Sunday, July 26, 2009

Is This God's Final Warning To America?

By Jan Markell

America is at a crossroads. Many are asking if she can be saved, or has God abandoned America? What a pitiful conclusion, if so, for a nation that has been a beacon of hope for the oppressed of the world. How often has America banded to fight off aggression or traveled to the ends of the earth to aid the less fortunate? How many missionaries has she provided to the world saving an untold number of lost souls?Some say America must be punished for her sins, but are they really that much more grave than other wealthy nation? Luke 12:48 reminds us that from those given a great deal will be required much more. Have we used our God-given assets properly?My radio guest on May 16 was John McTernan, author of God's Final Warning to America and As America Has Done to Israel. (As America Has Done to Israel will be on my Web site in the next few days.) Since 1987, John has tracked judgment on America when we abuse the unborn, look the other way at the radical gay agenda, and cause any kind of harm to God's covenant land of Israel. Some have "issues" with this. I am not sure why since there is a biblical illustration for each category. Ever heard of Sodom and Gomorrah?Right now America is torn in two, and the more Obama pushes the division of Israel, the more division there will be in our country. It has far surpassed the clever little red state-blue state illustration of a few years ago. Now it is hard-core secular humanist liberalism vs. traditional values and biblical values' people butting heads. Just this rampant division in our country is judgment. We cannot all get along! The chasm of division grows more each day!America is trillions of dollars in debt. More than 60% of the country is experiencing a drought. Two million houses are in foreclosure. Read Deuteronomy 28 to see how God dealt with a rebellious Israel. Why would He do less to a rebellious America?Recently Homeland Security declared millions of good people "right-wing extremists." Janet Napolitano has now pulled that position paper due to the outcry. Nonetheless, very good people were called evil with overtones of Isaiah 5:20 at play. Let's be honest and say this kind of labeling was going on long before the Obama administration came to power but now it is on fast-forward.Dr. James Dobson stated that "America is awash in evil." He also stated in WorldNetDaily on May 14, 2009, "There is utter evil coming out of the U.S. Congress." Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) has been reporting on the "pedophile protection act" being promoted by Congress. He states, "If we don't have another awakening, I'm not sure what's left (of America)." Dobson concurs and says that the threat to religious rights "keeps me awake at night."Under certain circumstances, names for Jesus or symbols of Jesus must be covered up as ordered by the Obama administration. If any prayer is to be used in any service or ceremony, it must be approved and likely will be stricken out. There is almost unbelievable news that our Pentagon is burning Bibles. Do we even have a right to expect God's favor on America?Thankfully some Christian leaders and pastors are speaking up and risking all, but for the most part, the church is asleep. A nation is only as strong as her churches are strong. A passage was given to Israel that can be applied to our day, which reads,
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, then turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land" (II Chronicles 7:14).The verse is not directed at the devil's crowd! The responsibility for turning around the direction of a country falls heavily on people of faith.Unfortunately many churches today don't want to preach about judgment. They are spiritually anesthetized. They have not been taught to fear the Lord but rather, that God is all about love because that makes people come to church. Many pastors and ministry leaders would never put a big part of the blame on America's demise onto the church! They're into church growth and don't make waves or people won't return next week. Praise needs to be extended to pastors and church leaders who are holding to truth, who are telling the truth, and who are warning of serious judgment occurring now and in the future.This past spring, "America's pastor," Rick Warren, reversed himself on California's "Proposition 8." He ultimately apologized to the gay community for his endorsement of it. And we expect God's blessing when "America's pastor" does this? I realize many reading this do not consider Rick their pastor, but let's be honest, many do. America's "other pastor" is Joel Osteen who said on Larry King that he's just glad Obama "loves the Lord." Why the sugar-coating? Why not tell the inconvenient truth?We have reached a point where we can only pray that God would have mercy in His judgment on America, and that He would send an outpouring of His Spirit to help beat back the rampant evil of our times. Perhaps right now our only focus should be on evangelism before the Ark door shuts once again. Maybe it is too late for petitions and pleading with Congress to do things right. Maybe our focus should be eternal, not earthly. But once an individual or a nation gives up, the slide can be at rapid pace and no one wants to see that. The Bible doesn't tell Christians to be "salt and light" just up to a certain point in history and then quit!Thus I would exhort you to press on and speak up for righteousness, for "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Proverbs 14:34).
For articles that complement these thoughts, visit the Web categories of "Spiritual Deception" and "Prophecy Watch."You can hear my hour on air with John McTernan here aired on May 16. It is one of the most important in several years. Visit "Radio Archives." For podcasting info, go here. Hear May 23 programming with Chuck Missler and Jerry Robinson on the economy, also posted to "Radio Archives."

