished.

Children have no one else to look up to besides their parents, when they are children. If they do not have their parents to look up to, whom do they look up to? The identity crisis, the emotional trauma is too great without that sense of core identity. People will tolerate abuse over anxiety every time, and for children that is all the more the case.

What Fairbairn beautifully and poignantly understood was that the abused child has no option to think of themselves in decent terms. The truth is quite literally unbearable and must be twisted. One could not continue to live, as a defenceless child, if one fully took on board the evil that has been visited upon one. And therefore the mind alters the facts in the name of psychic survival.

In perhaps his most brilliant, paper, The Repression and the Return of Bad Objects first published in 1941, Fairbairn tried to show the reader the perverse but highly understandable logic operating in the abused child’s mind.

‘If a mature individual loses an object,  however important, he still has some objects remaining. His eggs are not all in one basket… The infant, on the other hand, has no choice. He has no alternative but to accept or reject his object - an alternative which is liable to present itself to him as a choice between life and death.’

There are no other parents that the child in an abusive family are able to run to: he has no other mother or father, the neglectful and harmful people in the vicinity are the only figures he has to cling to. Lose faith in them and one is done for. No wonder if one opts to reinvent who they might be.

At this point, Fairbairn is wrong. Everyone of us can run to the perfect loving FATHER! We received sonship before Him through Christ Jesus. AMEN!

Fairbairn famously called this manoeuvre of the mind ‘the moral defence,’ an attempt to exonerate the abuser and chastise oneself for one’s own abuse. In the words of one of Fairbairn’s most sensitive later interpreters, the American therapist and writer David Celani: ‘The moral defence is a source of comfort, as it reassures the child that he is being appropriately corrected by loving objects… the illusion that the child is securely attached to good objects prolongs his hope that his unmet developmental needs have a chance of being satisfied and that the feeling of abandonment will be avoided.’

One of the more striking features of Fairbairn was that he remained throughout his life a religious person, as so few of the great figures of psychoanalysis have been. Far from a distraction, this theological background gave Fairbairn a way of conceptualising a child’s response to abuse in terms of a form of faith. In a memorable aphorism, he wrote: ‘It is better to be a sinner in a world ruled by God than to live in a world ruled by the Devil.’ By this Fairbairn meant that the child prefers to think of themselves as still inhabiting an essentially ethical responsible realm, one in which they have transgressed and must be punished - but where the authority figures remain pillars of decency. As he went on to explain: ‘A sinner in a world ruled by God may be bad; but there is always a certain sense of security to be derived from the fact that the world around is good… there is always a hope of redemption.’ One shudders at the pain that makes this kind of mental gymnastics necessary.

We have to receive a larger revelation. The world is bad, our parents may have been bad, but God is GOOD! The Lord is GOOD and His mercy endures forever! Every one of us needs to receive this revelation. We need to be transformed from glory to glory by seeing more of Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit changes us! Our minds are renewed to the truth that though we were harmed as children, it was not our fault, and our parents were wrong, believed wrong, did wrong, or they chose to do wrong -- but none of that makes us wrong.

Fairbairn’s view of what psychoanalysis can do for an abused child who has fallen for ‘the moral defence’ is contained in one especially gnomic sentence: ‘The psychotherapist is the true successor to the exorcist,’ he wrote, because ‘he is concerned, not only with ‘the forgiveness of sins’, but also with ‘the casting out of devils.’

What did Fairbairn mean? The answer takes us into the heart of Fairbairn’s innovations in what psychoanalysis calls object relations. For Fairbairn, the bad external object (the abused parent) is quite literally internalised by the child and thereby turns the child into a bad object in their own eyes. All the violence of which they, the child, have been subject ends up in them and then colours their internal world. How they feel about themselves becomes a mirror of how others felt about them. Their sense of self, made up as it is of the introjections of parental messages, becomes a panoply of darkness and masochism.

Fairbairn proposed - counter to a lot of psychoanalytic thinking at the time - that the primary instrument by which ‘the devils’ inside the ill patient’s mind were to be exorcised was through a clinically much-neglected quality: kindness. By registering the analyst’s unusual kindness and empathy, the patient might be induced to loosen their hold on the moral defence and cease to think of their parents as so good, and themselves as so bad. They might - through love - come to be a little more on their own side and a little less on the side of their abusers - and thereby save their lives.