Friday, July 17, 2009

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Snapshots: A Son Remembers His Father

By Michael (Mihai) Wurmbrand

“Look to the heavens and see …” (Job 35:5)
In December 1965, my father, Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, was invited to speak at the First Baptist Church of Rome, in Italy. It was his first Sunday in the Free World. He was freshly ransomed from communist Romania for $10,000 by Scandinavian Christians after 14 years of torture in prisons there. The pastor of the church was to be absent, so an American missionary who attended the church invited my father to speak. However, the Baptist minister did not leave Rome so he came to the service and listened to my father.
Hardly had my father, who was fluent in Italian, started his sermon when this minister stood up and interrupted him. “In this church you cannot say one word against communism. I am a Communist and a Baptist,” the pastor shouted. My father asked him loudly, “How can you be a Christian Baptist and at the same time a communist when communists are atheists? Communism denies the existence of God?”
To our horror, as fresh refugees from a communist country, the church stood up, chanting again and again, “Io sono Comunista i Batista, Io sono Comunista i Batista! (I am a Communist and a Baptist!).” We had been happy to arrive into the Free World and here we were meeting the nightmare of communism. This “church” service ended in true bedlam.

In the middle of January 1966, my father spoke in a chapel in Oslo, Norway. After speaking and taking questions from the audience, my father was asked by an American colonel, “Why should we not coexist with communism?” Without uttering one word, Rev. Wurmbrand left the podium, went to the colonel, snatched his wallet from his front pocket and placed it into his own pocket. Then my father stretched out his hand and said, “Let’s shake hands and be friends. Your wallet is in my pocket. Why should we not coexist?” Returning the wallet to the startled colonel, Rev. Wurmbrand explained how the communists had taken half of Europe and most of Asia and now wanted to coexist. Every thief would like to coexist with the police! We might not have a solution against cancer, but we fight it and do not plan to “coexist” with it.
The American colonel was so impressed that he asked the audience to take an offering then and there to send this newly-arrived refugee with his dramatic message to America.
Less than three months later, my father landed alone in New York. He had only a few minor contacts, and within a week he decided to return to Europe. With no invitations other than to speak to some small army chapel meetings, Rev. Wurmbrand realized how fast money disappears on motels and travel. He considered this trip nothing but a flop. He called, by chance, a Jewish-Christian missionary he had corresponded with before World War II and who now lived in Philadelphia. Rev. Bucksbazen invited him to come to Philadelphia for a day. He wanted to meet the man he had written to many years before.
After an hour of face-to-face discussion, the American missionary urged my father to return back to Europe as soon as possible. “You speak good English, but with a heavy foreign accent. You are too old and too sick to pastor an American church; you could not possibly even raise a salary to maintain your family. You do not even have a driver’s license or a car,” Rev. Bucksbazen said. He took Rev. Wurmbrand through downtown Philadelphia to show him the town just before he was supposed to return to the train station. The traffic circulation was stopped though. It so happened that day was the largest pro-”leftist” rally of the period in the United States, with more than 60,000 in attendance. A Presbyterian minister spoke to the crowd, praising the communists.
Drawing closer to hear better, Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, a refugee totally on his own who had been on the New Continent only five days, and had not been out of Romania for more than six months, without a moment’s hesitation, jumped on the podium. He went straight for the microphone, pushed the speaker aside and shouted into the microphone, “Your Christian brethren suffer under communism and you, a minister, instead of praising their Christian martyrdom, you praise their torturers! You are a Judas! You know nothing of communism. I am a Doctor in Communism!”
The startled Presbyterian pastor laughed back, “There is no such thing as being a ‘Doctor in Communism.’”
“I will show you my credentials,” my father retorted. He took off his shirt to show deep scars on his torso, the results of his treatment by communist torturers in his long years of communist imprisonment. “Do you think it is right for communists to inflict such pain and scars upon a fellow minister?” With these words Rev. Wurmbrand took over the rally, and the rally was finished. The police intervened and asked Rev. Wurmbrand to put on his shirt. Scores of reporters surrounded him, asking him for interviews. He had to extend his stay with his Jewish-Christian friend in Philadelphia to give more interviews.