I have another word for kindess: GRACE!

Fairbairn described a patient of his called Annabel who had developed a phobia about driving. Every time she was at the wheel, she became terrified that she might inadvertently hit someone and leave a trail of corpses behind; the terror forced her to pull up and walk home. In her sessions with Fairbairn, Annabel came to see that her phobia was the result of a suppressed rage against her father, an outwardly respectable and highly successful man, who had in early childhood behaved incestuously towards her. Consciously, Annabel had only positive feelings towards her father. Unconsciously, it was far more complicated. Annabel had come to be frightened of herself at the wheel (and in other areas too; her self-suspicion was vast) in lieu of properly appreciating how unfair and depraved her own father had been towards her. Fairbairn noted that many of his patients were suffering from symptoms essentially caused by incestuous wishes of their fathers which they had been unable to understand or address, and that had morphed into self-hatred and paranoia. Fairbairn gives us a penetrating analysis of paranoia: the entire world will grow filled with dangers when we cannot repatriate the violence and nastiness of which we have been unknowing victims.

People hate their parents for the wrong that they did to them, but at the same time, there is this incredible guilt about being angry with one's parents. We need to see the Grace of God filling in all that hurtful places in our lives, setting us free from the wrong believing. 

We need to receive more of the LOVE OF THE FATHER!

We hear a lot about entitled people; people who take more than their due, who are unfair to the world and deserve to be taken down a peg. What we hear less about are people whose sufferings stem from an opposite problem: they lack the courage to fight back against those who do them wrong and cannot imagine that someone else might be a perpetrator of injustice. Sometimes, to cast out the devils inside us, we may need some help in spotting the devils - or, more appropriately, the extremely ill figures - in our own families. For this, Fairbairn is a supreme guide and mentor.

The Church MUST Influence Goverment

 

FEC United Faith Pillar Devotional November 7, 2022

The Church Should Influence Government   When did the Church decide we shouldn't be a part of government decisions?  Why did we fall for the incorrect interpretation of "separation of church and state?"  That seems like a scheme of the devil to me.  Without the influence of God in our government offices, the laws change to more lawlessness, Biblical values are taken out of the public square, and we wind up with the mess we are in now.    Recently, I was reminded of many Bible prophets, and leaders that were willing to listen to God for guidance and wisdom.  Let me share a few to remind us that the Church (its people) should very much be right in the middle of what happens in our government offices locally and nationally!   Abraham—the father of all nations by God's promise to be his shield and his very great reward (Genesis 15)   Joseph—interprets Pharaoh's Dream and becomes the 2nd in command of Egypt (Genesis 37)   Moses—God gave him the Ten Commandments and much more to teach to the people on how they should live (Deuteronomy 5)   Joshua—God fights for His people when they are strong and courageous (Joshua 1)   Deborah—Used by God to judge the people when they once again turned from God and did what was evil in the sight God (Judges 4)   Gideon—Commanded 300 men to defeat an army of 1000s because he listened to God (Judges 7)   Prophet Samuel—Advised 2 Kings (Saul:  1 Samuel 9-16 David:  1 Samuel 16-25)   King David—Serves God throughout his reign as king (2 Samuel)   Prophet Nathan—Rebukes King David (2 Samuel 12)   Prophet Elijah—Tries to warn King Ahad that turning from God would be his demise (1 Kings 17-22)   Esther and Mordecai—changed Israel's future through King Ahasuerus by standing firm on God's promises even though all seemed lost (Esther)   Prophet Isaiah—advised four Kings (Isaiah)   Nehemiah—Even as a cup barrier he influenced the king (Nehemiah) Jeremiah—tried to warn the leaders of Israel that the country would fall into the hand of Babylon (Jeremiah)   Ezekiel—prophesied hope and reassurance to God's people while enslaved in Babylon (Ezekiel)   Daniel-- serving king Nebuchadnezzar and his successors with loyalty and ability until the time of the Persian conqueror Cyrus, all the while remaining true to the God of Israel (Daniel)   John the Baptist—Warned King Herod that his lifestyle would be his demise (Matthew 14)   Jesus—Our savior from the dying world (throughout Bible)   Paul—Spoke with Government leaders throughout his journeys across the nations (Paul wrote 13 books of the New Testament)   These are just a few people that served the Lord faithfully during their lifetime that had  major influences on their governments.  I encourage you to read the Bible chapters and books listed above to help encourage us that we, as a church, must be an integral part of the decisions made within our government today.   PLEASE VOTE!!!   If you would like to be a part of the FEC UNITED Pikes Peak Faith Pillar, CONTACT:   National FEC Chaplin and Pikes Peak Faith Pillar Pastor Garrett Graupner:    ggraupner@fecunited.com    Pikes Peak Faith Pillar Admin. Jeri S: jeri@fecunited.com