The next day over 80 percent of the major newspapers in America had my father’s picture without his shirt, on their front page, with articles on what made this Lutheran minister take off his shirt and break the pro-leftist demonstration. Invitations poured in and Rev. Wurmbrand had to extend his stay in the United States by two months and return again twice for extended periods. Eventually we immigrated permanently to the United States.
His worldwide bestseller, Tortured for Christ, appeared and was translated into more than 85 languages. We started a worldwide missionary organization to help the persecuted Christians in communist countries, called today The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). My father’s message was the biblical message: Hate sin but redeem in love the sinner, redeem through Christian love the persecutors by changing their heart with Christian love.
God granted that Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, after 1989, was able to personally visit and preach to large audiences in many countries behind the former Iron Curtain. Richard Wurmbrand died just shy of his 92nd birthday, which would have been on March 24, 2001.
In 2006, the Romanian government-owned TV Broadcasting station (TVR), in cooperation with one of the largest newspapers of the country (Evenimentul Zilei, “The Daily Event”), started a poll among readers and viewers as to who were or are the greatest, most admired Romanian personalities throughout history. The television station promised to prepare one-hour TV documentaries about each of the top ten finalists. These secular promoters were flabbergasted to find out that nearly 400,000 random participants chose, right behind the top three most-known kings of Romania and Romania’s national poet, as the fifth most admired Romanian personality of all times, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. All the other personalities were part of Romanian history, even during more than 40 years of communism, while nothing could be publicized about Richard Wurmbrand during the communist regime. Christians in Romania rose as one to name their brother who had made their persecution at the hands of communists known worldwide and as a praise to God for His everlasting love.
From the depths of suffering in underground prison cells, like Job of old, Richard Wurmbrand did not look in sadness back down into the past, but had his eyes lifted in faith to the heavens. Such was his example.
Michael Wurmbrand continues to be involved with the ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs. He currently oversees our ministry to formerly persecuted Christians in Romania.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Televangelist Builds $4 Milllion Home While Employees Lose Jobs

Senator Charles Grassley, the crotchety, plain-speaking Republican from Iowa, has been trying for a couple of years to pry open the books of televangelists he suspects of living decidedly unhumble lives on the donations they receive. He questions whether they deserve the tax exemption they enjoy. A recent report that Inspiration Network's CEO David Cerullo spent around $4 million on his new mansion could provide more fuel for this smoldering investigation. Cerullo's new 9,000 square-foot home and 2,000 square-foot porch overlook Lake Keowee. Meanwhile, Inspiration and its subsidiaries have laid off a number of workers, frozen wages, stopped 401K contributions, and turned the thermostat in its headquarters down to 65 degrees last winter.According to the Charlotte Observer, Cerullo's network will bring in close to $100 million this year, much of it donations. It has also received up to $26 million in incentives over the past few years from the state of South Carolina. These were given to lure the network from its former home in Charlotte. Cerullo receives over $1.5 million a year in salary. Grassley launched an investigation of six noted televangelists in 2007, challenging them to defend their expenditures and justify their tax exemptions. Included were the ministries of Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Several have cooperated fully, a couple partially. Creflo Dollar continue to hold out. Kenneth Copeland Ministries pulled a clever dodge, offering to cooperate with the IRS should it choose to investigate the ministry. IRS investigations are not made public. Grassley points to the tax code language prohibiting not-for-profit organizations from paying unreasonable compensation to the executives. What is reasonable, he asks? In this case, I think the people to answer that question are those who donated to the Inspiration Network. Are you content that some of your money went for a $4 million home for Cerullo?
Source