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson: Rise UP, Pastor!

 

Watch as North Carolina's Lt. Governor Mark Robinson exhorts America's Pastors

My wife Cindy and I spent last weekend in Los Angeles with North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson and his wife Yolanda. As a quick reminder, we hosted 13 North Carolina pastors’ luncheons across the state featuring the Lt. Governor in 2021. 2,700 NC pastors and spiritual leaders participated. Of the 50 NC pastors and spiritual leaders who on May 17, 2022, ran for local office across the state, 25 won their primary, meaning that 25 will be on the November 8 ballot.   We are planning to organize another round of NC pastors’ luncheons in 2023, in order to recruit an additional 50, or even 75 North Carolina pastors and spiritual leaders to run for local office in 2024. This obviously will provide the best and most direct counterweight to cultic secularism’s heavy-handed manipulation of American culture and society.   A Christian counterweight is urgently needed. As Baptist theologian James Robert White expresses it: “History teaches us that enduring works of Christian insight flow forth from times of persecution and attack. As secularism rushes toward its inevitable totalitarian solutions, Christians need to think deeply concerning the issues that now confront us.”1   Cultural theologian and Christian apologist Dr. Joseph Boot latest book, Ruler of Kings: Toward a Christian Vision of Government, calls attention to the threat to freedom: “The current reality of the Church’s submission in the West to the cult of the State [with its] surrender to unprecedented lockdowns and illegal interference in church gathering, the collapse of civil liberties, the total control of education, expanded abortion, euthanasia, no-fault divorce law, the definition of marriage and family, homosexuality, and transgender issues [is clear].   “Because of the steady triumph of pagan humanism in the West, the modern world has seen the re-emergence of many archaic oddities, one of which is a self-anointed elite class - the intelligentsia - a secular substitute for pastor and priest.”2   To reinforce this point, a simple reading of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 shall be a boon for those obedient and a bane for those disobedient to God’s law and the covenant relationship with Him:   • You shall have no other Gods before me. • You shall not make for yourselves an idol. • You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. • Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. • Honor your father and your mother. • You shall not murder. • You shall not commit adultery. • You shall not steal. • You shall not give false testimony. • You shall not covet.

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court removed the Ten Commandments from public schools, courthouses, and government buildings in Stone v. Graham. In a 5-to-4 per curiam decision, the Court found that the requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted “had no secular legislative purpose” and was “plainly religious in nature.” The Court noted that the Commandments did not confine themselves to arguably secular matters [such as murder, stealing, etc.], but rather concerned matters such as the worship of God and the observance of the Sabbath Day.3   The ruling tied in with an earlier decision in the 1963 Abington School District v. Schempp case, in which an 8 to 1 vote led to the removal of the Bible from public education. The U.S. Supreme Court thereby established secularism as America’s official religion, based on the calculated but improvident view of secularism as being “neutral” and “non-religious”. Justice Potter Stewart [1915-1985] was the only one not fooled by the argument, rightfully asserting that the decision did not lead “to true neutrality with respect to religion, but to the establishment of a religion of secularism.”   The calamitous outcome of the secular religious creed of man as his own god and moral arbiter by now is clearly visible in present-day America’s steep moral decline and its wholesale diversity of perversity. Nihilism and hedonism set the discordant tone in today’s nation.   At the time when it still was One Nation [for each and every person] Under God, early America belonged to Christ alone. This will be confirmed by studying the state Charters and Constitutions of the original 13 colonies: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland ... as they established a Christian nation throughout the 17th and 18th century.

FREE Click on the image to receive your free e-book ‘The Original 13 A Documentary History of Religion in America’s first Thirteen States’ courtesy of author William J. Federer.   The American Founders understood that “fear of the Lord” above anything else is the prerequisite for acquiring knowledge and wisdom, as pronounced in Proverbs 1:7 and Proverbs 9:10. The Hebrew word translated into ‘awe’ in the Bible is yirah. It often directly translates into fear, like “fear of the Lord,” but it’s better understood as meaning respect, reverence, and worship. Respect for and obedience to God’s Word has been discarded completely over the last 75 years, resulting in such absurdities as secular education theories and the transgender reversal of biological laws.

Last Tuesday, September 15, we hosted our first Texas pastors’ event and our goal is to hold 20 TX pastors’ luncheons across the state in 2023. There are 13 congressional districts in North Carolina and 36 in Texas. For reaching an equivalent of our NC success in 2021, hosting 20 TX pastor luncheons in 2023 may lead to 125 to 150 TX pastors and spiritual leaders running for local offices across the state in 2024.   Cultural transformation is coming, thereby displacing the standard way of the last 100 years of measuring success in American Christendom with its buildings, budgets, and butts configuration. It entails a new model for apostolic leadership, where pioneers develop a multitude of leaders instead of merely feeding flocks of sheep. The new standard for measurement thus becomes: “How is the culture in my community doing?”4    Watch the last 5 minutes of our Dallas pastors’ luncheon:

Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand.   David Lane American Renewal Project   1. James R. White, apologist, theologian and author, and Director of Alpha and Omega Ministries in Phoenix, Arizona. 2. Joseph Boot, Ruler of Kings: Toward a Christian Vision of Government. 3. www.oyez.org/cases/1980/80-321 4. Joe Nicola, Ekklesia: The Government of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Communists Openly Lie, Discuss Alliances with Religious Groups

Communism is an atheistic movement. For the communist, there is no god by the state, and everyone must worship.

And yet the Communist Party of the United States is talking a big game about their connections and alliances with religious groups.

Really.

Here's one of their latest eblasts pushing religious connections in their grand scheme to fight for The Working Man:

Sept. 18: Communists and Religion

Join us today for a class on Communists and Religion Progressive religious communities, organizations, and individuals form an important segment of the all-people’s front against the extreme right and for progressive change. This class will briefly review the history of participation and leadership of people of various religious traditions in the CPUSA. Active Party members will then discuss the relationship between their Communist convictions and their religious faith or connection with a religious tradition, and how the Party can build its relationship with progressive religious people and organizations. Date: Sunday, September 18, 2022 Time: 7 PM Eastern, 6 PM Central, 4 PM Pacific Register to attend and receive a recording. https://www.cpusa.org/event/communists-and-religion/     In Solidarity, CPUSA Religion Commission   Donate Now Communist Party USA 235 W. 23rd Street, 7th floor New York, NY 10011 (Visits by appointment only) Tel : 212-989-4994 Fax :212-229-1713 Email : cpusa@cpusa.org www.cpusa.org Copyright © 2022 Communist Party USA. All rights are reserved.

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Has the Communist Party lost any sense of integrity?

Do they really think they can make their case for a worldwide workers' revolution, when they completely lie about their founding principles, i.e. that they don't believe in God and believe that only the State and the Worker matter.

Give me a break!

No Such Thing as Christian Anti-Semitism

Dr. Michael Brown is a good friend of mine. He has been a long-time supporter of MassResistance, the pro-family organization I worked for for a number of a years. I have enjoyed joining his radio program from time-to-time as well. I really appreciate his outreach to Christians on all matters political, and I respect his support for the state of Israel as well as his Christian missionary outreach to Jews in the United States and around the world.

I must take exception, however, to the title of his latest article, in which he denounces “Christian Anti-Semitism.” With all due respect, there is no such thing. That’s like talking about Satanists for Christ, or Jews for Hitler. It makes no sense. There is religious anti-Semitism, certainly, but there is nothing Christian about Christians hating Jews or (justifiably) hating Israel. To his credit, Dr. Brown in his article was clearly denouncing the so-called “progressive” Christians of the so-called Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Still, the joining of “Christian” and “Anti-Semitism” is wrong.