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

An Open Letter to Pastor Rick Warren

By Jan Markell

On July 5 the Washington Times online reported that Pastor Rick Warren told his Islamic audience, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA,) that he envisions "a coalition of faith." Whether Pastor Warren knows this or not, this is just another term for the coming one-world religion outlined in Revelation 13. It is further outlined in Revelation 17. I have not taken on the issue of Rick Warren all that often, but after reading what the Washington Times has to say about his message to a group of spiritually lost Muslims, I feel I must address this in an open letter to who many say is the most influential pastor in America and some would say the world. Pastor Warren, you pleaded with 8,000 Muslim listeners on Saturday, July 4, to work together to solve the world's greatest problems by cooperating in a series of interfaith projects. You said, "Muslims and Christians can work together for the common good without compromising my convictions or your convictions." Pastor Warren, you needed to compromise the convictions of the Muslims in attendance. To just say that "My deepest faith is in Jesus Christ" was not enough to a thoroughly lost crowd. The hour is too late to withhold a gospel message without which they will face a Christless eternity, and you will be held accountable. The "world's greatest problems" will always be with us and the Bible says so in Matthew 26:11. Sin is at the root of them. I have to conclude you are more interested in ecumenical unity and solving AIDS, poverty, and other social issues. Last Saturday you were given a golden opportunity that 99.9% of American Christians could never get. You said you were not interested in interfaith dialogue, but you seize every opportunity to talk to all religions and you always leave out the gospel. You even address Jewish groups but you tell them how to grow a mega-synagogue like your own church, Saddleback. In this "can't we all get along?" generation, you usually leave out the only good news left: There is salvation in Christ and Christ alone (Acts 4:12), and the hour is late, so make a conscious decision to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. You told ISNA, "Talk is cheap but love is something we do together. We must do something to model what it is to live in peace, to live in harmony." Pastor Warren, you know your Bible better than that, don't you? The Bible says there will never be peace and harmony in this world until the Messiah rules from His theocratic kingdom. The U.N. spews the same kind of pagan "peace concepts." Aren't you above that? You would likely never suggest your Muslim audience pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm122:6), yet you push for foolish and hopeless ecumenical peace! In your speech you included three suggestions: 1) Create a coalition to end religious stereotyping; 2) Work together to restore civility to American society; 3) Take a common stand against attacks on freedom of religion and freedom of speech. There is civility in American society so why are you even suggesting there might not be? But you won't find much of it in Islamic society. Go see the film, The Stoning of Soraya M, the true story of what happens to a lot of innocent Muslim women. It's a lot more gross and bloody than any horror flick and this is reality, not fiction. The Muslims you addressed know all about this procedure. ISNA wants Sharia Law everywhere on earth! You missed a golden opportunity to challenge them to stand up to Islamic governments that perpetrate such atrocities. Pastor Warren, you then went on to say the media was clueless as to what Christians and Muslims believe. They know very well what both faiths believe. They believe Christians are the new Taliban, and they press for hate crime legislation that will protect Muslims. You then said, "It's the truth that sets us free." Why did you take John 8:32 out of context? You twisted the very words of Jesus when you should have been proclaiming the words of Jesus. The ISNA stated how impressed they were with your charitable work. What charitable work have they done? As terror expert Steve Emerson says, "ISNA has has been an umbrella and a promoter of groups that have been involved in terrorism." Here again you could have challenged them, but then you would not be invited back had you done so. Joseph Farah says, "Suffice it to say the ISNA is no friend of Christianity or America." Yet in 2007, Rick Warren was one of many "evangelical leaders" who signed a document begging forgiveness from Muslims for all the evil deeds perpetrated against them by Christians. What evil deeds have true Christians committed against Muslims? Now, Pastor Warren, you've gone beyond pandering and are sounding like a fool along with all others who signed that document. Even the secular Washington Times noted, "Mr. Warren was sparse in his mentions of Jesus and God." But since works and good deeds were stressed, this reinforced the belief of ISNA members that works will help them get to Heaven. Pastor Warren, you stated you were committed to "the common good" and that you are commanded to "respect everybody." You don't want to deal with the verse that says we are to preach to gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15). It seems to me that you are more interested in marching hand-in-hand with other faiths down the winding road to the coming one-world religion.