This discussion is timely, for sure. Anti-Semitism is a catch-all smear used all too often against conservatives, when the Democratic Party has a long history of anti-Semitism (one that has barely abated, I might add). Furthermore, even some so-called nationalists and populists are embracing a total hatred of Israel and of Jews, as though support for Israel is anti-America First. It’s about time that we confronted this matter.

Again, I take exception with the title and the notion “Christian Anti-Semitism,” not with Brown’s criticism of the regressive church in South Africa that he was calling out. I must add that an estimable missionary movement, One For Israel Ministries, also talks about Christian Anti-Semitism, and I think that their use of that moniker is wrong, too.

For starters, what does the Bible say about Christians and their calling in relationship to the Jews? Paul the Apostle writes to the Romans: “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:3) He then writes: “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” (Romans 10:1)

Wanting Jewish people to be saved does not quite square with “The Jews should get the hell out of Palestine” or “Jews are going to hell, and I don’t care” or “Jews control everything, and we must stop them.” You cannot be a Christian and hate Jews. It makes no sense, just as someone who lives under the grace of God would have no compunction to go out and live in sin (cf. Romans 6:11-14).

Of course, the common retort from some critics is “The Jews killed Christ.”

Was it just “the Jews”? True, the Israelite religious leaders during Jesus’ earthly ministry plotted to destroy Him, and they corrupted the legal process to rush through an immediate execution of our Lord and Savior. There are numerous passages testifying to this throughout the Gospels. But let’s not forget that it was Roman leaders and soldiers along with a crowd of Jews and Gentiles which rejected Jesus before He was crucified. At this point, it’s necessary for us to embrace a humbling spiritual truth. If everyone of us had been in that crowd that day, standing before Pilate and the beaten, bleeding Christ, we all would have shouted “Away with this man! Crucify Him!” And why? Isaiah declares it so: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)

Biblical Hebrew uses a number of words for “man”: adam, ish, enosh, gibbor, etc. In the Messianic verse above, “ish” is used in the passage “rejected of men.” There is no difference there among the different groups of men in the world. The verse does not discriminate between Jew and Gentile. Abandon this notion “Well, if I had been there, I would have called for His release!” No, you would not.

Furthermore, there were many Jews who believed on Jesus, before, during, and after His Crucifixtion! (John 11:45, John 12:11; Acts 17:12, 21:20). No, it was not “The Jews” who killed Christ.

Some scholars distort Scriptures show that we should fear and oppose Jews. Here’s one example: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” (John 20:19).

When you read the Bible, don’t discard your reason. The disciples in the upper room were Jews themselves! Were they afraid of themselves, too? The context alone bears out that the disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, since they were the ones trying to suppress the Gospel.

Even in the Catholic Church, if one follows the old-school Latin rite of the traditional Good Friday liturgy, there is a recitation in which the congregants pray for the conversion of the Jews: “Oremus et pro perfidies Judaeis,” i.e. “Let us pray for the unbelieving Jews.” That is not anti-Semitism. Why would anyone pray for anyone else to believe if they have a hatred towards them?!

Consider once again that prayer in the traditional Latin Mass: “Let us pray for the Jews who don’t believe,” which implies that there are Jews who DO believe! Of course there were, and there are (Michael Brown, among hundreds of thousands, if not millions around the world)!  Christianity would not exist but for those believing Jews, starting with the apostles and their adherents, who spread the Good News.

The Bible does not support anti-Semitism. True Christian faith is incommensurate with anti-Semitism, as well. Christian faith, revelation of God’s Word, Christ and Him Crucified does not teach let alone justify anti-Semitism. In fact, it outright rejects it (cf. Romans 11:18-21). Religious anti-Semitism, yes, but let’s stop calling it “Christian Anti-Semitism.”