There is literally a mini-revival going on with Muslims turning to faith in Jesus, particularly out of the U.S. It would have been nice, Pastor Warren, if you would have thought of that and tapped into it. We don't expect you to give altar calls at such meetings as this one. We do expect you to lift high the Name of the Prince of Peace who is coming again and who offers eternal life to all who ask, "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30, Acts 16:31). Many just wanted some variation of that quoted among your many ecumenical statements and how to solve the world's problems -- impossible without God's help.

To better understand this, order Caryl Matrisciana's brand-new film, Islam Rising, pictured and described on the left sidebar. Also visit my Web site category of "Islam & the Arabs."

Awaiting His return,

Jan Markell

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Calvinism and Consistency

Admittedly, no systematic theology is perfect. That takes a load of pressure off of every sincere Bible student. Not one of us will ever have all of his or her doctrines correct. C. I. Scofield wrote that there will always exist a measure of false teaching in true, orthodox Christianity, due to our fallen nature and our design as finite creatures.
I was once convinced that Calvinism was right because people showed me a lot of proof texts to propagate this theology. I had read Chosen by God by R. C. Sproul and concluded that he, too, was correct. How could I have missed out on this teaching for so long? I will never forget what affect Sproul's book had on my heart. How could God have chosen me and not others? Moreover, why would God have chosen me and not others?
Even further, why would God only choose to save some (deterministically by an eternal decree) and not others? And how does this notion correspond with what the Bible teaches concerning God's love for the world and His sending His Son to die for the sin of the world, and His desire that all people be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, etc.? It was questions such as these that forced me to re-think and to further study what the Bible taught on these matters. I certainly believed that God is sovereign.
To Calvinism's credit, if one accepts its presupposition that man is totally depraved in the sense that he must first be regenerated in order to believe on Christ Jesus (represented by the T in TULIP, for total depravity), then the rest of the structure for Calvinism works well together. Thus those who are truly regenerate have been chosen by God for salvation from eternity past and that accounts for why some people are saved and others are not saved.
However, if this teaching is incorrect, then the rest of the Calvinistic system falls apart (to which Sproul has also attested); everything hinges on the Calvinist's interpretation of total depravity. If no one can believe in Christ apart from God's regenerative act, and only some are saved, then God, necessarily, elected whom He would save, and this was done in eternity past.
Arminians and Wesleyans believe and teach the utter depravity of man. We understand all too clearly that human beings are sinful and of their own volition have no desire for God's salvation: we depend wholeheartedly on the grace of God for salvation. However, we do not believe and teach that a person must first be regenerated in order to understand the gospel or to have faith in Christ Jesus for salvation ~ though the Holy Spirit must work in the heart and mind of a sinner in order to accomplish repentance and faith (and this is not an irresistible work).
Let me advance toward my goal of exposing what I see as inconsistencies within Calvinism. First, the Bible does not teach that a person is saved to faith, but by faith. Thus regeneration does not need to precede faith. Paul taught such at Colossians 2.13. God justifies and regenerates the one who has first been forgiven of his sins through faith in Christ Jesus. Biblically and logically, then, faith precedes regeneration. In this, Calvinism is not necessarily inconsistent within in its own system as much as it is inconsistent with the clear teaching of Scripture.
Second, and most important, through the grace of God, justification and salvation are attained by faith in Christ Jesus alone, as the Reformers have taught and as the Bible confirms. For the Calvinist, however, salvation seems not to be truly contingent on faith but on God's effectual decree. What is even more troubling is that this "faith" is not something freely exercised by the sinner in need of salvation, but is actually "given" to him by God in the sense that he is irresistibly caused to believe (a sort of faith by proxy), so that God might have a means of justifying him.
Robert Picirilli writes,
Reflecting the logical consistency of Calvinism, many theologians would object to a simplistic statement that salvation is by faith. (1) Since election is unconditional (and must be so for God to be sovereign), it follows that salvation ~ in the broadest sense of the word ~ rests in the decree of God and not on the individual's faith. (2) Since the atonement was intended to save only the elect and is applied efficaciously to them by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit, it follows that salvation ~ still in the broadest sense ~ is by atonement and grace rather than faith. (3) Since man's depravity is so total that he is utterly dead and unable to respond to the gospel until regenerated, it follows that salvation ~ still the broad sense ~ is to faith rather than by faith.
If all this is true, can it be said that salvation is by faith? In a sense, yes: even the thoroughly committed Calvinist will insist that the words are legitimate. But in that case 'salvation' is being used in a narrower sense.
The Scripture is clear, and so is the Calvinist, that justification is by faith. As important and central as justification is, the word 'salvation' is often used . . . as though it were a synonym for justification. In that narrower sense, then, it can be said that salvation (justification) is by faith.
In fact, however, 'salvation' means more than justification. And when it is used in its fullest sense, it is essentially equal to election. We should make no mistake about this: if election is not by faith, then neither is salvation . . . [In the Calvinist's scheme, regeneration] is not by faith, therefore salvation is not by faith.1
Third, and by no means less significant, it is entirely, in my opinion, absurd for a Calvinist (who inevitably holds to some form of determinism) to become upset at Arminians, Wesleyans, or whoever else disagrees with Calvinism, seeing that God has foreordained everything! If Arminianism is wrong (or worse, false, heretical teaching) then God predetermined me (and all who hold to it) to be an Arminian, since (in the Calvinist's theology) God must foreordain whatever comes to pass in order for Him to be sovereign.
So, when a Calvinist is angry at false teaching, or false religions, or atheists, or child molesters, or adultery, or nudity, or America's moral decline, should he not really be angry at his God, for it is He who has foreordained whatever comes to pass (as the Westminster Confession teaches)?
And, Yes, this still includes those who hold to soft determinism, for it is determinism nonetheless. Even with God using secondary cause, things could never have been any different than what He foreordained (not foresaw or foreknew, but foreordained). And though (in the soft determinist's ideology) God foreordained (permitted) people to do what they do, they still had no other choice but to do what they do because God foreordained it.
Walls and Dongell note, "We contend that Calvinists often vacillate between compatibilist and libertarian freedom in a way that is neither clear nor consistent with their other commitments . . ."2 This is seen most clearly within a soft determinist view of the providence of God.
Elsewhere they stated, "[In the case of soft determinism, the] crucial point to keep in mind is that the agent could not want to do otherwise than she in fact does. If the agent had wanted to do differently, she could have done so, but it was impossible for her to want to do differently, given the prior causes and conditions that strictly determined her psychological states and character.
"Still, soft determinists have formulated a definition of freedom that is compatible with strict determinism. So they can't be fairly faulted on this score. The question is whether their view of freedom is an adequate one . . ."3
Of course, we do not believe it is an adequate one. And I guess it is more than obvious that we do not think Calvinism gives adequate, biblical views on the providence and sovereignty of God, nor His intentions where the salvation of humanity is concerned. In these things we find Calvinism to be inconsistent not only with the Bible and reality.
1 Robert E. Picirilli, Grace, Faith, and Free Will (Nashville: Randall House, 2002), 169-170.
2 Jerry L. Walls and Joseph R. Dongell, Why I Am Not a Calvinist (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 164. 3 Ibid., 109.
Submitted by WilliamBirch

Friday, July 3, 2009

The Pitfalls of Celebrity Driven Christianity - Brannon Howse

The Pitfalls of Celebrity-Driven Christianity. Brannon's Guest is Cathy Mickels author of Spiritual Junk Food: The Dumbing Down of Christian Youth. Topic: Should America's Christian leaders and Liberty University be raising up Carrie Prejean, Miss California, as an example for today's youth? Liberty's male students cheer and whistle during chapel as Carrie mentions the swimsuit portion of the contest. Focus on the Family has recorded two interviews and on their website called her a modern-day Ester before people complained and it was removed. Pro-family leaders have booked her to speak for an upcoming conference. Are these Christian leaders and institutions about to be really embarrassed by photos to be released? Is this the result of a celebrity-driven church and Christian media? Why do so many Christian leaders promote someone before giving them a chance to prove the level of their Christian maturity? The world is already laughing and mocking on blogs and websites about the photos that have come out. These are the Christian men that are going to save America, the church and the culture? I dont think so. These men dont have enough discernment and common-sense to understand that they should have acknowledged her bold statement, the reaction of the radical left, and then left it at that. The wise-men of the pro-family movement are doing great harm to our young students by their lack of Biblical leadership.