Easter Statement from the American Family Association

 

Dear Arthur, Several years ago, I heard a very popular Christian speaker talk to a large audience for an hour. He said nothing heretical. He said nothing controversial. He just focused on the “unconditional” love of God. Again, nothing wrong with what he did say, but it is what he did not say that bothered me. He said nothing about repentance of sin. There is a reason Jesus said what he said in the above bible verse. And there is a reason John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world with the exact same proclamation in Matthew 3:2: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” There is a popular trend going on in the American Christian church. The trend is to talk of the love of God without talking about the justice of God. But if you read the Bible, it is clear, there exists both the grace of God and the wrath of God, and Jesus Christ spoke of both. Many Christians around the world have been celebrating Holy Week this week culminating today with Easter Sunday or what some churches call Resurrection Sunday. It is to commemorate the victory of Jesus over Satan, sin, death and hell. This is good news! And “good news” is the meaning of the word “gospel.” It is true that God’s love for mankind is “unconditional.” However, in order for man to be in right relationship with God, man must conform his life to match with God’s requirement of man. And God does not force this decision on man. God draws a person to himself, but it is the free will of the individual to decide if he or she will obey God’s requirements for a right relationship or not. Jesus called this experience being “born again.” In other words, a person (every human) must understand that he or she has violated God’s laws and is forever separated from God spiritually unless he or she repents of their sin and trust in the shed blood of Jesus on the cross for forgiveness of that sin in order to be counted among those who have been redeemed. Redeemed from the consequences of unrepentant sin which is death and hell. What I am writing here in not popular in modern day America and where we want to live our own life without interference from God. It’s our natural tendency to live for ourselves instead of obey the commands of God. That is the eternal struggle between flesh and the spirit. In order to prove our love for Christ, he says we must deny ourselves, pick up our cross daily, and follow him. Our “cross” is a challenge to wake up daily and try our best to live like Jesus. The way we learn to live like Jesus is to study the Bible, take time to pray and fellowship with other believers (followers) which we call “church.” God knows we will fail at this precisely because we are human. Sometimes we are tempted by sin and we give in to it. But the Bible also says that if we are willing to confess our sins to God, He is willing to forgive us. That also is great news! No one is compelled to believe this. You may read this and call it foolishness. That is your right. But if that is your view, I at least encourage you to read one book in the Bible, the gospel of John, and consider the claims of the Bible and Christ before you dismiss Christianity. To my fellow Christians, I say, “He is Risen!” Tim Wildmon, President American Family Association

Why I Loathe Alcoholics Anonymous

 

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11)

For years, I was stepped in this terrible cult called Alcoholics Anonymous.

My mother was a recovering alcoholic, according to her statements, testimony, blah. She worked "the steps" every day of her life, so she claimed. She got sober in 1978, having had a spiritual revelation after drinking a morning mimosa. Something in her spirit told her "You don't have to do this anymore."

And that was the last time she drank alcohol. For the record, I feel compelled to point out that she received a spiritual revelation from God, not help or support from working Twelve Steps. However, the evil genius of Alcoholics Anonymous is to teach people that "It works if you work it" and the Big Book offers this guarantee that people who follow the Twelve Steps rarely fail.

The truth is, my Mom got sober without AA, but she still believed that she had to work the Twelve Steps every day of her life just to get through the day.

On another note, my mother quit smoking when she prayed, when she asked the LORD for help and stopped relying on her own efforts to quit. "I have no faith in me, and I have very little faith in you."

But God can use our little faith to do great things, and my mother was set free from smoking.

Sadly, she was still addicted to AA, and she worked that awful program, until it worked her to death.

Why do I loathe AA? It's not just that that legalistic, self-loathing cult damaged my mother, it's not just that that awful cult turned my mother into an abusive therapy who put her own "recovery" ahead of the needs of her children, her family, and anyone else--even Christ Himself!

I loathe AA because it teaches people to identify with a lie.

At every meeting, every member of the club in the "rewms" will say: "Hi, my name is ... , and I am an alcoholic."

Now, tell me ... how can we really expect anyone to break free of a damaging perversion if we teach people to identify with it? If you are "born" an alcoholic, then you should just drink and drink until you pass out or die.

BUT ... people are NOT born alcoholic. Just as there is no evidence that people are born gay, there is no gene for alcoholic. Granted, patterns of alcoholism do ensue in families, but it has to do with the abuse and trauma which children suffer from their parents, and there is this uncanny tendency for children to replicate the bad behaviors of their parents based on the imprinting and the wrong believing that comes with identifying with one's parents--no matter how bad they may be,

To sum up: no, people are not born "alcoholic." What's more, many people get over alcoholism without taking those ridiculous Twelve Steps.

The AA cult teaches lies to its members. It purports to not be a religious program, and yet members are instructed to turn their will and their life over to a "Higher Power" as they understand Him. Going beyond that, however, this Higher Power is still subject to the Twelve Steps--which have no pattern or value in the Old or New Testaments. In effect, the higher power for everyone in AA is not the Lord God as revealed in the Scriptures.

It's the creepy God of Bill W.'s insidious creation. (For those who don't know, Bill Wilson--or Bill W.--founded Alcoholics Anonymous.) Bill W. is treated with almost divine reverence in the meeting rewms of AA. It's really sickening. Let's state this fact plaintly once more: this "Higher Power" is an invention of Bill W.

It is total idolatry. Christians, Muslims, Jews, anyone who belongs to any faith community should reject AA out of hand. 

But for those who believe in Jesus, who recognize the Bible as God's Word, AA is all the more fully incompatible.

This terrible cult teaches people to identify with a sin, with an addiction, a moral failing.

What does the Bible say about our new identity in Christ?

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We receive a new standing before our Loving Father. God is no more some distant deity, but our Loving Father!

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

and

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:17)

Yes, AA's Big Book makes one reference that "He is our Father. We are His children," but then goes back to leveling adherents with religious demands. The truth is, the AA program does not reveal anything about the Higher Power, aside from what is in the book. This notion of "God as I understand Him" is absolutely ludicrous. If I could understand God, He would not be God anymore, now, would He?

But I digress.

The biggest fraud about the AA cult is that it teaches people to identify with their sins, with their failures, with their faults.

At the top of this post, I quote Romans 6:11, in which Paul clearly declares to the Christian believers in Roman: "Reckon yourself dead indeed to sin, and alive to God through Jesus Christ."

When you are born again, you are no longer a sinner. You are a saint. You are a child of God. Yes, there is training, there is the process of sanctification, which the Holy Spirit works on and in us as we see more of Jesus in the Word (cf 2 Corinthians 3:18)

You don't need to take steps to be one with your Heavenly Father.

In fact, even in the Old Testament, taking steps to God's altar was expressly forbidden:

"Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." (Exodus 20:26)

If we try in our own efforts to get right with God, we merely expose our nakedness, our sin, our shame:

"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

But in Christ, we have the fullness of His work. He declared "It is Finished" (John 19:30)

But you are no longer a sinner, and you are called to no longer identify with sin or any sins in your life.

Alcoholics Anonymous urges people to keep identifying with their sins, to keep rehashing their failures, to keep going to the joyless AA meeting, to keep repeating the empty mantras, to fall in line with the mob mentality, the mob identity.

My mother worked the program all right ... until she ended up taking her own life in 2012. This is the first time I have made this revelation public, but it needs to be said. Anyone who learns that he has to keep looking at his own sins and failures, that he must keep "taking his inventory" to stay one step ahead of an alcohol relapse, is looking at an empty life full of shame, hurt, and loss.

The number of people who have committed suicide while going to the AA "rewms" is pretty staggering, as well. But is anyone really surprised? A relentless program of self-loathing and self-abnegation is not going to produce happiness, joy, or freedom. 

Did I forget to mention that AA members often tout that their program is a "selfish" program, as if that is something to be proud of ...?

At any rate, I hope I have explained fully why I loathe Alcoholics Anonymous. The blood of Jesus cleanses everyone of us from all sins (1 John 1:9), and Jesus rests as the propitiation (full payment) for our sins and the sins of the entire world. If He has paid for all the sins of all the world, then there is no reason for people to rehash their sins or rest in their failures. It's time to stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on Christ Jesus! Forget the false god of Alcoholics Anonymous and believe in Christ and Him Crucified:

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8)

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" (Ephesians 2:8)

If you find that you are still struggling with certain behaviors or bad habits, you just need to receive more favor, a greater revelation of Christ Jesus, and who you are in Christ:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

and

"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 

5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:" (Colossians 3:1-5)

and

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord," (2 Peter 1:2)

We don't need AA. Let us have grace, which we receive through Christ Jesus!